Hoodedreeper's Mk1 - The Purple Monster

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The past month its been abit of an Import theme

Initial D Vol 1 book

Hyper REVs the first 4 issues for the NA/NB MX5

(Another) Dcuatro Light Cover

And my latest purchase,this will be kept a secret for alittle while until i sort some other stuff out

The past 4 and bit weeks the car has been back at the bodyshop having repairs done

Mazdaspeed bumper repaired and repainted
Front wide arches/flares removed
New wide arches/flares painted and fitted
Wings/fenders painted
Driver side rear wide arch/flare repaired
Bonnet hinge replaced

I’m also re-living my child hood abit and been purchasing alot of old gaming consoles and games. Collection is growing nicely (and pretty fast). I move out late summer,gotta get the spare room well equipped :stuck_out_tongue:

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Abit of an update

Went to the Spring Performance Action Day at Castle Combe

Went to Japfest at Silverstone a couple of weekends ago

Last year i was approached by a big UK Car Magazine. We’ve had to cancel the photoshoot 3 times due to the car keep breaking. All was looking good,so had the car valeted by a friend ready for the photoshoot. The weather was certainly on our side and i’m eagerly waiting for the issue to be published.

Aran over at MX5Nutz had re-designed the M45 Inlet after alot of research and CAD work. I’ve had it sitting in the garage for about a year,it was time to finally fit it. While the supercharger was off i did an oil change and fitted a new belt and tensioners.

Also while the supercharger was off i replaced the L shaped hose inbetween the Waterpump inlet and metal joiner (which goes to the lower radiator hose) as i’m pretty certain thats the cause of my coolant leak.

You may remember in my previous post (if not,scroll up ^) that i received a package from Japan. That was a brand new RX7 FD3S 99spec front splitter! I’ve seen one other car with it fitted on a Mazdaspeed bumper and i fell in love. It was a gamble as i didnt know what the fitment would be like.

With the original lip discontinued from Mazda,i had to improvise. Its far from perfect,its not the correct shape but i think i did a good job with getting it on.

As you can see,i didn’t fix the coolant leak :frowning: I need the front crank seal,timing belt and waterpump changing so fingers crossed its waterpump related.

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Y’know when you get an idea in your head,and you can’t tell if its going to be a good or bad idea…well…that may have happened.

Every year it seems i do something drastic with the car and its always a risk. I’ve had an idea about having a livery designed and fitted to the car for almost a year now. I contacted Tom at Infamous Creations (he’s done some awesome drift car designs for drivers across the globe) as i knew he’d be the guy to speak to.

A few months went by with ideas being thrown back and forth. I’ve always loved the HKS livery and knew that would be the one for MX5. So Tom drew out the pattern as a base and we built it from there. The design ended up looking like this:

I wasn’t too keen on my photography logo being as big as that,but that could be changed later on. I emailed a local graphics company (Unique Signs) with the render back in June 2016. We got the design sorted,the guys took lots of measurements and the graphics were fitted this week. I collected the car on Thursday (25th May) ready for the Modified Nationals show the following day.

After getting back from the show today (Sunday 28th May) i stopped off at a previous location i took for photos not long after i bought it

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A couple more photos of when i got the car back

My Car Club’s new window sticker

And a couple i took from the show

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Jass Performance have been developing their flush headlights for awhile now. Yesterday i received the first set off the production line and fitted them to the Monster.

Fitment still needs tweaking on the corners. Please bare in mind my bonnet and bumper are FRP and the bumper is sagging abit,so fitment isnt as spot on to a stock car. Also my Intercooler pipe is sitting higher for some reason (another job to do)

Assembly was simple,took longer to align them in all honesty. The expansion bottle has to be moved back approx 5cm,all hardware and brackets are included.

The beam pattern is fine and hasn’t been effected. I’ve experienced zero drag or air turbulance from them. I cant see it being any different to when pop ups are up.

Vlad should have them up on the website with a write up over the week/next week

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I’ve been busy…

Jass Performance Stainless NB Heater Controls Cover

Garage Star / Circuit Sport Expansion Tank (looks tiny compared to the OEM tank)

Did a quick photoshoot at night,pretty pleased with the outcome

My DIY airbox is now finished. Made the sides from Aluminium and the insulation is from eBay. The silver ducting i got from work,which will be replaced with something more rigid (that doesnt split so easy)

Last night’s purchase was a set of AWD Dials. Its been one of those rare parts i’ve dreamt of owning but these never come up for sale. I’m swapping my current dials for these plus there was some cash on top. Worked out quite alot but oh well,you only live once

Currently waiting for a Rev9 order to be shipped,more on that once it arrives :slight_smile:

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My Rev9 order had finally arrived after being stuck in customs for almost a week :confused: The import duty was the most expensive i’ve had to pay ever…but its worth it

Garage Vary Rain Guard
Watanabe Centre Caps
Nielex Chrome Handbrake Cover
M2-1028 Replica Mirrors

The Quality and fitment of the Mirrors are excellent. They’re smaller than i had hoped as i know photos can be deceiving. Only driven the car a couple of miles late at night so can’t comment too much on visibility.

The Nielex Handbrake cover was a good decision to get. Again,fitment and quality is top notch as with all Rev9 products. Sadly it didn’t come with the sticker so i’ll have to get one made.

The Watanabes on the Silver daily have been crying out for centre caps ever since i bought them. Its amazing how much of a difference they make. Not much to say on these,except Watanabe oo/

It certainly was an expensive couple of weeks since payday. I got linked a for sale thread for some RS Refine Gauge Rings. No way could i be this lucky and get AWD dials and these gauge rings within a week of each other? Luckily the seller was in the UK which saved on some (more) import duty,very speedy delivery too!

Cleaned up the old sealant around the edge and gave them a polish up. Fitted the whole cluster in the car,and WOW!

I’ll get round to fitting the Garage Vary rain guard soon,i don’t think thats going to be a quick job.

I’m off on a driving holiday in over a week’s time,i’m taking the Purple MX5 so expect lots and lots of scenic photos when i get back :smiley:

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Haven’t visited the local graffiti walls for awhile,so grabbed a few quick snaps. This was before the recent order from Rev9

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Me and the other half took a driving holiday to Wales last week. I’ve tried to condense the photos down,there was quite alot to choose from :stuck_out_tongue:

Started off by visiting the Evo Triangle

Travelled south west and stopped off at the Mach Loop Cad West to watch some RAF training. We had a couple of fighter jets come over as we got out of the car. We climbed about half way but sadly only saw 2 other air craft. I have zero knowledge on aircraft so couldn’t tell you the names sorry

Getting lost was the best part

We were staying with some family south of Merthyr Tydfil,so majority of our visits were in the south region

Went to the Henrhyd Water Falls

To the fast west of the Brecon National Park is the A4069 also known as the Black Mountain Pass. Give it a search in Youtube to see what the roads are like,theres one particular hairpin which is very popular for car enthusiasts :wink:

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Wednesday was very foggy,which made for some cool photos. We headed over to the Black Mountain Pass again in the hope of getting some more photos but sadly the fog ruined the view

Thursday we visited Rhossili Bay

Turned the sat nav off and took the route as it came. No matter what,you’ll never be disappointed with the views

We finished the holiday with a visit to the Total 5s HQ in Barry

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Double post.

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Rhossili is a gorgeous beach and there’s some great driving to be had on the Gower roads! I deem myself exceptionally lucky to have them on my doorstep!

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Not much to update car wise. The silver daily had its yearly inspection,all was well except it needed a steering rack gaitor and the handbrake adjusting. The bodywork was advised too which i knew about. Both rear arches need replacing along with the front wings/fenders. Bumper may aswell be replaced as thats got some bad paint cracks.

I got messed around with a part that was for sale so put the money towards a hard top for the daily. Paint isn’t in great condition,but the whole car will be painted eventually.

I removed the stickers today,to find how poorly the hard top spoiler had been fitted. They’ve bonded on 3 brackets to the glass,one side was taped on…so that needs looking at

Also noticed some scratches on the glass just below these spoiler brackets,looks like either sanding or grinding marks?

Over the past few months i’ve been collecting and building up a small video games collection. Today i moved into my fiance’s place. I had already sorted out the man cave ready for the move in :wink:

Yes that is my Mazdaspeed boot spoiler hanging from the ceiling,storage space is limited lol

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Back in April you may remember i had a photoshoot for Fast Car Magazine

Today the feature was published

As mentioned in the Magazine,a special thanks to H&S Performance, Autodoc, All-Trims, Garagestar, Auto-Genie, Rev9, J’s Garage, Jass Performance, Revlimiter, BN Media, MX5Nutz and my friends/family

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Today i received the photos from the magazine shoot,photos courtesy of Matt Woods Photography

There were 70 images but i’ve picked the best 10 (in my opinion)

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The 1st September marked 4 years since my previous MX5 caught fire. On the 10th Sept it’ll also be 4 years since i got the Purple MX,wow how time flies!

The weekend just gone saw the return of JAE (Japanese Auto Extravaganza), the UK’s only 4 day jap show. It was also a year ago i had the running/ECU problems coming back from the same show. You’ll be glad to hear i made it there and back with no issues :slight_smile:

We went up with the club we always attend with,although attendance was very low this year,but we still had an awesome weekend. The week before the show i had one of the organizers ask for my car to be inside the hall for their Show & Shine

We stuck around till the end and watched the awards (couldnt get the car out any sooner). And to a huge surprise I ended up winning Best Mazda! Its great to finally see a reward for the work. A mag feature and trophey in one month is pretty awesome!

Monday just gone and me and the other half started to strip the daily MX. The MOT (annual inspection for those overseas) had an advisory of the passenger wing/fender due to corrosion. Managed to source a replacement along with another front bumper for a very good price. (bumper had severe paint cracking,so it made sense to change that too)

The bottom didn’t look great…

Gave the inner wing and bumper fixing areas a coating of underseal before refitting

All back together along with an import plate surround and some 6mm front and 10mm rear spacers.

We also picked up a twin exhaust and silenced de-cat. The initial plan was to cut the existing bumper and eventually fit an R-Package rear lip. Then this Auto Joy/VIS Racing fibreglass bumper came up for sale locally so went with that instead

Found out the rear lights were siliconed in,which resulted in 2 snapped studs on the driver side light,luckily i had a spare pair of lights. Also swapped the broken number plate panel for my painted carbon fibre one i had on the other MX

So yeah… we’ve done more to the daily MX in the last 2 weeks than we have all year lol

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Browsing through the interweb looking at stuff when i get a notification pop up saying JDMParts.rupewrecht had posted an item. Followed the link and it was a Mazdaspeed Trap Timer.

I’ve only seen a handful of photos of this device and i missed out on one that Dan shared about 6 months ago. So we exchanged a few messages and had agreed for him to bid on it for me. We ended up winning it,it was expensive but who cares,you cant take money to the grave!

I spent the next few days and nights trawling through Yahoo Auctions for more stuff to buy (may aswell include more stuff in with the shipping!) After a week or so waiting for shipping they arrived on my doorstep today

Its all Mazdaspeed…i kinda got an addiction with the brand. Dan won be floor mats,horn push button and the trap timer.

Sadly no box for the Trap Timer but the original instructions were which was a bonus. A big thank you to Randy over at MazdaRoadster for the translation he posted online a few years back,they were a great help!

I also managed to score a few items here in the UK too.

Oil Cap (still waiting for delivery,but this is the actual item)

Carbon Fibre Gear Shifter (i think it’s missing the shift pattern sticker on the top?)

I also got from the same seller as the shifter (thanks again Chris Horne) a 360mm steering wheel. The steering wheel had seen better days but certainly looks like its been used well.

My original plan was to strip off the old dye and re-dye it using RevLimiter’s blog as a guide. Spoke to a couple of Leather Repair companies and nobody would touch it. Spoke to a local company called Moores Vehicle Trimming based 20mins away from me and they were happy to take on the task.

He quoted a very good price,so agreed and left my details thinking it was a restoration job,turns out it was a retrim… winner! 9 days later and i receive a call to say it was ready for collection. They said they originally under estimated the duration of the job and it should have been alot more,but they stuck to their word and honoured the original price. Very happy with that and the quality of the work! Will certainly be using them again for any future work.

Here are some before and after

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Some photos of it all fitted

I also got bored and painted up a spare Xbox One controller to match the livery of the car lol

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An MX5Nutz member kindly sent me an original owners handbook

I also had another book arrive,this time from Japan and purchased through JDMparts Rupewrecht

The Mazdaspeed obsession continued when i stumbled across a damaged A-Spec Type 1 bumper only a couple of hours away

The middle of the bumper is paint flaking off and adhesive tape from the number plate,the damage is in the corner

It had the lower rubber lip and air damn included, the parts that are always sought after for this. Luckily the lip was there,because thats whats keeping it all together lol

Me and the other half took both cars out for a drive to a local meet,would have been rude not to take a photo together