'93 MX5: Teenage Dirtbag found on BuildThreads.com

[Mystery Machine]

I guess as good a place to start would be the beginning. I've had this car a few months now and maybe should have a thread for it.



On the 25-27th of June I gave the chance for some of the guys on here to have their cars sprayed over the course of a weekend down at Area 52. The aim was for a bunch of us to strip, prep, paint and refit all three cars in one weekend. Working to such a tight timeline I had to set the rules that this was to be an external paint/blowover only (each owner could paint door shuts/inner panels at a later date) and that the paint used was to be military satin paint from the BS381c colour chart.

One of the cars involved in the weekend was Craig's Eunos (build thread here). He had chosen to paint it PRU Blue from the colour chart.

Craig's Eunos went from this:


Through this:


...to this:


Click here for full details of the amazing 'Sprayday' weekender

The paint has flatted off a LOT more since the photo was taken and the colour/finish suit the car sooooo well. Photos of the flatted paint and nicer rims can be seen in his build thread.

So why am I going on about Craig's car? Because on the Saturday night of the spraying weekend he had to leave the car at my unit while the paint cured so needed picking up on Sunday from the train station. I chose to pick him up in his own, freshly painted car to surprise him. It was the first time I'd ever driven an MX5 and I really liked it. A lot!

Once the weekend was over I kept coming back to how cool the little '5 was and how much I missed having a little 2 seat convertible (I've been lucky to own a few lovely convertibles over the years)

Skip forward a few weeks and I had pretty much decided I wanted one of my own to use as a daily. Practical - no. Fun - yes! Anyway, I've got plenty of other practical vehicles and a few less practical too so the MX5 would sit nicely in the current line-up.

On the 10th July I started the hunt for a suitable car. The main criteria - it had to be cheap but at least have some tax & MOT. Paintwork & rust...not an issue.

I posted a thread on Retro Rides on the 10th just inquiring about MX-5's asking for peoples thoughts, inspirational pics etc....little did I know that 24hrs later I'd not only have have found one but I'd also have it sat on my drive! That little chapter will follow very shortly. Stay tuned.

[Mystery Machine]

Part II:

10th July, literally only hours after writing the post requesting info on MX5's I get a nudge that JoeTheFish has an MX5 he's wanting to swap. Not sell.....swap.

Joe had just got married and was looking to get something a bit bigger & more practical (my guess is that babies are on the cards! ;D) so the MX5 was no longer practical as his daily. The big problem was that he couldn't sell it because he was using the car every day to commute and he didn't have the money (after just getting married!) to buy a replacement car then sell the MX5. A swap it was.

I rang him and he said that as long as it's got tax & MOT (even just until the end of the month) and is an estate.....he'd be willing to swap it. He'd prefer a big Volvo estate, but something like a Legacy or Audi estate would also do. Something well built with lots of space. All I had to do was find this car, buy it (for whatever price I can) then we've got a swap.

The very next morning (Sunday 11th July) my day starts like this:

08.30: I take the laptop outside and sit in the sun drinking tea and scouring the local ads for a suitable car

11.00: I've found quite a few suitable cars, rung quite a number of ads....all sold! Getting frustrated now!!

11.15: I ring one possible candidate and it's still for sale. HOORAH!!

12.00: I'm on the other side of Bristol viewing the car. It ticks all the boxes (tax, MOT, great condition, drives nice)

12.15: I haggle the asking price of the car down from £550 to £375

12.20: Deposit paid I head home

16.00: Dave (Butterz) arrives to give me a lift back across Bristol to pick up my new car

17.10: After handing over the rest of the money, we head back with the new purchase, Dave following me back to my place from the sellers house

17.30: We head out for a jolly in the newly purchased Scando-barge. A 1990 Volvo 740 Estate. Certainly not the car I was expecting when I set out looking for an MX5!

On our little 'mission' Dave takes a moment to admire the 'blueness' of the interior


The car even comes with an awesome freebee smiley toy in the back window


Here is it in all its glory....the 740 which I am (hopefully) about to swap for an MX5. £375 of reliable, practical, useful Swedish engineering for a little, tatty Japanese roadster!


We stopped here because I realised I hadn't taken any shots of the car that would quite possibly be my shortest ever owned!


1990 Volvo 740GL, very straight, very tidy, drives lovely, everything works, almost mint....£375.00. EXCELLENT!


....more to come.

[Mystery Machine]

Part III:

19.00: Our little jaunt out in the (lovely, quiet & wafty) Volvo leads us Yeovil where we meet up with JoeThe Fish and his MX5.

A swap was the best option for him, so I found the car he 'wanted' (large, comfortable, pratical and retroish), did the research & running around then delivered it in exchange for his daily.

He gets his new car delivered (trusting my buying capability to find him a good car)


I get his daily in return.


The Volvo is in my ownership for less than two hours and I am then handed the keys to his MX5. I figured a mornings research, an afternoon viewing/test drive, a nice drive out in the countryside with a good mate and £375 for this little roadster was a pretty good deal.

Joe gets the car he wanted, sourced and delivered for him


and everyone is happy....


I must point out at this time that the Volvo is a lot minter than it appears in the pics, the MX5 is a lot worse than it appears....but who cares?? We're both happy and that is what counts

A short while into the 'swap' Ben, arrives to witness the swap. He not only lives in Yeovil but he also used to own the MX5 which he swapped with Joe for his (now rather brown) Volvo 240 back in August 2009. As you can probably gather, Joe has a bit of a thing for swaps (and Volvo's). The brown Volvo was painted at the same time as Craig's MX5 above - you can just see it in the top right of the first shot in post #1.


The swap is complete and Joe heads off with his new family wagon. Ben, Dave & myself head to the nearest pub to celebrate me getting another car with a pint, a rollie and a chat!


We meet the most drunken bloke in the world. Couldn't even remember his own name. Scary looking bloke, every square inch covered in tatoos, piercings and chunks of metal. He sits himself at our table and we manage to decipher that he repairs Chinooks for a living....comment of the week: "I work on helicopters and they still fly"

Our sides splititng we say goodbye to Mr Shitfaced and leave. Ben heads home, and so do Dave & I....roof down and big grins. The car is great. Brilliant fun. We stop at the same place we took the shots of the Volvo previously:





OK, so the paintwork is shagged, the rear shocks non-existent ("if Mazda made waterbeds...." to quote Mr Pollitt), the rear wheel bearings are howling, the brakes are squeaking & rattling and the sills are going to need some TLC....but meh....it's still brilliant fun!

I never ever expected that just over 24hrs after starting the thread on this forum I'd be the owner of an MX5.

I also never thought I'd be buying & swapping a Volvo as part of the journey....and that for one day and £375 I'd have a little roadster sat on the drive, a great little adventure behind me and a whole load of adventures ahead. Good friends thrown into the mix and it's certainly not something I'll be forgetting in a hurry.

Guess who, in all the rush & excitement, forgot his camera throughout?? Oh well, at least phones can capture the moment, even it not quite as well......





Dave having his turn at scaring ourselves silly with the bouncy castle suspension. Epic fun!



Oh...and if you were wondering what happened to the "smiley-toy-teddy-window-hanging-pokemon-type-whatchamacallit" - it now lives in the MX5. That's where it'll be staying I'm afraid...it's all part of the adventure, part of the story and part of the car now. The Teenage Dirtbag.

[stealthstylz]

What that needs is some NASCAR wheels

[leigh]

Sept 7, 2010 11:10:54 GMT stealthstylz said:

What that needs is some NASCAR wheels

Funny you should say that, i seen one with those Bassetts NASCAR looking wheels at the weekend looked very key indeed:

[stealthstylz]

They're not big enough for Bruce he needs at least 10" to touch the sides.

Matt

[cobblers]

Good work bruce, read this on MX5nuts.

I've got mine lowered now and it's like a different car - I saw you were fitting a hard top - What's the back window on the soft top like? Mine split when I decided to go for a drive with the top down on a cold night (Only after this did I learn you're supposed to zip the window open before putting the lid down)

[Mystery Machine]

No comment on the wheels guys....you'll just have to wait and see (might be a while though due to severe lack of funds right now!)

Sept 7, 2010 13:22:45 GMT cobblers said:

I've got mine lowered now and it's like a different car - I saw you were fitting a hard top - What's the back window on the soft top like? Mine split when I decided to go for a drive with the top down on a cold night (Only after this did I learn you're supposed to zip the window open before putting the lid down)

Yeah, I saw the new stance and it looks great.

The hard top isn't fitted yet, but my rear window is fine and I usually just drop the hood without unzipping the window. Now that it's getting colder I might make the extra effort to unzip it just to protect it. Hope you get yours sorted soon.



48hrs after picking the car up I headed bounced over to Westbury to M-Tech Automotive where Tim (Brat Man) works. The car came with 1 months MOT & tax remaining but I wanted to get a 'pre-MOT' checkover to see if there was anything else needed to get it through. I already knew about the bouncy castle rear suspension, the howling/wailing rear bearings, the (near non-existent) brake pads all round and the battle damaged rear fog light. I figured the badly repaired sills would be hiding a whole world of pain....but Tim was going to look for any other issues before I started ordering parts so that I had a chance of getting it sorted in time for the MOT proper.

Arrival at Westbury and straight into the MOT bay


Tim was just finishing a new engine management install on a Mitsy EVO


This was the first time I'd taken any shots of the car - not exactly great ones, but a start nontheless.






A closer look at those sills. Not pretty and probably a lot worse inside! Hopefully I'd have this in hand before the week is out.

[Mystery Machine]

While Tim was checking the car over I grabbed some shots of the 'general condition'. Some call it patina, some call it neglect, I call it the Teenage Dirtbag.

Notes left from the previous owner to remind him of what he was going to do to tidy it up. I don't think that was ever going to happen to be honest! Makes an unusual feature though...












As well as the 'history' of dents, scratches and holes....there is also the lovely paint peel occurring on some of the panels. The sign of poor paint repairs in the past:







I get quite a surprise when Tim gives me his verdict on the car: Very solid and nothing else wrong apart from the things already mentioned!

According to Tim, the underside is very tidy and very solid with only the outer sill ends showing any signs or rot/corrosion. Mechanically everything is good apart from the obvious 'zero gravity' rear suspension, the brakes and wheel bearings. Even the rattle I thought to be a loose heatshield turns out to be loose pads in the rear calipers.

All of which makes me very happy because I already had all these items lined up for replacement. It doesn't look like I need to spend any more!! RESULT!

This makes Mr Knobcheese very happy too.....




Next installment: getting stuff sorted.

[waveman1500]

Great result! This thread is making me want an MX-5. What a shame that they start from about 10 grand around here!

[nconst]

man i wish i never sold mine, everytime i see one i miss mine more

[Mystery Machine]

Thanks for the comments - here is the next installment:

Skip forward a few days to the weekend and the MX5 is ready for its next bit of TLC.

Up on the ramps and the brake pads are changed all round. Wheel bearings prove to be a little bit more difficult thanks to both driveshafts being seized solid in the hubs! I'll be returning to the driveshafts at a later point.

Ian (BiAS) arrives to have a look at the sills. He gets started on the offside sill and soon has the rear section completely cut away, along with all the various layers within! Only the rear end of this sill is rotten, but where the rust has taken hold, it's pretty rotten inside the rear end.

With a flat sheet of steel he works his magic by crafting a number of small repair panels and starts stitching everything back together in an amazing display of fabrication. I am really gutted that I forgot to photograph this bit because the before/during & after really were something to watch! With all the internal layers rebuilt in fresh steel he makes a new section to replace the big hole in the outer sill. Before you know it you can't tell what is old metal and what is new (i.e. perfect joins and even the original panel join/step under the door is replicated!)

The only pics I can find are of the car up in the air again the next morning with the new rear sill complete and ready to protect with some paint. These pics were actually taken for the 'Project X' build thread which I'll be starting soon, but I've cropped in so that you can see the '5 with the new, bare metal sill on display.





You can clearly make out the new metal in the shots. I guess you could call this restored rather than repaired?

Here is a shot taken a day or two later with the temporary protective paint applied. Having been pretty wet, the car is dirty already but you can clearly see the quality of the repair. If only I got some shots of what he did on the inside!


Next up will be the nearside sill which doesn't look anywhere near as bad. Ian had to head home before he had time to do this side so I'll be heading down to his in Torquay to get this side done. A trip to the coast and a repaired car = recipe for a good day out in my books!


Some shots of the car before any more work was done to it




Oh, and I picked up a hard top for the extortionate price of £130. It's a genuine Mazda one with heated rear screen. Whichever colour I'd have bought, I'll be painting it anyway so bright yellow wasn't a problem. I won't be using it on the car until I have sprayed it though.....way to much 'Noddy Mobil' going on for my liking!


Progress was generally a bit slow that weekend on the MX5 due to helping James (EightSix) sort out his track car:








Next step: Lows.....

[Steve]

;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

You know how i feel about this............

[cobblers]

Hey bruce, I've just bought a red hard top. I'll swap you, it'll save you painting yours:


;D ;D ;D

[Colonelk]

LOL what happened to that Cobblers?

And this is a cool little car for sure

[dbizzle]

This is one of those bookmarked build threads that I'm checking daily in the hope of new updates... ;D

[RobMorris]

EPIC - Bookmarked to follow your progress!
Great to see another MX5 build thread on here.
What direction are you taking?

[HARDCORE]

I've driven this car. It's hilarious ;D

[Mystery Machine]

Thanks again for all the comments.

Sorry for the delay in updating this thread, I've been away on holiday for two weeks and have been pretty busy since getting back! I hope to keep the updates coming for the time being....

Sorry if it's all boring at the moment, but with this car I seem to have photographed the mundane bits and forgot to get shots of the good bits! I guess I'm usually too carried away on the good bits to remember to take pics.

In this installment....we start with some breakfast. Another Area 52 great courtesy of Rich. We'd been drinking beer until stupid'O'clock, bbq'ing some cow, drinking more beer, stick/melting bits of metal together, drinking more beer then we all passed out. As anyone who has stayed at Hotel 52 will know, breakfast is usually high priority along with copious amounts of tea. Rich is a dab hand at getting the swine sandwiches on the go. Good man! (He's also good at bodging bits of pipe together to make random exhausts!! More of that in the next installment)


Since I had owned the MX5 for over a week now and covered a good few hundred miles in it I was getting this annoying feeling that something was wrong. I knew all about the 'Zebedee on acid' rear suspension and was able to deal with that, along with the 'American Werewolf in my rear hub' bearings but there was something else.....

....then it dawned on me - I was suffering from altitude sickness. The air is much thinner up there and I needed to do something about it. Time to get some lows.

Last shots of my 'Monster Truck' ride height before beating the car with a big stick


I could get a whole family in that rear arch gap!


Almost hitting the roof of the unit.


A quick measure for reference.

Front: 350mm


Rear: 360mm


Time to get some cheapie coilovers. Pronto.

[Mystery Machine]

Oh yes....and I managed to find a minute to put the name on it. The car feels a bit more complete now....