Thank you Simon, yes that’s a moss aerial. I wish I’d known about it the first time but it wasn’t expensive so not an expensive mistake - and the reception on fm is fine. I’m not an AM man as I find it sounds dreadful to my ears and I’m not yet 40 
.
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Did a little more work tonight, rear calipers cleaned up and painted, brake discs fitted and new pads. Same as front, new pins, grease, rubbers and rattle shims.
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I feel the need to say before anyone asks, no I didn’t paint the discs they came coated from mtec 
, and yes there is grease on the pads where they contact the calipers and pistons just not lots - I find that anything more than a light smear just ends up attracting dirt and doesnt really add any benefit. It will be a fair weather car and won’t see much water aside from a wash 
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All done finally, added some decals to the plain centre caps, wheels back on and final ride height set. Went for eagle f1 assymetric 6 in the end as got them for around 25 quid a corner more than the kumho I was set on.
Now to wait for a nice dry day and drive her, bed in the brakes etc then off for alignment. This has been a great process so far getting to know the car. Fantastic to work on, no drama at all and a pleasure all round.
Roll on better weather!
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I wouldn’t take it out, it’ll get dirty😁
Great work, meticulously done.
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Thanks Mick , that is a bit of a problem for me, I love cleaning cars but don’t like getting them dirty 
. But this one’s for driving, not all year round but as much as possible in reasonable weather.
Looking fantastic 
I have envy on many fronts, the car, the skills, the talent, the time and the garage! Enjoy taking it/him/her out 
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You’re too kind thank you. I always wanted a nice garage and we finally got the opportunity to buy a house with one a couple of years ago, unfortunately the house that came with it needed a lot of work.
Messing with the car has been a nice change of pace.
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Just to add my compliments as others have, you have a great looking car there… Hope you get a dry day soon to enjoy it!
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Thank you, I appreciate it
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Nice bit of fettling 
Went for a subtle lip spoiler, quite happy with it but easy to remove if I changed my mind.
And finally the bbr tips arrived, needed a good clean and polish but came up great. Fitting when I have time and pretty much done apart from some genuine mudguards to fit when I can get them painted.
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Fyralip spoiler? Looks good.
Got one to fit on mine too, but still in the ‘to-do’ pile 
Exactly right. The colour match was actually very good, not perfect but how could it be. It went on nicely but is just slightly off on one side, may have to get new 3m tape and refit it at some point but aside from that it’s very good value.
Your car is looking great!
I didn’t know that was possible to change out the exhaust tips.
How are the OEM ones currently installed?
Will the car sound different by changing to the BBR ones?
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Thanks mate.
I’m going to drop the backbox and try and separate the spot welds, if that doesn’t work I have some cobalt drill bits to thin them out first. It’s mainly a cosmetic upgrade only as I saw them going cheap, but may change the tone ever so slightly being longer and larger (3.5").
So I took the car for a good run earlier, nothing too mad as its the first run out with all the changes.
Goodyear tyres seem very good, grippy, no wheel spin, even with the ott negative camber until I get alignment done. No breaking traction but not driving too hard.
No rubbing or scrubbing on any arches or liners (just me in the car).
Tein suspension - very impressed. Have them set to halfway and aside from being more controlled and everything seeming tighter, you couldn’t tell the difference from the original bilsteins in terms of comfort. Have yet to play around with the damper settings but I’m sure they can only improve further with tweaks.
Il motorsport roll bars - hard to tell as I wasn’t pushing the car too hard as it was a shakedown run.
Brakes - gonna take a while to bed in properly and remove the coating - it’s well and truly on there!
Redline MT90 gear oil - a bit finicky cold (car hasn’t moved for weeks as well) but once warmed up the changes were lovely and smooth.
One thing I noticed - think my clutch springs have a little rattle when I’ve slowed down and start pulling again at low revs. Car only has 31k but is coming up 10 years old. I’ve had it before on another car and sounds very similar/the same. Clutch works fine. Anyone else know of this issue on these? Could maybe be a heat shield but I recognise the sound as clutch springs.
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Good to hear about the Teins, more of test later I guess when it’s all together and lined up.
A question, when buying the Teins did you get an option to state PRHT or soft top? I’m unsure if there is a difference but I got asked by one supplier (on-line) to insert which model I have?
Hi Mick. OK, so the tein coilovers are listed generally for ncec chassis. It does specifically state ‘not tested with
prht model’ but I assume this is because the car they developed them on was rag top so more of a disclaimer than anything - to cover themselves. In any case, I looked around online and found other prht cars with them fitted and they only sell one model so it’s the same ones - I didn’t see any variance in other Coilover brands and models or spring rates on any Coilover kits for the nc whether for prht or not, and I looked at the weight difference between soft and hard tops of 40odd kg which isn’t very much. In summary I honestly don’t think it makes any difference, similar to having a boot full of ■■■■ in any car if that makes sense. All mounting points and fixings are identical between both cars. I’d be interested to know if mazdas part numbers for shock and springs differ between the two.
Any initial additional lowering from the little extra weight you can just dial out when you set them up, personally when they came with teins initial settings I found it too high regardless of the 40kg more bulk so I adjusted it down some.
Hope that helps. The true test will be when I crank them to full hard and put it through its paces. I expect to lose a lot of grip without the compliance but will give me a chance to see if it becomes crashy and harsh on the road. I doubt I’ll ever set to full soft (16). 8 is actually very nice and agreeable with me. Too soft and the car will probably lose some of its composure and rub on the rear arch lips at my ride height.
Hope this helps, I wouldn’t heartily recommend anyone rush out and buy them on my recommendation as its early yet, but so far so good.
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