More Toyota MR2 Project

Michael, again.  Today I removed the automatic brake pedal (wide) and replaced it with the brake pedal from the donor car (narrower).  This took hours under the dash with the driver's seat, and many plastic pieces removed to gain access.

After that, I installed the donor clutch pedal bracket using two of the three new holes I drilled in the firewall.  It fit great!  Then I installed the clutch pedal with its spring and starter safety switch.

Three Pedals!  It's Looking Like a Proper Car Now

(but that third one doesn't do anything just yet)

While I'm waiting for the new clutch master cylinder to arrive and fill the third hole, I'll start disassembling around this gruesome thing, but leaving the car drivable.

Much thanks to Harbor Freight and their coupons; I bought my first set of metric open end wrenches that proved quite useful.

Toyota MR2 Project

Michael here, making a guest post.  The 1988 MR2, originally my mother's, has 68k miles on it and looks like new inside and out, and runs well after about a year of minor fixes.  My project is to make it a proper MR2; you see, it has an automatic transmission (naughty) and rather generic wheels (meh).  Luckily, I found a 1985 donor car on Craigslist and the owner helped me get all the necessary bits to make the swap.

The 1988 MR2 Now

The Donor Car (130k miles)

[You can see why it's being parted out]

All the Bits at Home on the Back Porch

(clockwise from 6 o'clock: Clutch, Shifter and cables, 5-speed transmission,

clutch pedal assembly, brake pedal, flywheel, axles)

I started work this weekend installing wheels and beginning necessary modifications in preparation for the major transmission swap to be done by the mechanic on the corner.

Here's the 1988 with the Proper MR2 Wheels Installed

Near the center you can see the new holes I made in the firewall

to install the clutch master cylinder

People have done this before and the web has been a great resource for details on the parts needed and the process steps.

The next steps will be changing out the brake pedal and installing the clutch pedal and master cylinder.

Happy Birthday Jacob

FIVE

TEN

FIFTEEN

Happy Birthday, Jacob.

Road Trip

Michael took us on a road trip today, he has been itching to get out of town. We rented a Peugeot and off we went.

 First stop was a glass museum. It was more the history of glass especially Art Deco then current pieces. Michael was in seventh-heaven.

 This area of the Netherlands has many dikes, water was every where.

 This was the parking lot of the museum. I thought these flowers were pretty. Such greenery in the Netherlands.

 A very blustery day. The weather was in the seventies with cloud cover all day. Such strange weather in Europe, down 20 degrees in one day.

 The Netherlands love their statues, this one of glass blowing.

This is the town we had lunch in. Michael said it was like stepping back in time. It was very quiet. It seemed the quintessential European street to me with flowers and all.

Cars. people and bikes all shared the same road.
The End.

Rotterdam Day 3

Temperature is still climbing, today 94 degrees. We are spending the rest of the day in our AC room.

Port of Rotterdam, Erasmus Bridge.

At the port of Rotterdam, says "they stayed on course". Another war memorial.

 Today was museum day. First up, Kunsthal. Small museum that was difficult to navigate. 

 First exhibit was Viktor and Rolf Fashion Artist 25 years. This reminded me of the I Love Lucy episode with the sack dress.

Princess wedding dress, doll form.

Actual wedding dress.

This room was dedicated to student artists. These faces were made of cardboard and duck tap.

 Another exhibit was from Dutch artist Dick Bruna. His work was popular in the 50s and 60s. Some of the images were familiar to me.

In a park after lunch on to our next museum.

The next museum Het Nieuwe Instituut, was a bust. It was a really strange museum. We were interested in the Steve Bannon Propoganda Retrospective but it was too much reading and a lot of videos. In addition to this museum we bought tickets to see a 'modern' house from the 1930s, Sonneveld House. It was restored beautifully and a lovely self tour(forgot to take pictures).

Rotterdam Day 2

The heatwave in Europe is following us. The high for today was expected to be 89 degrees. We decided to head out early to beat the heat of the afternoon.

The Dutch love their statues. We saw this one of oil barrels.

"The Destroyed City" by artist Ossip Zadkine.

The pencil building and cube houses.

Part of my libraries from around the world picture goal. The library was not open yet.

We ended our day at La Pizza, it was really good food. Michael and I enjoyed a kid free meal as Jacob decided to stay in the room. I think he is on parent overload.

Welcome to Rotterdam

We arrived in Rotterdam at 4AM, it was a long day of travel. Our flight out of Tel Aviv was delayed by one hour, so a long night became longer. We all went straight to bed and slept for four hours. It was easier to deal with lack of sleep when you don't have to change time zones. We are staying in Premier Suites Rotterdam, a kind of upscale apartment living. First order of business was grocery shopping but we discovered Rotterdam does not wake up until 10AM on Sundays, no stores open yet. Second order of business was laundry, we all ran out of clean clothes. There are 3 machines free of charge so we were good to go. Third order of business was to relax, it has been a whirlwind 10 days in Israel.

We are staying in the heart of Rotterdam. The short building is the central station. Jacob is also impressed with this modern city.

We went to a park near our hotel to look around and enjoy the weather. I think this statue is called Big Man.

Being a kid again.

 Colorful Rotterdam

Another statue we found commemorating 1940-1945. The description was in Dutch but probably a war memorial. We enjoyed our slow day and our pasta dinner. We didn't eat any pasta in Israel. Until tomorrow...