Nostromo's MRS200
 

Hi all, about four months ago at roughly the same time as I was buying a house, I decided to bite the bullet and order myself an MRS200 kit and buy a half decent little MR2 to stick it to... much to my wifes dismay. This is my first go at a kit car and I assumed (naively) it would be a nice introduction into the world of building a car. I'll admit, theres a lot more to it than I originally imagined and it all seemed so simple when Andy described it over the phone! I haven't done a great deal to it as yet due to decorating and other duties that she feels are more important :tape: So, below is a brief rundown of where I've got to with pictures n'stuff. I'll do my best to update as and when I manage to do something but as I say, progress is slow. Especially as there doesn't seem to be any other build threads for this model that I can copy from! :rant:

Delivery

http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/j...smbyu3mqr.jpeg

http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/j...sm1x0vcpu.jpeg

The donor being collected. Managed to get a facelifted average miler with a non smokey engine! Facelifted model was essential so that I could get a decent return on bodyparts. This way, I could justify it to the wife that little bit easier.

http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/j...psx5ttdiqe.jpg

Not wanting to waste any time, the donor began being stripped the moment it got on my driveway! Its pretty much a meccano set. Everything was soooo easy to remove apart from the soft top which ripped! :rant:

Front end off

http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/j...ps0mqwsdis.jpg

Rear end off

http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/j...pszj7i8bfv.jpg

Basically something from Mad Max now

http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/j...ps7ukkebi2.jpg

Bits to sell plus lights, vents etc...

http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/j...psb5pbo2sj.jpg

Collection and transportation of a hard top which turned out to be the noisiest and most terrifying 30 mile drive of my life. Kept imagining it leaving the roof and taking out a biker.

http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/j...ps9is1w1kv.jpg

Resting the kit on the car

http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/j...psv74xqdqe.jpg

It all seemed to be quite a good fit.

Started off with some simple bits. Cutting holes and vents, mostly by hand with a pad saw. I didn't fancy using power tools on it as I was worried about shattering any of the fiberglass with the vibrations. Apart from the round holes that is. Have also set about rubbing down the mould lines and just trying to get it smooth(ish). Removing all of the yellow waxy stuff has been a bit of a mission too!

http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/j...psc8hwlgsk.jpg

http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/j...psel15pbhe.jpg

http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/j...ps893e7h1b.jpg

Cutting the roof away from the rear section was terrifying!! Again, all by hand.

http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/j...psbmm1kzpb.jpg

Dug these out of the recycle bin at work as they have what I reckon will be a big enough footprint to make something to hinge the rear clam off of the hard top.

http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/j...psjcas0cky.jpg

Got hold of some old skool Konigs (for £60!!!! :icon_razz:) which ought to look pretty good. Not sure whether to go white or bronze.

http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/j...sijrfkbet.jpeg

I've bought quite a few other bits and pieces for it - lights, rose joints, new cat, little engine mods. Theres probably more but its all up on a shelf which I can't reach to dissuade me from working on the main bit which is to get everything fitted right. The plan will be to build an exhaust so it can be really flipping noisy. It will literally be all show and no go until I can afford to either go for a turbo kit or theres been a lot of talk of fitting Golf 1.8T BAM lumps which would be a great install!

And that's pretty much it so far. Its flipping freezing in my garage which is made of wood and one side was rotten and pretty much fell off the other day :icon_confused: So, i'm also having to put money into the house and the garage too... so that sucked.

Wow, great start for a beginner!

Nostromo - Welcome to the forum. :cool:

I'm looking forward to seeing how this kit goes together.
( As you say, there are no detailed build thread on here. :icon_sad: )

However, I get the impression a few MRS200 kits have been sold recently.

So hopefully, the other builders will all start threads too and you can help each other.
( I'll add a link to this build to the useful info sticky at some point.)

If it makes you feel any better, there are a few of us on here who understand that statement all too well. :rolleyes:

Again, if it makes you feel better, it is easier to heat up a garage than a driveway. :icon_wink:

Jokes aside, it does look like you are making great progress. :cool:

Good luck, Paul. :)

I second Paul's comment!

And again, although my open-fronted man cave does at least face south!

Welcome :) Looking forward to your updates. If inspiration is ever required, just watch this.

Regards, Mick

Memory Lane
 

Thanks for the welcome folks.

Paul, yes you're right, a few more kits have been sold in a final final final run of kits so yeah hopefully there will be some more build threads starting soon. All of this is really new to me. I've never worked with fibreglass before so it's all a bit of a learning curve. Good fun though. Thankfully, I've always prided myself on being able to bodge things together and as there's no instructions to it, bodging is the way forward.

Mick, thanks for the link. As it happens, I'm gradually getting through all of the 80s and 90s rally bids on YouTube. One of the good things about working where I do and having time in my hands. Unfortunately I can't expect my piddly little mr2 engine to sound anywhere near as good as them or perform as well... But there's always room for improvement!

Great work there, I hopefully get my kit in the next few weeks, I'm going down the turbo route, so there shoiuld be some fun to be had sorting all that out haha.
i will be watching this with interest.
Keep up the good work

Looks great so far and an inspiration to all us MRS200 builders.

I took delivery of my kit yesterday - I will start another build thread later today so I don't hijack yours, although so far efforts have been limited to dismantling the "crate" it came in and positioning the panels to fit in half of one side of the garage!

I used my crate to rebuild the side of the garage that fell off :lol: did the driver ask where your fork truck was to get it off the back of his lorry?

Thanks for the kind words Swifty and Wozzy. Believe me, it's a bit of a Mona Lisa at the minute... Looks good from a distance. Got the car out in the sunshine a couple of weeks ago and it really showed just how much there is to do. So I put it back in the garage fairly sharpish!

Am trying to decide on the best course of action for how to make the doors fit. Skirts and roof first? Skirts and clam? All three, then adjust everything til it fits? The bonnet and bumper can sit in a corner as they won't need to be touched for a while. I've noticed that the bonnet will need to be trimmed on both sides where it meets the doors, maybe 10mm. You'll see when you test fit it all on. As I've got the wheels now, I think I'll get the spacers to fit them in. That'll give me something else to line the bodywork up to. So many decisions... not enough money!

Well funny you should ask that .... it wasn't the same driver as you had was it !

I think he'd realised as he drove up to the house that it wasn't going to be easy - certainly if the look on his face as I answered the door and said "so you've got a kit car for me" is anything to go by. At least it was the last delivery he had so it was easy to get the other panels out of the crate on the lorry and then swing the it round to get it out.

Good luck with this Nostromo - I was a kit car virgin with my MX build and thought "How difficult can it be?". What a fool I was. Anyway, it is really worth it in the end.

It definitely will be! I knownthat I just need to pace myself and was told by Retro200 (new member on here) that if I get upset or annoyed by anything to just leave it and have a breather. I don't feel like I've done that much to it but have certainly made use of his words already!

Looks good. I hope you have a good time with the build. Putting the parts on loosely is always a good starting regime. One thing to look for is where the fit can be 'altered'. It's generally easier to take off material than to add it, and GRP is easy to work with. Be aware of parts that have little or no adjustment, and try to fit those early on, adjusting others to get the good fit - also be aware of things that can't be moved eg wheels centreline. Have a great time - I'll certainly find the build interesting. I wonder if the RS200 parts would fit an MGF?

Not done much? You are doing great.

I always thought the RS200 was a great looking car, and strangely my Sister passed on 2 Scalextric RS200 cars from my nephew when he moved to Australia - all I need now is some track etc!

Started refurbing a wheel today as I could bring it to work with me. Got this aluminium-polyester filler which is meant for wheels and a mouse to rub it down with. Wish i'd brought all the wheels as I've just prepped this one in about 40 mins. Its not perfect but a bit of high lift primer should make a good base for the colour. Just need to decide on a colour. I think they'll either be gold or white.

http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/j...psewr45wud.jpg

Also, for anyone interested (and so that I don't lose the website again) heres a link to some spacers which'll fit the MR2 hub:
http://www.freakyparts.co.uk/epages/...rsSpigot_Rings

rs 200 wheels
 

hi nick have a look at item number 262757901473 on ebay these are what you need !!!!, mick

HaHa
They are for a 6 wheeler

You'd at least want them polished up for that price wouldn't you?!

rs 200 wheels
 

i would want em 24 carat gold plated for that, the last set of 4 x std rs200 wheels inc tyres on e bay went for £895 begining to wish ide carried on bidding on em lol

I know what you mean - I also bid on those original Speedlines and wish I'd hung in there given they also had decent tyres!

Doing a bit of work on the roof today:

http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/j...psv2fzdz5e.jpg

And getting the tyres removed off the old wheels tomorrow so that I can sort them out.

It will be interesting to see if mine comes wirth the pillars,
scary stuff cutting things up

Wozzy I got my kit delivered and Chris told me in advance he would have to cut the pillars to get it on a pallet. Came separately with the kit so will fibreglass back to roof panel before fitting to aid alignment.

mrs 200 roof
 

best of luck with that the roof is about the fiddliest part of the build to get right ,getting it to fit around screen and down pillars , thinking about it ,it might be easier in 3 pieces !!! have fun .

To be honest I did think it might be easier to keep them separate and bond them to the MR2 pillars as I align/bond the roof in. Will hold fire from fibreglassing them back in for now

The a pillars on mine are going to need some work. You can just see that on the right hand side, there's a step which has made the rest of that section wider than it should be. It shouldn't be there so will have to be cut out and re-done. Just want to get it all lined up so that I can fix the clam in place.

yes i can just see it in your roof pic a job for mr angle grinder my roof section had a return edge all round that i managed to fit into the small gap between windscreen rubber and "A" pillars /roof managed to get it to sit in all round took hours +hours to get right but worth it in the end only thing is if screen ever needs to be replaced its a big job !!

I've decided to make my roof removeable for exactly that reason and come up with a plan on how it's going to work. It'll be nut and bolted along the sides, silicon sealed all the way around and probably a rivet or two at the bottom of the pillars. It's gonna work.

re mrs 200 roof
 

just a thought , only other way i can think of would be to reduce edge of roof panal all round then blend the f/glass into the pillars and screen top area with filler, feathering it out then paint as one to leave windscreen rubber free for future removal only thing is i dont know how vunerable it would be to movement of the joint due to any flexing that might occur when driving , mick.

Brought my bumper to work and cut some holes for the indicators. Now, I can indicate :)

http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/j...srdf1dgho.jpeg

I may have also set the building fire alarm off in doing so. It apparently works on dust as well as fire :bolt:

Just stumbled across this thread. Looks like you are dong well so far, and I look forward to seeing it finished..

Thanks LeighV6... me too!

I've been wondering about fuel, maybe someone can advise. Obviously the fuel in the tank isn't going to do much over the next 6 months to a year. Theres a drop in there and i'll only occasionally start her up to move her out of the garage and onto the driveway. As we all know, fuel can go bad over time. Is there anything I can do to combat this? What have all you builders done with your projects?

fuel
 

hi nicki dont worry about the fuel it takes it a fair while to go off mine was off the road for nearly 12 months all i did was run engine every couple of weeks for half an hour or so to keep things moving i just kept putting another gallon or so in every two or three months to keep it fresh other thing is your battery its a good idea to trickle charge every few weeks to stop it calcifing a motorcycle battery optimiser is ok they slowly charge the battery then discharge and recharge to keep it in good order mine was knackersd when i got the car so i used an old one while i was building the car then got a new one when it was finished

Actually managed to do some bits on the car today!!

Using a couple more bits I found in my recycle bin at work (box section) these will be my brackets for the clam. Pretty much the same as Retro200's hinge but most of mine came out of the bin. They will be reinforced with some 3mm stainless plate to give the footprints a larger surface area then bolted and glued through the hardtop.

http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/j...psdikndomy.jpg

Next on tonight's agenda is to prime a couple of wheels!

Mick, I don't suppose you removed your hardtop headlining? Easy to do?

hi nick nice work on the hinges ,no i left roof lining in i bolted thru it with some flat stainless plates on underside to spread the load with lock nuts and covers all painted black so you dont really see them

2 x prepped wheels. Came out even better than expected! No idea what colour I should so for. I think they can only be gold, white or the rota bronze colour. Anyone?
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/j...pshxwoqvil.jpg

They look great so far - I am going with white alloys for mine

Your choice... but personally always liked white wheels on rallyesque cars.