mx5cartalk.com

Hey all been floating around the forum for quite some time and just thought I'd chuck up a lil bit about my car.

When I first saw the car 5 years ago my father owned it and I thought to myself what a silly midlife crisis he's going through, then I got to take it for a spin. Boy was I blown away top down on a sunny day it just felt amazing, but on a terrible apprentice wage and a new loan under my name I knew I couldn't afford to get myself one of these beasts. Nevertheless I watched as he thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of the car. As time went on he decided it impractical and invested in a hilux ute and gave the car to my little brother, now I was jealous an 18 year old who just got his licence with a better car than me. A few months went past and one weekend decided to go round and visit my parents who then told me the mx broke down. The infamous short nose crank had struck again, bummer for him as he couldn't afford to fix it.

Now onto the good part. A month or two had gone by and the car was just sitting under a cover in my parents front yard, I thought to myself that this wasn't right and something needed to be done about it. I hit up my little brother about what he was doing with it and he told me he still couldn't afford to do anything about it as he was only working part time, so I suggested to him that I would buy it off him and much to my suprise he agreed, the next weekend I had the cash in my hand, a spot organised at mx5 plus and a car trailer.

Here's how it was when I got it.


It then went to mx5 plus for an engine transplant as I had no clue what was needed to be done. I went for the 1.8L as I thought a tiny bit more power at the start couldn't hurt. The next step was getting it registered which was easy and I can remember the feeling of happiness as I drove away from the transport department. It was finally mine!

The paint was in pretty terrible condition from sitting outside for so long and I knew I was gonna need to do something about it so I spent a day polishing it and that was that, although it wasn't to be a permanent fix as I'd find out later on. I drove around in it for a few weeks and then the modding bug started, first step was new wheels as I just didn't like how they looked at the time, after a bit of looking around I decided on the koya ae tek in 15" +20


At the same time i purchased a hard top from mx5 plus for that extra sense of safety as it was parked on the street where I was living.

The next step I took was low. It wasn't much as I couldn't afford coils, so I got a set of lowered king springs from a forum member and threw them on, I was happy for the time but I knew it was gonna change soon enough. By this time the paint had really started to irritate me and it was oxidising all over the bonnet and boot. So I but the bullet and decided to do a respray


To this day I'm still finding red paint particles all through my garage.

It was good at the start I felt like there was progress as I would enjoy getting home from work and mindlessly sanding away, the misses absolutely hated it. While I was sanding I had a few ideas pop into my head as to colours and what would work well with it decided to get a film made up at work (I work for a large signage company) and tinted my taillights and just about everything else I could.


One weekend a friend told me he was going to a car meet 'Downshift' and I thought why not and ventured along, was very surprised at how many photos were popping up in the coming days of my car, one of my favs has to be this one


Nothing much happened in the following months, just took my time sanding and getting the car ready for paint, still hadn't chosen a colour. Then in a blur I picked a colour finished the prep and had the car painted! What an exciting time this was.



Will post the rest of the work up in the coming days as plenty more has happened

Welcome to the obsession. Also good the hear of the service you get at MX5 Plus (my cars second home and my accountants curse).

Keep an eye on the forum for the next dodgy day and if you get a chance to attend you can discuss MX5's with a bunch of excitable DIY'ers as well as each spicy chicken wings.

Thanks mate, I have been meaning to get along to a dodgy day, I'm just never around when they happen.

So after I'd painted it and put it all back togetherI drove it around and it felt like it had a new lease on life, but there was still something missing...low. Bc br coils where ordered and the next weekend I put them in.



Around this point I'd been doing some big hours and work and had spare cash in my hands, so I bought the low pro headlight kit from omgpham, yes I was lazy and only did a close door spray.



After a few months and not much happening it was my birthday so I got myself a small present in the form of 2 sparco sprint v's and the na8 brake upgrade with braided lines. The seats look like they were made for the car!



I also decided to go pick up a can of plastidip to see what all the rage was, sprayed the centres of the wheels, worked an absolute treat in my opinion.



Next item on my list was a front lip, ended up with an eBay special gv style lip which I think really sets of the car.



Then one weekend I was doing a big clean inside and out and as I pulled the centre console out I noticed the shifter boot was shagged. So picked up some fresh ones from mx5 plus and fitted them over the weekend. (Nb, the old lower shift boot was in two pieces before I pulled it out.)



And that pretty much takes it up till now, still have a few more plans externally to finish it off including rear lip spoiler and side skirts and I'm slowly starting to get into engine mods with a new ecu waiting to be picked up as the start of it all.

Fitted up a new diff last weekend, had help from a mate and went really well. I got an nb diff with 3.9 kaaz centre, really love the feel of it and just make the car feel like it has abit of extra torque now.