Mexie & Kev say hello

[KevGoat]

.. really looks good, Kev. The red looks pretty shiny. What's the drop in ride height?
Would be nice to drop 1" so that the car doesnt sit like a 4x4

Thanks mate. She is looking nicer since I washed & polished her. Must admit though, polishing her for the first time showed me all the small dents, stone chips & lacquer that's peeling

Having a mental blank on what the actual height measurements were but I aimed at roughly about an inch drop. Sits just about right now and still measures legal, especially as mine was sitting around the lower end of Mazda's specs anyway. I drove in and backed out of our other steep drive without any issues whereas I need to be careful backing out of that one with Mexie due to the rear tow hook.

I'll post the final heights I settle on once everything sorted ...

[KevGoat]

Fitted one of the stronger aluminium number plate brackest to the NB. This also allowed me to adjust the Lockwood's brackets and fit the grille further inside the mouth. Looks neater.

I read comments by 93_Clubman on Shuey's thread about fitting his plate down low, instead of in front of the bumper, so I thought I'd try it. I like it, though maybe a slim plate would look better ...

[shuey]

.. definitely looks better now, don't think you need the slimline plates cos it's covers nicely over the grille (i.e. not spilling over to the front lip skirt)
now all you need Kev is a Red 2004 NB SE to make the collection complete

[Lokiel]

You've effectively blocked off 70% of your airflow to your radiator now!
Please consider purchasing the MX5 Plus licence plate holder and a slim numberplate instead or you will suffer overheating issues in summer.

[Lokiel]

You've effectively blocked off 70% of your airflow to your radiator now!
Please consider purchasing the MX5 Plus licence plate holder and a slim numberplate instead or you will suffer overheating issues in summer.

[KevGoat]

You've effectively blocked off 70% of your airflow to your radiator now!
Please consider purchasing the MX5 Plus licence plate holder and a slim numberplate instead or you will suffer overheating issues in summer.

The plate holder is the one from MX5Plus. I've fitted it so that the holes were at the top, upside down to normal fitting presumably

Yeah, the amount it's covering is a concern, Wanted to see what it looked like and figured if I leave it like this I'll consider personalised plates or just get a new slim one of these and free it up a bit. My engine's stock, so not sure if that makes much difference. With winter, I should be ok, but I'll still be keeping a close eye on it! This grille is also a different one to what I have fitted to my NA, so I'm not sure yet how much this one restricts air flow by comparison. My NA never had any temp problems with one of the cheap MX5Parts UK grille's fitted, even in high heat with aircon going, but there's no number plate blocking that one

[KevGoat]

.. now all you need Kev is a Red 2004 NB SE to make the collection complete

haha .... tempted .....

[KevGoat]

You've effectively blocked off 70% of your airflow to your radiator now!
Please consider purchasing the MX5 Plus licence plate holder and a slim numberplate instead or you will suffer overheating issues in summer.

Just to follow up, this morning the thought came in to my head about the legality of placement. Did some searching and found that number plates in SA have to be minimum 300mm above the ground. Has to be raised at least 70mm That will at least open up the air flow underneath it a fair bit ...

[shuey]

Just to follow up, this morning the thought came in to my head about the legality of placement. Did some searching and found that number plates in SA have to be minimum 300mm above the ground. Has to be raised at least 70mm That will at least open up the air flow underneath it a fair bit ...

So did you have to put the plates back up to its original placement?
Say, those Parts UK grille that you got from Mexie, were there flimsy (i.e. flex much) by any means? I think Mania is selling the equivalent but still more expensive eventhough the F/X has been crappy the past couple of weeks /shrugs

[KevGoat]

So did you have to put the plates back up to its original placement?

ah that's better!! I can breath again

Say, those Parts UK grille that you got from Mexie, were there flimsy (i.e. flex much) by any means? I think Mania is selling the equivalent but still more expensive eventhough the F/X has been crappy the past couple of weeks /shrugs

Yeah, I'm pretty much leaving buying much from OS for now, hopefully the $ recovers a bit.

They're a stamped grille. Bit more flimsy than the Lockwood, but certainly not a problem. I've been happy with mine. I was going to buy the same for the NB, especially when I found that MX5Parts were out of stock of the Lockwoods, but then this Lockwood came up on the Forum so thought I'd try it. Hopefully, considering how much more they cost, the Lockwood will hold up better, because yesterday while changing the number plate brackets, I noticed that my grille in the NA is already rusting Only notice it up close, but I'll need to remove it & clean it up. Wouldn't be without one though. Apart from all the bugs, leaves, stones and other foreign matter that collects in there, while on our last holiday, we had a bird fly in there while we were at about 110km/h! Dented the grille nicely (was easy to flatten again ), can't imagine how the radiator would have fared!

[KevGoat]

After driving in to the City & back last night, my wife was not very happy with the BC's at all, even after a couple of adjustments We both have bad backs and they were feeling rather harsh. So we decided we'd need a decent drive today (as if we need an excuse) to test and adjust. There are some good roads down the peninsular here for that sort of thing.

The rough roads also found a few creaks in the hard top that I think I managed to solve. Also showed up a problem with the Hard Top bracket on driver's side. Keeps popping open. Appears the little plastic lug thingy is worn away. Tried to unscrew to change for a spare I have when I got home, but only managed to damage the screw head Just read that the screws have to be heated to melt the thread goo ... ugh ....

Anyway, the drive was a good one. Of course, breakfast stop plus a couple of coffee stops extends the enjoyment. We stopped to take some photo's outside Victor Harbor (I'm a lousy - read lazy - photographer these days ), when I finally seemed to find a suspension setting that my wife was happy with - which of course means I'm happy with! Drove another 50-70kms home from that point and no complaints! So fingers crossed

Victor Harbor in distance ...

[shuey]

.. that's a lovely pic, Kev...great weather! Unfortunately hardly had time to drive Sparky out this weekend.
Good to know that you've set up the BC nicely. Don't think I'll touch that part for the time being although I do like how your car sits 'just nice'. i may however get the grille cos i think DIY'ing from scratch takes a wee bit too much effort. may just go for the stainless steel color, cos if it doesn't look nice i can just spray it black. but oh dear, F/X rates are down in the dogs.. don't think it'll improve anytime.

[KevGoat]

Thanks Scott ...

Got the 4 corners matching height side to side on the weekend. Adjust one corner and it affects all the other three slightly, so takes a little while to get right.

Sitting 320mm front and 340mm rear. May drop the rear slightly more sometime but it all feels good. Not expecting much (if any) drop while settling. Not low by most people's standards, but that small drop helps it's looks and most importantly for us stays highly practical.

It feels great. More solid and planted. Corners much flatter. Final setting on shocks that we appear to be happy with was front/rear 9/7. Will leave it be and see how it all goes for a while. I'd already read that to get comfortable, you need to dial it in stiffer, not softer, but it only sunk in when we hit a really bouncy section of road at speed and it felt like we were being ejected out of our seats! Quite painful with our backs! But that finally showed me how it was (wasn't) working

On the grille, if you are anything like me, it will probably be cheaper to buy one. I'm hopeless making things. Takes me so many times to get something right, costs me more in the end

[KevGoat]

Bought a CTEK XS0.8 12 Volt 800 mAh Charger for maintaining "Mexie's" battery now that she sits around more (http://www.batteriesdirect.com.au/shop/ ... on-special).html):



... works nicely.

Took her out for a shake out drive and thought would try with the hard top on. First time I've ever dríven her with a hard top. Felt nice inside, nicer feeling than the soft top and sooo much better vision!! But Oh dear ... my NB's hard top rubs very hard against the NA's roll bar! Made some terrible noises. I have an NB BD Roll bar in Mexie, so not sure if they are higher than NA roll bars, but it is certainly a tight fit Actually rubbed marks in the top after only one drive

Apart from that, was really fun to drive Mexie again Felt & sounded great revving her out compared to the reluctance of the NB. Felt punchy, responsive. Strange reversing her out of the drive without power steering lol, but soon got use to it. Really is well weighted steering and being such a light car I've always found it just never gets that heavy, even when parking. Amazed at how much I could feel that the NA is lighter in weight than the NB! Quite noticeable! Definitely great feel and fun to the drive. Had more room over my knees with the smaller steering wheel in Mexie, but the centre console seems thinner. I rest my knee against the console when driving and I find the NB's console perfectly positioned for me, but after getting use to that car, the NA's console seems too far over! Never noticed it before, only because of hopping from one to the other. Also missed my NB8B seats in her, but I've got some replacements on their way so that will soon change again.

I get such a feeling of personal satisfaction looking at Mexie knowing that she is what I created. Has become a really nice "tourer" considering the condition she started in. Sat in her when I got back just looking around realising how much work I'd done! So many little unseen and non obvious things as well as all the obvious stuff.

Been surprised by a couple of tempting offers out of the blue regarding Mexie. Still hoping to hang on to her for the short term but in the vein of "never say never" ... if something really tempting comes along ...

[KevGoat]

As mentioned in a previous post, my NB's Hard Top had a bracket popping open on the weekend's drive. I tried to unscrew it, but stuffed up one screw trying. Wow are they tight! So on to the forums, where I read that the screws have to be heated to melt the Loctite.

My soldering iron did absolutely nothing to help, so a trip to Supercheap to purchase an el cheapo butane torch. Worked like a charm! Screws came out real easy once they were heated up. Swapped over both brackets for some spare brackets I had in the shed. They lock in with a satisfying click now