gm's unhealthy obsession with mx5s - squeezing in a few last drives before Exo goes into hibernation

[gm]

a bit of fettling with shitey 

the boot carpet was soaked and obviously has been for some time

the (broken) electric aerial was leaking above the battery  i swapped it for a spare manual aerial and sealed it with a blob of silicon

i’ll clean this up and get a coat of paint on it - thankfully the metal is solid 

there were some gritty rubber mats in the footwells which hid a soaking wet carpet - i binned them and removed the seats for a good hoovering 

with the roof down all day, they soon dried up, i stuck some cheap dehumidifiers in to finish the job

 

[gm]

while the tools were out, i ditched the ugly aftermarket fog light 

looks much neater

the wiring was rerouted to the offside reverse light 

just needs a red bulb like mighty has

 

[gm]

the pop up headlights sometimes didn’t pop up  

i traced the fault to a duff switch (this lifts the lights for cleaning / bulb changing) and fitted a spare

the top of the dash has been painted and was looking shabby

so i rubbed it down and gave it a quick coat of satin black.

the oddly coloured crash pad that doesn’t match the rest of the interior was annoying me

so i swapped it for a black one i had in the loft

looks much smarter now

 

[gm]

then took mighty for a drive

[gm]

the exhaust on shitey was a bit noisey so i rolled it up on ramps and investigated 

hmm, not the best

but what’s that hanging from the rafters ?

close enough (there’s a rumour that manual and auto exhausts are different, i guess that’s bollocks then)

this car is so clean underneath   

sounds great - not look at me mental like mighty but has a nice tone and rasp, just as you would expect 

i chopped the centre section and tail pipe off for future use

and had a look at just how shagged the back box is 

what a mess - i’ll drop that at the tip tomorrow 

a quick drive up and down the street and it’s going well - the autobox changes smoothly and the little green car picks up well.

 

[gm]

been to the local breakers and picked up some parts to tone down that tan interior 

plan is to use the top section of the door cards and the handles - should look much smarter 

[gm]

with the end of the month approaching and a rare dry day, i moved the Exo to the garage at my mams house to hibernate for the winter 

she insisted on coming along for the drive  

and the green machine took up residence in my own garage 

takes up a lot more space than the exo  

[gm]

first job on green was to swap the manky  dashboard binnacle (seems to have been painted and gone sticky in the sun)

for one i picked up at the scrappies last week

time to sort out the doorcards - there really is too much beige, i used the top sections and handles to tone it down a bit

much better

[gm]

time for a quick tinker under the bonnet - new plugs and an air filter both very overdue

i fitted a replacement power steering pump

and jacked up the front end to turn lock to lock to bleed new fluid 

bit something wasn’t quite as it should be - a sort of sloshing noise was coming from the rack  

i pulled back the steering gaiter and got soaked in oily coffee

that’ll be where the steering fluid has all been hiding - add a replacement rack to the shopping list. at least i hadn’t just dumped a brand new bottle of fluid into it. 

not ideal, but it was great being able to crack on with the spannering in a warm dry garage.

[gm]

let’s have a look at that steering rack 

yep, that’ll be humped then  

[gm]

a trip down to see the mazdadudes in darlington and £50 later, a replacement steering rack has been sourced and installed 

at which point i discovered another leak in the fluid cooling pipe work  

fortunately i had a spare from the exo donor but fitting it was a massive pain.

all done now and the power steering works perfectly 

[gm]

i’d drained the radiator while fixing the power steering so thought i’d give the engine a flush. this involved moving the car outside for the first time in a while

thermostat has seen better days - i’ll order a new one

flushed with the hose for a good while and refilled, i needed a quick test drive up and down the street 

only problem, the seats are still in the house - this handy toolbox will have to do

i’d given it an oil change while it was jacked up and it’s running very nicely now, even just up and down the street, the car is lovely to drive - i’ll look forward to getting this one out on the road soon  

[gm]

when I bought the green mx5, I phoned my insurers to swap the cover over from the black mx5 - for reasons unknown, they couldn't do this but quoted me a new (classic) policy at over £600  

out of curiosity, I ran a meerkat this afternoon

that's a bit more like it - maybe I'll run this one as a daily for a few months when the weather improves  

 

[gm]

an odd quirk of imported mx5s is that when you pull the stalk to flash your headlights, they don’t automatically pop up, you need to raise them manually by pushing a button on the middle of the dash - hardly convenient.

a common solution is to fit this little guy

to the back of this connector

the red/white wire is the main beam feed, the white/black goes to the motor so when the main beam is activated, the lights will now pop up and make you smile  

 

 

[loserone]

A car which hadn't had the flash to pass mod.  Amazing!

[gm]

22 hours ago, gm said:

thermostat has seen better days - i’ll order a new one

a mere 23 hours later !

mighty impressive service from Andrew at Autolink  

[LightBulbFun]

23 hours ago, gm said:

when I bought the green mx5, I phoned my insurers to swap the cover over from the black mx5 - for reasons unknown, they couldn't do this but quoted me a new (classic) policy at over £600  

out of curiosity, I ran a meerkat this afternoon

that's a bit more like it - maybe I'll run this one as a daily for a few months when the weather improves  

 

is that on M680TVU? its still going "no idea what that is" on my end...

[gm]

15 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

is that on M680TVU? its still going "no idea what that is" on my end...

i had to enter the details manually, still not got round to sending the v5 away to get updated  

[gm]

despite the thermostat arriving in world record time, i couldn’t be arsed fitting it tonight. instead, something much* more important:

oh dear, that looks just a little bit crap

yep, needs to go

the connector had slightly melted too so a spare was spliced in

that’s better

nice and bright, even with whatever cheapo bulbs were fitted

and some silliness  

 

 

[bobdisk]

a common solution is to fit this little guy

@gm Whats the number,  1N4001 ?

[gm]

5 minutes ago, bobdisk said:

a common solution is to fit this little guy

@gm Whats the number,  1N4001 ?

1N5408 Diode - Rectifier - 3A 1000V

i bought a pack of 10 off ebay

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/121493725507?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=9hOxI6nZQ-6&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=LKn5X0MqTxu&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

let me know if you need one, i can bung one in the post 

[gm]

i’m fancied a bit of a christmas eve hoon but the exo is sorned, the black mx5 is sorned and the green mx5 is still in bits (and sorned)  

it’s just not the same in the bini 

but the roads were nice and quiet roads so it got a good blast anyway  

happy christmas folks 

 

[gm]

as the rain had stopped and my head was no longer thumping from too many festive pints last night with @DVee8 i had a go at doing a radiator flush on the green one

these bottles of snake oil have been on the garage shelf for quite some time, i hope they still work

step one - empty the system and flush with water

step two - bung in bottle one and run at fast idle for 30 mins

step three - empty it out and try not to scald yourself

minging ! 

step four - refill with fresh water and run for a further 5 mins

drain it all out again

step five - bung in bottle two and run for 15 mins then drain 

step six - refill with fresh water and run for another five mins, drain then flush with the hose 

step seven - drain it all again and finally fit a new thermostat and bung some coolant in. 

a quick test drive up and down the street and all is well, no leaks and lovely fresh coolant in a nice clean radiator  

 

[gm]

while i had a bit of spare time, i refitted the seats

that toned down interior looks great  

[Ghosty]

great call on the interior - love how they look in half and half. people don't realise how easy it is!

[gm]

the mighty mx5 is Sorned and hadn’t been used for a while so i thought i’d better check on the state of the battery - turns out it was not a kick in the arse off flat  

now, should i 

fetch the battery charger ? 

or 

tax the bugger and go for a hoon ? 

no contest, really  

a quick stop for supplies 

and a proper thrash round the back roads 

battery is now fully charged, tank is now fully emptied and the back end is minging filthy - great fun  

[gm]

with the interior of greeny tidied up,  it needed a pair of genuine eunos v-spec floor mats

which were donated several years ago by @loserone from his old v-spec 

they really do look smart

 

[loserone]

That looks flipping great.  If this is going manual I would probably buy it from you...

[gm]

i do have a spare manual gearbox and flywheel, all it needs is a clutch kit, pedal set and prop shaft and it’s a days work to do the swap. 

but…it actually drives really nicely on the autobox, i’m more surprised than anyone !

it will be for sale at some point as i’ve decide to keep the black one and do the welding myself, feel free to pop in for a look next time you’re passing  

[gm]

@DVee8 drive it up and down the street this afternoon and pronounced it a lovely thing