mx5cartalk.com

A portion of my tax refund was earmarked for long-awaited car mods, all of which include varying quantities of stainless steel The usual disclaimer applies regarding no affiliation with, or incentives from, any of the mentioned suppliers.

1) The first one to arrive, just prior to last weekend, was a set of 'vintage' convex door mirrors from Moss Europe. Great quality & value items, and well packaged. A bit of assembly and finessing required, but that just added to the fun. The most demanding part was cutting a 16mm hole between the two mounting points on the drivers door. I was pleasantly surprised to find the passenger door was from a later model (catering to power windows) so already had the large hole. I've been umming and ahhing about this mod for at least a couple of years but am really pleased with the outcome - just looks right to me. I particularly like, from the drivers seat, how their size, shape and finish echoes the speedo & tach. And, yes, being convex they actually work as mirrors too. Bonus.






2) Earlier this week a set of Jass Performance frame rails arrived. They'll be installed next weekend.

3) Yesterday a short shift kit from forum sponsor Beavis Motorsport turned up. I was pleasantly surprised by the extra goodies that Brendan threw in, including a personalised thankyou note. Great customer service.



The installation video he posted on YouTube was very helpful. The only additional thing I did was add a dust boot (also from Beavis MS, at a great price) to the top of the assembly, and some grease to the upper & lower pivot bushings, after cleaning out the turret and refilling with new oil.



I know these things (or very similar) are all over eBay, often for less money, but the quality seems variable at best, based on some YouTubing I've done. I have no complaints about this one other than I thought the screw joint between the lower and upper halves of the shaft was a bit of a loose fit. Nothing some blue threadlocker couldn't take care of, though. I'm also aware of the ultimate version being produced by MiataRoadster but, for around that price, I was able to pretty much cover all three of these mods. So, how does it feel in use? Good. Really good. I was surprised by how quickly I adapted to the shorter action. The 2-3 and 4-5 changes seem to benefit the most. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.

To install the mirrors, did u have to take off the door cards and bolt in the nut to the thread from the inside?

Unfortunately I have to drill the hole a bit bigger for the mirrors to fit.

There is a Moto- Lita steering wheel now just waiting for you!

jko wrote:To install the mirrors, did u have to take off the door cards and bolt in the nut to the thread from the inside?

Unfortunately I have to drill the hole a bit bigger for the mirrors to fit.

No work on the inside of the door. I used a 20mm hole saw (not 16mm as mentioned in my post) to make room for the nut and bolt. Any larger and you risk being outside the footprint of the adaptor plate. Any smaller and the nut may not clear. Be aware that there's a second bit of sheet metal behind the door skin that also needs to be cut.

lucmor444 wrote:There is a Moto- Lita steering wheel now just waiting for you!

I was wondering if you'd pick up on that

As much as I love that wheel, I had to make a choice between it and the frame rail braces. GLWS

LiteIsRite wrote:short shift kit from forum sponsor Beavis Motorsport turned up. I was pleasantly surprised by the extra goodies that Brendan threw in, including a personalised thankyou note. Great customer service.

The only additional thing I did was add some grease to the upper & lower pivot bushings.

Thanks very much for taking the time to post Gary, glad to hear the install went well.
Appreciate the feedback with regard to grease, this is something I did on my install too, so I should've mentioned it in my install guide.
I'll look to include some grease with my kits going forward.

I've read about increased noise from the MR shift kits and just wondering what these kits are like by comparison?

KevGoat wrote:I've read about increased noise from the MR shift kits and just wondering what these kits are like by comparison?

Unfortunately, Kev, I haven't any experience with shifters other than OEM - not even a test drive in someone else's car. All I can say is that in my shakedown drive yesterday I heard no new/additional noises. The difference for me was all in the 'feel'.

Wonder if the nvh from the MR kit is due to the delrin lower bushing? The one in Beavis' kit looks more oem.

Shame the 6 speed kits cost so much more at the price of those 5 speed kits I'd have given it a go.

KevGoat wrote:Wonder if the nvh from the MR kit is due to the delrin lower bushing? The one in Beavis' kit looks more oem.

Yep, the shifter tip bushing supplied with the Beavis kit appears to be very similar to OEM. Interestingly enough, I do have a MR delrin bushing on the way so I'll report here on any differences I encounter once it's fitted.

Cool. Will be interesting to hear what the differences are.

Keen to hear how the delrin bush from MR goes.

I've been looking into a locally made delrin shifter bush solution that is cost effective.
It could mean people no longer need to suffer from failed or damaged lower bushes in shifters, and can easily repair shift feel on either an oem or short shifter, and at a reasonable cost.

so how do you identify that a bush is delrin?

Mr Morlock wrote:so how do you identify that a bush is delrin?

Well, other than via chemical analysis , you have to take the word of the supplier/manufacturer... but perhaps I'm taking you too literally. The only one I'm aware of so far is the one I just purchased from forum sponsor Bill @ MiataRoadster, and his looks like this -

LiteIsRite wrote:
a short shift kit from forum sponsor Beavis Motorsport turned up.
So, how does it feel in use? Good. Really good. I was surprised by how quickly I adapted to the shorter action. The 2-3 and 4-5 changes seem to benefit the most. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.

I've just purchased one of these based on your comments. That and 6 or 7 other items from Brendan.

Look foward to seeing how it goes

Sent from my SM-A520F using Tapatalk