My long awaited 87b mk1.5 swap

[Hurricane]

I introduced myself after a long time lurking during the week, so now it's time for my latest build thread. Technically this began back in October ish last year so I have a few bits to fill in first. The car as I bought it looked quite clean and respectable

http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2015/02/53.jpg

http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2015/02/54.jpg

I drove it from purchase on 7th December 2013 until the engine gave out (later diagnosed as major head gasket failure) in early Febuary 2014. It was parked down he side of the house and left for the year as I had other commitments, like getting married and honeymoon. Once I got back in August I had planned to start straight away, but beer got in the way, and it was nearer September before I pulled my finger out.

I had to start by giving myself somewhere to work. The house was equipped with a rather crap pile of gravel for a drive, not nice for working on cars, so cue 120 slabs and 2 tons of sand/ballast along with 2 weekends slaving I had my work area.

http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2015/02/70.jpg

So I dragged the car out, gave it a wash and got it up on stands

http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2015/02/71.jpg

The following weekend it was time to get the engine out. I started on the Saturday after work at 12. The engine sat on the floor less than 3 hours later, love these mr2's, so easy to work on

http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2015/02/72.jpg

http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2015/02/73.jpg

Now it was time to have a look around the car and evaluate the rust, apparently it had has arches at some point, but during it's sit down the side of the house a few patches had started to show

http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2015/02/74.jpg

http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2015/02/75.jpg

With the skirts off things didn't look much better

http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2015/02/76.jpg

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The front wings practically fell off, but I don't have any pictures of them. Nothing at the bottom where they join the sill, the side skirt was holding them on. There was also nothing under the front splitter where they overlap the wings, and the separate valences were sieves.

[Hurricane]

Next up was to drag the engine out from under the car, not the easiest, and involved jacking the car up with various lumps of wood between the jack and the car, with an old seatbelt wrapped around an engine mount I managed to manhandle it out. That's now the 5th engine I've removed without a crane. Not fun and I should really invest in one, but hey, where's the fun in that

Removing the front end was fun, lots of broken bolts than will need drilling out, and lost of lovely rust, yay. Not too many pictures of this as I was cracking on, so the after shots, showing a few questionable mot patches as the paperwork showed, these will be removed and done properly

http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2015/02/81.jpg

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Oh and a small hole in the passenger side floor/chassis area

http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2015/02/87.jpg

The front bumper bar had seen better days

http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2015/02/88.jpg

http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2015/02/89.jpg

[Hurricane]

During the last year I had been stockpiling parts ready for the build, some were lucky finds, others came from the death of other mk1.5 (project outrun)
The toys include
Brand new BC coilovers
Brand new front valance pieces
Hasslebeck rear panel
Alloy radiator
Complete chargecooler setup
St165 twin pot calipers, rear rev 1 mk2 calipers and disks
New braided brake lines
Mk1.5 driveshafts

http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2015/02/91.jpg

http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2015/02/92.jpg

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http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2015/02/95.jpg

Unfortunately they will need a refurb, oh well

http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2015/02/96.jpg

During the last few months I've also been cleaning up and refurbing suspension parts after work, so handy having the father inlaw as a boss, and working in a machine shop.

http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2015/02/97.jpg

http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2015/02/98.jpg

http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2015/02/99.jpg

Rear hubs with brand new bearings and bottom ball joints

http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2015/02/100.jpg

http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2015/02/101.jpg

[Hurricane]

This brings it up to this weekend, where I have managed to sneak a few hours when I should have been doing housework. I decided it was time to get the interior out and check out the rest of the floors. Didn't take too long and I was left with this on the passenger side

http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2015/02/102.jpg

I had a little helper while I was pulling it apart, meet Sargent Furrysides, or Sarge as he is mostly known

http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2015/02/103.jpg

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Little patch up the front, as I expected due to the hole underneath in the floor, and after a few pokes

http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2015/02/106.jpg

The back of the passenger side was perfect though, no issues here

http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2015/02/107.jpg

So time to tackle the drivers side, mostly the same story as the passengers side, small holes up front

http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2015/02/108.jpg

But another rubbish patch for mot purposes, another to cut out and do properly, but nothing major

http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2015/02/109.jpg

Whilst I had it apart I could remove the rather rubbish scorpion alarm, that was clearly fitted by the dealership when it was first bought. Eurgh scotch locks and crimps

http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2015/02/110.jpg

http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2015/02/111.jpg

I also found these in the dash while removing the glove box

http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2015/02/112.jpg

Must have been tucked away back when it was resprayed back in 2008

I also took a bit more off the front end, the slam panel and radiator so I could check for any more rust. Actually pretty clean up here, just a small patch on the drives side rail. The upper rad brackets are toast and will need cutting off the front panel, the bolts won't turn, but the panel is twisting, so I need to be gentle on them

http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2015/02/113.jpg

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Headlight mechanisms look crusty, they should be fun

http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2015/02/116.jpg

[Hurricane]

That was Saturday after work, today I managed to steal a couple of hours after the weekly shop. I attacked the old engine mounts with the angle grinder, flap wheel, power file and spot weld drill. Now I'm just ready for the engine jig. Which reminds me I was meant to call Patrick yesterday, bollocks

http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2015/02/117.jpg

http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2015/02/118.jpg

I also attacked the stubborn bolt holding the drives side rear arm on. It didn't want to know, and the head of the bolt shared off, so I attacked the other side with the grinder and got it off finally. Now I can clean this up and polybush it to go with the rest

http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2015/02/119.jpg

[cdwood2010]

Bloody hell. Working like a hurricane that's for sure!

Nice launch, pretty much all common issues uncovered, and we've seen a lot worse. Another recent build ended in "I've scrapped it", but that was a bit of a lost cause.

There's a well trodden path to follow on TwoBrutal, lots of templates, and of course all the help / insults / banter a guy could want for.

:)

Chris.

[Hurricane]

It looks like a lot of work, but that has taken me 3 months. I do have a target date, which is massively optimistic, and I will no doubt fail, but got to have something to work to. It is my 30th over the Easter weekend, and I'd love to have this drivable as a present to myself. There's a long way to go, but when I get cracking I don't hang around, I rekon 2 weekends of welding to be done. Mechanically it should come together nicely, with all suspension parts ready to bolt on in a day, engine will go in quickly, but the mounts will add a bit of time. Worst parts will be wiring and plumbing I think.

I'm not doing it to a perfect standard for now, just drivable, the paintwork will be rattle cans, as I have plans going in for a garage, so once that's done in a couple of years it will all come apart for a bareshell respray

[Grenade]

Very nice thread! Well prepared too. Very impressive and honest expectations about the whole thing. Really cool.

[racerADS]

Keep up the good work, very enjoyable read. The planning and forward thinking you have shown should see you right :-)

[snowtigger]

Little and often is the way, some people take years others as you say rush mot slap a patch on (guilty as charged) throw some black Shultz/under seal on and flog it for lots of dineros shure In the knowledge that 2 maybe 3 years and the tin worm strikes back.
Carry on ive seen worse been restored.

[chief44]

That's good progress, mine took me over a year so you're powering along. Keep it up!

[Tommytank]

About the jig, make sure you can free off the small 10mm bolts in the engine bay. Noticed you have rust issues, the jig uses some of the smaller bolts to locate.

[Hurricane]

Not a huge amount achieved this week, I'm saving up for the required repair panels, sills and sill connectors. I did buy myself another chargecooler setup, this time the correct unit for the rev3 engine rather than the rev1 unit I currently have. I also managed to acquire myself a lump of 4mm steel plate, so afterwork this morning I did this.

http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2015/02/158.jpg

http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2015/02/159.jpg

I had a little more time to kill before the wife dragged me to mothercare, so with the help of a fly press I stripped down the rear suspension arms ready for a clean up. It's so nice having the correct tools for the job, this took me about half an hour to get it all unbolted and the bushes pressed out

http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2015/02/160.jpg

http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2015/02/161.jpg

For those that were interested in the front bumper bar, it was definitely beyond repairing!

http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2015/02/162.jpg

[snowtigger]

There's only ten years life in those apparently or so I was told by a Toyota tech guy, so 20+ isn't to bad for a perishable, Paul sims had new ones but only a few.

[Hurricane]

I managed to get a very good front bar from Ollie@pacificworks or supercharged or whatever he is on here.

[Gon]

Keep up the good work :=)

[adamh]

yeah good job looks like you got the most of it covered . if its rusty like that, its possible the hose clips are quite corroded where the flexible heater hoses join to the hard heater matrix pipes just behind the frunk bulkhead right at the top. have to get under and look up. just a pointer, good luck with your projet. any physical help required give me a shout im 20 miles away.

[Hurricane]

I'm planning on changing the hoses for silicone ones anyway. Here's no way I trust 28 year old hoses. I'll be fitting the alloy rad so it's not worth taking a chance. I had planned to drop the tank today and get the hard pipes out to check them, but I didn't get a chance

[Hurricane]

Not a massive amount of progress over the last couple of weeks, I've been suffering from a little man-flu, plus some decorating thrown the mix. Anyway, I decided to tackle the crusty front calipers. With a little work and some gentle persuasion on one seized piston I got the calipers stripped down. The seals were pretty tired and split, but luckily all the sliders were in good condition. 3 of the pistons are reusable, but one has corroded a bit, so I need to replace that.

http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2015/02/309.jpg

http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2015/02/310.jpg

I gave the calipers a quick wire rush and a degrease and put them in a tub of bilt hamber deox-c for a couple of days.

http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2015/02/311.jpg

I don't have any pictures of how they came out the solution, but after a blast of caliper paint they are looking a hell of a lot better

http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2015/02/312.jpg

http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2015/02/313.jpg

I the meantime while the cleaning and painting took place I got ordering a seal kit from bigg red, and onto brakes international for a replacement piston, pad fitting kit, bleed nipples and red grease. All I need now is a couple of hours and I'll have functioning front calipers again.

The rear calipers look a bit cruddy, but they seem to move freely, so I'm avoiding a rebuild, I'll just give them a clean and a coat of silver to match the fronts. If they prove to be troublesome I'll just opt for some replacements from brakes international, of maybe a bigg red refurb. That's if I choose to keep them, as they are rev 1 16v calipers, I do have some rev 3 22v ones in need of a refurb

[cdwood2010]

Nice update. Life often gets in the way of projects, but a little bit here and there keeps things going.

Really need to do mine too, I was just being lazy I guess but you're making it look easy.

:)

[D2W]

Great thread. Delighted to see another mk1 coming back from the brink. Very impressed with (and a bit jealous of) your workmanship too.

Hope you don't mind me taking advantage. I've got a caliper refurb job to do too and I'd like to achieve similar results to yours.
What exactly is your process after taking them out of solution?
Exactly what paint did you use?

All the best
D2W

[Hurricane]

Once you have the calipers stripped down e main thing to do to get the best results using the bilt hamber is to make sure any flakey dirt and rust is removed with the wire brush, and any oils are removed by using a degreaser. This means the solution can get to work on the rust rather than having to cut through the crud. Once removed from the solution they have a layer of black grunge, but this rinses off, plus a blast with a wire brush brings them up quite nicely.

My calipers had previously been painted with some sort of caliper enamel, so the worst bits around the lettering wouldn't come off easily, hence I turned some plastic plugs to protect the bores, then shot blasted the worst bits to get them nice and clean.

The paint is just a can of cheap caliper spray from the motor factors local to work, I'll check exactly what make it is tomorrow. They only happen to be silver as the other choice was red, and I'm past the stage of having red calipers in my life

Edit, paint is Hycote caliper paint

[Hurricane]

I'm trying not to let too much get in the way, if I don't get this finished by July then the baby will be with us and nothing will get done!

My main worry is having some decent weather to crack on with the welding. At least if I can get the engine mounts welded I can prep and paint the bay and get the engine in, so at least something is happening, then I can do the bodywork over Easter when we will, fingers crossed, have some decent dry days

[D2W]

Thank you for the advice. It gives me a good idea what to do and what to expect.

Good luck with your build. Will be watching with interest.

D2W

[Hurricane]

So, I'm not entirely sure where the last 6 or so weeks have disappeared, but I have been doing bits and pieces, mostly rust removal. As such I've had to wait for the weather to be nice for me to crack out the welder.

Anyway a few pictures to show the mess of the front passenger chassis rail and inner arch
http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2015/04/170.jpg

http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2015/04/171.jpg

http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2015/04/172.jpg

Soooo, quite a mess in there, so I got happy with the grinder and cut some more out. This took me several hours to get back to clean metal

http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2015/04/173.jpg

http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2015/04/174.jpg

http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2015/04/175.jpg

So I started to patch things back in. You can see a couple of my angle pieces as I made them above. I forgot to take too many pictures as I worked through the repair, but here are a few. The captive nuts for the ARB and the crossmember were replaced with new ones before it was all sealed up

http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2015/04/176.jpg

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http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2015/04/180.jpg

Not the neatest bit of seam sealing, but they are covered, I will blast the lot with gravitex once I've finished all the repairs

[Hurricane]

So with the front corner finished I attacked the sill. I have a replacement sill and arch connector to go on. I had always suspected there was filler at the bottom of the b pillar as the door corner was rubbing. Turns out at some point in its life it has had a part from a less rusty mr2 welded in to the quarter panel in the kick up behind the skirt. So around where this was welded in the panels have rusted out, meaning it now needs a lot more repair, I'll let the pictures talk

http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2015/04/181.jpg

You can see the thickness of filler here, at least 5 mm in places

http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2015/04/182.jpg

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In the last couple of pictures I have wire brushed the rusty inner sill, and treated it with jenolite. I have since red oxide the lot. Until I can get a b pillar repair piece I can't cut anymore out. I had to remove a part of the inner sill strengthener at the rear, but this can be patchy in easily. The rear inner arch/rear sill area will be a bit harder to replace, but I'll deal with that. It looks like the inner arch is completely shot, and the outer is bubbling, but I intend on fitting some woodsport bolt on arches, so I'm not bothering to treat this for now, as most of the arch will be cut off

[Jiff Lemon]

That's some excellent work! Goes to show that mk1's are very much still save able if you're prepared to tackle them.
My cap is doffed in your direction mate, keep up the excellent work.

[cdwood2010]

Mighty impressive work. I've got similar rot to cut out and repair on the Datsun, and i was somewhere between scared and excited about it. Leaning towards excited as you're making it look so easy.

:)

[adamh]

good job