We strip the AW11 MR2, how bad is the rust really?

On this next chapter of The Nugget Project we strip the AW11 and find out how bad the rust really is.
The Nugget Project is proudly supported by Luxe Performance, One gauge, ryan lee graphics, Lyne Motorsport, Raceworks and Protex.
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[@ryanwaddington1598]

Man this is an awesome project!!!! Would love an AW11! The skills and enjoyment of the drive will make all the hard work worth it, and to pass on a car you built to your daughter?! Wow! That is a real father there!

[@TheNuggetProject]

Thanks legend, yeah i'm pumped to get this thing up and running :) So i've got two kids, my daughter who is 3 and my son who is 1 year old, so i need a car to hand down to each of them, i've also got my 1999 1zj factory manual soarer, so i'll let them fight over who gets which car, both are special cars in their own way, but that won't be for a LONG time! haha

[@John-ok6sq]

at 10:20 the "hand fan" is probably a cabin temperature sensor for the automatic HVAC. A lot of older cars had a fan on the sensor to draw air over it to get a more accurate reading.

[@TheNuggetProject]

awesome! thanks for the info, i love finding all this quirky tech :)

[@chrispleasscars]

It's going to be hard, it's going to take time, but that's the point. It will be awesome when it's done. Can't wait to see this progress!

[@TheNuggetProject]

Thankyou mate, appreciate the positivity :) the journey is half the fun!

[@markcarolan2805]

Great work, Matty.Can't wait to see the progress. I absolutely loved my Aw11 Mr. two back about 17 years ago, she was a bit crusty in parts but not bad. I had so great drives, in it such a fun litte car. Will be watching from the UK as always.

[@TheNuggetProject]

Thanks mate, it's amazing how much love these cars get, so many people have stories if owning or driving one and they are all really positive, can't wait to drive mine!

[@seanalexander9531]

I think you'll be fine Matt. There are some tricky bits in there but if you tackle the easy bits first you'll eventually get the skills to take on the harder areas.

[@TheNuggetProject]

Thanks mate, I'm sure I'll be hitting you up for advice, as you said, if I stuff it up I just cut it out and go again!

[@ssdLusankya]

Looks like fun. A lot of work though. Looking forward to see you work through it.

[@TheNuggetProject]

Yeah going to be a mission, but will be all worth it on the first drive up through the mountains :D

[@Easyazcarcleaning]

"Mister Trusty" MR. (2)Too - rusty 😜 Your trusty weekend cruise machine that you built... all by yourself 👌❤ Love your work 👍👍

[@TheNuggetProject]

Haha thanks legend :) I like it :) I must admit I've been referring to it as just 'rusty' around the house as it fits and then when it's not rusty anymore it will be Aussie and ironic like calling a redhead 'blue' hahs

[@Deano084]

Fun times ahead for you! Check out she'll be right garage. He's great at making panels and fabbing.

[@TheNuggetProject]

oh i'll check it out! cheers mate :)

[@letmedrive]

Keep it up matt!

[@TheNuggetProject]

Thanks mate! we'll get there :)

[@20110102]

Gonna say you were lucky with the handbrake being removed/off when you got it. AW handbrakes love to seize on. its quite the problem ive seen, only experienced it twice thankfully.

[@TheNuggetProject]

yeah it wasn't bad, must admit the rear calipers were still pretty sticky, although i'm tempted to upgrade to the later model brakes anyway so not sure i'll bother rebuilding them :)

[@aussietruckphotosandmodels8510]

loads of separate projects you have there....There are people in other parts of the world would kill for a car that age with that little rust. Have a look on YT for videos on phosphoric acid rust treatment.... it might be what you need for round that moon roof aperture..... Roof lining, secure it to a bit of mdf and take a mould of it, then you can reproduce it glass and cover that You could build a nice clean AGE engine for it that would last for years.

[@jamiebeckf]

Great project Matt. If it didnt need lots you wouldn't learn lots. I am doing a 260Z atm which does have a bit less rust but still needs lots of work. I have replaced the rear quater panel and learnt a tonne. Dandenong Tafe does an advance welding short course which helped me alot. The experience you gain and satisfaction when completed is lost on a lot of people. Love the AW11. May swap my SW20 for one in the future. Watching with great interest.

[@TheNuggetProject]

That's awesome mate, the 260z is a sensational looking car I've always had a soft spot for them. It's funny people always compare the sw20 and the aw11 but bar sharing the same name and same engine layout I don't think they have that much in common. The aw11 was a lightweight underpowered fun drivers car. The sw20 was Toyota proving a point that they could build a budget supercar killer, it's a bloody good car and with some mild mods incredibly fast and focused. So I guess what I'm saying is.... get both hahs

[@jamiebeckf]

Agreed they are both great but very different cars. If i buy an AW11 and keep the SW20 i will have to live in one because the wife said no more. I have 9 vehicles!!@@TheNuggetProject

[@TheNuggetProject]

@@jamiebeckf haha oh dam!

[@ferret901]

About to pick up my own aw11 with worse rust, myself. So here to follow along and get an idea of what kinda nightmare I'm in for myself

[@TheNuggetProject]

Ahhh a fellow crazy... Haha. We will get it done! Where abouts do you live? You in Aus?

[@ferret901]

Naah, across the ditch myself. South Island, NZ. And honestly, I think it takes a bit of craziness to take on the projects worth doing, ahaha. The one I've got lined up is an '84 JDM import in white. It's ambitious, but can't wait to close the deal out and get cracking on it. Best of luck on your own too, looks like there's plenty of work in it, but it's going to look sick when it's done 👍

[@TheNuggetProject]

For sure, if it was easy everyone would do it :)

[@benshaker25]

Would be good to get onto Sam at SQ engineering, he does a lot of 4AGE stuff including ignition coil conversions / dizzy delete stuff, to bring things up to modern day tech. I’d be curious to hear what you are thinking in terms of the dream engine?

[@TheNuggetProject]

Yeah that would be cool! Not sure how much wallet would feel about those upgrades but it would be nice to modernize the system a bit. If haltecs weren't so pricey I'd love to do an elite 750 and a chose your own adventure loom and wire it up myself, give me much more control, plus go to coil on plug etc. *sigh* maybe one day. As for the engine I'd like to put in this eventually it's not w common swap but one I feel fits the spirit of the car. But that wouldn't be for a long time, need to get the car working, looking good and registered first :)

[@stephenpanitz365]

Great project. Rust isn’t that bad, just going to be fiddly.

[@TheNuggetProject]

Thanks mate, yeah, fiddly and time consuming, but I've got some awesome people I can go to for advice, I'll just take my time and make it work :)

[@nocrustracing]

Solid progress, a lot of work ahead of you! As for a name, maybe AwDamn Aw for AW11, Damn because when it's finished people will be like "damn!" when they see it. Need to know more about what you have instore for the build and the "vibe" or personality of the car :) Other random one that came to mind was Rawry, still uses AW, raw as in the driving experience, and "Raw" used to be a meme for roaring at people/emo kids lol I'm too old for this....

[@TheNuggetProject]

Cheers! I go into what the basic plan is for the car in the next episode but as always with these things plans change as you know haha. Thoroughly enjoy the name suggestions haha

[@rohanpepper2476]

Mister 3SGTE...😈 You know you want to.

[@TheNuggetProject]

Hahah, na been there done that ;)

[@redhaze8080]

She'll always be 'Bumpy Mc bump Steer' to me ;)

[@TheNuggetProject]

Haha sure but I think you're confusing bump steer and lift off oversteer! Bump steer is when your steering wants to steer itself without trying to stay on centre due to front suspension geometry being off. I think you mean lift off oversteer where the weight of the engine creates a pendulum effect on the car rotating it under lift off into a corner :)

[@redhaze8080]

@@TheNuggetProject Bro I race karts. I mean bump steer. Toe changing through the zero point under compression in the rear. You will see for your self soon enough. Toyota are retarded and love putting BS in the rear end of their sports car. They did the same thing to the latest Supra.

[@redhaze8080]

@@TheNuggetProject the Excel has minor bump steer in the front. But bump steer in the front is no big deal as you have a steering wheel to correct it. Bump steer in the rear is undrivable.

[@TheNuggetProject]

@@redhaze8080 yeah but, that's still not a thing for this... it's all good man haha

[@redhaze8080]

Right, well that's what bump steer is bro. It's broken suspension geometry that causes the toe to change through the zero point under compression. It can be in the front or the rear and the MR2 has it really badly in the rear. It can cause issues on lift off but the main problem is in the name, bumps. if you take your excel to a rally you will get a good handle on light bump steer in the front end.

[@chrish4469]

You really should totally strip the car down and get it blasted, It will show up all the rust even the rust you know about yet.

[@TheNuggetProject]

You pay for it, I'll do it :)

[@chrish4469]

@@TheNuggetProject You are going to spend thousands on this build anyway, To get it blasted is only going to be a small percentage more on top of the total build cost, At lest get some quotes, And go from there. I'm not having a go at you or anything, Just If it was me and I was going to keep the car, I would save up for the blasting, It will show up every defect that needs fixing. Looking forward to this build over the next year or so. Good luck with it :)

[@TheNorthernmunky]

Totally agree, get it dipped or blasted

[@TheNuggetProject]

@@chrish4469 I appreciate that mate, full car blasting is about $2k, and honestly that's too rich for my blood. And yes i know you have to spend money to do things properly but if i hand the car over to someone to do a professional blast, professional fix, paint, coating, etc, then it no longer becomes a car i've built myself and the cost adds up a lot and it will end up being yet another project car sitting in a shed waiting for funds. The idea of this car is for me to do it myself, learn how to do these things and to do it on a budget to show that owning a car you really want doesn't have to be massive cost and rely on a bunch of professionals. I know not everyone will agree with how i'll go about this, but that's ok, because they can build their cars the way they want :) However i will be very vigulant with tracking down the rust, the good news is i'm at a point now where i can see just about every CM of the car, both sides of nearly every panel so i'll go over it inch by inch until i've found all of it :)

[@es2105]

the money pit project [said with love]

[@TheNuggetProject]

haha mate you're not wrong!

[@TURBOTRISTO]

autowerk kyneton is a great old school bloke he did my vl body work and he was quick and cheap and quality a real unicorn in the industry but you have to trailer the car to him obviously

[@TheNuggetProject]

cheers dude, that will be my last resort for some of the bits people can see but hopefully i'll do it all myself, i'll keep his details handy for the future though :)

[@schrodingerscat8621]

Saving my wife for her next husband? That’s a very funny statement! I’m going to use that on my wife and see how that goes…

[@TheNuggetProject]

Best of luck :p

[@20110102]

As for name, Cheese Wedge, cheesy or 'the wedge' Which front bumper/tail lights did you get? early or late model? Also watch for rust at the bottom of the 'b' pillar area. right were the door closes rusts out there quite often.

[@TheNuggetProject]

i like the name suggestions! Check out episode 1, i go through all the parts and show the bumper and tail lights, but it's an 84 build date so it's all the early model stuff :)

[@tonyscott6162]

The little fan on your lower dash is a sensor for auto climate control.

[@TheNuggetProject]

Ohhh interesting, so how does it work? Does the fan draw air in for a temp sensor or something?

[@tonyscott6162]

Yeah, takes reads from 3 sensors, a sun sensor on top on the cluster cover, a ambient sensor at the bottom of the bonnet lock support and the interior sensor.

[@TheNuggetProject]

@@tonyscott6162 awesome info, i have a hole in the top of my cluster so i'm pretty sure that sensor is missing unfortuantely, may try to track one down, although i never use auto climate in any of my cars so not sure it's worth it :)

[@W0O0G]

The Wedge.

[@TheNuggetProject]

World's biggest door stop, second only to the Subaru vortex!

[@blunkybill]

"Bella Lodi" Because the car is black, cheese wedge shaped and has holes :)

[@TheNuggetProject]

Hahah killer

[@feral4mr2]

Save all the aw11's

[@TheNuggetProject]

Well this one at least! :)

[@b_for_brett]

Future k?

[@TheNuggetProject]

Future K?

[@b_for_brett]

@@TheNuggetProjectfuture engine swap a k series? All motor would be fun 😊

[@TheNuggetProject]

@@b_for_brett ahhh sorry I get ya! Na if I do swap it I've got a Toyota engine in mind, not a super popular swap for these things but an engine I like and I think would suit the personality of the car really well. But that will be a long way off! Need to get this little 4age running first, get a manual box for it and get it registered :)

[@b_for_brett]

Cool, looking forward to watching the progress, always liked these little nuggets

[@tabryis]

Oh no Oh God Oh fuck

[@TheNuggetProject]

haha, yup

[@004-qh4wj]

красавэла

[@robertwatkins1422]

MR POO

[@TheNuggetProject]

Haha, harsh but fair