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. 

Light at the end of the tunnel

Had a bit of time off work using up holiday days. Spent half the time on the car and the other half moving house, fun times! Either way, works well meaning I'm not in any huge rush to clear the garage out as I've got garage space at my new place to start building when my kit arrives in January.

Here is a load of pictures taken from these days.

 

  

  

Anyway, all that is waiting now is an engine crane to remove the engine and gearbox and then get down underneath for the remaining donor parts and jobs a good'un! Plus that pesky dashboard and passenger seat when I get round to them again....

Slowly but surely...

Not much was done today. In between getting stitches out and travelling to Birmingham, I managed to get a couple hours on the car.

With the car now up on axle stands I could start crawling around underneath it just that bit easier.

As you can see the bumper is off, we'll come back to that shortly.

First thing was to take the wheels off and wheel arch covers. The arches were a pain with some stupid plastic screws, every time they just disintergrated to the point I ended up using a drill and getting them out that way!

But once off I could reach the front wings and bumper to get these off.

Starting to look rather sad now. But anyway, the bumper finally came off finding bolts hiding under wheel arches and underneath. Note for future: Remember the plastic clips & screws that sit in the middle! These pesky connections baffled me for 30 mins until I looked down behind the bumper and saw 3 black clips with screws in. These quickly got bashed out with a length of wood and a hammer (yes, the time for calm and collected was well gone) but this proved to be the best way as they popped straight out in one piece. Anyway, bumper off!

 Rear wheel arches/suspension/hubs/brake discs etc etc. These are more for personal reference as the rear wheels will probably go back on after a in depth discussion about engine removal techniques. All will be revealed once I decide how to do it and which is easiest.

 Again for personal reference of the front wheel arches etc. Looking a bit worse for wear but nothing a bit of cleanning can't fix when the time comes.

Once the car was jacked up, I realised that taking the front wheels off would be an issue with no one to put their foot on the brake pedal to keep the wheels from spinning....However, this is no issue for the master of disaster! A quick search through the garage sourced a metal pole which extended and retracted telescopically (that's my new word if it isn't already), anyway, I wedged this in between the brake pedal (clutch originally - ooops) and the body shell as seen below, and hey presto! Brakes applied and wheels off!

Genius.

A quick play about.

Well I had taken Friday 30th November off work to get things ready for the Girlfriend's birthday weekend away. But due to the body clock being broken, I didn't have much of a lie in and instead got up a few hours earlier than planned and decided to use it to work on the car.
In the morning I managed to remove the rear bulkhead, it took a bit of trouble but came off....in two pieces. turns out it wasn't in as good a condition as it looked. Not to worry, it's out the way now.

The dashboard is slowly coming off with the steering wheel and speedo instrument cluster out. The crash pads were rather tricky being stuck on with some Japanese silicon super glue, but nothing a flathead screw driver couldn't remove!

The headlights are out along with their surround as well as the front number plate and side light clusters. Just waiting on some axle stands and trolley jacks to get underneath the car the get some more body work off the car.  

This is where the steering wheel and instrument cluster used to be. Came out much easier with the crash pads off! Now a bit more space to see underneath the into the steering column.


Next step is to figure out how to get the rest of the dashboard off without severing electics and other valuable items!

Stripdown Continued

The breaking is going well, starting to focus a little more and concentrate on single areas instead of random parts.

Monday evening was spent in the garage for another few hours whilst Dad was infront of the fire with his feet up in the warm, watching the telly. Looks like I'm on my own here.

Anyway, the doors are now off along with the bonnet. The drivers seat is out but the passenger's side has a single bolt that has been rounded off by someone or is simply a crap bolt, eitherway, that'll take some seeing to. Right, less chat more pictures:

 As you can see the boot hasn't changed much since my last post. Trying to figure out how to get the hinges off...

 Engine still intact, thinking of leaving this til last and during daylight hours as it will be a tricky section to remove. 

All the electrics and running gear are going to be left until last as it will be easier to move the car with this in.

Passenger Door came off first.

Managed to use a cardboard box to help support the door as the hinges came off whilst I undid the wiring inside. The drivers side was easier as I took most the wiring out prior to removing the door. 

 Drivers seat came out no problem, still a comfy place to sit and work on the centre consoles. These are now also both out.

The ever growing pile of parts! Everything seen here must go! If you don't see it here, it is probably still on the car or hiding somewhere.

Contact me if there is anything you would like!

Doomsday for the Mazda

Well I have a day off work to use up remaining holiday days. I decided now was going to be as good as any to sort the garage out and clear the space. So it took me half a day to clear out the rubbish my Nana and Grandad had built up in there over the years, but finally it was tidy enough to use as a work space.

I was lacking a few tools so went and bought the basics from Halfords, we'll call it an early Christmas present for myself  :-) I was so keen to start that at 4pm, I decided it was still light enough to do something. I don't have any mains power in the garage and its too far from the house to run an extension lead, so torch light and plenty of carrots will help me see through the dark better.

Before you all start wondering, the white box and cable is one of them vibration speakers. What better way to strip a car that using the bonnet and a big speaker!

The car looks rather sad as it is being prepared for breaking, unfortunately I did infact fall in love with the car after 2 months of driving it, so much so I am still rather tempted to sell the Punto I own and buy a newer MX5....we shall see though.

Anyway, after spending a couple of hours like a child with a big stack of presents, I had began taking parts off the car. As I was standing at the back, I thought I'd go from the back and remove all the body work/roof moving forward , then interior, electrics and finally the runnning gear etc. This happened briefly. I soon took one bit off and the nearest thing I could see came off next. Space was filling up quickly as there seems to be much more of the car in a pile that what there was on it! Anyway, here are some pictures.

Here is the aftermath of about 5 hours spent on the car.

Problems so far:

• Underneath the car there is heavy rusting/rotting. Bumper/Mudflap screws are rotten and need drilling out.
• Getting the roof off - There are more than 3 bolts either side, should have realised but in my excitement and the dark, was left in an awkward position undoing bolts underneath the hood!
• Couple of sheared bolt heads - to be drilled out.