Not the usual Skyline project, but still a LOT of fun to drive.
The MX5 was originally purchased for my misses, with the intension of using it as a cheap drift learning car. The name came from the previous owner and has stuck with it lol.
Here's a few pics the from when the previous owner bought it,
We travelled all the way to Suffolk from Cumbria to find a dirty and tired looking mx5.
The most annoying part was the guy had 2 weeks to clean it prior to us coming to view it.
Thankfully, the mx5 appeared to be rust free so after road testing and picking the car apart, we handed over some cash and set off to give the car a better home.
The first thing we did was to clean the car from top to bottom, including the very dirty interior and dusty, grubby engine bay. With the car now in a respectable condition
I made a list of all the items that needed addressing and made a few calls.
The drivers rear wheel bearing was worn out so replaced,
Front and rear pads replaced and handbrake adjusted correctly lol,
Replaced a few blown bulbs,
Carried out some stone chip repairs to the windscreen,
Removed a load of gay stickers,
Removed a stupidly thin rear tow hook,
Removed badly cracked rear screen from the softtop,
Removed the poor fitting and leaking vinyl hardtop and sourced an excellent black Mk2 hardtop,
Undersealed,
Oil, Filter, sparkplugs and leads replaced.
The car came with cheap coilovers and was quite low (not shown in pic) and looked a bit odd on standard alloys.
The misses set her heart on a set of 15x8 et0 Rota Aleicias so a call to Ben at Rarerims was made.
After what seemed like a long wait, the boat to arrive with her new rims.
I purchased a set of Maxxis MAZ1's in 195/45r15, and fitted them to the rims, They look sweet.
The next job was to sort the faded and torn red seats, so a pair of red Cobra Monaco Pro seats with black TRS 4 point harnesses arrived to replace them.
I then set about making some seat rail adaptors to fit them to the standard rails,
A TR Lane harness bar was fitted to the rear of the car replacing the standard flimsy cabin brace.
A few interior parts were fitted also including,
Deep dish steering wheel
Drift button on standard handbrake
Tegiwa white gearknob
Black leather gaiters with white stitching
Lockwood white cluster and heater control dials
MX5 Parts floor mats
Sunvisors removed (replaced with black powdercoated blanks)
The plan is to also remove the complete soft top frame to shed some weight as the hardtop looks sooooo much better than the soft top.
The Exterior was the next step in the process, after a good machine polish!
The standard bootlid had a sh!te looking rack thingy screwed to it, seen as we wouldn't be strapping a wicker basket to it and going on picnics, we sourced a standard smooth lid.
This was then added to with a vindi ducktail spoiler
Then a few more extras appeared lol,
TRS front and rear tow straps in red
Vented drivers quarter window which isreally good at stopping it misting up as it has no AC
Rolled rear arches
Custom front splitter
Clear bumper reflectors
Clear side repeaters
De tango'd front indictors with silvertec bulbs
De badged front bumper
Smoothed in rear bumper fog light recess (rewired into drivers reverse lamp using red LED bulb)
Smoothed front bumper to remove number plate holes
Relocated front numberplate
Stubby aerial
Red wheel nuts and locking nuts
__________________
I continuously go further and further learning about my own limitations, my body limitation, psychological limitations. It's a way of life for me. Ayrton Senna
The Engine bay was looking a lot better after a good clean up,
I then fitted the old air filter and shield from the Skyline as my Conceptua tuning K&N kit turned up lol.
Then a few bits went for powder coating.
Powdercoated white camshaft cover,
Powdercoated white and red strut brace,
Red oil filler cap,
Red Plug leads,
Red Silicon vac hoses and coolant exp tank hose,
Red washer pipes.
Which brings us to how the engine bay looks at the moment............
The Standrard exhaust was a bit of a bodge up of 1.8 and 1.6 bits for some reason.
MX5Parts supplied us with a nice shiny cat back stainless exhaust which sounds nice and raspy.
Here's how the car currently looks,
The car had its MOT and Oil service in September and was put up for sale
But that has now changed, With an added twist...........
This particular MX5 came with a manual steering rack and as it has a welded diff, and wide wheels, moving at slow speeds is a bit of a pain.
I've managed to source a PAS kit at a reasonable price so will be fitting it next week or so when it arrives. There is no PAS cooling loop so i will be making a larger cooling loop with 10mm copper pipe.
I also had to buy a PAS pump to block bracket which ties in perfectly with the next step in the project.
I have just acquired one of these for my fiancé but yours is a hell of a lot better body wise than mine however it's a cracking wee car to drive,so any spare bits you don't need???? Lol
