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So after my second daughter arrived in January I realised if I didn’t get the car NOW it wouldn’t happen until my girls had grown up and moved out. This was unacceptable. So now completely outnumbered I decided it was time to join the “Because Racecar” club.
I had been telling The Wife for years that I was getting a MX-5, one day the deal would be too good, she would come home and there would be one sitting at the bottom of the driveway. Our honeymoon in the states got her a little more onside when we had a convertible Mustang for a couple of weeks.
So 4am Sunday the 13th of July like the good employee I am, I sat down at my desk and hit the forums, Ebay and Gumtree while I sorted out how busy my day was going to be…
And this popped up on Gumtree.


Texts were sent and I waited for a more civilized hour and then called to organise a time to check the little blue bastard out. I told the wife I wouldn’t do anything stupid without giving her a call first.

LIAR!

A quick test drive and a bit of back and forth got me a 91’ NA6 just shy of 300k for $2500. The To-Do list was long but nothing ridiculous and the body was strait with no accident damage or stupid rust. Also, in a previous life I was a Ford mechanic and these are basically a laser with the motor put in the right way so no problems!



Got it home, tidied it up. Detailed it. Degreased it, degreased it a lot more and then I degreased it… Then I drove it for a couple of days while I waited for a mate to roadworthy it for me.




15 Mins after this was taken with my fresh roadworthy in hand I headed home and as I turned out of his street with no bearing noise, whine or warning the diff exploded… There was not a drop of oil in it, no signs of where it had leaked out either
Cookie here on the forums saved me with a 2nd hand diff and 24hrs later I was back in business. To celebrate I shot out for weekend coffee and met with Zero and a few other forumites.
I love the MX-5 community, my last experience with car clubs was when I owned my 3 series and the BMW guys were nowhere near as welcoming or helpful…



Time to work out the list and how I planned on attacking it. I wanted a reliable car that I could feel confident in no matter how far from home I was and if funds and time permitted I could use for club track days once the basics were sorted.

So the plan is/was for the Must Haves.

Service (Make sure everything else has oil in it…)
Roof
Timing Belt / Water Pump
Engine Oil Leaks, Belts and Filters
Leads
Shifter Bushings and Boots
Rack and Tie Rod Ends
Good Alignment
4 Corners of new rubber

Then drive it for a couple of months to make sure nothing else is going to break before trying a track day.
I currently have a box of gaskets seals and trim bits on a slow boat from Japan so the bulk of that list will be taken car of in the next week or two. Check out http://www.amayama.com their pricing is amazing if you are not in a hurry.

First job was to make it secure and watertight. The back window had crumbled into a fine powder on the rear parcel shelf and there were a million holes in the vinyl.



I picked up a perfect condition NB roof on a frame and had it on in no time.



The rear set rail wasn’t in in this photo. I resprayed it and it went in a couple of hours later.

Nice one Rolley! I was one of the forumites at coffee the other week

With your skills you've definitely got a bargain on your hands, great colour too. Looking forward to reading the evolution of the car as you go along.

Thanks Lachy,
Yours is a clean machine as well. I like that everyone has a different take on how these things should come together!
I'm going to try and make it out more often for coffee. None of the guys I knock around with are car guys and I really love sitting round shooting the s#it about cars.

As a result of going to a NB roof I lost my roll bar. It ended up in Canberra and I ended up ordering the last of the bits and pieces I needed to seal up my oil leaks. So Roll Bar goes on the list of things I’ll do down the track.



So while I’m waiting for all my service parts to arrive I thought I’d do a bit of tiding up.
I got my hands on some side plastic trims to replace the ones that were butchered in the install of the roll bar. Some JDM sun visors so I could get another 20mm of vision out of the windscreen (stupid short legs long body…) A spare wheel, cover and the plastic basket that sits in the spare. And a fuel line cover panel. Little bits like that make a huge difference in slowly dragging the car back from borderline shitbox to well-loved old car.
The Passengers side mirror had lost its tension and one good pot hole or 10mins of driving had it pointing to the ground. It had been pulled apart at some point to replace the broken bolt. They must have lost the spring or decided Mazda were over engineering because what greeted me was a nylon block with a hole drilled through it covered in windscreen sealant…
Which is odd because they decided that the interference fit of the mirror was not good enough so they soaked it in quick grip meaning it had to be broken to be removed. $15 later I had a new mirror glass cut ready to go. A trip to a spring manufacturer down the road from work had me back in business for $2.


I had read something on here about accelerator pedals snapping off. This was common on the Lasers and I have fond memories of driving one home with a shoe lace as a hand throttle tied to the end of the cable under the dash. That wasn’t happening again so when I saw the 2inch crack in the bracket this happened.




Should be much stronger this time I’m going to get back in there shortly and tack a spacer behind the pedal that sits on the firewall as this is the problem. When at full throttle there is no support behind that leg of the bracket and the metal flexes, work hardens and eventually cracks…

Next I decided to make myself some decent floor mats. I like them to come up the sides of the foot well a little to catch all the crudd instead of letting it sneak under the mat.





On to the Shifter Boot and I’m still working on the Hand Brake Boot




New shoes for the front. A mate from my old Ford days runs his own shop and hooked me up with these. I had never heard of Goodride and was a bit sceptical thinking I was going to end up with some cheap dangerous garbage but he swore I’d love them and not just for the price.




He was right. Great tyres, grippy as hell and quiet surprisingly considering how blocky the tread pattern is. I’m getting two more for the back once I squeeze the last couple of $$$ worth out of the ones I have.

And that is everything so far. I have big plans for the little blue bastard but due to recent budget cut backs unless I start doing cashies again, updates will be happening infrequently.

But who really cares! At least there is one sitting in the garage now.

Rolley [Luke]

Your car has had me gobsmacked from the first day I saw it at 'weekend coffee' and to see it again a couple of weeks ago I couldn't believe it was the same car, and of course that blue when polished is a winner all the time!

The wheels, the tyres, the 'new' ragtop, man it's the bargain of the century so far!! Bonus - it runs fantastic as well!!

Park it next to my NA at coffee any weekend!

Well done on the post - excellent read!

Cheers Roger,
I will be there again this sunday!
Still working on the missus to see if she wants to come for a drive or if it'll be just me and just coffee...

Nice colour, you can park next to mine instead of Rogers!

Hopefully we will get to meet at one of Roger's coffee mornings.

Magpie wrote:Nice colour, you can park next to mine instead of Rogers!

Hopefully we will get to meet at one of Roger's coffee mornings.

Mark, could you leave Tess's ironing board at home next time? Pigeons have moved in and I'd hate to see her ironing in a mess!

Seriously, Luke's car looks damn fantastic Mark - I'm taking the NA regular now so NA's win!! Damn, still to see an NC make it for coffee, none since I started the topic 18 months ago!

Watch the forecast severe storms tomorrow afternoon everyone!

We will see Roger. Jaye is asking when are we going for coffee and see Roger/Kelvin!

Coffee this Sunday for sure!

Just got a call from the little lady. This arrived today from http://www.amayama.com
Two weeks from payment to door I thought was pretty good for all Genuine Mazda parts.
$166 for a bunch of gaskets, seals, trim bits and pieces and a new crank bolt. $28 of it was shipping.



Example, best top gear boot price I have seen is $29 and they all want another $10 postage. Or about $40 over the counter from anywhere in Brisbane.
Amayama $20

They do the weather strips for the top of the doors for $45 a side!!! That's part of the next order for sure.
You just need the genuine part number to order from them as they have no catalogue.

So Monday he goes up on stands and we begin the "freshening". Timing belt, water pump, slave cylinder, paint the tappet cover and do some more engine bay clean up.
I shouldn't be this excited...

Luke.

A couple of quick updates.

Finished the hand brake boot so the set is complete!


The LONG term plan is to wrap the upper dash in leather and the crash pad and upper door trims in either the same perforated stuff as the boots (if I can find a big enough scrap without having to buy an entire hide) or some UV stable suede or Alcantara.

Last week I snuck out for a drive at work on lunch. We have had some Epically good weather in Brisbane lately so it was really hard to turn around and head back to the office.
Here's an arty shot I grabbed after coffee.


Let the service begin!

Luke.

I like that shot Rolley ;) The car is coming along very nicely! Great work on all the custom upholstery too.

Hi Rolley
How difficult is it to get the pedal bracket out?
Rob

Not too bad but I've done it quite a few times on lasers in my previous life...

Center the wheels, unscrew and pull of the column cover on the lower dash and the shrouds around the combo switch. get under the dash and pull out the 12mm that clamps the bottom of the column at the knuckle joint. With a Nikko I mark the splines through the gap in the clamp so I can put the column back in to the exact same spot.

Then unclip all of the wiring for the combo switch and the ignition and brake light switch. In the engine bay disconnect the throttle cable, then head back under the dash and unclip it from the top of the pedal. There is also an odd shaped clip that holds the pin that connects the brake pedal to the brake booster, this is a bitch of a clip because you have to pull on the side of it to get the lock over the pin while pulling on the end of it to pull it through the pin. YOU WILL BLEED.
Unbolt the two 12mm bolts that secure the column to the dash and remove the column from the car.

With a 12mm on a long wobble extension unbolt the pedal bracket nuts at the firewall and remove them. There are 6 all together I think... 4 0f these hold the brake booster to the firewall in the engine bay so don't push on them too much as they will pop back through the firewall making the bracket hard to realign later if you don't notice.

Now for the tricky bit. Give the brake pedal a bit of a pull and shake around and make sure all bolts are out and the pedal box is free.
Stick your tongue out the corner of your mouth and start your favourite mantra of swear words as you try and angle it out and down...

Pay a bit of attention to the angle it is sitting at once its free because that is where you will need to have it to start putting it back up in there.

One note. I would recommend as well as strengthening the area around the crack have a look at how the accelerator part of the bracket just hangs in mid air with no support behind it. Pretty much the spot right in the middle of the photo below the weld on the crack that looks like a dimple on the back of the bracket.

If I can ever be bothered I am going to either weld a block in behind this part to support it off the firewall or drill a hole through it and put a bolt through it with a nut on each side that I can wind out to touch the firewall and then lock the nuts off against the bracket to take out a little more flex.


I'm happy to lend a hand if you ever need to give it a go.

Like.

Cheers Lachy,

Oh the OIL... The poor little thing has more on the outside of the engine than in it. I spent an hour degreasing it all this morning and really I think I've only taken the top couple of layers off.
I got it all ripped down to expose the belt, all seals are leaking and both of the bypass hoses are soft and swollen from oil. Both of the PCV hoses on the rocker cover are concrete hard and The PCV valve is currently in several pieces.
Slave cylinder came off today too and is getting overhauled pedal has felt a bit average and what I thought was just more oil ruining the boots on it turned out to be leaking brake fluid.

I pulled into MX-5 Plus on the way to work this arvo only to find they knocked off at 3pm today #$%&...
Mazda only want $35 for the pair of bypass hoses which surprised me but $45 for the PCV I thought was a bit steep. I wouldn't see any of it till Thursday anyway thanks to the public holiday. So I'm stuck until Tuesday now.

Guess that gives me more time to clean the rest of the oil off.