New Mx250 Build
Hi
A quick introduction I am TheLaughingCow (my friends call me martyn) Im in Essex, ive been into the classic mini scene my whole life. A regular poster on online mini forums and my daily drive is a 1978 mini clubman saloon. For years ive been trying to find a mint reasonably priced Triumph GT6, (not everyones cup of tea i know!) i must be a sucker for poorly built british rustboxes then i stumbled across the MX250 kit..... WOW imediately i knew i have to make one of these. I've had two mx5s eunos imports before and i love the way they handle (almost as good as a mini!) the last 2 months relentless rain has caused an abundance of viable donor cars, so what better time!! This week i took the plunge and ordered the Mx250 kit. I have already sourced the donor car, a Manual eunos v spec with LSD, aircon power steering, tan leathers. came with plenty of sellable extras, a new tan roof fitted(with heated glass screen) 2 sets of original mazda wheels, tan torneau, a full car cover even had full tank of petrol, MOT and 8 months Tax all for £600 only needs some minor sill repairs, (my job for next week) my build notes are as follows * Im not building a ferrari replica, just a classic looking fastback coupe * want it ready for spring 2014 * as many mod-cons as possible * once assembled and prepped, vehicle will be vinyl wrapped as a demonstrator for www.essexvehiclewraps.com (colour undecided) * Must be FAST * Must be LOUD i will add some donor car pics |
Welcome to the group. by the sounds of it after selling all your extra parts your donor car may stand you at £0!
with regards to vinyl wrapping, what are the advantages of it? My mate had his 911 wrapped in white and its less than a year old and its F*ckd. bubbling and peeling all over, and he got charged £2k for it and I could of had it sprayed to a A class job for that. I've seen a few 'matt' wraps recently and it looks to be 'the future' but just wondering what the advantages of it is to getting your motor sprayed? |
Main advantages of vinyl over paint.
you can have a perfect finish in gloss /matt , chrome, textured, candy colours, pearlescents, irridecents and sparkle which otherwise would take a lifetime of spraying and weeks of coats of paint to achieve in just 2 days it protects the paintwork underneath, doesn't get stone chips, but most of all i can change the colour of my car every year main disadvantages are: limited life (normally 5-7 years) lots of cowboys out there not prepping vehicles properly or not sealing edges resulting in poor life of the vinyl! if i paid £2K for a wrap i would be back as soon as vinyl started peeling and be getting all affected panels rewrapped for free! |
Welcome Martyn.
Thanks again for your order. We vinyl wrapped our B*ntl*y GT replica for it's launch ( http://www.madabout-kitcars.com/kitc...p?shownews=129 ) because we had no time to paint it. We hadn't done wrapping before and with only 2 days before the Stoneleigh Show we had to learn fast! It looked OK from a distance but was peeling off a little on the journey home, due to no prep and a dirty workshop. I will give you a call in a few weeks reference collection date for your kit. |
Yeah, if you look at some of the wrapped cars around they look a bit shabby, I think 5 years is a bit optimistic.
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Welcome to MX250 ownership .
You will enjoy it. Your donor car sounds great , and there is loads of mods you can do to the mx5 to make it even better . |
I guess like with anything, practice, experience and the right tools for the job, will determine the outcome.
I know how much a quality paint job will cost, that is the no 1 reason why I'm wrapping it.(free)££££ The mx250 will be quite difficult to wrap mainly because of the curves, and the lack of panel edges.I guess the proof is in the pudding, The vinyl available now is so much more advanced than what we used 5 years ago, especially the adhesive. I guess we will find out in 5 years time whether it lives up to its word! Until then I should probably get on with stripping the donor, My sill repair panel has arrived from flea bay, looking at everyone else's builds I believe all of my welding will be under the kit, still will try to get it as tidy as possible. The donor car seems in pretty good shape mechanically, one lady owner since import The paint is really poor, covered in tree sap but who cares, the engine is sweet, nice to drive a rwd car without traction control, |
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just took some pics of my pals 911 to show the wrap he had done...
http://i1273.photobucket.com/albums/...ps04b2f756.jpg http://i1273.photobucket.com/albums/...psd237d4b0.jpg http://i1273.photobucket.com/albums/...ps96add0c6.jpg |
Just popped over from the Ribble Forum,
That's shocking Danny, I wouldn't have even taken delivery of that, Vinyl wrap gets a bit of a bum wrap as a lot of folk who are doing them have had no training and don't really know what they are doing. Mac |
Viatron, hit the nail on the head there!
I'd be ashamed if I'd wrapped that! Don't forget that's a walking advertisement for whoever wrapped it! |
I have seen a few bad wraps but that is truly shocking!!
Are you sure your mate didn't do it himself when he was really pissed and then forgot about it in the morning? £2K would just about cover the bar bill to get that messy... |
He has the receipt to show for it with its 12 month warranty. however the cars over in Germany where we work and wont be coming back to the UK until this jobs done n about 3 years! I'd personally peal it off but hey, it looks good from a distance...
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Nice looking base car Martyn - good luck. Are you making the hard top or convertible?
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I have ordered the hard top version
which is a shame as the donor cars roof is in great shape, unless someone is building a soft top version and wants a great tan hood? with frame and torneau cover ready to bolt on??? |
I wrapped the back of my locost using 3m glossblack. It was quite easy as no difficult curves. I would love to watch someone wrap a MX250, especially the rear panel
Before http://locostbuilders.co.uk/upload/rear panels.JPG After http://locostbuilders.co.uk/upload/black wrap.jpg |
I sold my soft top for £100. Quite a lot of demand since they split on folds if left down for long periods.
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OK, time for an update,
Been cutting up the sills, i had to remove a load of previous repairs and patches. Im far from a world class welder but since the kit will be hiding much of my "handywork" i figured in was a no brainer for keeping the cost down! ive had plenty of practice on mini sills in a lot worse condition! Since im going to be putting the best part of £2K of fibreglass on the MX5 to save a few quid i fabricated my own replacement panels for the inner sill and inner arch repairs, i fitted a replacement outer sil from ebay (door back) on the N/S, as this was shot |
http://i779.photobucket.com/albums/y...ps45378c26.jpg
N/S outer sill removed ( not for the faint hearted) |
http://i779.photobucket.com/albums/y...ps86d11d3f.jpg
floor / inner sill repair in place |
http://i779.photobucket.com/albums/y...ps6462bea5.jpg
inner sill repair |
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http://i779.photobucket.com/albums/y...ps7641b8b5.jpg
new out sill on |
other side, not as bad more rot further up the wing than the n/shttp://i779.photobucket.com/albums/y...ps71444f8e.jpg
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[IMG]<a href="http://s779.photobucket.com/user/Martyn_Neil_Jacobs/media/DSC_0224_zps602570c9.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i779.photobucket.com/albums/yy78/Martyn_Neil_Jacobs/DSC_0224_zps602570c9.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo DSC_0224_zps602570c9.jpg"/></a>[/IMG]
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so.... off for MOT in the morning, thought i'd get a fresh test done before i strip the donor just in case it expires before i finish the build, will make test driving a lot more legit!
I have a buyer for the roof, i also won a auction for some 16" alloys that i'm pretty sure will fit and look spot on. will report back later with MOT status and some wheel pics |
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Car failed MOT on corrosion near the front subframe/ chassis rail, I'll be cutting it out / welding it up this morning then back to mr MOT for a retest.
happy days |
I like the wheels, good luck with the mot.
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Well at least he didn't spot the welding on the sills :eusa_eh:
Wheely nice wheels though:smile: |
Fingers crossed for the MOT. Those wheels look great. Bargain?
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YES, car went straight through the MOT, i did find a tiny more rot at the front chassis rails that i sorted just before the MOT, the mot guy found it hilarious that it was still warm when he had it on the ramp! i managed to not burn any interior bits which i think is a first for me!
other than drooling over the wheels i've been rolling the rear arches out, scraping off underseal in preparation for waxoyling the chassis inside and out at the weekend. |
i do however need some wheel advice as i'm not 100% these wheels will work
the wheels set me back £220, new in the box! they are 16" 8" wide offset is ET20, multifit 4x100 and 4x114 (i think). I know the rears will probably need spacers to get the stance right, i'm worried that the offset may cause problems at the front, will they stick out further than the kit? if they need to be spaced to clear the suspension how much? going to test fit a wheel (without tyre) this morning to try and establish if they'll be ok has any one used this wheel size? if so what tyres to put on them? ive seen mx5's with 16's running low profile tyres, i want a bigger tyre wall and will happilly suffer the speedo inaccuracy that may bring but i don't want to ruin the cars handling, which the 16's may have already compromised. so many questions! |
front wheels look like they have clearance for the spring, they do stick out a good 2" from the mx-5 wing, i guess i won't know for sure until i have the kit.
i've listed both original sets of wheels on ebay, they could be potential sold by the weekend. so i need to get these wheels sorted sooner - just to allow me to move the car about! |
ET20 for 8" rims is about right with 50mm spacers on the rear and none on the front. You can always add some thin spacers at a later date if you want a wider stance, 5mm spacers are only £7 for a pair so fairly easy by trial and error to get what you like.
As for tyre sizes about 24" diameter seems right, you will have to play with a tyre calculator online to find the appropriate tyre size for your wheels. If you have a search through the threads like this one you will see what others have done http://www.madabout-kitcars.com/foru...highlight=tyre |
thanks
very helpful thread |
Your kit is the next in line, I will be in contactl this week to arrange a collection date.
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