Wish List

One of the most dangerous things about owning a car of this age (or vintage, if you prefer), is that they can suck a lot of money out of your pocket.  There are many other people out there with the same car, who have done modifications to make their car unique.  There are some really goofy looking cars out there, where people have taken it a bit too far, and there are some example that really do well to show how great their cars can be.
One of the cars I look at and I'm really impressed with is Hakuna's Miata.  The mods to this car include a turbo, and some nice subtle body work.  In America, it does seem to be a lot about more power, which I certainly don't have a problem with!
When I look at some of the cars in the MX 5 Owner's Club Website, I can see some really nice work as well.  There are some people out there that really take pride in their cars, and it shows!
I have always been one to tinker with my cars.  I think there is always room for some customisation.  I'm not saying the manufacturers have done a bad job, I just like to make my cars my own!
It started with my first car, a 1983 Toyota Celica hatchback.  I don't have any pictures of it, but it was a bucket of bolts if there ever was one!  I painted the wheels, tinted the windows, painted the carpets, and added some huge subwoofers with lots of amplifiers.  Hey, I was just a kid...
My first real stint of modding cars was my 1995 Plymouth Neon Sport Coupe.  This was the first car I had and had money in my pocket, so it received heaps of mods. Stereo, interior, lighting, engine, paint, exhaust - nothing was left untouched.  It even had purple neon lights lighting up the underbody.  Oh, the shame....
Hugo represents something a bit different.  I want the car to be something special, something unique, but not so outrageous to attract too much unwanted attention.  It's more about enjoying the drive with the top down!

Having said that, there are some things I would like to do to the car that will (I think) make it comfortable to drive, fast to drive, and pleasing to the eye:

Stainless Steel exhaust:

It looks so shiny!  I don't know how much performance is enhanced by something like this, but I'm sure it will flow even better than the factory exhaust.  Many people miss the point that if you modify your engine to intake more air (a very common mod), you have to allow for more air to leave the engine.  A big bore silencer isn't going to do it, really, is it?  There are still lots of restrictions before the exhaust gas reaches the silencer.

Front Upper Strut Brace:

Not my engine - it sure is beautiful, isn't it!

The car is 20 years old.  It's showing signs of aging.  One of the things it does is creak and groan when ever I go over an uneven bump.  I'm hoping a brace would get rid of this.  I'm sure there is some value to adding these, but there is a lot of debate as to whether they really do improve handling on the street or on the track.  It looks nice, but that's not what it is about for me - I want the groaning to stop!

Polyurethane Bushing Set
I don't have a picture.  As a car gets old, the original rubber bushings get worn, and the suspension gets sloppy.  This happens to all cars, but I find it more noticeable in cars that are designed to handle.  I drove a Miata in Canada (a 1990 with a manual gearbox) in 1995, and the handling was brilliant.  I'm sure the relative newness of the suspension components made a big difference to this.
They aren't easy to replace; it's a fairly involved job that involves removing the upper A arms and other bits, but I know it will make a big difference in the responsiveness of my car.


Clear Side Marker Reflectors:

How sweet is this car!

Just a detail in the looks, but I think have quite an impact.  Plus the existing ones have are dirty and worn...

I would also like a wind deflector - I'm told they make a huge difference in motorway driving.  Something my wife is especially keen on...

Polish and Shine

I thought I'd take some time to do a bit of work on the paint.  Most MX-5's of this age are susceptible to paint fade - the factory red paint in particular.  A pink Eunos isn't that rare...
The paint on Hugo is in bad shape, with severe fading on the top on the rear wing, the rear number plate frame, the root lid and both the bumpers.
I tried taking some pictures, but they don't really show the difference in colours.

Looking over the bonnet, just after a quick wash.  The spots are water spots after the washing.

The front right wing is on the left, the edge of the bonnet is on the right.  The bonnet is heavily faded.

After the quick wash, I chamoised each body panel.  I used a fine surface detailing clay bar, one panel at a time.   The clay bar works to remove all the fallout found on the paint - all the crud that builds up in the paint over time.  I used a spray bottle filled with water and a bit of soap to soak each panel.  Rubbing the clay into the paint was straightforward, but the visual difference wasn't noticeable.  However, the surface was very smooth to the touch, and the clay bar turned from bright green to almost brown - there was a lot of dirt in the paint!
The paint was ready for treatment.
I used some T-Cut red colored compound.  This leaves some red dye in the paint, returning it to the original red.  You have to be very careful with how it dries, though.  I made the mistake of applying the T-Cut to the entire car, and then went around to buff it off.  The T-Cut dried unevenly - there were some very noticeable swirl marks I couldn't buff out.  After removing as much of the haze as possible, I went back around the car and quickly added more T-Cut to the swirly areas and right away buffed the haze off.  This made the paint far more uniform.
Immediately after re-buffing the paint, I applied some two-part paint sealant to lock in the T-Cut and keep if from fading again.

The sealant is applied directly on top of the pre-sealant.  The pre-sealant is a liquid that bonds with the sealant, creating a polymer coating.  I am told this is a very durable finish.  I haven't used it before, so I will report back on how long it lasts.

The T-Cut is applied and about to be buffed out.

The sealant has been added, and after 15 minutes, is ready to be buffed.

The haze from the polymer coating come off very easily, and left behind an amazing shine.  The paint looks very good for it's condition.  There are a lot of marks in the paint - it is twenty years old.  The polish has really highlighted the problems.  The boot lid is heavily scratched, and there are a large numbers of stone chips and nicks in the paint.  The bumpers wouldn't come up very well.  They are shiny, but the color doesn't quite match.

The deep scratches in the boot lid are visible here.

The license panel is also heavily faded, but has come back.  The bumper is a bit pink for my taste.

Here you can see where the T-Cut has been 'oversprayed' on the black trim.  This was fixed by using some black trim restorer.  And the mx5oc membership sticker!

 I did some more tidying up under the bonnet.  I wiped the black parts down and removed some of the oil gum built up on the power steering pump and the cam belt dust cover.  I dusted off the washer fluid bottle and the overflow bottle.  I also touched up the black trim around the headlights and the rubber seals.

I am pleased with the results of the detailing.  There is still a long way to go - a lot of details to go through.  The interior was a bit dusty, so I got that wiped down, but I didn't hoover, or polishing the glass.
After doing all this, I found a bottle of aluminium polish, so I might give the valve cover a go with it, and the MAF sensor.
There is also all the details around the lights and reflectors; there is always wax getting stuck in the raised letters in the plastic.  The wheels also haven't been touched, but they are a dirty job and I'll wait until I can take one off and really scrub it down.
It has also highlighted the badges.  They are quite old, and are corroding on the inside.  The badge on the front bumper and on the wheel center caps will need replacing soon - not a high priority though!
The next big job will be to install new front and rear brakes.  Looking forward to that!

Working Under the Bonnet

It's been a while since I've been able to do some work on the car, but I got to do a bit of stuff this weekend.
I started with an engine dress up kit - basically a bunch of bolts in plastic bags.  It's easy to do, its just a matter of removing the old bolt a putting a new one in it's place.  Here it is as I got started.

I replaced the bolts on the washer pump, the fuse box mount, and various other things.

The factory bolts have rubber grommets around them to reduce vibration.  The new bolts fit in them, but it was very easy to overtighten them.

New air box bolts

I really hate the way the factory paint flakes off...

The metal mount for the sensors is in bad shape - may need some paint touch-up!

New cam bearing cover bolts

new cam belt dust cover bolts

New overflow tank bolts (not very noticable....)

 While trying to remove the bolts on the top of the radiator, one of them broke off.  I pulled to clip out and with some vise-grips got the broken bolt out. 

 That's better!

 I replaced the thermostat housing bolts as well.  No leaks!

 Here is a before picture of the throttle cable bolts before replacement, followed by the after picture.  Not hugely dramatic differences, but noticeable.

The upshot is that now I know these bolts will be easy to remove in 10 years...

After this, I thought it was time to upgrade the air filter.  Here is the original air filter housing and MAF sensor.  You can see the plastic hose where the cold air comes in.  The inlet is found at the bottom of the picture.  The MAF sensor was repaired by the previous owner, and was gummed up with some gasket sealant.  It looks goofy, and one day I will fix it...

 Taking the filter and MAF sensor and air filter box was simple - only a few bolts.  There was a bracket mounted to the frame use to hold up one corner of the air filter box, which I removed.  There was only one electrical plug to undo.  Here it is with all the bit removed.

 I took the MAF sensor and cleaned it up.  It's unpolished aluminium, so I couldn't get it perfect with the tools I've got.  It cleaned up okay, but its not shiny.  Yet.  Here it is with the bracket that came with the air filter kit.

 After a trial fitting of the filter with the MAF sensor, I found the bits aren't physically supported; the bits just kind of hung there.  I was afraid that the filter might knock loose and sit against the exhaust heat shield - that would be bad, I don't fancy the smell of melting air filter.  After humming and hawing about it, I took the lower bracket that I had removed, and attached it to a higher - mounted bolt hole.  It didn't fit as the existing hole in the bracket was too small for the bolt.  I dremmel-tooled the hole large enough to slide the bolt through.  I realised I had new replacement bolts for this, so a shiny new bolt is in it's place.

 Now the air filter fits and doesn't wiggle around.  After I took the photo, I plugged in the electrical connection for the sensor, and this serves to hold it all in place as well.  I think it looks it cool, but I don't know how effective it really is.

 The box the filter came in says it's good for 5-10 HP, but I find that quite dubious.

 I replaced the high tension leads as well, with some Lucas branded leads.  I think the leads in place were original; they were in pretty rough shape.  There was some misfiring on cold starts.  The spark plugs looked not too bad, but there was some carbon build up.
Installing the plugs was a bit difficult - surprisingly so!  It was easy to get them out, but when the new ones went in I kept loosing the spark plug socket in the hole...
I think there was something wonky inside the spark plug hole, because it was difficult getting the lead to slip onto the plug itself.  Only after wiggling the spark plug around and pulling it out and reinstalling it a few times could I get the thing to fit.
I took the opportunity to scrub some of the crud off the valve cover.  There was some build up of oil in the center section which came off easy.  I used some metal polish and tidied it up a bit more.  It could still use some more polishing, its not anywhere near what I'd like it to be.

 Try to ignore the big blobs of polish all over the HT leads and just about everything else around it...

 I removed the exhaust heat shield to see how good it could scrub up.  It is heavily rusted on the top surface, and the lower edges closest to the flange.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that the 1.6l comes with a 'header' style exhaust manifold.  These breathe so much better than most manufacturer's original exhausts.  It looks like it could use some sanding down and polishing, eh?

 With the air intake so close to the hot exhaust, there is no point in running without the shield.

I used some 120 grit sandpaper, followed by some 80 grit.  The heat shield was quite heavily pitted with the rust, so even with a lot of elbow grease, it wasn't going to come up perfect.

I put it back on, and this is the end result.  This will help keep the really hot air from reaching the cold air intake, but it still going to bake in there.  I think some header tape will be in order.  But that's for another day.

Chips and Chocolate run

On Sunday, the SE members of the MX5 Owners Club held a run from Hop Farm to Camber Sands via the Maidstone services.  Up at 7, gave the car a quick wash, and toped up the petrol.  We went to meet everyone at Maidstone services; we were a bit early, but we met some new members, Carol and Adrian.  They have an L-Reg Eunos in red, very similar to Hugo.  Theirs had the manual gearbox, a spoiler on the boot lid, and the all-important wind blocker!

When the convoy arrived from Hop Farm, we had a few minutes together to catch up with everyone, and grab a cold drink.  The weather was amazing; we all had the top down and sunscreen use was liberal!

That's Hugo in the front!

We left for Camber Sands, and enjoyed a nice drive down the motorway.  We were in the middle of a convoy of about 9 cars, and everyone in the group was very courteous and we never went over 65mph – very relaxed, and we got a lot of thumbs up from admirers – mostly people wishing they could put their hood down, I imagine!

We arrived at the beach, parked up amongst other 5’s, and headed to the sand.  What a perfect day.

We ended up staying with Rob and Louise until nearly 6pm; we had a good time chatting and discussing all things Mazda.

We went our separate ways; the drive back to London was fresh, fast, traffic free, and took us down some beautiful roads.  Really made us question our decision to live in the city!  All in all, it was a great day out, and Hugo got to breathe a bit, so he was happy!

Amp and Dashboard Tweeter Installation

Over the weekend, I had the chance to do some work on Hugo.  There were three things I wanted to accomplish, and I got halfway there.

First, I went to install an amplifier for the stereo.  Anyone who has driven with the top down knows how hard it is to hear music at speed, so I purchased an Alpine amp.  It’s not big or fancy, just a little two-channel 50W job, but I figured it would give a cleaner signal to the speakers.

I spent about 20 minutes trying to find a place to put the amp – these cars are tight!  The amp wouldn’t fit under the seat or behind the seat, so it had to go in the boot.  The best place I could find for it was attached to the false floor above the jack. (Apologies for crap photo quality - I had to use my phone's camera)

I screwed the amp into place, and then ran the speaker wires from the amp with the RCA leads and the remote turn on lead in behind the driver’s seat.  There was a small crack through to the main cabin, so I was very lucky I didn’t have to drill any holes.

After feeding the cables through, I mounted the ground cable.  I drilled a small hole in the body, hidden under the carpet.  A self-tapping screw held it in place.

Then I ran the power cable to the battery, which is of course in the boot!  This made for a very simple connection.

I had purchased an amp wiring kit, and it came with the RCA cable, the ground cable, the power cable, and some plastic tubing fro hiding the wiring.  After running the power wire to the battery (but not connecting it yet!) I used the tubing to hide the wires.  The previous owner had an alarm/immobiliser installed, and the wires were dangling loose, so I tidied them up at the same time.

Next came the connection to the stereo.

I removed the middle armrest/gear lever cover, and then the center console.  This exposed a real mess of wires from the previous installer!

The head unit is a Clarion CD player with a detachable face.  It has three sets of RCA outputs, but they never bothered to label them…I did some exhaustive research on the internet to try and find out which one was the front set, but couldn’t find anything.  I figured I’d just have to try each one.

I don’t really care for the Clarion head unit.  The buttons feel cheap, and the menus aren’t very intuitive.  I purchased a used Alpine CD player, but after testing it before installing, I discovered it didn’t load CD’s.  Not very useful.  It also had the Japanese antenna connection, but the car has the standard connection, so I wouldn’t even get to use the radio.  I put the Alpine off to the side to see if I could repair later.

I checked the factory speaker wiring, and it was a mess.  It took me ages to trace the wires back.  I had a wiring diagram for the original connection, but they didn’t match what I had.  It was rather frustrating tying random wires together to see if I could get a signal!  I also installed some 1 inch tweeters in the factory holes in the dash for the outer vents.  I had to pull out the eyeballs and wedge the tweeters in, but I figured this was the least invasive way of installing – no cutting or smashing!  It doesn’t look perfect, but it does the job for now.

Eventually, I found the right combination for the wiring.  I turned the key, turned on the radio, and yay it works!

I had already replaced the factory (!) speakers with Pioneer 6.5” whizzers in the doors.  They aren’t brilliant, but they do the job.  I tested it out in the car park, and it sounded quite good.  The highs from the dash tweeters are a bit harsh and blurry, so they will need to be replaced.  The amp does give a cleaner signal, and the music is much louder (with no real distortion).  I had to wait a day to try it out on the road, to see if it was any better at speed.

After I did all that, I thought I’d have a go at installing a push button starter kit.  I removed the cover from under the steering column, and peeked up inside.  It’s a real contortionist’s job getting in there, that’s for sure.

The cigarette lighter was removed, and the female part of the plug was hard wired into the adapter for my GPS.  No more wires hanging all over the dash when using it, like in the picture above.  The chrome metal switch that came with the kit was put into the hole in the dash.  It wasn’t easy, as I had no washer large enough to hold the switch from behind.  I got out my rotary tool and carved some thick plastic into shape – did the trick!

The switch connects to a relay that handles the current for the starter.  I ran the ground wire and the switch wire, but I couldn’t figure out which was the starter wire.  At one point in my hack job, I could start the car with the push button, but the starter stayed engaged, and turning the key to the off position did not stop the engine from running!  That wasn’t right...

It was getting late in the day, so I gave up at that point, to return to it later after trying to find some more detailed instructions.  So as it sits now, I have a switch that clicks the relay but does nothing else.  It will work, I swear!

Whilst I had the cover off down there, I wired an LED light to the courtesy light in the dash, the one that points at the driver’s left knee.  I drilled a small hole next to the key slot, and ran the wire.  Now, when it’s dark, I can actually see where the key goes!

The third thing I wanted to do was some paint polishing as it's starting to go pink, but I ran out of sunlight.

All in all, it was productive, but frustrating at the same time.  I’ve done amp installs before in less than an hour, but this took several due to the messy wiring left behind by some other installer, and also trying to find a place to fit the amp.  Next weekend, I’ll have another go.