Mudflaps fitted to both front and rear arches. Pleased with those on the rear ....

https://i.ibb.co/LrMmVbf/7-F8-BBA2-E...-E738-F2-D.jpg

The front ones need a bit of adjustment ... the sills on my kit had a step/cut out in the front arch which means the flaps are at an angle. I’ve already made a cut out towards the inner edge of the arch. You can’t really notice it given the angles etc but it does mean that on full lock at low speed they are rubbing on the inside of the tyre. Probably an MOT warning or worse so will have to trim them a bit on the inside edge.

https://i.ibb.co/jHz245S/1-D3-DBE28-...226-FDFAE3.jpg

Was good to get the car out in the sun and inspect the vinyl wrap and stripes. Overall looks ok and as I’ve said previously million times better than the Plasti Dip.

https://i.ibb.co/SvYsMbL/387-AD983-1...457-CC8-D7.jpg

....

https://i.ibb.co/nwW3xyX/55327811-0-...-F6-A97-C9.jpg

Overall really pleased with the result and just the interior to sort out now.

https://i.ibb.co/d04jkKx/DBCE7-BF6-C...D79-A44276.jpg

looks much better with those flaps trimmed!

Cheers - just spotted the one on the drivers side in the last picture here looks like it isn’t on level. It is (as you can see on the earlier pics) but the PVC seems to have a bit of memory still from when the flaps arrived in the post and were bowed.

Upshot is that they are angling towards the front of the car - nothing a good gravel stage won’t sort out :-)

Looking fantastic with all the decals and mudflaps! Oh and final piece in the jigsaw for me is the change of registration number.
Definitely looks the 'business' now!

Thanks froggyman - I’m looking forward to MOTing it now and getting out on the road in it

Car looks great Mate

Thanks Wozzy - worth the effort on the vinyl and wrap. As I said in Facebook PM, the ears are by far the hardest parts to wrap due to the compound curves.

Managed to make a start on tidying the interior/doors up today after a couple of days off from the car.

I wanted to beef up the frame around the window of the door skin, which is supplied with a metal bar bonded in to the GRP skin. I wasn’t happy with where this attached to the MR2 door outer skin (the metal outer skin) so took the Perspex side windows out and strengthened this area on both driver and passenger side.

Whilst I had the windows out I also painted the upper visible part of the MR2 door skin that shows behind the perspex side windows matt black as I felt the gloss black of the donor car doors made this stand out.

https://i.ibb.co/QNGWL4c/077746-D8-3...14-CA021-D.jpg

I also painted the inside edge of the door mirror mounting plates I previously fabricated and glassed in.

https://i.ibb.co/G03GbvQ/6-C6-DE66-C...9448-D2171.jpg

Windows all back in (I added another rubber channel strip to provide a better join with the door mirror plinths), matt black paint work touched up (yes, it does seem possible to patch up PlastiDip!).

https://i.ibb.co/fHLNqFg/37-B66-A87-...A9-D92-F82.jpg

Next on the list for tomorrow is refitting the door cards and giving the interior a good clean, before fitting the RS200 door mats I had made up nearly 3 years ago now!

I was a bit curtailed today by the weather, as I really wanted to get the car out of the garage and give the interior a good clean, before refitting the door cards.

So instead, I decided I would try to sort out the front wheel arch/inner wing area. Ever since I’ve seen the car from a distance I’ve been bothered by the view looking into the front wheel arch.

https://i.ibb.co/3W71gfJ/B9032-ED3-D...0-EA72-DCE.jpg

Having thought about it, it was too much white GRP in the inner arch area from the upper area of the sills. So out came the matte black paint, this time I decided it was too tricky to try and spray with black PlastiDip so decided I could sacrifice these areas in terms of using normal paint (e.g. paint that doesn’t come off!) so bought a small pot of rustoleum matte black universal paint that I’d heard lots of good things about.

https://i.ibb.co/KxwDQTY/A8-F3-C3-E2...14-A5-C4-E.jpg

Wow, this stuff is great. Coverage is excellent and it appears you can brush it on and get a really good finish ... no brush strokes visible.

So I decided to paint the inner arch area to cover the white GRP sill area and I’m pretty happy with the improvement here. Note in the picture here the bonnet isn’t locked down.

https://i.ibb.co/xjn4LPP/DF24-B55-D-...A3015-FAE3.jpg

Armed with the Rustoleum paint and brush there was no holding me back, and with the rain beating down outside I set about the front bumper arch area and inner bumper top as well as the inside area of the door jam.

https://i.ibb.co/T0tZs39/979957-A9-0...BEA9-ADD20.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/jLk3hcg/6-AF0-FDEE-...BC3418-AD2.jpg

Hoping the rain eases off over the next few days and I can sort the interior out. Then it’s off to the MOT station...yippee!

Oh... I nearly forgot .... ever since I started my build I was inspired by Retro200’s (Mick) MRS200 build. I remember early on in my build he sent me a picture of his kit and the shut lines of the front door, sill/bonnet area and how it compared to the original car. So for Mick if he’s still following my thread here’s a similar picture ... I don’t think they are too far out compared to the originals :-)

https://i.ibb.co/3NsrJk9/51-A99-F3-B...D4-B906-CE.jpg

And the original ....

https://i.ibb.co/41pvKy7/1920-DDEA-0...12-AD26635.jpg

Shut lines look good mate
the black paint makes all the difference in the arches

Thanks Wozzy

Been a bit of a bitsa day today tidying up little areas like the petrol release flap not always ‘flipping’ open when pressing the release switch inside (fixed by using a small foam strip on the inner edge where the flap closes against to provide a small amount of tension), adjusting the front mud flaps to reduce the width so they don’t catch the tyres of full lock, and a bit more adjustment of the rear screen fixings to tighten up the edges.

Interior cleaned up as well as door cards - both of which were covered in dust!

Will take some pics and post them once the door cards are back in.

My garage seems to be constantly full of dust and even after I've hoovered it and then hoovered the car then covered it over, I'll get in the car a few days later and be greeted with a fine layer of dust. It's really odd...

Well.....funny you should say that Nick. I’m also finding that just after I have also hoovered and wiped the rear screen, of both the MRS200 and the MR2 hardtop rear screen, about 2-3 hours later there’s also a thin covering of dust.

I’ve come to accept that the dust particles from sanding the car down are in the air in and around the garage and I’m just moving them from one surface to another.

I’ve tried to leave the garage doors open to create a draft to get stuff out in the open and also left the car outside for a while but to no avail!

On a side note, we had some work done on the house this week and the folks doing the work had to go through the garage. I was most heartened when they spotted the RS200 and first thought it was an original but on hearing it was a replica said ‘I’d never have guessed there was an MR2 roadster under there’!

Bit of a nightmare day on the car yesterday. I should have just put the door cards back in and I would be ready for the MOT.....instead I took another look at the door rod/handle set up on the drivers door.

Big mistake. I still wasn’t 100% happy with the action and could see a bit of play in the rod I’d used to piggyback from the Sierra handle to the MR2 latch rod. First mistake was to try to reshape this which just resulted in the 4mm rod snapping!

So I had already ordered some new 4mm stainless rod which arrived mid afternoon and I managed to bend this and get a better radius in the area I was trying to sort.

So back onto the car and I’m tightening up the connector block (a repurposed central locking rod clamp) when the thread in the aluminium block strips. They’ve been on and off the rods as I shaped the bar originally and then when the door skins were bonded on so no real surprise. Nightmare indeed and no spares.

It was time to call it a day and I’ve ordered 4 new connectors/rod clamps but they won’t arrive until later in the week. I might try and see if a new grub screw in the connector works today but I will need to wait for the new blocks now before the door cards can go back - i had also planned on doing the same on the passenger door as well as there is also play in the rod on that side.

Whilst waiting for the new rod clamps to arrive I remembered I had bought a solenoid when originally fitting the door skins as I wasn’t sure piggybacking onto the MR2 rod was going to be reliable enough in operation.

I’d never even taken it out of the box so found it in the garage and took a look at whether it would fit. Well it’s small enough to clear the glass when it’s dropped and it looks like there’s a suitable mounting point just below the MR2 release rod.

https://i.ibb.co/vXk53gK/ACE89-D36-4...170-CA7736.jpg

......

https://i.ibb.co/px2Yqq9/1335-C871-F...363-DA89-B.jpg

It pulls up to 5kg in force and there seems to be enough movement on the solenoid to adjust the cable such that it will move the bar enough. I need to sort a mounting plate out as the one supplied isn’t wide enough to pick up the mounting point. I will sort some plate out and have it as a back up - my idea was to mount a microswitch behind the Sierra handle which is operated when the handle is pulled. There looks to be a 12v feed already in the door for central locking so shouldn’t be too hard to wire it up

Any views from folks reading this as to the engineering / feasibility of this longer term?

Forgot to say I would use a rod clamp on the MR2 rod and hook the wire from the solenoid through that otherwise it will just slip on the MR2 rod

Could you use some electrical 'choc block' connectors? I've used these to successfully connect door lock rods.

Thanks for the response - I’d thought of that but the block I’ve got has quite a bit of movement between the connector pairs - will hunt out another block and give it a try

I also got another suggestion from Nostromo on using wire rope grips to join the two rods so I’ve ordered a bag of 4mm sized grips/clamps as they look like they will be a bit sturdier than the connecting blocks.

So until they arrive there wasn’t much to do on the car. I decided to have another go at bending the handle connecting rod to improve the radius of the bends and make them tighter, this time applying heat to the area to be bent on the rod which made a huge difference and it looks a lot better now.

Will probably be Friday now when I can next spend time on the door handle rods, but there was a nice surprise when my wife presented me with the following she’d had produced ....

https://i.ibb.co/b55wCp6/10-A61301-A...F9-C1-A1-F.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/RpqK7Tn/4-A65-BE9-E...-E4-A48-F1.jpg

Now I have chance to admire my handy work every time I have a cuppa :-)

And that also spurred me on to dig out a print I bought at the Castle Coombe Rally Day, now suitably personalised ....

https://i.ibb.co/BKz1N8j/7-C9-B8-AA2...B69-F856-E.jpg

Hey - like the mug especially!