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Apr 18, 2011 21:00:43 GMT
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Thought I ought to put the story so far on here, this is a long term project to say the least! I saw this car on Ebay last year, the odds were it would be broken for some of the nice JDM spares on it so I decided to save it... and learn a bit about fixing cars along the way! So I bought a crash damaged Wataru-01. Its kind of similar to a Pitcrew, which is a 60s styled car based on an MX5. If anything the nose is a bit lower... not that you can tell that from mine! So it may need a bit of cosmetic work! Long term plan is to sell off afew bits that don't really suit the retro flavour of the car. I need to fix up the bodywork, and then depending on the state of this chassis, either attach it back on here or transplant it onto a different car... that would probably not be any more work, and would also mean losing the CAT C status this car has. Tha aim will be Retro Race, so ally panels, either black or red leather interior, fairly stripped out and with a custom roll bar based on the diagonal that is in there...but properly tied in to the chassis. Russell.
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Last Edit: Apr 25, 2011 8:31:32 GMT by rmad
1991 Eunos Roadster V Limited 1989 Wataru - 01 1990 Madzaspeed Spec B Roadster Coming Soon - Volvo Amazon Estate... hopefully...
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Apr 18, 2011 21:04:21 GMT
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So it arrived at last... in the middle of all the horrendous snow we had. I can't believe the delivery guy made it, after dark and in the snow sliding his way up the road in his clapped out truck (front wheel drive rubbish!!) I had spent the hour before this clearing all the snow off my drive and up to the garage otherwise it wouldn't have got close. It starts and drives fine (nice sound from the exhausts too!!), so in the end the guy parked his truck at the end of the street, and I drove it up the street and straight into my garage! Stage 1 was to strip a few bits out of the way to see what the damage is and what I want to keep / ditch... the wheels can go straight away, along with most of the interior! Russell.
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1991 Eunos Roadster V Limited 1989 Wataru - 01 1990 Madzaspeed Spec B Roadster Coming Soon - Volvo Amazon Estate... hopefully...
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Apr 18, 2011 21:06:27 GMT
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Post lunch boredom, nothing on the telly so took off one of the old wheels Don't suit the car at all... 15 x 7 ET35 so a reasonable fitment, but not the right style! I'm not 100% on the new wheels... will look better once the car is lowered I guess. The back especialy seems really high and I've worked out why... the suspension is almost brand new and is standard... and the back end has had all the metal removed and replaced with fibreglass, so this car is probably running higher than standard!! Anyway, new wheels test fitted: They are Watanabe 14 x 6.5 and I'm not sure on the ET, probably about 25 or 30? Russell.
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1991 Eunos Roadster V Limited 1989 Wataru - 01 1990 Madzaspeed Spec B Roadster Coming Soon - Volvo Amazon Estate... hopefully...
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1991 Wataru-01BenzBoy
@benzboy
Club Retro Rides Member 7
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Apr 18, 2011 21:07:50 GMT
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That's a pretty quirky car! Nicely saved. Can you get front end panels for them?
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Apr 18, 2011 21:08:16 GMT
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Mid February, I managed to take a step forward on this project... by buying a new car!! Got this S Special very cheaply as it is a CAT C write off... although I have no idea how!! The bumper is scuffed, the bonnet is dented and one of the sidelights is broken... and thats it!! It didn't come with any wheels, but I had already bought the Watanabes for this project so its gone onto them... looks really good I think! So the Wataru will have the fibreglass bodywork removed, and it will be transplanted onto this car... its a 1.8 with a Torsen diff and lightened flywheel etc, still has a load of MOT etc so will be a good base for the project... its on Raceland coilovers which the seller said were really nice, but we'll see, at least its a lot lower than the Wataru! It has some nice bits and some spares with it too, including a Momo Prototipo wheel, which will suit the race retro style of the Wataru well. It needs a bit of work on the sills as they are starting to rust, but the dented bodywork will need to be stripped off anyway to make way for the Wataru bits, and I can sell the wings, headlight covers, both the bumpers, rear lights and bootlid to offset the costs of this car!! Russell.
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1991 Eunos Roadster V Limited 1989 Wataru - 01 1990 Madzaspeed Spec B Roadster Coming Soon - Volvo Amazon Estate... hopefully...
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Apr 18, 2011 21:11:27 GMT
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This is one of the cars thats inspiring me...I've not got any decent pics of it (just a couple of videos) but this will give an idea... not sure about the wide wings, but I like the motorsport look, leather bonnet straps look kind of cool too. Anyway, on with the project. Got the wings and bumper off the S-Special, to see what the damage is underneath. Nothing too bad, but its obviously been in a crash before and was not repaired properly last time. Just need to get some replacement panels welded in and it should be fine as the damage is mostly localised to one side. Other side is a lot better, but I'll still need to replace the panel acros the front as it is weakened First spot while I was removing the bumper was that it needs a new Rad... this one is shot, and its not accident damage, its just old and tired and missing most of the cooling fins! Luckily the one from the Wataru is fine (don't know how it survived the crash!!) so that can go on for the moment. So this is how it will stay for a bit while I get it through the VICS and drive it for a bit to make sure everything works... I will swap over the doors from the Wataru as well, and delete the swage lines down the rest of the car, so it will be more yellow than blue soon! Russell.
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1991 Eunos Roadster V Limited 1989 Wataru - 01 1990 Madzaspeed Spec B Roadster Coming Soon - Volvo Amazon Estate... hopefully...
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Apr 18, 2011 21:13:41 GMT
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That's a pretty quirky car! Nicely saved. Can you get front end panels for them? No, they only ever made 46 of them, and this is the only one in the UK that I know of. Shipping would kill it anyway, so this will be a big DIY fibreglass job!! Russell.
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1991 Eunos Roadster V Limited 1989 Wataru - 01 1990 Madzaspeed Spec B Roadster Coming Soon - Volvo Amazon Estate... hopefully...
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Colonelk
Posted a lot
Posts: 3,740
Club RR Member Number: 83
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1991 Wataru-01Colonelk
@colonelk
Club Retro Rides Member 83
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Apr 18, 2011 21:14:47 GMT
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Awesomes, yet another car I never knew existed. So can you get replacement fibreglass bits for these? or do you have another plan for the front end? EDIT: spent too long reading didnt see other replies my bad!
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Last Edit: Apr 18, 2011 21:37:39 GMT by Colonelk
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luckygti
Posted a lot
I need to try harder!
Posts: 4,912
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Apr 18, 2011 21:16:52 GMT
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I'm liking that. Never heard of this model, there is one I've seen that is the same sort of style? Monza rings a bell? So is this a Japanese import or UK made?
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Apr 18, 2011 21:18:28 GMT
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Was bored (again!), so I had a bit of a mess with the "Wataru to be", tried my 6UL wheels with 20mm spacers in the wide arches I'm making... looks about right although ideally they'd be 30 or 35mm spacers. The arches aren't right yet, like they are fitted too high and the arch doesn't seem to be perfectly round? So I'll have to cut them up and re-shape the arch to follow the line of the wheel a lot better! Also had a proper look at the underside with it jacked up really high... the cracks will be easy to sort, but the clout in the chassis rail is a bit on the large side, its pretty much folded flat in the centre! The CAT has seen better days too, but it'll have to stay for the moment as I need to get it on the road with the minimum of messing. I don't want to start buying stuff for this until I have tried to MOT it! So I'll have a go at pulling it out and see how it shapes up...no decisions made yet, but it looks easier to fix up than I'd first thought so hopefully this will be the Wataru.. at some point in the next 2-3 years!! Last thing I did was to pull off the big exhaust, its too modern for the Wataru and I wanted to test fit the Pitcrew exhaust on a "standard" rear bumper to see how it fitted. Got the Pitcrew exhaust fully fitted to the S Special now, and it fits ok... just about! It was touching the rear lower brace thing so I took that off to get it fitted properly (obviously no issue on a 1.6, and I'll be using a Racing Beat brace so don't need it anyway). It does clear the bumper, by about 20mm (a bit less than a finger) although because of the way its attached on (two fairly solid mounts to the boot floor) it won't move around at all. Strange thing was, measuring / drilling the holes only took about 20 minutes! Sorry the pics aren't great, but it was really sunny and my little phone camera can't cope!! Russell.
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1991 Eunos Roadster V Limited 1989 Wataru - 01 1990 Madzaspeed Spec B Roadster Coming Soon - Volvo Amazon Estate... hopefully...
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Apr 18, 2011 21:27:40 GMT
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1991 Eunos Roadster V Limited 1989 Wataru - 01 1990 Madzaspeed Spec B Roadster Coming Soon - Volvo Amazon Estate... hopefully...
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Apr 18, 2011 21:42:07 GMT
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Hi Russell, Glad you've decided to start posting this thread over here....your fibreglassing skills will be much appreciated by those reading the thread. To all those reading this thread, yesterday Russell popped into Area 52 to deliver one of his custom fibreglass MX5 bootlids for the Dirtbag. The quality of his work is second to none and all the guys who were there this weekend will say the same....lovely fibreglassing skills. Russell is also a really nice bloke too. True RR kinda guy ;D Now that I've seen your work Russell, I know this car is in good hands and will end up something rather special. Keep the updates coming Dude.....I've seen them over on Nutz, but as I said yesterday, the guys here will love whay you're up to
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Apr 18, 2011 21:43:56 GMT
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So the big question is how do you fix up something like this? The Wataru 01 is essentially a complicated bodykit for a Mk1 MX5, so I need to remove it from the chassis it is on, and move it over onto the 1.8 chassis which I know is straight. easiest to do this in 2 parts, front and rear as the centre section of the bodywork is pure MX5.
Front End: Stage 1 - Strip everything out of the way on the Wataru, and then unbolt the front end. As its essentially one piece (apart from the bonnet) it will be fairly easy... except for the mising bits, cracks and so on... So I will get a bunch of people round, and we lift it off.. and drop it into place on the 1.8 (having first fixed the front end, checked it for straightness and removed the wings, bonnet and bumper).
Stage 2 - The passenger side isn't too bad, so I can repair this side and get it straight. I have detailed measurements from a guy in Japan (who has the first dark blue one in the pictures above), so I can make sure the lights are at the correct height etc
Stage 3 - Once this side is repaired / the missing bits built up, I need to take a series of silhouettes down the side. I will make these from MDF at 5cm intervals, making a kind of external skeleton for the car. Next, I make the negative of each of these in MDF, flip them round 180 degrees and put them on the other side in the corresponding place. I should now have a proper skeleton showing the lines the car should follow on the damaged side.
Stage 4 - Fill the gaps! I need to lay very fine fibreglass sheet over the skeleton, and "make" the shape of the car.
Stage 5 - I now (in theory!!!!) have a front end that looks right, but has no strength and weighs a ton... so I take a mould of the front end (probably 3 moulds?) and make a new front end
Russell.
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1991 Eunos Roadster V Limited 1989 Wataru - 01 1990 Madzaspeed Spec B Roadster Coming Soon - Volvo Amazon Estate... hopefully...
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Apr 18, 2011 21:53:00 GMT
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Back End: Stage 1 - The back end has some minor damage, but not much so its best repaired in situ on the yellow car.
Stage 2 - This is where it gets fun... I have 2 options
Option A: I split the fibreglass back end off the yellow car, and blend it onto the blue one... simple right? Unfortunately no, whoever blended in the back end did a stunning job, I cannot see the join in any light and I can't feel it from the inside in some places! This is doable, but there is a strong possibility the bodywork will be damaged.
Option B: This started as a daft idea at 3am, but I like it more and more... I pick a measurable point on the metalwork of the back end, draw a line with a permanent marker and take an angle grinder / plasma cutter to the Yellow car. Doing this will cut off all the fibreglass, and a chunk of metalwork as well, but it should hold its shape better. I then do the same with the blue car, and then weld the Wataru back end on to the blue car... I say I, but I'm 100% getting someone else to do this as I've never used a welderin my life and this is not the job to learn on!
So in theory thats it, I will then have a Wataru in need of a respray and a smattering of retro accessories before it hits the show circuit... so see you all in 2014?
Russell.
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1991 Eunos Roadster V Limited 1989 Wataru - 01 1990 Madzaspeed Spec B Roadster Coming Soon - Volvo Amazon Estate... hopefully...
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EmDee
Club Retro Rides Member
Committer of Autrocities.
Posts: 5,920
Club RR Member Number: 108
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1991 Wataru-01EmDee
@emdee
Club Retro Rides Member 108
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Apr 18, 2011 22:02:26 GMT
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There was a thread on here about this car when it first appeared on Satanbay well over 6 months ago, I'll see if I can find it, although I seem to remember a few unsavoury comments about it's looks (possibly mine) haha I like it actually and love your attitude to sorting it all. Bookmarked
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Apr 18, 2011 22:05:26 GMT
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Hi Russell, Glad you've decided to start posting this thread over here....your fibreglassing skills will be much appreciated by those reading the thread. To all those reading this thread, yesterday Russell popped into Area 52 to deliver one of his custom fibreglass MX5 bootlids for the Dirtbag. The quality of his work is second to none and all the guys who were there this weekend will say the same....lovely fibreglassing skills. Russell is also a really nice bloke too. True RR kinda guy ;D Now that I've seen your work Russell, I know this car is in good hands and will end up something rather special. Keep the updates coming Dude.....I've seen them over on Nutz, but as I said yesterday, the guys here will love whay you're up to Cheers Bruce, all I can say at this point is that my fibreglassing skills are not really that good, the thing that makes the difference is the quality of the mould, and I have the moulds professionally made by someone else... cheating I know, but it means they are spot on, and I can't go wrong! That is part of the drive for me doing this project, I can't afford to get anyone else to do this for me, so its all on me. Hopefully in about 2 years this car will be driving round and I'll be at the wheel grinning like a cheshire cat. Its equally possible that I'll work out this really is too much of a project for me, and I'll admit defeat but either way I'll learn a lot. Russell.
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1991 Eunos Roadster V Limited 1989 Wataru - 01 1990 Madzaspeed Spec B Roadster Coming Soon - Volvo Amazon Estate... hopefully...
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Apr 18, 2011 22:12:49 GMT
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There was a thread on here about this car when it first appeared on Satanbay well over 6 months ago, I'll see if I can find it, although I seem to remember a few unsavoury comments about it's looks (possibly mine) haha I like it actually and love your attitude to sorting it all. Bookmarked Ha ha, I have to admit I am still not sure if I like it!! Sounds weird, but I think the front end has a bit too much overhang and the proportions are not quite right... So even though this is one of 46 made, I may not put it back exactly as it should be... I have the measurements, but I may shorten the nose slightly and open up the mouth a bit? I'll certainly get someone to have a play with photoshop before i start doing the front end. Last thing to say on this is don't expect any fast progress on this!! This is one of 4 car projects on the go at the moment, and thats apart from me making other fibreglass bits for the MX5s and having a job and 2 kids!! Russell.
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1991 Eunos Roadster V Limited 1989 Wataru - 01 1990 Madzaspeed Spec B Roadster Coming Soon - Volvo Amazon Estate... hopefully...
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79cord
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,608
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Apr 19, 2011 11:20:17 GMT
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It certainly is a frightening front overhang, though they would never have been able to get the bonnet low enough to replicate the Lotus Elite styling properly. A shame there isn't another about you could take a mold from...it would make things much simpler. I imagine replacing the missing bumper would be far too difficult also (metal or metalized plastic?). It will be very interesting to see how they made the car & how much of the Mazda structure remained underneath.
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Apr 19, 2011 12:26:02 GMT
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Good spot, yes I will probably have to ditch the bumpers at least for the time being, they are metal. There is only one corner missing, so I can get it replicated but the cost is a bit much for me, and its not really a priority! I quite like the look without bumpers anyway, somehow a bit more "race"?
The Mazda Substructure is 100% untouched at the front, you literally remove the standard wings, bonnet and bumper and then bolt on the new front end. Maybe an hour to attach the bonnet and line it up, but otherwise the whole thing would take maybe half a day!
The rear is a lot more involved, it is a blended in piece of fibreglass that you have to take time getting attached / symetrical etc. I'll have to check how the boot attaches, I think its on the OEM hinges.
Russell.
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1991 Eunos Roadster V Limited 1989 Wataru - 01 1990 Madzaspeed Spec B Roadster Coming Soon - Volvo Amazon Estate... hopefully...
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Apr 24, 2011 17:26:42 GMT
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OK, so the Wataru is now being stripped apart and I will just be keeping the bodywork. The S Special I bought to put the bodywork on is just not good enough underneath, so it will be stripped as well!! It is an ok car, but if I'm going to spend the next few years building this car, it deserves better. So this means I'm looking for another MX5 again!! ideally a 1.8, standard or modified doesn't matter... but Solid!! On a side note, I have just done a deal to get the wheels this car deserves... actually a bit bigger than I wanted, but they will possibly help decide the way this car will go. So this car has just become a bit more aggressive than I had originally planned. I'll have to fit them and see how it looks... they may well be too much for the car, but they are coming as part of a good deal, so I shouldn't lose out. They won't be here for about 4 weeks, which gives me some time to break the news to Jenny!! Russell.
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1991 Eunos Roadster V Limited 1989 Wataru - 01 1990 Madzaspeed Spec B Roadster Coming Soon - Volvo Amazon Estate... hopefully...
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