nibnob21
Premium Member
Registered: 16th May 10
Location: South Derbyshire
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Not sure on what's next to be honest. I'd like to get more things painted but it's so expensive. I've got quite a few maintenance things that need doing. I'm changing the oil and transmission fluid today and the brake fluid needs changing at some point. In terms of actual mods though I'm not sure. Would quite like to replace the grey interior plastics with black ones. Going to pop to the scrappy next week to see what they've got.
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Darryl H
Organiser: South Central Premium Member
Registered: 19th Nov 09
Location: Camberley Drives: Porsche 944
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Personally the one thing I'd change is the rear lights but that's personal preferance!
Spoiler looks much better mate 
Changing the plastics inside is a right ball ache just to have black all round I don't mind the grey ones be honest
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D0NN3R
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Registered: 1st Mar 11
Location: Dunholme, Lincolnshire
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spoiler looks spot on mate
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nibnob21
Premium Member
Registered: 16th May 10
Location: South Derbyshire
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quote: Originally posted by Darryl H
Personally the one thing I'd change is the rear lights but that's personal preferance!
Spoiler looks much better mate 
Changing the plastics inside is a right ball ache just to have black all round I don't mind the grey ones be honest
Yeah I've been considering changing them back to standard for ages now. What would you suggest?
And yeah I know the plastics will be a pain but my dash is all chewed around the cd player from some moronic previous owner and it really annoys me every time I get in the car lol.
Really happy with the spoiler 
Cheers DONN3R too 
MX5 Project Thread
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Darryl H
Organiser: South Central Premium Member
Registered: 19th Nov 09
Location: Camberley Drives: Porsche 944
User status: Offline
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Standards probably unless they do a german rear equivalant? IMO 
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nibnob21
Premium Member
Registered: 16th May 10
Location: South Derbyshire
User status: Offline
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Unfortunately there's very limited choice for 5 door rear lights. Only thing you can do is tint standards really. I quite like full red tinted standards but I wouldn't want to have red reverse lights lol.
MX5 Project Thread
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nibnob21
Premium Member
Registered: 16th May 10
Location: South Derbyshire
User status: Offline
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Got the gearbox oil and diff plate gasket changed today. Was going to do the engine oil too but realised my sump pan was looking a little rusty so thought that if I was going to be changing the sump gasket I should probably change the sump too. So I'll get one on order and change it in a week or so.
Also got round to changing the exhaust rubbers too.
I noticed that both my front discs aren't really getting used on the outer part, is this normal?
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Also the gear changes haven't really got any smoother from changing the oil, should I be considering the gear linkage next to help? Changing down to 2nd and 1st is kind of crunchy. Sometimes have to double dip for 1st :S
Advice on this would be really appreciated. Cheers 
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nibnob21
Premium Member
Registered: 16th May 10
Location: South Derbyshire
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Got both tie rod ends and ball joints changed today. After faffing about for ages on the n/s one yesterday I got nowhere. Was literally outside in the rain for 4 hours lol.
How the n/s tie rod end was left last night after attacking it with a grinder for ages and getting nowhere.
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With the shops open this morning I got my hands on a cutting disc and zipped it off in seconds. O/s one I changed in no more than 5 minutes, completely hassle free.
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The balljoints weren't too bad. They were rusted in a bit though so had to attack the old ones with a hammer to remove them. Got there in the end though 
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Unfortunately though there is still play present in the wheels. Took it to a garage and the only thing they could find was a slightly worn o/s tie bar. So the car is going into a garage tomorrow morning to have it changed and to have the tracking done. Fingers crossed that will finally sort it.
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Jamie-C
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Registered: 3rd Jun 08
Location: Ballycastle
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I done a Meganne not that long ago, had all the signs of a worn ball joint but still had the same symptons. It actually turned out that where the ball joint sits in the hub had worn away slightly so no matter how tight you tightened the clamp bolt it would still have play in it. Could be the same in your case. If the tiebar doesn't sort it I'd try hubs next.
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nibnob21
Premium Member
Registered: 16th May 10
Location: South Derbyshire
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Yeah it's something to consider. Tell you what though, the bit where the ball joint joins the hub definitely wasn't worn. Had to smack the ball joints to absolute buggery to get them off the hub lol.
I checked the top mounts of the suspension and they were nice and tight, the garage mentioned nothing about the wheels bearings so unless it's the lower arm bushes (again the garage mentioned nothing about them) then the only thing left would be the hub.
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nibnob21
Premium Member
Registered: 16th May 10
Location: South Derbyshire
User status: Offline
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New sump came this morning.
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Didn't realise it came with a gasket so I have a spare now if anyone's wants to buy it? Can take it to PVS.
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Got my magnetic sump plug screwed on.
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Is there any particular difference or benefit of using either a cork type gasket or a papery card type gasket?
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nibnob21
Premium Member
Registered: 16th May 10
Location: South Derbyshire
User status: Offline
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Well the car still isn't sorted. New o/s tie rod hasn't sorted it. Took the car back to the garage and when they get a chance they're going to take it for a spin and see what they make of it. So pissed off with it now.
On a small positive side note, the gear changes seem to be much better now that I've realigned the gear linkage. Moving up and down to 1st or 2nd is much smoother, used to have to double dip sometimes to get it to engage lol.
MX5 Project Thread
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nibnob21
Premium Member
Registered: 16th May 10
Location: South Derbyshire
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***UPDATE***
I finally came across a set of 14" alloys that I liked at a good price so decided to bite the bullet and get them The tyres were nowhere near as good as advertised so I've ended up having to replace all four as 3 had cracking on the sidewalls 
Took the opportunity to get some better sized tyres on though, gone from 185/60/14 to 165/65/14 so they're far less bulky whilst still keeping the same overall diameter.
Tyres before:
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Tyres after:
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Having them fitted:
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Car before:
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Car after:
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Also got four brand new polished centre caps for a tenner posted on eBay Very hard to get hold of, just got lucky on an eBay search.
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Found a set of very rare 5 door leather door cards and seats from a CDX Near perfect condition, no bolster wear. A few before and afters of the door cards:
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Unfortunately the rear bench was a 60/40 split and had different brackets to my car so I had to strip it and bodge fit the pieces to my once piece bench.
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Passenger side pretensioner had gone off on the leather seat so instead of fitting the leathers with their subframes on I just swapped the seats and left the car's original subframes in place.
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Some PVS pics:
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MX5 Project Thread
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Darryl H
Organiser: South Central Premium Member
Registered: 19th Nov 09
Location: Camberley Drives: Porsche 944
User status: Offline
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Looks good buddy! Didn't notcie the interior
Done a good job on that rear bench!
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nibnob21
Premium Member
Registered: 16th May 10
Location: South Derbyshire
User status: Offline
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I didn't fancy leaving the windows open as I didn't want anything to be taken so not many people noticed the leathers lol.
The job on the rear bench is pretty crap actually lol. The two pieces that made up the 60/40 bit need to be joined together properly. As they are, they just sit next to each other with a bit of a gap in between that shows the foam of the back bench a little bit lol.
Didn't have time to sort it before PVS though but it's on my to do list The fronts and the bottom part of the rears are good though 
MX5 Project Thread
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Darryl H
Organiser: South Central Premium Member
Registered: 19th Nov 09
Location: Camberley Drives: Porsche 944
User status: Offline
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oh cool 
Will be good when you get that sorted then
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Paul W
Premium Member
Registered: 26th Aug 09
Location: Northamptonshire
User status: Offline
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Leathers look tidy dude, can't help but think they should have done them in a better colour, although i'm not really a fan of the grey stuff anyway lol. Does the fixing bracket for the rear bench not bolt over for the split bench? I can't remember
Rio Verde Bagged More Door Project
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D0NN3R
Member
Registered: 1st Mar 11
Location: Dunholme, Lincolnshire
User status: Offline
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love those door cards
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nibnob21
Premium Member
Registered: 16th May 10
Location: South Derbyshire
User status: Offline
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quote: Originally posted by Darryl H
oh cool 
Will be good when you get that sorted then
Yeah, in all fairness they don't look too bad, but they could definitely be better.
quote: Originally posted by Paul W
Leathers look tidy dude, can't help but think they should have done them in a better colour, although i'm not really a fan of the grey stuff anyway lol. Does the fixing bracket for the rear bench not bolt over for the split bench? I can't remember
Yeah I agree, would be nice if they'd made them in black! Not 100% sure about the middle bracket as I wasn't supplied it with the leathers. However the side brackets on the 60/40 split are different to the brackets on my single piece rear bench so even with the 60/40 bracket I wouldn't have been able to fit them.
quote: Originally posted by D0NN3R
love those door cards
Cheers, not seen anyone else with them 
MX5 Project Thread
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nibnob21
Premium Member
Registered: 16th May 10
Location: South Derbyshire
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Couple more pics of the car 
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Went and had the wheels bored out slightly today so that I could fit some spigot rings. Wheels now wobble more than before but I'm hoping that's down to the removal of material causing the balancing to be thrown out, so I'm booked in to get them rebalanced tomorrow morning and that should hopefully sort it.
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Still haven't gone to the bodyshop to have the spoiler mopped. Will hopefully get down there tomorrow, where I'll also be getting a quote for some other work to be done 
MX5 Project Thread
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nibnob21
Premium Member
Registered: 16th May 10
Location: South Derbyshire
User status: Offline
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Brand spanking new. Finish is perfect, only downside is they don't come with centre caps. I can just swap my new tyres onto these too which is a bonus 
Model is 'Gamma' for anyone interested.
MX5 Project Thread
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Darryl H
Organiser: South Central Premium Member
Registered: 19th Nov 09
Location: Camberley Drives: Porsche 944
User status: Offline
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They are very nice 
16" and they'd be porn imo.
I bet they set you back a fair amount?
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nibnob21
Premium Member
Registered: 16th May 10
Location: South Derbyshire
User status: Offline
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quote: Originally posted by Darryl H
They are very nice 
16" and they'd be porn imo.
I bet they set you back a fair amount?
Well I'm lowering the car again but only by 40mm so 16" wheels would look too big in my opinion.
Ideally I'd have 15" wheels but I'm happy with these. Plus, as I said above, it means the new tyres I bought won't go to waste.
Got them on eBay so didn't cost much 
They were listed a few weeks ago and I missed out on them by a couple of quid. I'd been searching for wheels since with nothing good coming up so I thought it wouldn't hurt to message the seller just on the off chance the original sale had fallen through. He said he hadn't heard from the winning bidder for a while, even after trying to get hold of him 3 or 4 times. So he said I could have them instead 
He works in the parts department at Vauxhall in Bristol, just down the road from where my girlfriend lives. So I popped down there today and picked them up 
MX5 Project Thread
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Darryl H
Organiser: South Central Premium Member
Registered: 19th Nov 09
Location: Camberley Drives: Porsche 944
User status: Offline
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Oh fair enough mate, They'll look great with the car dropped a bit 
No colour coded door mirrors/handles though. I am dissapointed 
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nibnob21
Premium Member
Registered: 16th May 10
Location: South Derbyshire
User status: Offline
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quote: Originally posted by Darryl H
Oh fair enough mate, They'll look great with the car dropped a bit 
No colour coded door mirrors/handles though. I am dissapointed
Can still say the same about yours mate 
MX5 Project Thread
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