Ok. So that's you up to date on Green Car to the present day...
But... apparently... a few months ago in the pub my old lodger Carmichael asked me if I wanted his old Mk1 MX5 for £800... here is a picture of it from a few years ago when I put a TR Lane half cage in it and we swapped the springs as he'd snapped one (it came with Bilsteins from the factory Ooooo).
....que a month later and I am sitting offshore working away when I get a WhatsApp; 'when are you picking up the mx5...." ahh... I must have agreed to buy it then! Kindly he delivered it to SSSB (Super Secret Shore Base) before it's MOT ran out and before I got back from Norway..
And this is how he was when I returned to inspect something I last saw 4 years ago and had agreed to in the pub..
It had not had a lot of love for a few years and had previously been bought from an older gentleman who had thrown up plastic chrome across most of the interior... THAT HAD TO GO. STAT.
Step 1. Sort out the looks. 3 jet washes later I was ready to touch it and try to simplify the looks a little more.
Those clear indicators and side reflectors are all Mazda parts still.
Out with the old crappy headlight lenses and in with some new crystal clear ones.
Lets sort out the parachute that is the rear bumper with a quick chop chop..
Tow strap and the smallest legal japanese sized plate mounted offset at the front.
Plenty of scope for paint correction.
Zoinks. What has this piece of billet been machined for?
A clue here.
Some really pretty carbon parts arrived too. The so called Tombstone central dash bit and also a binnacle/gauge hood.
In combination also a parcel from RevLimiter in the States, which gave me the toggle buttons pictured... and also some more fun bits...
Something I can tell you about, in the road going class for hillclimb and sprint racing, everything that was fitted to the car should still be present and should still work. The original AC for instance. I mean it is possible to retrofit these cars with non AC controls and pull out all of the AC gubbins. Rumuor has it you could save 18kgs of weight. Or so I am told.
For reference this is what a removed AC system looks like.
Short shift and cranked gear stick back from anodising.
So about that parcel from Revlimiter. Are you familiar with the Doge Meme? I am not greatly into this sort of thing, but I appreciate this one.
Yes sir boss.
Interior glory shot.
I found a set of unobtainium. Made for 949racing a Californian racing outfit that have specialised in MX5s and going really fast and hard in them (or Miatas as they like to call them), these are 5.5kgs each, ultra strong for smashing racing kerbs at speed and also twin valved so you can nitrogen purge. Woah. Racecar.
These were used and showing their age but straight and undamaged. I tried hand sanding, I tried dremelling with various pads.. but ultimately I wasted a day doing that and then acid dipped them (hoping they wouldn't fizz to nothing).
I put the tent back up in SSSB and sprayed them over two days in black epoxy the same time I was doing a couple of outboard legs for my race boat.
The front wings were utterly ducked and rotted out at their front ends.
A new pair from Mazda were £350. Result.
Of course I chopped them up and voided the warranty immediately.
I let the epoxy painted wheels harden up for a few days (passed the fingernail test the next morning but felt it best to leave them for at least 48 hours before mounting tyres...)
Now I am excited.
Now. The bad. The rear sills have been patched before, badly, and some absolute tool had punched the sill drains closed - there were two chisel marks on all four of them - so the sills were full of water, the car sloshed as you drove it!! So I do anticipate on full sills at some point in the near future. But for now just to repair this section.
And then yet another jet wash (the 6th) before a few hours of gentle machine polishing (there is no lacquer on these from the factory, so you're cutting back the factory paint).
Before some BARC, roundels and tow stickers.
Sacked off the terrible Zoom fuel cap - fitted in Japan by the look of it...
A shame it has damaged the paint around it, but I'll paint that section and it'll still be nice for a competition car.
I presented him for MOT after a fraught morning changing the thermostat housing which had a pin prick leak.
And when he passed... gave him a present...
Of a new coolant reservoir and oil catch tank - deleting the old carbon canister which took vapours from the fuel tank through it.
And also fixed his electric aerial. Such happiness watching that come up and down now.
And so that was Day 8 of MX5 ownership. An MOT. And conveniently Wednesday... so I drove a 100 mile round trip and went to car club that night in Torbay. The only thing highlighted was an oil leak from the front of the cam cover seal.
Day 9 of MX5 ownership was gritty.
With Green Car off...
The Renault RaceTransporter is also a very hand workbench...
The rear subframe, rear brace and all the front and rear control arms I took to get blasted.
The one casualty. This driveshaft wouldn't pop out as normal so I tried to press it out. 5 tons in and one of the brake mounts snapped off the hub... anyone got a spare?
A lot of jet washing, dremelling, fleece disc on a grinder and hand sanding later..
And the diff was cleaned up, treated, etch primed and painted..
With all the bits back from blasting (6 hours later) the tent was back up and in action. With all the bushes pressed out (warmed up first with the map gas gun), it was time to paint everything in black epoxy.
Super Pro bushes on everything including the rear diff mounts. And a brand new bolt set for the rear suspension - such luxury!
You'll notice the stock anti roll bars back in use, all be it with polybushed mounts. I don't really believe in using super thick anti roll bars, especially for hillclimbing. I want the ability for movement between each side and will control the car with springs and damping overall. I may go slightly stiffer at the front, but at the rear the stock one will certainly be staying.
Which is where these come in. A set of Meister R Club Races. Stiff. And valved to suit.
