Overdue update time!
Christmas/ New years means time for me to drive back to my parents for the winter break which usually means time to get some jobs done on whichever car I take and this time was no exception!
First job which I kind of started before I left Coventry was that I noticed the drivers side flash-to-pass window was a bit loose. I got in there with a spanner and got it off to investigate
One bolt/stud didn't seem to want to leave..
This was a little annoying but what I've done is use a ton of araldite epoxy to strengthen the remaining stud as the plastic was cracking around it as well. I'll probably put some on the stud left in the bumper when I go to refit the window
While I was down at the front bumper I got on with swapping a few bulbs for new ones which is when I found this huge crack in the drivers side indicator/sidelight housing
It goes all the way around so that when the lens is put on the front, it kind of holds the whole thing together haha, I'll stick that back together when I get a chance as its holding out for now
Alongside that, I was also tackling a detail thing about the car which bothered me, namely the red rear badges.
I can sort of see what one of the previous owners was trying to do but I'm not a fan of the look, so I set about roughing them up a bit..
Priming..
And painting them to give a more OEM look
As Ed China used to say on Wheeler Dealers back when it was low budget, I've finished them off with a few coats of Satin Black
While I had the use of a driveway I took the opportunity to give the car a service, changing the oil (Mineral
), oil filter, belts, HT leads and spark plugs
The belts weren't in too bad a condition ( the air pump one being the worst of the lot) but it seemed a good idea to change them all
It was a bit of a faff but got there in the end
Bizzarely, I later found a plastic bag under the false floor in the boot which had old worn versions of each of the belts in it. One of which had this maker which amused me as it looks like a knock off version of Mitsubishi
The spark plugs on the car were not to the exact spec that Mazda recommend, being heat range 9 plugs in the leading and trailing holes but didn't look too bad I think?
In any case I replaced them with the correct 7's and 9's and nice new leads and it seems to be running happily as ever
The big job I was hoping to sort while I had the time, was to go through and change most of the clutch hydraulics system as I'd had some issues with it as described earlier in the thread.
I had all the parts ready to go and the slave cylinder was the first to come off without any real trouble or massive fluid leak.
Here's the old cylinder and hose next to the new
aand it would seem we have an issue
yep, thats not going to work..
A quick google later confirmed that there were indeed two different types of clutch slave cylinder for the FC, I'd bought one for an NA car which was no good on my Turbo car.
While pondering how to solve that I got on with removing the master cylinder. Which apart from requiring a little footwell gymnastics wasn't too hard to remove. A quick look in the reservoir revealed a bit of an ugly mess mind..
I wasn't actually sure it needed replacing but its nice to have the piece of mind of new parts
In the meantime I'd worked out I'd only be able to get a new slave cylinder once I got back to Coventry realistically, but I needed the car the next day.. So I elected to strip the slave cylinder and clean it out as best I could.
It came apart pretty easily and the amusingly named degreaser did a good job of cleaning it up
There is a bit of rust on the bore of the cylinder which I think is causing it to stick at the far end of its travel. But it will do for the time being and a new one will get sourced and fitted asap!
Finally, ever since I bought the car I knew it needed a really good clean, it was tidy enough but I do like to get into a bit of a deep clean on a new car, so out came all the usual cleaning implements and products. While I was vaccuuming out the interior, it struck me that the seats are only held in by 4 bolts and that there would probably be a load of rubbish under the seats. Thus..
(I'm not sure what the flat metal thing under the seat is, it wasn't fixed down at all)
It felt a lot better knowing that all the rubbish from under the seats was all gone and the interior was as clean as I could get it, the seats came up really nice too
And another minor win on the interior is that I managed to get the drivers door puddle light by wiggling the bulb a bit, I do like a simple fix
Of course the exterior needed some attention too..
From
To
The first and last time I ever polish faded red paint by hand!
And I reinstated the badges which I think look a million times better (Just need a new rear number plate now.. and some Turbo II stickers for the front wings)
So I got a decent amount of work done on the car over the past couple of weeks. A couple of jobs for me going forward will be to install the DAB aerial which I didn't get round to doing, and fitting a new slave cylinder once I buy one.
Overall, I'm still happy with rotary daily life