Been sat in the lock up too long

[celica1600gt]

Well with all this warm weather i thought it was time to unearth the MR2 which has sat in the lock up too long mainly due to other projects namely mk 1 celicas ( ta22) but thats another story.
The car is a october 1989 t bar in red supplied new by sidcup toyota and owned by the first owner for 4 years , then the second owner for 14 years , then i bought it 7 years ago.
It was part exchanged into the citroen dealer in croydon and subsequently sold to a back street car dealer in croydon who wanted a load of other cars but had to take the mr2 as they didn't want it and neither did the back street dealer who tried to fix the cooked alternator and gave up so it became a banger clearance.
Well whats it like , only 96K from new , 2 owners ,all original paint , no rot in the arches or the cills , with black leather and a tool kit that has never been used, in all a peach and all for a dollop of small change.
I have replaced the alternator , just got it mot'd and doing some final tidying before putting it on the road.
Be interested in meeting up with other local members , it will go to the Toyota enthusiast annual get together in august and then JAE , in all loads of fun and I have become a convert even though i normally run celicas.
Look forward to hearing from any one local - Malcolm cheltenham

[Vistalite]

Hi Malcolm and welcome to the club!

Sounds like a nice car you've got there (and a bit of a bargain too) - would be great to see some photos.

If you upgrade you're membership to full fat instead of semi skimmed as it were, you could do that, post as many times as you like and get all the support and sympathy you need from our MK1 'family'!

I'm in Warwick btw so not too far from you.

Jonathan

[celica1600gt]

Hi Jonathan
thanks for the update on membership, now done as i think the Mr2 will get quite a bit of use , so the club will come in handy.
Now included some photos after a bit of a spring clean , need to refurbish the alloys and a few other jobs to get it to really tidy.
She runs really well , but needs a bit of a run to give the engine a bit of a clear out after being stood for so long , however all the major service items have been done including a cam belt at 81k.
I have changed the electrical aerial as the old one was broken with a 2nd hand which goes down but won't come up on its own , it will come out manually quite easily, so would be interested to hear from someone who has a good one or an easy fix to sort this one.
otherwise i don't need anything else as you can see from the photos its in pretty good condition, just need to get it on the road when the tax on my gen 6 celica runs out.

[Vistalite]

Looks fab., and won't take much to put a bit of sparkle back. I've got a T-bar with leather too!

I had a dodgy aerial on my last car which I successfully repaired. It was the original one that I ended up taking apart, finding that the plastic flexible strip that pushes up and pulls down the mast had snapped about 4" from the bottom.

It was full of dirt, grease and goodness knows what from over the years, so I gave it a good clean up inside. I read that you shouldn't grease the plastic strip inside as it works better dry inside the mast. It went up and down great afterwards, but obviously extended 4" shorter than normal afterwards.

I've got some pics somewhere which I took to remember how it to put it back together, which I'll post up tomorrow.

When you get the alloys done, have them done properly by getting them dipped in inhibitor as part of the process, to help reduce the reoccurrence of corrosion in the slit between the rim and the centre, and have the tears done in the dark grey

[Vistalite]

Several photos of the inside of an original aeriel, as promised. Hope it helps.

[celica1600gt]

Thats a great help , will take the broken one out of the car and see if i can mend it with a new whip .
Also i took an alternator off the car as although it looks the same as a standard mr2 it has a different type of connector which i have , and it still has 3 wires to it , but different colours to the originals , looks all in good order if somebody needs one available for a nominal sum.
Besides a little bit of paint to front spoiler to repair some kerb damage and some detailing its all ready to go, must say it does hang around when you open it up, feels quick but seems slower than gen 6 celica when comparing the speedos.

[sTuArT]

I still have the oem aerial fitted. The previous owner must have only listened to tapes for it to still be working after 26 years.

[Vistalite]

But the aerial goes up regardless of whether you listen to the radio or play cassettes?!

[celica1600gt]

The electric aerial on my gen 6 celica still works fine after 18 years , will let yo know what i find when i dismantle both of them .

[sTuArT]

But the aerial goes up regardless of whether you listen to the radio or play cassettes?!

I will double check but I'm sure it's inteligent enough to only go up when the radio is on and down when a tape is playing. I'm using an oem headset and aerial. Perhaps our audio systems are wired differently. Also the backlight illumination on the buttons and lcd come on only with the headlights as it's not needed during day light hours.