dude the dash is easy to remove! 4 nuts on each side of the dash ends, covered by little blanking plates 4 more on the base of the radio surround area again covered by covers and 1 in the middle of the dash under the windscreen again covered by a blanking plate.

then just drop the steering column unclip all the electric and remove the speedo etc, disconnect the heater pull/push rods and pull it out!

if you were nearer i could have it out in less than half an hour!

 

Some work done! (ish)

The weather yesterday was glorious. Not wanting to waste it I got the tools out and started spannering some bits off the car. It?s amazing how much time flies past when you?re spannering cars. I?d started a little before 4PM and, before I knew it, it was 6PM and I had to pack up my toys to take the dog to the beach. I didn?t remove half as much stuff as I had wanted to but I have at least made some headway with it.

The expansion tank and airbox has been pulled out of the engine bay and has cleared up a lot of space. I?ve also removed the cam cover and pulled the cams out. I?m keeping those to make some interesting furniture/ornaments out of. Probably a lamp or something. Everyone loves lamp, especially when it?s made from camshafts. I?m also likely just going to strip the engine into component pieces. I?ve no clue if it runs and fancy pulling it apart to learn stuff as well as look for more ornament inspiration.

So, I now have a box containing some bits?


?and a slightly emptier engine bay?


I did stop after a little while to make a cup of tea. Step into my office?


After tea, I decided it would probably be best to concentrate on removing the interior. The priority is obviously to get the car in half and start building the trailer up so I need to remove shit to facilitate that. The dash seems to be mounted pretty damn securely, which is annoying as I can?t see where the mounting screws are! I need to get that out to remove the carpet. I?ll also need to get the PPF, driveshaft, brake/fuel lines and exhaust off before I can entertain chopping the bastard up.
Still lots to do!

 

I love the idea, it'll look the business when you're done. Good luck!

 

That's the idea. Now I just need to get off my arse and make it happen.

 

your nutz!

good effort mike!

iv seen lots of my MK2 Polo chopped up, towed behind MK2 polo's, or T25 vans!

 

Greendrifter, Painterdave and I have got half a mk1 to do something very similar with

albeit with a vary JAE focus, so we are slinging in a BBQ, Generator and sound system

, well thats the plan

 

I like! I had wondered about putting a BBQ in the front of it but quickly decided it's a bad idea.
[/quote]

Why? The sxoc have one in the front of a sx which someone takes to car shows/track days etc

 

Go for it buddy.I've been towing (pardon the pun) with the idea myself for quite a while now.I have a spare mx5 I don't know what to do with.Plenty of reasons to do it..............
1..practical
2..look fab
3..great project
etc
I made my own removeable towbar last year, but still to fit it.

 

I made my own removeable towbar last year, but still to fit it.

Ooh, nice! Any chance you can post up some pictures of it? I've seen a few different designs kicking about and I'm likely to make my own one rather than buying (assuming I can remember anything about welding!)

 

Use the front end and have under the bonnet as boot space.

1 - There's more of it.
2 - It'll scare the shit out of people.

Figure out a way to put pop up headlamps as reverse lights too and have mega brownie points.

 

Great idea! You could put just indicators and red bulb stop lights behind the the front indicator/sidelight lense, and have tail lights, reversing lights and fog lights in the popups! (or put the tail lights in the indicator/sides as well). Then it would look just like there was a car driving at you the wrong way (though I suppose you would have to put some triangular reflectors on there somewhere to be properly legal).

 

Sounds alright this. I helped my mate build his mini trailer.

I like this and the idea of taking it to JAE cause u'll pretty much be guaranteed it'll be the only mx5 trailer there!

We started a vw camper can trailer with my old job but the boss gave up and just cut it up lol.

Best of luck buddy!
Hope u can weld and also,

Food for thought, could u use alloy instead of sheet metal to save rust?

 

Monkfish, I'm all for people doing things differently, I'm just being Devil's advocate.

 

 

you better set of the day before when its JAE or you wont make it

 

Primarily because there isn't a car that's as fun to drive....

As an MX5 pulling a trailer?

 

Primarily because there isn't a car that's as fun to drive....

As an MX5 pulling a trailer?

I think you're missing the overall point.

I'm making a trailer for the odd occasions I need the luggage space and I'm taking the MX-5. For example, to go to JAE. Sure, I could go out and buy an estate to take up there, or just use Mrs Fish's Fiesta, but what would the point be? I want to take the MX-5 but it lacks the space to take everything I need. The beauty of doing it this way is that I can take the trailer off when I get there and have my fun sports car to potter about in. This is especially the case whilst going on holiday in the '5.

I know I'll be limited to 60mph and towing stuff is boring and tedious, but it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.

 

...good luck though.

 

Pack less or buy a bigger car?

Driving with a trailer gets very boring very quickly.

 

...or buy a bigger car?

And where's the fun in that? Answer: there isn't any. Primarily because there isn't a car that's as fun to drive, has more space and can still take the roof off. And even if there is, it'll certainly be outside my arbitrary ?2000 budget. So ner.

 

Interesting!

 

A guy bought my old mini shell and done exactly this, basically chopped off the engine bay fab'd up a a frame sort of structure underneth to be able to tow with his own mini.
Custom fitted a mattress with DJ equipment and towed it to the ring from what i remember.

 

I used to move in Mini circles and first became aware of a trailer made from a car when I saw a feature on one in Mini World. I like the idea and decided to do the same with an MX-5.

 

Forget the trailer an sell me the roller.....I'll give what you paid an ill collect it! Just please don't cut it up :-(

 

No.

 

If you look at that blue one, the lights and wheels seem to be the only original mx5 parts. The bootlid's waaaaaay too long to be standard. The rest looks like glass fibre.

I'd want a box trailer on indespension units. If you retain the subframe, you'll only gain another boot space and a fair bit of weight....which isn't really much use.

 

+1

 

Just be mindful of the legalities of this - for an MX5, the allowable weight of the fully loaded trailer is going to be around 450kgs - unless you convert to drum brakes and install an over-run braking system.

 

Could you use the handbrake system for an overrun brake?

Cerbs
[/quote]
I could be wrong, but I think they have to be auto reversing. Don't think you're allowed mechanical lockouts anymore.

 

And the prize for guessing the project goes to...

Indykid. 12 posts in

. You win *rummages in pockets* half a Werther's Original and a penny I picked up from a field.

Yes, I'm going to build a trailer. Much like this...

Why? Simple reason. Space. Oh, and for shits 'n' giggles. When I went to JAE last year, the boot was chock full of camping gear and the passenger seat full of cameras, coolbox and clothes. This year, I plan to bring Mrs Fish along to the show (and also hope to go on a camping holiday somewhere) and a trailer to carry some shit to free up the passenger seat simply makes sense. Sure, I could buy a basic aluminium trailer and put a tarp over the top of it, but where's the fun in that?

So, the plan at the moment is to strip the car down and sell what I don't need. Once I'm in a position to start chopping stuff up I'll plan out where and what I'm going to cut off/weld on/hit with hammers/swear at. I intend to strip the diff' and halfshafts off but retain the stock subframe and suspension setup figuring it would be far more stable than a leaf spring setup. I had the idea of using the PPF as the tongue for the trailer but I'm not sure how well that will work out.

Oh, and don't worry, the tow bar fitted to Yuki will be one that is easily removable so she won't be permanently adorned with a towbar. The electric hookup will also be hidden for the same reason.

Also, a waste of time? Yeah, because everyone starts a project thread with the work mostly completed.

 

No bloody idea what this is all about.

Here's a taildragger:

 

Tail dragger would suggest an mx5 trailer to me, but why you'd want a trailer on an mx5 is beyond me....

I've looked at the blog and opened all the links, but at this stage, I agree with mk1_salami

 

This is my idea of a taildragger:

Can't imagine how you are going to butcher up a scrap MX5 to make anything that cool...

 

I dont 'geddit'

please shed some light..

a kit car perhaps?

 

Wazzock

I suspect Lee. has made the exact same mistake. I'm still getting to find my way around the latest version of Wordpress and get the blog tidied up and looking how I want it to.

 

Just saw the:

"What?s this all about? Can?t say right now, sorry. All I?ll tell you is that it involves a Mk1 MX-5 and this will be updated as and when something exciting happens."

And thought, what the hell was the point in linking to a blog with fck all on it. Now I just the the link on the right hand side and take it all back.

First I was like

Then I was like

And then I was like