Ben Sale's white 1990 NA6

snshami · Postby **snshami** » Mon Feb 07, 2011 12:27 am

lee wrote:After seeing pictures of that Miura, it should be easy for me to collect my jaw from the ground, as my knees also gave way. That looks absolutely stunning.

I've just had a quick look at Wikipedia for the Miura. The S is the most exclusive model made, at only 140 units built! One of those was owned by Frank Sinatra

Second that. I absolutely love seeing pictures of the MX-5 next to exotic machinery. They always seem to acquit themselves rather well.

bensale · Postby **bensale** » Mon Feb 07, 2011 11:20 am

Thanks for that Guran, I'll grab one of them next time I'm going past Bunnings. I don't really see why this bracket is not safe and shouldn't be legal as it is impossible to break the extinguisher out of the bracket unless you lift it a certain angle from the nozzle end... But I don't really want the hassle of having to change back to my old bracket at the track if they knock it back... I can't stand the rattle of the old one so I'll go and buy what you have, always good to have an extra extinguisher at home too =)

snshami wrote:
lee wrote:After seeing pictures of that Miura, it should be easy for me to collect my jaw from the ground, as my knees also gave way. That looks absolutely stunning.

I've just had a quick look at Wikipedia for the Miura. The S is the most exclusive model made, at only 140 units built! One of those was owned by Frank Sinatra

Second that. I absolutely love seeing pictures of the MX-5 next to exotic machinery. They always seem to acquit themselves rather well.

They really do all things considered. I also have pictures somewhere of my MX-5 parked next to an Aerial Atom and also a genuine Group 4 rally spec Alitalia livery Lancia Stratos rally car (both of which I've been lucky enough to go for a run in also) and while it looked no where near as special as either of them, it hasn't looked too out of place either.

snshami · Postby **snshami** » Mon Feb 07, 2011 12:17 pm

bensale wrote:Thanks for that Guran, I'll grab one of them next time I'm going past Bunnings. I don't really see why this bracket is not safe and shouldn't be legal as it is impossible to break the extinguisher out of the bracket unless you lift it a certain angle from the nozzle end... But I don't really want the hassle of having to change back to my old bracket at the track if they knock it back... I can't stand the rattle of the old one so I'll go and buy what you have, always good to have an extra extinguisher at home too =)

snshami wrote:
lee wrote:After seeing pictures of that Miura, it should be easy for me to collect my jaw from the ground, as my knees also gave way. That looks absolutely stunning.

I've just had a quick look at Wikipedia for the Miura. The S is the most exclusive model made, at only 140 units built! One of those was owned by Frank Sinatra

Second that. I absolutely love seeing pictures of the MX-5 next to exotic machinery. They always seem to acquit themselves rather well.

They really do all things considered. I also have pictures somewhere of my MX-5 parked next to an Aerial Atom and also a genuine Group 4 rally spec Alitalia livery Lancia Stratos rally car (both of which I've been lucky enough to go for a run in also) and while it looked no where near as special as either of them, it hasn't looked too out of place either.

I agree that was my point. It does not look as special as the more exotic machinery but does not look out of place. Very well put!

bensale · Postby **bensale** » Mon Feb 07, 2011 8:26 pm

I had a bit of a clean up this afternoon, I got a some water in the boot and interior after the very heavy rains last week... At one stage to get home the car had to go through water which went up and over the door sills, so I'm thinking that is what must have let all the water into the interior as it was mostly under and behind the seats... I don't know why the boot leaked... Anyway, so out everything came in the interior and boot to dry out and then get vacuumed. It hasn't been so clean for quite a while! A lot of the sound deadening was also soaked so I decided to just rip it out, it actually weighted a fairly substantial amount..! I'll have to take an after photo of the interior tomorrow, it looks quite spiffy

Filthy interior with the seats out prior to cleaning...

The sh*t I pulled out.

I also decided to paint my rear subframe brace bright orange to match the track wheels and fire extinguisher bracket. I'll get a fully fitted picture tomorrow, it's reasonably subtle as the car is quite low and the exhaust blocks most of it but it looks pretty damm cool when you walk up to the car from a bit of a distance away.

bensale · Postby **bensale** » Wed Feb 09, 2011 12:10 pm

So... I had a bit of 'fun' yesterday, as you can read a couple of posts back a few months ago I was lucky enough to get a NB roof with a broken rear window with thanks to the generosity of Fattima and a rear window with thanks to BigDog. I went and got the window sewn into the roof and hey presto, a really nice NB roof for much less than what one is worth... However, as the photo below shows the stitching started to come apart around the curve of the window on both sides which is the area which takes the most stress... There is no stitching there on a normal NB roof. This also led to a small hole in the corner window part of the roof getting quite a bit larger. I took the roof back to the guy who did it, in order for him to fix it I had to take the roof out again... Oh joy..!

So let the nightmare begin.... I honestly thought it wouldn't take too long for the roll bar and roof to come out (I've done it enough times after all...) but this time I had the complication from hell, one of the nut and bolts that the roll bar used had seised severely, I don't know what I did when i put it on but it was bad... To the extent that I managed to grind out the teeth off a decent quality socket trying to get the nut off... After an hour and a half of cursing (I even got my dad in when he got home to assist with the cursing) we finally resorted to hacksawing off the head of the bolt, although even this was a pain as it was a high tensile bolt...

Finally it got to here, i was so excited to be holding this at the time....

From there on it was nice and easy to get the bar and roof out and the roof is now at the trimmers. It was funny driving the car today without any roof (soft or hard) or the roll bar, the weight reduction was quite noticeable actually, I was also quite low on fuel too and the car felt significantly quicker than it ever has before... I certainly know why people look to save as much weight as possible now.

All naked

With the hardtop on (I forgot how much I like the look of the car with the hardtop..!)

My clean interior

My orange brace (need to take one with a proper camera to show properly, not the phone like all of these are)

lee · Postby **lee** » Wed Feb 09, 2011 4:36 pm

My car got a bit wet in the rain as well. It wasn't much fun at all; I had to remove both seats and stick towels under the carpet to drain the bulk of the water, then I put the roof up and left a portable heater on for a while to evaporate the last of it.

Do you notice any difference with the sound deadening out? I'm thinking I might just pull it from mine.

CheyneX5 · Postby **CheyneX5** » Thu Feb 10, 2011 12:34 pm

You have been busy

. Did my coloured chassis brace provoke you to paint yours

bensale · Postby **bensale** » Thu Feb 10, 2011 1:44 pm

To be honest, I don't know if taking the sound deadening out has really made that much of a difference, I probably wouldn't have bothered if it wasn't so wet. I think I've probably in total taken 10-15kg out which has to be worth something for the times around the track, even if it's worth only a tenth... It probably cancels out the added weight of the roll bar. On the road you're probably driving way too hard if you notice a difference. The car is a slightly noisier now too, not that much more but it is noticeable.

I have more things i've done to post up about soon too... And yes... =) Perhaps I walked up behind your car a few times and saw that blue Cusco brace sticking out and thought it was worth replicating... Except mines orange so is much cooler than a blue one..!

mazdatenfive · Postby **mazdatenfive** » Thu Feb 10, 2011 1:55 pm

Is it normal for the rear bumper to be blackened around the exhaust outlet?

bensale · Postby **bensale** » Thu Feb 10, 2011 2:45 pm

Lol..! Umm, well I guess not if I had time to clean the car more often ;)

I think it's a combination of two things... The NA's, particularly the NA6's run very rich in standard tune which leads to the unburnt fuel coming out the exhaust pipe. Then i think that as my catalitic converter is probably not working as well as it should and is adding to the problem. I figure the cat is why I find it worse now than it was when I got the car. I've seen a few white MX-5's with the black around the exhaust, i guess it's less noticeable on other colours. I find mine is particularly bad after a track day, or if i don't wash the car for a few weeks.

I guess I'm going to have to go and clean my rear bumper now..! :oops:

-alex · Postby **-alex** » Thu Feb 10, 2011 4:44 pm

bensale wrote:Lol..! Umm, well I guess not if I had time to clean the car more often ;)

I think it's a combination of two things... The NA's, particularly the NA6's run very rich in standard tune which leads to the unburnt fuel coming out the exhaust pipe. Then i think that as my catalitic converter is probably not working as well as it should and is adding to the problem. I figure the cat is why I find it worse now than it was when I got the car. I've seen a few white MX-5's with the black around the exhaust, i guess it's less noticeable on other colours. I find mine is particularly bad after a track day, or if i don't wash the car for a few weeks.

I guess I'm going to have to go and clean my rear bumper now..!

Ok WOW. . . and I was complaining about mine this morning, mine isn't half that bad.. though you're very welcome to clean it for me when I'm working on Saturday!

bensale · Postby **bensale** » Thu Feb 10, 2011 8:31 pm

Hehe, yeah I did laugh at mazdatenfive's comment after what you were saying this morning..! You'll all be comforted to know that my rear bumper is clean now =) Perhaps I could clean yours too... As long as you ask nicely =) . . .

wazman · Postby **wazman** » Wed Feb 16, 2011 4:49 pm

Looking good Ben ! I believe you will gain more from the aero dynamics of the hard top than the by the weight saving.

HIC-45S · Postby **HIC-45S** » Thu Feb 17, 2011 1:10 pm

bensale wrote:Then i think that as my catalitic converter is probably not working as well as it should and is adding to the problem. I figure the cat is why I find it worse now than it was when I got the car.

Solution: DYI high flow cat! Tools required, 1 long screwdriver and 1 hammer :lol:

On a more serious note, Ricelines are renowned for running rich, and it's made worse when modifications are introduced and/or if the AFM, cat or O2 sensor are on the way out. If you can get your hands on a consult cable you can at least eliminate anything electrical being the problem (in theory...)

bensale · Postby **bensale** » Thu Feb 17, 2011 9:50 pm

Lol Cass..! I think I may do that... I am sure the modification is 100% compliant with all EPA and vehicle modification rules...

The problem with the early mx-5s is that they're not OBDII so reading fault codes is a bit hard... I tried to build a fault code reader with some resistors and a light but it gave me some pretty inconsistent results and didn't really tell me that much so I gave up on that... Good point that it could be the AFM or O2 sensor, I shall investigate.
.........
The result of my roof problem wasn't so positive... Basically the rear window section is coming apart, the fabric has some apart from the glass bit of the window as well as the stitching coming apart where the window was sewed in... So basically it's not worth fixing now as any fix will be temporary. So i think I'll order myself a Prestige soft top off the net soon and get it fitted. I did some looking and the glass window ones on the site are $460 which isn't too bad... So at the moment the car has no soft top and I'm running the hardtop which is actually not so bad as the car is quite nice to drive around in with the hardtop on. It also looks pretty damm good!

I also fitted my new bonnet hinge the other day, i have some interesting photos of the car I'll have to post up soon. It's not really that hard a job to do and I am very happy with the result... The car does not have a single rattle at the moment..! It is brilliant!!! Today I did a few checks as tomorrow we'll be trekking 950km up north so a big day ahead. . .