Hello from a thrilled newbie!

[MelR2Mk1]

I am SO happy to be part of this exclusive club at last!!! When I was 17 my boss drove me for all of about half a mile in her metallic powder blue G-reg Mk I. (And yes, it took us about 30 seconds lol) Ever since then (another 17 years...) I have been in love with these cars, but have never been able to have one (and been too scared of buying a shed and losing all my money!!!)

Last week my other half came in and said 'You're gonna hate our neighbour' so we trudged outside with me thinking 'what's the idiot done now?!?!' only to be presented with a red Mk II. :) 'No worries' I chirped 'I want a Mark I, Mark IIs don't worry me!' Saturday we go to a family garden party. As people start to leave I walk round the garage to be presented with the bautiful face of an E-reg Mk I in navy blue. NOW I'm cross :evil: SOMEONE I know has a Mark I. I WANT IT! I'M SO JEALOUS! :cry:

After staring for a while, wondering which of the old farmer types dares have such a sexy car my (almost) step-cousin(don't ask, her Dad and my Aunt never actually married...!)'s hubby walks up and says 'Isn't she lovely. Do you want her, she's for sale'

Well, you coulda shovelled my jaw off the floor! We went through all the 'no room on the drive, no spare cash, gotta dog wont be able to ever drive her, can't afford the insurance' rubbish at which point he handed me the keys and off we went. That was it. If I was in love with Mk Is before, I was totally hooked now!

So now here I am, counting down the days until I can pick her up. I managed to get classic insurance from my bike company for under £300 with a £100 excess (have never had car insurance and it's gonna be a second car so no NCB, but lots of 'safe driver years'...) and as I am family they knocked the car down from the £900 they wanted to £650, so I am well chuffed!

Thanks for listening to an excited loon :D Hope to meet some of you and maybe pick your brains soon....I CAN'T WAIT!!!!

PS Anyone got any recommendations on winter covers/ shampoo/ wax??? ;)

[Kateg28]

Wello to you. :wave:

Welcome to the club. You are not alone and there are lots of us who love these cars. Got to really when there are a lot of choices of cars at these prices and many with less of a rust.

And if I am honest, the dark blue (officially called Dark Blue Pearl but we all call it Mica Blue - the pale blue one is Helios Blue) is the best !!!!

Let us know where you are based and you will have to come to a meet and see all of our cherished cars.

[MelR2Mk1]

Thanks for the Wello Kateg28 :oops:

I am in Evesham, so either West Mids or South West is do-able (family are in Gloster)

Hurrah, thanks for saving me a newb question (I am just getting to grips with her having a sunroof not t-bar, didn't know they existed, and trying to work out NA [normally aspirated I discover - which I think she is!], and trying to remember her distinguishing features to work out Ia or Ib [b I think as no arm rest and central ashtray plus black knobs on air vents!]) of what mica and helios were!!! I was planning on waiting until I picker her up and hoping the colour code was on the chassis plate!!! TBH I didn't know the dark blue existed (looking at all the other colour codes there are loads I didn't know about!) I was thrilled as I didn't want red, black or white...so I was narrowing myself severely to helios lol

re. rust I am chuffed to have found one with rear arches already replaced, but she does have rust :( in the front corner of the door sills. Am hoping to wing the (August) MOT and then see what I can do about it. Being a girlie have no hope of self-fixing so need to blag a 'man-who-can' rather than pay garage prices...

Anyhoo, only 9 days to go now!!!

Mel :)

http://tickers.TickerFactory.com/ezt/d/4;10752;127/st/20100703/e/I+pick+up+my+new+baby/dt/5/k/5d68/event.png

[mr2mk1chick]

Hiya and welcome to the club.
i was just as excited!

Really please this sound like fate that you are gettign the car.

wax: all the autoglym range are ace :+:
covers: www.classicadditions (http://www.classicadditions) ?co.uk

[MelR2Mk1]

Thanks MR2MK1Chick! It does doesn't it? And I am a really strong believer in fate, so I really couldn't say no!!!

Thanks for the tips too, always relied on Autoglym for the bikes, so I did wonder!!!

[Kateg28]

I think Wello could be the new Hello :wave:

Evesham is a good central location so you should be able to make various events. Keep your eyes peeled for events and when you get to one, just ask someone to go over the car for you. They will tell you honestly what needs doing and prioritise it and give you an idea of costs for budgeting. It is always done very positively, we need more people to cherish these cars and fix that pesky rust problem.

I think the Mica blue is probably the 3rd most common colour after Red and White but not entirely sure. I had a white one 18 years ago when it was almost new but this time I knew I wanted dark blue and 4 years of ownership, still love it. Be very very careful when getting paint for it though, I got the exact paint code but now have purple arches. :cry: They will be fixed this Summer/Autumn back to the beautiful Mica Blue :+:

And stock up on those polishing items ready for 9 days time and get the camera ready, we all love pictures.

[MelR2Mk1]

Indeed, welcome and hello all in one :D

Oh dear at your arches :shock:

Quite fancy the Le Mans trip, but the Mrs has a bad back, so camping is out. Am wondering if we should upgrade the MR2 with a towbar...the caravan only weighs 950kg :lol: Santa Pod's not too far away but don't think I can talk the boss into a car show the day after picking it up somehow - shame!!!

[kevin..in]

Indeed, welcome and hello all in one :D

Oh dear at your arches :shock:

Quite fancy the Le Mans trip, but the Mrs has a bad back, so camping is out. Am wondering if we should upgrade the MR2 with a towbar...the caravan only weighs 950kg :lol: Santa Pod's not too far away but don't think I can talk the boss into a car show the day after picking it up somehow - shame!!!
yes to the tow bar 950kg is (I think) too heavy a caravan to tow with a mk1 needs to be (I think again) less than .75 of the weight of the car, so something like an Eriba puck

[stiglet]

Hey from a another new Mica blue owner :wave:

Great arent they :D

[MelR2Mk1]

I hope so! STILL not got it yet :( 3 days to go....

http://www.mr2mk1club.com/

[chgough]

Hi Bikermel,

I have had my MR2 Mk1b T-bar since March (after owing one for a short time in the 80s) and they certainly are a lot of fun. Mine's Mica blue too - as was my earlier one.

One of the great things about the Club is that there are a lot of extremely knowledgeable people around who can help with issues as they crop up. There are a number of mechanics etc. who work on MR2s who get a good rating by people on here - which is useful to know.

Best of luck with the car - it will be great to post a picture or two when you get it. You'll find instructions on here how to upload pictures.

Kind Regards
Chris Gough

[MelR2Mk1]

Getting there with the pics. Huge grin on my face everytime I walk out the house and see her on the drive! Meantime...first job complete, replacing the VILE changed gear knob (ungly and nasty to hold) with Oukie's 'original' knob, which feels just perfect!!! ;)

BEFORE
http://www.mr2mk1club.com/images/imported/2010/07/IMG_2388_600x400-1.jpg

AFTER
http://www.mr2mk1club.com/images/imported/2010/07/IMG_2403_600x400-1.jpg

PS Is a black knob right for a blue car?

[chgough]

When I bought my car it had a replacement gear knob - black too -

http://www.mr2mk1club.com/images/imported/2010/07/P1010969-1.jpg

But when I had my first Mica blue MR2 in '87, the gear knob was blue to match the interior. Don't know if there are any well made blue ones out there to be had?

[MelR2Mk1]

Cheers chgough, I did wonder as have seen several pics where it appears to be black in a blue interior, but I thought that if even the handbrake was blue...

How about sunroofs...are they always blue tinted, or is that a mod?

[chgough]

Hi there - no expert on sunroofs - but I'm sure my car back in '87 had a blue tinted one. Standard issue methinks. There are far greater experts on here though and I'm always ready to stand corrected!

[stiglet]

EVERYTHING inide my car is blue lol including the gear knob!

[oukie]

Getting there with the pics. Huge grin on my face everytime I walk out the house and see her on the drive! Meantime...first job complete, replacing the VILE changed gear knob (ungly and nasty to hold) with Oukie's 'original' knob, which feels just perfect!!! ;)

BEFORE
http://www.mr2mk1club.com/images/imported/2010/07/IMG_2388_600x400-1.jpg

AFTER
http://www.mr2mk1club.com/images/imported/2010/07/IMG_2403_600x400-1.jpg

PS Is a black knob right for a blue car?


My old Knob looks like it was always meant to be sticking up there :oops:

[MelR2Mk1]

Yep, your old knob looks perfect! (We're gonna get into trouble soon ;) )

PS Have discovered my baby is actually only 6 years old - well, she's only had 6 birthdays - she was born on 29th February 1988! :lol:

[MelR2Mk1]

MOST important mod now complete...

Before :(
http://www.mr2mk1club.com/images/imported/2010/07/Backwindscreenbefore-1.jpg

After :D
http://www.mr2mk1club.com/images/imported/2010/07/Rearwindscreenafter-1.jpg

Thought the alloys were cream-crackered too, but a bit of TLC and (though not perfect by any means) they look far more presentable!

http://www.mr2mk1club.com/images/imported/2010/07/Nearrearbefore-1.jpg

http://www.mr2mk1club.com/images/imported/2010/07/Rearnearafter-1.jpg

[kevin..in]

not sure what those tyres are but your best mod by far would be some quality rubber,ditch finders are so called for a reason

[MelR2Mk1]

He he, yeah I'm sure. Sad thing is they have tonnes of tread on. No matter, I have no plans of ragging her so I shouldn't be finding any ditches (and my theory is that as I have twice as many bits of rubber on the floor, and the contact patch of each must be about 10 times that on a 'bike, I should be fine on anything ;) )

PS. New avatar WOOT!

[kevin..in]

He he, yeah I'm sure. Sad thing is they have tonnes of tread on. No matter, I have no plans of ragging her so I shouldn't be finding any ditches (and my theory is that as I have twice as many bits of rubber on the floor, and the contact patch of each must be about 10 times that on a 'bike, I should be fine on anything ;) )

PS. New avatar WOOT!
there are quite a few who will tell you different from experience, your car will feel 500% better with good rubber, until then treat those tyres with plenty of respect and enjoy!!

[MelR2Mk1]

Hurrah my membership pack just arrived (more by luck than judgement as the postie is on hols and it got delivered to the next street along - DOH! Good job the lady came checking, if she'd just binned it I would never have realised!!!)

The '101 things we love...' article in the mag reminded me of my first 'proper' trip with my baby. I was (trying to) take it steady on the M40 (on my way to my speeding awareness course :oops: ) but kep getting stuck behind middle lane drivers. The outside lane was bumper to bumper, but every time I needed to pull out these big gaps seemed to form, and I could jsut pull out easily.

Took me a while to realise it was cos people were coming round the car behind, spotting the Mk1 and then sitting there looking at it instead of getting on with overtaking. I didn't need asking twice before I shot out in front of them lol, here, have a look at the back of it :D