mx5cartalk.com

Hey fellow fivers,

Since I've had my share of being a lurker on these forums (and generally taking any little bit of knowledge or experience anybody offered in the pursuit of "fixing this week's thing"), it seemed about time to share a few pics from my entrance into the fold. There has been a small 3 year delay but better late than never, right?

Anyway cue the flashback sequence...

Having wanted an MX-5 since first getting my license, it came time to move on from the extremely well built, rust-free, comfortable and well air-conditioned Prelude to something that was possibly not quite as adept in these areas! Nonetheless, it wasn't an MX-5 and it was never a switch I regretted (38C Queensland days excluded).



It was picked up pretty cheap with a bit under 170k and was always intended as a project, something to learn on, with enough spare change to ensure proper maintenance was never an issue.

First order of business, all the boring stuff (and reviving some sad looking aluminium wheels):



Ta-da...



And bringing some shine back to the paintwork:



Obligatory beading photo:




How will it continue? The answer may bore you - find out below!

In Part 2:

Replacing His-Holeyness, the roof:



No rust on the shelf, a clean bill of health... or something:



Non-holey, non-droopy roof in fine action:



Doing the MX-5 Thing:



Anyway, since picking it up the general list of "stuff done" goes roughly like this

- Tyres (Basic "Supercat" branded set to replace the ancient and truly awful set it came with. Bonus Supercat mini review - Fine in the dry, fit the character of the car. V Slippy when wet. Rating: Adeq-cat)
- Gearbox - Shift boots and bushing (because of course it was stuffed), clutch (Thanks Automotive+), fluids and all the boring stuff.
- Roof replaced with second hand replacement - so ridiculously cheap I don't want to mention the price to potentially affect the price other people manage to get for theirs!
- Suspension replaced with later year, lower mileage factory set that once again, cost so little I won't mention the price. Much better.
- The smaller services
- The big expensive service
- The usual tinkering
- Trying to find what's causing it to use so much fuel for a tiny car (Cannot get below 9.5L/100km on mostly 30 min highway trips)
- Failing the above. Realising Mazda's engineer's at the time likely had economy placed somewhere in their list below "transmission tunnel heat insulation"...
- Buying and fitting MX-5 Parts stainless single exit muffler because, of course, that's going to help the economy, isn't it?. Although, it does sound rather nice...
- 3D printing all the things
- Realising I probably should just drive it!

Anyway, I'll try and post up any further updates and maybe go into some of the other little projects that are less visible. In the meantime, thanks for looking - and most importantly - thanks for having impeccable taste in automobiles and buying MX-5s

See you around!

Looking good thus far Combustive ....... but modding a 5 is highly addictive, my wife constantly reminds me of those famous initial words I said to her a few years ago "it's just going to be a couple of engine bolt ons, Nothing too major!"

Thanks Daffy. I totally agree on it being addictive. On the other hand I'm happy in the knowledge that's it's just fast enough to be all the fun I could want on public roads.
I think it's one of those things where if you give it more power, you want more grip, you get more grip, you again want more power, you again get more power then suddenly realise all of the money has gone That still seems like a possibility some day - in the meantime, must resist the urge for boost...

Your red SE looks familiar, might have I seen you heading back from Cars and Coffee at some stage? Looks like you've done a great job with it from your posts - and I must admit, had the owner of the SE I saw that day offered a trade I might have offered a limb or two to cover the difference.

Combustive wrote:Thanks Daffy. I totally agree on it being addictive. On the other hand I'm happy in the knowledge that's it's just fast enough to be all the fun I could want on public roads.
I think it's one of those things where if you give it more power, you want more grip, you get more grip, you again want more power, you again get more power then suddenly realise all of the money has gone That still seems like a possibility some day - in the meantime, must resist the urge for boost...

Your red SE looks familiar, might have I seen you heading back from Cars and Coffee at some stage? Looks like you've done a great job with it from your posts - and I must admit, had the owner of the SE I saw that day offered a trade I might have offered a limb or two to cover the difference.

I haven't had the pleasure of getting to cars and coffee yet, I will do soon though ( possably with a forum members meet and greet)- FYI, when I built mine, the reason behind my sign off quote "getting from A to B via Z............. I tend to only learn the hard way! If you ever want to go boosted- pick as much of nitrodann's brain as you can- wish I did all that time ago!! I'm just lucky I happend on hooking up with a few good people on the Gold Coast that really know their stuff!

Looks very neat and tidy.
Is also great to have another build thread to follow

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Daffy wrote:

Combustive wrote:Thanks Daffy. I totally agree on it being addictive. On the other hand I'm happy in the knowledge that's it's just fast enough to be all the fun I could want on public roads.
I think it's one of those things where if you give it more power, you want more grip, you get more grip, you again want more power, you again get more power then suddenly realise all of the money has gone That still seems like a possibility some day - in the meantime, must resist the urge for boost...

Your red SE looks familiar, might have I seen you heading back from Cars and Coffee at some stage? Looks like you've done a great job with it from your posts - and I must admit, had the owner of the SE I saw that day offered a trade I might have offered a limb or two to cover the difference.

I haven't had the pleasure of getting to cars and coffee yet, I will do soon though ( possably with a forum members meet and greet)- FYI, when I built mine, the reason behind my sign off quote "getting from A to B via Z............. I tend to only learn the hard way! If you ever want to go boosted- pick as much of nitrodann's brain as you can- wish I did all that time ago!! I'm just lucky I happend on hooking up with a few good people on the Gold Coast that really know their stuff!

Haha, I certainly know what you mean about sometimes taking the "indirect" route to a solution Thankfully the internet provides no shortage of brains to pick (not all of them equal!) but generally it's a great time to be involved with these cars.

Lucky your metal cover were ok, had to do a bit of a restore on mine, nice work mate


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Thanks! Are you referring to the cover where the roof folds down? That was a massive relief to see it rust free as the drains were totally blocked when I bought it. Much work involved fixing yours?