Mk1b restoration... its alive..and painted!!

[boondougal]

Now i got my Janspeed fitted, im going to come to shav and make some 4AGE noise, to make you get i finished.

LOL tbh i'm looking forward to the day i can get it on the A500 by pass, those roundabouts always put a smile on my face!!!

[elbon50]

Looks like you've got the car & lots of bits & equipment packed into a dry garage Sam

You seem to have a lot less garage space than previously though

[boondougal]

yep, lost that big garage when we moved before our daughter was born.... i guess all good things come to an end.

other priorities for now but next year will see progress... you never know even a possible MOT!!!!!

[boondougal]

Managed to get the car out of the garage today, not started it for 5 months so was feeling a little guilty.

Anyway i bumped it over a few times and then it started first turn of the key.

I met up with Alex (pk_090) the other day and we were talking about ride height...

Definitely liking where mine sits at the moment.

[pk_090]

Is that on 15's Sam? I like how little arch gap there is at the rear!I do like the look of the front bumper too, ive always disliked the black plastic behind where the number plate sits, but cant bring myself to cut it out.
Alex

[boondougal]

yep, the rear is pretty low:



they are actully 16's, tyre size 195/45/16

i think i could get another cm on the front if i really wanted.

It all needs setting up though so i think in the end the rear will have to come up a touch.

The springs are so hard i'm not too worried about too much travel!

i think the mx5 alloys are offset out further as well which helps to fill the arch more

[boondougal]

Just thought i would update the thread to say that i have been working on re installing all the T-Bar bits and Pieces.

I didn't really get any pictures but needless to say..

center bar was Fubar, the original 4 bolts all snapped off when i took it out but the spot welds on the little brackets underneath had all sheared anyway so it made little difference.

well i removed the bolts from their little brackets and replaced with some standard 8 mm bolts. I then tried to chemical metal the whole thing but that was a big fail so in the end i riveted all 4 of the little brackets back onto the centre bar, ground it back as far as a dare and then installed it with plenty of car body adhesive...

i cleaned up the rest of the metal runners that hold the rubber seals and after popping in some replacement screw grommets i glued them all down with more adhesive and brand new self tapers... i still have the door frames etc to do so i'll get some pics next time i get a chance to do some more work.

New years resolution though... even if i only get 30 mins to work on her, its still 30 mins closer to getting it finished.

[SuperRedMR2]

I do like those Mx5 wheels Sam!

Do you know what model / year they came off of?

[boondougal]

They are from a Mk2 Mx5 i think 1998 - 2005, Not really seen any formula to the models they seem to be on.


there are quite a few on ebay but i picked mine uo about 5-6 years ago really cheap as they needed a full refurb... which i would have done anyway so it worked out ok for me.

[boondougal]

ethos of doing a bit when i can continued... i worked on getting the T-Bar seals installed.

After giving them a fully soapy water clean and getting plenty of adhesive into the silver runners i ended up with this:



Needless to say its been a long time since i originally took all this apart and this meant i missed this..



will have to decide how to deal with it another time..

[boondougal]

Omg has it really been over 10 months since I posted on this thread!

It's been a crazy year, and another one where the Mr2 got no love... Have to say though I wheeled her out the garage today and that warm fuzzy feeling came straight back, a quick charge of the battery and she fired into life first turn of the key.

A tidy garage I now have so there is room to work on her... With baby no 2 on the way due in summer I have 5 months to get this done!

Famous last words!

[elbon50]

Thought you'd gone to live on another planet

[boondougal]

We.ll over 18 months ag Alex (SuperRed) was brilliant enough to send me an anti rattle clip for my caliper upgrade after I managed to loose one.... We'll I finally fitted it!



I've also been really torn about how to secure the rear and front bumpers as the wrap around to the arch but in the end I decided to bond them as I just didn't have the skills or time to get them to fit properly.

Here is the work in progress on the rear... I know bonding them prevents removal but happy with how it's looking right now.



I also started to investigate some of the rot on the doors... Need to sort this out to get the rubber secure...

[boondougal]

for some unknown reason when I took the doors off what must now be 7 years ago I decided to take the loom out of the door..... I do remember struggling to get the connectors off.

Well an hour in the garage and some nifty finger work to reconnect everything and guess what... my drivers window managed to go up and down!

Another little job done!

[boondougal]

look at me ploughing ahead with teh jobs.. passenger door loom re connected tonight.. all working 7 years after last going up and down.

1 job ever 4 months.. wow i am so speedy

[coanda]

I know how you feel. I'm aiming for a racy 2018 back on the road date. That'll make mine 30years old...

[boondougal]

well, one thing you can say paternity leave is good for is car restoration.

Various boring body work jobs underway but very excited to see the screen fitted today... really makes it feel like a proper car to have a screen in it!!!

[boondougal]

I've never really had the skills to get the rear bumper to fit nice, its mainly due to the profile of my repaired rear arches but after a lot of gaffing i finally decided to bond the bumper on and use the flexible bond to create the lines that i want.

A couple of pics for the record. i did a little more work on the passenger one so its even better now but just thought i would post the pics anyway.

I decided to do something similar on the front, part way though so will post some pics when complete.

[boondougal]

Super boring update...

i emptied the Frunk of all the various spares that i have and found this at the bottom



Got the grinder out with the wire bit in it, a little bit of welding needed but nothing major... will do that at the same time as i do the no bull sH*t mounts for the rear arg up grade...



i cleaned this lot up (well 2 of them) with afor mentioned wire grinder bit and gave a liberal dose of pro15 - silver as thats what i had but it will look smart and last long enough so thats the main thing.

[boondougal]

wow.. the forum is on fire with people posting.

well just to keep my record going..

Today i did a job that i have been putting off for about 5 years... i refitted the front ARB.

The reason to put it off was the fact then when i originally removed it 5+ years ago i snapped 3 of the 4 bolts.

Luckily i have great compressor and some decentish air tools so for this i broke out the air gun, pilot hole followed by bigger hole followed by bigger hole followed by M8 Tap.. multiplied by 3 and there you go job done.

Poly bushes greased up, drop linked figured out... boy i got confused between front a rears..... and everything tightened up.

Here is the result. well done to me.

next job is the up graded rear.. that starts with welding on the new mounts!







there is not much clearance on the drop link, its ok when he car is back not he ground but all the same i'll probably get some shorter adjustable ones when i find them cheap. i have 1 set to go on the rear already.





Tided everything up..wheels on, back int he garage, battery disconnected.. night night car.