Collection Day!

Today was the day I finially picked up the my kit! It felt like ages since the kit was ordered but went so quickly. Due to being 20 years old, no one would let me hire a van which was going to make things difficult, however, I managed to borrow a van from work (VERY handy indeed!) and off I set, not even the snow could stop me!

 After been greeted with a cup of tea and a look round the showroom whilst GBS organised themselves (To be fair, I was very early and arrived before they actually opened). Luckily, the chassis on show was the Mazda based kit so I was quick to take lots of pictures and look at how it all fits together so I don't go in blind with mine. <- very helpful indeed!

Once GBS had sorted everything, we had a quick run through of the contents (this is a must as with anything, mistakes can be made and things missed). So with both of us armed with pens and tick sheets, we went through the kit. A few things were missing, disappointing but not the end of the world as I still have things to do on the Mazda, but main things were the bonnet not being louvered as requested and various packs missing i.e. bolt pack and rivet/rivnut kits.

Not a problem as I won't be needing a van to pick any of that up and can load it in the back of my car when it's ready.

Anyway, back home after a very scary journey back. Any noise from the back was quickly followed by panic, but thankfully, everything was ok.

Picking up some build stands from B&Q for about £20 that support 500kg between them should do just fine for the first part of the build

Bit of a leaky garager requires the parts to be covered up, but a plastic tarpaulin and plastic roof liner is doing the job perfectly so far. However, the living room has become equally cluttered and turning into a second work space!

Now all that I need to do is get some of the MX5 parts off and I can begin putting it together.

Sofa - Sport Mode. Couldn't resist.

It's been a while...

 

As the title says, it has been while since I have made a post. Not much has really happened with the MX5, main things are the radiator and fans are out, that troublesome passenger seat is finally removed and sold. Also, the differential and partly the hubs/brakes are starting to be my main focus but unfortunately, these are badly rusted and aren't meant to come undone anyway, so they're proving to be a bit of a challenge.

 Another thing to note is that the air con unit is finally out too. This proved to be a bugger but with some unorthadox removal techniques, it came out.

This is more of a reference than anything, but shows that the radiator is removed. Looking at the fan size, it may be possible to re-use the fan, saving me a fair amount.

A clearer view of the front minus a radiator. turned out to have 2 radiators which was interesting to find. I removed the fans first which came out without a problem after disconecting the electrics and the mounting bolts. These slide out the top very easily.One of the radiators took a bit of a battering with the piping for the expansion bottle being effectively ripped out.

However, the radiators once bolts and tubes removed, slide out without much hassle.

 

 

 

 

 

Now onto the tricky part....the underside of the car. As I said before, there is a lot of rust, not suprising considering the car is 22 years old! Various techniques to loosen/remove these have been advised: Plus Gas, warm diesel, angle grinder, halfords shock and unlock. Basically, some rust penetrating spray or cut them off. I'd prefer the intial option hence why a good drowning in halfords shock and unlock (about £3 a can) is my first option. Nothing instant happened but I didn't have a lot of time. I left it to soak in and will come back to in later to try breaking the surface rust and spraying again. Below are the photos of various hubs and suspension set ups etc.