Just another MX250 build! (Pic heavy!)
 

Hey guys,

So I've been lurking around the forum for almost two years now, with my eyes solely on one car - the mx250. I've read post by post through every build thread I could find on here, and got many ideas from each one in turn. I bought my donor (1995 eunos) around a year ago now, and have been using it as my daily driver since. As I need it for my daily, I will be "prepping" the kit for, I imagine, a month or two before taking a week off work to hit it in one big go.

So, the reason I haven't bought the kit itself yet, frustratingly, was for a few reasons. The main reason being lack of funds. We are just about to complete on our second house, and as I have been paying out for all the fees for everything thus far, my wife has "allowed" me the money back on completion, meaning I will finally have the money to get the damn thing!

My aim is not to make a ferrari, not by any means. I love the Tribute brand, I think Chris does fantastic work and to be quite frank I think he could be alot more greedy than he is. The kit is fantastically priced, I certainly wouldn't have even been able to THINK about a build if the kit wasn't so attainable-y(?) priced! And I also love Mazda. My RX8 was without doubt some of the most fun I have ever had driving. I love the new sports cars they continue to make, and I love the old ones that just keep giving. The miata being one of them. For that reason I still want it to remain a "Mazda".

So until the house goes through and I can buy the kit, I have started working on the interior! While I want a classic car look on the outside, I don't want to make it look like a "classic" inside exactly, I want a retro, luxury feel. Something with hints of the mazda origin, but still the feel of a car that could be worth £100k.

I welcome all advice, compliments, critiques, etc.

I'll try and document everything as well as possible, but for the most part I only have my iphone with me most of the time, and I'm pretty damn forgetful!

~Tyno

So I've decided to wrap the majority of the interior in leather. I'll be buying the leather piece by piece, pre-stitched. I've done a few bits of wrapping before, however not with glue and leather.

So heres what the car looked like before any modifcations
http://car-from-uk.com/ebay/carphoto...ebay837164.jpg


I decided I'd start with the centre console, as I'm going a few modifications as I go.

Here's the leather I bought, checked against the centre console for fit.
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...e/IMG_0026.jpg


Seemed a pretty decent fit, so I started working on the console. I have never really liked the rectangular gear lever cut out, so I bought a round polished aluminium trim ring from a Cobra that i wanted to make work with the console.

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...e/IMG_0009.jpg


Sitting on a standard leather mx5 gear gaiter;

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...e/IMG_0008.jpg

The ring sits just right to clear the gear stick, so it was time to make it fit! No material actually needed to be removed from the console, rather i needed to add material to support the ring the whole way round. I'm lucky enough to have a CNC at my disposal at work, so i machined two layers of DiBond to fill the void, with the correct diameter hole cut to perfectly accept the trim ring.

I countersunk some pop rivets, riveted it together, and filled over ready for leather.

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...e/IMG_0006.jpg

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...e/IMG_0005.jpg


And the underside:

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...e/IMG_0007.jpg


The next step was to start wrapping the leather.
i placed the leather where i wanted it, then started from the middle.

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...e/IMG_0028.jpg


I used a liquid contact adhesive for the best adhesion I could get, and worked progressively along in small sections.

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...e/IMG_0031.jpg

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...e/IMG_0032.jpg

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...e/IMG_0034.jpg

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...e/IMG_0035.jpg



Once the piece was finished I placed the cobra ring on to see what it looked like, and was very pleased with the results!

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...e/IMG_0043.jpg


I left it to dry for a few hours, then trimmed the leather and fixed the trim ring and gaiter into position using some m4 machine screws.

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...e/IMG_0097.jpg

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...e/IMG_0098.jpg


That was me done for the day! Pretty happy with it so far!

The next step was the ash tray. Using the mx5 as my daily, there was something that really bugged me; the car has no bloody cup holders! So after lots of looking around, I found the perfect thing. The jass performance cup holder!

http://www.topmiata.com/wp-content/u...rswitches2.jpg

It's a beautiful piece of aluminium with toggle switches attached for the windows. Perfect! except.. I couldn't find anywhere to buy it in this country! On top of that it was looking to be around £80. For £5 worth of aluminium sheet and two toggle switches. So i decided to make my own.

I started by drawing up a template, ran it off on a spare piece of dibond i had lying around, and tested the fit. A few modifications to the drawing later and I had a working template. Great! Time to run it out of aluminium! I couldnt find anything polished when i i was buying the piece i needed (250mm x 500mm. about £3 on ebay!) so I bought what i could, an anodized piece.

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...e/IMG_0046.jpg

Then came the regret at buying it anodized. this meant that I had to sand down the anodized coating until i got back to raw aluminium. Once there i buffed it with a metal polishing kit i bought from eBay, came with a few different cutting compounds, polishing paste etc and a few wheels to go in a drill!

Polished up pretty nicely, so once happy I bent it at the point needed by clamping it in a vice between two pieces of timber, then simply putting pressure on it. This was exactly why I chose ally not steel!

Fitting nicely I secured it in place using some dome head m6 machne screws.

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...e/IMG_0120.jpg

Meanwhile I wired in the toggle switched into the existing switch plug (cut down male spade connectors worked a treat here)

Here they are working perfectly, ready to be fit to the centre console. These will stay attached to the car as much as possible, as there's lots of wires to put in the wrong place when reassembling!

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...e/IMG_0010.jpg

Tyno - What a great start to a build thread. :cool:

Well, your work on the centre console certainly achieves that.

Good luck with the house move and the rest of the build, Paul. :)

Great attention to detail Tyno, already looking forward to the next installment. :)

Looking good Tyno
Details like this make the car.
Im looking forward to watching this come together.

Whats the overall plan - coupe or convertible? Colour scheme wheels etc?

How did you manage to cut the cup holder shape so neatly?

CNC machines make cutting shapes so much easier. Lucky bugger.

Keep up the photo thread for all to learn from

Missed that, he's going to realise it was a mistake telling us.
Now I just need a loooong bit of paper to start my list:icon_biggrin:

There is someone on Ebay that sells satin alloy offcuts by the kilo, very useful and a cheap way of buying it. I bought a cheap 2nd hand bench shear for £25 and a small 4" metal folder that goes in a vice for less than £20. Very useful for small panels and brackets.

Thanks for all the comments. Roadster, coupe for sure. I went to stoneleigh last year to see them in the flesh, howevere unfortunately on the monday there was only Andysharrocks one on show, and it was hard to get a really good look in the packed hall. I'm going again this year, was hoping to see more examples, but it doesn't seem many (except ned?) are going! :cry:

Colour, light and wheel choice are almost settled. I'm thinking rear lights from a Opel GT. Something like this with trim rings;

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d1...0/IMG_4974.jpg
http://www.swadeology.com/wp-content...4/OpelGT-2.jpg

In regards to wheels, I absolutely love the bbs rs reps on this car, such as what Dave Lowes put on his. I actually need to ask him what sizes he bought!
http://www.tributeautomotive.com/ima...-gallery-7.jpg

And colour... I'll have to leave that one a surprise until nearer the time :eusa_silenced:

Jaguartvr, exactly as wca said. A Biesse Skill 300 is luckily at my disposal at work.
http://www.hoechsmann.com/files/lexi..._g_ft_full.jpg
I keep all my dxf's and bpp files so if anyone wants them just message me.

So, finishing up on the centre console, I bought two "toggle switch guards" from america (eBay... i swear I need to buy shares!), and test fit the whole assembly.

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...e/IMG_0129.jpg

MEANWHILE I had actually pre-made a diamond stitched leather transmission tunnel cover. Unfortunately I hadn't taken any pictures of the process, but essentially I made a template from brown paper, transferred it to the faux leather, cut oversized and my wife stitched all the edges for a nice look. Here it is on the floor with the centre console positioned on top!

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...e/IMG_0128.jpg

Nice attention to detail TP, that does it every time!!
Well worth it in the end.

Thank goodness you line all your screws up properly! Bugs the hell out of me when I see wonky fitment on finished cars!

Haha, I know exactly what you mean. For such a medial thing it makes a difference :eusa_dance:

Thanks Scottie22. Most of my ideas are just pinched from other people!

Managed to take a couple of pictures on the dslr before the sun went down. It's in need of a clean but you get the idea!

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...e/DSC_0823.jpg

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...e/DSC_0827.jpg

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...e/DSC_0828.jpg

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...e/DSC_0822.jpg

Tyno - A great start! You have stolen a march on mine already, we have a very similar concept for the interior - toggle switches and guards a great way to retro up the interior quickly.

I am probably not going to make Stoneleigh in the car, although hopefully MOT'd etc it won't be ready for public viewing. However if you wish to see it you are more than welcome to drop in, I am based in Northamptonshire. Ned's car is a great example so even if you only get to see his it will be worth it - took a bit inspiration from his myself.

Well, my phone died today while I was working, so unfortunately i only have "finished" pictures. Today's job was wrapping the upper half of the centre console in leather. I'm mounting a Nexus 7 in the dash, so leaving the entire opening "open". I've also fitting toggle switches to the top section to replace the switches that were there. These are simple on\off toggle switches, and I simply painted the nut red on the switch that controls hazards!

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...e/IMG_0820.jpg

Also added chrome vent trim rings bought off ebay for about £15.

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...e/IMG_0822.jpg


The hardest part is finishing around the internal corners. People say to cut and stitch, glue, etc. But I didnt want to "break" the seamless leather. I made a solution ising baby oil and white spirit, which helped really stretch the leather, and got it to stretch pretty well into the corners! Very happy with it.

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...e/IMG_0821.jpg

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...e/IMG_0819.jpg

Just looking at the pics makes me miss driving my mx5. Hope my gut decision works out and the shell turns out alright. 3 years in the waiting. :-) I'm going for black, chrome and stainless steel possibly touches of gloss black down the sides of the console with stainless middle. Chrome and leather handbrake.

MX5 s are great cars to drive ....

Its a strange feeling driving around even with the soft top up you can hear the outside sounds more. The driving position felt quite natural and the handling was very responsive even when the back kicked out a bit it was easily corrected. How do you. Tell if you have limited diff. Mine never spun the wheels going forward but could going backwards. But saying that my tyres were quite fresh.

I wouldn't mine leather seats but with cloth centres specially for summer as I found it gets warm. My classic mini has half and half

Thanks Jones, I'm watching your thread eagerly waiting for updates! You're quite a fair way from me, I'm in South Woodham Ferrers in Essex, but maybe someday I'll take you up on that.

Yeah I agree, I really enjoy driving my mx5 to work and back. I get to open it up on country style roads, and kick the back out on a couple of "easy" roundabouts! Mines a 1.8 eunos so it has the Torsen LSD.

Jack up the back end so both wheels are off the ground. With the car in neutral, turn one back wheel as if the car was driving forwards. If the other wheel also turns as if it was going forwards you have a limited slip differential fitted. If it turns the other way you don't. If it doesn't move at all your diff's f*cked.

I'm glad you like the thread, I have to admit as of late my new business has started to take off a little so time is becoming sparse so when I do get to dabble I am in such a rush I forget to take any pictures.

If you are going to Stoneleigh, you drive past mine more or less - you can have brew on your way up. We are heading over on the Sunday by the looks of it as both days are forecast to rain.

if youre only doing one day, can i suggest go o the first day not second.

all the useful jumble bits have gone. the bargain discount bits have gone. the majority of owners have gone, and the tomato sauce bottles at the burger stands are all clogged up at the end so the sauce doesnt flow properly.

Not all Eunos have LSD, still gotta check....
Pull away from a T junction (so you are going hard left or right),
give it some welly, and if one wheel spins, (one tyre fire....)
you dont have an LSD.

Bit difficult to try as the cars surrounded by other bits of cars at tribute hq. Plus it doesn't have a bonnet or headlights/tailights. If their was an empty field nearby I could try it their.

Sorry for the lack of posting! It's been the build up to fashion week so work has been ridiculously busy. On the bright side, I've now moved house! Yay. Which means I had enough spare money to buy and start fitting the kitchen! Yay. But most importantly, enough to order my kit! YAY! Deposit paid just waiting for Chris to confirm delivery date.

On a side note in the background I've been working on my instrument cluster... After literally months of thinking and probably just hours of actual working I'm really happy with my results. I'll post a full post tomorrow I hope but for now here's a teaser...

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...e/DSC_0804.jpg

Would I have seen you on the catwalk?

Just hope he wasn't modelling the "Budgie Smugglers":eek:

TynoPrime - Even with the soft focus, the reverse rev counter looks good. :cool:

Congratulations on the house move / kit order.

Good luck, Paul. :)

Looking forward to seeing your finished cluster.
Even the out of focus shot looks great
I made mine many years ago, made the mask out of aluminium, very fiddly to get the lenses in place for the warning lamps
I do miss the old girl :(

http://i1219.photobucket.com/albums/...415_172910.jpg

Interesting to see you had one of those Retro Caliber (?) stereos, Roadster. Any good? I've been looking at them for my Triumph. Thanks.

It was good, but I didn't have anything over the top in speakers etc, I tried to keep it looking 60's
It fitted the dash style - some modern radios look out of place

Nothing so glam I'm afriad! Im the construction manager for a set building company. Racked up 86 hours last week :bolt: atleast I'm paid by the hour!

Thanks Paul and Roadster.

So I always intended on making my own dials, so lets start there.

I did a lot of research as to the best way to make them, and after finding a good guide done by the guy that started RevLimiter I went to work.

So I've always liked RevLimiter guages, I think his designs are beautiful. However I had a few reasons to make my own. Firstly, they're expensive. I'm trying to do my build on a budget. Secondly, there was a change i wanted to make to the standard design, and that coats additionally! Thirdly, and most importantly, I love the idea of doing it all myself. There's just something about having made it yourself, even if all my ideas are borrowed from others :bolt:

So drawing up the dials took awhile, probably about 18 hours of drawing. The dials are made up of 3 layers. (although I actually ended up having to use 5) each of which are drawn up individually for each dial. The design is then printed.

Layer 1 is the "mask" layer. It's what you phisically see in everyday driving. It's printed on clear acetate.

Layer 2 is basically the "white/black out" layer. So everything you dont want showing up at night youmprint black, and leave everything else white. (I actually had to double up on layer 1 in the end, as the black turned grey when the backlighting came on).

Layer 3 is a "nighttime lighting colour" layer. I wanted everything amber, bar the redline, for that older look.

And finally Layer 4 was just a gradient layer. The test dial I did Was brighter in the middle, and darker towards the top and bottom. This layer helped to even it out.

I printed 5 sets of each, as I anticipated lots of mistakes in the gluing process.

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...e/IMG_0659.jpg

I then cut each into it's individual dials ready for gluing up.

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...e/IMG_0661.jpg

Then I began to glue them together. I found the easiest way was to use a clip at the top of the two, then align them up by holding them up to the light until everything seemed to merge perfectly. It was then a case of carefully lifting up and spraying a fine coat of spray adhesive inbetween, before pressing the two layers. Here are the first two layers glued together

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...e/IMG_0662.jpg

And once all layers are glued together

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...e/IMG_0663.jpg

One down, 4 to go. Continue with the rest until they're all in the same position, then leave them to fully go off for a few hours before trimming. I trimmed them with a pair of Fiskars scissors, and a sharp stanley blade with a ruler for the cutouts. Take note: The ink is delicate! Fingerprints are visible and hard to remove, and when cutting the first dial I did the ruler scratched the dial. I ended up using a piece of tissue under the ruler.

Here was my original test dial put into place in the instrument cluster. I picked the Speedometer to try first as the needle for the speedo is "self balancing". I.E you just drop the needle on 0 and it's good to go, no stopper or anything needed.

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...e/IMG_0692.jpg

And many hours later, the finished guages in the cluster! You may notice the speedo numbers have changed position.... I actuslly bought a second instrument cluster from ebay to play around with so i could continue using the car in the meantime. I didn't notice that it was a different speedo design. So i scanned in all the images of each dial, drew to it and when I put it into my cluster the speedo lied, and said I was doing 50 when I was doing about 35!

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...e/IMG_0696.jpg

And when lit up

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...e/IMG_0703.jpg

The photo actually isn't a very accurate image. The darkening in the top and bottom isn't so noticeable, and there is a large colour change between the amber and red which isn't really showing on the iphone camera!

I've had them in the car for a little while now, and I couldn't be happier. The only thing I would ammend is that RevLimiter suggests putting a layer of black behind the RED as it is otherwise 50% brighter than the amber, however with the black behknd the red is very dim. So eventually I will replace that dial with an ammended one.

Very impressive! How about using 2 layers of red to make the red darker?

They look great
What program did you use to draw them?