Now i'm not Wil, but the boys and I from the QLD club decided that after an unfortunate accident on a club run, we would give Wil a hand with his reshell. With the car a stat write off, our options were limited.

Myself, Ben (BEN77), Danny (DVS_MR2), Nate (Nate_P) and Rob originally wanted to do it in secret, but things were too difficult, so we just asked Wil :P 

It was a close call, he nearly decided to buy a volvo instead (sorry tree) but our efforts seemed to sway him back to MR2's

Rob loaded her up on the trailer and bought her back from Wil's. Ben was kind enough to let us use his garage



We stripped a lot of the essentials off the car and things like C pilar trims(which always break), then the motor was dropped. Wil also bought us an entire case of corona's, so obviously that had to be consumed whilst working



Nate and Ben's motivation faces






And before you know it, motor was out!
Replaced with a Nate



The next day, Wil arrived, we were all a little hungover and the teardown really kicked into gear. Our plan was to strip the car to a bare shell, and pull the motor down to be rebuilt. The engine was rebuilt about 15,000kms ago by a workshop in brisbane, but had started blowing smoke. 









Whilst Danny, Wil, Ben and myself were stripping the car. Nate pulled down the engine. 




Things that were wrong with it included: A piston looked to have been dropped on the ground, dented, and reused. Bores did not appear to have been honed. The end of the crank had been marked with vice grips or a similar tool. bearing surfaces were ruined. it looked like the rings had been put in upside down and the compression had then blown out the side of the piston, but this is to be confirmed by the engine builder

Long story short, the engine was completely dismantled and has been taken an engine builder we know, who is currently doing some further investigation into what happened, how it was built and then helping us rebuild the motor

So as it sits now, the nearly bare shell. This weekend we will finish off the rest of it. Then it is simply a matter of finding a new shell and rebuilding the motor :)



Thanks to all the people who have helped out, and offered to help. I'm really enjoying this project. It's great to just muck arround with cars with your mates, whilst drinking beer someone bought for you.

Someone please turn the shell into a track car and not just drop it off to the scrap yard....

Its pretty bent and the seams have split through the whole car. Not sure what we are doing with the shell yet

Great stuff lads! I'm looking forward to seeing it all come back together with the new shell and rebuilt motor.

I would be very keen on having the side vent cut out of it if it does end up going to scrap.

Club spirit at its best!!!

Good work guys
 

After nearly a month of searching far and wide, we finally found a replacement shell. 

Somehow, through some miracle, Will managed to purchase the SAME car. A white and grey, 1988 supercharged AW11. Will found it in Perth and had it shipped over



This has to be one of the most original and cleanest AW11's I have ever seen. There is 0 rust in this car. Although the paint was shocking, Danny and I went about bringing the paint back to its former glory.



I think we are all feeling a bit more motivated now that the shell has been found, Just have to wait for the engine to be rebuilt and put it back together!

Nice find.

What's getting done to the engine?

Engine is just getting rebuilt, nothing too crazy.

so nothing much happened over the nationals weekend, although Wil did win the "Best Hard Luck Story" for the incident.

Johnny from WA helped us out on the car the following weekend. what a wizard!


 
|

Johnny and I started chopping the car up in an attempt to take it to the metal recyclers






And then the shell got the last laugh on my reciprocating saw. So we called someone to take it away






the end of an era....


We made a heap of progress on the new shell though, Johnny, Nate and Wil powered through the suspension



And after a long weekend it was back on its own feet!!!


Did some more work on it this weekend. Everyone seems to be alot more motivated now that its really coming together. Most of the day was spent putting the little interior bits and pieces back together. it was like a massive lego puzzle...

Dash and all the looms, fitting and AC are back in


But still no engines Ted.... Couple 4AGZE's would pull a premium a month out from a track day....


Anyway progress is being made. Wil is now an expert in AW11 Fuel tank removal. Every bit of work brings us closer to the end goal. This weekend we will have another working bee and see if we can get it all nice and clean, and hopefully the engine back!