Hello everyone, new here.

[IDon'tKnow]

Hello folks. My name is Michael, I'm a small business owner hailing from Huntsville, AL. A few weeks ago I bought my second -1st running- AW11. My last AW11 which I bought for $600 - from the friend for whom I had found the car on eBay; drove to Tampa (12 hours) with; realized the guy had seriously misadvertised the car; bought it anyway; drove it home; stopped more than a few times to try and keep the thing running; got it home... he drove it for about a month before misfortune fell upon him - had a blown headgasket when it came into my possession and only got worse from there (Was that run on sentence hard to follow?). You see I was younger, less experienced, poorer, stoned, and probably delusional then. I thought that I was going to build this car from scratch - had been lurching MR2 forums for years - had it all planned out... or rather had an odd mix of outrages ideas, only..... no funding, and believe me - to make good on all of my fantasies for this car I would have had to rob a bank to the tune of $100k+.

So to pass the time, instead of going out and getting a job I hacked the car to bits. Main harness, not going to need that, I'm going to run a standalone EMS, hack hack hack. Gauge cluster harness, not going to need that, I'm going to run an all digital data-logging cluster, hack hack hack. A/C, Heater, & Vent unit, not going to need that, A/C is for lightweights - or should I say heavyweights? - hack hack hack. It went on and on and on, unltil I had nothing left but a slightly rusty AW11 shell with half a motor in it and no longer had a place to store the thing so off it went to the salvage yard - I mean crushers - there was nothing left to salvage.

We'll folks I performed my repentance as best I could. That poor pale gold '85 didn't deserve the treatment it received but what's done is done. All I can do now to prove the sincerity and extent of my reformation is treat this new one right.

Fast forward three or four years and I am riding along with a friend of mine in his 300ZX TT, by riding along I mean racing a Z06, when his improperly balanced fan clutch caused a WP failure. If you think getting to the WP on the MR2 is difficult you've never had to take one out of the Z32. Anyway while doing a parking-lot-water-pump-replacement, I was chatting with my friends mechanic and upon his discovery that I was/am an AW11 nut, he tipped me off on the deal.

She is a Red '86 model with some minor accident damage on the driver rear quarter - thus the $900 price tag for what seems to me to be a fairly well sorted car.


Things I like about the condition of the car:

• Cold A/C
• Clean, excellent interior -Seats are great, carpet looks new, headliner looks mint - (There is a small blemish on dash beneath the passenger vent, a crack on the clock/vent trim, steering wheel leather has seen better days, and the arm rest/ center tunnel cover doesn't like to stay in place because the plastic ribbing support beneath it is broken so it doesn't quite do it's job and when you put your arm on the pad it tends to bend in and thus not hold it's corner tabs in place).
• It runs well and doesn't pop out of 5th. (Although the transmission does make some terribly disquieting noises and I'm sure it won't last too much longer)
• It was garaged by the owner previous to the previous owner - although the previous owner pretty much spoiled that by keeping it in his backyard for two years without giving it a moments attention.
• The front lip is in good shape.
• The weather stripping seems to be in good shape as well as most of the black trim around the windows. - The sunroof doesn't leak.
• The tie rods are not seized up.

Anyway - the car has it's not so good points as well - Obviously the damage to the rear quarter needs to be addressed and I won't be addressing it with bondo - new metal will go in when I can find some salvaged at a decent price ($300 is the best I've found so far). The car does the shimmy to a different extent at most speeds, not sure if this is the wheel balance, tie rod ends, and/or other factors. I'll probably just address everything at once when I finish using up the tires.











My other two cars, actually my wife and I share both, are a 2008 Honda Fit; base model, 5 speed, bone stock...... and a 2005 Acura RL - which is a fantastic car you should read a bit about if you are not familiar.

I once owned a 1989 Civic HB (Oh Gosh, he's a HonDUH boy) that was pretty quick. It was fairly modified - B16A swap, Y1 short ratio tranny, crush bent custom 3" cat deleted exhaust, CAI, tokico blues, eibach springs, ect - probably ran a low 14. Was in the process of building a B20/VTEC motor - had the sleeved block, ARP con-rod bolts on OEM PR4 rods, RS Machine 12.3:1 High comp pistons all assembled, and a few other parts as well; Skunk2 intake manifold, long tube race header, 600cc injectors (I know, a little bit big) ect.. - for it when I fell on tough times and had to part the whole thing out. Sad really because it would have made 200hp at the wheels and the EF is a light chassis.

Anyway, that's some of my background. I don't a have a ton of cash on hand right now so nothing outrageous should be happening with my AW11 anytime soon but I have lots of ideas and love this car so you'll see some projects popping up here and there.

If you've managed to read this far I congratulate you. A big thanks to everyone on this forum for having the excellent judgment to be an MR2 enthusiast. I look forward to learning from you all and becoming an active part of the community.

[GrandpaGofast]

Interesting story...have you bought it yet ? keep us posted.
GP

[IDon'tKnow]

Yes I have purchased the car. I've been wanting to try my hand at mold making / vacuum bagging for a while so I'm looking at starting out with a pair of replacement eyebrows.

[traintech86]

let people see what the results are, you might be able to make yourself some monies cause them are expensive!

[mr3]

Welcome here. I had a z32 for a few months. I bought it with 2 blown head gaskets and was going to do a lt1 swap. Working on that thing sucked. I think the mr2 has more room to work with. I ended up pulling the engine that was now siezed and rusted then lost interest in busting knuckles on something that was a pain to work on. I parted it out and made $300. I could've made more but I got sick of the thing and took what I could get. One of the guy's I sold some parts to let me drive his tt 3z and I allmost creamed my pants. That was the first boosted car I ever drove and I hit 20lbs of boost. He had some major work done on it and when I heard the bovs I smiled so big. I shook for 30 minutes after driving it. The power was there but I'll take the way my mk1 handles and feels each day of the week.

Do right to the car and the car will take care of you.

[IDon'tKnow]

Oh I definitely will. I think that by ordering minimum quantities of everything involved I will have enough materials to make 10-14 eyebrows.

I don't expect to make much money selling them. If I can recoup the cost of materials and my time I'll be perfectly happy.

The eyebrows aren't the only thing I'm hoping to make. I have a few other ideas as well.

[IDon'tKnow]

Originally Posted by mr3

Welcome here. I had a z32 for a few months. I bought it with 2 blown head gaskets and was going to do a lt1 swap. Working on that thing sucked. I think the mr2 has more room to work with. I ended up pulling the engine that was now siezed and rusted then lost interest in busting knuckles on something that was a pain to work on. I parted it out and made $300. I could've made more but I got sick of the thing and took what I could get. One of the guy's I sold some parts to let me drive his tt 3z and I allmost creamed my pants. That was the first boosted car I ever drove and I hit 20lbs of boost. He had some major work done on it and when I heard the bovs I smiled so big. I shook for 30 minutes after driving it. The power was there but I'll take the way my mk1 handles and feels each day of the week.

Do right to the car and the car will take care of you.

That's true, in most cases I'm sure.

The first time I rode in a "serious" turbo car was my friends Type R EK hatch. (1999 Civic Type R with a fully built B20/VTEC motor and, I think, a GT38) He was running it at 18 psi..... I couldn't believe how fast the car was. He dyno'd the car a few weeks later, turned the boost up to 26lbs, and made 622hp at the wheels.

I like the Z32, it's an attractive car, but it's heavy, difficult to work on, and is anemic below 5K rpms. If I was loaded, had money to pay someone else to work on the car, and put some serious work into the motor, I'm sure it would be more appealing.

[Spinfin]

Welcome to the boards.

I hear the MK1 is go kart esque in drive feel, must be awesome!

[IDon'tKnow]

That's a good way to describe it's handling. I think that statement is quite true in regard to the steering input.
It's a good thing the AW11 has that going for it; I surely didn't buy it because of it's accelerative abilities.

[muffinman]

Welcome

do you have any interior or engine pics?

[IDon'tKnow]

[muffinman]

congratulations , the car is beautiful.

[muffinman]

i just noticed that you have the dealer installed cruise control. i have only seen that once before.

[IDon'tKnow]

The cruise control still works too. I don't much care for it's "on again, off again" feel. I first thought that it might need some freshening but I after some thought concluded that all cruise control felt that way in the '80s. I think I'm going to try and keep that on there when I do a 20V swap someday.

I agree that it's a beautiful car. I'm no AW11 guru, but I've seen a few in my time and think that this one is the best sorted I've come across- apart from the rear quarter damage. I was drooling over it when the seller showed it to me; probably cost me $100 - If he hadn't know that I was completely sold on the car he would have sold it to me for the $800 I heard he was asking for it in the first place.

I want to address the few issues in the interior pretty soon. I've got a replacement center vent on the way; what a pain it is to replace though - gonna have to basically pull the whole dash I hear.

There is the one blemish on the dash beneath the passenger side vent. Don't know if I will try to patch it or replace the whole dash; not too sure about how much a good dash will run, or if many still exist.

[randomxzero]

wow nice MKI... and great come up..
i love/hate mine but the one week she was working great i loved how it handled and i just cant let it go and keep trying to work out the bugs....
welcome to the board hope you stay lol!!

[IDon'tKnow]

Last night I addressed the only major / easily noticeable flaw in the interior; the shift boot. In the pictures above you can see how the original looked after 25 years.

This is an OEM Audi S4 boot. You'll notice that it has a plastic ring at the tip where the leather terminates instead of your typical folded and sewn seam. I had to take a dremel to the inside of the plastic ring to bore it out a bit since it's inner diameter was too small for the AW11 lever.

I was lucky that the retaining clips for the boot were not broken. I simply trimmed the original boot off of the wire frame and stretched the new boot over it. The S4 boot was a bit small but I was able to make it work with some muscle and patience. You'll also notice that the boot it a taller than needed so it looks baggy right now.


The OEM Toyota shift knob is long compared to most aftermarket pieces. You can see in this picture how far down the boot has to sit because of it.


Once I get a knob that doesn't shroud over the shaft by an inch and a half, the sag in the boot will look more like this:

[muffinman]

great work.

how much did the boot cost?

[IDon'tKnow]

Paid $8 for it.

Had a guy drop off a bunch of Audi S4 and misc. turbo parts @ my store and it was part of the lot. I did some quick eBay research - saw that these sell for $10, plus $10 shipping. After eBay fees & my commission he would have seen around $5.50 for it, so I figured I'd do us both a favor.

There are some other things I'm getting for a song out of the lot; a pair of OEM S4 sidemount intercoolers in good shape, a handful of braided steel fuel lines with some misc. -6 AN fittings, and misc. 2", 2.5", & 3" intercooler piping and couplers.

Short of a manifold, injectors, boost gauge, and exhaust routing, I have everything I need to boost the 4AGE just sitting around.

The turbocharger is a T25 from a 300ZX TT. My buddy upgraded his turbos and one of the stockies had just been replaced before he bought it, so it's in good shape.

Hmmm.... I'm thinking out loud again.

What do you think guys think? 165hp turbo on a $350 budget or patiently wait a few years till I'm ready to do a 20V swap?

[mr3]

Research and research a bunch more before turboing. I was about to turbo my 20v but I cant even get it started without the extra stuff.