Project It's fucked mate... .. - Moogs Motahs

[The Moog]

The other pain is that the brake flexis were rusted to buggery.  So this meant new brake lines to be run to the abs module. 

Once everything is in, I will clip the brake line in securely. 

The passenger side is in progress, but instead of trying to undo bolts just cut the fuckers straight off. 

That will just leave fitting new rear drums and rear brake flexis.  They can wait until after the track day.  

 

In other car news I took opportunity to stick some new brake pads in @NorthernMonkey steed for Sunday, as they were of unknown history 

 

I reckon he will have the fastest Rover 45 there on Sunday! 

[The Moog]

Got to loves shiny new car stuff. 

I also checked the old shocks.. there is pretty much no life left in them. 

 

[The Moog]

I am off autotesting on sat and I need a way to identify my track tyres/daily tyres.

Currently on the swift is a set of mini steels painted black with Kumho tyres. This are a decent compromise for daily use. 

I have got the original steel wheels that came with the swift with a mix of cheap tyres.  They were rusty and quite manky 

Angle grinder with a knot wheel got so much rust off.  Used face mask, face shield and still looked like David Dickinson at the end!

No compressor but the titan shop vac set to blow works well 

Then rust converter 

Dusting with primer 

And of course the cheapest metal paint in BM at £4 a tin 

And to do something with the over spray 

[320touring]

Rumour has it Lawrence Stroll is headhunting you for the design and paintwork o the F1 car...

[The Moog]

9 minutes ago, 320touring said:

Rumour has it Lawrence Stroll is headhunting you for the design and paintwork o the F1 car...

Only if they can be viewed from 20 yards away !  

At a distance they look ok 

But really need a sand blasting 

Still total cost was only £7 for everything to do the wheels.  

 

 

[The Moog]

The other news is that I Won* the @bangernomics C2.   @NorthernMonkey was kind enough to help me collect it.  

Since then I have done 2 and a bit tanks of fuel and around 700 miles since Tuesday.  I haven't even opened the bonnet yet! 

It is a great thing to drive and as bangernomics said, it has the old skool Citroen squidgy seats.  So comfortable.  

I think this is going to be a long term car. 

I have ordered an android auto head unit for it, plus mats and some air con gas. 

The sills will need a bit of love if they are to survive a Scottish winter, already showing a nice tan coming through

The suspension is a bit tired and I will stick a cambelt on it.   Managed to get a pair of rear shocks from demontweeks clearance. 

My golf is sitting there unloved, so I need to get the wheel bearing done and find the mystery drip from drivers front side that has appeared then sell it. 

Swift is going to be the track focused weapon. 

My mx5 is looking to head south for an fettle and to get it back to a running NA state for now. 

 

[bangernomics]

Before you do the belt check with@DavidB if it was done. He welded the OS sill and we had the NS done for the test.

[Zelandeth]

Driven a couple of these and remember them being fun.  Funky dashboard too.

[The Moog]

On 03/06/2026 at 19:09, Zelandeth said:

Driven a couple of these and remember them being fun.  Funky dashboard too.

They are amazing little cars.  Absolutely a hoot to drive and with comfy seats means long drives are no hassle!

[The Moog]

The golf has just been sitting there, so time to get the few bits done on it and get it sold. 

It has been doing a little coolant wee on the drive.  Looks like the rad has given up the ghost. 

Whipped the front of the car off

AHH bugger.  Someone has had a bump and then got rusty.  

I can't in all good mind leave it like that.  I sourced a spare from Silver lake which was better. But still needed a bit of love.

Grinder action 

Jenolite

Dug out all the spray cans I had to get the jenolite covered

It ended up parts being gold and white. I couldnt leave it like that so found some black metal paint and gave it loads of coats. With support from a dog

That's definitely better

Whipped out the rad, which I managed to undo the wrong bolt and let the AC gas out ( something to fix later) 

opened the new one and it is different.  Got to send this back and ordered the correct part. 

 

[The Moog]

In other news the mx5 is heading south to @NorthernMonkeyworkshop where I will head down in a few weeks.  The task is to get it running and MOTd. So I took the opportunity form @warninglight for transport and hatched a plan. 

ADHD means trouble shooting isn't my finest, plus Scottish weather means it has just languished at the back of the pack. 

I have removed the turbo bits for now as I wasn't sure what the issue is/was.  The exhaust was still on there, so had to get that off

Then using a freshly charged battery and the starter motor, I moved it into position for collection 

[yes oui si]

[The Moog]

It's his sun bathing table so he wasn't impressed. 

[The Moog]

A busy week. 

As noted before the mx5 headed south and took up a temporary residence in colne to be resurrected. 

The capable @NorthernMonkey and his frank Spencer apprentice @The Moog decided it was success or scrappage! 

The mx5 has run right, so I have taken it back to na for now, removing the turbo bits to keep it simple. 

When I arrived Neil had already been fiddling with his mx5, ripping out the annoying immobilizer 

The garage at this point looking like it was breeding mx5 variants

First up was bonnet off

A day spent fiddling, testing and fault finding was frustrating.  We weren't getting a spark or the fuel pump running. 

Many bits were removed from the car. 

Leaving a semi naked mx5 

Neil ripped out the immobiliser on mine (so pleased with this) and I learnt more words to describe people who use scotchloks. 

Also probably removed 3kg of random wires in the car that seemed to go nowhere! 

We seemed to be getting no where, so a brief interlude to head south and collect @Markeh Suzuki had us discussing options.  By the time we got the car, it was decided that I would buy Neil's off him and he would work away at my one before burning it to the ground

 The drive home though, gave Neil the time to think and declared just one more day to try.  More testing and fiddling, still nothing. 

There was 5v missing from one of the CAS sensor feeds, which we couldn't work out. 

The car had been running me221 for the turbo conversion, but we had reverted to a standard ECU for this stage to reduce the variables. The ECU came from a running car I had for a bit. 

A final throw of the dice, we swapped out his mx5 ecu with mine....

 

 

Only bloomin worked! 

It looks like the ECU was dodgy.  It wasnt the only fault, I think Neil fixed most of them with the wiring. 

The power of Facebook marketplace produced a guy in Preston who fixed and broke mx5s.   I got an exhaust, ECU and main 100 amp bolt through fuse of him for get mine back up and running. 

 

[The Moog]

So this left us with a running (ISH) mx5 with no exhaust and no MOT. 

Up on the ramps and a thorough prodding revealed that welding might be needed.

All the leaves and rubbish had not only rotted the bottom of the doors but the end of the sills 

 

First up was to wire brush, then vatcan the underneath before giving a coat of black metal paint.

 

My time was up, so Neil has kindly offered to weld the holes. 

I left with a shopping list, which luckily includes new wings which I have in my shed. 

I decided to try and give them a chance ar a longer life so zinc primered them, whilst I wait for red paint. 

I have brought the nose cone back with me to also get painted.  

I head back down next weekend with a car full of bits and hopefully will be returning with a red mx5! 

TBC

[Markeh]

Apologies we didn't get much chance to chat, I was sort of there on my lunch break! Good to meet you both.

[The Moog]

9 hours ago, Markeh said:

Apologies we didn't get much chance to chat, I was sort of there on my lunch break! Good to meet you both.

I think Neil was excited by his new white car and I was pondering mx5 electrics 😀

[Tickman]

Some fantastic progress there.
 

[The Moog]

More car progress this week. 

First up was sorting out the wings. I bought cheap red gloss from eBay.  I wish I hadn't had the coverage was shit.  But it will do for now. 

I also brought the nose cone back with me.  Had to cut off what was left of the old wing 

I have ordered replacement panels for these 

Then a quick sand and more coats of red gloss 

The metal bar was rusty so wire wheeled and then coated with jenolite, before being sprayed with black paint. 

The fuel pump cover was rusty so a secondhand one for £8 was sourced. 

[The Moog]

The swift is going in for an MOT next week before being sold.  One of the advisories last year was corrosion at rear.  It is surface so a rub down, rust converter and then stonechip underseal 

[worldofceri]

If the MX5 now runs will you be bolting the turbo bits back on?

[The Moog]

46 minutes ago, worldofceri said:

If the MX5 now runs will you be bolting the turbo bits back on?

At some point. I would like to get it running properly and sort out any niggles, before fiddling again.  

@NorthernMonkey has (rightly) threatened to fit a massive padlock to the bonnet so I don't break it!

[NorthernMonkey]

Playing with his has spurred me on to getting mine sorted at the same time.

Let’s just say it’s a good job I bought a large bottle of Argon… 🤬

[The Moog]

Round 2 on the mx5 this weekend. Departed at 3am to head south.  

@NorthernMonkey has filled the rusty bit with some new metal. 

First things first was fitting an exhaust. That was a clusterfuck with loads of different sized bits. Luckily found something that worked and got the exhaust fitted. Also slapped on a pair of new rear calipers. 

Started the car up and it ran ok.  Then noticed the smell - fuel leak. 

Pulled the injector rail, and the oring had gone on one of them.  Managed to swap over the seals from my spare set

The restarted and it ran ok if a bit strange. 

Whipped out the timing light to get it to 12 btdc. 

All done, turned car off.  Started it up again and it had gone to shit.  Wouldn't start, felt like it was misfiring.  White smoke out the exhaust 

Pulled the plugs 

Then did a compression test -200 across all cylinders except one was 190. So not too bad. 

One thing that was noticeable was smoke out of plug 3

At this point we decided that it was a new engine time.  Taking into account everything the action was to strip all the good bits of this one.   They could go on Bal and make a better one. 

Removing the exhaust showed it was full of oil even in the short time it was running

When Neil drained the oil, it was basically half fuel.   So piston rings or cracked something.  

The frustrating part was that we had chased one thing after another, but this was probably the underlying issue all along

 And so here endeth my mx5 journey as NAs are a bit too much money for me now 

[NorthernMonkey]

It’s a shame as there’s fewer and fewer of these left but unfortunately, it’s not got a lot going for it.

The engine has excessive ring wear as oil consumption is horrendous, especially in cylinder three and four.

On top of that, the wiring loom has been butchered throughout, all the body panels are damaged throughout and the roof is knackered.

I was prepared to let Will have my (his) old one which is mechanically sound but when we got it up on the ramp, the underside corrosion is extensive and both rear wings are rotted away at the base. It’s been decided that some of his fancy go faster MX5 bits in PX along with some repair panels he’d bought that will give my old NA a new lease of life. That way, at least one Mazda can live on from the pair of them.

It’s not as if I’ve got anything better to be getting on with… 🤔🤨

[The Moog]

I set about the golf today, the new rad is a high flow version.  It was a returned item so was a bargain.   

The old one was knackered and leaking. 

The bolts that I had taken out, I forgot to stick them in evaporust to clean them up.  Plop them in and set about replacing the lower front wishbones. 

Drivers side was ticking along nicely until one of the subframe bolts snapped.

I did big swears and packed the tools away.  Ordered replacement bolts for both sides and also a secondhand bracket they bolt into.  

I will try with a stud extractor at the weekend, but might just swap the bracket over. 

[Dave_Q]

Should be plenty of thread there to get it out with a double nut method?

[The Moog]

33 minutes ago, Dave_Q said:

Should be plenty of thread there to get it out with a double nut method?

Hope it will come out, the threads are shagged.  Was pretty seized, so for a cheap subframe bracket as insurance I will give it a go with a stud extractor which should grip it!