MX-5 OC Forum

Hello all , 

Hope you and your cars are well, my name is Raz and I brought a nice cheap Roadster for a resonable sum of £375 it had a MX5OC tax disc holder so you might know it or been its former owner (let me know if so)  it has seen better days, its had some work done to it but needed some TLC.Our main car is a 940 Volvo and this is a little run around for us...the kids love it. This is a buget car with a very tight buget to get it looking and running right, I live in London and running a two cars is expensive, the local council want £125 to park it on the street! please be kind I am a novice and trying my best.

Anyhew I started a thread on Retrorides some of the cars on the site are fantastic, I should have had a running thread here but never mind I will upload all pic's so far. 

This is how she stood when I first got her:

Cam cover gasket is leaking a tad.

This Hole needs to be plugged might leak within if not

defo needs this and a will pick up a hood on Sunday.

Got some 2500 grit wet 'n dry paper some soapy water and a dandy water spray bottle

Used some clay to remove any contaminants

Tryed to use cleanser polish with no marked results, re-sanded the test patch...

Went to halfrauds and picked up some compound polish (G3) had one on the clearance section for a fiver! 

The paint has gone to white under coat on a few edges. Wish I had a good polisher, I live in a flat and misses hates car stuff hidden in every nook and cranny.

Picked up a old new to me hood and fitted it.

The original hood bar thingy was rusted through lucky the seller gave this with the hood.

Debadged the old and faded logo ready for the e-type style number plate.

This is not my car but it is what I am aiming for (Look wise)

Sourced the driver side front light.

the passager front light, easy job, as you can see long screw was on wrong side of the light.

Well I think the sanding was a bit over the top but it has taken most of the oxidation away but my poor elbows...brought a cheapo wool buffer to attach to corded drill and it does work ok. The attachment

was £5 form Halfrauds, also got G3 paint restorer for £4.50 and it works well but the autoglym stuff more abrasive.

The big sister.

Looks good from a metre or two!

Got the car in a fair shape now, been waiting for the stick on front number plate for a while which should smarten up the front end.

Smaller wheel fitted (Thanks Mark), covers the dials a tad for a tall lad like me but feels great.

Will buy some Mazda SU red paint and spray flat bolt red (The old key hole which had a missing lock)

Got this off ebay, misses wanted a black 8 ball but I think the red gives a little colour to the sea of black inside the cabin.

Used the old hood plastic and sandwiched the minor rip in the hood I got for £50 did it with some heavy duty double sided tape.

I cleared the drain hole all bar one was blocked, loads of black sludge from the hood drain pipe. One shock while doing the passager front sill was this:

 Hope this is cosmetic, usually they are not as they rot from inside, had a look within it looks solid so won't weld it, will clean it up and use rust converter and rivet a metal sheet then p40 filler and paint.

Been doing a few job on the old girl,

Replaced the cracked front perspex number plate for a reflective stick on one, just needs a tidy up in its mouth, one good thing there were no holes were drilled in bumper for old plate:

Fitted a old Sony head unit that I had in from my old GSI2000, the face of the unit fitted was missing. Here is where the fun began, I had to order a Sony 16 pin din plug, got it from non tax paying Amazon for £1.84 delivered, Tried it but still no sound from front speakers or from the speakers in the head rest, had a looki and they were blown and was held in place by dry blu tack!

The duck:

They sounded as bad as they look.

Fitted these alpines from another victim (318is)

A tight fit but the fit well behind a plastic cover

One door speaker (Kenwood) had a wire loose the other one had water which corroded it and I did everything in my power but I lost him! Fitted a factory Volvo one I had when I changed my door cards

in my brick (If you have a 940, you know why) so will make do as is, sound is even and good mid range but it needs some more bass!!!

Nice post, welcome to the addiction.

Great little project you have there.

the photo you posted of what you are aiming for, I recognise as Finchingfield in Essex. Lovely pretty little village.

Here's mine on the other side of the same green....

Just a random google photo but looks like a great place to live and visit in MX. 

Want the car looking stock, haven't got cash for a turbo or any deep dish minilites any way I like the way they look esp in red with standard '14s

It had 115bhp new must be around 95bhp now so want to do a carb clean and few bits to get it back around bhp it once had, adjusting accelerator cable has helped heeps. Want to get some sea foam as there is no chance of a terra clean as its £90! Will look out for brace bars not the one in boot so it handles good too

Barry ZSport:

Great little project you have there.

the photo you posted of what you are aiming for, I recognise as Finchingfield in Essex. Lovely pretty little village.

Here's mine on the other side of the same green....

 

bit weird.  I added two photo's to my post above but they are not showing. When I click on 'edit' however, they suddenly appear again.

Maybe it is the ghost of the MX5OC forum web-site!

This forum is harder to use than pro boards or the volvo forum and no auto spell check which I need. Very Microsoft, but I am a free loader so should zip it

Looking good, impressed you went to the trouble of wet sanding the car!

Keep up the good work.

Fossilfish:

This forum is harder to use than pro boards or the volvo forum and no auto spell check which I need. Very Microsoft, but I am a free loader so should zip it

now THAT's how you rescue paint! Great job matey!

Fossilfish:

It had 115bhp new must be around 95bhp now so want to do a carb clean and few bits to get it back around bhp it once had, adjusting accelerator cable has helped heeps. Want to get some sea foam as there is no chance of a terra clean as its £90! Will look out for brace bars not the one in boot so it handles good too

I was amazed by the difference a good service made. I'm also currently arranging a TerraClean day. Prices will be £50-£60, but you'd have to drive to Norwich and I have a feeling you'd use more than £30 in fuel getting there and back...

I'm with Ben on the paint work. Gives me the confidence to take a crack at mine before resorting to sending it to a shop! I'm sure I've got some G3 at home, just need a drill and buffer!

Thanks bud, had a look at your rebuild and boy you know your way around cars. Hope one day I have the confidence to tackle bigger jobs and do a proper rebuild like you. Thanks for a doing it, helps loads with pics. 

@rob thanks for the heads up, £60 is a fab price wish I was closer. Will avoid a deep carb clean as I have heard that peeps shouldn't clean throttle body to deeply so will have to do more reading first.

Yeah, that is my car in the Finchlingfield pic and yes, it is a lovely little village. If your seats have faded to a dark grey and you want to smarten up your interior a tad, get a can of black fabric paint on fleabay and douse the seats in it (give it a good day or two to dry - ideally in the sunshine) and they'll come up like new!!

Thanks for the tip, must say your car looks in great nick and keep it stock on the out side, Mazda sure got it right with this and all RX7's (not sure about the rotary engine thou) thank you for the tip will spray the seats and use one of those combs that takes pilling (bubbles of fabric) on the surface. One of the seat belts has faded so will do that too, will post pics as soon as its done. 

LOL - I used my hair clippers on the seats before I sprayed them to get all of the pill off and it worked a treat!! As for the car; it never exactly stayed standard but I like it....

http://www.mx5oc.co.uk/forum/forums/p/42402/300870.aspx#300870

My word, your like Mr. Maker!

Nice link, well done you on your handy work. I do like the way you did your seats, I agree with you that black on black was all the rage back then so without going bling might add red suade like gaiter but do like the look of this:

Might do something like this on the center part, thanks for the idea.