Project Phoenix - A barn find story

[LawrenceSelly]

Well i had a sick day today, so I managed to go out for an hour and unbolt some more stuff.

This is where I finished at:



I've unbolted the driveshafts at the gearbox



Removed one of the rear brakes, and started to unbolt the hub assembly.



and I left it at that due to getting rained on.

So the cover has gone back on until tomorrow! Luckily I've got to restart the servers at 3am remotely, so I'm working from home again and I finish at 12:30, which gives me all afternoon to mess about with the car.

I'm hoping to have the engine and gearbox all out by the weekend, so it can all be sold off to fund some more of the project.

I've also got a 6er of Pol15 turning up to start the undercoating process! Lets keep that tin worm at bay!

[LawrenceSelly]

Question: What size is the hub bolt? as I need to go pick on up from my local motor factors before I start tomorrow.

[aandy]

Loking Good Loz. Will be up to give you a hand as soon as my 2 will get me there!

[LawrenceSelly]

Big day today.

I started by trying to get the drive shafts out.

but before we go into that, here's a shot of the front end:



and the current state of the scrap pile XD



as you can see I've whipped the exhaust off too, and there are a few too many holes to keep it + V6 will need more breathing space.

Unfortunately both hub bolts are seized and without a mahoosive clamp and a big breaker bar, its not going to happen.

So on the right hand side I managed to unbolt it from the gearbox and pull it straight out, including the hub.



I did notice this:



Are they supposed to be like that? with the cut out in the back? Looks worrying...

I then whipped off the other drive shaft, and associated chassis mounts.

Stuck a nice big support under the engine, and lowered it down a bit.

THEN a problem occurred... I don't have an engine hoist!!

but i do have this XD



makes things so much easier, except when the engine really liked it in there and refused to let go!



but luckily it dropped out, was pulled away, ready to be stripped, cleaned, and sold off (PM me if you're interested btw)

THEN it was time :D The official "I'm defiantly a real MR2 owner now" photograph.



Oh yes!



I dropped everything down on some strong axle stands, ready for cleaning, sanding, Pol15'ing, and painting.

I've also taken all those black plastics off that everyone wants so much, and i'm going to reinforce them with a bit of Carbon Fiber skinning :P Should look really smart!

Well that's all for today, more tomorrow!

[Goldy]

Nice bit of progress there, is there much welding to do or is it pretty sound?

Sent from my E5823 using Tapatalk

[LawrenceSelly]

Nice bit of progress there, is there much welding to do or is it pretty sound?

Cheers :)

As far as I can tell:

• Rear arches... big job here. Thinking about going Fibreglass skin but me and my uncle are weighing it up
• Two small holes on the drivers side, under the seat (50p piece)
• Front bumper metal thing, FUBAR needs replacing. Going to make our own
• Radiator mount, whole thing, bottom piece + top mounts, all dead. We are going to go full engineering on this and do loads of cool stuff :D but that will come later.

That's it! I don't think its too bad; the front panels were all covered in it, but we are going to use fiberglass ones anyway. My uncle and myself are both excited to get welding. We have a mig at the ready, and some datsun cherry panels on the way + lots of sheet metal and some 6mm plate for the v6 mounts.

OH! we are going to need a JIG for the v6, does anyone have on knocking about? does Paul loan them out for a week?

[racerADS]

Winning. Keep it up dude.

[inglismark]

looking good sir, that boot looks solid.....by the way I may have an excellent condition bumper bar and boot lid that are looking for a new home soon

edit:
and i know a guy with a perfect set of wings, hes wanting big for them tho, around £150 for the pair!!!

[LawrenceSelly]

Today was a lovely day, nice and warm and filled with progress.

Started by removing this:



From this:





which made it up for sale :D which is great! I can hopefully get a few hundred for it, and send it off on a pallet, which means more awesome fiber glass parts can arrive!

Oh, Tweed was very concerned with all the grunting, swearing, and shouting that was going on. He wasn't impressed.



I started stripping the engine a bit, I love the way this is designed! With the water pump having its own belt system. Makes changing the big things really easy, much better than on a Ford where it all has to be done at once, regardless of how many miles its done.

No idea what the previous owner was using as coolant, Alien blood perhaps?



Cambelt looks in good nick, that's promising.



Pretty good looking engine all around!



It has gone on a pallet, and will be put on eBay after I finish this post.

The gearbox is well past it, so its gone to the pile designated "stuff i might need" as i might need the mounts for the SW20 NA gearbox.



As we talked about rust last time, I had an investigate to make sure it was just the areas I had already stated.

Rear arch right:





Rear arch left:



Rear valance:



Drivers side:





There is also a lot of rust on the interior metals, its like Toyota said "nah, lets not use that stuff; whats it called?... yeah paint; lets not use 'paint' on these inside bits, for because... less weight!! yeah, its a racecar!"

So all of that is going to come out, and get blasted and painted properly.



So yeah, That's how I left it for today.

[LawrenceSelly]

looking good sir, that boot looks solid.....by the way I may have an excellent condition bumper bar and boot lid that are looking for a new home soon

edit:
and i know a guy with a perfect set of wings, hes wanting big for them tho, around £150 for the pair!!!

Boot lid and bumper bar(s) [the rear one looks shafted too] would be good, I'll get the engine sold first though.

Rear wings or front ones? as I'm going 'glass on the front. and was going to do the whole datsun cherry panels trick on the rears.