Reventon build

[lance345]

Ok, failed posting twice now. Just seems to time out. I'll try this in two posts.

Pics of untrimmed back for reference.

[satinta]

Yes it seems to be a little high but only a little. I wouldn't go more then an inch more. The Chassis will settle after you start driving it plus the whole car will go down as you add weight.

I think ride height is one of the last things to do and with all the weight you will be adding you should hold off buying anything until the end.

Lastly, be sure to keep the rake of the car. You don't want a draga$$ look like the gold Neon for example.

[lance345]

Since I just got the wheels on for the first time yesterday I've spent some hours doing research on suspension (as I obviously need to lower the car). I'd love other people's input on this subject as I have limited experience with it, so all I can go by is what others say.

From researching suspension in general:
Lowering springs and shocks are a more cost effective way to lower the car. It is not recommended to buy lowering springs and put them on stock shocks as it can blow the shock. Coilovers cost substantially more and unless the car is being raced or "stanced" it isn't worth the money.

From researching MR2s:
Because of the crazy amount of aftermarket parts for the MR2, it's easy to get good lowering springs and shocks for cheap. In many cases you can get this setup for far, far less than good coilovers. Especially since the majority of "entry level" coilovers leave a lot to be desired. However, this is just people's opinions from forums I've read. I didn't actually find anyone that said "they blow up" or "after 1000mi they were crap". The entry level coilovers I saw referred to again and again as worth the money, but still affordable was BC Racing Coilovers.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/BC-Racing-BR-Coilovers-9099-Toyota-MR2-SW2021-C12-Full-Kit-/321127343207
Though I did see Megan mentioned many times, rarely negatively.

My opinion:
Yes, it will cost twice as much to buy coilovers. No, I'm not going to get much out of them as I'm not going to race the car. But, the adjustability is priceless for our needs. Being able to fine tune the ride height, stiffness, and damper is important since we change so many things so far from stock. I'll probably go with coilovers, but for right now I don't need them to work on the car. I would really like it if I got some other people's opinions on this that have maybe had some experience with the different suspensions, or other builders letting me know why they went the say they did. I read through the suspension section and found a lot of discussion on what springs, how much to lower, but not much on why people decided to go one way or the other.

[am33r]

  impressive work so far.

Remember, you are building a Reventon, and there are only 20 real ones and maybe 5 Replicas being produced worldwide - we've got to see this in all stages  and research, mistakes, and fixes are IMPORTANT stages.

The rims! who did this and what are the specs on those rims to start with and what are the specs now? Please detail the work on them as this might solve problems for many people!

I am using an MR2 on my Murcielago-Type build and I am in the same stage (Body fitting on the MR2) and my rims are 18x12 -44 and 18x9 -1

This is the most agressive lowering spring for the MR2
http://www.ebay.com/itm/181112576138?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649

but I think I will be using Megan Coilovers for the lowering
http://www.ebay.com/itm/161015468672?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649
because with such offsets we are doing we need to camber the wheels and allign them properly.

Cheers 

[lance345]

Pics of my new wheels on the car. Right now the rears have no spacer at all, and the fronts have a 2". I think I will put 2" in the back as well. I didn't want to, but we did everything possible to avoid spacers and unfortunately the mr2 just has such a narrow width. At least we got from a 6" spacer which was nuts to a 2" spacer which is much much safer.

I also think I have the body kit height at a pretty good place. I'll buy some lowering springs and be good to go. I've been waiting a while for wheels finally on the car so I could get things lined up and I'm happy to move forward finally.

[lance345]

Thank you guys for the input. I agree I really didn't like how it looked so I did some asking around, and everyone agrees that as long as I don't go past a crumple zone in the frame I should be ok. Luckily the crumple zone in the back of the car is pretty far in, so I started cutting away (too bad I already cut out some body kit, but that's a pretty easy fix).

I took a L shaped chunk out of the frame so far, and may do more. I look at this as cutting hair - it's easier to take a bit at a time than it is to put back on. I'm leaning toward actually cutting away most of the trunk (not as far as crumple zones though) and rebuilding the whole back of the car. The only problem with this is that the exhaust space gets cut in half    It's a work in progress, but will be solved soon.

[autopro]

The issue with your frame/grill area. It would be better to trim that area of the frame off and go back with a piece of plate metal at the correct angle to fit the body curve there and weld it up then it would double as a mounting position for body.

Exactly, this is what I would do also. ^^^

Wheels look awesome the deep dish is sweet.

[usmc_butler]

WHEELS LOOK AWSOME!!!!  In regard to posing pictures just look at my build thread, I take pictures of freaking everything look at how many times each picture has been viewed and that is what people want to see

The issue with your frame/grill area. It would be better to trim that area of the frame off and go back with a piece of plate metal at the correct angle to fit the body curve there and weld it up then it would double as a mounting position for body. The other thing you could do is leave it like you have it and glass all around that area and make it look like it belongs there and hide it behind the grill. Just a couple ideas I had 

Looking good however!!!! 


Dustin 

[lance345]

Pics of some unfortunate destruction that needed to occur in order for me to get the body sitting on the MR2 better.

These are the taillight housings, and the body is way way too high in the back if the body is placed on top of the rear frame rails. So, I tried to cheat and put the body sitting on the taillight housings (cut away the lip under since it can be covered by the rear diffuser), but that still left it a few inches too high. After many nights thinking on it, and many days staring at it, I decided that I just had to cut out space for the frame rails to go into. What this means is the honeycomb plastic will not be able to go diagonally down deeper into the housing, and instead I marked the dotted line where the honeycomb will be if it is flush with the face of the housing most of the way down (until the flare out). It won't be the same, but I really need the space. The only other alternative is to cut away about 5ish inches of the frame rails and probably the trunk area. That takes away a ton of space for my exhaust, and the choice I went with seemed the lesser of two evils.

[lance345]

Pics of the rims. They are really really deep dish because I needed to try and eliminate 6" spacers in the back, and 2.5" up front. This means that they can never be used on another car, but I'd rather that than the alternative (huge spacers).

[Texas]

Your making good progress and I'm glad you like the wheels. Keep up the good work. Take pictures of everything and post for anyone that it might be useful to. 

[solrac]

Post pics of ure rims for sure!! Lol
I post pics of everything just in case someone else needs to know that info.
All my build has been easier by looking at others builds. The simple things or less important things can come in handy for someone else.

[lance345]

GOT MY RIMS!!!

Huge thanks to Texas who got me in contact with his custom rim guy. Overall I'd give the guy 9/10. He was really good with communicating with me for the whole process. He even texted me a few times to make 100% sure he had dimensions/colors/bolt patterns etc... correct, so that was really nice to see that level of care. I only take off 1 point because he did take a month and a half to get the rims to me (though in his defense he warned me he is really busy right now) and when the rims came the lips were scratched. Part UPS fault, but also they were just packed in a box with no foam or anything     I was surprised because his level of service through the process was awesome. Ah well, I can touch them up really easy. I'm actually thinking of doing a red pinstripe on the lip like the Veneno rims. Looks so good.

Anyway, so I have my rims now. I believe I will be able to completely eliminate spacers all the way around which is what I was trying to accomplish. I have tires on the way (it is so much cheaper to order them online from the US for me it's crazy, like 30% less) and I hope they will be here this week. As soon as they are in I'll mount them and throw the rims on the car. Then comes the mounting of the bodykit. I'll spend the week finishing up the supports for the kit. I've spent a lot of time trying to get the back of the kit to sit lower on the MR2, and I just can't get it any lower without taking out a ton of metal, so I'm going to have to add some height to the rocker extensions I made. No biggie.

I have a ton of ideas, but one thing at a time. I have a tendency to get ahead of myself, and with being indecisive it can turn into a mess. But, this has been fun as hell and I'm excited to get back to it and be able to just sprint to the finish. However, with the huge purchase of different rims I think that sprint might be shorter than I originally planned. The interior will have to wait, I'll just be doing a quickie job and I'll work on it as I have more money. I'm sorry to those that this offends     as I set out with intentions of doing a "replica", but my inexperience and lack of budgeting have hindered me. At this point anything I can do with labour will be done, and the rest will be a work in progress. Plus to be honest, I'd love to see some progress so it doesn't become a relic up on the lift.

Question - what should I be taking pictures of? I've kinda wondered that all along the process and I think "well this isn't interesting, it's a piece of metal". Even looking at some of the pics I've posted it seems like they are boring, or am I just not at an exciting stage? (I noticed someone else took their thread down because they weren't far enough along) Any tips from other builders?

[lance345]

yeah I've done a bit. I've worked a little more on the side scoops and I cut out the batwing area that looks like garbage on the kit. I spent an afternoon trying to get the back of the kit to sit lower on the donor too, but there are a lot of parts of the MR2 holding it up that it's looking like a losing cause. I might just have to mount the kit higher than I wanted and buy lowering springs.

I took a little over a month off the car to study for and write my GMAT. Now that it's over I'll be back to working on the car, and as soon as my rims arrive I should be ready for a sprint. I just don't want to attach the body permanently until I have them, and they have taken over a month and a half to come.

[italianknightrider]

lance345 anymore updates on your build