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The Car Thread


MadManMike

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It is the correct red, yes. That's what my car would have looked like 26 years ago. If you'd like to know what the incorrect red is, see the bottom part of the door and the ducktail, that's the parts I painted with the later "SU Classic Red", clearly a very different shade.

Unfortunately there's not an awful lot of paint left on it to be polished - it seems to shine up nice for a few days, then returns to this state. The bonnet is pink pretty much and it's had the life polished out of it.

This has made me determined to get a proper respray now, so this is definitely just temporary :)

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There's a few engineer types on here, so here's a brain teaser. Copied from MX-5 Forum on Facebook:

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So, here's one for the technically minded.

A few of you may remember I posted about shortening a gear stick in order to fit a gearknob that doesn't fit the standard length.I currently have the knob fitted using a 3" thread extender, which makes the shift massively too long (The knob almost hits the stereo and feels horrible too).

As standard, the thread on the stick isn't long enough to reach the thread inside the knob, as the knob is quite long and the tapered part of the stick hits the knob. I had the idea of chopping the top off the standard stick, as I was led to believe it had the same thread underneath, so that's what you can see in the attached photo.

Underneath is what I expected to see, but unfortunately the thread is smaller than the original thread. It's not small enough that I could put some kind of adaptor in the knob, which was my first thought.

The options as I see it are to either:

1) Chop the stick again nearer the ball at the bottom and weld on a length of threaded bar

2) Machine up a thread adaptor, but this will add length that I've been trying to remove, so doesn't solve the problem.

Any other ideas? Maybe some sort of material I could fill the knob with and then tap the thread to match the thread on the bottom half of the stick?

 

(And yes, the easiest way is to use a different knob, but this isn't an option!)

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Sam, that blows man. Gutting for the guy. Have you dropped the original lump back in, or are you going to be working on the rattly block trying to put things right?

 

Are those panels the original paint code/colour then, Mike? If so it really shows how the rest have changed with age! Time to build a DIY spray setup and have a crack yourself, perhaps?

 

In Leon news: Shimmed the gearbox to try and eliminate nasty drivetrain rattle. No dice. 

Found cause of overboost issue (which I think may be the cause of the hesitation/stutter on acceleration) - N75 nipple was broken. If it's going to be a pain, I may as well use the excuse to level up so new one ordered, and going to use the excuse to pull the turbo out and sort the snapped stud in the adapter and possibly an anti-surge compressor wheel to help down the line too while I'm at it.

 

Edit; Apparently I didn't see this page before replying to stuff on the last. My bad.

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2 minutes ago, Luke Rainbird said:

Are those panels the original paint code/colour then, Mike? If so it really shows how the rest have changed with age! Time to build a DIY spray setup and have a crack yourself, perhaps?

Yep, that's the correct SU Classic Red. The car has clearly lots of touch ups over the years, so there's many different shades, but that's what it should look like.

My plan is the respray the drivers door and see how that comes out, if it almost matches the rear panel, I'll do all of them one by one. The tricky bit seems to be finding the right SU Classic Red.

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You could buy one of these mike, or do you not want a short shift? (mx5's aren't exactly crying out for one unless you extend the stick)

https://www.mx5parts.co.uk/quick-shift-mk1-25-p-556.html

If you don't mind the fact it'd be pretty permenant, filling the knobs thread with epoxy would be strong enough to take a new thread, especially if you used an epoxy with some structural fillers (like chemical metal). 

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That fits the bill perfectly, apart from being £125. That's what made me source this spare stick for £10 and set out to butcher it.

My initial plan was to chop the stick as seen above, then continue to use my 3" extension so that it 1) looks shiny and 2) remains almost the original length.

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On 10/11/2017 at 9:13 PM, MadManMike said:

Just realised I posted on FB, but not here, so some of you will already know...

Anyway, I got a call to say my car is ready. It failed on nothing this time and nothing needed fixing, lol. Scamming twats basically realised I knew what I was on about and decided that all the problems were no longer problems.

Obviously good news, but annoying that I've had so much hassle. I could have collected it last week if they weren't trying to con me.

Interesting that they managed to put 10,000km on it between the second fail and the pass test... 

10k.thumb.jpg.8d3920a742f4963b81ad47816da7e3d2.jpg

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I can't say I'd noticed the price, that is a bit steep! How much smaller is the thread on the lower section? You may be able to helicoil it down to the right thread to suit the lower portion of the stick if it's close.

My cage is coming along, I've got the main hoop, front legs and windscreen bar tacked into their final place, dropped the roof X bracing off to be bent, and cut and marked up the door bars and a-pillar supports ready to drop them off for bending. 

Once the roof bracing's back from bending (it should be done tomorrow) I can drop the cage through the holes in the floor and fully weld all the joints at roof-level. 

The tape's to work out the tube position/routing. 

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I also realised I need to find a new seat, the one I've got's designed to be sat more upright than I can get away with (if I want any headroom), so when I lean it back enough my knees get kicked up too high. I don't suppose any of you MX5 guys have any experience with seats that suit a low roof line?

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Elise seats do seem popular, but I don't think they're enough of a true bucket for what I'm after, plus I'm going to be using 6 point harnesses, which I don't think any of them work with. 

I fitted a set of sprints to someone's mini a while back and they were nice seats, but I want something composite really, and I remember them suiting the mini well, which means they're probably a bit upright for the 924. 

In quite liking the look of some of the cobras, but I'm not sure how well they'd suit being laid back. The Imola looks like it might work, but it's hard to tell from photos alone, and I'm not sure about width for me (although in a pretty average sized guy.)

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I fixed the unsuccessful fix I attempted on the CRX this evening. 

45 mins or so saw the engine removed, head already removed and fit onto what is the cars original bottom end. 

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Said new engine assembled, new timing belt and water pump, head gasket, RPC carbon Kevlar clutch, Y2 short ratio box. 

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Engine will all ancillaries on its way in. Really smooth swap with no hassle. 

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And finally complete. Quick turn over without the injectors plugged in got some oil round the motor before first start. Plugged them in, started first turn of the key. Dizzy timing set after it came off fast idle, runs spot on and sounds beautifully smooth as Honda motors should. Great fun playing with the old B series engines again :) 

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