Dean S550 Build Thread

No I didn’t fit new ones, the door cups are in lovely shape. I tried them in the door cups and there wasn’t a lot of room but they weren’t tight or a squeeze. Fitted them loose and shut the door a few times for them to settle into position then nipped up. :+1:

Just as Deans S550 said. But i used Cobalt poly bushes. Did not change door cups.

The only time you may need to change the door cups are when you are trying to fit this type of bush to the ND2. For some reason they have changed the shape but not the part number.
:hearts:

Got my genuine mazda front and rear mud guards and picked up a used nc piano black dash trim. Figured for the small difference in cost whilst the other bits are painted I’d have that body colour coded. I think an aluminium metallic dash panel will look quite nice in amongst a sea of black plastic :grin:.

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Quick fit, first pic standard boot light, 2nd pic LED motion sensor strip light.

Well it’s been a few months of using the car now and I thought by now I’ve had enough time to be able to update on the changes I made and the changes I’d like to make.

The tein suspension is great. I love it and am very happy with them. I’ve settled on 12 clicks from hard for a good balance of comfort and handling, if the roads were better I could firm them up further. Ride is comparable in comfort to stock but somehow firmer and more planted at the same time. I don’t think they are much of a compromise at all. No speed bump issues despite lowering and fitting the mazda front lip and it’s never bottomed out. No rattles or jittery handling and the car feels even nicer with the roof down.

Il MotorSport roll bars - as stated I’m more than happy with the handling, still unsure how much of this is to do with the roll bars as they went on with the suspension. But I’m happy with the combination. Still nice and compliant but not rolly poly.

Fuel economy -, not great. About 26mpg, but I do rev the car out and enjoy it every drive.

Tyres - the eagle f1 as6 are great. Grippy, lots of confidence, comfortable and quiet. A really good all round tyre. Settled on the standard 29psi.

BOSE sound is OK with the roof up, lacking with the roof down. I’m looking into speaker, head unit and active sub upgrades.

EBC greenstuff brakes and drilled discs - do what they need to when cold, work pretty well but much better with some heat in them. Stops nicely with no rumbles or noises.

Headlight bulbs aren’t amazing and are pretty yellow, I’ve ordered some ring 5000k bulbs to see if they improve.

Performance - nice, zippy but lacking a little for me. I intend to commence with some power upgrades once I’ve finished renovating our house as it’s just not a priority, but for now there’s enough to have a good bit of fun.

All the above coupled with some rustproofing as and when I have the space and time to do it hopefully leads to a long term ownership with this car, I really do like it quite a bit :grin:.

Edited: also the poly door bushings - the door feels firmer to close and has more of a thud, but the car must have been pretty tight to begin with as I can’t notice much of a difference at all. Maybe more worthile on a car that’s a bit older or higher mileage to tighten it back up :+1:.

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Fitted ring 5000k bulbs to try and improve the lighting situation as a lot of my shifts are at night and with better weather coming I expect to be using the car a lot.

The bulb is notably whiter and appears a little brighter than the original. It’s very difficult to get a photo that shows the actual difference (especially with projector style lenses) but hopefully it can be seen from the pic.

Drivers side was easy just moving the washer bottle aside, passenger side not so much and involved going into the wheel arch to access. Not fun.

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So nothing to update on the mx5 front and probably won’t be for some time now. It’s home has been demolished for an extension so it will go back to living outside as it presumably did for the first 9 years of its life, but once it’s all done it will have a lovely heated, modern garage to go back to. This is how it looked last week

This was Saturday

Such a shame to take it down but was built right on the boundary of our property and was single skin brickwork, we’ve had permission to do the work for a couple of years and couldn’t hesitate any longer or it was going to expire. We are going to rebuild it attached to the house with a bedroom above. I’ll lose about 150mm of width overall but gain over a metre in length so will be a great space to tinker and have all my tools to hand when I jump back on it :grin:. Car is currently on the neighbours beautiful driveway whilst we wait for rubbish removal.

Had posted this in ‘what have you done today’ but keep forgetting about my own thread :man_facepalming:t2:

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Thats very quick progress.

Hope your car doesnt drop any oil!

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Thankfully, not a drop :+1:

I expected nothing less!

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Best of luck with all the works Dean. It’ll be worth it when it’s done :+1:t3:

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Thanks mate, I hope so :+1:. The work is physically very demanding as we are doing it all ourselves with a help from family, but as you say, very rewarding.

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Oh, I did do something to the car, fitted the genuine mud flaps but never got them painted.

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@RichardFX over 2000 bricks cleaned and saved. This isn’t all of them but a hell of a lot of them. :+1:

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Look great eau naturel don’t they? :facepunch:

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Well done!

And facing bricks are typically more than a pound each, definitely worth a day’s work.

Maybe you took it down at the right time, not much cement in that mortar holding them together.

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It was an absolute pig though, almost every brick had mortar stuck to it to hack off. 4 of us took all day. They’re only heathers but will serve me in one way or another. We have walls to build all over the garden so they’ll soon be swallowed up. :+1:

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I actually do like them like it, didn’t think I would.

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Is your base substantial enough for the new building or are new going in?
When I had mine built way back in the 90’s (side attached to the house) they installed footings that could take another floor ie bedroom above if I so wished later down the line. I never extended upwards, thought about it many times but now definitely don’t need the space.
A project, I love a project but I’m getting too old now, hope everything goes ok, good stuff.

On a side note being ex building/plumbing trade (many years ago) I couldn’t help notice your neighbours soil pipe arrangement, a bit awkward and in your face looking now.:thinking: