Kevin here
My first post. Having gained so much knowledge from the MX5 forums online since buying my "Mex" I wanted to become more involved and give back if opportunity arises.I'm 54, from Adelaide South Australia. Not really a club person and probably won't track the car. I'm quiet, shy, agoraphobic actually, but when I start writing I usually don't know when or how to stop, so be warned
. Your best defense is that I am completely new to posting on Forums so learning as I go ... could get real messy haha 
...So, I have had my 1990 NA6 for nearly 12 months now. Wow how time flies! "Mexie" was never an intended purchase. The car was sitting unwanted on my mate's lawn for ages rotting away. Every time I went round to his place I'd look at it sitting there sad & unwanted. Just a matter of time before I gave in and made him a stupid offer on it to get it out of his way ... surprised the hell out of me when he accepted!
$2500 passed hands and she became a loved member of our crazy clan.
And so the trip home with my new pride & joy ... horrible tappet noise, one of the belt pulley's complaining, a disturbing grinding type noise from somewhere under the car between 3500-4000rpm, virtually no brakes, different types & sizes of wheels & tyres on each corner, a cantancerous gearbox giving me a workout to achieve 2nd gear, electric windows stuck annoyingly half open, fan belt slipping, cut springs sitting on the bumpstops making steering hairy at anything over 50km/hr & pretty much no ground clearance ... it was a big sigh of relief to pull in to my driveway ... .
Oh dear ... what was I thinking? ....
Driver's seat not too good & many interior parts missing...
OK, so she's here now, but being of very little mechanical knowledge or experience, it was time to figure where to start. Thats when I discovered the awesome array of info online and on all the MX5 forums! Wow!! There is nothing on these cars that someone hasn't done & posted a "how to" or how not to!
So, with enough knowledge to start making all my own mistakes, it was down to the local parts shop for the basics that I could do - spark plugs, belts, oil filter, quality synthetic oils for everything that looked like it takes oil. Ordered new brake discs & pads. Ordered all new brake spring fitting kits from Mania. I'd never touched gearboxes or diffs before, so on to Google, print out plenty of instructions & pictures & after arguing at much length with a particularly stubborn gearbox drain bolt the jobs were done to much cheering and hoorahs. Ok, so no one actually cared, but I felt good...
Next, read that the gear lever seals were prone to wear. Took out the centre console & didn't need any prior knowledge to know that what I was looking at wasn't good. So on to Mania for new boots & a selector bush. Syringed out the old mud & replaced with something much more agreeable and then fitted all the nice new parts. Time to start her up again. Hmmm....battery flat
Tried to recharge ... nup, stuffed. Down to Supercheap for a decent fully sealed replacement - and yes I know they are supposed to be vented, but for now ....Started her up & nice!! No tappet noise anymore!
Brakes all fixed. So on to the suspension. Decided to use the existing shocks - looked standard - and ordered some Eibach Lowered springs. Time for another first for me, ripped out the springs/shocks ...
While all this was going on, I decided to use the original wheels. But theye were in a really bad state! So after trying everything I could think of, took them around my mate's place & we sandblasted them clean. Then took them to a local paint shop & had them painted in two pak, baked for hardness. Very happy with the result.
Before:
Sandblasted:
Finished:
Fitted the new springs to the old shocks, had new tyres fitted to the restored wheels & finally put her back on the ground:
Drove like this for a little while. The engine felt great & the 2nd gear issue was resolved thanks to the new oil and selector bush. Most of the rattles & noises had been fixed thanks to many hours of fiddling, many twist ties and a huge amount of loose bolts tightened up.
But finally one of the stock shocks spat the dummy. I hadn't been overly happy with the ride height or the feel of the car on the Eibachs. Being such low cars anyway, the lowered springs became a hassle in carparks etc, so I decided to put her back to original settings. Plus the ride was awful, probably more due to the stuffed shocks rather than the lowered springs. Anyway, after much consideration and research online, I decided to go a different way to most & ordered standard height King Springs plus a set of Monroe Sport shocks. At the same time, I ordered a complete set of Fat Cat mounts & bump stops, but after receiving them I decided to only use the bump stops & shock boots. The red boots look great against the yellow springs
Yeah she sits higher than most like, but I am really impressed with the comfort level of this setup while still holding good handling characteristics. Feels more compliant and comfortable than my wife's Echo, that's for sure.
A new rear garnish, new mud guards, and a week of hand sanding, cutting, polishing & cleaning off as much overspray from a dodgy home spray job and she looked a whole lot cleaner.
Some interior improvements were made during all this as well ....
Then because of my height, decided against recovering my seats and fitted NB seats thanks to Hayden (hjt) on the Forum. Great upgrade!!
From Rev9 a red stitched leather handbrake handle & chrome button to match the red stitched gear boot & handbrake boot I'd fitted earlier.
From MX5 Parts UK I.L.Motorsport pedals
New Pioneer Mechless head unit
And currently in the process of fitting new instrument rings and white LED's to the whole dash to improve lighting:
Not the best photo of how good these white SMD LED's look unfortunately. There is no dark spot in reality:
So there you have it. Many hundreds of other little things have been repaired, replaced or improved, but probably bored you all enough by now
