mx5cartalk.com

Hi everyone ... time to say hello ...

Kevin here My first post. Having gained so much knowledge from the MX5 forums online since buying my "Mex" I wanted to become more involved and give back if opportunity arises.

I'm 54, from Adelaide South Australia. Not really a club person and probably won't track the car. I'm quiet, shy, agoraphobic actually, but when I start writing I usually don't know when or how to stop, so be warned . Your best defense is that I am completely new to posting on Forums so learning as I go ... could get real messy haha ...

So, I have had my 1990 NA6 for nearly 12 months now. Wow how time flies! "Mexie" was never an intended purchase. The car was sitting unwanted on my mate's lawn for ages rotting away. Every time I went round to his place I'd look at it sitting there sad & unwanted. Just a matter of time before I gave in and made him a stupid offer on it to get it out of his way ... surprised the hell out of me when he accepted!

$2500 passed hands and she became a loved member of our crazy clan.

And so the trip home with my new pride & joy ... horrible tappet noise, one of the belt pulley's complaining, a disturbing grinding type noise from somewhere under the car between 3500-4000rpm, virtually no brakes, different types & sizes of wheels & tyres on each corner, a cantancerous gearbox giving me a workout to achieve 2nd gear, electric windows stuck annoyingly half open, fan belt slipping, cut springs sitting on the bumpstops making steering hairy at anything over 50km/hr & pretty much no ground clearance ... it was a big sigh of relief to pull in to my driveway ... .



Oh dear ... what was I thinking? ....



Driver's seat not too good & many interior parts missing...



OK, so she's here now, but being of very little mechanical knowledge or experience, it was time to figure where to start. Thats when I discovered the awesome array of info online and on all the MX5 forums! Wow!! There is nothing on these cars that someone hasn't done & posted a "how to" or how not to!

So, with enough knowledge to start making all my own mistakes, it was down to the local parts shop for the basics that I could do - spark plugs, belts, oil filter, quality synthetic oils for everything that looked like it takes oil. Ordered new brake discs & pads. Ordered all new brake spring fitting kits from Mania. I'd never touched gearboxes or diffs before, so on to Google, print out plenty of instructions & pictures & after arguing at much length with a particularly stubborn gearbox drain bolt the jobs were done to much cheering and hoorahs. Ok, so no one actually cared, but I felt good...




Next, read that the gear lever seals were prone to wear. Took out the centre console & didn't need any prior knowledge to know that what I was looking at wasn't good. So on to Mania for new boots & a selector bush. Syringed out the old mud & replaced with something much more agreeable and then fitted all the nice new parts. Time to start her up again. Hmmm....battery flat Tried to recharge ... nup, stuffed. Down to Supercheap for a decent fully sealed replacement - and yes I know they are supposed to be vented, but for now ....

Started her up & nice!! No tappet noise anymore!

Brakes all fixed. So on to the suspension. Decided to use the existing shocks - looked standard - and ordered some Eibach Lowered springs. Time for another first for me, ripped out the springs/shocks ...



While all this was going on, I decided to use the original wheels. But theye were in a really bad state! So after trying everything I could think of, took them around my mate's place & we sandblasted them clean. Then took them to a local paint shop & had them painted in two pak, baked for hardness. Very happy with the result.

Before:


Sandblasted:


Finished:




Fitted the new springs to the old shocks, had new tyres fitted to the restored wheels & finally put her back on the ground:



Drove like this for a little while. The engine felt great & the 2nd gear issue was resolved thanks to the new oil and selector bush. Most of the rattles & noises had been fixed thanks to many hours of fiddling, many twist ties and a huge amount of loose bolts tightened up.

But finally one of the stock shocks spat the dummy. I hadn't been overly happy with the ride height or the feel of the car on the Eibachs. Being such low cars anyway, the lowered springs became a hassle in carparks etc, so I decided to put her back to original settings. Plus the ride was awful, probably more due to the stuffed shocks rather than the lowered springs. Anyway, after much consideration and research online, I decided to go a different way to most & ordered standard height King Springs plus a set of Monroe Sport shocks. At the same time, I ordered a complete set of Fat Cat mounts & bump stops, but after receiving them I decided to only use the bump stops & shock boots. The red boots look great against the yellow springs

Yeah she sits higher than most like, but I am really impressed with the comfort level of this setup while still holding good handling characteristics. Feels more compliant and comfortable than my wife's Echo, that's for sure.

A new rear garnish, new mud guards, and a week of hand sanding, cutting, polishing & cleaning off as much overspray from a dodgy home spray job and she looked a whole lot cleaner.



Some interior improvements were made during all this as well ....






Then because of my height, decided against recovering my seats and fitted NB seats thanks to Hayden (hjt) on the Forum. Great upgrade!!



From Rev9 a red stitched leather handbrake handle & chrome button to match the red stitched gear boot & handbrake boot I'd fitted earlier.


From MX5 Parts UK I.L.Motorsport pedals


New Pioneer Mechless head unit


And currently in the process of fitting new instrument rings and white LED's to the whole dash to improve lighting:





Not the best photo of how good these white SMD LED's look unfortunately. There is no dark spot in reality:


So there you have it. Many hundreds of other little things have been repaired, replaced or improved, but probably bored you all enough by now

Welcome to the forum Kevin. I've just recently bought a cheap red NA6 myself and, like you, I have a lot of little jobs to do to tidy things up. That comes with the territory though.

Fantastic work Kev.
It's great seeing projects come to a happy end...... No, it never ends...... There'll be another MX-5 and then another.

I know you said you're not a Club person but there are a lot of great people in the SA club and not everyone (most don't) put their car on the track. They have a lot of social runs/events and it's always great to meet people of like mind and talk about the car.
Check the Club out before you say "No".

Hi Paul

Thanks. Hey we all need our toys Luckily the wife loves it so big win there!

Just a few minutes ago I ordered myself a set of etched Black Ryoku Rob Tow Hooks, the last new NA set available apparently.

Also on their way are front & rear R Package lips. Not sure if I will fit the rear ones, but didn't cost much more anyway & was the same freight cost for both.

Amazing how one gets hooked on these cars. I have actually now been considering an NC, especially with the retractable hard top. Would still hold on to this NA though. The basic rawness is so enjoyable. Really are addictive.

This is what we have dining tables for anyway isn't it? ....

Hello Charlie Brown

Yeah I never say never ... have actually mentioned the SA MX5 Club to my wife on the weekend. Actually sold some of my parts to one of their members & he talked to me about them as well.

Has been a tough year this year for us with my Dad passing away plus I seriously damaged my back in February & am still recovering, so had very little time for much else. But some of the social runs would be fun. Being so reserved, it takes me a long time to start things socially, but it's certainly on the list. Plus we've been so heavily involved in my son's swimming club for so long & only recently stopped being a part of all that, we are reluctant to get involved in anything too soon again. But I dare say down the track sometime ...

It's always great to see someone restoring a car that has been "let go" and it looks like you're doing a great job (plus you've found a new hobby). MX5s are great cars to do this to since there's so much information available on the internet, parts are easy to find and they really are timeless cars in terms of looks and driveability - in 20 years time your car is still going to look as good as it did 20 years ago.

Modding/restoring is addictive but is also very rewarding, please keep posting your updates.

New instrument rings are fitted, all LED's now in place & dash ready to fit back in. These rings don't require any tape or glue. They just need flaring out and they clip in. Same as the vent rings I previously fitted (see previous images) they just clip in.

Also spent time with some cutting cream getting all the scratches out of the clear lense. Finished it off with some wax polish to protect it further. Well worth the effort, makes a huge difference to the look!

Don't be afraid of taking the instrument panel front apart. The clear cover is glued on around the edges (NA only I believe), but as per instructions from the forum just use hot water to slowly break the glue down & very slowly move around the edge with a wide blade screwdriver. Take your time & go very gently & slowly & it's easier than it appears. Just silicone it back together & will be much easier next time (bound to change the look again haha!)

Good comments Lokiel, these really are great cars to work on.

As I mentioned, I've had very little mechanical experience in the past. General servicing but nothing else.

But with all the info online, plus the simplicity and ease of working on these, I've had no hesitation & would say to anyone to give it a try. To see or drive the results of your own work rather than a mechanic's is hugely satisfying and a damned good boost to one's ego too!!

Looks like great work.

The final photo looks like it needs some roll-hoops to finish off the look.

KevGoat wrote::
But with all the info online, plus the simplicity and ease of working on these, I've had no hesitation & would say to anyone to give it a try. To see or drive the results of your own work rather than a mechanic's is hugely satisfying and a damned good boost to one's ego too!!

I've had a few jobs done by professionals that I wasn't happy with at all and ended up re-doing them myself. The beauty of DIY'ing is that you learn a lot about your car and know what is, and what's not possible to do, plus you save a LOT of $$$ too (which usually go towards your next mod). If you don't like something that you've done yourself, you're more likely to fix it rather than just accepting its flaws because you paid a professional.

Working on your own car is the best way to really know it and is part of the whole "Jinba ittai" experience.

If you ever run out of ideas, check out http://www.revlimiter.net/ - his car "Sharka" IMO is "pure 70's porn". When I'm finished Gina, I'd like to mod an NA just like Sharka (I really love the chrome and black diamond-stitched vinyl interior).

Great stuff. Love reading things like this.

Welcome to the forum and topless motoring.

Yeah Sharka is a nice car alright! Love those Enkei RP-F1's ....

Hey Lokiel ... just realised it was your build thread that started mine off!! I saw the Ryoku Rob Tow Hooks fitted to your car while reading through your thread yesterday & followed the link you'd posted to the GB & now have a set ordered & paid for! I wanted gold to offset against my red car, but the only ones left for an NA were black & old style rear. But figured they'd still look better than the horrible factory tie hooks and was just too good to miss out on as they don't come up very often.

After ordering those, I figured I was now registered on two forums & hadn't posted anything except for a couple of purchases, so as I wasn't doing anything else this morning I decided to give it a go.

Took me a little while to figure out how to post the photo's full size, but after a bit of searching around in the instructions & via Google, I worked it out. Uploaded my photos to a site resizing while they uploaded, grabbed the URL as needed & posted!!

Was so happy the photos worked, looks better than the little attachments for reading I reckon.

So there you go ... its your fault ....

Thanks Hammer ...

OurCognitiveSurplus wrote:Looks like great work.

The final photo looks like it needs some roll-hoops to finish off the look.

Yeah don't think that hasn't crossed my mind .... MX5Plus, BD, Frenzy ..... hmmmm

Top thread so far Kev. Thoroughly enjoyed the read.