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The Night Rider's 1986 Toyota MR-2 AW11 - Discussion


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Love my adubs, a true foamer will always spot a pre facelift though ;)

 

Haha yeah I'm not willing to swap the aerial location or even get a facelift front lip or anything. To be honest I'm just trying to get it looking like what I have in my mind, which occasionally changes after seeing a really killer looking car.. 

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  • 1 month later...

Did this car come from Wellington? I remember seeing one just like it in a collection down that way, the owner at that time was an older chap who had all kinds of cars in his collection including all 3 generations of MR2. He was actually my mates uncle and an very nice chap indeed.

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Yeah that's right. I think I might have mentioned it in my build thread. The previous owner was an older car collector, was very nice and funny.

Unfortunately I think his mechanic did not bleed the coolant system properly as the car started to overheat on the drive back to Auckland. I'm assuming this because it had really fresh green looking coolant and after I bled the air on the side of the road it was fine.. for the rest of the trip.

 

Anyway I don't really mind, its a super clean and straight car which I'm happy to own and work on.

 

Maybe I'll send him some pics once I finish the project.

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Unfortunately Bill (previous owner) passed away a few months ago but I am sure he would be happy that you are looking after the car. He had an amazing car collection that I was fortunate enough to explore a couple of years ago. There was a wide variety of makes and models represented including some real flash stuff (e-type Jags etc). I remember that your car caught my eye because it was in such exceptional condition for its age. I don't think he used the car very much while he owned it but I guess that happens when you have a fairly large collection. You have a very special little car there and it is certainly worth putting the time and effort into the project. I hope we have an opportunity to catch up at a Auckland event sometime as I would be very keen to see what you have done with the car.

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Unfortunately Bill (previous owner) passed away a few months ago but I am sure he would be happy that you are looking after the car. He had an amazing car collection that I was fortunate enough to explore a couple of years ago. There was a wide variety of makes and models represented including some real flash stuff (e-type Jags etc). I remember that your car caught my eye because it was in such exceptional condition for its age. I don't think he used the car very much while he owned it but I guess that happens when you have a fairly large collection. You have a very special little car there and it is certainly worth putting the time and effort into the project. I hope we have an opportunity to catch up at a Auckland event sometime as I would be very keen to see what you have done with the car.

 

Ah man, that's really sad to hear. Unfortunately I never got to meet him in person because about 1-2 days before I went to pickup the car he had some health issues which meant he couldn't leave the house. He was kind enough to organize two of his friends to meet me instead, I didn't even know about all this till the night before which is when he called me. 

 

His friend did email me some pics of Bill and a few of his cars from the collection, including one very nice old mini (green I think); once I got back to Auckland. 

 

Your right, Bill did mention that he hardly used the MR-2. 

 

I'm trying to get the project done, have too many other commitments at the moment, but it will get done. Luckily I have a full time garage space available so the car is always stored inside. 

 

Sure It'd be cool to meet up once its done. I don't really have any crazy modifications planned which your probably glad to hear. The most major mod would be the ITB set up. 

 

Thanks for sharing that experience though, cool that someone on these forums knew him and his collection. 

 

RIP Bill. 

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There's certainly nothing wrong with a few subtle mods and to be honest the manual conversion is something I would have done as it doesn't seem right to have an auto in one of these cars. Best of luck with the project and I will look forward to seeing the car when you have it up and running again.

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Gutted to read about the motor mate!

Just on a side note while it's in my head.

With the accl pedal, for me it was a little to far away from the brake pedal to heal toe well I and I would sometime miss it and end up with a little compression lock here and there.

While I changed the cable (fraid at throttle) I pulled the pedal out.

It's not hugely strong and by putting it in a bench vice and tugging on it with some force (all body weight) I could bend it.

Managed to get it exsactly where I wanted for heal toe position and was miles easier.

Not sure of your preference but just a thought for when you get it back on the road.

Best of luck with getting it back out there.

If you need anything let me know, I've got odds and ends laying around.

No blocks any more though sorry

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With the accl pedal, for me it was a little to far away from the brake pedal to heal toe well I and I would sometime miss it and end up with a little compression lock here and there.

 

 

Hey, thanks for that tip. 

 

I've never actually driven a manual AW so will have to see how bad it is for me. My shoe size is 11 US so it might be alright; although I like to heal and toe more with the side of my shoe than the actual heal. 

Will see how it goes. 

 

Thanks for the notice, if I need some parts I'll check with you. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Looking very nice.

 

 

You should be able to get an angled vacuum fitting, which might help

 

Yes I did actually buy one of those but when I went to put it in I found that the tip would touch the front flange of the ITB adapter (Because you have to spin it around to screw it in). 

The one I tried was angled more though so I'll try one with less of an angle. 

Just have to find one like that with NPT thread. 

 

Anyway thanks for the suggestion, if it works it'll look much nicer than the heater hose. 

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You could also go on a raid to pick-a-part and get some banjo bolts / fittings with barbs.

 

Lots of Toyota's have these for the brake booster vacuum lines, but you may need to drill and tap the adaptor to suit.

 

Also, replacement banjo/barbs for the likes of Tial wastegates, I'm sure some more 'generic' ones exist from Autoquip or GSS?

you can see 2 of them here:

94_image.jpg

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You could also go on a raid to pick-a-part and get some banjo bolts / fittings with barbs.

 

Lots of Toyota's have these for the brake booster vacuum lines, but you may need to drill and tap the adaptor to suit.

 

Also, replacement banjo/barbs for the likes of Tial wastegates, I'm sure some more 'generic' ones exist from Autoquip or GSS?

you can see 2 of them here:

 

For a second I thought you were going to suggest turbo charging it lol. 

 

I never knew banjo type fittings were also used for vacuum, that could be a nice solution. 

Ideally I would like to keep the adapter as untouched as possible, but since its probably unlikely I'll find any banjo fitting with 1/8 NPT thread, I might not have much choice. 

 

Anyway thanks for the suggestion. Will see which way I go. 

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  • 3 months later...

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