Post by L90Edge on May 5, 2016 22:47:19 GMT
Hello all 
I thought it about time to show fellow enthusiasts what I've been spending my spare time working on.
Always liked the Japanese cars but being a younger driver and trying to find insurance, that isn't an extortionate amount to pay for, was impossible for the likes of any skylines, 300ZXs, supras, subarus and the likes but then I stumbled across the MX-5. Cheap and plentiful, smaller engine, rear wheel drive and insurable!
The hunt began and didn't take long to find one, right on my doorstep, looked a bit neglected but I didn't mind, it's a project after all.
It's a 1993 UK car with just over 100k on the clock, Exhaust was rusted away from the cat back and rear shocks had lost their oil so I found some as new rear shocks with springs on "another" forum and priced a new exhaust.
Got the car inside to start on the shocks and as I start I realize these nuts and bolts probably haven't been touched for the majority of it's life so far and being a novice soon snapped a few of them...... soooo that's when I started to think full restore? Modified? What can be done to these?
Originally thought supercharge it after reading about a few of them, wasn't seeing as bigger numbers as the turbo boys though and that's when I decided I was going to go turbo route. I'd seen them done on the internet with a fair few just being the turbo and ancillaries to run but seeing as I had already damaged a few major fasteners underneath thought I'd do the whole lot properly starting with the suspension and brake systems.
On with the dismantling!! The unit is actually my uncles and grandads where they run a bodyshop and so kindly gave me some space to do the car!
Amazing how much crud and crap lodges itself under those wheel arches.
With the suspension removed I went round the wheel wells with a drill and a wire brush bit to remove the crap that had accumulated over the years then covered the clean surfaces with some stone guard.
Ordered some Miester R coilovers and some flo-flex polybushes, I know I've seen some of the states those bushes make but now they're in I'll wait until I have to replace again.
Removing the old rubber bushes was a nightmare, first started with a holesaw trying to drill the rubber away that was taking the mick, next I tried the little socket pulling the bush into a bigger socket with threaded bar, the threaded bar ended up losing it's threads.....
Out came the bottles to burn the buggers out.
Next I got some black hammerite and a few brushes to paint the wishbones and roll bars, don't know how well it'll do but if the bushes fail and need replacing I'll repaint them in POR.
After all that it was time to put the lot back together with the new shiny coilovers too
I removed all the calipers hoses and brake lines along with the old discs and pads, calipers went in for exchange replacements at a local motor factors, got new brake lines made up in copper piping and also some braided goodridge hoses, 1.8 carriers for fronts I bought off someone on a forum and got some greenstuff pads to go in the front with standard rear pads and all new standard brake discs. I didn't get any pictures of all this for some reason but they were fairly straight forward to change although I never gave any thought to keeping the little metal pieces that are in the pad carriers so I had to order them from mx5parts. Also all the nuts and bolts are new with nice helping of copper grease covering them.
With the underside of the car sorted I then turned my attention to prepping the bodywork for the paint to go on later. Took a while like and somebody had done some paint before there was micro blistering all over some of the panels which meant I had to take it off completely to make sure it never interfered with the fresh paint.
Got in touch with Vindi to have one of his ducktail spoilers sent out and also a gv style lip was ordered from japstyle. The original bootlid that came with my car is made out of fibreglass and I'm yet to see another one
When I bought the car it had another bootlid in it but had a little rack on, it soon came off and the holes it left were filled in. I bought some used bomex side skirts off someone but once they were sent to me I could see that although they were still intact, there was a lot of tiny cracks all over them, painter uncle said we could of put reface on them but the cracks could still come back when fitting them to the car, so they were turned away and a new set bought from trusty old ebay
Left the bodywork alone for a while and concentrated on getting my turbo parts together and fitted. First thing I bought was an alloy radiator from Fast5.
Then a TD04 off ebay. No play in the shaft I was happy for £140 delivered.
Bought some wheels and tyres, Pro-Race 1.2 15x7 et 32.
Test fitted one of them on my daily 5, they are well beefy but that arch gap!
Next the engine came out.
Silly me left the gearbox oil in not realising that as I pull the engine out the hole in which the prop shaft is in would piss it out all over the place! DOH!
Off with the box.
Ordered a sturovo thick wall manifold with a decat length stainless downpipe. The work on these kits seem really good especially the welding on the stainless.
Cleaned off the engine and bought some heat resistant paint and fitted a coolant reroute kit.
Add some more tomorrow
I thought it about time to show fellow enthusiasts what I've been spending my spare time working on.
Always liked the Japanese cars but being a younger driver and trying to find insurance, that isn't an extortionate amount to pay for, was impossible for the likes of any skylines, 300ZXs, supras, subarus and the likes but then I stumbled across the MX-5. Cheap and plentiful, smaller engine, rear wheel drive and insurable!
The hunt began and didn't take long to find one, right on my doorstep, looked a bit neglected but I didn't mind, it's a project after all.
It's a 1993 UK car with just over 100k on the clock, Exhaust was rusted away from the cat back and rear shocks had lost their oil so I found some as new rear shocks with springs on "another" forum and priced a new exhaust.
Got the car inside to start on the shocks and as I start I realize these nuts and bolts probably haven't been touched for the majority of it's life so far and being a novice soon snapped a few of them...... soooo that's when I started to think full restore? Modified? What can be done to these?
Originally thought supercharge it after reading about a few of them, wasn't seeing as bigger numbers as the turbo boys though and that's when I decided I was going to go turbo route. I'd seen them done on the internet with a fair few just being the turbo and ancillaries to run but seeing as I had already damaged a few major fasteners underneath thought I'd do the whole lot properly starting with the suspension and brake systems.
On with the dismantling!! The unit is actually my uncles and grandads where they run a bodyshop and so kindly gave me some space to do the car!
Amazing how much crud and crap lodges itself under those wheel arches.
With the suspension removed I went round the wheel wells with a drill and a wire brush bit to remove the crap that had accumulated over the years then covered the clean surfaces with some stone guard.
Ordered some Miester R coilovers and some flo-flex polybushes, I know I've seen some of the states those bushes make but now they're in I'll wait until I have to replace again.
Removing the old rubber bushes was a nightmare, first started with a holesaw trying to drill the rubber away that was taking the mick, next I tried the little socket pulling the bush into a bigger socket with threaded bar, the threaded bar ended up losing it's threads.....
Out came the bottles to burn the buggers out.
Next I got some black hammerite and a few brushes to paint the wishbones and roll bars, don't know how well it'll do but if the bushes fail and need replacing I'll repaint them in POR.
After all that it was time to put the lot back together with the new shiny coilovers too
I removed all the calipers hoses and brake lines along with the old discs and pads, calipers went in for exchange replacements at a local motor factors, got new brake lines made up in copper piping and also some braided goodridge hoses, 1.8 carriers for fronts I bought off someone on a forum and got some greenstuff pads to go in the front with standard rear pads and all new standard brake discs. I didn't get any pictures of all this for some reason but they were fairly straight forward to change although I never gave any thought to keeping the little metal pieces that are in the pad carriers so I had to order them from mx5parts. Also all the nuts and bolts are new with nice helping of copper grease covering them.
With the underside of the car sorted I then turned my attention to prepping the bodywork for the paint to go on later. Took a while like and somebody had done some paint before there was micro blistering all over some of the panels which meant I had to take it off completely to make sure it never interfered with the fresh paint.
Got in touch with Vindi to have one of his ducktail spoilers sent out and also a gv style lip was ordered from japstyle. The original bootlid that came with my car is made out of fibreglass and I'm yet to see another one
When I bought the car it had another bootlid in it but had a little rack on, it soon came off and the holes it left were filled in. I bought some used bomex side skirts off someone but once they were sent to me I could see that although they were still intact, there was a lot of tiny cracks all over them, painter uncle said we could of put reface on them but the cracks could still come back when fitting them to the car, so they were turned away and a new set bought from trusty old ebay Left the bodywork alone for a while and concentrated on getting my turbo parts together and fitted. First thing I bought was an alloy radiator from Fast5.
Then a TD04 off ebay. No play in the shaft I was happy for £140 delivered.
Bought some wheels and tyres, Pro-Race 1.2 15x7 et 32.
Test fitted one of them on my daily 5, they are well beefy but that arch gap!
Next the engine came out.
Silly me left the gearbox oil in not realising that as I pull the engine out the hole in which the prop shaft is in would piss it out all over the place! DOH!
Off with the box.
Ordered a sturovo thick wall manifold with a decat length stainless downpipe. The work on these kits seem really good especially the welding on the stainless.
Cleaned off the engine and bought some heat resistant paint and fitted a coolant reroute kit.
Add some more tomorrow
forum newbie haha
le sigh