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Aug 20, 2010 20:58:06 GMT
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Got this today, swapped it for my 106 as I was a bit bored, and I've always fancied an MX5.  It's a 1.8, the clutch is 1000 miles away from buggered and it needs lowering and some new wheels urgently! I got home from picking it up and ordered the parts within about 15 minutes. Any advice on fitting the clutch will be gratefully received. Plans are the usual cobblers treatment - heavy slam, wide wheels. Probably going to nail a hardtop on and a decent roll bar too. Drove about 2 miles with the top down and felt like a bit of a nob  Unfortunately wheels will have to wait for next month, so I'm stuck on these monstrosities for a while. Anyway, It's not a lot to look at right now (My apologies for starting the thread before it's even worth reading about) |
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Last Edit: Nov 15, 2010 12:42:00 GMT by cobblers
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Mark
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,097
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Spray wheels grey or black and you will be able to suffer them for a little while longer!
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kee
Posted a lot
Posts: 4,990
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i'm full expecting this to be scraping by the end of the day  |
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Should be on tuesday (when I assume the coilovers are turning up)
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kee
Posted a lot
Posts: 4,990
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that'll do  |
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Aug 21, 2010 10:15:19 GMT
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rtlkyuubi
Posted a lot
Low and Slow
Posts: 2,922
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Aug 21, 2010 10:19:49 GMT
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rwd ftw ;D
Ive herd that hard tops go for alot of money, but there is a damaged one in wilf jays that I guess he would sell cheap.
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Aug 21, 2010 20:28:23 GMT
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rwd ftw ;D but there is a damaged one in wilf jays that I guess he would sell cheap. O RLY? I might pop down tomorrow and have a neb, not shy of a bit of fibreglassing. Did it look buggered? Not really been able to experience RWD comedy yet, the clutch is just on the edge of death so it won't really kick out properly - I need to find a large wet deserted carpark to find my feet with it. Also need to see if I can find a bit more power out of it, seems a bit gutless for 130bhp! |
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rtlkyuubi
Posted a lot
Low and Slow
Posts: 2,922
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Aug 22, 2010 14:20:38 GMT
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rwd ftw ;D but there is a damaged one in wilf jays that I guess he would sell cheap. O RLY? I might pop down tomorrow and have a neb, not shy of a bit of fibreglassing. Did it look buggered? Not really been able to experience RWD comedy yet, the clutch is just on the edge of death so it won't really kick out properly - I need to find a large wet deserted carpark to find my feet with it. Also need to see if I can find a bit more power out of it, seems a bit gutless for 130bhp! well, its got a hole in it, lol ;D weld the diff and go to a buxton track day. local and skidding for £10 ftw |
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Aug 22, 2010 17:20:33 GMT
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I found out that it's definitely an open diff this morning, lol. Loads of circles with the inside wheel spinning up and curse word all sideways action. I need to work on my technique!
Also found a couple of reasons it's down on power. The backbox has been cobbled on and it's got a rally narrow, tight bend, and the Air filter sits inches from the exhaust manifold, after a 2 mile drive it's so hot you can barely touch it!
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Aug 31, 2010 19:34:47 GMT
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Stance: Corrected!  A week later than anticipated, but due to the coilovers taking a week to come rather than a day! Just how long are the OE rear springs!!!? I ran out of length on the spring compressors once I'd removed them - Had to just wind them out til they pinged off (I needed another 10mm or so, went with a twang!) Still no luck finding any wheels. A set of new mini cooper wheels (17" minilight alikes) came up local, so I got excited, but they turned out to be standard mini one alloys and massively toss. |
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Sept 1, 2010 12:27:08 GMT
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Off to a good start - on the basis of your previous rides I think this will be awesome.
My 2p - Little banded steelies or allycats
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1967 Morris Traveller 1971 Series IIA Land Rover 1991 Golf GL 4+e 1992 Corrado G60 1986 E28 BMW 528i |
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Sept 1, 2010 15:47:24 GMT
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Very jealous, really wna get my hands on one, will be keeping an eye on this!
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sopaz
Part of things
Posts: 44
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Sept 4, 2010 22:24:33 GMT
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I've just bought an almost identical car to this, except mine is a 1994 and every panel is dented/scratched...  Have you had any luck finding a hard top locally? My hood has many holes, luckily it hasn't rained since I bought it! |
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Sept 5, 2010 22:07:52 GMT
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No luck with a hardtop, but I've not really looked! I need one, but there's things higher up on my list! Spent the weekend on the car, happy with the results! Changed the clutch yesterday - the guides on Miata.net were correct! Everything was BLOODY tight. I've done "proper" work on dozens and dozens of cars, new and old and not one of them has had every bolt so consistently very very tight! Luckily, the Mazda fasteners were all decent quality, and nothing rounded off. The exhaust had been P*ssing me off for ages - when I got the car, it was fine. After about 30 miles the exhaust started clattering and banging on the rear valance, really hard. It drove me up the wall! I made the mistake of poking my head under to see what the deal was - Universal "J STYLE YO" backbox bodged on, nothing lined up properly, one of the hangers had fell off the exhaust and a load of numberplate pads stuck on the backbox to stop it banging. I had to take it off to do the clutch, so dragged the sorry thing out and took a picture:   We got the welder out and spent an hour making it fit slightly better. It now sounds curse word and saps power, but doesn't clout on the valance at all! This morning I decided I wanted to move the front plate over to the left - looked on ebay and after cringing at the £30 affair I dragged out the welder again, found some steel and made my own. Total cost was about 3 feet of welding wire and 10 seconds worth of matt black rattle can. Now I'm just trying to find some wheels - The exhaust is a mess, but it looks OK so it can wait. Dead happy with the cheapo coilovers, despite getting a lecture on the mx5 forum over lowering it as much as I have. It drives great, the only mishap has been shaving the top inch off of a bag of fertiliser that some jockey had let fall off their car 200 yards from wickes. |
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looking good matey, amazin how much difference a bit of lowness makes  I fitted the cheapy raceland coilovers to mine too. awesome andafter about 5 months still ride really nice- much better than stock. mine seem to have settled about another 1/2 inch now  I know what ya mean about some of the mx 5 lot, a few peeps have a winge about how your ruining the ride of one of the best handling cars there is etc.. but its a deffo improvement, also there seems to be a bit of brand snobbery towards the cheaper coilies, cant be any good because they're not £600 etc anyhoo, will watch this with anticipation ( if thats how ya spell it) is it wheels next? - ill 2nd the call for banded steels ;D- though has been done by craig1010c looks imense. how aboooot banded rostyles mmmmmmmmmmm |
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Last Edit: Sept 6, 2010 8:38:03 GMT by carlb1970
I'm not curse word, i just fell off my shoes
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Sept 8, 2010 15:20:10 GMT
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Ive herd that hard tops go for alot of money, but there is a damaged one in wilf jays that I guess he would sell cheap. Damaged... Yes.  Cheap.... Yes Popped down to have a look, tried it on and it seemed to fit, so I offered them £30 (What the rear glass is worth). I swapped the clips off my soft top onto it and drove home at a steady 40mph. Arrived to see my mother shaking her head at my latest garden ornaments (I've still got a pair of 106 doors on the patio that she moans about on a daily basis) I "might" have secured some wheels, but after a few promising emails the bloke has disappeared  as has the bloke with the roll cage, and the other bloke with some banded g60 steels. Off to vanfest this weekend with my mate who converts vans (he sprayed the 106 with me) and with some luck we'll sell a van or two and free some space in his workshop for me to crack on with the roof. If not I'll be working on the back garden. At the end of the day it'll probably stand me about £130 all done (which is what bruce paid for a good one, but we aren't all that lucky!) but it'll keep me busy, and a good one would need painting anyway! |
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sopaz
Part of things
Posts: 44
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Sept 8, 2010 19:48:22 GMT
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That's a bit of a mess!
What are they made from/how will you repair it? I've noticed loads with bubbled paint on ebay, and wondered if some of them might even be metal?
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Sept 8, 2010 19:58:51 GMT
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They're fibreglass. I'll cut the damage out back to solid stuff, bevel the top edges and lay a few layers of glass back in. Might take a couple of days with the filler to get the shape back, but I'm in no great rush.
There are a few breaks in the outer frame which will take a bit more thinking about, I'll probably reinforce them with some steel inside the fibreglass tube.
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Sept 26, 2010 22:02:11 GMT
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I've been busy with the hardtop - We sorted all the cracks in the frame out (by glassing steel reinforcements in) then cut the top out back to sound material, tapered the edges and using a mould I took of the other side, layed 4 layers of glass back in the hole (2 from above with the mould held inside, then once this had just gone off we removed the mould and put the layers from inside on.   Plenty of cracks all over the place were fixed, and plenty of filler applied and a lot of rubbing down occured til I was quite sweaty. Then we put some more filler on, went for a macdonalds and came back then rubbed this down again. Again I became quite sweaty. I got my professionally trained monkey to apply a coat of 2k high build primer in his professional spray booth:  Then I filled all the pinholes with stopper, sanded most of the primer back off and he stuck another coat on. Again sanded about 80% off and then we stuck some of the paint I had spare from the 106 on to see how it looked. This was done in a very dusty workshop, just to get some gloss on to see how well we'd got the curve back into the roof.  It's a shame it's full of dust because it's a nice coat of paint, but I'm over the moon with how its turned out considering how shafted it was. Anyway, onto the interesting stuff: I bought these:  The adaptors would have taken more work to make fit than I wanted, and in the flesh I don;t think they suited the car, so back on ebay they went (collected by a very pleasant chap to go on his 996 over winter) and I managed to find a set of "old faithfuls"  2 wides, 2 narrows. Collecting them wednesday night. Just need another set now! Camskill have come through again for tyres - 195/50/15 Toyo T1rs £28 a piece. |
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as has the bloke with the roll cage, and the other bloke with some banded g60 steels.