Operation MX-5 - '96 Mk1 1.8iS
Discussion
I picked up this MX-5 a year ago today so thought it about time to start a thread for it. Here’s a picture the day I picked it up in Bristol.
Rewind a year, I’d just finished my music degree and was determined to do my own thing. I needed cash to get my business started and this left me with one option. I sold my mint, low mileage, 55 plate R53 Cooper S and went on the hunt for something cheap and fun.
I knew an MX-5 was a car that fitted the bill, though finding one that met my quite specific criteria became something of a challenge…
It had to be a Mk1, 1.8, black or BRG, rust free, have ABS + airbags (to keep the safety conscious girlfriend happy) and preferably a few choice mods.
I went to see a few examples and they were all rot boxes, had little or no evidence of any recent work, or had been very poorly modified. I was starting to loose faith when this one cropped up on Ebay in Bristol. I happened to be back visiting my mum who lives outside Bristol so I called the seller, arranged a meet and had it on the drive the next day.
It wasn’t perfect, but it was the best I’d seen by miles. It had full service history, a folder thick with receipts, the sills were done, and most importantly everything worked.
The car has:
From the factory
Power steering
ABS
Airbags
Electric windows
Electric mirrors
Modifications
TR Lane GPD roll cage
KYB AGX adjustable shocks
Eibach 30mm springs
MX-5 Parts stainless exhaust
DDM works intake & heat shield
OMP drilled and grooved front disks
G ltd suede/alcantara seats
Garage Vary type III louvered headlight intake
15” Wolfrace Octanes
TSI’s
Alpine head unit
There was a small patch of rust on the nearside sill where the replacement plate had gone, it was probably due a service, and the cam cover gasket was beginning to let go – other than that I couldn’t fault it for nearly a 20 year old motor! Before I started any work I took it up to London for a gig and it coped with the central London traffic very well.
The honeymoon period lasted a few weeks until I picked up a puncture and decided to use this opportunity to upgrade the rear tyres. A local mobile tyre firm had very competitive pricing so they came to my house and got to work.
Half way through the fitting I noticed that the fitter had jacked the car up using the sill – rather than the reinforced plate behind it. As he let the car down I heard a crunch as part of the ridge at the bottom of the sill had come away with the jack.
He was mortified, though it wasn’t his fault, as a poke around with a screwdriver revealed that the previous owner’s ‘professional’ sill repair job was anything but.
Other sill wasn't looking great...
b
ks!
I didn’t want to leave the rust to get any worse, and who knew what was lurking underneath, so I booked the car in with my mate Mick Jolly down in Milford to get them sorted properly.
A week later it had had the sills and part of the arch cut out, new metal put in, re-textured, resprayed and undersealed. The car was looking great, my bank balance was not.
That said, I’m delighted with the results. 10 months on and they still look good as new.
Looking very tidy underneath now.
I enjoyed the car for a couple of months until, in the cold of winter, the battery died. No biggie, I’ll pick up another one…
On removing the old battery I discovered it had pissed acid under the boot carpet, which in turn had caused surface rust on the boot floor. Started hand sanding it back however, as is evidenced by the picture below, I had to break out the Dremel to shift the worst of it.
Once I’d got shot of the rust I hit it with some hammerite. It is quite obviously the wrong colour hammerite, but as it will be under the boot carpet out of sight I wasn’t bothered. Put the new battery in and all was well.
After sorting the battery and boot floor I went away for 3 weeks over Christmas and returned to this...
Mould. fking mould, everywhere!
It seems that the vinyl hood had shrunk somewhat during its near 20-year lifespan which, when coupled with torrential rain over Christmas, had led to some vehicular incontinence issues.
I spent hours cleaning the mould up and in a fit of rage threw the roof down without unzipping the rear window in an attempt to dry it out. Big mistake.
When I lifted the hood back up I'd completely split the rear window. I taped it up and started looking at replacement options. What had began as a cheap bit of fun was rapidly turning in to an expensive hobby. You can just about see the damage in the picture below.
I started looking for hoods and people to fit them. It was all looking very pricey. Once more I returned to Bristol to visit my folks; when a brand new, unopened tan hood cropped on on Ebay. I messaged the seller, he was just down the road in Brislington. So I popped down and made him an offer. When I opened the box I was delighted to find that he'd also thrown in a new set of unopened tension cables and springs. Result!
My mate Mick - the guy who sorted the sills - kindly lent me a space in his workshop one Sunday so I set to work putting the new hood on the existing frame.
Looking good under the carpet!
Hood off.
Getting the old vinyl away from the frame.
Found a bit of rot on the inside of the frame where the water had been getting in.
Started sanding it back.
Treated the rust.
And at the same time sanded back and treated any other metal underneath that was showing any signs of corrosion.
Drilled the holes for the new webbing straps (puts a bit less stress on the new hood whilst going up and down)
At this point I managed to split one of the webbing straps whilst trying to rivet it into the frame. This was temporarily game over, as I couldn't get another one that evening, and Mick needed the space in his workshop for Monday. I called the Mrs, shoved the frame and new hood in her Mini Clubman and drove the MX-5 home sans hood in 0 degree pissing rain.
I put the car in my girlfriend's parents garage where it lived for a few weeks whilst I got everything ready. I no longer had the use of Mick's fancy rivet gun, so I bought my own off Ebay for £3 delivered.
I couldn't find any 'MX-5 specific' webbing straps, so I returned once more to Ebay and purchased some for the grand total of 50p. I then burnt some holes in the right places using a kitchen blowtorch and a nail, then got the girlfriend to sow the ends up. Pretty ghetto stuff but they fitted perfectly; and being the caring boyfriend I am I didn't want her textiles A-Level to count for nothing.
New tension cables installed.
Nearly there!
Hood roughly in place.
Got everything in place then left a couple of huge tubs of mastic on the roof to help the vinyl stretch out overnight.
It latched first time!
I've had nothing but compliments about the new hood and personally I'm loving it. I originally had my reservations about tan on an almost completely black car but I'm glad I did it. Plus the hood was filthy cheap!
This takes me to the spring of this year, plenty more updates still to come!
Rewind a year, I’d just finished my music degree and was determined to do my own thing. I needed cash to get my business started and this left me with one option. I sold my mint, low mileage, 55 plate R53 Cooper S and went on the hunt for something cheap and fun.
I knew an MX-5 was a car that fitted the bill, though finding one that met my quite specific criteria became something of a challenge…
It had to be a Mk1, 1.8, black or BRG, rust free, have ABS + airbags (to keep the safety conscious girlfriend happy) and preferably a few choice mods.
I went to see a few examples and they were all rot boxes, had little or no evidence of any recent work, or had been very poorly modified. I was starting to loose faith when this one cropped up on Ebay in Bristol. I happened to be back visiting my mum who lives outside Bristol so I called the seller, arranged a meet and had it on the drive the next day.
It wasn’t perfect, but it was the best I’d seen by miles. It had full service history, a folder thick with receipts, the sills were done, and most importantly everything worked.
The car has:
From the factory
Power steering
ABS
Airbags
Electric windows
Electric mirrors
Modifications
TR Lane GPD roll cage
KYB AGX adjustable shocks
Eibach 30mm springs
MX-5 Parts stainless exhaust
DDM works intake & heat shield
OMP drilled and grooved front disks
G ltd suede/alcantara seats
Garage Vary type III louvered headlight intake
15” Wolfrace Octanes
TSI’s
Alpine head unit
There was a small patch of rust on the nearside sill where the replacement plate had gone, it was probably due a service, and the cam cover gasket was beginning to let go – other than that I couldn’t fault it for nearly a 20 year old motor! Before I started any work I took it up to London for a gig and it coped with the central London traffic very well.
The honeymoon period lasted a few weeks until I picked up a puncture and decided to use this opportunity to upgrade the rear tyres. A local mobile tyre firm had very competitive pricing so they came to my house and got to work.
Half way through the fitting I noticed that the fitter had jacked the car up using the sill – rather than the reinforced plate behind it. As he let the car down I heard a crunch as part of the ridge at the bottom of the sill had come away with the jack.
He was mortified, though it wasn’t his fault, as a poke around with a screwdriver revealed that the previous owner’s ‘professional’ sill repair job was anything but.
Other sill wasn't looking great...
b
ks!I didn’t want to leave the rust to get any worse, and who knew what was lurking underneath, so I booked the car in with my mate Mick Jolly down in Milford to get them sorted properly.
A week later it had had the sills and part of the arch cut out, new metal put in, re-textured, resprayed and undersealed. The car was looking great, my bank balance was not.
That said, I’m delighted with the results. 10 months on and they still look good as new.
Looking very tidy underneath now.
I enjoyed the car for a couple of months until, in the cold of winter, the battery died. No biggie, I’ll pick up another one…
On removing the old battery I discovered it had pissed acid under the boot carpet, which in turn had caused surface rust on the boot floor. Started hand sanding it back however, as is evidenced by the picture below, I had to break out the Dremel to shift the worst of it.
Once I’d got shot of the rust I hit it with some hammerite. It is quite obviously the wrong colour hammerite, but as it will be under the boot carpet out of sight I wasn’t bothered. Put the new battery in and all was well.
After sorting the battery and boot floor I went away for 3 weeks over Christmas and returned to this...
Mould. f
king mould, everywhere!It seems that the vinyl hood had shrunk somewhat during its near 20-year lifespan which, when coupled with torrential rain over Christmas, had led to some vehicular incontinence issues.
I spent hours cleaning the mould up and in a fit of rage threw the roof down without unzipping the rear window in an attempt to dry it out. Big mistake.
When I lifted the hood back up I'd completely split the rear window. I taped it up and started looking at replacement options. What had began as a cheap bit of fun was rapidly turning in to an expensive hobby. You can just about see the damage in the picture below.
I started looking for hoods and people to fit them. It was all looking very pricey. Once more I returned to Bristol to visit my folks; when a brand new, unopened tan hood cropped on on Ebay. I messaged the seller, he was just down the road in Brislington. So I popped down and made him an offer. When I opened the box I was delighted to find that he'd also thrown in a new set of unopened tension cables and springs. Result!
My mate Mick - the guy who sorted the sills - kindly lent me a space in his workshop one Sunday so I set to work putting the new hood on the existing frame.
Looking good under the carpet!
Hood off.
Getting the old vinyl away from the frame.
Found a bit of rot on the inside of the frame where the water had been getting in.
Started sanding it back.
Treated the rust.
And at the same time sanded back and treated any other metal underneath that was showing any signs of corrosion.
Drilled the holes for the new webbing straps (puts a bit less stress on the new hood whilst going up and down)
At this point I managed to split one of the webbing straps whilst trying to rivet it into the frame. This was temporarily game over, as I couldn't get another one that evening, and Mick needed the space in his workshop for Monday. I called the Mrs, shoved the frame and new hood in her Mini Clubman and drove the MX-5 home sans hood in 0 degree pissing rain.
I put the car in my girlfriend's parents garage where it lived for a few weeks whilst I got everything ready. I no longer had the use of Mick's fancy rivet gun, so I bought my own off Ebay for £3 delivered.
I couldn't find any 'MX-5 specific' webbing straps, so I returned once more to Ebay and purchased some for the grand total of 50p. I then burnt some holes in the right places using a kitchen blowtorch and a nail, then got the girlfriend to sow the ends up. Pretty ghetto stuff but they fitted perfectly; and being the caring boyfriend I am I didn't want her textiles A-Level to count for nothing.
New tension cables installed.
Nearly there!
Hood roughly in place.
Got everything in place then left a couple of huge tubs of mastic on the roof to help the vinyl stretch out overnight.
It latched first time!
I've had nothing but compliments about the new hood and personally I'm loving it. I originally had my reservations about tan on an almost completely black car but I'm glad I did it. Plus the hood was filthy cheap!
This takes me to the spring of this year, plenty more updates still to come!
Edited by Drums on Monday 13th July 00:39
Dave200 said:
Yikes! A great fun car, I'm sure (I have fond memories of stealing an ex-GF's mk2.5). But it just goes to show how quickly/easily what seems to be a decent and solid car has the potential to become a moneypit!
Tell me about it mate. Other than the sills I've done all the work myself to keep costs down but it still racks up!After sorting the sills, the battery and putting a new hood on it was well due a service. I’d changed the oil the week I bought it but after 10 months it was looking particularly dark – so a slightly more comprehensive service was required. I figured whilst I was at it I may as well change that troublesome cam cover gasket and tart the rocker cover up a bit.
Got it up on the stands and dropped the oil.
Oil filter - new vs old.
Ordered a K&N cleaning kit and set to work on the air filter. Before...
After.
Nearly 20 years had taken its toll on the cam cover.
Degreased it and started sanding back. Unfortunately my efforts weren't good enough so I threw it in my mates parts cleaner overnight and then hit it with some primer.
Laid on a few thick coats of VHT wrinkle paint.
Now looking much better.
Cleaned up the area around the new cam cover gasket and inspected the cam belt - i had receipts for belts from the previous owner, just wanted to make sure they had actually been fitted!
Cover back on and new oil going in.
Now it was all ready for it's MOT - which it failed. The handbrake wasn't engaging properly. So, I took the car back home to sort the adjusters at the back and then tighten the handbrake. On having the rear wheels off it was apparent the disks, pads and calipers looked like they'd seen better days. I delayed the retest and set to work.
Yep, pretty knackered.
Threw everything out the office and started stripping down the calipers. Ordered a caliper refurb kit from Ebay for £20 as there was no way I was spending £80 per corner on refurbed ones!
It was a nice easy job with the exception of getting that bd circlip out from the barrel of the caliper. I don't have any photos of this stage because I was too busy swearing at it!
Rubbers were shagged as well.
Cleaned them up as best I could, cleared out the insides and regreased everything.
Special delivery! It already had OMP drilled and grooved disks on the front so it felt like the perfect time to upgrade the rears.
Sorted. Or so I thought. I tightened up the adjusters, marveled at my overhauled rear brakes, tightened the handbrake cable and... it still wouldn't engage properly. After all that it was the fking cables. So...
Back up she goes.
These were fiddly little buggers.
Old cables out.
Got some perfect second hand cables off Ebay - £20 for both of them - result!
Finally the car was ready to go! It passed it's MOT with no advisories (I should bloody hope so the amount I've spent on it) just in time to enjoy the summer.
In good company.
The car now drives, stops and performs faultlessly. Needless to say it's done a fair few miles this summer!
Got it up on the stands and dropped the oil.
Oil filter - new vs old.
Ordered a K&N cleaning kit and set to work on the air filter. Before...
After.
Nearly 20 years had taken its toll on the cam cover.
Degreased it and started sanding back. Unfortunately my efforts weren't good enough so I threw it in my mates parts cleaner overnight and then hit it with some primer.
Laid on a few thick coats of VHT wrinkle paint.
Now looking much better.
Cleaned up the area around the new cam cover gasket and inspected the cam belt - i had receipts for belts from the previous owner, just wanted to make sure they had actually been fitted!
Cover back on and new oil going in.
Now it was all ready for it's MOT - which it failed. The handbrake wasn't engaging properly. So, I took the car back home to sort the adjusters at the back and then tighten the handbrake. On having the rear wheels off it was apparent the disks, pads and calipers looked like they'd seen better days. I delayed the retest and set to work.
Yep, pretty knackered.
Threw everything out the office and started stripping down the calipers. Ordered a caliper refurb kit from Ebay for £20 as there was no way I was spending £80 per corner on refurbed ones!
It was a nice easy job with the exception of getting that b
d circlip out from the barrel of the caliper. I don't have any photos of this stage because I was too busy swearing at it!Rubbers were shagged as well.
Cleaned them up as best I could, cleared out the insides and regreased everything.
Special delivery! It already had OMP drilled and grooved disks on the front so it felt like the perfect time to upgrade the rears.
Sorted. Or so I thought. I tightened up the adjusters, marveled at my overhauled rear brakes, tightened the handbrake cable and... it still wouldn't engage properly. After all that it was the f
king cables. So...Back up she goes.
These were fiddly little buggers.
Old cables out.
Got some perfect second hand cables off Ebay - £20 for both of them - result!
Finally the car was ready to go! It passed it's MOT with no advisories (I should bloody hope so the amount I've spent on it) just in time to enjoy the summer.
In good company.
The car now drives, stops and performs faultlessly. Needless to say it's done a fair few miles this summer!
Shame you're not still in Bristol, we have a great group of MX5 owners in Bristol Motor Club
http://bristolmc.org.uk/mx5challenge/
Nice looking car you've got there
http://bristolmc.org.uk/mx5challenge/
Nice looking car you've got there
Car booked in for....
a SUPERCHARGER!!
Was originally going to use longer pipe setup as it was available to me, but thought I'm doing it once better to do it proper. Custom pipe, less air travel, more expensive :/
I can see your halo
Tease
New intercooler
Shiny shiny
Solid under the carpet where the ecu is fitted
So the spec:
- Megasquirt ECU
- MP45 Supercharger (Teflon bladed)
- Twin Throttle Bodies
- Custom Intercooler
- Turbo PCV Valve
- Supra Turbo Injectors 415cc (Black)
And more...
a SUPERCHARGER!!
Was originally going to use longer pipe setup as it was available to me, but thought I'm doing it once better to do it proper. Custom pipe, less air travel, more expensive :/
I can see your halo
Tease
New intercooler
Shiny shiny
Solid under the carpet where the ecu is fitted
So the spec:
- Megasquirt ECU
- MP45 Supercharger (Teflon bladed)
- Twin Throttle Bodies
- Custom Intercooler
- Turbo PCV Valve
- Supra Turbo Injectors 415cc (Black)
And more...
Edited by TO53EEF on Friday 29th June 12:32
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