MX-5 Project log thread

Howard

Howard

Howard

Soldato
Joined
12 Jul 2007
Posts
16,316
Location
South East
My MX-5 work log and info thread

I thought seeing as other people are having threads for work they do on their cars, I would too :D

I'm going to have to retro-post some of the little things I've done so far, but as I'm doing more and more, I thought I'd just make a thread from now onwards.

Intro
The car is a 1990 MX-5 1.6 with 43k miles on the clock, in excellent mechanical and cosmetic condition. Few stone chips/imperfections/scratches etc but nothing that can't be fixed easily (with a respray :D ) and most importantly, no rust. The engine runs beautifully, so a lot of the work I'll be doing is either replacing simple/service parts, or uprating.

I paid £1900 for the car back in August last year, but the OMGCreditcrunchLOL probably means you can pick up an equivalent one cheaper now. Not that I'm bothered!

Bear in mind that I'm learning as I go along, so if you've noticed something took longer than necessary/I did it wrong/I did it the long winded way, that's why ;)

Specifications to date - May 2010

Engine
Jackson Racing M45 Supercharger
AFPR for fuelling and MSD timing box
Uprated fuel pump
K&N cone air filter
IL Motorsport uprated alloy radiator

Dyno results: 164.1bhp @ 6995rpm, 137.1 lb/ft @ 5035rpm

Weight: Approximately 975KG, without driver.


Chassis / handling
IL Motorsport front and rear subframe/chassis braces
Performance5 SportDrive suspension (shocks and springs), mk2 top mounts
Enkei 15" wheels with Eagle F1 GSD3 tyres

Brakes
255mm 1.8 spec front discs
250mm 1.8 spec rear discs
EBC YellowStuff pads, front and rear

Body
Short rubber aerial ;)

Interior
Alpine iPod compatible head unit, direct-fit JVC coaxial speakers

Here she is:

1511-14.jpg




So on to the work log..

Today's job - Clutch Slave Cylinder

I've noticed for a while now that the clutch pedal had a small amount of play, that would increase once you'd been driving for a while. You'd feel the clutch engage at a lower point, so there was less travel and "adjustability".

I discovered that the slave cylinders are a reasonably common failure on MX-5s, and it was exhibiting most of the symptoms (squeaking, afformentioned clutch feel issues, etc) so I thought it best to change it before it gave out completely and I'd have to ruin my RAC no-callout record ;)

New part costs £14 from MX5parts, so hardly big bucks. Onto the pics:

Shiny new part
css1.jpg



Car lifted - I hate the sodding stupid gravel driveway! As Rob will no doubt agree. Fortunately, that old desk came in useful :D
css2.jpg



Clean :)
css3.jpg



The old, manky, and confirmed to be leaking by squeezing the rubber boot and brake fluid ****ing everywhere, offending part
css4.jpg



Draining the old nasty brake fluid
css5.jpg



Old cylinder removed. My god what a ballache of a job! Still, it wouldn't be the same working on your car without some skin loss, would it?
The bottom bolt was an absolute bugger to get loose, but I managed it with the multitude of random tools we have! It also, as is customary, started to rain whilst I was underneath. Great!
css6.jpg



And the new one in place and ready to be bled :)
css7.jpg



After bleeding it, I tidied up and took it for a test run. Success! Clutch feels a lot smoother now, as does the pedal, and there's no play in it! The bite point doesn't seem to randomly vary now, and there's no squeaking!


I will start retro-posting past little bits of work done on the car below shortly! :)
 
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First minor job I did - Clean up deposits from battery area

Whoever last replaced the battery didn't buy the correct "gel" type battery, and I will do at some point, I promise ;) So either this one, or an old battery, has left some white deposits in the boot. Onto the cleanup:

p9070001.jpg



You can see the white acidy crap
p9070004.jpg


It hasn't damaged the metal or anything, just seems to have eaten down into the primer:
Nice and clean now. I was too lazy to paint it at the time :o Maybe one day if I'm feeling perfectionist.
p9070005.jpg


Cleaned the battery tray
p9070006.jpg


Back in place
p9070007.jpg
 
Second minor job - Eradicate rust spots caused by rubbing of the metal sill plates

I don't like the metal sill plates really, but I can't find any alternatives for sale anywhere :(

The edges managed to "rub" down to metal, and moisture had caused them to rust. Wasn't too deep, so I attacked it with a dremel, then hammerited/primered and painted. I don't have any pics of the finished article. It's not a perfect job but you can barely notice them without scrutinising anyway, I'd obviously have a proper/professional job done if I was curing rust visible on the outside :D


Crappy sill plates:
p9130006.jpg


Rust begone:
bare.jpg


Hammerited (& random white blob caused by crappy old camera :confused: ) :
hammerite.jpg



Paint at the back end, primer only at the front end. As you can see it's barely noticeable at the back bit :)

paintandprimer.jpg
 
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October 08 - New rimz y0!

Was searching high and low for some 15" BBS', but they're like excrement that may be produced by an equestrian-themed children's rocking toy, and the ones that were for sale were comically overpriced, so after some looking I found some white Enkei 15s. They're rather rare, and they were made for a JDM special edition MK2 MX5 (see here http://www.geocities.jp/ys_roadster/aboutnr_a.html ) but after some photoshopping, figured they'd suit it nicely, and they do :)

I bought them from an MX-5 breaking company down in Dorchester. Their condition couldn't be described as brand-new-immaculate, but the marks are barely noticeable when not looking right close at them, so I took them :)

First thing to do was to spend a while giving them a clean, polish etc, as the tyres weren't road legal anyway.


As they came:

pa300007.jpg



Filthy:
wheels5.jpg



Shiny :cool:
wheels8.jpg


And again
wheels4.jpg



Complete with new Eagle F1s, fitted to the car:
eaglef1-1.jpg



And again, LOL rideheight, suspension hadn't settled after jacking:
eaglef1-2.jpg
 
Simple bit of weight-saving and aethetic improvement - removing useless tie hooks

These are only meant to be used to tieing the car down when transporting it on a boat, so they had to go :D

tiehooks.jpg


And re-using picture from above, hooks removed
tiehooks-removed.jpg



They're surprisingly heavy buggers! Bit fiddly to remove, but not nearly as much so as the clutch slave cylinder!
 
Jan 09 - Repair of nearside wing

There had been a slight dent/crease and graunch marks in the front nearside wing since I bought it - from the shape and black marks left over, I'd guess someone drove into it in a carpark. I took it to a bodyshop my dad knows, to have it repaired, along with the offside rear wing that had a bodged chip repair on it. They did a very good job, so I will be using them again when I have the spare cash to have the bonnet/bumpers resprayed.


Before (best pic I could find - it was more noticeable IRL):
dent.jpg


All fixed:
dentfixed.jpg



Think we're about up to date! I will of course update this thread as I go along. Next big job - Suspension :cool:
 
Yeah I know what you mean - A vast majority of MK1s I see have very saggy hoods/rear windows.

I'm just trying to work out how it's done so little miles, it must have been garaged for a good period of it, judging by the bodywork condition, i.e. lack of filth and rust.

I'm hoping it'll stay in this good nick for many more years to come with some looking after :)


The supension I have on order is the SportDrive kit made by www.performance5.com - An upgrade (of sorts) of their popular and very well regarded ProDrive kit. Should mean it'll sit lower and I'll get a decent improvement on the handling. Not that isn't excellent at the moment, it just addresses things like body roll, compliance over bumpier surfaces, over/understeer, etc. :)
 
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I will eventually turbocharge it, I think! Need to get at least a year's NCB first though :p

Will be getting a Larini exhaust system (single exit, 7cm - nothing too Barry), decat and maybe 4-2-1 manifold as the next "performance" mod after the suspension. I desire a bit more noise :D I'd like a Jackson Racing CAI, but the price is a bit extreme :\
 
Are the Larini exhausts not suitable then? I was pondering leaving the manifold out because of needing a turbo one, but I presumed the Larini would be suitable... Hmm :(
 
Yeah I'm gonna do the beesting aerial conversion, you can see my current aerial from space.

Thanks for the warning about the mirrors - I'll keep an eye on it after doing the suspension! I'm lead to believe the new suspension isn't just out and out stiffness, it's designed for road use as well as track use so shouldn't be bone shaking :)
 
Platinum Pete said:
Hey Howard

Nice to see the bits you have done so far. one question- how much was the bodyshop bill on that dent? some little **** has driven into my car- and left a nasty scratch/ dent that stretches accross the front wing and the door!!



Pete
Click to expand...

£150 per panel I pay.


Lopez, I'll give that a go. IIRC it looks like rust but it's just mostly just down to the primer, or very very surface-rust... I'll have a poke around next week and sort it using your methods though, I think. I don't like to have to learn about rust prevention techniques but I guess I have to :D
 
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Do it :cool:


Changed the fuel filter today. It's a service part, and probably hasn't been done in 19 years :rolleyes:

Bit of a messy job, and a real bugger to get the rubber flexible pipes off the filter, but I didn't get too much petrol on me... Good job I don't smoke ;) Took ages to get the pipe off of the "engine" end of the filter - that is the feed from the filter to the engine. The feed from the tank came off relatively easily, and I had a handy Biro pen to plug the pipe ;) Fuel does come out but it's more of a dribble if you depressurise properly :)

fuelfilter1.jpg


Car seems to rev up at low RPMs / tip-in a little easier now :)
 
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