Another MX5 Project Thread
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Matt
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There was nothing more to do and the neighbours were already annoyed at the noise we were making133_Ads":1pnta4pg said:Matt":1pnta4pg said:
I wouldn't have gone to sleep... missed out on 2 and a half more hours work on the car!
Matt
Well-known member
Thursday
So the main priority the next day was to get the car running as the MOT was booked for later that day. We had all sorts of problems trying to get the standard ECU to run the car for some reason so we opted to drop the Megasquirt in there as that's what this engine was running on previously. All I had to do was locate one of my original tune files from before the turbo conversion and all should be dandy! Nope... More problems. We later worked it out to be a combination of two things...
First was the vacuum line. Or lack of it. Duh! How would Megasquirt know what the engine is taking in if the MAP sensor is only getting cabin pressure?! Secondly I noticed there was no fuel pump priming. The car would start and die two seconds later. Of course in the mad rush to get everything done I had forgotten to pull the St Sign fuse (Megasquirt bypasses this whole system). By not pulling the fuse I had in fact blown a transistor within Megasquirt (this is now booked in with Skuzzle Motorsport to get changed). Temporarily I had to jumper the diagnostics box to force the fuel pump to prime on ignition. No problem, it works for now, just not ideal.
Anyway... Once this was sorted the car started and ran absolutely fine. The tune is WAY out but it runs. The fact that it's running a little lean at the moment should help with the emissions.
Right, lets move onto the next challenge - The rear caliper! This had already been swapped over from my other car because it was seized but we still had problems with it. After some investigation it become obvious that the caliper itself was fine and the problemn was in fact caused by the handbrake cable. The handbrake would pull the caliper on absolutely fine but wouldn't release. Once this was removed we realised why this was... The boot had split and allowed so much crap inside that the cable was torn up. Thanksfully the cables on the old car were MINT. With this swapped (wow that's difficult with PPF, Exhaust and Propshaft in the way) the brake works perfectly. I'm actually surprised how well it works considering every MX5 I've ever seen has had a non-functioning handbrake!
Decided to fit the gauges properly otherwise they would be hanging all over the place. In the old car I had them in the two middle vents and on top but I like the heaters in the winter (who doesn't!) and thought the others looked tacky. I needed new sensors for a couple anyway so the three working gauges went in using part of my old car
Ok so times running out now, the MOT is coming up very soon. The braided lines have finally been swapped over thanks to the use of some molegrips and everything else is good for the MOT. We whack my old wheels on the car as the tyres are legal, unlike the ones that cmae on the car and drop it down ready for the MOT.
Bugger! It won't get into gear! 2nd, 4th and Reverse work fine but it just won't go into 1st, 3rd and 5th. Ah crap! We forgot to put gearbox oil in!! A mad rush to Euro Car Parts to grab some oil and some insane pumping (you can't fill it from the top) the gearbox is filled. Right, lets try again. Nope, still not working. MOT is a few minutes away and it'll take that long to get there. I am forced to phone them and rebook for tomorrow This is bad news because there's a list of things that can't be done until after the MOT and we won't have much time to get them done.
Aha! I know what the problem is. We took the gear lever out from the turret and moved the selector. A bit of fishing in the oil and bingo! Out came the nylon cup that sits on the end of the gear lever. It had a crack in and fell off when inserting the gear lever a few days ago. This had wedged itself in and stopped the gear lever from moving correctly. OK well at least that's solved. Pack up for the day and have an early night for once!
Oh look, the wheels just turned up
Compared to standard (with tyre on)...
Lets get some wheel sealant on them right away...
Thanks Elly
So the main priority the next day was to get the car running as the MOT was booked for later that day. We had all sorts of problems trying to get the standard ECU to run the car for some reason so we opted to drop the Megasquirt in there as that's what this engine was running on previously. All I had to do was locate one of my original tune files from before the turbo conversion and all should be dandy! Nope... More problems. We later worked it out to be a combination of two things...
First was the vacuum line. Or lack of it. Duh! How would Megasquirt know what the engine is taking in if the MAP sensor is only getting cabin pressure?! Secondly I noticed there was no fuel pump priming. The car would start and die two seconds later. Of course in the mad rush to get everything done I had forgotten to pull the St Sign fuse (Megasquirt bypasses this whole system). By not pulling the fuse I had in fact blown a transistor within Megasquirt (this is now booked in with Skuzzle Motorsport to get changed). Temporarily I had to jumper the diagnostics box to force the fuel pump to prime on ignition. No problem, it works for now, just not ideal.
Anyway... Once this was sorted the car started and ran absolutely fine. The tune is WAY out but it runs. The fact that it's running a little lean at the moment should help with the emissions.
Right, lets move onto the next challenge - The rear caliper! This had already been swapped over from my other car because it was seized but we still had problems with it. After some investigation it become obvious that the caliper itself was fine and the problemn was in fact caused by the handbrake cable. The handbrake would pull the caliper on absolutely fine but wouldn't release. Once this was removed we realised why this was... The boot had split and allowed so much crap inside that the cable was torn up. Thanksfully the cables on the old car were MINT. With this swapped (wow that's difficult with PPF, Exhaust and Propshaft in the way) the brake works perfectly. I'm actually surprised how well it works considering every MX5 I've ever seen has had a non-functioning handbrake!
Decided to fit the gauges properly otherwise they would be hanging all over the place. In the old car I had them in the two middle vents and on top but I like the heaters in the winter (who doesn't!) and thought the others looked tacky. I needed new sensors for a couple anyway so the three working gauges went in using part of my old car
Ok so times running out now, the MOT is coming up very soon. The braided lines have finally been swapped over thanks to the use of some molegrips and everything else is good for the MOT. We whack my old wheels on the car as the tyres are legal, unlike the ones that cmae on the car and drop it down ready for the MOT.
Bugger! It won't get into gear! 2nd, 4th and Reverse work fine but it just won't go into 1st, 3rd and 5th. Ah crap! We forgot to put gearbox oil in!! A mad rush to Euro Car Parts to grab some oil and some insane pumping (you can't fill it from the top) the gearbox is filled. Right, lets try again. Nope, still not working. MOT is a few minutes away and it'll take that long to get there. I am forced to phone them and rebook for tomorrow
This is bad news because there's a list of things that can't be done until after the MOT and we won't have much time to get them done.Aha! I know what the problem is. We took the gear lever out from the turret and moved the selector. A bit of fishing in the oil and bingo! Out came the nylon cup that sits on the end of the gear lever. It had a crack in and fell off when inserting the gear lever a few days ago. This had wedged itself in and stopped the gear lever from moving correctly. OK well at least that's solved. Pack up for the day and have an early night for once!
Oh look, the wheels just turned up
Compared to standard (with tyre on)...
Lets get some wheel sealant on them right away...
Thanks Elly
Matt
Well-known member
Friday
So the MOT is now booked for 4 PM today. They couldn't fit it in any sooner so that leaves me with loads of useless time.
We decided to fit the rollbar and harness bar ready as this wouldn't affect the outcome of the MOT. A few holes and bolts later we got the bars but realised that the passenger seatbelt was now knackered. The ratchet system inside must have broken as the seabelt won't pull out at all now. Oh well, we'll leave the passenger seat out and they can't fail the belt then (which is now in the scrap pile).
(photo taken after MOT, don't have one of roll bar on its own)
Now the waiting game... Nothing else to do until the MOT so off to see my mate to get some tyres fitted. Went for 195/50/15 in the end so a bit of stretch and won't break the bank (although I'm now past that point lol).
Get back in time to warm the car up, get some petrol and visit the MOT centre. Off to a good start, the tester walks past and says "Failed on colour". Haha... Well at least he's in a better mood this time.
In it goes as I patiently await the results. He notices how much work has gone into the car and seems pleased. With only two things left to check I start to get nervous. If this fails I'm stuffed... No chance of a retest in time and no Japfest. All of this would be a waste (kinda...). Ok so onto the first thing... Emmisions. Oh dear, still well over the limit! Probably doesn't help that I replaced the cat with my 2.5" decat so I could use my wideband sensor. Bugger! That's that then.
But what's this... He's tweaking with the idle valve and trying to get thee emissions down for me! Wahey! There's me thinking I'd have to plug the laptop in and run it lean as fook but 10 minutes of fettling he decides to check it again... It passes! Only just I must add, but it passes. Now it's time to test the brakes. Or not... Looks like he's seen the new cable and decided not to bother putting the car on the rollers again. Sweet! He informs me of a pass and I walk out a HAPPY man.
Now the mad rush to the Post Office to get some tax. Yep, forgot my paperwork. A few trips back and forth to get correct paperwork and tax is sorted. Just lost an hour doing that so we best crack on!
First of all we need to swap the suspension. Luckily it comes off the old car very easily but we have loads of trouble trying to remove the standard suspension from the new car. Eventually this gets done and the coilovers are on. Sitting a bit high at the front but it'll have to do - it's now gone midnight and we've made enough noise as it is. Luckily the harnesses are now in and the seats are in after some fettling with the brackets. That's it then... It's cold, dark and raining but we've done it.
Wheels are on and they're looking awesome!
Oh wait... The sideskirts aren't on, nor is the bumper! We pack up all the tools and armed with a cordless drill pop to the nearest multistory carpark for use of their cover and light (plus I won't piss the neighbours off any more with noise).
Having pulled off the driveway I noticed my steering wheel quick release wasn't locking. The weld protruded too far, stopping the wheel from locking on! We spent a good 20 minutes or so filing away at the weld and eventually it pops on. I'll have to grind the rest off and tidy it up another time.
Finally we're done! Lets get some sleep and off to Japfest in the morning.
That's stage one complete. Stage two: Welded differential swap and new turbo manifold, oil/water lines. Oh my God N/A is boring... Won't be long until I'm FI again!
So the MOT is now booked for 4 PM today. They couldn't fit it in any sooner so that leaves me with loads of useless time.
We decided to fit the rollbar and harness bar ready as this wouldn't affect the outcome of the MOT. A few holes and bolts later we got the bars but realised that the passenger seatbelt was now knackered. The ratchet system inside must have broken as the seabelt won't pull out at all now. Oh well, we'll leave the passenger seat out and they can't fail the belt then (which is now in the scrap pile).
(photo taken after MOT, don't have one of roll bar on its own)
Now the waiting game... Nothing else to do until the MOT so off to see my mate to get some tyres fitted. Went for 195/50/15 in the end so a bit of stretch and won't break the bank (although I'm now past that point lol).
Get back in time to warm the car up, get some petrol and visit the MOT centre. Off to a good start, the tester walks past and says "Failed on colour". Haha... Well at least he's in a better mood this time.
In it goes as I patiently await the results. He notices how much work has gone into the car and seems pleased. With only two things left to check I start to get nervous. If this fails I'm stuffed... No chance of a retest in time and no Japfest. All of this would be a waste (kinda...). Ok so onto the first thing... Emmisions. Oh dear, still well over the limit! Probably doesn't help that I replaced the cat with my 2.5" decat so I could use my wideband sensor. Bugger! That's that then.
But what's this... He's tweaking with the idle valve and trying to get thee emissions down for me! Wahey! There's me thinking I'd have to plug the laptop in and run it lean as fook but 10 minutes of fettling he decides to check it again... It passes! Only just I must add, but it passes. Now it's time to test the brakes. Or not... Looks like he's seen the new cable and decided not to bother putting the car on the rollers again. Sweet! He informs me of a pass and I walk out a HAPPY man.
Now the mad rush to the Post Office to get some tax. Yep, forgot my paperwork. A few trips back and forth to get correct paperwork and tax is sorted. Just lost an hour doing that so we best crack on!
First of all we need to swap the suspension. Luckily it comes off the old car very easily but we have loads of trouble trying to remove the standard suspension from the new car. Eventually this gets done and the coilovers are on. Sitting a bit high at the front but it'll have to do - it's now gone midnight and we've made enough noise as it is. Luckily the harnesses are now in and the seats are in after some fettling with the brackets. That's it then... It's cold, dark and raining but we've done it.
Wheels are on and they're looking awesome!
Oh wait... The sideskirts aren't on, nor is the bumper! We pack up all the tools and armed with a cordless drill pop to the nearest multistory carpark for use of their cover and light (plus I won't piss the neighbours off any more with noise).
Having pulled off the driveway I noticed my steering wheel quick release wasn't locking. The weld protruded too far, stopping the wheel from locking on! We spent a good 20 minutes or so filing away at the weld and eventually it pops on. I'll have to grind the rest off and tidy it up another time.
Finally we're done! Lets get some sleep and off to Japfest in the morning.
That's stage one complete. Stage two: Welded differential swap and new turbo manifold, oil/water lines. Oh my God N/A is boring... Won't be long until I'm FI again!
Matt
Well-known member
Saturday
After filling up and getting to the first dual carriageway we noticed that the rear wheels are scrubbing on the arches. I didn't notice this the night before because it was raining hard and all I could hear was water splashing. Worried about damaging the new tyres I pulled over to investigate. It's ok, looks like it's not causing damage and it's on the tread not the sidewalls so we're good to go. Thanks to this delay we're late to the convoy point which we later realised was on the other side of the motorway (d'oh!). Oh well, lets have a slow cruise there to avoid any damage.
Somehow we managed to arrive before most of the others! MX5Nutz had a large stand of 100 cars and Japfest said they couldn't get any more on despite selling the tickets already. The organiser decided that a "Drift/Stance" stand would be better than forcing a select few people off the main stand so I voted myself for this smaller stand. I had done this before the crash and assured everyone that I would have another car to replace it.
Unfortunately I didn't get any more photos
After filling up and getting to the first dual carriageway we noticed that the rear wheels are scrubbing on the arches. I didn't notice this the night before because it was raining hard and all I could hear was water splashing. Worried about damaging the new tyres I pulled over to investigate. It's ok, looks like it's not causing damage and it's on the tread not the sidewalls so we're good to go. Thanks to this delay we're late to the convoy point which we later realised was on the other side of the motorway (d'oh!). Oh well, lets have a slow cruise there to avoid any damage.
Somehow we managed to arrive before most of the others! MX5Nutz had a large stand of 100 cars and Japfest said they couldn't get any more on despite selling the tickets already. The organiser decided that a "Drift/Stance" stand would be better than forcing a select few people off the main stand so I voted myself for this smaller stand. I had done this before the crash and assured everyone that I would have another car to replace it.
Unfortunately I didn't get any more photos
Matt
Well-known member
Sunday
Met a few of my mates who had helped over the last week and had a massive fryup at the local cafe. They decided to come over and help roll the arches and lower the car! Passenger side rolled absolutely fine, no problems and looks awesome. Plenty of clearance now! However the drivers side caused some issues... It would appear as though the car has been involved in an accident meaning that most of the drivers rear 1/4 had been skimmed over with filler. Most of this fell out whilst rolling so we had to skim back over and give it a lick of paint.
With the arches rolled we realised there was room to go lower. The rear came down a smidge and the front quite a bit. With this back on the ground I took it for a test drive. Scrapes on the speedbumps as it did before but strangely not any worse and the rear wheels don't touch the arches at all. Fronts seem to hit something when turning over bumps but no problem! Overall only about 10mm lower I think but it's level now which is the main thing.
So here we are... Much better!!
Wednesday is booked off work so we're hoping to get a couple more bits done so the old shell and scrap can be collected ASAP. Just need to remove the differntial and hydraulic handbrake.
Could potentially go lower but I don't want to as it struggles on the bumps outside my house already Also need to get some stickers back on there and I'm in talks with someone about some custom overfenders Oh yeah... Alignment needs doing incredibly soon as it's pulling loads and has quite mad toe out at the moment.
Met a few of my mates who had helped over the last week and had a massive fryup at the local cafe. They decided to come over and help roll the arches and lower the car! Passenger side rolled absolutely fine, no problems and looks awesome. Plenty of clearance now! However the drivers side caused some issues... It would appear as though the car has been involved in an accident meaning that most of the drivers rear 1/4 had been skimmed over with filler. Most of this fell out whilst rolling so we had to skim back over and give it a lick of paint.
With the arches rolled we realised there was room to go lower. The rear came down a smidge and the front quite a bit. With this back on the ground I took it for a test drive. Scrapes on the speedbumps as it did before but strangely not any worse and the rear wheels don't touch the arches at all. Fronts seem to hit something when turning over bumps but no problem! Overall only about 10mm lower I think but it's level now which is the main thing.
So here we are... Much better!!
Wednesday is booked off work so we're hoping to get a couple more bits done so the old shell and scrap can be collected ASAP. Just need to remove the differntial and hydraulic handbrake.
Could potentially go lower but I don't want to as it struggles on the bumps outside my house already
Also need to get some stickers back on there and I'm in talks with someone about some custom overfenders Oh yeah... Alignment needs doing incredibly soon as it's pulling loads and has quite mad toe out at the moment.
Matt
Well-known member
Still plenty more to do
I'm going to try my best to keep this updated and will also go back over the posts I've already done to tidy them up. Was all a bit rush but I've just been through and tidied up the photos now anyway. Added a couple more and made sure they are all hosted elsewhere not attachments as they looked odd Also added the days to each post now so you can see what was done on what day.
I'm going to try my best to keep this updated and will also go back over the posts I've already done to tidy them up. Was all a bit rush but I've just been through and tidied up the photos now anyway. Added a couple more and made sure they are all hosted elsewhere not attachments as they looked odd
Also added the days to each post now so you can see what was done on what day.
Matt
Well-known member
Yeah you can expect to pay Summer Tax but if you want a project then you can pick some ratty ones up for next to nothing.
I was lucky finding this one so cheap with so little rust... That's the main killer. You'll most likely find plenty with rotten shells and the ones that don't look so bad will no doubt be rusty inside the sills.
I was lucky finding this one so cheap with so little rust... That's the main killer. You'll most likely find plenty with rotten shells and the ones that don't look so bad will no doubt be rusty inside the sills.
JamesGT
Well-known member
Looking good Matt. Are those wheels XXR 527's?
Matt
Well-known member
They are indeed. Going to try one on the Twingo for the hell of it but being 15" they will look ridiculous lol.
Caz-133cup
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Fantastic read Matt, you've done some great work on the new car. So many people I bet are chipping in to help and its good to see Elly using her polishing skills let's face it she always did a cracking job on the red twingo wheels!!
let's face it she always did a cracking job on the red twingo wheels!!
MovingShadow
Well-known member
Awesome work!
I'm starting to like the MX5 more.
A colleague of mine keeps himself busy with buying second hand MX5's, tidying them up and selling them again. He has a hangar full of them (+ a buggy, a Fiat from 1979 & 2 Mercedes).
To be honest, if I didnt had my car, I would buy the black one he had with the turbo and only 90k kilometers on it.
I'm starting to like the MX5 more.
A colleague of mine keeps himself busy with buying second hand MX5's, tidying them up and selling them again. He has a hangar full of them (+ a buggy, a Fiat from 1979 & 2 Mercedes).
To be honest, if I didnt had my car, I would buy the black one he had with the turbo and only 90k kilometers on it.
Matt
Well-known member
Small updates...
Decided on some new stickers for the car, a little less "in your face" than last time. Basically just want to break up the colour a little and make it [even more] different. Zip Tie Mafia is a group of mates all into drifting. We visit all the drift events together and all have the same logo on the cars somewhere. Along the side skirts are companies who have done things for me and finally the rear wing is going to be covered in Stickeroo.co.uk logos in a gloss variant of the cars colour. Hoping to get all of this on shortly but will be quite time consuming and I've got loads of other things to do in the meantime.
Went to see a man about a dog. No, it was about tracking actually...
Asked him to sort my tracking out as the front had major toe out which mad driving quite sketchy but it was also pulling to the left pretty bad. The mate doing it was impressed to basically see the same car again (he was there when I crashed) and cracked on. 20 minutes attached to the Hunter system later and he informs me that the rear toe is also been corrected. Sweet!
Still need to setup camber but it's amazing how much nicer the car feels already! Don't have to fight the wheel... feels 10x better than the last car too!
Finally I decided to whack some door cards on using some 1mm black HDPE I had left over. Few rivets later and it's looking much better. Also stops the draft coming in!! I used the top of the old door card to finish it off and add a bit of padding (after having a door cave in you realise how important it is).
I also got all the pieces of pipework cut ready for the new turbo manifold. Hoping to get this done VERY soon.
Due to the choice of paint I'm unable to use a solid wax or a paint sealant and lacquer isn't really an option. Having played around with various products on the old car I've decided that a liquid wax (Autoglym Aqua Wax to be precise) is the way forward. I don't want to get the car shiny just want to protect the paint a bit so I can easily clean off oil, etc before it soaks into the satin paintwork. Weather permitting I'll be giving the car a scrub and a few coats of Aqua Wax at the weekend With the wax water sheets off really quick as you'd expect but without the water stays on the paint for a LONG time. I poured a cup on a non-treated wing and then several cups on the treated wing. All the water from the treated wing had gone yet the untreated wing still had standing water minutes later.
Decided on some new stickers for the car, a little less "in your face" than last time. Basically just want to break up the colour a little and make it [even more] different. Zip Tie Mafia is a group of mates all into drifting. We visit all the drift events together and all have the same logo on the cars somewhere. Along the side skirts are companies who have done things for me and finally the rear wing is going to be covered in Stickeroo.co.uk logos in a gloss variant of the cars colour. Hoping to get all of this on shortly but will be quite time consuming and I've got loads of other things to do in the meantime.
Went to see a man about a dog. No, it was about tracking actually...
Asked him to sort my tracking out as the front had major toe out which mad driving quite sketchy but it was also pulling to the left pretty bad. The mate doing it was impressed to basically see the same car again (he was there when I crashed) and cracked on. 20 minutes attached to the Hunter system later and he informs me that the rear toe is also been corrected. Sweet!
Still need to setup camber but it's amazing how much nicer the car feels already! Don't have to fight the wheel... feels 10x better than the last car too!
Finally I decided to whack some door cards on using some 1mm black HDPE I had left over. Few rivets later and it's looking much better. Also stops the draft coming in!! I used the top of the old door card to finish it off and add a bit of padding (after having a door cave in you realise how important it is).
I also got all the pieces of pipework cut ready for the new turbo manifold. Hoping to get this done VERY soon.
Due to the choice of paint I'm unable to use a solid wax or a paint sealant and lacquer isn't really an option. Having played around with various products on the old car I've decided that a liquid wax (Autoglym Aqua Wax to be precise) is the way forward. I don't want to get the car shiny just want to protect the paint a bit so I can easily clean off oil, etc before it soaks into the satin paintwork. Weather permitting I'll be giving the car a scrub and a few coats of Aqua Wax at the weekend
With the wax water sheets off really quick as you'd expect but without the water stays on the paint for a LONG time. I poured a cup on a non-treated wing and then several cups on the treated wing. All the water from the treated wing had gone yet the untreated wing still had standing water minutes later.
Matt
Well-known member
Went out last weekend to grab some photos but I've only got around to processing one of them...
