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Oct 29, 2015 10:56:44 GMT
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Time for another update on our track car! The standard Roadster wheels, whilst a cool design, are a little small and have pretty terrible fitment. If you stand from some angles it looks like it's on axle stands as the wheels sit so far inboard! We were after widening the track and upping the diameter a bit, but all for a billy bargain. We bid on, and lost, a few auctions, but eventually, with skills David Dickinson would be proud of, secured a great set of BMW E30 BBS style rimz! Like these:  The ET and width of these wheels are a perfect match for the Roadster. Can't wait to fit them! Road trip to Wolverhampton in the Lincoln tomorrow morning, fitting to happen on Saturday. The other thing we'll be doing on Saturday is to fire up the welder and get busy with adapting the seat rails to fit the bucket seats... another thing we can't wait to crack on with! There'll be plenty of pics taken for the build thread along the way, don't worry!  This leads us to our current train of thought, and a request for input! We've decided, to go down the matt paint route. This is because the paint is awful at the moment, with huge areas of lacquer peel, a rusty arch, some holes from the previous spoiler etc.. and we don't fancy spending lots of time and money on a decent paint job only to cover it in gravel when we inevitably over cook it on a track day! It needs to look badass, but not have us worrying about it when blasting it round the track or simply working on it. We don't want it to look tatty and nailed together, we want it to look purposeful. Anyway, anyone got any thoughts to colour scheme? We could go for white wheels and matt blue paint for the body, or polished rims and a darker gun metal grey colour for the body. Black wheels? So many options! Any suggestions? |
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meltedcheese
Part of things
Please, Don't Sqeeze the Volvo!
Posts: 403
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Oct 30, 2015 12:17:29 GMT
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I was thinking matt sky blue with white wheels originally, now I'm thinking matt British racing green with black wheels and roll bar???!
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meltedcheese
Part of things
Please, Don't Sqeeze the Volvo!
Posts: 403
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Oct 30, 2015 12:18:19 GMT
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maybe gold wheels?
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Oct 30, 2015 14:09:59 GMT
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Matt British Racing Green with black wheels and roll bar could look awesome to be fair!
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Oct 30, 2015 14:27:00 GMT
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How about a matt Gulf colour scheme with Orange wheels?  |
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96 E320 W210 Wafter - on 18" split Mono's - Sold :-(
10 Kia Ceed Sportwagon - Our new daily
03 Import Forester STi - Sold
98 W140 CL500 AMG - Brutal weekend bruiser! Sold :-(
99 E240 S210 Barge - Now sold
02 Accord 2.0SE - wife's old daily - gone in PX
88 P100 2.9efi Custom - Sold
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Oct 30, 2015 14:27:47 GMT
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OR Matt White with Matt Red Rising Sun at an angle all over the bonnet!
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96 E320 W210 Wafter - on 18" split Mono's - Sold :-(
10 Kia Ceed Sportwagon - Our new daily
03 Import Forester STi - Sold
98 W140 CL500 AMG - Brutal weekend bruiser! Sold :-(
99 E240 S210 Barge - Now sold
02 Accord 2.0SE - wife's old daily - gone in PX
88 P100 2.9efi Custom - Sold
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skozra
Part of things
Posts: 175 
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Oct 30, 2015 23:00:28 GMT
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Scratching my head here wondering how on earth I managed to completely miss this wonderful thread. Now i'm going to back and start reading it !
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93 Volvo 240 Torslanda Estate, 01 Subaru Impreza WRX Saloon & 86 Ford Capri 2.8i (with Weber 38 carb fitted)
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meltedcheese
Part of things
Please, Don't Sqeeze the Volvo!
Posts: 403
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Oct 31, 2015 22:51:03 GMT
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Thanks for the comments chaps, been a busy day today, updates to follow |
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We made some excellent progress this weekend! I picked up the new bargain wheels in the Lincoln on Friday:   I was pretty pleased when I saw them, barely any scrapes on the rim edges and tyres pretty good bar one inner edge. They're actually a bit dishier than I thought they’d be too. Job’s a goodun! Obviously, first thing Saturday morning Melted Cheese and I had to fit the wheels!! On rolling the wheel up to the car it seemed like the tyres might be a bit too big, but we thought we’d give it a go anyway Just a quick reminder of how it sits on the standard wheels:   Visually disappointing… |
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Right! Lame wheels off! It’s too low for a hydraulic jack – standard Mazda jack does the job.  Note to self: remove wedding ring before trying to get seized wheel nuts off using a brace……  Slightly out of order pics, but you get the idea..  As we lowered it down, it quickly became apparent that it was going to look fapping class! It also became apparent that our initial fears of the tyres being a bit too big were right, just a tad too wide. But we stuck ‘em all on anyway, obviously Bit o’ air required innit:  Dayum!       A mid-air high 5 followed this moment in time! A quick bozz up and down the drive confirmed that you can’t steer due to the tyres hitting the arch, and the rear tyres rub too! No biggie – We calculate that a slight downsize to 195/50/15s will sort this out, and there are some awesome deals on Toyo Proxes T1R track tyres(£120 delivered! I spent more than that on a pair for the Capri 7 years ago) so that’s probably gonna be the next purchase. |
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adi
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,426
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Where can we get said tyres for 120? Is that all 4??
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So, next job of the day, fit the OMP bucket seats. When we got them, I had a go at fitting the standard seat rails to the bottom of the buckets. They fit, but the rails were too far apart and wouldn’t bolt down. We had a look online and you can buy adapter plates for the MX5 to fit bucket seat rails, but if memory serves me they were somewhere in the region of £130.. That would make the bargain seats less bargainous – particularly as we’d also need a pair of rails to bolt them to…. MeltedCheese calculated the length, width and thickness of flat bar we’d need to knock up some adapters to fit to our new rails and sorted a good deal alongside the tube required for our cage. These are the rails we bought:  We had to make adapters to bolt the rails to, so we could bolt the whole lot into the car. The shape of the floor in the Roadster is slightly odd, there are humps that the orginal frames sit on, which means the original frames have a bend at each end – hence why we couldn’t bolt these straight down. This is an original rail:  You can see the humps that have caused a few issues.. Some careful measurements were the first order of business:  Much heating, bending and drilling later:    So, that was Seat Rail Adapters Mk1.. We bolted them down to the floor and tried the seat in situ. It kind of worked, but not quite. Because of the rear hump, the seat wouldn’t go back far enough. It was probably only 1-2” out, but it meant we couldn’t extend our arms far enough to be in a good position for chucking the car around a track. You know what they say, if a jobs worth doing……. First: Lunch of champions. Sat in the buckets. Looking like a pair of bosses.  |
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After a couple of trips to Halfords and BandQ for various bolts and drill bits, Seat Rail Adapters Mk2 went into production. We checked the floor pan to see if it was double skinned or not (it wasn’t) and decided to take the rear humps out completely. The reason being, we could extend the adaptors further back towards the rear bulkhead and make sure the seat has enough movement. I forgot to take pictures of the hump removal, unfortunately, but imagine a floor that used to have humps in it, no longer having them! So, after more careful measuring, the longer rails were ready to be bolted up, with new fixings front and rear. Took longer than expected but it was worth it! The seats are mega solid, the rails run right from the bulkhead forward and the driving position is brilliant. Had to remove the seat belt pillar and inertia housing out, along with a plate that the roof sits on. These seats are a tight fit! We’ve got 4 point harnesses going in, so seat belt not needed.  Snug!   One in!  Two in!  Boom!     And that’s how, for now!  |
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adi
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,426
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Thankyou :-) just the size I need for my track car. Am i right to assume you're local to lincoln? If so hope to see this at cadwell and blyton
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Thankyou :-) just the size I need for my track car. Am i right to assume you're local to lincoln? If so hope to see this at cadwell and blyton No, I picked the wheels up from Wolverhampton in my Lincoln Towncar, we're on the Wirral so will be frequenting Oulton Park - I'd imagine we'll branch out and try lots of tracks though Tyres ordered  can't wait to get back on the car for the next step! |
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lewis
Part of things
Posts: 82
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Nice project! I've got the same BMW BBS wheels, they are a good choice, strong, light and perfect fitment for an MX5 with much better tyre choice over the original 14's. Good track wheel. I've actually put a set of 195/50 T1-R on mine too:  |
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Last Edit: Nov 1, 2015 15:06:56 GMT by lewis
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MiataMark
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,971
Club RR Member Number: 29
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What's the width of the wheels, can't you get them in 2 widths (6.5" and 7")?
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1990 Mazda MX-52012 BMW 118i (170bhp) - white appliance 2011 Land Rover Freelander 2 TD4 2003 Land Rover Discovery II TD52007 Alfa Romeo 159 Sportwagon JTDm
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Nice project! I've got the same BMW BBS wheels, they are a good choice, strong, light and perfect fitment for an MX5 with much better tyre choice over the original 14's. Good track wheel. I've actually put a set of 195/50 T1-R on mine too: Nice - and that confirms the tyre size choice is a goodun too They feel really good quality, they're actually not the BBS version, they're made by TSW. I presume to the same specs. Don't know if TSW ones were ever a standard fit on the E30 though? It's been lowered quite a bit on some good quality springs. Has KYB shocks on the front that look aftermarket and Bilsteins on the back that I presume are standard. Looks to be a little lower than yours but i think the tyre size should still be ok. We'll see! |
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What's the width of the wheels, can't you get them in 2 widths (6.5" and 7")? These ones are the 7" wide version. I've spotted that they have more dish than my Lincoln BBS wheels which are basically identical wheels and can be seen in the pic where the wheels are stacked up. I've read on some sites that people have to put a small spacer at the back so they fill the arch better, but we didn't have to and they're perfect! I presume that's for the less dishy 6.5s? |
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can't wait to get back on the car for the next step!
