mx5cartalk.com

So, first post here. Take it easy on the noob, I may post/ask something silly. Thought I will introduce myself and the car.

To start off, I completely blame (and equally credit) my old friend Bryan aka APU here for what follows. When I was looking for a small “selfish” car, he loaned me his NB for a few days. And that got me looking for one couple of months back.

Target was an NB8B around the $10K mark. Apparently, those in reasonably good conditions get sold pretty quickly. Finally got to one few weeks ago. With gaps in service history, I was a bit worried but it checked out ok with the pre-purchase inspection. It is a 2001 NB8B with about 140k on the odometer, almost stock with the exception of magnaflow catback exhaust.



As with stock car of this age, a few things need work. Radiator was busted, so a new one had to go in. Also took the opportunity to get it serviced and new fluids put in.

I do drive it daily at the moment and a few things are bothering me.

List of things to do soon:
-New gear knob and leather shift boot
-New clutch
-New coilovers

Further mods are not planned yet. Frankly, I am not even sure what direction to take it yet.

Cheers, Mark.

welcome to the obsession. sunlight silver at its best

markwid wrote:
Further mods are not planned yet. Frankly, I am not even sure what direction to take it yet.

Cheers, Mark.

Speaking from experience you want about 15 pounds of boost, wide tyres and coilovers/sway combo

Trust me

Dann

Haha! Good to see you here!

You know you must have a Works Engineering gear knob or our friend will be yelling lots of abuse

Apu wrote:Haha! Good to see you here!

You know you must have a Works Engineering gear knob or our friend will be yelling lots of abuse

Yes, our hairy friend will be swearing away.

Got something like this?

Welcome to the forum, nice buy. Good to have another NB8b owner on here

Whats the magnaflow catback like? Im considering getting one for my nb

You might want to check the upper and lower rubber gearshift boots. Mine were knackered and made shifting gears so much better when I replaced them.

Yup, he sent me a few of the black teflon ones. I've also got them in white.

hi! very nice nb

if you decide to go for a chrome fuel cap then PM me as i would be glad to trade.

i am no fan of chrome.

speed freak wrote:Welcome to the forum, nice buy. Good to have another NB8b owner on here

Whats the magnaflow catback like? Im considering getting one for my nb

You might want to check the upper and lower rubber gearshift boots. Mine were knackered and made shifting gears so much better when I replaced them.

Thanks for the warm welcome guys.

Hmn, how is the magnaflow catback? Pretty ok I suppose. Adds a nice kind of note to it. Bear in mind, I am used to an excellent drone-free but barking loud exhaust on my other car.

Apu wrote:Yup, he sent me a few of the black teflon ones. I've also got them in white.

Black will fit nicely but I wonder about the white, hmnnn. It will stand out but will it stick out like a sore thumb.

Have to show them to me next time we meet.

Small update:

Nice sunny day, so thought I will get around to replacing the worn out rubber pedals for clutch and brake.

Out came these things; could feel the metal sometimes on the clutch pedal lower left corner. This probably won't pass pink slip checks.



Got a set of cheap rubber pedals from mx5mania. Something to tie over until I decide on a nicer pedal set. It is a bit of a bitch to fit them over the metal pedals. Took some swearing, heavy pushing and prodding to get the job done.



Much better feel now on my feet though, LOL.

Car looks great, welcome to the forum.

Ah...I just used skateboard grip tape! Evan had some left over so...since I paid for it, I helped myself to some, haha!

One other small update today:

Old crapped out shift gear boot came out.



Replaced by new leather one.



And while I am at it on the centre console, also fixed the cupholder doors spring with paperclip ties to hold them in place.



Starving so that's it for today, heading out for lunch.

What?! Show me what you did there on Saturday...but I'm missing the spring