Resto-Mod of a 1987 Toyota MR2 by Turbowned

6 minute(s) of a 28 minute read

I started taking my doors off to replace the hinges, door checks and weatherstripping. I bought a used set of hinges and replaced the passenger side. The driver's side were still a little too worn for my liking so I bought brand new hinges and am in the process of painting them now. I also replaced a broken plastic stopper for the window and lubricated the handles and lock cylinder.

Putting it all back together, the passenger door is like brand new! No more sagging, no more squeaking handles, and no more need to body-check the door to get it open! It pops smoothly and closes without having to slam. I can't wait to get the driver's side finished!

I also changed my mind on rebuilding the front brakes and bought a Wilwood big brake kit from FastBrakes: I custom-ordered 11" two-piece rotors and DynaPro dust-boot calipers. I didn't like the idea of using calipers without dust boots on a daily-driven car.

And since I'm too tall to fit comfortably with the stock seat, I bought a Recaro Profi SPG fixed bucket that I'll be mounting to the floor with a Wedge Engineering bracket. I'll post pics later this week when it's all done!

5/22/2011

More new stuff! Pics from replacing the weatherstripping/hinges:

Beginning with removing the door:

Try to keep your fender liner installed if you roll your fenders, otherwise this can happen (it also showers your windshield with sand and road debris)

Panel off, old weatherstripping removed:

Had to pull all of these clips out:

Found a broken stopper, which I replaced from a spare door I had. Kind of a pain because I had to reach my hand behind the glass to hold the backing plate for the bolt in place, and it was a tight squeeze:

All better:

New door checks and weatherstripping installed, and cleaned 25 years of dirt off the inner frame:

At some point I'm going to cut out a new template to replace the plastic sheet over the door and re-adhere it with similar adhesive, just to keep dust/water out. I'm guessing it's to keep the door card from getting soggy, lol.

New hinges for the driver's side, before I painted them (definitely should've primered them before painting, red over black took almost a whole can of touch-up paint):

New headlight buckets and trim, to replace the rusty/corroded ones held together with hope and zip-ties (install pics to come soon):

"Big" brake kit from Fastbrakes came in! I was annoyed that he didn't change my ship-to address to my work address, so I had to drive to the nearest depot to pick them up since I wasn't home to sign, but other than that I'm impressed with the kit so far. I'll be taking all of this coming Tuesday to install them, so nothing is half-assed. (Painted door hinges in the background, lol)

Installed my Recaro seat using Recaro aluminum mounts and Wedge Engineering bracket; no slider. I feel like the guy wrote down 5' 2" instead of 6' 2" when I told him how tall I was, because sitting in it I feel like my mom's just been in the car. My knees are behind the steering wheel! A little annoying, but there's not much I can do and for $137 or whatever shipped I can't complain too much. I'm taking the bracket to my fabricator tomorrow to put longer tabs on the back and drill and tap new holes to mount it further back. I also need to figure out how to get it lower because I still can't fit with a helmet on. Otherwise, the seat is COMFY! It also saves 13.2lbs over the stock seat, which is just awesome. That's with the mounts and bracket.

Got my turbo inlet plenum in this week, also. While I think it may actually reduce power in N/A applications (or at least torque, because the airbox is smaller than the stock one and doesn't have the long runners), I installed it anyways because I'm a ricer and shiny things excite me. I was very impressed with the quality of the plenum, especially considering what I paid for it to be made for me. Thank you, Barry Manon!
I also re-installed my Cusco oil catch can which I didn't have space for previously: