Chris' MX-5 - Project 'Short back and sides'

Well as most of you know, picked myself up a little MX-5 last week. Managed to break the window before even buying it (with Stu's help!), and have been seeing a few little bits that need tidying up - but overall it's a bit of a beauty! Induction noise is quite throaty and think it's pokey enough for now, however long term plans do involve a bit of boost and some nice fitment wheels, still keeping it usable. Here it is though:





And the broken rear window...





Progress today, well we managed to figure out how to rip the roof apart to fit the new window - much better! Also fitted the obligatory Built4Track stickers.







However, this weekend also highlighted a nice simple fault - the clutch slave cylinder needs replacing, after drinking all the fluid and leaving me with no clutch. After a quick bit of research though, we find out this is a common problem and an easy fix - a bleed through with some fresh fluid has left it usable for a few days but a new one has been ordered from MX-5 Parts already, along with a Pipercross panel filter to give me a bit of extra noise when booting it, also known to have a 30% better flow rate than the standard paper filters, along with being re-usable. Result!

Coming up - fitting the clutch slave cylinder, Llandow, and brakes. And hopefully it'll end up a bit lower soon enough!

There is a lot of potential here :L

And how did you break the window?? Put the roof down without unzipping it?

Stu proberly falcon punched it tbh...

As said chris it does look very smart and seems to like kicking the arse out. Love the blog title aswell

Nice mate, you need some Rota RB's on there

^ agreed.

Window was a joint effort between me and Stu lol!

Stevie, thinking RBR's tbh... bit more dish, nicer fitment...

This has to be done...



THINK OF THE SCUFF POINTS!!!

Just no...

Scuff like pop-ups anyway

Rota RB's for track and RBR's for road

Car is a great condition though l was impressed! Felt like a great drivers car from just sitting in the passenger seat!

Fancy giving me the £1000+ for both sets then? lol. Could be quite cool actually, although Wantanabes look pretty similar, are lighter IIRC, and found more easily/cheaper... They'd be pretty cool track wheels

Hopefully next time we go for a drive the clutch will be working properly! lol. Cheers though mate!

does look awesome on either set tbh chris, really tidy car however I did feel like a nancy when you took me out in it

woz_106 wrote:

does look awesome on either set tbh chris, really tidy car however I did feel like a nancy when you took me out in it

Says the mr2 owner

Lol!

Actually managed slight progress today. Clutch slave cylinder arrived:



Along with a nice panel filter:



I've alreay fitted the panel filter. But dissapointed in the noise difference (I'm not sure there actually is any!) but the standard piping to the air box is a bit restrictive I think, so I'll be looking into that. However, it's made it feel a damn sight nippier, which is something I truely wasn't expecting - throttle responce is nicer too!

Clutch slave cylinder should be fitted tomorrow...

If you want noise... (and probably a bit of heat soak)... drill some holes in the air box

I was thinking more along the lines of adding a couple more air ducts into it tbh

The standard one is a tiny hole that's routed out to the wing, stops like an inch before it. Hardly the most optimal air intake!

More progress again today...

New clutch cylinder fitted thanks to Stu, and no thanks to my lack of tools and lack of awareness:



Whilst the bonnet was up, I went ahead and did this... bit more noise and a bit more responce. If it's good enough for Mazda, it's good enough for me!



Also took the rack off, quite like it without but I'll be keeping it for trips where I need a bit of extra luggage space!

No rack looks good

And btw you don't own a French car now you can't just go bodge it to fix it

I know you've already done it now chris but some of the S2K owners run without the airbox lid to increase the noise however I'm not sure if this is possible/safe to do so on the MX-5?

Agree the flat chestedness of having no rack is a huge improvement, shame we now need somewhere else to mount a camera

I like a big rack but that looks much better without mate

Adam86 wrote:

I like a big rack

LOLROFL Sideways

Lol!

Got a bit more done on the 5 today. First thing, was to sort out my show plate - always remember Rallye James saying a yellow plate on a white car looks a bit like a fried egg and I have to say I agree...

So, front plate will be lobbed off for shows, looking into getting an offset jap plate holder which will be easily removable and allow be to fill various holes in the front bumper underneath the current plate. Rear will be like so, had to measure up the drill holes pretty precisely as the actual reg plate is stuck onto the car aswell as bolted.



Next up, I noticed on the drive last weekend that you guys with MR2's (most of you, then ) can have your sidelights on without popped headlights - for some reason, UK 5's come with a pop-up feature for sidelights, but only when the car's on, controlled by a relay. Bit of research later and a lot of fiddling about to get to a difficult to reach relay resulted in this...



Next was checking what bulbs I have in the dash welcome lights, and sorting out the driver's side. Ideally I'll need a new light for the drivers side but I managed to sort the connection out for now, ordering some LED's to brighten them up a bit!

Then I gave the whole thing a good clean, finding along the way, this (those who like the hairdresser gags will LOVE this!)



And at the end of the day:



May fit my HID's tonight, depending just how much I can be arsed. Need to find out if the seals on the roof are replacable too, as they do leak slightly (well, quite a lot in heavy rain )

White car, white plate. Epic Dare you to run one on the road (not the B4T one mind, we've been there before haven't we )

HAHAHAHAROFLCOPTERHAHAHALOLSANDWICHLOLOLOLOLCAKES!!!!

the white plate looks awesome chris really like that looks soo much better.

Chris_429 wrote:

allow me to fill various holes

Giggidy.

I forget what site I'm posting this on sometimes

No mincing here lol nice work chris

Loving the white plate chris.

Making some good progress unlike some people.....cough woz cough

oh I can't wait for this picture moment!

woz_106 wrote:

oh I can't wait for this picture moment!

Sooo tempting lol

Good progress. The little jobs are always the good ones to do!

So, Llandow yesterday. Learnt loads about the 5, went over the limit a couple of times and luckily without a real incident, bar getting stuck and nearly ending up in the tyre wall. Really enjoyed it, learnt loads about what needs improving, and picked up on a couple of bits that need sorting (tracking, brakes, a caliper).

Some of you might have noticed I finally fitted my HID's, led sidelights/numberplate lights and took off the number plates, luckily with no rust behind! With hindsight I probably should have left them on for yesterday though

Cleaned the mud off today and got some proper pics!

Certainly looks a bit cleaner, lol! Was fun to follow round the track and watch the back end going. Twitchy!

Lights do look smart, just need to get down Halfrauds and get some Silvatec indicators. Fried egg FTL

Lol, it's actually a lense, would need to take apart the whole indicator to get it out which is a PITA. Thinking of getting tinted front ones then clear side repeats and reflectors, but that won't be for a while, after checking the car over today it will be needing a lot of bushes over the next few months!

Speaking of you following me, I meant to apologise for the near miss at the start of the day, you disappeared in my hood and out of my wing mirrors so I didn't know you were trying to pass!

Looked good going round track mate, and was quite funny to see it stuck..and facing the wrong way on the grass!

If it's an orange cube inside the lense just do what I did with my lude ones, use a screwdriver and a hammer and break the orange bit into pieces from the hole where the bulb goes in! Worked a treat on mine and saved money!

Great little car mate as we was discussing on the track get in on boost and it will be epic!

I really like this little car mate

Yeh looked like you where having lots of fun mate. I had some good views of you going sideways lol

Cheers guys. Definitely a fun little car, just needs a few tweaks to stop me dying

Woz, it was what you were saying as we were going through bus stop that made me laugh... 'oh no, here we go!'

Nellers, cheers for that tip, cba with taking the lights apart tbh so that sounds pretty good!

It looks great in those pictures Chris, I think it looks much nicer without the mud-flaps but u should have left them on for llandow because you did need them

Looks nice chris loved being in it How long did it take to get it sparkling again?

Chris_429 wrote:

Cheers guys. Definitely a fun little car, just needs a few tweaks to stop me dying

Woz, it was what you were saying as we were going through bus stop that made me laugh... 'oh no, here we go!'

Nellers, cheers for that tip, cba with taking the lights apart tbh so that sounds pretty good!

haha loved the fact you don't need bucket seats as your wedged in to the passenger seat with the door and centre tunnel

Looked real nice in the flesh, makes me want one. Satin black dished wheels would look sweet!

Cheers dude!

Saw a boosted mx5 on the m6 today near B'ham. Nice big intercooler on the front giving it away lol

Epic, want

http://grahamgoode.com/website/parts.php?website=16&nav=60&item=11540001

Get it bought

Masher wrote:

http://grahamgoode.com/website/parts.php?website=16&nav=60&item=11540001

Get it bought

oh for the love of god that needs to be done

NA6C is the 1.6 either way I haven't got that kind of money lying about right now. Didn't realise they were so cheap new though!

Then go rotary, it can be done