A bit of history (part 18) – A strict weight loss regime

Late 2013 sees me struggling to climb out of one of those periods in the project doldrums where it all seems a bit too much, and you struggle to find the will to carry on…add in countless sleepless nights looking after a new born who doesn’t seem to like sleeping, and I was struggling to push on!

The engine was with Peter for tear down/ rebuild, and in between various stages of dirty nappies, I was trying to engage first gear and start stripping the excess weight from the car. First step was a labored period of ripping everything out of the chassis- and I mean everything, all the interior, wiring, fuse boxes, cockpit heater units, etc etc. One rock at a time, and we will move this mountain!

Dad on the other hand was having a whale of a time taunting me, various comments along the lines of “how can you ruin such a lovely car?” and “why are you taking everything out of it?” etc. Mainly because he knows it has the potential to wind me up, all good banter!

I tried to explain that I wasn’t “ruining” it, but looking for a good compromise between a nice looking car that feels like a nice place to sit in, but also has the weight stripped out of it to improve handling, and make track days more fun…although without the usual issues of a constantly wet roof from condensation in the cockpit, or no carpets, etc.

The plan was very much to strip as much weight as possible, then use my bucket seats, roll cage, harnesses and keep as much of the interior as possible…I knew this would require some compromise, such a losing the storage compartment between the seats (to fit the cage), and losing the rear bulkhead carpet lining (which weighs as much as a small elephant).

Anyway, despite the winding up, I was actually making some reasonable progress…although I was a bit concerned about unpicking the after market immobilizer!

As usual- I relished the job of removing all the soundproofing from inside the cabin using a mallet and paint scraper…not. In doing this I did scratch the base coat underneath, but was unconcerned as I planned to spray the interior floor afterwards to clean things up. I also removed the metal sheeting that makes up the rear cubby boxes (behind the seats on the floor) as they were heavy, and the boxes were not going to make it back in.

I remember starting to get my project mojo back around this point, I was enjoying the direction I was taking, and the satisfaction of removing everything non-essential...it removes so much of the complexity from a car and makes it all feel, somehow, more ordered.

It did take me a while to commit to going down this route, and I did toy with the idea of sourcing a second shell to strip and transfer my engine into, and putting this car back to stock…but at the end of the day I knew I only wanted one MR2 in my life, and I had to honest: as nice as any of them are, they just aren’t worth as much as they should be. So what the hell- I may as well build it into the car I really want it to be and not worry about it!

Come early 2014 and I had finally managed to remove all the stock wiring, and had committed to ditching the stock climate controls- I would install a small heater matric and fan as a screen demister if this caused me issues further down the road.

With the interior out, I set about installing my old bolt in cage (from the track car build), which I had purchased some new weld in mounts for. This was pretty much the same process as before, dry fit the cage and mark out where the weld in plates need to sit.

These plates have captive nuts welded on the back of them, so out with the hole cutter to make room in the sills for the nuts…followed by a splash of weld through primer.

In goes the cage again with the mounts in place, and time to make room for the front plates- which involves some subtle butchery to make room for the captive nuts again (the sill here is double skinned, so needs a slot in the outer sill cutting, which I then finished up by welding the edge to the inner sill). So location marked up, cage back out, and then surgery completed…

Then back in with the cage (again), and we can tack weld the four mounting plates to the chassis…and at this point I became very aware of one pitfall in using a cage with the stock interior…namely that the doors no longer close!

Looks like some subtle modifications are required for the door cards, or I need to make some replacements.

Move on a while and I have fully welded the roll cage plates in, and cleaned the rest of the interior (keyed with 400 wet and dry paper, then chemical clean), and it was time to mask off the interior for paint.

This was pretty much my first attempt at spray painting, and following a quick lesson from Dad, I jumped in with his HVLP gun…an initial coat of acid etch primer, the two coats of two pack matt black (which is more of a satin finish), and we have a reasonable job. No real runs, and I went a bit light on one patch of the floor (I went back a few days later and did another light coat to catch these areas)…but overall I was chuffed, and had started to realise how much I have to learn about spraying!

I also used Dinitrol to coat the inside of the sills, focusing on the area under the roll cage weld in plates where we’d been cutting and welding.

All in all a successful exercise in removing weight, and getting the chassis ready for a roll cage…almost time to start putting the car back together....