Samage
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,467
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Sept 1, 2019 17:37:02 GMT
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I'll let you into a not-so-secret secret; I am generally curse word at mechanical stuff. As such, I'm uncomfortable with working on brakes and other safety critical parts. So when my MX-5 suffered the infamous MX-5 problem of seized rear calipers, I was getting ready to assume the position and get my wallet violated by a garage. But... for once, I decided to put my neuroses aside and have a crack at it myself. So, some cash later and I get two shiny new calipers, two shiny new discs and four shiny new brake pads. And despite the car's best efforts to thwart me with rusty bolts, inaccessible fittings and that god awful Allen key piston adjuster (which didn't work anyway because the pistons were seized) I actually did it! And they work!  Behold, before and after...   Took it out for a test drive... and no more binding brakes, no more squealing, no more rear discs giving off heat that could be felt from 3 feet away. Success!  It's small potatoes in the grand scheme of things, but I'm feeling pretty proud of my little self.  Just shows, you CAN do it if you try. I've got front discs and pads to do at some point, but no rush. Now I'm off to read some REAL build threads until I feel hopelessly inadequate again.  |
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glenanderson
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,360
Club RR Member Number: 64
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Sept 1, 2019 19:06:32 GMT
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Cool, well done.
In 5 years and 60,000 miles a sticky rear calliper was the only mechanical failure on our old Eunos.
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My worst worry about dying is my wife selling my stuff for what I told her it cost...
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Sept 1, 2019 19:10:54 GMT
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Good work. It's so satisfying and much cheaper looking after your own car. The more work you do the more comfortable and confident you'll become. Keep going.
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Samage
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,467
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Sept 1, 2019 20:27:29 GMT
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Cool, well done. In 5 years and 60,000 miles a sticky rear calliper was the only mechanical failure on our old Eunos. Was it the offside one by any chance? Seems to be a thing with these. O/S was completely stuck in one position on mine, no movement at all. The N/S had some movement but not as much as it should. Replaced both of them, I think freeing up the N/S would only have postponed the inevitable. |
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MiataMark
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,971
Club RR Member Number: 29
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Sept 1, 2019 20:45:26 GMT
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Good job, I've rebuilt the brakes on mine (including an upgrade to 1.8 spec discs). On the rear brakes the slide pin on the drivers side was so stuck it needed a club hammer to free off the caliper!
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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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Sept 1, 2019 21:03:20 GMT
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Ours was also stuck solid, they were also compltely dry with no sign of lubrication, I put them back together with copperslip.
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glenanderson
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,360
Club RR Member Number: 64
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Sept 1, 2019 21:09:30 GMT
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Cool, well done. In 5 years and 60,000 miles a sticky rear calliper was the only mechanical failure on our old Eunos. Was it the offside one by any chance? Seems to be a thing with these. O/S was completely stuck in one position on mine, no movement at all. The N/S had some movement but not as much as it should. Replaced both of them, I think freeing up the N/S would only have postponed the inevitable. No, oddly enough it was the passenger side. I freed it off a couple of times, but I ended up replacing it. |
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My worst worry about dying is my wife selling my stuff for what I told her it cost...
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Samage
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,467
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So as you've seen in the first post, my car does have a bit of scabbing on the rear arches as is par for the course for a Mk1 MX5, and I purchased a couple of repair panels to rectify this. With this in mind, I passed the car and the panels to a mate of mine who's far, far better at welding and bodywork than I am so the old arches can be cut off and the new ones fitted. Just the arches, mind you... ... of course, the MX5 fans in the room will be stifling laughter at this point, because as I found out it's never "just the arches" on one of these! First, my mate started slicing back at the rear arches to see if it was a full panel job or just the arch lip. Predictably, it's likely to be a full panel job - which is fine, we were ready for this, we have the full panels for both rear quarters.  We were also ready for replacing the outer rear sills... however we weren't ready for the rear inner sills to be completely destroyed by rust and metal plate tiger-sealed over the top. The driver's side is the worse of the two. Woops...   Further digging reveals the inner arches at the back are shot as well. The good news is, the sills beyond the rear section are solid, having been replaced previously, apparently not at the same time as the rear sections because they seem to have been done properly, and there seems to be no major corrosion at the front end of the car. Nevertheless, it's a blow and will mean spending way more than I'd initially budgeted for this in terms of both panels and labour. Luckily I'm getting the labour done at mates rates. I did think about whether to stump up or not, perhaps opting to sell or break the car... and after literally 30 seconds of consideration, I'd purchased the additional panels and given my mate the green light to continue the work. I'm surprised how little hesitation there was, despite the fact I'm about to spend the purchase price of the car again getting it fixed. Guess the little car's gotten under my skin. |
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glenanderson
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,360
Club RR Member Number: 64
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The “like” isn’t for finding the unexpected grot, it’s for sticking with something that’s been good for you. 😃👍
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My worst worry about dying is my wife selling my stuff for what I told her it cost...
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goldnrust
West Midlands
Minimalist
Posts: 1,889
Member is Online
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As someone who’s had 3/5 (bought two of them back after selling them!) Mk1 Mx5s I can attest to their power to put a smile on your face I’m glad to read that it’s working it’s magic for you too. As far as Mk1 sills go, that really doesn’t looks too bad at all! Yes the ‘middle’ still has some holes in, but you can see through those holes that the inner will is mostly still solid and not even surface rusty. You’ve caught this one at the right time and it’s well worth saving. You might find the car feels more solid over bumps with less skuttle shale once you’ve had the sills fixed, so there’s more to it than just keeping the MOT man happy. Once you’ve done the sills and the rear callipers, you’ve dealt with the usual problems and it should just be all about going out for a drive with the roof down! (Under the stars on a cold crisp night, wrapped up with a scarf with the heaters blaring. That’s magical) |
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Last Edit: Nov 20, 2019 13:33:19 GMT by goldnrust
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MiataMark
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,971
Club RR Member Number: 29
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Nov 20, 2019 12:28:01 GMT
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Been there done that (well got a garage to do it) although my wings were OK 'just' the sills.
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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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Nov 20, 2019 15:15:24 GMT
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I've done a few, (one was a couple of weeks ago) replacing at least the bottom half of the middle section of rear sill is pretty normal also pretty inevitable that by the time you have significant visible rot on the outer arch the inner is also gone.
that piece where the arch joins the sill is always a problem, the 2 panels are so close they never got e-coated at the factory.
Yours looks worth saving, on some it extends well into the inner sill and beyond.
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Samage
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,467
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Nov 25, 2019 16:12:03 GMT
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So, my mate has continued to slice away at the car, and found the inner arches are pretty crumbly. Here we see where he's removed a holey part and tried to wire wheel the surface rust away. Alas, though not holed, the rust goes through the full thickness of the panels.  So, I've had to order yet more new panels. Glad I'm getting this done at mates rates! On a happier note, with the inner arch sections removed there's nice, solid metal.  It'll be worth it when it's done... apparently! |
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Samage
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,467
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Nov 28, 2019 19:11:48 GMT
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Inner arch is in on the driver's side...  Inner sill is in as well on this side but my mate didn't take any pics. And the outer arch is being offered up...  Things are starting to look up! |
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Nov 28, 2019 20:21:47 GMT
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Nice! My Ex wife had one with some Jasckson Racing modifications on it. I got to wring it out on the test drive when she bought it, but it was made clear to me that was just going to be a one time thing... And I love how you turned your grand dads money into something tangible to remember him by. |
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Samage
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,467
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Dec 15, 2019 20:06:31 GMT
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Last Edit: Dec 15, 2019 20:14:13 GMT by Samage
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Samage
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,467
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Jan 16, 2020 20:49:21 GMT
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Exciting times! First of all, my mate smoothed out the exterior welds on the arch panels...   Then he got a bodywork guy he knows to blend in the new panels and throw a coat of paint over them to protect them. The whole car is to be painted eventually, so he just threw on some paint he had left over. Colour match isn't important at this stage...   Rust free rear arches, and all the underneath bits sorted as well! Result! I'm so used to seeing the car with scabby arches, it almost looks weird without them! Next order of business - get an MOT on it, as the MOT lapsed while it was in the workshop. Then the laborious task of prepping for an external repaint can begin... |
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Last Edit: Jan 16, 2020 20:53:27 GMT by Samage
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Jan 16, 2020 21:32:35 GMT
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Nice work on the welding. When they rot they rot
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Samage
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,467
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Jul 11, 2020 17:51:53 GMT
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So... not an awful lot's been going on with this. Been driving and using it where I can, but the bodywork prep hasn't really moved forward. Still needs some of the dents attending to before it can be primed, and it's still 3 different shades of blue. This has been for two reasons: 1 - I don't know if I'll still have a job when furlough ends, so I don't want to spend too much on the car at the moment. 2 - with the stress from all the uncertainty, brain went bye-byes again and I haven't been able to summon much inclination. Recently, I felt I should probably ease myself back into things even though I still don't know about my job. A couple of nice, easy low-cost jobs should do it. So I decided to tackle another infamous MX5 issue, the leaking cam cover gasket. Checked the history and it had a belt not long before I bought it, so it just needs the gasket. While I'm at it, I'll do its annual service. Bought stuff:  Next, pop the cam cover off. A simple task, yes? It is, when some buffoon hasn't changed the gasket previously using a non OEM one (which are terrible, and leak even more readily than genuine ones), and attempted to make up for its poor performance by soaking the entire thing in gasket sealer, effectively gluing the cover into place. After very gently teasing the cover off using a flat screwdriver with tape around the end, desperately trying not to gouge the aluminium, I spent another 30 minutes picking curse word off the cover and the top of the engine. This is about half of it - note the old gasket is off to the right, everything in the middle is sealant. It was even in the spark plug tubes and on the oil dipstick handle.  And it's off!  You're supposed to use a little bit of gasket sealant in the corners. I have no idea what stuff the last person used in the corners, but it looked more like bathroom sealer. Definitely wasn't the same as the rest of black curse word I peeled off, it was very rubbery and off-white. You can just about see it here.  Rest of the session was fairly uneventful. New gasket went on perfectly (should hope so, it's genuine after all!), all went back together OK, torqued up bolts in the correct 'spiral' order. Then I went on to do most of the service - plugs, air filter, coolant top up, oil top up. The fuel and oil filters will have to wait as I need to jack the car up for those, and there's no point doing a full oil change until I've done the filter (plus I don't think I'm mentally ready to deal with the now massively complicated disposal process at the local tip). Could have jacked the car up today, but in my present state I get exhausted very quickly, even when I'm doing something I enjoy. Couldn't really think straight by the time I'd finished, so I decided to call it a day. Perhaps tomorrow. Not an exciting update, but it's an update. |
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Last Edit: Jul 11, 2020 17:52:51 GMT by Samage
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Behold, before and after...
Just shows, you CAN do it if you try. I've got front discs and pads to do at some point, but no rush. 
