'93 MX5: Teenage Dirtbag found on BuildThreads.com

The next morning it is discovered that Robs car is still patchy despite the three coats of paint. Rob did seem a bit nervous with the spray gun so I reckon he must have missed a few bits on the second and third coat. Painting when very tired and not with the nest lighting set-up in the world (lack of daylight too) probably didn't help?

Another good coat with the benefit of daylight rather than relying on the striplights....and the Midget is done. After an hour or so with the heaters on in the booth, it's dry enough to pull outside to start reassembly. It's 1.30pm and we should really have been at this stage 24hrs ago! Dave can't resist but get some shots - it does look good.


We try and convince Rob that he should just fit the lights and drive it like that. It looks awesome as a Speedster. Rob isn't totally convinced seeing as it's his daily.


Mine finally comes out of the corner and edges towards the spary booth. I've only ever sprayed one car before (my Delica) so I am starting to get a bit nervous now!






4.30pm and it's finally in the booth. Quite a few people have had to head home, but the rest of us get the final masking done on the MX5


Because it's on coilovers and therefore a bit nearer the floor, we put it up on axle stands so that I can get to the sills & under the arches better (nice suggestion Alan)


Panel wiped off, the car is ready to go....but time is getting on and Rob needs a hand to get his car back together, so it's all hands on deck with the Midget. The Dirtbag will just have to wait a little bit longer.


I was so busy over the next few hours that I didn't really stop to take any photos (dificult to do when you're painting!). Rob's car is finally ready to drive by 11.40pm - the expression on his face says it all. He is happy with how things have gone and is finally able to drive his newly painted car home knowing he did the spraying himself. A real achievement.


Just before midnight, I take some snaps of my car. It's been a bloody long weekend, I only finished spraying about 11.30 and I'm bloody tired.


Three long days, two cool cars and lots of hard graft in the company of good friends. Some traumas along the way, but nothing to dampen the spirits....as many laughs were had as beers were drunk and the end results were very satisfying. Happy days.

Ben happened to snag a massive bag full of newspapers that his Gran was about to chuck out, so we had enough to do both cars and then wrap the whole northern hemisphere if we felt like it!!





A lot of people think I came up with the name Teenage Dirtbag because it reflected the ratty look of the original red car.

This is not the case, the name was decided before I'd even bought an MX5. I wanted to modify an MX5 that would look a bit like the smaller ba****d little brother of my Delica. The Delica is all big & tough and I figured it would be fun to have a car that kinda complitmented it with a similar look, but different at the same time. It sort of makes sense in my head anyway! Teenage Dirtbag was always intended to be an angsty reject relative of this:









So that's why it ended up the same colour:

[cough]Your thread title needs updating[/cough]

Are you putting those seats back in? Unworn tan seats are sought after, the rain tends to drop down on the drivers side bolster, which causes the leather to soften and wear quite badly.

OD scheme looks deadly, BTW!

just joined the forum having been reading this at work.
well impressed i want one now plus the colour sceme is amazing.
keep up the hard work.

Looking good Bruce.

I do have to admit that i quite liked the tan interior with the nato green paint

Now you see it....


...now you don't



The plan here was to have a closer look at how my roll bar mounted. It's a lovely solid bar, well made and probably fairly protective, but no use if it isn't mounted to the body too well. Even though it was only bolted with M5 bolts....there were quite a lot of them as well as the seatbelt tower mounts but I still wanted to have a closer look at the metal they were going into to check if there was enough strength.

With all the carpet and panelwork removed I could get a better look:


No mounts in the seatbelt towers, just a hole. I could either cut the roll bar bracket off and extend it to the seatbelt mount itself, or fab something up for it to mount to through this hole?


It gets worse....these mounts go into the cover for the petrol tank. Flimsy metal is an understatement. Some mods here will be in order...


Where the 'X' is marked is where another mount goes (one each side) and this metalwork is pretty pathetic too....you can flex it quite easily with just your hands. As well as the seatbelt tower mounts, this corner is where most of the strength needs to be so I'd better get making.


After a rummage through the metalwork, I have a selection of 5mm plates. I could cut some from scratch, but why go to all the hassle when something can be made from existing parts. Time saved & all that....


After lots of offering up, measuring, checking and double checking (probably about 2hrs of testing things out) I fire up the welder and melt some metal together


Flat the welds back to enable it to mount better


Larger captive nuts welded on the inside....a lot stronger than the existing mounts


I also drill out the captive nuts from the fuel tank area




...and weld up a bracket for that too. This one will be more of a spreader plate. It won't be mega structural, but it will be strong and certainly won't pull through like the original captive nuts would have done


The main brackets are welded in place. Seam welded around the perimeter, plug welded through the holes in the back and also fully welded into the lip above them (where the shelf sits)


I tested it by hitting it hard with a hammer and it sounded very, very solid. If I was ever to be in a crash big enough for this to give, I'll have far greater things to worry about!


Some more welding


Followed by some drilling


Then some more welding....and I have a nice captive nut complete with spreader plate under the seatbelt tower.


Test fit of the roll bar. I've made a spacer to sit in there to lock everything together rather than have the end of the bracket under tension, I just didn't fit it for the photo


Fuel tank spreader plate fitted. Held in place with bolts because I wasn't to keen on welding it in so close to the fuel lines & tank. It makes the whole mount SO much more solid!



More to come soon.....

I can confirm this - it sounded just like hitting a solid workbench vice with a hammer, not 5mm plate welded to sheet steel. ;D

Sorry, I somehow missed this last night!
Colour is NATO green from the BS381c colour chart which is the colour range for all military paints. If you literally google BS381c it'll come up with lots of results showing the colour chart. NATO green is colour 285 from the chart. Hope that helps?