Here is Christian the little eunos, he was imported over here in 2006 and has had a rough life since. He wasn't looked after by previous owners and has been reprayed very badly. After spending weeks looking for the right one i found him on ebay. I got him for £360 with tax and mot. He will eventually be used as a drift car but will also be my daily so i won't be going silly with it. I have quite a few friends with drift cars, including my boyfriend mattH who has a turbo MX5 and i wanted to try it myself.
He had lots of chrome bits everywhere which i personally don't like. Luckily mattH had spare bits from his previous mx5 which got written off due to a track accident so they replaced the chrome. Whilst giving him a good clean we found that he had a cool japanese battery
The previous owner had a small accident which resulted in the rear panel being dented and scratched as well as the rear bumper. mattH attempted to remove the dent by hitting from the other side which appears to have worked for the most part. A little bit of filler and this will be good as new... maybe.
The wheels he came with were hidious 14" alloys and the tyres were barely legal, so they were replaced with a set of mk2 wheels that mattH had spare. The original wheels will be used as skid wheels!
When mattH got his first MX5 I bought a (fake) carbon strut brace for his car. This was removed recently and found its way onto my car... After all, I did buy it! He had sprayed it yellow to match his colour scheme but I intend to spray this blue to match mine.
The carbon canister was removed whilst tidying up some bits in the engine bay as everyone believes this isn't needed and looks ugly!
I bought a lazy eye kit as a little addition for photoshoots and any shows I can get to
Christian came with the little black plastic sill covers so i changed them with some chrome roadster sill plates.
Another one from mattH's collection! A rear undercar strut brace was fitted. This was removed from mattH's car as the large bore exhaust meant it wouldn't fit any more.
We met up with a friend who also has a mx5 and had a little photoshoot. You can see that the paint work is in very bad condition in these photos (the purple one is mattH's).
The standard front bumper was buggered so instead of buying another standard one i got a replica garage vary bumper pretty cheap which gives it less of frog eye smiley face look.
After seeing other mx5's with the offset plate bracket and square plate mattH knocked up a bracket for his car and then made an improved version for mine. We know it's improved as my number plate hasn't fallen off!
I test fitted mattH's xxr 527 on the car i will be buying a set soon.
We gave him a minor service because there was no paperwork to say when it had last been done. The previous owner overfilled the oil so much that it was well past the markings on the dipstick :s and it came out looking like water rather than oil. Later on we found that the diff oil and gearbox oil were also both overfilled! Plugs looked OK but were replaced and a new oil filter screwed into place.
The discs were stupidly rusty despite having plenty of live left in them. For the sake of a few quid we replaced these with new pads and discs all round and adjusted the handbrake so it actually worked!
The alternator belt had lots of cracks and was squealing so a new belt was fitted. Despite this there was still a horrible squeal so the belts had to be retentioned and now the car is squeal free!
The main reason for the car being so cheap was the fact that it needed a new clutch. The previous owner had a quote for this which resulted in her wanting to sell the car (didn't think to ask how much the quote was though...). Although a pain of a job on a driveway mattH agreed to help with this. The previous owner explained that the clutch made noises when pulling away.. This turned out to be a seized pilot bearing which wouldn't turn at all. The clutch plate was also falling apart and rattled a lot. With a fresh Exedy clutch in and gearbox/ppf realigned we were ready to go. Wahey, no more noise!
He came with huge round metal gearknob so i changed it for a small black one stolen from mattH's car until i find a blue bubble gearknob. After a week of fighting to get the roof up and down because it kept getting stuck on the style bars they were taken out and will soon be replaced with TRLANE rollbar or maybe cage.
The petrol flap was the last bit chrome left on the car so it was replaced with a standard one.
After getting told by everyone my car looked like a bus i bought some coilovers from a member on mx5nutz. These were fitted and then adjusted a few times until I was happy with the height and the car would clear the local speedbumps.
Before
After
I ordered a blue tow strap which is fitted to where one of the tie down points used to be. I also have a rear tow hook to fit once its painted.
After weeks of umming and ahhing about whether i should remove the spoiler or not we decided that it looked better without and i think it gives a cleaner/smoother look to the rear. I will hopefully have funds to buy a vindi ducktail soon. In the meantime the holes have beeen filled.
Time for a colour change!
Will update shortly...
He had lots of chrome bits everywhere which i personally don't like. Luckily mattH had spare bits from his previous mx5 which got written off due to a track accident so they replaced the chrome. Whilst giving him a good clean we found that he had a cool japanese battery
The previous owner had a small accident which resulted in the rear panel being dented and scratched as well as the rear bumper. mattH attempted to remove the dent by hitting from the other side which appears to have worked for the most part. A little bit of filler and this will be good as new... maybe.The wheels he came with were hidious 14" alloys and the tyres were barely legal, so they were replaced with a set of mk2 wheels that mattH had spare. The original wheels will be used as skid wheels!
When mattH got his first MX5 I bought a (fake) carbon strut brace for his car. This was removed recently and found its way onto my car... After all, I did buy it! He had sprayed it yellow to match his colour scheme but I intend to spray this blue to match mine.
The carbon canister was removed whilst tidying up some bits in the engine bay as everyone believes this isn't needed and looks ugly!
I bought a lazy eye kit as a little addition for photoshoots and any shows I can get to
Christian came with the little black plastic sill covers so i changed them with some chrome roadster sill plates.
Another one from mattH's collection! A rear undercar strut brace was fitted. This was removed from mattH's car as the large bore exhaust meant it wouldn't fit any more.
We met up with a friend who also has a mx5 and had a little photoshoot. You can see that the paint work is in very bad condition in these photos (the purple one is mattH's).
The standard front bumper was buggered so instead of buying another standard one i got a replica garage vary bumper pretty cheap which gives it less of frog eye smiley face look.
After seeing other mx5's with the offset plate bracket and square plate mattH knocked up a bracket for his car and then made an improved version for mine. We know it's improved as my number plate hasn't fallen off!
I test fitted mattH's xxr 527 on the car
i will be buying a set soon.
We gave him a minor service because there was no paperwork to say when it had last been done. The previous owner overfilled the oil so much that it was well past the markings on the dipstick :s and it came out looking like water rather than oil. Later on we found that the diff oil and gearbox oil were also both overfilled! Plugs looked OK but were replaced and a new oil filter screwed into place.
The discs were stupidly rusty despite having plenty of live left in them. For the sake of a few quid we replaced these with new pads and discs all round and adjusted the handbrake so it actually worked!
The alternator belt had lots of cracks and was squealing so a new belt was fitted. Despite this there was still a horrible squeal so the belts had to be retentioned and now the car is squeal free!
The main reason for the car being so cheap was the fact that it needed a new clutch. The previous owner had a quote for this which resulted in her wanting to sell the car (didn't think to ask how much the quote was though...). Although a pain of a job on a driveway mattH agreed to help with this. The previous owner explained that the clutch made noises when pulling away.. This turned out to be a seized pilot bearing which wouldn't turn at all. The clutch plate was also falling apart and rattled a lot. With a fresh Exedy clutch in and gearbox/ppf realigned we were ready to go. Wahey, no more noise!
He came with huge round metal gearknob so i changed it for a small black one stolen from mattH's car until i find a blue bubble gearknob. After a week of fighting to get the roof up and down because it kept getting stuck on the style bars they were taken out and will soon be replaced with TRLANE rollbar or maybe cage.
The petrol flap was the last bit chrome left on the car so it was replaced with a standard one.
After getting told by everyone my car looked like a bus i bought some coilovers from a member on mx5nutz. These were fitted and then adjusted a few times until I was happy with the height and the car would clear the local speedbumps.
Before
After
I ordered a blue tow strap which is fitted to where one of the tie down points used to be. I also have a rear tow hook to fit once its painted.
After weeks of umming and ahhing about whether i should remove the spoiler or not we decided that it looked better without and i think it gives a cleaner/smoother look to the rear. I will hopefully have funds to buy a vindi ducktail soon. In the meantime the holes have beeen filled.
Time for a colour change!
Will update shortly...
