After failing to find a replacement SE steering wheel or similar on the usual sites, and not prepared to fork out £300 for one that a breaker had listed, I posted a swap ad on my local FB sites.
Got a message from another local owner and we were able to swap wheels, with him taking the half leather/half wood wheel, and me getting a simpler design more in keeping with the original. I think it maybe a bit smaller diameter too which works well.
Also had a good nosey around his car and got a few ideas for some subtle improvements to make
Had 3 things to check, but started with the ground block under the ABS pump as I’d recently moved that when fixing the washer jets.
Took it apart, cleaned up again and used contact cleaner, was just about to put back when I noticed a chaffed wire
Simple wrap in electrical tape and reconnected - sorted!!
Well … ish - the side repeater isn’t working still, cleaned all the contacts and the bulb is good - will replace the flasher unit as it’s only about £10 for a 2nd unit.
Also fixed the under bonnet rattle while I was there as I noticed the heat shield was moving - removed and can see the problem
Hi Mk1-SE, for my sins I’m also a member of MotorHomeFun, a club for Motor Home owners. There is a chap on there who has a 3D printer who designs and makes all sorts of add on gadgets for MoHo’s, I’m sure if you gave him the spec for your centre caps he’d be able to make them for you, probably down to writing in the centres as a different colour from the main body of the cap. I’ve PM’ed him on the MotorHomeFun site and asked him for his email chrisatheathpark@yahoo.com, could be worth a shot, his stuff is beautifully designed and made.
Hi, it may be worth checking out mazdadudes in Darlington as I had a set of centre caps off themonce, all lugs intact. A lot of Mx5 guys use them and they are very helpful and reasonable.
A piece of luck today. The bottom of the front passenger wing has rusted out and I’ve been contemplating getting it filled and repaired, but on one of the FB spares groups, this turned up in the same town for a bargain price.
In great condition and the right colour too - now I just need to watch all the videos on how to remove the old one
My car also had the exact same issue with the dim headlight on the passenger side when I purchased it. Also a wiring issue. Welcome to the ‘standard Mk1 issues’ club lol
Today’s job was ‘just’ to swap the passenger front wing. Not done it before so watch a view YouTube videos which make it look simple… ahhh no
Started with this - bottom had rusted out, but the inner wing was very solid with a bit of surface rust
I had managed to pick up a good 2nd hand wing in black off a local 5 owner, the bottom had a few scratches so I gave that a bit of a rattle can job over the week, 3 coats of primer, colour and lacquer, the inside had some surface rust on it so that was treated with kurust and given a coat of hammerite for a bit of protection.
It went fairly well until I got to the 2 bolts at the front of the wing - one came off ok after a soak in WD40, the bottom had rusted half of the nut off - no no amount of sockets or spammers could get it to move. Lots of swearing and cursing and mole grips eventually got it off.
And because I have ABS, it also meant I couldn’t get the liner all the way off as one fixing is behind the water bottle.
With the wing off, I wire brushed the inner wing corrosion, treated with kurust and painted with hammerite again, not going to be seen, but should hopefully keep the rust at bay for a while
The refit was pretty quick, I decided to leave the front mud flaps off as they just don’t seem to sit well to me.
Still can’t get the side repeater to work, gave the wiring a good check while the wing was off and can’t see any damage to the wires, all the other indicators are working fine. Not the fuses, they are ok and I swapped the flasher unit, just in case, so I’m stumped for now.
2nd hand wing looks pretty good, top half needs a polish to get it to match up, but at least it doesn’t have a big hole in it anymore
While I had the tools out, also removed a heat shield from the centre of the exhaust - most of the seams were already rusted, so didn’t take a huge effort to pull the rest off - no more rattle!!
lesson learned - YouTube are liars - most of the videos show US owned cars where they are nice and dry and bolts have not been subjected to 30 years of salty roads and typical british wet weather
Another job ticked off today - side repeater working at last. Was getting power, but had a bad ground. Cut the ground wire and added a new connection, all working.
Then found the battery was flat, so jumped it and gave be an excuse for a good blast
Never really been able to see out the rear window since I got it. Bought some plastic window polish off eBay and that has made a big difference - not crystal clear, but has removed the cloudiness
Also gave the car a cut and polish - still needs more work but at least I’ve got some shine back into the paint. Overall the car has ‘patina’, it’s never going to be a show winner, but looks reasonable from a few feet away
The honeymoon is over!
Failed it’s mot today on a few things. Needs a small bit of welding to the seatbelt supports, ball joint, brake pipes and the exhaust sorting. It’s got a straight through pipe with no cat. Seems to have passed previous mots ok, but garage says it doesn’t meet the emissions as cats were required from 1st August 1992. Guess what date mine was first registered?
Mot station has quoted £1100 to put right which includes 6hrs labour for welding. Seems high to me so am going to bring it home and slowly work through the fails myself and find a local welder who can hopefully do it cheaper.
I really enjoy the car, so this is a set back, but probably only worth around £1-1.5k without an MOT so may as well do my best to keep another Mk1 on the road as it wouldn’t get anywhere near its value in parts.
This is Mk1 ownership, i just had to have a brake line done on mine this year for the MOT, all the shocks replaced last year, similar welding all done just before i bought it… the record garage bill i’ve paid on mine is £1700 but that included cambelt, so count £1100 as not too bad compared
That’s a shame but I hope you get things sorted before long so that you don’t miss too much of any good weather.
Owning an older car is bound to cost at times. Let’s hope you can keep your little gem on the road without shelling out a king’s ransom.
any recommendations for custom brake pipe makers? Struggling to find an online supplier who does them for ABS cars - an Ebay seller told me that mk1 cars never came with ABS!!
May have to make my own instead, any advice for which size fittings needed as most on ebay seem to be 3/16" - assume the MX5 is metric though?
I’d try a local garage,(a proper one, not Halfords etc) as the tooling for flaring brake pipe ends is inexpensive and simple and most car repairers will have it.
Doing it this way means you can use your existing pipe as a pattern and re use the fittings.
