Another MX5 revival.
Discussion
Come one, come all to this tragic affair. Recently I became the proud owner of an absolutely knackered MX5. I bought this as potentially a money maker but events I'll shed some light on will show you I'd be lucky to break even. I was inspired by another thread on here of a chap with his delightful tales with an MG ZR and, seeing as I've become the household mechanic, I thought I'd take myself on a journey with something cheap, reliable and has enough jobs to take me far beyond my wits end.
First off, the car. It's an NA MX5. More specifically, this a Eunos Roadster. That means I get an AC button that obviously doesn't work, some chrome trim around the vents that do work, some special tinted blue glass that's more expensive to replace, and a Civic Type R branded steering wheel. Not sure that's factory. How many miles you ask? All of them. It's done every single mile on earth. 170,000 of them to be nearly precise. Is it in good nick? No. Is it road worthy? Not even close. Can I fix it? Who knows, this project is as much about me learning new stuff as it is getting this probably unworthy MX5 back on the road. Am I going to persevere? Abso-f'ing-lutely.
The myriad of pictures in the advert looked like this:
Those of you without cataracts will no doubt have spotted the reg plate (like you could miss it) already checked the MOT history to find it has expired. 6 years ago. At the last MOT, the vehicle appeared to have "some" rust but was structurally sound, after repairs. Being off the road for that length of time is better than 6 years through our lovely salted roads I'd wager but I haven't been able to look underneath due to the 'lowered' suspension. We'll cross that rust bridge when (if..) we get there. I was told by the seller that there was weldering needed and weldering is a skill I'd like to learn so big box ticked (although there is a terribly obvious weld mark in the bottom of the rear wing that the seller told me needed weldifying, I'll have to jab at it with a screwdriver. A red one should do).
You'll also notice 4 suspension units on the floor. Rest assured that there are 4 also attached to the car, 3 of which have broken springs (hence the 'lowered' suspension mentioned earlier). So eventually I'll get round to bolting those in, replacing and cleaning bits as I go. Speaking of replacing bits, this car came with a whole wing mirror attached to the passenger side, and a whole wing mirror on the.. parcel shelf?? thing behind the seats. There was a stub on the drivers door with some spherical blobs of rust that I assume were once screws. Can't wait to have a go at getting those out.
By some f*****g miracle the car actually starts on the button and runs sweetly. It has power steering (phowar!) and the ABS system is currently unknown, no idea how to work out if it has it or not. The headlights flip up and down by electricity and all work.
So I threw caution, logic, reasoning, rationale and sanity to the wind, handed over <1/2 a shed in Englandish rubles and got it moved to some temporary storage at a very good friends house while another car was sold to make some room. It was at this point, things took a turn for the worse. Some vandals had decided that this perfectly naff looking MX5 needed to look more naff and proceeded to leave me with the following:
This is where it was discovered that my glass is the Japanese tinted stuff that costs £Lots to replace. Terrific.
Anyway, enough waffle. The list of faults that I identified at purchase were as follows:
NS rear light has a tiny pin hole in it. (Fixed already, no pictures sorry! These also hold quite a shocking amount of water)
The key is singular and slightly bent (Fixed too, Timpsons supplied 2 keys for £18 while I waited. Bargain!)
The "Brake" light comes on when the car is on. No idea if it's meant to but there's some more on the brakes later.
Tyres were all totally fubar and held air for all of about 3 hours. There was enough crack on the sidewalls to please Amy Winehouse (£35 on ebay for 4 mismatched death wheels solved that, fitted for free too)
Wing mirror needed sorting
EPIC wiring catastrophes everywhere which I'll get more pictures of eventually
The roof is water tight but the OS catch is a bit loose. Should be easily adjustable.
Back window is made entirely out of fog, totally unusable. Might try polishing, might just leave it.
No documents of any description so thorough servicing will absolutely need doing.
Windows don't work
There's a f*****g van battery wired up in the boot. I say wired, chubby lee clips clamped around some copper pubes is a more accurate description.
Oh and there's no support rod for the bonnet, but that's ok because the hinges are stiff and keep the bonnet open at literally any angle. I may WD40 them and find a support, I might just leave it for ease.
The wheel nuts are all over the place and include 2 20mm's, a 21mm, a hand full of 19's and a drizzle of 18's. I have purchased some more.
Now comparatively safe and sound at my house, work can begin. I had to sneakily store it at the bottom of my road for a few days while I played Tetris with the vehicles. When I'd managed to win my game of vehicle Tetris and was ready to move the MX5, I decided to check if the seat was wet by rubbing my hand on it. This accomplished 2 things. It let me know the seat was dry and all the little glass shards from the windscreen were now in my hand. Some swearing happened. Then I had to move my car up the 5 or so houses from the sneaky hiding spot to my drive. The battery was just too much out of puff to start so I had to use another car to jump start it. This car then also died. So a 3rd car was brought in. Only problem with that was car #2 didn't have enough room either side to get jumped itself. Reverse car #3, move car #2 by hand, park car #3 next to it, jump car #2, use car #2 to start charging the MX5 battery while I used a pump to pump up tyres. Move MX5 up to my house. You'll note that it's very cold and very damp, also my windscreen doesn't facilitate being seen through it on the best day, let alone when it's all fogged up. This meant I had to have one hand on the wheel, one hand holding the roof open, peering through a small gap at the top of the windscreen. I did this VERY slowly.
The keen eyed among you will notice in the picture with my ex-windscreen that the previously broken quarter light is now made of gaffer tape. While I'm sure light weight gaffer tape windows are indeed the future, we're not quite there yet so a replacement has been sourced off everyone's favorite online junk-fest. A bit of Google-fu revealed a guide on how to replace this which seemed simple. Step one, put the relevant window down to half way. This is my first hurdle and I've not even started yet! I thought I'd go down the route of the cheapest fix first. Out came the screwdrivers, out came the centre console (missing screws sped this up) and out came the automatic window switch. Now, Google-fu had also shown me a guide on how to strip this unit down and clean all the contacts. The only issue was that nobody has a picture guide on how to strip down the automatic window switches, I could only find "manual" electric windows. Luck was on my side and my brain fired into action.
I unscrewed the 3 gold screws on the back, immediately got stuck for 20 minutes then used some Rolson hooks to gently ease off the switch caps and the circuit board came out no problem.
Inside I found a lot of muck, this was reassuring since there's no way I'd get any electrical contact with all this schmutz in there
So I set about cleaning it all off with some of Halfords' finest (cheapest) electrical contact uncrapper. Gratuitous photos:
Afterwards:
And after a good seeing to by the sink and a microfibre rag, ended up with this:
With absolute confidence, I threw it back into the car, turned the car to ignition and *drum roll* nothing. Not a bleedin' cheep out of the drivers side window. It was dark, I was despondent, I went inside for tea.
So what are the immediate future plans? Well here's another fabulous list:
Fit the wheel nuts. I'm sure this will take all my cunning.
Fit some actual battery clamps and change the main earth strap for a completely OTT one I have lying about.
Fit a new boot seal as everything is getting soaked (already bought, definitely need to fit)
Adjust the roof clamp for extra tightness.
Figure out the reason for the windows not working (suspect this is motors/cables. I'm not bothered if they work right now, I just need the quarter light fitting)
Fit the sponge rear lamp seals. Current ones are past best.
Chuck a few new interior bulbs in.
End result is get an MOT.
Other things to note are that the OSR caliper has been changed to a lovely silver looking unit. Only problem with that is that there's literally no brake pad on the outside and I'm sure that'll be the same on the inside. This means it's been using piston and caliper to stop on that corner, so I'll invariably need a new caliper there. I would normally go down the route of getting a rebuild kit but I think the outer part of the caliper has been grinding against the disk and will have worn away. I've ordered pads and disks all round, a timing belt kit (I've never done one and these are "safe" engines so much harder to break when I balls it up) and am in the process of looking for a pair of new wing mirrors.
I will take HUGE pride if I can get this back on the road. Years ago, I was getting into some mechanical stuff like this but hit a mental set back when a car caught fire on me. Rebuilding my confidence was tough and has genuinely taken years. I just hope you guys will enjoy reading my endless ramblings as much as I'll enjoy making a pigs arse out of this project!
More as this roller coaster unfolds ladies and gentlemen.
First off, the car. It's an NA MX5. More specifically, this a Eunos Roadster. That means I get an AC button that obviously doesn't work, some chrome trim around the vents that do work, some special tinted blue glass that's more expensive to replace, and a Civic Type R branded steering wheel. Not sure that's factory. How many miles you ask? All of them. It's done every single mile on earth. 170,000 of them to be nearly precise. Is it in good nick? No. Is it road worthy? Not even close. Can I fix it? Who knows, this project is as much about me learning new stuff as it is getting this probably unworthy MX5 back on the road. Am I going to persevere? Abso-f'ing-lutely.
The myriad of pictures in the advert looked like this:
Those of you without cataracts will no doubt have spotted the reg plate (like you could miss it) already checked the MOT history to find it has expired. 6 years ago. At the last MOT, the vehicle appeared to have "some" rust but was structurally sound, after repairs. Being off the road for that length of time is better than 6 years through our lovely salted roads I'd wager but I haven't been able to look underneath due to the 'lowered' suspension. We'll cross that rust bridge when (if..) we get there. I was told by the seller that there was weldering needed and weldering is a skill I'd like to learn so big box ticked (although there is a terribly obvious weld mark in the bottom of the rear wing that the seller told me needed weldifying, I'll have to jab at it with a screwdriver. A red one should do).
You'll also notice 4 suspension units on the floor. Rest assured that there are 4 also attached to the car, 3 of which have broken springs (hence the 'lowered' suspension mentioned earlier). So eventually I'll get round to bolting those in, replacing and cleaning bits as I go. Speaking of replacing bits, this car came with a whole wing mirror attached to the passenger side, and a whole wing mirror on the.. parcel shelf?? thing behind the seats. There was a stub on the drivers door with some spherical blobs of rust that I assume were once screws. Can't wait to have a go at getting those out.
By some f*****g miracle the car actually starts on the button and runs sweetly. It has power steering (phowar!) and the ABS system is currently unknown, no idea how to work out if it has it or not. The headlights flip up and down by electricity and all work.
So I threw caution, logic, reasoning, rationale and sanity to the wind, handed over <1/2 a shed in Englandish rubles and got it moved to some temporary storage at a very good friends house while another car was sold to make some room. It was at this point, things took a turn for the worse. Some vandals had decided that this perfectly naff looking MX5 needed to look more naff and proceeded to leave me with the following:
This is where it was discovered that my glass is the Japanese tinted stuff that costs £Lots to replace. Terrific.
Anyway, enough waffle. The list of faults that I identified at purchase were as follows:
NS rear light has a tiny pin hole in it. (Fixed already, no pictures sorry! These also hold quite a shocking amount of water)
The key is singular and slightly bent (Fixed too, Timpsons supplied 2 keys for £18 while I waited. Bargain!)
The "Brake" light comes on when the car is on. No idea if it's meant to but there's some more on the brakes later.
Tyres were all totally fubar and held air for all of about 3 hours. There was enough crack on the sidewalls to please Amy Winehouse (£35 on ebay for 4 mismatched death wheels solved that, fitted for free too)
Wing mirror needed sorting
EPIC wiring catastrophes everywhere which I'll get more pictures of eventually
The roof is water tight but the OS catch is a bit loose. Should be easily adjustable.
Back window is made entirely out of fog, totally unusable. Might try polishing, might just leave it.
No documents of any description so thorough servicing will absolutely need doing.
Windows don't work
There's a f*****g van battery wired up in the boot. I say wired, chubby lee clips clamped around some copper pubes is a more accurate description.
Oh and there's no support rod for the bonnet, but that's ok because the hinges are stiff and keep the bonnet open at literally any angle. I may WD40 them and find a support, I might just leave it for ease.
The wheel nuts are all over the place and include 2 20mm's, a 21mm, a hand full of 19's and a drizzle of 18's. I have purchased some more.
Now comparatively safe and sound at my house, work can begin. I had to sneakily store it at the bottom of my road for a few days while I played Tetris with the vehicles. When I'd managed to win my game of vehicle Tetris and was ready to move the MX5, I decided to check if the seat was wet by rubbing my hand on it. This accomplished 2 things. It let me know the seat was dry and all the little glass shards from the windscreen were now in my hand. Some swearing happened. Then I had to move my car up the 5 or so houses from the sneaky hiding spot to my drive. The battery was just too much out of puff to start so I had to use another car to jump start it. This car then also died. So a 3rd car was brought in. Only problem with that was car #2 didn't have enough room either side to get jumped itself. Reverse car #3, move car #2 by hand, park car #3 next to it, jump car #2, use car #2 to start charging the MX5 battery while I used a pump to pump up tyres. Move MX5 up to my house. You'll note that it's very cold and very damp, also my windscreen doesn't facilitate being seen through it on the best day, let alone when it's all fogged up. This meant I had to have one hand on the wheel, one hand holding the roof open, peering through a small gap at the top of the windscreen. I did this VERY slowly.
The keen eyed among you will notice in the picture with my ex-windscreen that the previously broken quarter light is now made of gaffer tape. While I'm sure light weight gaffer tape windows are indeed the future, we're not quite there yet so a replacement has been sourced off everyone's favorite online junk-fest. A bit of Google-fu revealed a guide on how to replace this which seemed simple. Step one, put the relevant window down to half way. This is my first hurdle and I've not even started yet! I thought I'd go down the route of the cheapest fix first. Out came the screwdrivers, out came the centre console (missing screws sped this up) and out came the automatic window switch. Now, Google-fu had also shown me a guide on how to strip this unit down and clean all the contacts. The only issue was that nobody has a picture guide on how to strip down the automatic window switches, I could only find "manual" electric windows. Luck was on my side and my brain fired into action.
I unscrewed the 3 gold screws on the back, immediately got stuck for 20 minutes then used some Rolson hooks to gently ease off the switch caps and the circuit board came out no problem.
Inside I found a lot of muck, this was reassuring since there's no way I'd get any electrical contact with all this schmutz in there
So I set about cleaning it all off with some of Halfords' finest (cheapest) electrical contact uncrapper. Gratuitous photos:
Afterwards:
And after a good seeing to by the sink and a microfibre rag, ended up with this:
With absolute confidence, I threw it back into the car, turned the car to ignition and *drum roll* nothing. Not a bleedin' cheep out of the drivers side window. It was dark, I was despondent, I went inside for tea.
So what are the immediate future plans? Well here's another fabulous list:
Fit the wheel nuts. I'm sure this will take all my cunning.
Fit some actual battery clamps and change the main earth strap for a completely OTT one I have lying about.
Fit a new boot seal as everything is getting soaked (already bought, definitely need to fit)
Adjust the roof clamp for extra tightness.
Figure out the reason for the windows not working (suspect this is motors/cables. I'm not bothered if they work right now, I just need the quarter light fitting)
Fit the sponge rear lamp seals. Current ones are past best.
Chuck a few new interior bulbs in.
End result is get an MOT.
Other things to note are that the OSR caliper has been changed to a lovely silver looking unit. Only problem with that is that there's literally no brake pad on the outside and I'm sure that'll be the same on the inside. This means it's been using piston and caliper to stop on that corner, so I'll invariably need a new caliper there. I would normally go down the route of getting a rebuild kit but I think the outer part of the caliper has been grinding against the disk and will have worn away. I've ordered pads and disks all round, a timing belt kit (I've never done one and these are "safe" engines so much harder to break when I balls it up) and am in the process of looking for a pair of new wing mirrors.
I will take HUGE pride if I can get this back on the road. Years ago, I was getting into some mechanical stuff like this but hit a mental set back when a car caught fire on me. Rebuilding my confidence was tough and has genuinely taken years. I just hope you guys will enjoy reading my endless ramblings as much as I'll enjoy making a pigs arse out of this project!
More as this roller coaster unfolds ladies and gentlemen.
Edited by RazerSauber on Thursday 21st May 15:21
Well work allowed me to have a day off and by some miracle it was dry so I decided it was best to try and tackle some jobs. Job one was the roof. the O/S clamp didn't seem to have much pull and there was definitely a gap letting water, flies, Brexit and other detritus in. I found a guide on the Internet which said to remove the clamp, pop off a bit of plastic and use a 10mm to adjust. Brilliant. This went as follows:
Took it off and found this, bugger. Doesn't seem to make much difference though.
Flipped this up
Wound it down, fitted it back. Wasn't good enough. It was then I learned you don't need to take it off and faff, you can do it while the clamp is in place. Great success. You can see in the following image where the water ingress stops. I was going to adjust the other side but it appears to be water tight so I left it be.
It was then I decided to fiddle further with the windows. I bridged some wires, twiddled some things and not a jot. It was then I figured out the battery was dead. That put paid to that for the time being while I put it on charge. What better time to tackle the quite poor wiring on the battery then! It had the factory end on the negative which is a bit old and a bit crusty. It wasn't blurry in real life, that's just my phone and I having a disagreement. I already had a new negative terminal so threw that on in place of this.
The red end, the other black wire, had a quite obviously broken connector with 2 black wires stuck together. This was held to the post with a crap jubilee clip. Words fail me
A Positive battery cable was duly installed but it didn't fit both cables. A bit of faff, some solder and a pair of water pump pliers later and I was left with this
Much better. It might not catch fire now.
The keen eyed will notice the boot seal is displaced there. I have another boot seal but can't see which was it goes round. The existing seal had a garden growing which had dislodged it somewhat. In a bout of optimism, I popped it up, gave it a good clean with some multi-purpose orange scented cleaner and I'll see how that gets on. An absolute tonne of crap was wiped away from the drainage channel so hopefully the water will now run away instead of building up and filling the swimming pool in the back.
More water was getting in through the foam gaskets that hold the rear lights in, I had already purchased some replacements so these were changed out, and not before time judging by the state of them. Literally disintegrated as I pulled them off!
While the socket set was out, I broke out the Snap Off bar to fit the new wheel nuts. The N/S is obscured by a bush so they can wait for another time but halfway through I'd got to this stage. Note the ridiculous number of sockets required..
At this point I was sick of "hard work" so decided to have a sit down. I can't put it off any longer, I set about tackling some wiring spaghetti. I'm no electrician but I can usually get a half decent job done. What happened here was a f*****g massacre. What I stupidly did was not take clear enough photos for me to do this properly. So I started with this
Created this (Why so much blue, Mazda???)
Then couldn't be arsed to do any more, so went for a carvery.
Never one to miss out on the chance to buy a new tool, I've ordered a power probe off eBay. Not entirely necessary but for the sake of £18 I can test circuits safely. The probe will cut power in the event of a short, not get hot and set me on fire like if I used a bit of wire. I'll order some heat shrink for the radio wiring while I think on.
Took it off and found this, bugger. Doesn't seem to make much difference though.
Flipped this up
Wound it down, fitted it back. Wasn't good enough. It was then I learned you don't need to take it off and faff, you can do it while the clamp is in place. Great success. You can see in the following image where the water ingress stops. I was going to adjust the other side but it appears to be water tight so I left it be.
It was then I decided to fiddle further with the windows. I bridged some wires, twiddled some things and not a jot. It was then I figured out the battery was dead. That put paid to that for the time being while I put it on charge. What better time to tackle the quite poor wiring on the battery then! It had the factory end on the negative which is a bit old and a bit crusty. It wasn't blurry in real life, that's just my phone and I having a disagreement. I already had a new negative terminal so threw that on in place of this.
The red end, the other black wire, had a quite obviously broken connector with 2 black wires stuck together. This was held to the post with a crap jubilee clip. Words fail me
A Positive battery cable was duly installed but it didn't fit both cables. A bit of faff, some solder and a pair of water pump pliers later and I was left with this
Much better. It might not catch fire now.
The keen eyed will notice the boot seal is displaced there. I have another boot seal but can't see which was it goes round. The existing seal had a garden growing which had dislodged it somewhat. In a bout of optimism, I popped it up, gave it a good clean with some multi-purpose orange scented cleaner and I'll see how that gets on. An absolute tonne of crap was wiped away from the drainage channel so hopefully the water will now run away instead of building up and filling the swimming pool in the back.
More water was getting in through the foam gaskets that hold the rear lights in, I had already purchased some replacements so these were changed out, and not before time judging by the state of them. Literally disintegrated as I pulled them off!
While the socket set was out, I broke out the Snap Off bar to fit the new wheel nuts. The N/S is obscured by a bush so they can wait for another time but halfway through I'd got to this stage. Note the ridiculous number of sockets required..
At this point I was sick of "hard work" so decided to have a sit down. I can't put it off any longer, I set about tackling some wiring spaghetti. I'm no electrician but I can usually get a half decent job done. What happened here was a f*****g massacre. What I stupidly did was not take clear enough photos for me to do this properly. So I started with this
Created this (Why so much blue, Mazda???)
Then couldn't be arsed to do any more, so went for a carvery.
Never one to miss out on the chance to buy a new tool, I've ordered a power probe off eBay. Not entirely necessary but for the sake of £18 I can test circuits safely. The probe will cut power in the event of a short, not get hot and set me on fire like if I used a bit of wire. I'll order some heat shrink for the radio wiring while I think on.
Edited by RazerSauber on Thursday 21st May 15:29
Three great German words (Schmutz, Sauber and now the best one, schadenfreude) have been seen in this thread, so obviously it’s a sign for me to comment.
I chuckled quite a lot through the first post. Bravo for taking on the project. Hopefully you get it MOT’d and back on the road. I can’t get my head around vandalism either; needless blight on society and will leave you hundreds (surely not thousands?) out of pocket. The car is in a lock-up now?
Would be interested to hear about your other cars/projects as well. Good luck with this one. Worth persevering with.
I chuckled quite a lot through the first post. Bravo for taking on the project. Hopefully you get it MOT’d and back on the road. I can’t get my head around vandalism either; needless blight on society and will leave you hundreds (surely not thousands?) out of pocket. The car is in a lock-up now?
Would be interested to hear about your other cars/projects as well. Good luck with this one. Worth persevering with.
Not much of an update because my other Mazda (My Mazda Mazda6), my Vauxhall Calibra, my mums cursed Mini and a Transit Van have proven to be something of a time sink and I had to go to the Christmas Markets to enjoy myself.
This thread will be bereft of many pictures I'm afraid.
Ignoring the MX5 for a minute, I dared to take my Calibra for an outing to stretch its legs. Winter and salty roads are coming so usage will be limited over the coming months. Now, it's not a popular car but there has been a recent spate of break ins near my house and I've decided to remove the gear stick to help prevent theft. Not Ideal I'm aware but it's free and literally takes about 10 seconds. Gaiter up, pop the pin out and it's away. Why am I rambling about this you ask? Well I got home and it was rather late and dark. I pulled out the gear stick to foil the local thieves and walked away. Realising I'd forgotten my phone, I lent over the drivers seat and dropped the pin straight into the valley and the shadow of death right between the passenger seat and centre console. I could see it, touched it with my fat fingers a few times and lost it in the seat runner. Great. Not wanting to faff at midnight with a socket set, I abandoned this until the morning. Morning came, socket set out, started looking for this blasted pin. Couldn't see it anywhere in the runner. I slid the seat forward and there was a scraping noise so I thought it must be in there. Happened to glance at the back of the seat and the pin is in the middle of the floor laughing at me. So there went 15 minutes of arsing about for no reason. This is the little blighter:
Perspective makes that ring finger look huuuuge! Anyway, onto the Transit Van. Needed a drop link N/S because the bottom end wasn't actually connected. I did Google Bluetooth drop links but Euro Car Parts only had steel ones. Anyway, 2 bolts, dead easy, job done. Not on your life. Top bolt flew out with only some strength required. The bottom bolt? Well I've spent 8 hours on it and the f*****g thing still won't budge so I popped to Screwfix to get myself a step drill bit and some HSS bits. This weekend is meant to be dry so fingers crossed I can win that war. I've had heat, angle grinders, dremels, crap drill bits, mole grips, water pump pliers, Rust eater, WD40, AC90, every conceivable type of socket I could find, 3 cups of tea and plenty of swearing on it and it's still stuck on tighter than a camel's arse in a sand storm. To top it off, drilling the bolt out with what I thought was a metal drill bit has ruptured the outer CV boot joint so there's another 2 hours of my weekend and a fiver disappearing (I did get to buy a 36mm socket though and hooray for new tools).
First MX5 news is that my newly adjusted roof clamps did sweet FA to the whole keeping dry inside situation. While the roof no longer leaks from that particular angle, it leaks from somewhere else. I appear to have rain falling from all over the inside of the roof, I suspect it's coming through the quite dated vynil somehow. I've purchased some cheap convertible roof sealer to see if I can make a difference.
I opened the roof to let some of the considerable condensation out, and threw away a quite battered wing mirror then came across the original back light/pond. Rather than simply close the roof a bit so it comes out easily, I just pulled it. Man knows best. Man accomplishes things with strength. Man f*****g punctured the back window.. I came over all crafty and made it totally and utterly water tight again with the professional solution of a bit of gaffer tape. Black, to match the paintwork and totally not because that happens to be the gaffer tape I have. Hey, it's not like I can see out of the back window anyway!
While on a gaffer tape craze, I noticed this absolutely-not-a-hole in the roof and decided to make it slightly less of an absolutely-not-a-hole. This was treated to gaffer tape inside and out for extra protection (I'm glad I did because the wind blew the top piece away the next day..). This was the drivers side, the passenger side hasn't worn through but there's a little bulge. I've thrown a piece of gaffer tape inside there too to stop rubbing while this roof is still on. I'm tempted to use a bit of dark grey silicone to add a bit more protection to this gap. I suspect the roof will be changed at some point anyway.
Only tiny but enough to let a fair chunk of water in. Seems to have done the trick so far, condensation appears to be reduced but I'm not convinced that's problem solved just yet.
Next: The wiring. My wiring table above might as well have been a map of the Tokyo Underground network for all the use it was. More Google-fu was deployed and I have since learned that Mazda seemed to use any colour of wire for any bloody purpose and most say that it's pretty much made up before 1996. So I soldered on the only wire I knew was right which was the earth cable. Typically, this didn't fit the heat shrink I bought so was taped up with some gaffer tape after soldering and, of course, burning myself. I'm going to have to trace wires from all over the car to find which goes where. I had considered just re-wiring the existing plugs on and getting some proper ISO adapter cables but so many of the wires are duplicate colour patterns that I don't know what goes where. Some have silver blobs on over the wire and tracer colour I think to help identify but some don't have enough cable from the connector to know if I'm dealing with a 1 or 2 blob wire.
Here's a slightly clearer view of the disaster that awaits me, you can see there's much more red and a few green wires that my above table doesn't really help me with and there's duplicates in colour on my wiring table too.
Wing mirror news! Since everyone on eBay has decided that Mk1 MX5 mirrors should cost as much as a 2 week all inclusive trip the the f*****g Moon, I resorted to some cheap chrome "racing" mirrors. £40 and apparently fit the Mk1. The brackets at the bottom are about twice as wide as the original units but a mirror is a mirror, certainly better than the current rusty spike. They're not the nicest quality in the world but I got the pair for £40 brand new with postage so I'm certainly not complaining. I did douse the rusty screws holding the current stumps to the car at the minute in XCP and dared to try and remove them, they turned rather easily which was a relief so these should slot on no problem. Might even treat it to some new screws if I have any of the right size.
That's all for now, a small update I know but just keeping this going. Assuming the Transit's welded drop link gives way over the weekend then more MX5 wiring shall be photographed. The biggest surprise for me was looking under this car. One of the tyres keeps going down and I don't have a tyre shop near me willing to take it on since the leak is between the tyre and the rim. This means it's up on an axle stand at the minute so I braved to look underneath. I was shocked. On first inspection, it was absolutely fine. Barely any surface rust to be seen. It was a quick glance but everything looked fine, if a little tatty. Who knows, maybe, just maybe, there's a bit of heart in the battered MX5 yet!
This thread will be bereft of many pictures I'm afraid.
Ignoring the MX5 for a minute, I dared to take my Calibra for an outing to stretch its legs. Winter and salty roads are coming so usage will be limited over the coming months. Now, it's not a popular car but there has been a recent spate of break ins near my house and I've decided to remove the gear stick to help prevent theft. Not Ideal I'm aware but it's free and literally takes about 10 seconds. Gaiter up, pop the pin out and it's away. Why am I rambling about this you ask? Well I got home and it was rather late and dark. I pulled out the gear stick to foil the local thieves and walked away. Realising I'd forgotten my phone, I lent over the drivers seat and dropped the pin straight into the valley and the shadow of death right between the passenger seat and centre console. I could see it, touched it with my fat fingers a few times and lost it in the seat runner. Great. Not wanting to faff at midnight with a socket set, I abandoned this until the morning. Morning came, socket set out, started looking for this blasted pin. Couldn't see it anywhere in the runner. I slid the seat forward and there was a scraping noise so I thought it must be in there. Happened to glance at the back of the seat and the pin is in the middle of the floor laughing at me. So there went 15 minutes of arsing about for no reason. This is the little blighter:
Perspective makes that ring finger look huuuuge! Anyway, onto the Transit Van. Needed a drop link N/S because the bottom end wasn't actually connected. I did Google Bluetooth drop links but Euro Car Parts only had steel ones. Anyway, 2 bolts, dead easy, job done. Not on your life. Top bolt flew out with only some strength required. The bottom bolt? Well I've spent 8 hours on it and the f*****g thing still won't budge so I popped to Screwfix to get myself a step drill bit and some HSS bits. This weekend is meant to be dry so fingers crossed I can win that war. I've had heat, angle grinders, dremels, crap drill bits, mole grips, water pump pliers, Rust eater, WD40, AC90, every conceivable type of socket I could find, 3 cups of tea and plenty of swearing on it and it's still stuck on tighter than a camel's arse in a sand storm. To top it off, drilling the bolt out with what I thought was a metal drill bit has ruptured the outer CV boot joint so there's another 2 hours of my weekend and a fiver disappearing (I did get to buy a 36mm socket though and hooray for new tools).
First MX5 news is that my newly adjusted roof clamps did sweet FA to the whole keeping dry inside situation. While the roof no longer leaks from that particular angle, it leaks from somewhere else. I appear to have rain falling from all over the inside of the roof, I suspect it's coming through the quite dated vynil somehow. I've purchased some cheap convertible roof sealer to see if I can make a difference.
I opened the roof to let some of the considerable condensation out, and threw away a quite battered wing mirror then came across the original back light/pond. Rather than simply close the roof a bit so it comes out easily, I just pulled it. Man knows best. Man accomplishes things with strength. Man f*****g punctured the back window.. I came over all crafty and made it totally and utterly water tight again with the professional solution of a bit of gaffer tape. Black, to match the paintwork and totally not because that happens to be the gaffer tape I have. Hey, it's not like I can see out of the back window anyway!
While on a gaffer tape craze, I noticed this absolutely-not-a-hole in the roof and decided to make it slightly less of an absolutely-not-a-hole. This was treated to gaffer tape inside and out for extra protection (I'm glad I did because the wind blew the top piece away the next day..). This was the drivers side, the passenger side hasn't worn through but there's a little bulge. I've thrown a piece of gaffer tape inside there too to stop rubbing while this roof is still on. I'm tempted to use a bit of dark grey silicone to add a bit more protection to this gap. I suspect the roof will be changed at some point anyway.
Only tiny but enough to let a fair chunk of water in. Seems to have done the trick so far, condensation appears to be reduced but I'm not convinced that's problem solved just yet.
Next: The wiring. My wiring table above might as well have been a map of the Tokyo Underground network for all the use it was. More Google-fu was deployed and I have since learned that Mazda seemed to use any colour of wire for any bloody purpose and most say that it's pretty much made up before 1996. So I soldered on the only wire I knew was right which was the earth cable. Typically, this didn't fit the heat shrink I bought so was taped up with some gaffer tape after soldering and, of course, burning myself. I'm going to have to trace wires from all over the car to find which goes where. I had considered just re-wiring the existing plugs on and getting some proper ISO adapter cables but so many of the wires are duplicate colour patterns that I don't know what goes where. Some have silver blobs on over the wire and tracer colour I think to help identify but some don't have enough cable from the connector to know if I'm dealing with a 1 or 2 blob wire.
Here's a slightly clearer view of the disaster that awaits me, you can see there's much more red and a few green wires that my above table doesn't really help me with and there's duplicates in colour on my wiring table too.
Wing mirror news! Since everyone on eBay has decided that Mk1 MX5 mirrors should cost as much as a 2 week all inclusive trip the the f*****g Moon, I resorted to some cheap chrome "racing" mirrors. £40 and apparently fit the Mk1. The brackets at the bottom are about twice as wide as the original units but a mirror is a mirror, certainly better than the current rusty spike. They're not the nicest quality in the world but I got the pair for £40 brand new with postage so I'm certainly not complaining. I did douse the rusty screws holding the current stumps to the car at the minute in XCP and dared to try and remove them, they turned rather easily which was a relief so these should slot on no problem. Might even treat it to some new screws if I have any of the right size.
That's all for now, a small update I know but just keeping this going. Assuming the Transit's welded drop link gives way over the weekend then more MX5 wiring shall be photographed. The biggest surprise for me was looking under this car. One of the tyres keeps going down and I don't have a tyre shop near me willing to take it on since the leak is between the tyre and the rim. This means it's up on an axle stand at the minute so I braved to look underneath. I was shocked. On first inspection, it was absolutely fine. Barely any surface rust to be seen. It was a quick glance but everything looked fine, if a little tatty. Who knows, maybe, just maybe, there's a bit of heart in the battered MX5 yet!
Edited by RazerSauber on Thursday 21st May 15:32
In order to keep this thread updated for both the interested parties, I have an update.
This had been on the back burner for a short time but parts have arrived for fitting so hopefully progress will resume shortly. Every other car I've had has been throwing bits out for fun, I've had some personal losses, some minor health issues and few dry weekends to get some bits done but enough about humans, cars are the order of the day!
Today started with a bout of optimism and, after picking a Christmas tree, I grabbed the circuit tester, headed outside and opened the lair.
Then it started raining so I closed the lair.
More coming, I promise!
This had been on the back burner for a short time but parts have arrived for fitting so hopefully progress will resume shortly. Every other car I've had has been throwing bits out for fun, I've had some personal losses, some minor health issues and few dry weekends to get some bits done but enough about humans, cars are the order of the day!
Today started with a bout of optimism and, after picking a Christmas tree, I grabbed the circuit tester, headed outside and opened the lair.
Then it started raining so I closed the lair.
More coming, I promise!
Edited by RazerSauber on Thursday 21st May 15:33
More work which involved actual tools and an element of skill!
A dry day with nothing to do lead to some time spent with the ailing MX5. The battery has been on charge for about a month now so should be full of juice (This will come in useful for the electric windows later). The roof is still more water resistant than water proof and I really need to get the sealant stuff I have on there. The OSF wheel still goes flat so it's on an axle stand until I can find a garage to put on a dab of sealer on it. I still haven't got round to the wheel nuts on the N/S due to the plant thing in my garden being in the way, although a reciprocating saw is destined to solve that.
Anyway, onto things I have (half) done. The box containing my wing mirrors was taking up valuable space for me to put christmas presents so I grabbed the nearest phillips screwdriver I could find, Snap-On for all those interested, and set at it.
I started with this:
This is more useful at snagging clothes and giving people tetanus than it is reflecting the losing vehicles behind me (although this is the 1.6 so I'm only expecting to see bicycles, old ladies and racing grade tea-trays in them!).
I knew the offside mirror screws were made 100% of rust but they did move the last time I tried so I was confident. Sure enough, my Snap-On managed to not Round-Off the screws and the door snagger was freed. Mmmmmm, stuff.
So I set about cleaning it up using specially designed knackered Japanese paint / kitchen cleaner which revealed some black paint underneath. I know, I couldn't believe it either. This did clean off nice and easy, there wasn't any rust underneath either which was good to see.
And before you all mention it, yes, they are purple slippers and a dressing gown. Healthy and safety approved, I assure you. Now, to reinstall I thought I'd go along the lines of refreshing the screws on the car to the ones helpfully supplied with the mirrors. Unhelpfully, these appear to be generic mirrors and the screws couldn't be a worse match if they'd tried.
So they were neither use nor ornament. Back to the original ones it is. These had about as much crust as a pizzeria so were treated to the worlds least useful drill and a wire brush of unknown origin. They started out like this:
And ended up much cleaner. You'll have to believe me they they ended up slightly better than this and screwed in much smoother than the graunchy feel taking them out. I'd have taken photographs but clearly I have forgotten. The kit came with a rubber gasket and a metal bar screwed into the base of the mirror arm. This just appeared to clip onto the plastic/rubber gasket thing. This seemed like a terrible idea and getting over the several speed mountains to get out of my estate would result in floor mounted mirrors. Fortunately, the brain kicked in once again and I was able to unscrew the metal bar from the mirror arm (1 screw forcheapness efficiency) and put the original mounting screws through the metal bar, rubber gasket and into the door. Great success. The mirror managed to not fall off and I can confirm at the time of writing that it is still attached. It looks like this:
Spurred on by some still dry weather and the good feeling of not doing something wrong, I proceeded to the other side. When I bought the car, there was a mirror attached to the other side. This was swiftly removed by some little scrotes foot at the same time they made an air gap in the driver's side quarter light. This one had a protective cap on it to stop rain and other guff from the environment getting in. Despite not having much access, I popped the plastic cover off and tried a screw. It immediately rounded off. I mean immediately, no effort, like it was made out of chalk. So the impact driver and Chinese screw extractor will have to pay a visit to that. I've had 100% success with it so far (out of one use but that's by-the-by!) so I'm hopeful it shouldn't struggle with this much. Some use the plastic shield was. Because the screw is now more of a threaded rivet than an actual screw, I ordered some shiny replacement fellas off MX5 parts which are due to arrive at some point in the near future. That's another £5 on the imaginary budget that I don't have. They look shiny like this:
I'm sure they'll look lovely for 2 weeks until rust gets hold of them. That being said, getting the link for that picture put me back on the web page and it said they're stainless steel so they might not rust. For 3 weeks.
After reflecting (sorry) on my good work completing half a job on the mirrors, I thought I'd have a crack (Sorry.. again) at trying to sort out my broken window. I grabbed the van battery that it came with and put my circuit tester on it. I found a totally different wiring diagram to the one I tried previously when trying to jump it with bits of wire so I tried a bit of red to red, black to black and blue to bits (I'm not sorry, that joke is hilarious). I managed to accidentally my way to getting the passenger window to respond the same way it does with the switch. It doesn't work but it at least tries. I whipped of a surprisingly soggy door card on the drivers side and started jabbing at connectors there. There's a box of tricks down there that never seems to get mentioned on videos and guides but it has wiring connectors so it passed the "Is it jababble with my pointy electric stick" test and I jabbed at it. I heard a click! A whole click! I was excited. The window didn't move but I heard a click so that's a start. This means 2 things: I think I have a break in a wire between the centre console and the door and the motor is definitely fubar. When using the switch, there's absolutely nothing from the driver's door motor. No click, no activity, nothing. I also can't seem to get a circuit from any part of the door to the body of the car. I might need to go earth hunting (electrical earth, not the planet) and redeploy the tag team of the world's most useless drill and the wire brush of unknown origin. If that's too big like I suspect then I might have to use the smaller knock off Dremel of self duplication (Seriously, I have 2 of these and only ever remember purchasing one). I will also try to remember to take photos.
Upon my removal of the soggy door card, I have noticed there's a speaker upgrade. That's lovely. No idea if they're any good or not but they have some manner of generic name I can't remember. I think they're called Revolution or something. There was then the obligatory crap connection to the tweeter which has different wires either side of the rubbish looking crimp connectors. Weirdly, the crimps are about 6 inches of wiring away from the standard tweeter connector so I'm not sure why these wires have been changed. If it's anything like the spaghetti of the radio wiring then I think I'll cry.
More pictures, failure, accidental success and sarcasm to come boys and girls.
A dry day with nothing to do lead to some time spent with the ailing MX5. The battery has been on charge for about a month now so should be full of juice (This will come in useful for the electric windows later). The roof is still more water resistant than water proof and I really need to get the sealant stuff I have on there. The OSF wheel still goes flat so it's on an axle stand until I can find a garage to put on a dab of sealer on it. I still haven't got round to the wheel nuts on the N/S due to the plant thing in my garden being in the way, although a reciprocating saw is destined to solve that.
Anyway, onto things I have (half) done. The box containing my wing mirrors was taking up valuable space for me to put christmas presents so I grabbed the nearest phillips screwdriver I could find, Snap-On for all those interested, and set at it.
I started with this:
This is more useful at snagging clothes and giving people tetanus than it is reflecting the losing vehicles behind me (although this is the 1.6 so I'm only expecting to see bicycles, old ladies and racing grade tea-trays in them!).
I knew the offside mirror screws were made 100% of rust but they did move the last time I tried so I was confident. Sure enough, my Snap-On managed to not Round-Off the screws and the door snagger was freed. Mmmmmm, stuff.
So I set about cleaning it up using specially designed knackered Japanese paint / kitchen cleaner which revealed some black paint underneath. I know, I couldn't believe it either. This did clean off nice and easy, there wasn't any rust underneath either which was good to see.
And before you all mention it, yes, they are purple slippers and a dressing gown. Healthy and safety approved, I assure you. Now, to reinstall I thought I'd go along the lines of refreshing the screws on the car to the ones helpfully supplied with the mirrors. Unhelpfully, these appear to be generic mirrors and the screws couldn't be a worse match if they'd tried.
So they were neither use nor ornament. Back to the original ones it is. These had about as much crust as a pizzeria so were treated to the worlds least useful drill and a wire brush of unknown origin. They started out like this:
And ended up much cleaner. You'll have to believe me they they ended up slightly better than this and screwed in much smoother than the graunchy feel taking them out. I'd have taken photographs but clearly I have forgotten. The kit came with a rubber gasket and a metal bar screwed into the base of the mirror arm. This just appeared to clip onto the plastic/rubber gasket thing. This seemed like a terrible idea and getting over the several speed mountains to get out of my estate would result in floor mounted mirrors. Fortunately, the brain kicked in once again and I was able to unscrew the metal bar from the mirror arm (1 screw for
Spurred on by some still dry weather and the good feeling of not doing something wrong, I proceeded to the other side. When I bought the car, there was a mirror attached to the other side. This was swiftly removed by some little scrotes foot at the same time they made an air gap in the driver's side quarter light. This one had a protective cap on it to stop rain and other guff from the environment getting in. Despite not having much access, I popped the plastic cover off and tried a screw. It immediately rounded off. I mean immediately, no effort, like it was made out of chalk. So the impact driver and Chinese screw extractor will have to pay a visit to that. I've had 100% success with it so far (out of one use but that's by-the-by!) so I'm hopeful it shouldn't struggle with this much. Some use the plastic shield was. Because the screw is now more of a threaded rivet than an actual screw, I ordered some shiny replacement fellas off MX5 parts which are due to arrive at some point in the near future. That's another £5 on the imaginary budget that I don't have. They look shiny like this:
I'm sure they'll look lovely for 2 weeks until rust gets hold of them. That being said, getting the link for that picture put me back on the web page and it said they're stainless steel so they might not rust. For 3 weeks.
After reflecting (sorry) on my good work completing half a job on the mirrors, I thought I'd have a crack (Sorry.. again) at trying to sort out my broken window. I grabbed the van battery that it came with and put my circuit tester on it. I found a totally different wiring diagram to the one I tried previously when trying to jump it with bits of wire so I tried a bit of red to red, black to black and blue to bits (I'm not sorry, that joke is hilarious). I managed to accidentally my way to getting the passenger window to respond the same way it does with the switch. It doesn't work but it at least tries. I whipped of a surprisingly soggy door card on the drivers side and started jabbing at connectors there. There's a box of tricks down there that never seems to get mentioned on videos and guides but it has wiring connectors so it passed the "Is it jababble with my pointy electric stick" test and I jabbed at it. I heard a click! A whole click! I was excited. The window didn't move but I heard a click so that's a start. This means 2 things: I think I have a break in a wire between the centre console and the door and the motor is definitely fubar. When using the switch, there's absolutely nothing from the driver's door motor. No click, no activity, nothing. I also can't seem to get a circuit from any part of the door to the body of the car. I might need to go earth hunting (electrical earth, not the planet) and redeploy the tag team of the world's most useless drill and the wire brush of unknown origin. If that's too big like I suspect then I might have to use the smaller knock off Dremel of self duplication (Seriously, I have 2 of these and only ever remember purchasing one). I will also try to remember to take photos.
Upon my removal of the soggy door card, I have noticed there's a speaker upgrade. That's lovely. No idea if they're any good or not but they have some manner of generic name I can't remember. I think they're called Revolution or something. There was then the obligatory crap connection to the tweeter which has different wires either side of the rubbish looking crimp connectors. Weirdly, the crimps are about 6 inches of wiring away from the standard tweeter connector so I'm not sure why these wires have been changed. If it's anything like the spaghetti of the radio wiring then I think I'll cry.
More pictures, failure, accidental success and sarcasm to come boys and girls.
Edited by RazerSauber on Thursday 21st May 15:47
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