Tom's 182 and 197

[magic354]

So having not written about cars in what feels like forever now, I have decided to merge my MX5 build thread from MX5Nutz onto the back of this thread, making it more of a general Tom's Cars (a-la-Mossy). So whilst it may be completely out of chronological order, here it goes!!

Alongside my Renault Sports I have have also owned a couple of Mk1 MX5s, the first of which I have owned since December 2014 and the second as a stop gap car for a few months. The majority of this thread shall be about my first MX5, a 1996 Gleneagles Special Edition - a car which I absolutely love (and frequently hate in equal measures) and will probably never part ways with (spoiler alert, until I get fed up with rust!). So... onto the car:

I came across the ol'5 completely by chance on the trade-in-to-clear stock of the local Skoda garage my Dad has bought a few cars from. I had always admired the Mk1 MX5s and looked to them as the modern classic car, reliable, run to drive and not crazy expensive. I called up our friendly sales contact and asked him to hold the car until I could get down to view the car. Whilst everyone always says 'don't buy the first one you see' etc. I did exactly that and bought it after a 'thorough' inspection and brief test drive. I mean - pop up headlights, can you really argue with that? I did a fairly comprehensive mechanical inspection and did the very best structural.body inspection I could - everything looked straight enough for a nearly 20 year old car and at the price point I couldn't really complain. A deal was done and I drove it home.

The Gleneagles is a bit of a special edition (and one of many special editions it seems). An otherwise standard 1.8 but with lovely Montego Blue paint, Tan leather seats, leather steering wheel, funny bits of tartan on the gearshift and tonneau cover and a walnut effect dash. Very 'old man'. Anyway, 77k miles, 5 owners and here we go:

I stuck her away in the garage for the winter and when March came around I took out a second insurance policy and started driving her. We had also just got the Abarth around this time so see below obligatory side-by-side shot.

Actually an interesting one, both cars are probably around about the same weight, on-paper only 5bhp apart but very different driving experiences and both fun in their own right.

Anyway... at the time I had a 1.4 Clio that I was using as a daily and I was living away at university so the Mazda got used when I was back home for the odd weekends. I think I did around 800 local miles of local driving before then taking it back off the road and starting the 'restoration' as such. All the work started in August 2015 and I didn't drive her again until May 2016 (!!!). I used my Clio as the daily in this time, then sold that on to a family friend and bought back my old first car (02 plate Nissan Micra, 59bhp beast!), and I used the Micra until December 2015 when I spotted a super cheap 1991 1.6 MX5, which a train to Hudderfields later became my new daily, I shifted the Micra on Fleabay and ran the 1.6 until the Gleneagles was finished.

Onto the 'restoration'...

 

[magic354]

The idea was this would be the car I was going to 'learn to spanner' on, I didn't really have a plan or schedule for the car, I just started where I thought best and worked my way through various aspects.

The first job was to remove the seats from the interior and expose circa 20 years worth of dirt, rubbish, dead skin and god knows what else:

The seats were not looking so great with areas of built up dirt and bolster wear so I decided to send these off to be deep cleaned, have the foam steamed and a repair panel stitched into the worn areas. It was fairly expensive and I was very hesitant to drop so much money on them - my Dad convinced me it was a good idea and I bite the bullet, below before images:

Next, as the seats were out I gave the carpet a thorough vacuum and then rented a commercial type carpet cleaner from the local DIY store. It was only 18 quid for the afternoon and worked a treat! Fairly typical wet-vac but seemed to be pulling a hella lot of dirt from the carpet given the colour of the water when I was frequently changing the tank. I applied carpet cleaner liberally to the entire carpeted interior (seat well, foot space, seat back and parcel shelf), worked it in with a stiff brush and then extracted all the moisture with the wet-vac. Repeat.

Once I was finished the carpets were still slightly damp so I removed everything that was easily removable to bring it into the house to dry thoroughly, the rest of the carpet I propped up in the air (in the garage) to allow it to dry properly on both sides. Whilst the carpet was drying I turned my attention to some interior trim panels, removing the surface rust, applying a rust converter and then coating them with Zinc 182:

I really like this stuff, paints on easy and I reckon it gives a good layer of protection. I painted the interior metal panels around the parcel shelf area along with some covers that covered various access holes in the body.

Next on the list was to fit some chassis rails I have purchased to stiffen up the chassis. Under the chassis of the car there runs two box section designed to add some torsional rigidity to the chassis in the absence of a roof. These frequently get damaged by speed bumps or used as jacking points, bending them out of shape. A popular modification is to add a steel 'U' section to strengthen the chassis rails, along with providing some protection as well. First step was to make sure the rails were sealed properly, so I added two coats of the Zinc 182:

And then with some Hammerite Underbody Seal, which is quite thick but again goes one very easy and dries to a slight tacky/oily finish:

And then finally, after drilling various holes through the chassis floor for the mounting bolts I had the rails installed:

Reasonably easy install, although a little worrying drilling through the chassis floor!

Next it was on to the gearbox. The shifter boots were shot and I had no evidence of a gearbox oil change. Whilst the MX5 gearbox is often revelled as having a beautiful shift, a worn boot/old oil can really hinder this so on I went to drain the fluid from the box and shifter turret:

New oil, new turret oil and new boots. Happy days. Next it was onto the pedals, I picked up some covers from IL Motorsport. Absolute gugger to install the brake and clutch pedals, bloody nasty job but got them on in the end. Throttle and foot rest was nice and easy mind you. These look great here, but from what I have seen the plastic is wearing fairly quickly to be honest, either way, they were much smarter than the original pedals.

You can also see an area of the carpet which is wearing very thin - I suspect the car was ran without floor mats at some point, which is a shame as it is once piece that covers the entire interior floor and it is a horrible job to swap it over. I re-installed all the interior panels I had painted, just left these with two coats of Zinc, I quite like the finish:

With the carpet finally dry and clean, I then set about sealing it with this stuff, as you have probably noticed I have quite the loyalty for Chemical Guys products:

I've always used this on carpets and mats, I rather like it. Reinstalled the carpets, looking pretty fresh:

Original mat in for now, but new chrome (gangsta) sill plates fitted. Left the protective plastic on whilst the car was still being worked on with the intention of removing these once the car was 'finished', of course, these are still on...

Fast forward a couple of weeks and the seats had arrived back from their clean up/repair:

The repairs look great but I guess I was expecting them to look a little 'cleaner', I don't know. All in they were £275, my Dad still reckons they were money well spent. Anyway - back in they went.

They do look pretty good once they were back in I suppose......

Moving on, I turned my attention to the hood. I knew at some stage I would have to get a new one fitted, but I was curious to see what I could do with it so then I did a test spot with the below product; I usually use it on tyres and exterior trim, but I got curious as to what it would do to the hood.

The test spot worked out well and a tiny amount of product was covering such a big surface area I just kept going!

Finished it off and was quite pleased. I would need to install a new hood anyway but I thought that will make it a little more presentable until I do. The rear window was bothering me too and I could hardly see through it.

It also had a couple of cracks which were covered with black duct tape. I pealed off the duck tape from the outside and got to work. Set about it with some toothpaste, baking soda and lots of elbow grease:

Worked out quite well in the end, I have also seen people use machine polished with a light compound to a similar effect:

Finished it off with some clear lens repair tape so it wasn't quite as obvious.

At least I could see behind me now!

 

[magic354]

Once the hood was done I made a start on the windows. The spec included wonderfully simple manual windows but sadly the drivers side was a bit stiff and the passenger side was in a real state; when you got down to about 1/2 way this horrible metal grinding noise would start and the mechanism would lock up. So... got the door card off:

Then took the window and regulator out:

Then I took the regulator apart (see persuasion tool):

That was a pig of a job. I couldn't find any instructions for how to do this so was just having to figure it all out myself. The cables were a little rusty, but overall not actually that bad. The issue is that they had become crossed on the winding unit and therefore were locking up about half way through the motion. I got them back on and seated correctly, gave everything a good greasing, tested the regulator many times and all seemed well. Put everything back into the car and it worked great! Result! I did the same on the drivers side and gave everything a good grease and that seems to free everything up.

Over 2 years later and I can confirm both windows are still working perfectly...

Embarrassingly I managed to crack my bumper which would have to be repaired (it seems I hadn't quite realised just how long that bonnet is yet) and the original rad was well due past needing replacing I decided I would take the bumper off for easy access- especially when taking on the cambelt in due time as well. Somehow decided that if the bumper was coming off I may as well take the wings off too and get rid of any potential rust that may be under there. On a side note, you can just about make out my Dad's Octavia vRS, I think that was the second one he had, a facelift, bloody brilliant car. Anyway, ended up like this (that piece of foam actually plays a vital role in aligning the bumper):

The bottom of the wings were indeed a little rusty but not rotten and I am glad I stripped them off:

Although underneath was still pretty tidy:

With a little bit of surface rust on the bottom of the sill:

And then quite a lot happened without me taking any photos. One morning I just got really stuck in and didn't even think to stop to take photos. I removed the rad, and started stripping the top/front of the engine in preparation for a cambelt change.

Then I decided whilst I was there I may as well do some preventative maintenance so I replaced: both camshaft seals, water pump, front crank seal, idler pulley, tensioner pulley, cambelt, power steering belt, aux belt, rocker cover gasket, CAS O-ring, a full set of silicone hoses and a larger aluminium rad! Took me many, many hours as I had never worked on a car before so was learning everything as I went along but it was all fairly straightforward actually! Anyway, to here in the end, looking pretty good so far:

Feeling pretty good with myself so far! More to follow soon...

 

[Archiebald]

Love the 5, it's only when you drive one that you can appreciate how much fun they are

 

[magic354]

Love the 5, it's only when you drive one that you can appreciate how much fun they are

I definitely agree, I've thoroughly enjoyed all the variations I've driven (Mk1, 3 and 4). Sadly seems there are fewer and fewer nice Mk1s around these days