Chris's 1994 NA8 Clubman

zossy1 · Postby **zossy1** » Thu Jan 06, 2011 11:33 pm

Hi guys!

Time to get this underway. It has been a long time in the planning, but the work is finally underway!

I am an Aussie who recently returned to the Sydney area after 6 years living and working in New York and New England. I did have a 1999 Miata over in the states and loved it. My old man is a retired mechanic and loves MX5s. My mother has had two as well. Presently, we have five (5) MX5s on our property in various states of (dis)repair. One is my 1994 Clubman which is a restoration project of the first order.

Dad bought it at a Sydney damaged vehicles auction a few months ago. It had been written off as a repairable write-off after a relatively minor-looking impact to the front right corner. We paid peanuts for it, and apart from the damage indicated, it looked like a real peach of a car. 116,000kms, as new interior, no other indications of previous accident damage, a pristine soft-top - really nice.

Here are some pics of the car after we unstitched the front panels and did a little frame straightening:

My brother and I pulled the engine and gearbox to make the job of straightening the chassis rails a little easier...:

When I returned to Australia, I bought a whole stack of parts with me... these include a new ACT Stage 1 clutch and a Racing Beat Aluminium flywheel:

We are still working on straightening the chassis - we have the rails straight according to the underbody repair books we have, but it seems our front crossmember is bent. Currently trying to source a replacement - PM me if you have one!! Also after a front right inner guard, as ours is bent up pretty bad - not completely beyond hope, but a lot of work to repair properly. If necessary, we will pull one out of one of our other cars, but they are all repairable propositions... would rather not do that

Taz_ · Postby **Taz_** » Fri Jan 07, 2011 12:20 am

Thanks for sharing.

Looks like you have a real MX5 family there!

How does it feel to be back in Sydney? (I am currently overseas, been away from Sydney almost 3 years)

Looking forward to seeing the restoration, the engine looks quite clean so should be a nice car when finished.

zossy1 · Postby **zossy1** » Fri Jan 07, 2011 11:02 pm

Taz_ wrote:How does it feel to be back in Sydney? (I am currently overseas, been away from Sydney almost 3 years)

Looking forward to seeing the restoration, the engine looks quite clean so should be a nice car when finished.

Thx!

Feels great to be home. Just got offered my dream job today and it looks like i'll be able to stay local to my family here in the Highlands and do something I love too! The opportunity for a decent career here in Oz is much better than it was when I left in 2004, and certainly far ahead of the USA at the moment.

The car really is nice - i'd bet that whoever owned it before was heartbroken when they crashed it, and even more so when the insurance company wrote it off. It has been babied. The clutch was the original Mazda item with very little wear after 116,000kms - amazing. Interior as new, cigarette lighter never used, unmarked Nardi wheel and gearknob, original soft top in excellent nick except for the slightly milky plastic window. It even has a nearly new timing belt. Still, the accident damage was worse than we originally thought. If you took it to a shop and had them fix it properly it would cost much more than the car is worth, but I have had alot of time to play with it since getting home (though that will be ending as of the start of next month and my new job). I am hoping to have it on the road and registered by the start of Feb but that will largely depend on parts supply, and maybe also a body shop (though painting it can wait until later I guess).

zossy1 · Postby **zossy1** » Mon Jan 17, 2011 6:36 pm

UPDATE:

Car now has a straight chassis. The inner guard is also straight and the L & R guards both bolt on and align with the bonnet:

We finally bit the bullet and dropped a straight crossmember out of one of our donor cars...

We also went through all of the many upper wishbones we have and found the two straightest ones with the best upper ball joints we could find. Our original lower wishbones were straight. Worked to press the old bushes out but probably shouldn't have bothered. They looked like new! This car is such a nice platform to work on! Anyways, I then cleaned and painted the donor crossmember and wishbones, greased and pressed in my new Energy Suspension bushings, and assembled it to measure... looks nice!

zossy1 · Postby **zossy1** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 8:20 pm

Well we are well overdue for an update!

Just started a new job. My employer was kind enough to provide me with a new Toyota Corolla Conquest - quite a nice little car to drive, and the price was right (free!).

I also came across this little NA8 at a damaged cars auction last week, so we are now up to six MX5s in our house! Interesting little car - stolen/recovered. Some of you may recognise it as the former ride of a NSW MX5 Club member. Had to put my hard top on it because the soft top was cut, and we are out of garage space

Once my car is finished, i'll tidy it up, blue slip it and put it back on the road!

OK - so I finished putting together the new front end. The crossmember was recovered from one of our donor NA6s (see above), so I added additional bracing to bring it closer to NA8 spec. I am considering the ILMS 5 piece underbody bracing kit anyway, so we should be good in the end. Sport brakes (NB8B) installed with drilled/slotted rotors, Flyin Miata V-Maxx coilovers, Energy suspension bushings installed. Getting closer! One hiccup though - I discovered that my 15x7 Rota RBs won't fit over the brakes - so they were sold (to Pete!), and I now have a couple of wheel options. I have ordered some 15x8 +25 Enkei J-Speeds from the states, and I also have the Sparco NT wheels that come with the black NA8 I bought last week see above).

Dad decided that he wanted the repairs to be perfect. We had the right inner guard lined up, but the sheet metal was too far gone to look much good. So, we ordered a new inner guard section from MX5 Plus. While waiting for it to arrive, I got to work on the rear end, pulling the brakes off, the wishbones out, and installing new Energy bushings, the V-Maxx coilovers for the rear, the rear sport brakes (NB8B) and drilled/slotted rotors for the rear, and the new HEL braided brake lines:

I also went ahead and installed the new Flyin Miata rear sway bar - part of the Flyin Miata V-Maxx stage 2.5 kit:

The new inner guard section arrived yesterday, so we started cutting and sectioning - the master at work:

Section bound in place! Still to do:

1. Line up and weld inner guard section in place;
2. Weld front sections back into place;
3. Clean up welds, prime and paint engine bay;
4. Install engine and gearbox into subframe, roll them under the front of the car & install;
5. Reinstall front sheet metal;
6. Prime and paint exterior;
7. Blue slip and register;
8. Install roll bar, other cosmetic bits;
9. Staged turbo install.

Hopefully she will be back on the road soon!

Hammer · Postby **Hammer** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 8:44 pm

Looking good. I wish I had the skills and know-how to build a car like that.

91 Malibu · Postby **91 Malibu** » Sun Feb 06, 2011 8:19 am

Great job, good to see it repaired & not parted out, looking forward to seeing the finished project.

zossy1 · Postby **zossy1** » Tue Feb 15, 2011 7:57 pm

Front tinware now welded in place - not much more to do before the engine bay can be sandblasted and painted, and the engine re-installed:

Engine nearly ready to install. Valve cover powdercoated and installed. New valve cover gasket, CAS o-ring, clutch and flywheel (see above), rear main oil seal, M-tuned coolant reroute components installed, BEGi water pump intake pipe, NB8B A/C compressor, and A/C (no P/S) idler arm. Still need to drill the sump for the turbo oil return - much easier to do it now with the engine out of the car! Turbo will not be going on for a couple of months though - rego first

Alex · Postby **Alex** » Sat Feb 19, 2011 12:45 am

Great write up and pics, looking forward to seeing more

zossy1 · Postby **zossy1** » Sun Feb 20, 2011 8:58 pm

Some progress today!

The little girl had 4 wheels again for the first time in almost 2 months. Crossmember went in so that we could move the car out to sandblast around the tinware repairs on the front end:

Next step is to prime and paint the engine bay - then the reconstruction begins

93_Clubman · Postby **93_Clubman** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 12:25 pm

Great work - looking good.

zossy1 · Postby **zossy1** » Sun Mar 13, 2011 8:27 pm

More progress over the past 2 weeks:

Engine bay painted! Wow, what a pain to prep. Came up looking pretty good. If you have a very sharp eye, you might pick it had been painted - but there is no way you would pick the seam where the chassis and inner guard was welded

Drilled and tapped the sump in preparation for the turbo install. Need to plug for the moment though - turbo install will be later.

Next up, we wrestled the crossmember on to the flat stand and dropped the engine and gearbox on to the crossmember. Chocked it up and wrestled it into place:

Engine now in place! Time to start hooking everything back up:

Still to do:

Finish routing and hooking up the wiring loom;
Install cooling system;
Install A/C components;
Intake/exhaust;
Other misc parts (body, etc)
Paint;
Rego;
Turbo

zossy1 · Postby **zossy1** » Mon Mar 21, 2011 8:17 pm

Car is now running, and has a clutch and brakes - I was a bit worried that the pedal action would be a bit low or spongy with the NB8B brakes on the 13/16 master cylinder, but the pedal feels great! I can't wait to take it for a drive and work on the brake bias (Wilwood brake bias valve fitted).

Trying to arrange the paintwork now - definitely approaching the return to on-road status!