Slug Dub's NA

[slug_dub]

Stuff went on today...



The painting turned out ok but looks a bit mottled from the spray can work (like a finer version of the paint on the side rocker panels and lower door - the cover of colour however, is good), though some of the bits are smoother where more paint has gone on. I think maybe some of my coats were a bit too on the light side of light perhaps

Fitting it was kind of an ordeal on my own trying to hold it up and measure stuff! I managed to scuff it quite bad on part of it which was annoying but plowed on

Very fun learning curve to this lip for a variety of reasons, satisfied with my work overall and happy its on the car at last!

Also yesterday I took these off Mokesta's hands...



Very happy to have picked them up I was curious about the weight compared to the Enkei's/PP2's but I have no scales. They're not hugely different anyway lifting them together. Mark warned me about the noise from the tyres and man he wasn't kidding! I had no idea it the drone would be that prominent. I'm fine with it but it might give my partner the irits before long
I don't know if it would be considered a bit of a waste for these r888's but I'm keen to try them on the road for a while.
Had an alignment as well this morning... I think they didn't do what I asked, or didn't do it properly, will get another, probably elsewhere.

[slug_dub]

Oh for shame I took photos today from the side of the car with the ding!

[Steampunk]

Hey Andrew, can you either txt me the paint can brand and colour code or send a photo of the can to my phone please?
Thanks mate

[slug_dub]

Today, with the aid of my pal with the hoist, we pulled the exhaust off to fit Bensale's Tight Ar5e bracket at last.
Some drilling out of the holes for the alignment bolts was needed to leave enough for alignment changes, so we drilled into it some and repainted the bracket.



Also pulled apart the exhaust pipe sections and put new gaskets and sealer into the joins.

While the car was up I found this:



which annoyed me quite a lot, and goes a long way to confirming that the alignment performed a couple of weeks ago was complete crap and done by someone not taking very much care. Am booked in for another this week so hopefully that will be sorted, though I guess if this bracket can't be repaired Ill need to grab a new one.

In other news I managed to bingle the front of the car last week, when it kissed a sign Didn't hurt it badly but I do need a new nose and drivers side fender, and there is very minor mangling of the chassis underneath that should bash out neatly. Lip is back off the car, but it didn't get busted. Embarrassing... completely self inflicted misjudgement, but contained the damage to my car and not myself or anyone else... road sign gained some paint and a kill mark

[slug_dub]

Acquired new panels from MX5Plus to fix this:



Bumper is red but fender is Montego Blue hehe. Will paint both before they go on.

Also got a new reflector and a pair of turn signals in far better condition than mine were. Those are replaced already as none of the mounts are busted or deformed from the ding.

Caught up with Charlie_91 as well and nabbed his ARC intake, put on this morning.

[charlie_91]

that looks goooooooood

now hows the sound ?

[slug_dub]

The note to the induction is changed somewhat but its the Mania intake that makes most of the noise so its not too different, all good! ;)

I'd have liked to see if there's a difference in the throttle response but its real wet up here today so no twisties.

[slug_dub]

The side mirrors on the car were pretty ratty. Passenger side was just floppy and would never stay set.. too much corrosion and stripping on the inside bolt.

Not really wanting to get more of the same I've been on the hunt for something a bit different. The Zoom mirrors are great but not exactly what I was looking for. Some of the Japanese ones I desire I may never own, though I'm always looking. Retro style mirrors can be an iffy choice for a 'modern' car, but I was keen to try something like that.

I found a set I thought I'd try at East Coast Miata. They arrived yesterday and on the car they went!







The mirrors are very well made, all metal, and came with bolts, gaskets, washers and good instructions. I did have to drill a hole in the passenger door to fit a mounting bolt for the arm underneath the base, drivers side already had this larger hole, otherwise fitting was a snap. Very chuffed overall.

I emailed Ken at E.C.M. about them a bit first, and he was helpful and extremely prompt in communication and sending them out to me, so got to be happy with that.

[slug_dub]

Minor bits and pieces this week.

Added some rubber to the end of the Mania intake at the firewall to help with the vibration at WOT. Has reduced the vibrations somewhat but there's still quite a bit, don't think there's much more to be done about that.

Swapped both turn signal light harnesses out for new ones with plastic light holders that weren't busted, parker lights are a little better now

Re-attached the window washer bottle with a dodgy bracket and a cable tie woo! Went to test it and all the water sprayed out of the utterly destroyed 20 year old plastic Y piece Off to a pet store and got new silicon hose and a T piece, couldn't source a nice Y piece. Window washer action works now.

Nabbed a nice aluminum handbrake handle from MX5 Plus, and ordered a couple of leather gearshift/handbrake boots from Topgaiters via Ebay.

Tried to advance the timing today which was a long time coming... plugged it all in to find its already running at 18 degrees! Well... slightly disappointed that there's no more free go, but quite happy to find that it has behaved flawlessly set that far forward since I've owned the car.

[slug_dub]

Oh yeah and fabbed up my own offset numberplate bracket with some aluminium bar I had laying around.

[Guran]

You get a great feeling of satisfaction doing a few jobs yourself . Did you stick with 18 degrees timing or back it off to 14 degrees?

[slug_dub]

Actually I just left it at 18. It seems to have always behaved very well set there. Fuel useage seems fair at ~430-450km's per tank and the motor only ever sees 98 Ron, and I haven't detected pinging at all in the past. Prudence does say to put it at 14 and not push my luck though. I don't know how old this motor is but it is a fresher one that replaced the original at some point.

[slug_dub]

Crack developing in the exhaust where the pipe leaves the resonator I've discovered this morning... aarrggh! Well I guess it could be because its old but I think the stiffarse suspension is also helping my exhaust components along to early graves.
Investigation into fixing tomorrow.

Must... acquire... shocks... sooon...

Fitted Topgaiter boots and finally changed over the ratty seatcovers for Pam's donated ones... thanks Pam! While the seats and centre console was out I found a wealth of artifacts! Somebody else's old paperwork and a vehicle condition report for some 4WD from 2008, various preserved plantlife, a stash on unused staples, and $1.40 in change... the car is really paying for itself!

[slug_dub]

This weekend was the weekend to fix the panel damage to the car. We were rewarded by it being completely wet and miserable We pressed on however, not having much choice due to time constraints.

Dismantled the front of the car to fix the underbody damage, this is what it was looking like:

Not the best photo unfortunately.

Not to much to bang out to bring it back close to what it was. There was that main fold in the side and some folding on the flat portion under the headlight to reshape.

After use of hammers and some body repair dollies...



Galvanising coating and primered here ready for a bit of red.

Looking like the MX5's retarded country cousin here...

...but the bakery run was necessary!

After the reshaping we got onto sanding and prepping the nose and fender panel for painting.


It was all completed by the end of the weekend but I'll need to do a part 2 showing the painting efforts as I managed to leave the camera in Brisbane and won't have it back for a few days

Today have had the Wat's reshoe'd in Khumo KU31's, and yet another alignment.

[charlie_91]

car is looking sick dude

keep it up