I hope you are all doing well.
I thought I would start a garage thread to use as a bit of a diary of the build for my own enjoyment but hopefully ill eventually get some useful stuff in here for every one benefit. sorry this is a long post but they will get shorter i promise.
As most of you know I bought an NA8 a couple weeks ago photos can be seen here from the previous owner before i purchased it http://imgur.com/a/kjm4a and http://imgur.com/a/A6ofi .
so as a backgroud on me and why an MX-5 and the lead up to it.....
In the past I have owned some very quick cars (plus 300kw at the wheels mostly with rotaries) and though they have been fun they come with the problems that big power brings. such as fuel consumption, breakages and really cars like that cant be used on the street to their full potential so the amount of time you enjoy them is limited and i guess it all comes back to "its funner to drive a slow car fast than a fast car slow". the last year of ownership on my 318kw WRX was 13km.
Quite a few years ago I had a drive of a mate Pete aka Black_penguins MX and at the time I thought it was great fun because you could rev it fairly hard and even at the speed limit it was fun. I also had a friend with a 1971 Marcos gt which is a British sports car and the retro styled NA MX's reminds me of the interior in that so its a little nastalgic for me.
Well the wrx went and left a hole that needed to be filled. I needed a car I could work on to take my mind off life and enjoy when I had the time ect but with a Mazda 3 already and a highly modified GU 4.2TD Patrol, campertrailer, a Mortgage, renovations (plus my place is a hobby farm) and the missus three horses money and time needed to be spent wisely.
So i had a check list of what i wanted and the list went basically like this:
* Japanese built aka reliable so more time driving than fixing.
* lightweight.
* cheap to run and own, insurance parts ect.
* the missus could drive and it wouldn't "bite" her or breakdown on her.
* enjoyable all round driving experience not just fun and there is a difference.
* non-turbo.
So the hunt began and all the options I looked at kept bringing me back too MX-5 so that was it, I needed an MX. so i called Pete, went for another run (in a much more modified than before) car and that was it, i was certain it was for me. I had my heart set on the NB8B for the reliability of a newer car and the bride to be's comfort.
But fell in love with the retro NA's as like i said it reminded me of my mate and his Marcos so the missus said one night "buy the NA, you will enjoy it more and it wont ever be our daily driver" woo hoo thats a green light
.So because i had never been in an NA i needed to find one and see if I fit as im six foot and was deep in the 100kg club (now 13kg lighter
and under 100kg). I have been a member on here 12 months (today actually
, i just checked) so I contacted Manga_blue as he lived close and it was teed up, not only was he happy to talk to me about the MX but took me for a spin in his and even let me have a drive, i cant thank him enough for how friendly and helpful he was.So now hoping to find an NA8 but probably going to get an NA6. i started looking in seriousness and the one on here came up. I figured for what i wanted as a project it was perfect and an NA8 as a bonus.
So arrangements were made and i went and got it at a great price.
Basic rundown of the car is its an 11 month 95 NA8 in chaste white with a Black demister type hardtop.
the car has been mechanically well maintained by mx5 mania (Ajay said it was solid) with reciepts of everything from 11 years of ownership but the body is a bit rough (more on that later), the only non standard parts are:
* whiteline sway bars front and rear.
* adjustable swaybar links.
* kYB non adjustable shocks.
* K&N panel filter.
* nb8a wheels with re002 195/50/15
* pioneer Cd player with Alpine type S speakers.
* momo competition steering wheel.
So basically a standard mx5 (i did get all factory parts including 14s, steering wheel, radio ect with the car).
Because the car was filthy from not being washed or detailed for a long time (cant blame the previous owner was just a run around for him) the first job was to spend some time and a heap of elbow grease and give it a full detail this also gives me a chance at a very close look at the entire car. so starting with 303 in one hand and cloth in the other i started on the interior and spent nearly 4 hours on it and couldn't believe how good it came up... wining
. The center console that looks brown in the photos and the shift boot are actually black again and i suspect that one owner may have been a smoker as it seemed like tobacco haze was over most things plus 21 years of grime.
next on to the body.
I started by touching up stone chips and flaking paint, clay baring the whole car then used Meguires ultimate restoration polish followed by 2 coats of wax on the hard top and auto glyme extra gloss protection on the rest. its basically a hard protective wax and it came up looking so much better and went from cream to white. soft top hit with 303.
on to the engine bay, i started stripping off brackets washers ect to clean everywhere under the bonnet and polishing all painted surfaces, air con lines and 303 on plastic and rubber components. this was a massive job and still haven't finished due to other commitments at the moment but even took the guard bolts out to polish around them so its getting there and hope to have it done by the weekend and looking almost like it did when it left Japan 21 years ago.
So let the resto/mods begin!!!.
the first thing I wanted to address was the damage, maintenance items and some weight reduction. I had it on the scales with half a tank of fuel, torneau for soft top in the boot and hardtop fitted, the result 1040kg closest to nearest 10kg the operator said the way it fluctuated it was probably closer to 1035kg but ill use 1040KG as the reference. ill try get a base dyno run done as well in a couple weeks for a reference point.
So i have started reducing the weight by taking things out I dont really need, i have owned fully stripped cars before and i definately dont want that with this so the reduction is minor and i could take more i know. I have removed 1 tow hook front and back, engine lift points, jack and winder, tool kit, spare wheel and replaced with emergency can inflator and NRMA card, charcoal canister and brackets (yes i know what this means but has never been an issue before on my cars and i kept all parts if needed plus lines are joined so no fumes in engine bay), owners manual, cd player remote and face case.
All these items add up to just over 17kg of weight saved and thats after adding bolts to fill holes in the boot and the can of inflator so the car now weighs in around 1020kg or about 1.7% lighter which means the butt dyno will feel........ no difference but lots of little gains do eventually add up.
And it is a free modification that improves all areas of the car and will offset some of the roll bar weight when its fitted. spare will go back in on long touring trips.I have also put in some new genuine taillights, gaskets and polished in there and removed all the grime. But the best part..... i have dríven it just over 1000km in a couple weeks and loving it.
I will shortly be replacing all hoses both vac and water, full service front to back and looks like the cas o'ring is starting to weep so ill jump on that.
I'm still chasing a boot lid, rear bumper and probably a front bumper. Once i have these its off to the panel beaters for paint including the bad bits i touched up like the passenger guard and ill fit an mx5 plus tall boy diagonal bar and from there some retro goodness and more performance.
I'll get some pics up shortly of the car now for all to see as its very different to how it was.
sorry again its a long post but i look forward to catching up with some of you face to face in the not to distant future.
Alex
