Author Topic: Steve4321 - 430 build - bought the donor, ordered the kit  (Read 67084 times)

Steve4321

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Re: Steve4321 - 430 build - bought the donor, ordered the kit
« Reply #45 on: July 20, 2016, 11:11:34 AM »
Having taken advice from Paul[79], I'm going to leave cutting these [circled] chassis extensions until I get the kit/arch liners. As Paul suggested, leaving some of the extension available will be handy to lay/attach cabling and to help secure the arch liners. I need to see the kit parts before I cut.

As an old carpenter friend of mine once said, "measure twice, cut once".

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Steve4321

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Re: Steve4321 - 430 build - bought the donor, ordered the kit
« Reply #46 on: July 22, 2016, 09:12:09 PM »
4 hours on the car this week, total 17.5 hours, travelling for work has got in the way - badly. Next week will be no better, will be in Germany.

Real slow progress atm.

Have only managed a few hours on the build this week, and each time I've pulled the donor out of the garage, [cos of limited space], my lovely neighbours are all over me wanting to know what is going on? Most of them are fascinated by the bloke who took a perfectly lovely MR2 and instantly reduced it's apparent value to around £8. Others want to talk and are re-living youth spent trying to keep their Morris Marina or Mk3 Cortina on the road, and remember constantly having dirt under fingernails.

The 4 hours spent on the car have probably generated 60 minutes of worthwhile work.

Hand filed back all cut edges ready for priming and painting. Have stripped the lockers behind the seats and removed plastics. Loose mounted the roll bar mounting plate. Mounted the front clip plate and the headlamp brackets. Mounted the door lock brackets on the cut door tops. For me, Tek screws do not drill in on their own, I'm having to pilot drill everything.

I know this is old news to most of the guys on this forum, but I..... am...... loving it !

Took a call from Brian. He said would I accept a change to the wheel spec.? Instead of having 19"x8" rims all round, I had the option to have 19"x9" on the rear with an effective increase in overall diameter of 20mm. He reassured me the arches would take the size. Fantastic..... sign me up. Means a rear tyre of 255mm [I think].

Looking forward to when I get the rest of the kit !

Once again, thanks to all for the support this week. The people on this forum are something else.
If it doesn't fit first time, use harsh words...!

Steve4321

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Re: Steve4321 - 430 build - bought the donor, ordered the kit
« Reply #47 on: July 23, 2016, 08:55:16 PM »
3.5 hours on the car today. Total 21 hours so far.

Primed and later painted all cut edges and bare metal. Washed, degreased and dried all metalwork in the frunk cavity that I figured was black when new, and now not so.

Front of car looking a little better, but needing more cleaning and painting.



Generally the car looks better now all the cut edges have been treated. Made me feel I was starting to head the right direction.



Front clip plate and headlamp brackets in place.



Old and new horns. The new should wake up a few characters! Not sure if it's worth fitting them atm. Probably best to wait for the body so I know how they will fit.



Yesterday's work with the rollbar carrier loosely mounted.



Tomorrow morning, will have the rear shocks off to fit the new coil springs.
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360MKbuild

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Re: Steve4321 - 430 build - bought the donor, ordered the kit
« Reply #48 on: July 23, 2016, 09:03:14 PM »
God I miss those days. Great work steve  :) Don't forget to extend the fuel pipes as a hell of a lot easier to do at this stage. I had to do it with the kit fitted and painted and was a pain to do.

Steve4321

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Re: Steve4321 - 430 build - bought the donor, ordered the kit
« Reply #49 on: July 23, 2016, 10:56:09 PM »
Thanks Mark.

Sorting the inlet pipe and breather is on the todo list. Not a job I'm looking forward to.
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Steve4321

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Re: Steve4321 - 430 build - bought the donor, ordered the kit
« Reply #50 on: July 25, 2016, 10:25:07 AM »
3 hours on the car yesterday. Total 24 hours so far.

3 hours generating 30 minutes worthwhile progress :-(.

Attempting to knock off jobs I've never had to face before, thought I would replace the rear springs with the DNA ones I've got with the few mechanical parts Brian was able to give me.

Drop link joints !

The stub hex socket on the ball joint on the offside had already been damaged where someone had been 'at-it' and wouldn't hold an allen key at all. The nut on the top joint just would not release. Figured the link needed replacing so simply cut through the link bar and removed the shock - really didn't fancy putting the grinder on the Drop Link joint spigot in-situ. Will wait until I can get a nut splitter. Hopefully that will let me get the link off without damaging the plate on the shock or the roll-bar. Assume the nearside will be the same - buy new Drop Links.

New Drop Links and nut splitters now on order. At least the tool cupboard is being stocked :-).

Looking at the pic here, will make sure the coil spring is rotated to have the spring end against the formed stop on the shock - I assume that is how it should be.

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Steve4321

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Re: Steve4321 - 430 build - bought the donor, ordered the kit
« Reply #51 on: August 07, 2016, 07:30:01 AM »
Heavy day Friday. Pick up most of the kit from Redditch, see the family in Dartford, then back to Plymouth, 612 miles.







Boy is there a lot of 'stuff'.
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Steve4321

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Re: Steve4321 - 430 build - bought the donor, ordered the kit
« Reply #52 on: August 07, 2016, 07:45:15 AM »
Back to work on the car - life getting in the way.

Just 1.5 hours yesterday, total 25.5 hours so far.

Finished rebuilding rear suspension, under-sealing wheel arches, and fitting new Drop Links.

Offered up the Anderson Clamp, will fix on the bumper bar today, and test-lay cables.

Plan to do my first bit of work on body parts today ...... the door skins.
If it doesn't fit first time, use harsh words...!

Steve4321

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Re: Steve4321 - 430 build - bought the donor, ordered the kit
« Reply #53 on: August 10, 2016, 04:54:57 PM »
Progress since picking up the body parts last Friday.....

Managed to get 21.5 hours on the build over the last few day, total now 47 hours. found door alignment and getting the rear clip to align with the doors very difficult. The doors and the rear clip took me a lot of time.

Cut the door handle holes. Really struggled with aligning the left hand one. The door skin seemed placed ok with contours matching the MR2 door, but the geometry was quite different to the right hand side.



Fitted the doors.




Eventually got the rear clip on and offered up the front. Reasonably happy with the trimming done on the rear clip.






Rain stopped play!





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beemaman

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Re: Steve4321 - 430 build - bought the donor, ordered the kit
« Reply #54 on: August 10, 2016, 06:49:41 PM »
Don't make the gaps too tight buddy you will have at least eighth of a inch of paints etc to go on.

Also inside the original door may still stick out past the new skin but that can be trimmed back.if you put rear clip too close the inside could be very close to the b post and can rub.

MADMAN

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Re: Steve4321 - 430 build - bought the donor, ordered the kit
« Reply #55 on: August 10, 2016, 08:41:59 PM »
beat the front wheel arch back before fitting front clip, makes it a ton easier.
coming on well.
MADMAN 8)

Steve4321

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Re: Steve4321 - 430 build - bought the donor, ordered the kit
« Reply #56 on: August 10, 2016, 08:59:51 PM »
Thanks for the advice fellas, very grateful. I'm starting to realise how much I have to learn. Trouble is, when you start, you don't know what you don't know.

Wayne, when positioning the door, I gather then I should potentially allow an eighth of an inch [wow], of the MR2 door to stand proud of the DNA skin at the rear of the door? Hopefully I've understood correctly? Guess I'll need to re-position, very glad you mentioned that. At the moment I've set the MR2 door and the DNA skin flush at the rear.

Steve, yep, I've seen plenty of mention of beating back the dreaded arches. Thanks for the reminder. Unfortunately I haven't got the wheel spacers yet, but hopefully will see them in a couple of weeks. The guys at DNA have been good in giving me what they could so far. I have the bashing session to look forward to  :'(. There's no way I would want to take that on with the plastics in place.
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Paul79

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Re: Steve4321 - 430 build - bought the donor, ordered the kit
« Reply #57 on: August 11, 2016, 07:49:22 AM »
sit tight Steve, I will email you...

Furrari

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Re: Steve4321 - 430 build - bought the donor, ordered the kit
« Reply #58 on: August 11, 2016, 10:22:23 AM »
Steve.   Not only do you not know what you don't know, but when you do you don't know how to do it.  When you find the best way to do it its 'cos you've done it another way.
Does that make sense.?
Not all problems can be solved with gaffer tape.  For those there is WD40.
Not even gaffer tape can fix stupid, but it can mask the sound.

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Steve4321

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Re: Steve4321 - 430 build - bought the donor, ordered the kit
« Reply #59 on: August 11, 2016, 02:21:35 PM »
Hahaha. It does. Many times in my life, I've thought; "why did I do that?".
If it doesn't fit first time, use harsh words...!