Ben Sale's white 1990 NA6

[Regie]

haha awesome... a road flare

[-alex]

Wow soooo jealous =P

[bensale]

Yes, flare! I love it!!! And I bet you are soooo jealous Alex as you wouldn't have anything equally awesome to put on your car would you?

Having fun today... Have had to make use of an angle grinder... Nothing terribly exciting put pics to follow.

[bensale]

So today was spent stuffing around trying to fix a problem I found on Monday when I fitted the exhaust. Basically as the pic below shows somehow I managed to shear the nut off the top bolt which holds the swaybar bracket on and in doing so it took most of the bolt thread with it making it useless.



This bolt is spot welded into the subframe... So it wasn't a fun fix... First was removing the exhaust, subframe brace, swaybar and the muffler shield. Then I got my new angle grinder and did scary things to my car... I don't think I have ever done anything with the MX-5 I had enjoyed less than grinding at it with an angle grinder...




Once the head of the bold was ground off it was time for the fun bit... Drilling the rest of the bolt out of the subframe... I thought that grinding at the bolt was bad... This was hideous... So painful, painstaking and just horrible... But, after some time I got all the way through with a hole of the appropriate size. I then painted over the bare metal I left exposed with the angle grinder and was good to go.




However... I lost one of the bushes when I had the initial problem... So I went to pedders to get a new one as they sell whiteline only to be given stuff which didn't work... So still an ongoing saga... Although hopefully one I can rectify soon.

[dingmaz]

There are definitely better ways to spend a day--but at least its almost done-just a bush to go.

[bensale]

You're quite right dingmaz, certainly not something I hope to have to do ever again... I'm still looking for a bush, I know I'll find one just a matter of when. If the standard bar has to go back on for Phillip Island on the 12th it's not the end of the world though as I have the rear bar set soft anyway.

Anyway, today I had some fun with paint...

Thanks to CheyneX5 i got my hand on these wheels which were in decent structural condition, reasonably light but in dire need of a bit of love cosmetically. They will be my track wheels and are going to be fitted with some Dunlop DZZ1 Star Specs next week (prior to Phillip Island).



So I set about sanding them back with some 120 and then 600 wet and dry and primed them.



Next was the fun part!!! The colour I painted these wheels may come as a bit of a surprise to some people who would perhaps expect me to do something a bit more 'normal' Basically I've gone with a very bright orange. The photos (taken on my mobile) don't really show off the color properly, when they're on the car I'll take some good photos. I believe it's a pretty original choice too... After a fair amount of searching on a variety of sites I really struggled to find a picture of a white NA with orange wheels anywhere in the world. There are one or two people with partially orange wheels but no one I could find had done anything like what I'm doing... So at the moment it's still a bit of a case of hold my breath to see what this is actually going to look like... Hopefully as good as it does in my head...




While I was at it I decided to paint my fire extinguisher bracket orange too. I figured if I didn't like it I'd then go over it with black. But it looks quite good (better in person than photos) so I shan't be changing it.




I also bought some driving gloves earlier this week after borrowing some a while ago and falling in love with them . . . I realised today that I could actually use my 'glove box' for the storage of gloves! I got extremely excited by this

[lee]

I can't wait to see those wheels on your car

[-alex]

Pretty sure you've stolen my theme but in orange . . .
Also you've stolen my gloves lol.
But I'll forgive you =P just because . . .
Looks great and you're right I'd never have something as cool and JDM as a flare on my car =P

[bensale]

Thanks Lee, the tyres are getting fitted 2pm Monday so they should be on the car either Monday afternoon or Tuesday morning.

Really Alex..? =P Hmm... Don't know where I would have got the idea from..? Well I'll be sure to give your theme back when I'm not doing track days . . .
The gloves are a good thing to steal, they change the whole feel of driving the car. Quite amazing! And I just love using the glove box for it's intended purpose! . . .
And yes, it is a pity that no one would be awesome enough to ensure that you have something as awesome as a flare for you your car =P

[Randy]

I like the look of the wheels Ben. if i had a white car i'd do something like that for my track wheels.

[bensale]

Thanks Randy.

The moment of truth came today... I went and got the tyres fitted, the DZZ1's in 195/60/14 for $184.50 per corner (185s would have been a bit cheaper but went with 195s) from Stucky's.

On the way home from Stucky's the Alfa broke the end of it's throttle cable so I spent a few hours at the side of the road about 30km from home trying to fix it (eventually got it going and home by scavenging some speaker wire and using a fair dose of creativity...) So I got home a fair bit later than anticipated and by the time I got them fitted there was very little light left. It just means the photos aren't as good as they should be... I went for a very brief drive, the roads around my place are pretty dirty, it's astonishing how much crap and little stones they pick up off the road and fling into the the guards. Even though they're brand new you can already feel that they're very, very sticky though! Can't wait to wear them in and for Phillip Island on Sunday!

Will be interested to hear peoples thoughts on the look! I'm pretty happy, it person it looks awesome and quite tough from some angles. =) I look forward to getting the numbers and other stickers on and seeing what it looks like!

[bensale]

Also just got sent these two pics from Winton which I like a lot! Will try to get some better pics of the new wheels soon too.

[CheyneX5]

No wonder your happy with the grip ben, look how chunky the tyres are

The last two shots are fantastic!

[bensale]

I know, they're really chunky! I think they're a wide '195' will have to measure them. They certainally wouldn't have fitted on the stock 5.5' wide wheels.

I think I'm going to get the first of those shots made up as an A1 poster.

[CheyneX5]

I almost forgot that the orange wheels are .5" wider. Thats pretty cool.