It's been a while since my last post, but I've been busy doing all the stuff underneath the car - sorting rust and undersealing, and have also fitted some adjustable coilovers (that wasn't easy as all the front roller links wouldn't budge and needed to be ground off.
Anyway, I'm nearly at the point of actually doing some work on the kit again.

This may be a bit of a naïive question, but do the front wing extenders, rear parcel shelf and boot extender need painting before fixing to the car?
If so, do you leave the surfaces which will be bonded unpainted?
Is there any particular type of primer / paint that works better with fibreglass?

Thanks for any pointers!

Wing extenders no, boot extender no. They won't be visable when the kit is fitted.

what i do is (2 pack ) acid etch primer on first off leave to dry dont flat off, then apply high build primer filler flatted off between coats, 2or3 should do it, to build up a good layer so you have a decent thickness then guide coat (matt black aerosol ) flat off again fill any pin holes that are visible with stopper,not filler, flat off then apply coulor basically treat it as you would steel. any flexible/bendy parts you can put a addative in that keeps the
paint flexible when dry ps use a good face mask its nasty stuff

Thanks for your help.

This weekend I've actually started to do some 'kit bits', but I have 3 questions already, so hoping some people can help.
Here goes with Q1:-

What do I need to remove in the top windscreen area. The seal looks to be one piece, so I need to cut it but where? The blue line on the attached image, shows a sort of natural point for cutting, but does it need to be further down the a-pillar?
Do I need to take the trim pieces off. I'm trying to avoid taking the A-pillar trims off, but it looks like the header trim can be removed separately (at the red line). DO I need to remove this?


http://i1042.photobucket.com/albums/...psaaszkyd6.jpg

Not sure that the picture worked in the last post, so attached here

Question 2:
The roll cage is not fitting quite right. I think it is the centre mounting points rear of the doors. The mounts need to go slightly more rearward but can't because there is a raised area of metal. Has anyone else had this issue? I thing the answer is to grind a few mm off the rear edge of the centre mounting feet, but wanted to check if others have had to do the same? (My MX5 is a Mk2.5).

Q3 - Front wing extenders:

I have trial fitted the front wing extender and it does not seem to be naturally fitting well, so I just wanted to clarify the following

(i) there is a lip on the inboard side of the top rail (see picture). Does the wing extender fit on this, or does it need to be bent over / flattened?
(ii) In the picture with the wing extender in place, it fouls on the metal on the top left hand corner. Do I need to cut round this part or is it okay?


http://i1042.photobucket.com/albums/...ps5qfuj1pa.jpg

http://i1042.photobucket.com/albums/...psv60jbahs.jpg

Photos:

I did have to fettle my roll cage slightly, no idea if it was the car out of true or the cage.
The wing extenders were just bolted on without modification or seam hammering.

Not sure about the rubbers, I did it on a Mk1 which looks different I think.

Thanks Landmannnn. What tool did you use to fettle the rollcage - did you just use an angle grinder an cutting disc?

Any mark 2 builders out there that can help with the roof rubber question?

Angle grinder. Do lots of measurement of the cage and the car first, now I remember that I had a broken front spring which put the car slightly out.

On the wing extenders, I fitted mine on to a Mk2. I didn't flatten the lip, just bolted through it. I also bolted through the bar at the top to give the extenders some extra support.

The kit I had was for the Mk1 so when trying to fit the front end I had to take out some quite large lumps of GRP to get it to sit where I wanted. I think the Mk2 kit has addressed these problems.

On the roof, can't help as I made the convertible although when I fitted the hardtop I just cut the rubbers and tucked them back in then stuck the bit I had cut out across the middle to make it look finished.

On the 2 I have put together , I flattened those areas before bolting the wing extenders on ...

I am not surprised that the rollcage doesn't fit every car every time without a bit of fettling ...a fully welded rollbar , no matter how its welded will want to move whilst its bolted to its jig , if you weld a bit of tube , as you roll around it , you can see it move due to heat ...when you release them from the jig , sometimes they will 'spring' a little ..add into the equation repaired cars , pattern panels , slightly twisted cars etc etc ....and things will often be slightly misaligned .. opening up some holes a little or forcing or relieving it with a grinder will compensate for the slight irregularities

Thanks for all of the comments. Appreciate the help.

Got the rollbar on at the weekend. Cut a few mm out of the rear of the B Pillar Feet, which allowed it to move slightly more rearwards.
Still had a lot of trouble to get the front windshield bolts in as the feet were slightly too close together. Had my son pulling and pushing, but we couldn't get it to flex enough. In the end, I put a bolt in the left side, put some tape around a screwdriver head and levered the foot on the right side using the hole for the bolt. Whilst I did that, my son put a bolt in the other right hand hole. Then it was easy to get the other two bolts in.

I also did flatten the lip for the front wing extenders. It was actually pretty easy using some pliers using them at 45 degrees so that I could get as wide a lateral area as possible with each turn.

I've been looking at the rear boot extender. A few questions here
- On the mk2, I have a wooden baton under the boot extender that should sit on the rear crash can, but doesn't because it is prevented from doing so by the support flanges. I assume that I need to cut slots to allow the boot extender to move forward more?
- what are the points where I should fix and glue? should I glue the baton to the crash can or is there a way to mechanically fix it?
- there will still be gaps between the extender and the rear boot, should I use fibreglass matting to bridge these gaps?

On the MK1 I glassed the gaps.

I have PMd you Darren.

Hi all,

been making steady progress over the last month or two. Have been trial fitting the rear clamshell and have nearly got it how I want it to sit.

One issue that I still have is that the pods behind the rear wheels are fouling on the rear wing lip. Again, did any Mk2 builders have the same issue? If so how did you get round it?

http://i1042.photobucket.com/albums/...psul796m2g.jpg

http://i1042.photobucket.com/albums/...psa2jsy6pm.jpg

It's been a pivotal moment in the build this weekend. In theory, before now, I could have reversed everything I've done and put the car back to its original MX5 specification.

BUT, this weekend, my friend Brian and I had a go at the rear wheel arches. I had tried (briefly) to turn them up, but it wasn't pretty and was hard work even to turn the lip up. So instead, we
- drilled the exixting spot welds
- cut out approx. 4cm from the outer wheelarch
- separated the cut outer panel piece
- cut 1-2 cm from the inner wheelarch
- rolled the inner wheelarch over the outer
- spot welded the two back together

This took the wheelarch up to be pretty much flush with the maximum height.

http://i1042.photobucket.com/albums/...psyyggioy0.jpg

http://i1042.photobucket.com/albums/...pshldzlfg7.jpg


Previous test fits of the rear clamshell had shown that the ducts behind the rear wheel arch were fouling on the Mk2 bodywork and not allowing the kit to sit inboard enough.

To fix this we
- made a cut at the forward edge of the bodywork where the duct touched
- then knocked the panel inwards (because of the lip, this would not have been easy without the cut and we think it would have distorted quite a lot of the panel)
- then made a template and fabricated a small filler panel and welded in place.

http://i1042.photobucket.com/albums/...psguggfrcv.jpg


So to date - work completed:-
- all mx5 parts not needed removed
- front and rear calipers and discs changed
- front chassis rails repaired and undersealed
- other areas of rust treated
- adjustable shocks and lowered springs fitted all round (ARB links were a nightmare and had to cut all four off and fit new ones)
- inner wing extenders cut, painted and trial fitted
- front wings cut and re-fitted
- roll bar painted and fitted
- clamshell de-waxed, seam lines sanded, also initial general sanding
- rear boot extender, parcel shelf and clamshell dry fitted. Much fettling to get to sit correctly / find issues
- rear wheel arches cut and r-welded
- indents for rear ducts cut and re-welded

Attention over the coming weeks will be on the mx5 boot, boot extender and rear parcel shelf. Generally need to sand, make tidy, route wires, fill gaps, paint etc.