I’m undertaking, or rather paying people more skilled in these matters than I am, a bit of an underside/suspension restoration of my 1997 mk1 1.8.
The plan is to replace all the rubber in the suspension with uprated IL Motorsports bushes and fit, after much deliberation, a set of Gaz Gold Pros.
In preparation for this, today I got some bits back from the Power Coaters.
The first bit is engine bay, not underside. I picked up this factory fit strut brace for a bargain price. However, it was a bit battered and chipped. So, it has been freshly powder coated in the closest match we could find to the original orange. It is not a very popular colour apparently, so the choice of shades was limited. Nuts and plaque polished with Autosol and refitted:
A synthesize of contemporary automotive advance and traditional sportscar, naturally.
Might have to get the rocker cover and inlet manifold done now!
I have also had the front and rear subframes, anti-roll bars, wishbones and chassis bracing media blasted, zinc phosphate dipped and double coated in gloss black “Plascoat”. I am really happy with the finish. All these parts were loaned to me by my friendly local MX5 specialist, on the understanding that I sorted the powder coating and they’ll take the bits off my car in exchange when they fit these.
Front subframe:
Rear subframe:
Anti-roll bars. Stupidly the drop links were left on these, they will be replaced with uprated IL Motorsports items:
Close up of the finish on the rear (?) bar. These were quite badly rusted and pitted to start with:
Front upper wishbones. There is a risk of the (non-removable) ball joints getting damaged during media blasting. Despite being well masked up there was evidence of a bit of grit in them when I unwrapped them. So, I have cleaned them out as best I can and hopefully they will be ok once repacked with grease and fitted with new rubber boots:
Some other bits:
Chassis bracing, these were the most corroded pieces but have come out fine:
I’ll ask the guys doing the fitting if they can get some photos of them on the car while it is in the air…
