Another MR2 saved from the scrap!

[Redders]

Hello everyone, my names Mark and I live in Essex.

I bought a white MR2 back in january off of eBay for the lovely sum of £310! What a lot of car for that price!
Inevitably it wasn't an MOT pass first time jobby but it wasn't a complete mess either. It failed on:
- off side shock absorber
- front brakes
- off side sill rust
- off side rust near steering and suspension components
and thats it! I aim to do most of the work myself and learn about car mechanics in the process.
N.B the forums have been a massive help so thanks to everyone who comments in them.

Having just finished University money isnt flooding in at the moment but some of the problems have been sorted. The front box section rust has been done by a guy called Pat Regan who did a fantastic job. PM me if you want his number, he lives in Chelmsford.
The offside front suspension has been replaced (almost). I had to cut the drop link bar as the fixing would not undo and im yet to replace it!
The brakes are the next job followed by replacing the rusty sills!

P.S. how do you upload pictures to the topic???

Many thanks,

Mark

[Ben]

Hi Mark, welcome to the club. Good work on keeping another Mk1 going, sounds like you've had a decent project there!

Pics would be great. You'll need a photobucket account, there's a good how-to guide HERE.

Check out the South-East events section, you're welcome to attend any meets (even without your car!) and they're a great way to meet other members and pick up hints and tips. Stick your location in your profile (via the User Control Panel at the top of the page) so you don't have to keep reminding people where you are based

[tommundy]

Nice intro Mark, great to see another one saved!

They really are a great car to work on; I'm teaching myself as I go along and they're really intuitive to work on!... Well, most of the time, hehe. I'm sure you know but please don't hesitate to ask if you require any assistance or advice on the forums.

Hope you get to one of the meets darn sarth.

Cheers
Tom

[old petrolhead]

Welcome to the club. Good to hear that another MK1 is saved from the crusher.

[Blue84]

Hiya

Good to see another MK1 owner in Essex - which bit are you in?

[Redders]

near southend, urself?

[flippin_eck]

I can heartily recommend the electrolysis method for cleaning the brake calipers if they're really bad.

It basically involves dissolving a load of sodium carbonate in a washing up bowl full of water, then putting the caliper in it, then attaching a battery charger. You need a lump of steel to act as 'the other electrode'; you attach one croc clip to the caliper, one clip to the lump of steel, make sure they're not touching, then power up for 8-10 hours.

It's extremely important which way round you attach the croc clips. Get it right and the rust will fall off the caliper 100% and the lump of steel will dissolve. Get it wrong and the caliper will dissolve

So you'd have to google the full details but by god did it work on my old calipers, they came up a dream. Almost like new & they just looked like lumps of rust to begin with.

Although it works excellently to remove rusted-in pads, and the freed-off pads 'looked ok' after 10 hours of zapping, I didn't trust them so I put new ones in. Dunno whether the electricity might have dissolved something crucial out of the pad material so better safe than sorry. Also after electrolytic cleaning, I stripped & reassembled each caliper as part of the refurb so there was no danger of the cylinders being left full of muck / sodium carbonate.

[Blue84]

near southend, urself?

I'm in Thurrock - up the A13!

[Zirax]

Hello and welcome Good to see another Essex mk1 owner. I'm a Chelmsford lad.

Pat Regan does cracking work, he's welded mine twice and every time has done a bit extra. I think he gets all his work through recommendations now.

[Blue84]

I took mine to a guy in Battlesbridge, but might give Pat a try instead - I can't knock the guy we've used really, but he'll give you a time to come back at and before we've had to wait another hour!

So there is a good few of us MK1 owners in Essex then, still can't believe I NEVER see anyone though..