Might buy an 89 MR2

[Gothmog3VZ]

hey guys, so I'm going to take a look at an 89 Mister Two tomorrow evening, considering to purchase as a project car. Car has 275k km, and a motor that doesn't run (not specified why, will ask). Owner is asking $1k, says everything else is A1 (which I will be checking). Wondering what I should look for in the way of issues with the car. I've read about rust forming on the rear fender arches, and something involving dents on the metal siding of the T-tops, as well as power antennaes and parking brake sticking. Anything else I should be looking at? Any tips/suggestions?

Ad is here: http://montreal.kijiji.ca/c-cars-veh...AdIdZ296664587

Any input is greatly appreciated, thanks in advance!!!

[SuperchargedMR2]

Body appears to be in decent shape. I couldn't read anything else since it wasn't in English.

[MC_BigMike]

Totally worth it for $1k even with the blown engine. You can pickup a high compression JDM red hat 4A-GE for cheap and just replace the engine. The only downside is that it's gonna be heavy for an AW11 (1985 & 86 are the lighter years).

Around here, dead MK1s usually go for $500-$800 but they NEVER look this clean. Is he also including the rear body kit and the black wheels?

[Gothmog3VZ]

Originally Posted by MC_BigMike

Totally worth it for $1k even with the blown engine. You can pickup a high compression JDM red hat 4A-GE for cheap and just replace the engine. The only downside is that it's gonna be heavy for an AW11 (1985 & 86 are the lighter years).

Around here, dead MK1s usually go for $500-$800 but they NEVER look this clean. Is he also including the rear body kit and the black wheels?

Awesome! Yeah, I was thinking that it would be simplest to swap the motor for a newer 4a-ge, get it back on the road

Mk1's are a bit harder to find around here, mostly you'll see imported MK2 turbos. The seller is including the rear lip, but the mags don't come with the car (it's alright though, I can get a nice set to replace them at work). I'm going tonight to check it with a friend of mine (mechanic) and my dad, and if it's as good as it looks in the pics, I'll be buying it next friday

[MC_BigMike]

Don't be shy with your camera

[Gothmog3VZ]

Aight, turns out there was a miscommunication. Went this afternoon to check her out, and she is a BEAUTY! Pics attached!!







Front lip



The one part of the body that makes me go "ick" - driver-side mount for the door (doesn't look structural, but will require fixing)



Small crack in the front lip



Underbody (driverside floor pan could use a wee bit of work, rest looks pretty decent imo... thoughts?)







Rear end



That little rust bubble on the driver-side RQP flare



looks like the T-tops have a small dent (the one from storing in the back, it would seem).



picture of the dent in the light and one on the frunk (doesn't show up too well, but you can see roughly where they are)



A little bit of the rust



front bumper area (fender, actually)



Faded roof






The exhaust



Tails (apparently from an 86-year car? )





small dent











The Bad:

2 dents in the frunk (tree branch last fall)

1 dent in driver-side headlight (same branch).

Couple of tiny rust bubbles (when I say tiny, I mean TINY, little bit on the front bumper in front of driver-side wheel, and one small bubble on driver-side 1/4 panel, right on the fender flare (again, it's pretty small).

Little bit of underbody rust (looks pretty good for a 22-year old, but still rust lol)

Needs new front struts, parking brake cable.

Small crack in front lip.


The GOOD:

Body seems to be in fantastic shape, aside from the aforementioned problems.

T-tops have new seals

Steering parts have been overhauled (new bushings, tierod ends, etc)

Tranny is good shape, according to seller.

Was repainted in the last few years (except the roof and c-pillars, which are faded, but no rust there. Paint can be taken care of).

Comes on OEM mags.

Not winter driven (by current owner anyway, but he bought it last year. Doubt anyone would drive a car like this in winter though).

comes with 4 eibach lowering springs (1" drop), not installed.

Custom rear lip, custom exhaust (no muffler, just a resonator).

Everything works, No AC, but has a aftermarket head unit for the stereo. T-tops looks good, all she needs is a new engine to get back on the road.

On a related note, how difficult would it be to swap the OEM 4a-ge for a Redtop (same harness? mount points? etc), since I'm not going to be tackling any super challenging projects until winter break. No playing with the car during the semester )

[lemegacool]

looks pretty good to me! yeah there's rust but ita a project lol ;P strip it and remove all rust! then turbo 3vzfe lol wooot

[bruceb9]

I can see why the T-Tops have new seals, that driver's floor pan looks like it's had wet carpet against it for a while. Otherwise doesn't look too bad for a grand.

[toyotaspeed90]

to be honest I think it's way overpriced.

The car looks good because it was recently painted. However the body work wasn't done properly and the rust is starting to come through again. Meaning that nice looking car you're paying for you're going to have to strip down, have the rust repaired properly, and repainted. So if you're buying it purely for the reason of how good it looks then it's worthless.

The engine is bad. Finding a good/quality 16V 4age these days is becoming more & more difficult (keep in mind the newest n/a version is now coming up on 21 model years old) to find.

So now you're going on a car that looks good but needs the bodywork redone and doens't run.

it's worth MAYBE 1/2 of that amount.

[Gothmog3VZ]

bought her last night, paid $800, now she's chilling in my driveway

Looking at a silvertop 4a-ge as a replacement motor (there's a few around here), but will take this this weekend to check the current motor, take it apart, might just be a dropped valve or something.

As far as bodywork goes, it's not the end of the world, I've got a few friends who can fix it up... but I didn't buy it just for the looks, I bought it because I love the way it feels sitting in the drivers seat, as well as the fact that I can learn quite a bit from working on it.

[bruceb9]

Congrats! Good luck on the engine. I'm always surprised when people think that just because an engine is old that it's not rebuildable. I've been to vintage races and seen 100 year old engines still racing! Unless you push a rod through the side of the block pretty much anything else can be fixed. The price for fixing it may be an issue but as anyone who's built a hotrod using a flathead Ford will tell you some engines just get better with age.

[toyotaspeed90]

congrats on getting it.

if/when you have questions on it let us know.

I've had.... oh..... 11 of them.

Before you buy a 20V.... might want to debate what you want to use the car for and then decide between 20V and a gze.

[MC_BigMike]

That's awesome. You totally scored on that car for that price in my opinion. Can't find anything like that around here.

Mike

[Gothmog3VZ]

Originally Posted by toyotaspeed90

congrats on getting it.

if/when you have questions on it let us know.

I've had.... oh..... 11 of them.

Before you buy a 20V.... might want to debate what you want to use the car for and then decide between 20V and a gze.

Yeah, I will have plenty of questions on it, guaranteed!

As for 20v vs supercharged, well, they both seem to be somewhat straightforward installs, but a GZE around here usually retails for $1300, but I can get a silvertop for $500 (sans ecu, but some digging should pull one up). Car is basically going to be my summer ride, looking for about 160 hp to start with (I will eventually want to run about 300 hp, hopefully with a 4g63 swap, but that's waaaaay down the line - first I want to get her on the road and get used to her handling before I consider any big power upgrades)

Originally Posted by MC_BigMike

That's awesome. You totally scored on that car for that price in my opinion. Can't find anything like that around here.

Mike

Awesome!!!

[toyotaspeed90]

#1.... although importers want you to believe a 20V makes 160hp.... they don't. Silvertops usually dyno around 120whp and blacktops 130-140whp. (blacktops have better electronicvs, bigger ITB's, higher compression and lighter internals).

#2... to get a ST to run on the stock ecu I would recommend starting with an uncut harness....

#3.... the gze makes something the 20V doesn't.... torque.

if you plan to go all out with something stupid to make too much HP for an AW11 why would you go with a problematic DSM setup when you can go 3sgte....