A tale of two red slugs
 

Time to get a document happening here! First, a bit of a condensed timeline up to this point.

July 2009, and suddenly getting so interested in purchasing an MX5 was a bit of a mystery even to me. Driving was at that point really just a means to get around, and my BG Protoge (affectionately named 'Dildo') was not a great point of interest for me beyond making sure it ran.
My dad was visiting me and we somehow got to talking about cars. He has a Lotus Elan +2 and a Morgan Plus 4 (neither of which are going... big projects in my future!) and I think I was taken with the fact that the MX5 had so much of the Elan in it, and were so affordable. There was also so many things you could do to these cars, I started to see there was much fun I could have with one of these.

I didn't shop around as hard as I might have and ended up buying the cheapest one I found in my city of Brisbane, a Classic Red '91, no power steering or A/C, 240k original kilometres but with a replaced motor with less than 100k kilometres on it, 16" Enkei Racing S and very stiff suspension. A car nut was born.

Here it be as I purchased it except for a serious wash and polish:
https://www.miataforumz.com/attachme...ine=1315272561

Within a week (on the very day after purchase I went to sort out the changeover in registration in fact!) the car suddenly exhibited some severe loss of power weirdness.
It was taken for some servicing love to the local MX5 specialist MX5 Plus who discovered it had two quite pitted camshafts in it that had metal added to them at some point in the past to change the profile.
https://www.miataforumz.com/attachme...ine=1315272561

Replaced the cams with two good condition stockies, gave it some new brakes and the car was very solid again.

Lots of driving it and lots of little mods here and there.
By Christmas 2010 I had a few things on it;
full SuperPro polyurethane suspension bushes
Rod Millen front lip (I like the deign of this one and its a bit uncommon)
15x7 +36 Watanabe F8's
ARC chamber and MX5 Mania cowl intake (love love love the improvements in sound :o. Not much more in the way of real power but I definitely think throttle response is much improved with these toys.)
Replaced the stock exhaust with a Trust catback. The mild steel pipe on this also broke so had MX5 Plus make a custom pipe and resonator to attach to the Trust muffler.
Rear subframe brace fabricated by one of my fellow MX5 nuts.
Blue Star AWD gauges, AWD needle caps, Zoom handbrake handle and Mazda aluminium shift knob, Roadster sill plates.
Mazdaspeed 360mm steering wheel.
Swapped the ratty softop for an NB glass one.
East Coast Miata side mirrors.
Replaced the stock shocks and lowered springs with FCM bumpstops and top hats, and old set of Clubman Bilsteins and King springs. Some things were better with this, some things worse. Ride height was worse. Stiffness was the same. Ride was slightly better.

https://www.miataforumz.com/attachme...ine=1315272561
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Christmas 2010 I drove it to Melbourne with my friend (the Doc) who was buying a Jaguar. I'd been trying hard to convince him to get an MX5 instead but he was adament that because several of us already owned MX5's he didn't need one, and that he got to have all the fun with them working on mine.

We ended up driving back without the Jag as it decided to have a coilpack issue and being Christmas, couldn't be looked at til after the holidays :(

Over a week we drove 4300 kilometres and I tried to cram in as many interesting twisty roads as I could. The 5, while two stiff for some roads, performed admirably and did not exhibit a single issue, so all our work in the upkeep had paid off.

https://www.miataforumz.com/attachme...ine=1315272561
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We concluded after the trip that for that sort of thing the car definitely needs A/C (it was the height of summer here) and the suspension still needs work.

A few months after that most excellent roadtrip, the Doc suddenly got interested in buying an MX5. I guess actually driving one proper like changed his mind :D

March 2011 and he has gone out and purchased a very cheap Classic Red NA8, 320k kilometres, a shitty softop but with a hardtop, powersteering and A/C, some apparent overheating issues, and otherwise stock as a rock.

https://www.miataforumz.com/attachme...ine=1315272561

The plan was to fix up the NA8 into my daily and roadtrip driven car, swapping everything we can from the NA6, and transform the NA6 into a more dedicated track toy.

The overheating issues had apparently been fixed before we got it but it was still behaving a bit weird, compression was down, and it did get a bit hot. So we simply swapped out the motor for another one, and got a new stock radiator in there as well, and while we were at it we put in a lightweight flywheel.

https://www.miataforumz.com/attachme...ine=1315272561
https://www.miataforumz.com/attachme...ine=1315272561

Motor woes rectified.

https://www.miataforumz.com/attachme...ine=1315272561

Also stripped out the rather smelly interior and replaced with a good secondhand set of stuff acquired from other MX5 pals.
https://www.miataforumz.com/attachme...ine=1315272561

Smelliness is not *quite* all gone... I think I may need to replace the seats as well.
Still going on the interior action at this stage. I have finished the gauges with the second set of AWD and RS Refine toys. Am still working on new doorcards which I've got a bit more bling for.

https://www.miataforumz.com/attachme...ine=1315272561

The NA8 now has a set of coilovers and a 24mm adjustable front sway, and handles pretty damn good.

Now that all that stuff is done I'm setting my sights on a DIY Megasquirt. Rather than get intake toys and stuff for the stock motor I'll be going straight to the computer.

The long term goal for me has always been a supercharger, and once I'm over the megasquirt hump I can begin to plan out whacking in an M62. I'll get the original motor going again for it and do some work to the head.
I've been weathering 'gay' 'old man' and 'midlife crisis' comments ever since I bought a 5 so weathering 'should have gone turbo' comments will be a breeze! :D

As for the NA6... we have a mildly built B6 with a turbo and intercooler ready to go into that car. We've got a Kaaz LSD and NA8 driveshafts, and just need a set of NA8 brakes at this stage to get moving on a swap in this car.

And thats pretty much it up to this point!

Not a bad little story, good write UP!

Very entertaining. I enjoyed the pictures as well.

Thanks for sharing.

I think I'm liking that front lip. At first I was like... eh. But now I'm like... not bad.

I am going out on a limb to suggest that the camshaft weld job was not done properly.

Top quality Chinese back alley stick welding. I'm sure they spared no expense and used top quality coat hangers for welding rods. :)

Yes an extremely shonky job on the cams there :bang:

Its cold and blowing a gale outside dammit and all I wanted to do today was wash the car. Oh well continue work on door action and here's some work in progress.

I'm doing a recover of the door panels, last few days it has been work on the door crashpads.

Pulled the door apart easy enough and the fibreboard cards are really crappy so its worth making new ones anyway.

Stripping apart the crashpad for a new covering has been painful. the vinyl is attached to the plastic crashpad piece by really thick double sided tape which gives the pad that little bit of squishiness. Cleaning it off has been laborious and horrible, and combination of some acetone and heat gun and wearing down my fingers peeling it off.

https://www.miataforumz.com/attachme...ine=1315627750

The messy looking part in the wedge was a bit of a failure section where I used too much acetone but it didn't melt the plastic much and its cleaned and smoothed out.

I used some carpet underlay I found at Spotlight for the padding part. Its not too thick and just enough padding. Attached it to the plastic piece with a spray adhesive and trimmed down the edges.

https://www.miataforumz.com/attachme...ine=1315627750

Then have been using liquid nails to attach the material. I attached along the bottom first and let it dry conpletely before starting on the top edge so that i could stretch uit just a little without pulling away the glued bit.

https://www.miataforumz.com/attachme...ine=1315627750

https://www.miataforumz.com/attachme...ine=1315627750

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Now have to let this fully dry before attempting to attach the material to the front wedge piece and thats one crashpad down. Not looking forward to cleaning up the other one :roll: :lol:

The front lip is a Rod Millen lip. I have one on my car as well. It's a rare part as us 2 and a FM customer are the only 3 I've ever seen pics of.

One finished suede door crashpad. Managed to get a small amount of glue on the visible side... bummer.

https://www.miataforumz.com/attachme...ine=1315900747

Also covered in suede the small dash crashpad on the drivers side today. Its not as nice a job as I would have liked, as it was pretty difficult to stretch cleanly over the complex shape of that piece. I might have another go on another crashpad piece later on. Hopefully the longe passenger side piece goes better.

Surprise visit from the courier today...

https://www.miataforumz.com/attachme...ine=1316569469

Tein Flex with EDFC which the Doc has bought for the NA6... I wish they were going on my car! :D Courtesy of 949Racing.

The NA8 has Yellow Speed Racing coilovers, which are cheapies but we wanted to see what adjustable toys were like before splashing on the more expensive Teins, and get an idea of spring rates. The Yellow Speeds are pretty decent I think for the price point. The fronts are brilliant but I haven't really dialed in the rears yet, will have to adjust now spring preload to try and set them up nicer.

Finished drilling holes in some MDF for the new doorcards, am about to paint them and I might get one covered today if I'm lucky.