My Mk2

Benn said:

Hi,

I just thought I would stick up the first few pics of my MK2. I was out on the New Forest for a relaxed drive round yesterday, it was fantastic. Please excuse the dirt, but I was enjoying driving it rather than washing it!

My first weekend with an MX5 and I'm rather happy!

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Looking good There are plenty of nice drives around the New Forrest.

What plans have you got for the car?

Look nice in black, but I forgot how high they are as standard!

Benn said:

I was enjoying driving it rather than washing it!

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Thats the spirit!!!

Echo above, got any plans..? They are pretty high as standard; I wasn't up for lowering til I did it..!

So far my plans are to give it a good service and change the cambelt as it is about due. Modification wise I will stick a cone filter on it very soon as I want the nice noises they produce, is there an accepted 'best filter' for the mk2?
Once that is done it will be on to the suspension, although I don't know how low to go? I don't want it to be silly and mean that speed bumps cause me grief, so again any advice on what to do would be most welcome. That will be done along with some chassis and strut bracing, then some new wheels...

As you may be realising I am completely new to owning a nice fun car and to modifying so I am happy to listen to any opinions on what to do and how to do them. I will try not to ask too many stupid questions though.

Thanks for the welcome and in advance for any advice!

Benn

K&N Typhoon baby!!! Have a look at my engine bay if you like (link in sig). The sound is immense, I doubt it gives any power but it seems to feel better

As for lowering, you can lower it as much or as little as you like...depends how you want it to handle/look. 30mm or so shouldn't put you scraping speed bumps I woudnt imagine but will look lots better.

Chris said:

You've got a really pretty car there - love the photographs!

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Thank you very much!

I am very happy with it, especially as it is my first fun car, now to just sensitively personalise it.

So last weekend I actually got some time to have a play with the car and along with my good friend Si on Saturday we set about changing the cambelt, tensioner pulleys, water pump, alternator belt, spark plugs, oil filter, coolant and oil in my car. It was by far the deepest I have ever gone into an engine and despite some scary techniques involved to free off the crank pulley bolt, it all went quite well and the car works and ran nicely all the way home!

Anyway, some pictures...

alot of taking bits out of the engine involved us getting to here...


Then a bit more work and the new cambelt and water pump are fitted...


Then time to put it all back together again...


And after far longer than a garage would have taken we were back to this...


...A quick fitting of a K&N and I was left with this pile of bits...


A big thanks to Si for all his help, and I can now start doing the fun stuff!

So after the scary day of replacing important engine parts Sunday was the fun bit and so I decided to give my reflectors and side repeaters a little tint to make them a bit less orange...


And I also borrowed a couple of wheels from Si to try out for size... I have decided I really want some white wheels now!


All in all a good weekend and I have to thanks Si loads for all of his help.

So after that I had a night off yesterday but fancied giving the front of the car a different and fresher look this evening so my 5 has gone from this...



To this...



Sorry about the rubbish quality of the pictures, but it was getting dark... Anyway, I think it looks loads better. Obviously it still needs a lots doing, but it is moving in the right direction!

So, next on the list to do is to find some good lowering spring or coilovers (depending on the cost) to fit and some nice 15" lightweight white wheels. I'm still in love with it!

AndyMk2 said:

You're going to need to adjust that bracket somewhat, the plate looks wrong sat like that. Good work on the rest though!

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Yeah, I was thinking it looked a bit too angled, how do you get it to sit more upright, is it just a case of bending the bracket? Also, how have you fixed yours to the bracket?

To get mine to sit well, I drilled out the large mounting hole to allow for more adjustment, cut out a fair bit of the bulk of the brakcet so it's about half the size it was when I bought it due to the width of my plate, bent it slightly, then attached the plate with one bolt to allow it to be rotated into position before fixing down with a sticky pad and tightening the bolt, takes a bit of fettling but it's worth it as it looks far less conspicuous and more like it's always been there

Benn said:

You're going to need to adjust that bracket somewhat, the plate looks wrong sat like that. Good work on the rest though!

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Yeah, I was thinking it looked a bit too angled, how do you get it to sit more upright, is it just a case of bending the bracket? Also, how have you fixed yours to the bracket?
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If it's the Cusco bracket like mine, you might need to cut away some of the metal to allow clearance with the front bumper, and elongate the mounting hole so it sits further forward before bending it upwards. Here are the bits I marked out before modifying the bracket (I also chopped it in length, just behind the LH hole):



When fitted to the car, I bent the bracket up to a more vertical position, then lined up the number plate and stuck it in position using double sided carpet tape. Then I took it back off and drilled through the plate and bracket, and used standard white plastic number plate nuts and screws to hold it firmly in place.

Anyway, here's how mine turned out:

Excellent, thanks for the information and the picture. Mine is the same bracket so I will get the hacksaw out tonight, get marking up and shaping it. Hopefully it will end up looking good!

Well I chopped, filed and hammered and now have a smaller bent bracket which looks better. I spent most of the evening playing so didn't get any pics, but it looks better to me. Thanks for the advice on what to do.