The Yellow Jacket

[YellowJacket]

[IDon'tKnow]

Looks good! Not sure how I feel about the amount of black accenting, but it's clean none the less. Good attention to detail and props for not getting far away from the OEM look of the car.

Was the car originally platinum? How much of what we see there is your doing?.... I know you said that the interior LED rope was already there when you bought the car.

[immorality]

I'd love some more pics and details about the frunk

[mr2magic]

Incredibly clean!

[PHOENIX]

very nice!

[YellowJacket]

It's definitely conversational... not your normal boring red. It was originally that champagne color.

So the car used to be a national show car in the nineties sponsored by TRD. That guy that did all the Yellow Jacket 'theme' work, sold it to a local college kid just after the turn of the century and he owned after that... the kid had it as his daily driver and kept it maintained enough to get him around but neglected it over all.

The engine was all worn out and he blew the head gasket in 2006 and kind of abandoned it and had been sitting in a used car lot for 2 years not running when I got a hold of it in 2008. The 5speed tranny in it wasnt popping out in 5th gear YET but it was sawing back and forth really bad on acceleration.

It came to me all black and yellow.... the yellow was so oxidized and mildew covered outside from sitting under trees that it even though the paint isnt good at all now, it really cleaned up well.... what you cannot see is the before pics of how I have replaced so much of the interior and repaired all broken parts. I mean you name it, it was broken.

The seats were always Awesome except for one tear in the passenger side you cannot see anymore cause I patched it up with one of those autozone vinyl/leather repair kits, and the door card inserts were nice but just all greasy and dirty. The dash was not cracked at all and in good shape.

but everything else was broken it seems... lemme run down a list off the top of my head:

Seat belts broken
frunk cable broken
gas door spring mechanism broken
gas door cable release plunger broken
many light bulbs out (those tiny dash lights too! what a pain they are)
missing license plate lights completely
broken climate control parts
broken power window module
broken auto mirror switch
broken dome light
door open (dome door light) switch broken on passenger side
assorted dash bulbs were out
broken ashtray
missing shifter emblem
nasty carpet - replaced all carpet
no floor mats
smashed in front end causing rubbing headlights
headlamp plastic surrounds broken
ripped up eyebrows
faded paint on side mirrors (silver - black worn off)
body trim all silver and worn off
rusty old wipers and wiper arms
rusted and hanging off exhaust
ignition lock broken (had to jiggle it for 30 secs to get it to turn to ON)
replaced entire lock set with a set from another car
old car alarm half hooked up under dash had to be gutted causing electrical issues
glove box hinge broken
air vent rings cracked
clock plastics split down the middle
instrument cluster cover cracked and photosensor broken
radio surround cracked and wouldnt stay on
underpanel drivers side was all cut up with alarm switches.
red light drilled into steering column cover for alarm
intermittant wiper switch broken
wiper and headlamp knobs paint all worn off
front instrument facia cracked in the back and white lettering worn off
dust and dirt on inside of clear instrument cluster plastic
no stereo
LOTS of miscellaneous screws all over the car and interior missing or lying around
plenty of rattles that I have had to track down and "remove" both on interior and exterior
the car came with no ctrim and no deflector.
There was no screaming chicken hood emblem
the cpillar side vents were cracked
the seat belt retractors in the door were broken
the door hinges were sagging so bad I had to replace those
the door sills plastic piece on each side of the door was missing all the screws and really torn up
gas/trunk levers emblems all worn away and shiny, replaced those.
no lumbar support lever on drivers seat
inside door handles were worn down to a whitish grey.
sunroof sunshade missing
engine bay cooling fan computer broken (fan came on with ignition)
The 3rd light on the rear wing was not wired up(its an 85 duh), replaced with LED wing and wired it up.
one side marker light had intermittent short in it, other had a cut wire
rear quarters were so full of water and leaves... rust spots to be fixed later


I swapped the 3rd light box wing that came on the car for the led wing and went to wire it up and realized it had no wiring since 85 didnt require it... so I wired the thing up to the tail light circuit.

bought all the parts for AC from ebay and had Firestone fix AC (it was gutted)
fixed the front end with a new crush bumper from another mr2 enthusiast.
Firestone also did other stuff for me like my brakes and fitting on the exhaust... I dont have tools or the place to work on the car in that capacity and rather sub that work out to an expert who knows all the tricks, shortcuts, has the tools and I know it will be done right the first time. I neither have the time or inclination to want to learn how to rebuild my engine. Do it once and do it right is my motto.

All small exterior or interior parts or needed engine parts came from Lithia Toyota or the community and I replaced or fixed or painted etc to bring back to what it looks like now.

Full Engine rebuild was done by a local racecar mechanic, MR2 expert and enthusiast that I met on MR2OC and he works in a local shop here. He did that rebuild along with putting in the C160 6-speed tranny & other mechanical stuff like struts/shocks/bushings and a whole list of little things .


Enough typing for now!

One last list:

Yellow Jacket's Mods

Full Engine Rebuild (top/bottom) by JavaJoe79 / Machine work by RPM
BCPR5ES-11 Spark Plugs
Injectors serviced by witchunter.com
Custom dual exhaust
C160 6-Speed w/MT-90 (modded by JavaJoe79)
6-speed shifter emblem
Custom MOMO pedals
Momo shift knob w/redline goods boot
Toyota OEM leather wrapped ebrake handle
Grant GT steering wheel
Koni 'yellow' struts
TRD Springs
Poly suspension Bushings all around
Kirkosaurus urethane motor mount inserts
Sunroof Front Strut Tower Bar Brace
Quaife QSR
twosrus steering refresh kit
K&N RX-4960 X-Stream Filter w/Intake Mod
Slotted/Drilled cquence.net Rotors w/Axxis ceramic pads
Goodridge SS Brake Lines
Teflon Lined Braided Steel Clutch Line
Vacuum line silicone driveway kit
twosrus front/rear sway bar endlinks
twosrus rear tie rods
twosrus valve cover sealing washers
XTD Chromoly 9lb 200mm flywheel w/ARP bolts
Exedy OEM 200mm clutch
MarcMedina Short Shifter Mod
Speedsource Aluminum Shifter plate base bushings
Speedsource Shifter cable brass bushing kit
MR-Spyder 15" Staggered rims
Yokohama S.Drive 195/50/15 & 205/50/15 rubber
TRD valve stem caps
OEM '89 LED Spoiler/Wing
"Super Edition" repro rear wind deflector
Raybrig H4 Headlamp Conversion
"Euro" front indicators
Battery relocated to trunk
Dynomat Engine bay firewall
Hydraulic Engine lid prop
Cupholder under passenger seat
Repro OEM Floor Mats
Replaced Carpet
Pioneer DEX-P1R head unit
Kenwood KAC-744 4ch amp
2-way Quartz 3.5" speakers in dash
2-way Clarion 5 1/4" in door
Custom Interior sun visors, Frunk liner, Hood Liner, and Trunk liner with "Fighting Yellow Jacket" theme,
Custom seats and door cards recovered in yellow/black leather ,
Custom Toyota logo and MR2 embroidered on each interior door card
Custom "Fighting Yellow Jacket" emblem on rear quarter panels
Clock plastic display mod by Confused
Tinted Windows
Neon rope interior lights around sunroof and rear window
rainbow rotating color LED in dome light
MR2OC license plate frame with TRD screw covers
Spaz Chicken Mk1 emblem Keychain with Toyota OEM key

[IDon'tKnow]

It's good to see an AW11 in the hands of an owner who addresses the details and doesn't have an inclination toward "rice-ish" modifications.

Are there any MR2 meets in the South East? I'd like to see your car in person.

[YellowJacket]

The car has just been driveable as its been a work in progress since I got it in April 2008. I probably have 400 miles on the new engine at this point. If there was a meet locally I would try and go... otherwise if you are ever in Nashville send me a PM.

Oh, and maybe the fact I am 41 saves me from being too ricey...

Although you have to say the neon rope lights, my rainbow led 'rotating color disco' domelight and the fighting yellow jacket emblem on the rear quarters borders on ricey!

here are some night shots of the rope lights:

[IDon'tKnow]

Yeah, I though about giving you some crap for that, but you confessed that it was a little bit much for you and that you only kept it for the night illumination benefit.

[mikelax235]

that is one of the nicest mr2s i have ever seen, good job

[canadam]

I like the black accenting on a 1985 - especially on a white car. Yours is a little more than I would do, but looks really good nonetheless.

The thing that really jumps out to me (you may have written about it in your lengthy post that I just skimmed) is the Super Edition visor. Did you happen to buy that new or is it a replica?

[YellowJacket]

Originally Posted by mikelax235

that is one of the nicest mr2s i have ever seen, good job

Originally Posted by canadam

I like the black accenting on a 1985 - especially on a white car. Yours is a little more than I would do, but looks really good nonetheless.

The thing that really jumps out to me (you may have written about it in your lengthy post that I just skimmed) is the Super Edition visor. Did you happen to buy that new or is it a replica?

Thanks for the compliments. Its more than I would do from a blank canvas myself, but I have grown to love it's uniqueness and it grows on you quick I can tell you - especially driving it around. As I put all this time and effort and money into it, I have tried to improve the fit and finish and the details, yet keep the spirit of the car and it's theme consistent with its history and past. It had some black Enkei wheels and was just too dark, so I changed to the MRS wheels, but aside from that the car is as it looked when it was a show car back in the 90's - just refurbished/replaced the broken items and upgrades whenever possible. It would be very exciting one day to run into the guy who did all the original theme work... All I know about him is that he was from Memphis and his name was Craig Ridley.

As for the SE visor, that is an exact replica. Jeremy Koller, who brought the MR2 community the repro floormats here) for the Mk1 and Mk2 that you also see in the pictures had an original SE visor and had the graphics reproduced before he sold that one on ebay for over $300. He collected a half dozen or so visors, cleaned them up and put repro SE stickers on there. Offered them on MR2OC first, and surprisingly no one really took much interest in them. I snapped one up right away.... so did a one other person I know of. The rest were dumped off on ebay one by one.

[goixoye]

Nice. I've always liked your car but had only seen a sampling of pictures here & there so this is a nice collection / showcase. Don't know how I missed this thread until now. Well done.

In keeping with your theme you should get some duplicolor hot tires paint and highlight the lettering on the tires. It comes in yellow (white & red too).

[s1d3w4yzzz]

very creative man, nice work!

[da_force]

Fresh!

Very nice & clean AW11

those rope lights are funky lol !

[vsavoldi]

Very nice, and very similar paint designs I was thinking of. I love the black on yellow.
My MK1 was white with some red parts and finally failing cheepo yellow about the time I bought it.

Thanks for the nice images!

[Ghost]

Very nice yellow. I like everything except it needs more low and the interior needs to be reshot with the new shifter.

[dblosmith]

That's the best 1st gen I have ever seen. Nicely done!

[poopeeroo]

is that a authentic super edition visor?

or a decal?

[mr3]

Originally Posted by YellowJacket

As for the SE visor, that is an exact replica. Jeremy Koller, who brought the MR2 community the repro floormats here) for the Mk1 and Mk2 that you also see in the pictures had an original SE visor and had the graphics reproduced before he sold that one on ebay for over $300. He collected a half dozen or so visors, cleaned them up and put repro SE stickers on there. Offered them on MR2OC first, and surprisingly no one really took much interest in them. I snapped one up right away.... so did a one other person I know of. The rest were dumped off on ebay one by one.