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1993 S-Special Work In Progress...

28K views 174 replies 35 participants last post by  Onehillside  
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
I took a trip down to Devon to collect her a couple of weeks ago:

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1993 S-Special; 1993, approx 100,000 miles, bilsteins etc, K&N, some random mazdaspeed bits and some chrome style-bars. Piles of paperwork and history including recent rolling road results, sills and arches seem clear and recently treated underneath. Also came with a hardtop.

Previous owner was a young lad who'd added an expensive DVD Player (not the most sensible idea in a convertible but there we go) and 16" Eclipse alloys. Then had her SORN for 6 months before needing to sell her.

Alloys:

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Bay :

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There's a few bad bits to fix / straighten out but fundamentally she's a sound car. The paintwork a little tired - a some trolley dinks, some badly touched up chips on bodywork and hard-top (it's also had a proper cage mounted at some point so the catches on the hardtop have been cut-out on the large flap so as to fit), interior needed a damn good clean and tidy ie. drivers seat stained from a water leak:

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..., mohair roof has a couple of what look like cigarette burns, and the previous owner had stuck some daft stickers (turning it into a "John Player Special" on as well as adding a gold detailing stripe using sticky ribbon stickers:

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He'd also removed the electric aerial so the radio had 0 reception on his DVD Player and the shift gaiters were shot.

In the engine bay it looks like someone has tried to manufacture some sort of scoop out of flexible piping that pulls air from underneath the car and routes it to the air intake (you can just see it in the pics) and there's also something funky going on with the wiring on the rad fans (shorting across TFA/GND points on the diagnostics box turns on both fans where i think it should only be one).

So I've made a start: last weekend I sorted the shift and replaced the stereo with a ÂŁ10 ebay special, retro-tastic cassette player (with all important AUX-in), added an internal aerial to the boot, gave the interior a damn good clean, fitted my JDM knee pads and removed the stripes and stickers from outside as well as a simple clean and wax:

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to get to:

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and

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Then got round to fitting 14" OEM Mazda wheels (I think an option on a 1994 version). They need to be properly stripped and given a refurb but budget dictates that this'll have to wait. They're stupidly light and hopefully a little less harsh on the bad roads we have around here:

Corrosion:

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Yesterday I gave them a good clean and fitted them to the car, along with some clear side indicators. So the car currently looks like this:

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I'm going to give her a good clean today and take some proper pics from different angles rather than just grabbing a shot when she's just sat on the driveway.
 
#79 ·
Had a couple of hours free this afternoon so started with doing the canister delete. Only took ten minutes.

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So - I then got a bit carried away and continued removing bits.

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Those four bolts/nuts underneath the manifold = skinned knuckles + swearing. But all told not as bad as I'd thought - some decent extension bars and a decent 12mm socket and all came off okay considering I'm no mechanic.

So, there are plans afoot for that space tomorrow. We'll see whether it comes to anything given my lack of technical know-how but nothing ventured...
 
#82 ·
Nice work. I find with the irtbs on the black roadster or the carbs that used to be on the corns getting the oil filter is easier.

Will sound lovely when done.
 
#83 ·
Nice!!! Good luck getting at the oil filter once they are on though! :D
Shouldn't be too bad - the entire filter assembly comes off which helps. Marginally :)

Nice work. I find with the irtbs on the black roadster or the carbs that used to be on the corns getting the oil filter is easier.

Will sound lovely when done.
Have PX'ed back the St May exhaust that Liam had off me so hopefully will now sound even better!
 
#84 · (Edited by Moderator)
I managed to get some more time in the garage (not without some grumbling from SWMBO it has to be said)

First - more weight saving :) - a benefit of the frog-eye front end = no need for heavy motors:

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Then some more plumbing, sorting of throttle cable etc

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Still got to fit the catch-can, tidy the paintwork where possible and then should, fingers-crossed, theoretically be good to go.

However, before I got to seeing whether everything does or doesn't work, I got slightly distracted from job in hand - had a welcome visit planned from John and Liam O'C bringing goodies. So, before they arrived got the back of the car up on stands and then under I went.

20 minutes later this came off (pleasantly surprised by how pain-free it came out to be honest. That said, liberal applications of plusgas helped)

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The visitors came and went, dropping off it's replacement: a nice, shiny St May. I actually sold it to John last year but he's having to revert to something more 'practical' so lucked out when he agreed to a swap for my MX5parts exhaust + cash and back it came!

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So. Now I've got a rear bumper to remove for some judicious trimming before fitting it....
 
#85 ·
well, bumper is off and exhaust is in and fastened up to the manifold etc. Just got to drill the boot for the rear mounting points and then cut bumper to fit!

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(oh, and someone needs to have a word with whatever genius thought that fixing the rear bumper to the body using stupid, soft-headed screws was a good idea. Took me longer to undo those bloody things than it did to remove most of my engine bay)

slowly getting there...
 
#89 ·
exhaust is on - after much deliberation didn't cut too much from the bumper - up an inch or two - it's pretty subtle really but sits the St May at approx the same level as the stock muffler / slightly higher than rear sway bar though the tip sits lower than my old MX5parts one. Crappy pic from workshop:

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And it starts! And idles (after a fashion).

However I quickly discovered I was missing a spring on one side of the throttle assemblies on the carbs when it just revv'ed madly so cut the engine, gave everything a wipe over, checked for fuel leaks and left it there. Need to reset the idle mixture screws, throttle stop screws and then see how I go. Hopefully get it running and finally out of the workshop one evening this week. Then it'll be wrapping all the stray electrics, tidying the bay and then some semblance of a clean.

Off now to read up on my MIkuni PHH Service and Manual guides :) Should be fun...

Oh, and elsewhere, these finally arrived:

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#94 ·
Wheels will look good.
 
#96 ·
Really liking this build, especially seeing carbs going on!

Was never a fan of cosmetic/blingy mods, but this and a couple of the other 'classier' projects on here are quickly changing my mind. Might even wash mine soon haha
Cheers! Been called many things before but not sure 'classy' has ever come into it :rofl:

Oddly never planned to touch the exterior / cosmetics of the car when I got her - and spent a while after I got her reverting to stock, just seem to have 'found' things organically.

Had a minor op late today so not able to get on with the outstanding list but had it out of the garage 1st thing to check coolant levels / airlocks when up to running temps.

Better rear pic: (and does an exhaust count as 'bling' or a noise / performance mod? :)

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Better pics of the bay - have rigged up a temp oil catch can ahead of the real thing arriving, and need to clean and repaint the 'empty' side (loads of space!)

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Running clip:


Hopefully will get finished tidying / cleaning the expansion tank which, given the whole car is filthy, ironically has been irritating me the most over the last week or so:

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#98 · (Edited by Moderator)
Exhaust is actually surprisingly quiet / modest. There's a good deal of baffle / muffling material in those barrels - I've what I think is a Tuckin'99 exhaust that looks so much smaller but that's louder.

Would v.much like alloy expansion tank (and scuttle panel / washer tank too) but working to a budget (believe it or not!) so will have to stick along with trying to clean what's there.

Hope to be up to some explatory short trips in the next day or two - want to actually try the carbs out in the open road for more than a couple of hundred yards! The wheels are ready to go on but might have to wait until the end of the week...