Christine's little red NA6

[emexv]

I'm with Kansei. Be careful you don't go off spending money chasing phantons. Condesation in the exhaust is quite normal and the black soot is a build up of carbon in the exhaust. You haven't dríven it alot so it could be worse than normal. I wouldn't be to concerned about it.

The oil leak could be a rear main seal but it could also be coming from higher up and running down. Two common sources of leaks are the rocker cover gasket, which goes hard and the Cam angle sensor which is mounted on the back of the rocker cover on the inlet side of the motor. Feel down around this area and under the CAS for traces of oil. It's a much easier fix than the rear main so worth checking forst.

[xTine]

Ok cool, so the exhaust thing is nothing to be too concerned about. I'll try to have a better look at the engine over the weekend and see if I can find the source if the leak or a better idea of where it might be coming from. I do know the rocker cover gasket had a major leak and had been fixed when the car was at Dick Richie's, I'm not sure if they did the cam angle sensor though.

Thanks heaps to all of you for your responses and suggestions

[hks_kansei]

I would personally re-check the work the mechanic did.

There's no guarantee they haven't just tightened the rocker cover bolts a bit more to slow a leak down.
Or that they've correctly seated the gasket etc.

[xTine]

Update time!

Been meaning to do a bit of an update for a while. I regularly lurk here and love reading other people's garage threads and have already learnt so much from this forum, so I thought I better make the time to do an update. So far have just been cleaning the car up a bit and mainly fixing interior stuff.

This is what has been done to the car so far, I've put pics of what I managed to get a photo of:

The very first thing we did was replaced the very worn rubber gear shift boot and the leather gaiter on the gear shifter & handbrake. I then aquired some better cared for NA seats thanks to another forum member. The ones the car came with were disgusting and had bits of metal sticking out. New seats are sooo much better!! I also got a replacement tombstone and instrument hood from MX5 Plus as and the old ones were rattling around and the instrument hood had broken clips. Then I added some brushed aluminum vent rings from eBay, got a brushed aluminum gauge face as well, but I'm still undecided if I will install or not. Lastly I got some new floor mats and a cup holder from Mania to help tidy up the interior. I may replace the carpet at a later stage but for now the mats make it look 1000 times better already.

Here is a pic of the interior as it is right now:


Next, I updated the door cards. The old door cards were disgusting, had paint smears and small tears, and one of the door cards was badly torn and there were no speaker covers. I thought it might be fun to make my own door cards do found some vinyl I liked, got my bf to cut me some new cards from 3mm mdf then I covered them. I like how they turned out, looks heaps better than before!

The pattern:




Before & after


The soft top the car came with was pretty tired and the plastic window was really yellowed and the zipper was torn pretty badly. We got a new one from ebay seller called Autoberry, it seems pretty decent for the price, and I'm happy with it so far. Also got a rain rail from them as the rain rail was cracked. I think the car had been permantly parked under a tree there was so much dirt and leaves and general filth throughout the whole car especially around the rain rail area. Sorry about the photo but this is the best one I have of the new soft top.



Lastly I added some purple wheel nuts and I sanded and sprayed my wipers gloss black.





That's it for now. Future plans..

-Install my new BC coilovers!! Just need to make some space in the garage so we can install them, and probably wait for a bit warmer weather as its like a freezer in there at the moment!

-Upgrade brakes, so they feel like they may actually stop the car!

-New steering wheel as the current one is cracked and pretty tired looking.

-Paint wheels - got some gloss black to paint them with to tide me over till I get some new wheels, again just got to wait for some warmer weather to kick in.

-Side mirrors

-Rollbar

-Front lip/rear spoiler

-Buy new wheels!

That's all for now - here are a few recent photos of the car from last weekend:

[KevGoat]

Hi, looking good so far Christine.

I have also been restoring a red NA over the past year. Great fun & a real learning experience. Never finishes. Always something extra can be improved or modded

Just looking at yours, maybe some clear reflectors/indicators to match those clear tailights...?

Which roll bar are you considering?

Make sure you post an update on your thoughts of the BC's.

Cheers

Kev...

[xTine]

Thanks Kev! I was actually having a bit of a read of your garage thread the other day, looking forward to seeing how it progresses!

Your comment reminded me I left a few things off my'future plans' list, one of them was to replace the tail lights with the OEM ones, I hate the clear ones and they came with the car. I
saw someone had some smoked indicators which I liked the look of so maybe a set of those with the darker tail lights will look better.

I also plan to do some performance mods too...when I work out what I want to do! I am still new to this and really have no idea about how to get more power and what engine mods to do so a lot more reading and research needs to be done. I have been reading a few other people's garage threads from start to finish to get an idea of how their cars have progressed and what changes they have made and why. So yeah...still a long way to go and a lot to learn

Um not sure which roll bar yet, looking at the Brown Davis and also the one MX5 Plus sell at this stage.

[KevGoat]

I hate the clear ones and they came with the car.

Haha ... I was being diplomatic - I hate clear lights on most cars

I'm finding reading a lot of garage threads can be dangerous ... I keep adding stuff to my wish list

[xTine]

Haha no need to be diplomatic, I can handle it

Yes I definitely agree about it being dangerous to read what other people are doing with their cars!!

[Hammer]

Before & after

I like the patterned door cards very much. It makes an otherwise plain look into something more stylish. And it does not feel out of place with the NA.

[xTine]

Thanks Hammer! I originally found some mad leopard-print that I wanted to use but figured the quilted vinyl was more tasteful

[xTine]

Time for an update!

A fair bit has happened since my last update. The car has become my daily drive the past couple of months; the auto trans gave out in my daily car (a Mitsubishi Colt), its one if those CVT transmissions, and it has been a slow process to find a wrecked vehicle with the right trans to suit my colt I think it has been good for me to be able to drive the mx5 every day. Before my trans died in the other car I really only drove the mx5 on weekends when the weather was fine so i really hadn't had much of a chance to really get used to it. My partners car is a manual, but the gearbox and clutch in the mx5 are so different to his car, his car feels like I could drive it with one finger and the gear stick is so light I feel like I might break it when I change gears! Lol. It probably took a good 2-3 weeks to settle into the groove of driving it every day and getting used to the different clutch and gearbox. Now I love it even more than before, I actually like the no power steering and I like my gearbox better than the one in my boyfriends car! Plus I am a lot more confident driving it now, especially through corners and on twisty roads! I took the car to the recent Vic MX5 Club Xmas run and had a blast! Was such a fun day and met a lot of great people and envied a lot of other cars too!!

Couple of pics..




So its had a couple of repairs and some new parts added recently. I had to replace the clutch slave at the start of October, then a few weeks ago I had a collapsed wheel bearing! I am a receptionist at a mechanic workshop so I was lucky they were able to help me get it repaired right away so I could drive home!!!

When I had the roadworthy done i was informed I would need new brake pads and front rotors fairly soon. I didn't worry about it at the time as I wasn't driving it much but now that I needed the car to go to work every day I decided it was time to update the brakes. I decided to get new pads and rotors for both the fronts and rears from GSL Rallysport. I had heard good things about GSL Rallysport on this forum and also my boyfriend got his pads and rotors through them too and was really happy with them. GSL were really helpful, I asked what they recommended for street/occasional track day for my car and they sorted me out with some Brakes Direct straight slotted rotors and QFM HPX pads. Really happy with them, it's been about 2 months since they were fitted and they are great! Thanks heaps the GSL Rallysport for their help and speedy delivery!

Ok now for the serious stuff...
After a 3 month wait, on Christmas Eve my new wheels finally arrived..
Pics!!!







What can I say, I freaking love them!!! My boyfriend got me the Project MU wheel nuts, i really like the colour

Next it was time to sort some tyres. After getting some advice from some other forum member about tyre choices I rang around and got some prices and ended up settling for some RE002's.



I bought some BC Racing BR coilovers a few months ago, I intended to fit them earlier but just didn't get time so over xmas we finally got a chance to fit them. So far they seem really good! I only have the previous suspension to compare them too of course but I am really happy with the BC's so far, and when I was researching coilovers I read a lot of positive things about them.

Bye bye old suspension..


Hellooo new suspension!


Coilovers in..




We let the suspension sit that way for a day or so then lowered it a little bit more..




It was scrubbing a bit on one of the bolts just under the front guard, so we raised it back up by 2cm. Need to get our hands on a guard roller then we can drop it back down again.

I also bought some second-hand tail lights to replace the clear ones that came on my car.



That's all for now. Next will be to replace the radiator and hoses as it is in pretty poor condition. I have already bought and received a ASI 42mm radiator, just need the hoses then I can put it in. Hopefully will be ordering a rollbar fairly soon too, and there are some other things to sort out but thats enough for now!

[PaulF]

It's amazing how much better an NA looks with just some nice wheels and a bit of a drop. Stock tail lights are an improvement too. You have my approval. What are the specs on the wheels?

[xTine]

Thanks Paul! The wheels are Work Meister CR01's in 15x7 +10

[emily_mx5]

Doorcards and wheels look absolutely fantastic!

[gslender]

Looks nice....

Top job Bob!

G