What have you done to your car today?

Haha, well it's subjective - I like the style personally :).

Some better pics.

Real lights & high level brake light.

car_1_by_darkelmarko-d6n7qyn.jpg


Rear end (With exhaust I managed to strip off all the horrible paint) still need to polish/clean the rest.

car2_by_darkelmarko-d6n7r7d.jpg


Front (all lights replaced & you can just about see the grill I installed)

car3_by_darkelmarko-d6n7reu.jpg


Wipers & washers.

wipers_n_ashers_by_darkelmarko-d6n7rmg.jpg


Interior (Cleaned & returned back to black with material dye)

interior_by_darkelmarko-d6n7rsu.jpg


Full frontal.

frontal_by_darkelmarko-d6n7s63.jpg


May ditch the front fog-lights mind, not sure about em tbh....
 
^Have you dabbled into servicing the car yet mate?

Look for guides for doing the following..

pollen filter (if it has one) for a fresher smelling cabin!
air filter (the air intake for the car)
oil & oil filter
spark plugs
fuel filter

That order is typically from easiest to hardest. Besides the fuel filter, it will lengthen the life of your car and make it run better.

If you know all this stuff already then fair enough, I know this is your first car :)
 
bledd. said:
^Have you dabbled into servicing the car yet mate?

Look for guides for doing the following..

pollen filter (if it has one) for a fresher smelling cabin!
air filter (the air intake for the car)
oil & oil filter
spark plugs
fuel filter

That order is typically from easiest to hardest. Besides the fuel filter, it will lengthen the life of your car and make it run better.

If you know all this stuff already then fair enough, I know this is your first car :)
Click to expand...
Not yet, but I'm pretty keen to learn.

Got my stripper scent air freshener for the first one! :D, but the rest I'll be looking into learning how to do myself - thanks for the tips.

Mostly learning how to replace the fuses, fault find, all the electrical wiring & such so far - good to have an old simple car to practice on, definitely learn a lot.

It may be a pain, but I'm going to start reading up on guides on how to re-trim seats (want them in black leather), also on tinting chrome (would prefer it smokey chrome as opposed to normal) - much to do & so little time...
 
Fitted an ebay lip spoiler today. The Mk3 MX5 has a bit of a fat ass, and looks a bit plain, a small spoiler helps break up the rear end a little. The optional OEM one looks very similar to this but costs £255 from Mazda...the one I fitted here cost £26 (thats inclusive of shipping and painted any shade you ask for :cool:).

Fitting it was pretty straightforward although lining it up and bending it to fit the curve of the bootlid look a few gos and lots of squinting and worrying over whether its on straight, then peeling off the tape to hold it down....happy with the look though, especially for the price!

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Next little mod, the OEM gearknob was a bit scratched, a replacement from Mazda is over £90 (its the same weighted knob as the Mazda 3 MPS apparently), so went for this - 'Voodoo Magnum' design from the US. Very S2000 like, a bit shorter than the stock one, and still weighted. Very happy with it.

odwZrHk.jpg

Then cleaned and treated the roof. Then the sun came out so decided it was time for a drive....out through Shropshire, Clee Hill and back. First time I've really taken the car out for a proper drive, much fun was had!

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Turned up at work this morning, job arrives 9am, diagnosis wasn't quite the same as the explanation on booking, so took 10 mins to take undertray off, inspect, talk to customer and refit...
No other jobs in. :D
Spent the rest of the day working on the Disco, removing Turbo, oil cooler, oil filter housing and Roto filter housing to fix various oil leaks.
Had a drive out to Tim Fry Landrovers for a few gaskets I missed on the original order.
Stopped for lunch which the boss paid for.
Used a load of lubricant and fluid from work (Seven and a bit Litres of oil and 3 litres of long life coolant) Used a bit of works diesel in the Steam cleaner to clean up the engine bay.

Then I got paid for a days work :D
Can't be bad.
 
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Swore passionately and plentifully at the steering knuckle universal joints on the E46 and went to town with various breaker bars and a few dead blows.
Ended up having to grind off the bottom one as it was more solid than a virgin at a porn shoot, but all is now well!
 
elmarko said:
Haha, well it's subjective - I like the style personally :).

Some better pics.

Real lights & high level brake light.

Click to expand...


Looks good :)

elmarko said:
Rear end (With exhaust I managed to strip off all the horrible paint) still need to polish/clean the rest.

Click to expand...

Also looks good :)

elmarko said:
Front (all lights replaced & you can just about see the grill I installed)

Click to expand...

Nice - though I'm not a great fan of the front fogs. I will agree it's purely down to individual taste though.

elmarko said:
Interior (Cleaned & returned back to black with material dye)
Click to expand...

Looks so much better and tidier :)

Will said:
Fitted an ebay lip spoiler today. The Mk3 MX5 has a bit of a fat ass, and looks a bit plain, a small spoiler helps break up the rear end a little. The optional OEM one looks very similar to this but costs £255 from Mazda...the one I fitted here cost £26 (thats inclusive of shipping and painted any shade you ask for :cool:).

Fitting it was pretty straightforward although lining it up and bending it to fit the curve of the bootlid look a few gos and lots of squinting and worrying over whether its on straight, then peeling off the tape to hold it down....happy with the look though, especially for the price!

Click to expand...

I've always loved the MK3's and the little boot lid spoiler sets it off nicely imo :cool:



Will said:
Then cleaned and treated the roof. Then the sun came out so decided it was time for a drive....out through Shropshire, Clee Hill and back. First time I've really taken the car out for a proper drive, much fun was had!
Click to expand...

Been there recently too - and as you've said much fun was indeed had :p
 
elmarko said:
Not yet, but I'm pretty keen to learn.

Got my stripper scent air freshener for the first one! :D, but the res but I'll be looking into learning to do myself - thanks for the tips.

Mostly learning how to replace the fuses, fault find, all the electrical wiring & such so far - good to have an old simple car to practice on, definitely learn a lot.

It may be a pain, but I'm going to start reading up on guides on how to re-trim seats (want them in black leather), also on tinting chrome (would prefer it smokey chrome as opposed to normal) - much to do & so little time...
Click to expand...

If you're keen to learn, two great YouTube channels to browse through are scottyKilmer and EricTheCarGuy. Scotty is a bit slap dash, but they're both entertaining and informative to watch


Edit, pollen filter isn't your air freshener. It's the filter inside the dash that your blowers use..

See here http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18457825
 
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hated seeing the road rash on the bottom edge of the rear doors/arch trim so cleaned up best i could and applied some 3m Scotch guard to hopefully minimize it from getting worse.

Got 3 meters worth of the 3m from the bay, pre cut stuff is expensive! So thought id have a go myself, plus a couple meters left :)

Tools Used :-

Me :D
Stanley Blade :)
Scissors
Alcohol wipes (clean area)
Pen (to cut out a template)
Vinyl Application Card

I used a glass cleaner to lube the 3m material, to aid aligning.
Slow process and first time i thought it aint gonna stick , especially on the curvature of the door , but after a lot of squeegeeing to get the excess fluid out, all went ok :) patience is key ;)

I may re do the wheel arch trims to cover the whole section so the outline isn't there ... but it will suffice for this winter :) just need to give the rest of the car a good polish and wax now :o:)


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Saturday: wash clay and polish, turned out great.

Sunday: Oil change, drained the sump, jammed screwdriver in old filter to remove it, went to fit new one.

Wrong size.

Ultimate facepalm moment, no idea why I wasn't paying attention when I bought it.
 
Took my drivers door card off to find out why the window has stopped working. Turns out the plastic cog on the motor has snapped in half, attempted to fix it with super glue and going to put it back tomorrow but I reckon it'll need a new motor :(
 
Cursed it as it's still losing all power intermittently. Established wisdom is the brake light switch/sensor as VW's have a habit of cutting power when you hit the brake pedal. As soon as I lift off the throttle and re-apply it again it picks up without issue. Until the next time.
 
Fitted all the new bits - here's the engine stripped down as far as it needed to go.

7cxTiPl.jpg

Also replaced the two brake lines from the rear wheels, they were a bit too corroded to pass the MOT.
 
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