Yes, they should fit .  I use all my old Miata wheels on my MR2!

Just make sure they don't rub on the strut or fender!

Congrats on the trophy!  I look forward to a mostly clean, lighthearted sabotage-only, competition next year . 

And I'm always willing to help, bring it buy once I'm into the new house and we'll have a beer and check compression. 

Thanks very much for the offer!  I think I'm in OK shape, but if I run into trouble, I'll definitely give him a shout!

Long time no speak!  I've missed you guys, just been busy with work, shop, and trying to find somewhere to live.  I got the drivetrain out of the MR2 and am doing a quick refresh (gaskets, seals, timing belt, etc.) while its out.  Fun times:







Also decided to pull the hubs and rebuild wheel bearings, brakes, suspension, etc.  Project creep galore, but I hope to have a very reliable season next year!




And.....i kinda/sorta found an awesome Lotus 7 rolling chassis for cheap and couldn't say no:



I hope to bring it out in 2014 with CBR1000RR power! .


Lastly, the shop will be going away eventually, probably this summer.  Shop v2.0 went under contract yesterday afternoon, and I'm VERY excited:



Once I'm in and settled, look for an invite for a VMSC cookout and movie night! 

It'll come out either way, I find it MUCH easier and faster to drop the engine/trans as a unit out the bottom of the car. 

So, a bit of bad news, I topped off the cooling system before I left last week, in addition to putting the battery on a charger.  When I came back to re-run the compression check, cylinder 4 was wet.  Turns out that's where the coolant was disappearing to.  Ah well. 

Starting pulling pieces off in preparation of removing the drivetrain.  Will use this as an opportunity to not only refresh the motor, but replace lots of coolant and vacuum hoses that are otherwise hard to get to, as well as detail the engine bay and check for anything else that might be broken/missing/out of place on a 27 year old car that's had multiple owners. 

Might turn into the classic, "While I'm in there, I might as well....", but dammit if it's going to be done, it's going to be done right!

UPDATE:

I have unfortunately missed the last several auto-x's.....mostly because the MR2 started overheating.  So here she sits:



I ran a compression check, and the numbers came in at:

Cyl 1       2      3      4
    180   140   140   120

Which caused me about 3 seconds panic about HG issues before I realized the battery was dying.  I've got it on the charger over night, and will re-test tomorrow.  I'm hoping it's something simple like an old dried coolant hose, or a bleeding issue (bleeding the cooling system is a pain in the neck on these cars).  But now that I'm not traveling as much on weekends, I'm hoping to do a full overhaul.

Partial list of jobs planned during the off season:

-Strut mount replacements
-Steering rack bushings
-Oil cooler hoses and gaskets
-Full tune up (plugs, wires, cap/rotor, etc.)
-Clean body grounds
-AC system rebuild (never worked since I've owned it)
-Cooling system check, leak repair, and full flush back to OEM Toyota Red from the mixed soup that's in there
-Brake pads/rotors/fluid/lines
-Exhaust (flexpipe and cat)
-Distributor rebuild (if seals are leaking)
-Replace trunk lock cable
-Rebuild shifter
-PO sticker removal

I'm hoping to have her up to daily-driver capable status come springtime!

I am really happy this reached critical density .

If no one new wants to volunteer, I would be happy to have it at my place again.  End of the month, like Nov 29-30?

I will have to double check the available car movies in my collection. 

Scott, that's perfect, thanks!!

Been running around like crazy the past two weeks, and more to come this weekend, but I'll definitely take them.  I can probably dismount them at work one day next week. 

Hi everyone,

As the topic says, I'm looking to buy some tires for a 15x7" wheel.  Not concerned about brand or tread depth (as long as they're not corded or dry-rotted), but would like a proper summer tire, rather than all season. I'd prefer cheap tires, as they may end up getting included on a GRM $2013 budget. If you have anything or know of anyone getting rid of a set (I know alot of Spec Miata and Spec E30's use this size), please let me know.

Thanks!

I'll try to be there as well.  Might get caught up in Fredricksburg Saturday afternoon. Could you send me the info?  Thanks!

I will be there as well!  Sorry for the late notice, been a rough week. 

Any movie is good, looking forward to a cold beer with you guys.

Chris,

That's interesting...how did you eventually get your fault message on the DIC to clear?  Did you just reset it, and it never came back?

And yeah, cars that had the recall done got an ECU reflash to limit speed to 1 mph via fuel cut when that message is active.  It starts and runs, it's just exceedingly speed limited.  My shop is 20 miles away or so, I suppose I could take an entire day and drive it up there!


Thanks for the help guys!  I'm leaving on vacation for a week, so I'm just going to cover it up and work on it next week....should be much more motivated after a week of swimming and jet skis!

Gunny,

Thanks for the response.  Yes, I've searched the Vette forums a fair bit, and tried charging the battery, resetting it, pulling the fuses, and doing the "wheel shake" trick, all to no avail.  Only remaining fix I'm aware of is to pull the relay behind the passenger kick panel and see if that resets it.  I'm planning to try that tonight, I didn't have the right tools at the apartment to get everything apart. 

So, the Z06 has succumbed to the dreaded "Service Column Lock" message, and my car has had the recall done, so it can't be driven over 1 mph with the message/error active. 

Plan is to pull the relay and order a Column Lock Bypass.  However, I'd really like to limp it up to the shop (20 minutes away).  Anyone have any advice to clear the message and get it driveable temporarily? 

Barring that, does anyone have a car trailer I could borrow one afternoon this week after work?  Will reimburse with beer!!!

Thanks to everyone who came out!  I think it worked out really well.  You guys are welcome to come back for a beer anytime. 

I think Ricardo said he'd host the next one, otherwise I'm happy to do a repeat at my place!!!

Excellent question, took the home theater apart last night and went to the garage to make sure everything worked, and at 7 things were still a little washed out on the projector from the ambient light.  By 8-8:30 things were looking good.  So I would like to plan on 8pm for people to get there, and after cracking open a beer and touring the shop, we can start the movie shortly thereafter.  Run time is 106 min, so we should finish right around 10pm.   

Just checking in now that we're getting close.  I got the Subaru finished and the bike put back together, and both are running and driving.  I am planning to go up there tonight to set the projector up and make sure everything works.  It also looks like the temperatures this week are going to be a bit more reasonable, which is great. 

So far I've got:

Conemasher
whiteryder
blue06civic
ricardodomoraes
90efcivic

As definite yes's, some others have expressed interest.  If you're planning on coming, could you please post up?  That way I can get a count for pizza and PM directions to people.

Thanks!  See you Thursday!

Hey everyone!

Just wanted to post an update.  I am tentatively planning on July 12th (Thursday), for the first one.  Planning on showing Senna at my garage.  Was hoping to do it this month, but currently the Subaru and one of the motorcycles are in a million pieces all over the garage floor, so I wanted to finish that and get everything cleaned up first.  Please let me know how that works for everyone's schedules.  My garage is pretty close to the intersection of I95N and 295, heading towards Ashland. 

Also, I had an idea:  I'll cover the pizza, and everyone brings a six-pack of their favorite beer to share (I will only mock you slightly if this is Bud or Miller ).  Thoughts?  We did this a couple times in Ohio, and it was always entertaining getting to try 5+ different beers. 

Being inside the garage adds ambiance. And I resent the implication that the only reason I have space is cause I just moved in...I have space because my garage is enormous .

I've got a projector as well.

I'll plan on setting this up within the next month or so at my place, and will let someone else carry on the torch for month 2!

So, my friend and I were discussing this last night, and we thought it would be awesome to have a movie night in various peoples garages, watching car-related films, with beer and pizza.  Maybe do it once a month and rotate between all the garages housing projects and race cars.  A projector and sheet would give you an impromptu movie screen, and most people have a radio and speakers in their garage.  What does everybody think?  Here's the list we came up with:

Dust to Glory
Senna
Closer to the Edge
Urban Outlaw
Love the Beast
On Any Sunday
Victory by Design Series
Original Gone in 60 Seconds
Le Mans
Drive (2011)
Days of Thunder
Grand Prix (1966)

Interested!  What's the date code on them?  Barring that, does "old" mean dry rot cracks starting, or simply "not quite as sticky as new ones"

SUCCESS!!!!!!!! 

2 Weeks ago (basically dropped my stuff off and closed the door):

1 Week ago (started the cleaning and organization):



Last weekend (Sunday after the autox):

Very important workstation:



The new(?) Celicas:



Cleaned up my tools/jacks/stand/ramps from under the layer of barn dust they'd acquired:



New parts racks (plus the current bikes):



New workbench!!!:



Everything tucked away except the Z06:





Needs another day or two of cleaning and organizing to get the floorspace back and make everything nice, then I plan to crank up full bore on the projects and start hammering them out. 

Next to come is a beer fridge and some seats to make a nice chill out area. 

Scott, absolutely, same here!  We'll have to get a Forza/beers tournament going sometime soon. 

Maybe we can float that as a recreational activity at the next meeting!

Nice picture Justin!!!

That's why I wear a full face helmet .