Nick, did you bend the existing MR2 door handle rods to get the angles right for Sierra handles or connect a new bar from Sierra handles to the existing rods? I tried both on mine but struggled to get the right amount of movement in the rod - they work but feel a bit flimsy

Hi Dave, I left the mr2 bits as they are and bought some stainless rod. Bent that into this shape:

http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/j...psh1bb1qry.jpg

This is for the drivera door. The right hand side slips snuggly into the sierra handle with two cable ties holding the vertical part, then three ties on the horizontal part to attach to the mr2 bar. Only provisionally held it all in place with cable ties. Will see if I can get some small bulldog clips or jubilee for a permanent fit. Not sure if you've noticed but the rear vertical part of the mr2 bar where it goes into the plastic enclosure has a lip on it. Initially, this was catching and stopping full deflection of the lever.

One door on, run out of clamps now.

http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/j...psifihvw2i.jpg

looking great mister, good build thread :)

Thanks Nick - good idea with the stainless rod - i used another piece of handle/lock rod which was much thinner which may explain why mine aren’t feeling that strong when I pull the Sierra handle.

Your door looks good - keep up the progress as it is spurring me on to get back to mine now all the jobs on the house are done!

Regarding the doors, I know you've said you were going to add a bit at the bottom to get the shut line right. I've managed to fit mine so that it all lines up with maybe a bit more drastic cutting than I had originally planned but it is possible. The rear of the b pillar sticks out a little more than I'd hoped but am planning to add a bit of fiberglass on the joining edge of the clam to meet it and reduce the step.
Regarding the flimsyness of the window frame, the plan here is to add some extra fiberglass to the b pillar from where it meets the mr2 door to about half way up the pillar itself. Am hoping that will give it a bit of extra strength. I may also go with Micks idea of welding an extra bit of bar down to the crash bar inside the door.

Looking good Nick
Where did you get the stainless bar from? i may go down that route.

Found it in homebase by all the wood and building materials. Looks to be 4mm. It's a perfect fit for the hole in the handle.

Just wondering folks, would there be anything to stop me from using the lower spot lamps as my high beam headlights? As I understand it, there's a bit of an issue with trying to get an h4 bulb to work as both high and low beam on a facelifted MR2.

I suppose it would be ok Nick, as long as they can test the aim at MOT time. Setting the aim right will be the biggest problem.

hi nick you can wire the golf headlights up to work on a facelift get some h4 connectors and cut the existing plugs off the mr2 loom you will have too many wires because the facelift has seperate high/low beam bulbs i cant just remember exactly how i did mine ,its a while ago now ,wozzy was asking me about this a couple of weeks back, i identified each wirend its function with a test bulb ,then took it from there make sure you get the feeds right on the h4 plugs cos they will work if you get the earth on the wrong terminal then you get main and dip on together but very dim i seem to remember not using one of the positive feeds i will have a look at mine and see if i can figure it out might be tricky cos i shrink wrapped the new wires when i got it to work right also i seem to remember swapping the spade connectors around in the h4 plugs for some reason think it was something to do with the earthing , hope this helps regards, mick.

ps i also think the lights are wired permanent live and switched thru the earth side !! ialso added some 4 pin relays between the existing loom and h4 connectors this will be your solution its all coming back to me now, lol .its my age you know !!! mick .

Haha! Thanks for that Mick. If you can remember anything else about it that'd be great! I had a feeling you'd put some relays in there somewhere from one of your photos you sent.

A small update.

Both doors are now fitted. The drivers side went on well and both function as doors should. Had a little issue with the passenger side as it dropped slightly... no idea how but I ended up having to make a giant cheese wire and slicing the door off again. Thankfully the glue was still a bit rubbery and the door came off in one bit. Lucky i'd removed it really as I must have been sleepy when I attached the door because I'd forgotten to cut the metal on the mr2 door so the rs200 handle indentation had nowhere to go. Anyway, picked all the old glue off and restuck it. Annoyingly, theres still a couple of mm difference between the door and side skirt still but I can hopefully lose that with a bit of filler and a file. The roof has been trimmed lower and more off the drivers side than passenger as there was a bit of a height difference, probably around 5-10mm which was noticeable when trying to line up the rear end. Next on the list is to trim and shape the a pillars so they fit nicely around the windscreen seal and will get the rear of the roof looking good ready to be fiber glassed at the back to close it all in. I have a bit of a plan to put a sort of air scoop into the roof as I've seen it on the Evo version and think it looks pretty smart. Will start cutting that up over the next week or so.

https://i.imgur.com/R8ieO4e.png

I think it's more crucial with the low beam lights - they have to be a minimum 500 height at beam cut-off. There's good logic to this....... If the light is too low then you may have difficulty seeing ahead (especially if going uphill!) Having the main beam too low may give a similar problem in this respect, but unlikely as low beam lights will be working anyway? As to whether it will pass MOT, If they are single filament bulbs wired to just one filament that may be an issue if the MOT man is picky (if bulb is there it should work). Car shouldn't require an IVA, but it's worth using their rules as a guide, because if you build to IVA spec it should easily get through MOT.

As I understand it, this will be classed as a radically altered vehicle so will require an IVA... unless anyone knows a way around it? Using the spot lamps as main beams was just a passing thought. To be honest, I'd rather use the spot lamps as spot lamps.

My understanding is that if you haven't altered the 'main body' ie the monocoque unit then it hasn't been radically altered. Removing bolt-on parts is ok, but chopping any parts off isn't (I think that pretty much covers it).

It’s not “radically altered”, it’s a “kit converted vehicle” (a kit of new parts added to an existing vehicle, or old parts added to a new kit).

https://www.gov.uk/vehicle-registrat...erted-vehicles

I'm in agreement with Scim on that. They seem to keep adding new categories? Looking through the document it appears (I could be incorrect) that you can't rebuild a classic with a new body (eg heritage MGB shell) without being 'awarded' a Q registration!

mrs 200 and iva
 

hi nick it shouldnt need iva as long as you dont alter the chassis and get the 8 points needed for the rest of the car mine didnt its a body swap, just re-register it as a radically altered vehicle, fill the forms in and send plenty pics of the build there was no charge when i did mine i sent a cheque for £55 and they sent it back with the new v5 you can even do it now before you finish it , andy mcmillan did his this way , regards, mick.

[QUOTE=retro200;92440]hi nick it shouldnt need iva as long as you dont alter the chassis and get the 8 points needed for the rest of the car mine didnt its a body swap, just re-register it as a radically altered vehicle, fill the forms in and send plenty pics of the build there was no charge when i did mine i sent a cheque for £55 and they sent it back with the new v5 you can even do it now before you finish it , andy mcmillan did his this way , regards, mick.[/QUOTE

On reading the document in the link it would seem that it's NOT a radically altered vehicle, but is a KIT CONVERTED vehicle. It all seems very confusing, as reading the radically altered it seems a new (to original spec) chassis could be used, so (for instance) an MGB could possibly retain its original reg number with a new heritage monocoque, however there is a specific category of rebuilt classic car, which indicates it would get a Q reg. Typical DVSA confusion?