Thanks for the update Chris

, the timing should work out nicely, i've still got some prep work to the donor to get on with til the kits ready.

you may have trouble getting hold of me on my mobile. My mobiles getting repaired at the moment (hence the lack of pictures in my posts) i'll pm you my landline no.

Ok, been busy over the last few days,

Arches have been rolled

Boot, wheels, roof, tonneau and a few other bits have been sold

Stripped interior, seats, carpet and soundproofing

thoroughly cleaned carpet.

Purchased another pair of seats, (hoping to make a presentable set cobbled together from these and the original seats)

Hopfully i'll have the kit shortly so the real work can commence!


[IMG]<a href="http://s779.photobucket.com/user/Martyn_Neil_Jacobs/media/DSC_0002_zps6fc48522.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i779.photobucket.com/albums/yy78/Martyn_Neil_Jacobs/DSC_0002_zps6fc48522.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo DSC_0002_zps6fc48522.jpg"/></a>[/IMG]

empty interior

http://i779.photobucket.com/albums/y...ps429cb2b9.jpg

Been fairly busy for the last week or so,

I removed the leather from one of the surplus seats (passenger side) and replaced the leather on the best of the two drivers seats,

A little bit fiddly undoing all the metal upholstery fastners, well worth the effort, much easier and cheaper than trying to locate a V-spec tan seat with an undamaged drivers bolster!

http://i779.photobucket.com/albums/y...pse2f5517a.jpg

seats redyed

http://i779.photobucket.com/albums/y...ps2ac7d09c.jpg

On a slightly more important note, i also picked my Kit up at the weekend from Chris at tribute,

Had a few Hiccups with the transporter i hired, a 3.5l Vauxhaul luton Van Wouldn't hit 60mph and on the 3 1/2 hour journey home, it decided to snap the fan belt whilst at the dartford crossing!!!

Somehow i managed to get it home without a fan belt (and thus no power steering!) which was a lot of fun especially with the amount of mini roundabouts i had to navigate. and the van stalling everytime the revs dropped.

http://i779.photobucket.com/albums/y...psdc46f046.jpg

The wings and bumpers are all now removed and weve had a trial dry fit of the roll cage and kit, all seems in good order!

I keep meaning to try a seat repair like this, you have proved it can be done :becky: Well done, as you will never find a good tan leather drivers seat.

Been a whils since i updated my progress,


had a few days hard labour on the car,

i went for 215/55/R16 tyres (out of all the sizes available for 16x8 wheels these were the most available and reasonably priced)

as they say a picture paints a thousand words

As for the rear lights,

I didn't want replica 250 GTO lights / LR rear lights as i feel they make the kit look a bit more like a kit car.

I was going to go for some LED style hamburger lights, even after reading a lot of unfavourable comments, then i thought i'd settled on Mk 1 granada rear lights, then to my horror i noticed one of the forum members had already beat me to it!

then i found these bad boys!!!

http://i779.photobucket.com/albums/y...psa417eabe.jpg

bonus points if anyone can guess their origin!

http://i779.photobucket.com/albums/y...ps795e9895.jpg

clearer image

America or Cortina...

the front lights are LR defender aftermarket DRL headlamps, I'm fitting stainless lampguards over them for the vintage race look

http://i779.photobucket.com/albums/y...ps13cf1aae.jpg

the DRL's in the lower half look great against the headlamp cutouts, Not everyones cup of tea i know

Hopefully next week i will get some workshop space back and i can finish off the prep work,

If anyone knows of a good supplier of hubcentric spacers please let me know, looking at the rear arches i think i'll need at least 40mm each side to get the stance right, i've seen bolt on spacers in 50mm for over £150, i think thats a bit steep,

Nope....

If they are not from a BMW 2002 then I am a Dutchman.......

clearly you are not a dutchman!

Well spotted!

Got them off FleaBay for £65 the pair, the great thing with these lights as apposed to the mk1 granada lights i was considering is the reversing lights are built in saves me having to fit a seperate reversing light, keeps the back end tidy.

They are very neat and pretty, and suit the car perfectly. They are very "un-kit"

I bought my spacers, 50mm from memory, from freaky parts for about £90 (I think). Had to wait a few weeks.

Thanks, I'll check them out
:typing:

That's exactly what I need,

Well done with those rear lights, that's the cleanest look I've seen yet!

Very neat.

That's fantastic progress in 3 weeks!

You have beaten us to it with the BMW rear lights, we have 2 pairs in the workshop waiting to be used.

Thanks Chris

They say great minds think alike!

I was considering sticking a red bulb in one of the reversing lights to use as the fog light,
But I think it has to be a set distance from the tail/ brake lights to make it 100% legit,

I did take it for a brief blast up the road today, I seem to have some slight rubbing due to the increased wheel size, will probably need to cut back the inner arch fillers, might as well wait til I have the rear spacers.

Hopefully I'll have some workshop space available later in the week so I can tackle the wipers, boot lock and bonnet latch,

Until then I'm going to eBay a few items to try and generate the money for the spacers and wipers.

I didn't get much from selling the spare bits off. The hood complete was the only worthwhile bit at £90. Things like the boot lid, rear lights etc I just got a few pounds each so hardly worth the hassle of posting or waiting for people to collect.

has your mx5 been lowered at all. whats the diameter of the tyre your running. I quite like the combo. bin looking 16x8 and 16x7 and then what tyre to fit . 23inches ish maybe.

I believe the overall diameter of the wheels i. A shade under 27 inches
the suspension is completely standard, before I fitted the wheels I was planning on lowering, looking at it now, that won't be possible or necessary.

Running wheels and tyres this big will cause the speedometer to be fairly inaccurate ( about 7mph at 60mph) other than that it's just a matter of clearance
I'm fitting a double din Sat nav stereo which will help me keep an eye on my speed

The tyres are 215/55/16 - big and bouncy
wheels are 16x8 et20 offset all round, rears will be spaced 50mm each side

I've been looking at a few other builds, has anyone managed to use either the original bonnet or boot latch to latch the bonnet? I notice there's not a lot of room, so I would be cutting into the metal in front of the rad.

Most builds seem to use bonnet pins, I'd quite like to use the original bonnet release lever/cable

You might find your speedo is actually more accurate with the larger tyres. Most speedos over read by about 10% so you're typically travelling at about 54mph when it reads 60.

You can check how much difference your tyres will make to the speedo with this handy tool -

http://www.kouki.co.uk/utilities/vis...ize-calculator

Just enter your original and new tyre sizes and it'll tell you the difference. So long as the error isn't much more than 10% slower than actual speed you should be fine. Check it against your sat nav speed and you might be surprised.

er kouki says 30mph on dial you actually be doing 35.9 same nock on affect with 60 actual is 71. same amount of turns 19%further distance travelled. something like that. I think i'll need a gps thing too

Hmm, that's quite a big difference that could land you some unwelcome points.

There are companies that will recalibrate speedos, for a price, but I know one Sammio builder who just checked with a GPS and marked the speedo glass with a chinagraph pencil at the relevant points. Works for him...

I use http://www.willtheyfit.com which seems to think that 215/55x16 are 643mm dia (a tad over 25") but it's always best to use the tech spec of the tyres rather than the generic size as they can vary quite wildly.

Update time!

Finally i managed to get a mornings work done on the MX250

The petrol tank filler is extended, The shiny aston petrol cap is for the classic mini, about £15 from huddersfield spares

http://www.minispares-online.co.uk/c...-classic-mini/

it fits perfectly, requires slightly longer M4 grub screws than it is supplied with but it allows the original mx5 cap to be used inside. A modified mini fuel tank rubber is used as well so the neck can be fitted from above with countersunk screws but remain hidden under the rubber seal.

I also have a dummy filler neck which ive modifiel to allow it to fit to the original mx5 neck extension, this allows a locking mini cap to fit inside the aston cap, i'll fit this if / when someone robs my petrol!

http://www.minispares-online.co.uk/d...-classic-mini/

http://i779.photobucket.com/albums/y...ps3c4e04e3.jpg

Wiper arms arrived yesterday from www.motoringclassics.co.uk

http://www.motoringclassics.co.uk/wiper-arm/p2104

The 16" stainless blades came from ebay (boltonbits) who i have used a fair bit with mini parts and always send items quickly and can't be beaten on price..... not bad for £15 a pair

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/16-Stainle...ht_1813wt_1161

i will need to remove all the brightwork to get it polished before i wrap the car, the wipers are a little dull for my liking and could do with a few minutes on the polishing wheel!

http://i779.photobucket.com/albums/y...ps7177ba0d.jpg

The washer jet is an ajustable aftermarket stainless classic mini one. They come in pairs but have twin jets so i only fitted one

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CLASSIC-MI...#ht_272wt_1161