I thought I'd post this up here because I thought some people might be interested by it. 

 

For the last few months I've had a real fancy for a project car. So I've spend a good amount of time on the hunt. 

So here is a little background. 

 

Like I said I've really been after a project car. I'm not mechanic but I've had a real obsession for years and years, and I've done a lot of research, and what not over the years, so I've become fairly confident. So decided I'd take the plunge. Seeing as this was my first pure project car, I decided to set myself a few guidelines:

 

1. There had to be a strict budget. I wanted to limit month by month spend, so not to throw myself to far into the deep end. 

2. The car had to be RWD. 

3. The car had to be small. 

 

So with these three guidelines I set about my search. Again I wanted to limit my initial purchase budget to around £500. So it wasn't exactly easy finding what I wanted. However after months of patience, and dismissing many candidates, from MG-Midgets, to Porsche 928's, MX-5's and BMW's this little "gem" popped up on the Bay. 

 

After a fair bit of research of the car, the parts, and all the rest. I eventually viewed it, agree'd a price and got it. So this is what I ended up with. And I must say I think it's perfect for what I was after, and was always a favourite of mine from a young age. It needed a lot of work, but the important parts seemed sound. And I wasn't going to shy away from some hard graft, after all that was the whole point. And for £200, I couldn't grumble. 

 

A 1991 SW20 MR2 G-Limited imported from Japan, with an autobox. 

 

 

The fun didn't quite end there. 

 

I agreed a date to have the car collected. Because I decided I'd be SORNing the car until major work was complete. When the car arrived the guy who picked it up on the low loader (who is also a neighbour) told me the car seemed to be fine and got up the ramp under it's own steam. However, when it came to offloading it, there was nothing. We managed to cox some life out of the battery enough to get it into neutral and roll it off the ramps. After a few hours spent looking, humming and haring, we decided it was an issue with the ignition system, since the Spark Plugs just weren't firing. But due to the strict budget I had, I decided I'd wait to resolve the issue, and wait I did... For payday. 

 

Eventually pay day rolled around, and with a replacement battery, Distributor Cap, Rotor Arm, and some new plugs, she sprang to life on the first turn of the key. Very pleased. After a good long inspection, and some test laps of our back field, the car was pretty solid, bar some old and worn brakes. So with joy I managed to finally begin the fun part of the project. 

 

The plan is to get this resorted. As close to factory, and showroom condition as I can, with a few personal touches. Once there, then i will decide what route I go. There seems to be a lot of stuff you can do with these little things, from dropping a V6 Camry engine into it, to Turbo's and Ferrari Body kits. But I'll leave that decision for a later time. For now, it's a restoration job. 

 

Hopefully this will come along well, and you guys can enjoy the progress. 

I once owned a 300bhp Revision 3 Turbo import back in 2008, Sadly it didn't last very long at all  :peek: I ran out of talent LOL.

 

Do still have a soft for these though, Don't see many about nowadays either!

Nice project - and a cheap starter

So, it's been a while I think I best add an update to this. 

 

I've had the car now a good while and I've been trying to get it back to good working order. A few things have came up as immediate problems. 

 

The first issue was to do with the battery, and the fact it wasn't charging. Some investigation and I found an alternator looking like this. 

 

 

Not very pretty. 

 

The problem is, this is the same story across most of the car. It's like it's never had basic maintenance, well ever! So the knock off effect is that every other bolt is seized completely. To the point I've actually snapped two drive adapters for my ratchet. That huge pivot bolt you can see in the picture above is the biggest culprit. 

 

Regardless, I decided to plough on further. There was a fair bit of blue smoke from the exhaust, so I decided I'd dig a bit to find out where this was coming from. So began to dismantle the engine. Everything seemed fine, until I had to get the timing belt off, which led me to the fan belt on the alternator and back to that stupid pivot bolt. Which i still haven't managed to get off. 

 

I've resigned myself to having to cut this thing off. I didn't want to but well. Needs must. 

 

I am a little worried by the blue smoke. Although due to the way things are with everything else, where the car looks like basic maintenance has been ignored for a very very long time, as well as the car having been sat on the previous owners drive for a good few years. I'm hoping it's just valve stem seals, or piston rings, or maybe head gasket. Anything over and above that, then I think it's pretty much a given that I'll have to right the engine off. Although I have to admit, part of me isn't that upset about the idea. The current engine in the car is the Toyota 3S-GE. which is a solid engine. But I've been eyeing up 1MZ-FE and prices. And the prices aren't that bad! The 1MZ-FE is a V6 engine that Toyota used in the lives of the Camry and Lexus ES, and there is a good number of people who do the swap. So I don't think, if the engine is in a bad way, I will be too upset. But, I may need to have a good think. But then again it's still early days and the problem could be fairly fixable. We'll see. 

 

So here is a few snaps I got of the Engine through the dismantling process. It's not quite fully stripped, but getting there. 

 

 

I appreciate any input anyone has, if they have any. 

 

Also, it does seem that there was an incredible amount of foliage within the engine bay. It's anyone's guess how that got there.