MEANMX2

davekmoore · Postby **davekmoore** » Thu Sep 05, 2013 3:22 pm

Wasn't sure from previous pics but can now see that you have matt stripes. Cool. Any thoughts about de-badging and/or tidying up the fussiness around the rear number plate?

meanmx · Postby **meanmx** » Thu Sep 05, 2013 4:01 pm

mrschlim wrote:Both, well the combination of elements here in any case... Wheels, bumper cutout, the way the body colour works with the NB lines and the way it contrasts with the exposed muffler all come together really well IMO.

Well thankyou very much. Kind comments are appreciated.

meanmx · Postby **meanmx** » Thu Sep 05, 2013 4:04 pm

davekmoore wrote:Wasn't sure from previous pics but can now see that you have matt stripes. Cool. Any thoughts about de-badging and/or tidying up the fussiness around the rear number plate?

Matte stripes are a very recent addition so it's only on the car in the last few pics. I always debadge unless there are holes under it. I'll have a look soon and see what I can do or I'll black them out. I'm also going to paint the Zoom fuel cap black as well as where the frankenstein bolts go.

Postby **Okibi** » Thu Sep 05, 2013 4:23 pm

meanmx wrote:.. I'm also going to paint the Zoom fuel cap black as well as where the frankenstein bolts go.

fastfreddygassit · Postby **fastfreddygassit** » Fri Sep 13, 2013 6:20 pm

Some pix from last nights impromptu photo shoot....

fastfreddygassit · Postby **fastfreddygassit** » Fri Sep 13, 2013 6:21 pm

continued

fastfreddygassit · Postby **fastfreddygassit** » Fri Sep 13, 2013 6:22 pm

but wait! There's more.... :mrgreen:

fastfreddygassit · Postby **fastfreddygassit** » Fri Sep 13, 2013 6:23 pm

and you get steak knives thrown at you for free.... :mrgreen:

MINX · Postby **MINX** » Fri Sep 13, 2013 6:35 pm

Very nice
Love the double down on black and the lowness

meanmx · Postby **meanmx** » Fri Sep 13, 2013 7:46 pm

Thanks FFG :NETPOINTZ:

meanmx · Postby **meanmx** » Mon Sep 16, 2013 8:33 pm

UPDATE

So I got into the redline coverings for my centre console and door pulls. This scared the s**t out of me because I've never done this sort of thing before but I hate paying anyone so catch 22. I could've left it the way it was but that's not really my thing either.

Anyway I think it went reasonably well. I've screwed up little bits here and there but not tooo noticeable and in the end I'm fairly happy with it. I went with black alcantara and red stitching and the console lid is black nappa leather with red stitching. On with the pics.

ASE05 · Postby **ASE05** » Tue Sep 17, 2013 6:18 am

very smart, looks great!

meanmx · Postby **meanmx** » Tue Sep 17, 2013 11:02 am

UPDATE NO. 2

So I've had these speakers laying around since my last MX5 which makes it about 3 years or so now. Finally thought I would install them and also thought I would do a little write up.

First up, the speakers.

They are slightly larger than 6.5" and were an ok speaker when I bought them 3 years ago. Nothing top of the line but better than basic. First step is to pull off your door trim as demonstrated by my beautiful daughter Isabella.

Now the NB8B door panels are easy to take off. One screw at the door handle, 2 screws at the door pull and a total of 3 clips. Then just pull the door trim away from the door starting at the bottom and working up. See pic.

After the door panel is removed you can see the factory plastic speaker spacer with the piss weak factory speaker in it. Remove these and trace the outline of your speaker spacer onto some mdf. Then trace a hole onto the mdf for the speaker and cut it all out with a jigsaw. I didn't photo document this unfortunately but this is a pic of the finished article.

Next is to mount the crossover. Find a nice suitable spot to mount the crossover and use some good double sided tape like me or some other suitable method.

Next hook up the input to your original speaker wire using some spade crimps. This bit is up to you but because I like totally reversible mods I've chosen to go this way. Make sure you get the positive and negative right.

Then I like to wrap it in electrical tape and make sure it is ziptied down to make sure it doesn't get in the way and doesn't rattle.

After this run the wire for the woofer from the crossover down to the new speaker. Plug the speaker in and then screw the speaker into position. My daughter also demonstrates this.

Next up is the tweeters. Most tweeters come with multiple install methods and I can only demonstrate the way mine are but hopefully it should be the same. Back of the tweeters look like this.

Remove the 2 screws to either side to remove the tweeter bracket from the door panel. Once that is removed the tweeter is held to the bracket with 1 screw in the middle on the back. Thankfully my new tweeters have the same mount in the middle therefore making a swap over really easy.

Once they are screwed back in you are ready to put the door panel back on but there is one more problem. The lip on the back of the speaker grill is too large to fit over the new speaker and will need to be cut off.

Put the door panel back on and your done. Crank it up and enjoy. The only non reversible thing I have done is cut off that bit of plastic around the back of the speaker grill and at any time the car can be taken back to close to stock. Also I am obviously not a professional so do anything at your own risk. If you do this you may want to consider sealing the mdf spacer as water can possibly get to it. You might also want to add sound deadening while you are at it.