My job for tomorrow is to get the car ready for wrapping,

obviously that will involve removing all the bits ive been working so hard to fit! but it needs to be done to get it right first time.

I have quite a bit of some really good quality metalflake pink sparkle vinyl, left over from a nissan Juke we have just completed but i'm not sure it will bring out the best in the car!

http://i779.photobucket.com/albums/y...psac6f46c7.jpg

I agree that some parts are almost not worth selling, now that tribute make a 1 piece front end the wings can also be sold, .... i guess every little helps!

most were sold on ebay with 99p start just to clear my garage

Summary of parts sold and what they fetched,

Boot lid £4.80 :(

Soft top + tan tonneau £150 :)

Set of wheels with 3 good tyres (no centre caps) £30 :(

Set of 4 wheels with caps and good pirelli tyres £65 :l

Bonnet, Both wings, front bumper, rear bumper and all lights / headlamp motors £180 :)

Black Tonneau £38 :)

By my calculations this means the donor car set me back less than £100.

Thanks for the link to the wipers, just need to work out which size for the Z300s

Always love this view of the MX250 :bounce: Those light are great. Interested to see the wrap done.

Thanks for the wiper links, will place my order, not sure about the candy pink sparkly wrap though!

I think the wiper arms I have are 10 degrees cranked right, not 15 degrees as the link above, part number u77300

Happy to help

Ive just spent a week in dubai where 99% of the worlds 'wrapped' cars are (I'm guessing) seen a nice bugati veyron with a greeny/chrome wrap, looked the part. not sure on this 1 though.....

Brilliant. I bet that cost a few quid,

decent chromes cost up to £130 a metre, so I doubt I'll be doing that! I already have the vinyl for my car but I'm keeping it under wraps - excuse the pun

Chrome looks great but is a complete b****d to fit as its prone to discoloration when used on tight curves (which the mx250 has loads of!)

Some of them looked nice on the right car but that chrome rolls in my opinion they have just made a decent car look 'tacky'. with keeping the color 'under wraps' can you at least tell us if its going to be a standard finish or matt or chrome etc?....

Chrome is Soooo last year.

Leopard print is what it is at!

http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/...eelv9gtjpg.jpg

Ha ha,

I can safely say it won't be leopard print, I have do have Brown snakeskin, not enough to do an mx250 fortunately!

The vinyl I have is a pearlescent colour, that's all I'm saying

Today's efforts were not quite as fruitful as I'd liked.
Decided to make sure the car was driving sweet before I started stripping it.
Basically it had developed a strange idle problem, revs going up and down. Turned out to be a bad connection where I'd repositioned the fusebox,

With that sorted I then needed to cut out the rear arch liners I'd fibreglassed in, note to self..... Smaller tyres = no rubbing

Attatched the numberplates and took it for a cautious drive to the nearest petrol station, everything went well so I planted my foot on the way back, slight rubbing at drivers rear wheel when I hit a pot hole, I shall investigate further tomorrow

UPDATE time
 

After taking a good close look at the susspension components, it seems that one of my rear springs is sagging a little, due to the age of the car i thought it would be wise to replace both rear shocks and springs before i continue with the build.
i was going to invest in adjustable ride height, however i noticed all the adjustable kits lower the car from 20mm - 60mm, at their maximum adjustment, would still be 20mm lower than stock! i couldn't risk this being too low for the large wheels

so...

I ordered standard rear shocks and standard springs

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3010028725...84.m1439.l2648

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2710167145...84.m1439.l2649

there is an excellent guide here:

http://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread.php?t=403704

includes all the pictures, torques and nut sizes for a rapid job! get your WD40 out, there will almost certainly be a rusted in bolt or 2

If you suspect dodgy suspension components, I would recomend doing this before you fit the tribute kit, the upper mounts are located deep into the boot space, even deeper once the new rear is bonded in place!
not so much a problem if you have long arms!

the highlight of this job was probably the 4 hours spent removing the drivers side lower shock bolt, as the encapsulated nut decided it was going to demote itself to a regular nut, leaving a 5mm gap to squeeze the mig welder into weld it back on!

All is complete, ride height still looks a little wonky but it has been on axle stands for a week, i will take it for a spin tomorrow and see if it settles.

WD40 is probably the least effective penetrating fluid for the job :badgrin:

I have a stripped mx5 if anyone needs good s/h bits like dampers.

Ok,

it was actually easy ease I used, only as it was closer,

I took the car for a brief spin yesterday, the new shocks and springs have made a massive improvement, so much so i think i'll replace the fronts in the near future as well, absolutely NO rubbing on the rear.....

today the spacers arrived from www.freakyparts.co.uk

i went for 40mm wide, i also fitted inner arch liners made from rubber sheet

the pic below shows the R/H side with spacer, the L/H side without.

big difference!

Are you having cut-outs for the exhaust...

i haven't decided what route i will take for the exhaust, currently it consists of the standard mx-5 box with the tailpipe cut shorter with a 60 degree elbow clamped on to redirect the fumes!

I imagine i'll get a dual exit set up, going to try to avoid cutting out the rear end if possible,

a few people have recomended a custom exhaust shop (pipecraft) near me, i'll probably just hand the car to them and say "make it sound as good as it looks"

It is a very clean look, if its gonna make a nice noise, it might be nice to see where it comes from? maybe tucked away by the rear wheels?

After shed loads of Sanding and filling finally the wrapping has begun!

http://i779.photobucket.com/albums/y...psac599e53.jpg

http://i779.photobucket.com/albums/y...ps4318c7ac.jpg

the colour is a pearlescent white/green, the pictures don't really show off the green effect, hopefully it'll be more apparent when it ventures out into the sunlight!

Are you happy with the finish?

I'm really happy with the colour, the vinyl is a wet application vinyl, which makes it very time consuming to get right. the gelcoat took a lot of prep to get the curves right. I still ache from all the sanding!

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!

Looks great to me. I think white really suits the shape.

Got my mirrors wired up today (now the doors are finished)

I installed some BMW LED side repeaters into the wing mirrors to save me chopping a hole in the wing/fender sections. really pleased with them!

http://i779.photobucket.com/albums/y...psd9e17f26.jpg

We've got a few customers cars over the weekend and the start of next week so Hopefully (workshop space permitting) she will be ready for the road by next weekend,
http://i779.photobucket.com/albums/y...ps71260a7b.jpg

impressive work there! is it going to be all the same colour? any striping?

I think I've settled on some bright green viper stripes, with a black pin stripe at the edge, possibly some door numbers in a similar colour combo,

Stripes will add at least 20bhp I'm told!

http://i779.photobucket.com/albums/y...pse13313af.jpg

wrap currently 90% complete, hopefully will be finished before the weekend

Is this one piece? or sections... looks good.

As the vinyl only comes in 1.5m widths it's impossible to wrap an mx250 without a few joins, to keep them to a minimum the whole car was split down the middle, the main join in the centre will be under the stripe so shouldn't be noticeable, the bulbous rear arches were also done separately with a join at the sharp angle in line with the bottom of the Windows, this could have been avoided if the colour I chose was available in air release,

Tomorrow I'll get the rear screen back in and connected up and. Fit the grills,

http://i779.photobucket.com/albums/y...psb863bf45.jpg

just the skirts and the rear to finish now

Thats one fat booty!http://i779.photobucket.com/albums/y...ps54cb0646.jpg

thats the green that the stripes will be

That looks pretty nice! I don't know much about the art of wrap, do you not have any worries that in 2 or 3 years it will start to peel at the edges?
I have heared some horror stories!

As long as th edges are sealed nicely it should be okay, if you get dirt or moisture under the edges the vinyl is ruined very quickly, we tell all our customers to bring their vehicle straight back if they find any peeling or defects, if it's sorted early its not a problem! since my insurance stipulates that the vehicle needs to be garaged this should remain presentable for a good 5 years but In all likelihood I'll probably be bored of the colour in 2 - 3 years and will 're wrap it a different colour anyway, that's the beauty of vinyl.

Don't get me wrong, it's no replacement for a good paint job but a pro paint job will set you back a couple of grand, and a lot more for pearlescent effects, this has cost me a fraction of that!

Is the air release vinyl easier to use. ??. Thinking of trying some on a motorbike fairing

Lovely job! What stripe formation are you going for?