Super cheap '5

My Super Cheap '5
1993 Eunos Roadster

I spent a long while looking for MX5s for cheap - I went through a whole page of auto trader ad to find that they had all been sold.
I tried grabbing them on ebay and sun local and loads of other places too.
Twice I called people to find out more about the car and where it was, so I could arange a lift to go and get it - but by the time I managed to call back and confirm - the car was sold.

One came up for £750 in Bournemouth, had 8 months Tax, but only 2 months MOT... I was about to close the window and then I saw the milage... 94,000 km ... thats like 60,000 miles.
I phoned him up and was there to see the car at about 10:30 that night.

Got my girlfriend to take me to go see it. It looked as mint as a car can look in the night, but they were very dodgy about having the lights on... even the interior light "it hasnt been started for a long time".

Anyway - after my money had passed hands we were on our way.

So anyway, half an hour into the journey, I have a heat light on the dash and the lights are pooo, the windows stop working etc. Once I'd stopped, I couldnt get it going again.

Heres a picture of the car after a night on the side of the road.





So heres the spec... as far as I know because theres no history.

Its a 1.6 Eunos Roadster as opposed to an MX5, because its a Japanese import.
Has powersteering and possibly ABS - I havent tested that one yet.
60k on the clock
Badly resprayed bumper and front wings (possible front ender)
Headrest speakers
Possibly a catalytic converter too.

I know its only a 1.6 but its pretty quick. Fairly short ratio box in it too.

Right, anyway - heres some pics of it.





Has a nasty Billabong sticker on the bonnet... that has since been removed.





Tyres on the driver side were badly cracked because they'd had it parked a pavement and let the tyres go flat... idiots. So I had to borrow a wheel for a while.






As far as I'm aware... the power problem was just the altenator belt slipping... So I bought a service kit - made sense considering the car has no service history.



Took it to WSA and I helped him service my car (I fitted the air filter)



Oh btw... did I tell you its lowered? Well it is...






So the power problem has gone away... decided to wash and polish it one day - and then the passenger window stopped working...
Took it to Charnocks to see if he could help me fix it. When ripping off the door card, I saw that the door was covered in horrible black sticky stuff that attacks every time you try to get to the window motor. Anyway, the wire that pulls the window had snapped inside the motor so I basicaly need a whole new mechanism.



Spent about 3 hours getting the sticky crap off the door with lighter fluid.


After ripping the door open I noticed a few problems with water getting into the car... so I went to russ' house to try and solve them.

Theres some drainage points on the car that had got clogged up. Any water that comes off the roof is re-routed inside the car, and then down a hole... so I'd had stale water sitting inside my car for a while... ack!
I gave it a good poke with a coat hanger and it came buckets - water drains fine now.

Next I had to sort out the water getting in through the door...
First I had to make sure the passenger window stays up



A job well done I think...

Next I had to water proof the door and speaker... Cheers to Stick for letting me have a dog food bag.





...yes that is bathroom sealent. It dries rubbery and will peel off - rather than sticking to you and not coming off for days like the previous pooo.



Next - Ice....

I have an electric arial and a Japanese Stereo that goes up to 90fm - So I went to rip that out.

I had so many people say "I've got a tool to get the radio out" - NO YOU f**** HAVENT. If a car theif wanted this radio, they would haveto pull the whole car appart because its bolted into the car in such annoying places.

So out it all came...








Cant be arsed to put my radio in yet... so thats how it stands for now..



Anyway - heres some more pics for now.









Some pics from Drift Inc.

Didn't have a camera or anyone I knew there - I found these on a blokes photobucket



[/quote]




Decided to make a To Do list for my car... I've kinda got myself into a state of not spending any money on the car because there always seems to be something more important - so now maybe I can prioritise.


Problems:

Fix electric windows or replace with winders
Remove rust and cracked filler - repaint
Replace bulb/fix wiring for drivers side interior light
Fit double din blanking plate for stereo
Replace altenator/battery so lights dont kill battery when parked
Find out why things in my boot keep getting wet
Fix misfiring at low revs
Seal sidelight to stop it misting up
Stop spoiler rattling (cant seem to get to bolts)
Fix wiring for drivers door and install working speakers
Replace headrest speakers with ones that dont crackle

Mods:

Roll bar
Twin headlight conversion
fit half decent wheels (Mazdaspeed trispokes possibly)
splitter

Other:

Get helmet that doesn't constantly fall appart.


If anyone sees anything I need cheap or feels they can help me with something, please let me know

Do I fit a leon cupra R splitter or not? I know fenrich's garage vary splitter is fucking awsome, but I cant afford to loose £100 to a speed bump. LCR splitter is about £25 new and looks something like this (Mine will look better because its lower)

ye that dont look too bad! also if you do get one, get it from the dealers...its only about £15

seat dealers in aber pal!
yeah look alright for now till u save up for a vary!

Yeah I like that, cant you mod laguna ones to fit too

The laguna splitters are overdone imo.

I can afford a garage vary splitter at the moment, but I just cant justify spending that much on one... I'd rather put the money to a cage or some different lights, or some decent wheels.

For £15 I can afford to keep breaking it too!

:O anotherone!

So tomorrow the new clutch plate and a slave cylinder are going in.



But while waiting for those to get done, I decided to do a couple of little things in an attempt to fix little things that annoyed me...

As you may know, I'm incredibly tight and bodge things because I'm bored - so nothing particularly interesting here.

Air vents... because they are old now, they dont stay where they are supposed to... Apparently you can replace the felt behind them, I didnt have any felt though. Electrical tape it is.




Chucked them back in, fit nice and snug now. Easy fix.

Next- mx5s dont have many cubby holes or anything, small glove box, no storage in the doors... but there was a big ashtray... but it was skanky as fuck. So I ripped the metal stubber out of it, sanded off all the melted/rusted paint and shit, and painted it with some old halfords tins I had laying about.





Also bought a cubby box to go under my stereo... its nice to not have wires hanging everywhere, and its nice to have the stereo up higher so I can change CDs while im in 1st 3rd or 5th gear.



Dyf gave me a couple of 13"s he had, and he said he might have another two hanging around to complete the set... I think they look nicer than the standard mx5 wheels.




Updates are slow and boring at the moment, but hopefully a good one to come soon!

waaayyy, getting there mick! i know how u feel with little niggly bits like the cd holder and shit,

my car never had an ariel adaptor in it for ages, and it was sooo nice when i bought an adaptor and had radio again!!

kubby holes ftw!

Damn that looks cool! I'm jealous!
Always wanted an mx-5 as a toy

Today me and WSA bodged fitted the roll bar onto the MX-5.

Also removed a load of sound-proofing to save weight... I dont think sound proofing actualy weighs much, but this stuff was damp and soaking wet, so probably weighed a ton.

Haven't got a photo of it fitted yet. I got hungry and then it got dark, so I didn't have a chance to take photos of it, or test the roll bar out. I'll test it next weekend.

i wanna see some pics of it fitted! now!

sound proofing may not weigh a lot but when it comes to saving weight every little bit helps and should soon add up, there wont be a lot you can get rid of in the mx5 compared to toher cars but as i said every little bit is worth it if it helps you out. might be a little more noisy now tho but who cares. Oh and get some pics up asap really want to see how this looks.

I've not actualy noticed any extra noise - like Adam said to me, the only place its really needed is in the engine bay. Might be louder on motorways, but I try to avoid motorways at all costs anyway.

Its only a bit of weight removed, but every little helps, especialy when theres some heavy scaffolding bolted too it now too lol.

It gets dark before I get home, so I wont have a chance to take a photo until the weekend now.

dunno if your aware, but you can take pictures when its dark

Well I dont understand how.


I'm sure you can, but I want some half decent photos, and with my crappy kodak - Its gonna haveto be dark grainy photos, or tons of horrible flash.

silentdice wrote:

I didn't have a chance to take photos of it, or test the roll bar out. I'll test it next weekend.

How many of you can fit under a lorry?

I can

silentdice wrote:

Haven't got a photo of it fitted yet. I got hungry and then it got dark, so I didn't have a chance to take photos of it, or test the roll bar out. I'll test it next weekend.

what are you planning on doing????

tombombvw wrote:

silentdice wrote:

I didn't have a chance to take photos of it, or test the roll bar out. I'll test it next weekend.

i didnt see this lol

How else am I gonna find out if it works?

First proper pic with the rollbar in!