Lovely car
I would use only Mazda exhaust hangers; aftermarket ones donāt stay on.
As for the Ashtray, I donāt smoke, so I dissembled it, unpicked the cigerette bit, and reversed the lid the other way, so it now opens over the deepest part of the ashtray. More usable for bottles etc. You lose the tiny little light, but no biggie.
If you have Eunos Roadster seats, the 1.6 seats canāt be fitted with the seatbelt stalks on your car (on early cars, the stalks were on the transmission tunnet, on later cars, they were fixed to the seat belly pan. The good news is the belly pans are easily swapped; I have a thread on this
https://www.mx5oc.co.uk/forum/yaf_postst101197_Mk1-seat-pan-swap.aspx
Putting the later pan on an early seat gives a bit more thigh support as well.
Or you can just fit early stalks to your car; you will need to cut the carpet to locate a plastic bung on the transmission tunnel that is covering the redundant early seatbelt stalk hard points. On most cars, this will be already threaded, but some cars, mostly UK it seems, there is no thread/captive nut, just a hole.
There might be headrest wiring in the car; have a feel under the carpet, under the seat. But on these later cars, Mazda was pretty brutal in getting rid of anything extraneous (aka value engineering).
My vote is for black leather and red or other contrast, stitching. Piping, in my opinion, always looks aftermarket.
MrMike, in the US, retrims these seats for Triumph (and other classics) owners. He has some great ideas for classic changes to the seats. Might provide some inspiration.
http://mrmikes.com/miata_to_triumph.htm
I do sort of like the Houndstooth cloth/leather combination.
Thanks for the info Saz. Not had a good look at the seats yet tbh. Donāt know if the tombstone seats came from a 1.8 or 1.6, or what year of car they came from. My car is a late model (Dec 97) and 1.6 so not sure if the seat pans will be the same between the my current seats/ the new seats? Didnāt pay much attention when we had the driverās seat out to fit the new hood, just know thereās like a long bit of metal goes from the seat belt latch on the seat to the rear of the trans tunnel.
Iāll have a good look this weekend and compare them. Just my luck, thought it would have been a case of out with the old, in with the new! Lol
Iām going to replace the exhaust with aĀ stainless steel one (built as close to OEM spec as poss so nice and subtle) so will getting all the rubbers from Mazda prior to this being fitted. Thanks for the heads up on that mate!
I like the idea of reversing the cubby hole sliding door, makes a lot more sense and will be more useable. Will do that this weekend too, so ta for the top tip!
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Oh, one other thing from earlier post in this thread. I did the base idle set by bridging the terminals as suggested in the diagnostic port and adjusting the idle which worked perfect. But I always disconnect the battery when not using the car, and have noticed the idle is now too high? If I do the above procedure to set it, will this be undone every time I disconnect the battery?
Base Idle should not be upset by disconnecting the battery on MK1 - MK2,5 cars. There is issue with MK3 on though where the ecu has to relearn settings after a battery disconnection and it can take quite a long time.
I think I read a few posts back that you are planning to get your seats re-upholstered. I have the same car and being honest you can relax with it as never going to be the ultimate MX5 that has to be kept original. On that basis would choose exactly the colour leather/piping/panels. etc that you will most enjoy.Ā Ā Ā
Your seats use the later type of seatbelt latch. Its not a hard job to swap the pans.
The bottom pan is the later type. You can see the welded bracket with a captive nut
The early seat foam has a different profile:
Later has a lump taken out
I just took a lump out
Or just buy early seatbelt receivers. I fitted some to my 96; this car has a rare early style seat where the pan cannot be swapped
Just fitted some cheap Carmate seatbelt latch covers
So, not got any further with the seats yet as Iāve been laid up in bed since Thursday afternoon with a stinker of a cold. Today, felt a wee bit better, so we decided to take Mindy for a run. Problem! The cobra immobilizer wouldnāt turn off, so couldnāt start her!!
After some faffing about, decided to open the touch key and see if there was anything obvious wrong. One leg from the chip had come away from the part itās soldered on to, so I thought well thatās a good place to start. Luckily Iām good with the soldering iron (at age 14 was repairing CB radios to make pocket money!) so got it soldered back into where it should be. Back to car, tested it and hey presto! The immobilizer led went off. Car now back to starting fine!
Iād previously did the base idle set (where you bridge two points on diagnostic port and then set the idle) as the revs were dropping right down when coming to a stop. This fixed that but I noticed that they were sitting a tad too high now, so tweaked it a bit today and got it set to bang on 700rpm. Now itās sitting perfect when coming to a halt etc.
Went for our run, which was down the A68 to Lauder. Then turned right along the little B road that goes over to Stow. From there.we turned onto A7 and headed for Galashiels in the borders. Gayle wanted to have a look at the new MG3 to see what they were like. The 2018 model looks nice but we were a bit concerned with Chinese build qualify (although the new ones come with 7 year warranty) so looked at a 2017 model to see how it had faired. Only 6000 miles on the clock, and the plastic around the heater controls had already worn which makes you wonder how more important parts will last. The new one is a nice looking car, nice inside etc but there are little things that shows it is a bit low quality in some areas.
So Gayleās decided that sheās going to look at the latest Skoda fabia as her daily runabout. A friend has recently bought a 2017 ltd edition Monte Carlo and itās a really nice car, had a go myself and drives nice (for a daily)
Anyhoo, round trip was 66miles in Mindy and she drove sweet, appart from the buggered suspension. Thatās deffo top of the list of things to get replaced! Still a very fun drive (top down, naturally!)
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Itās Sundayā¦Suns out (still bloody cold though!) time for a run in Mindy (top down of course). Had arranged to meet member oldspice to buy a hood/tonneau cover, so meeting place was Falkirk. Nice we drive for Minday then!
Took along my mate from work whoās been thinking about buying an MX5 (he loves Mindy!) and have to say Mindy ran sweet as a nut! Got a couple of photos with the cover fitted, really does make it look neater with the hood down.
The Tonneau cover fitted
Mindy meets a new playmate!
Robinās mk 2 MX5 (stunning condition!)
All in all a nice wee trip, and good to meet a fellow MX5 enthusiast. Robins knowledge and tips on all things mx5 were excellent.
Smart looking car.
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Actually, both are stunning.
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Glad you are enjoying Mindy.
Good to meet you Dave.
You clearly care a lot about your Mk1 as you should as itās āone of the good onesā.
Weāll catch up again when my Mk1 is re-metalled next year.
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Thanks mate, yes so glad Iāve got her. Funny, but even though iihavent had her long it seems like such a long time ago that I was on here searching for an MX5 and asking for advice! Just so used to having her now and loving every second!
Lol I didnāt realize you were Scottishfiver on here mate! Was great meeting you too Robin, love you wifeās MK2 and deffo will meet up once you MK1 is ready. Looking forward to seeing it!
And thanks for the compliments on Mindy, good to have someone who knows these cars give her the thumbs up. Got lots to do to her as sheās far from perfect at the moment, but going to enjoy restoring her. Bloody addictive these wee cars eh!
Ā And the restoration continues! Made a start on Mindyās original 5 spoke alloys last week, getting them fully sanded down, any damage removed as we went along. Finished pff with a wet and dry sand to get them super smooth. Some of the bad bits shown below. The wheels werenāt too bad to be honest, considering their age.
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And sanded down/prepped. Also went over them with tack cloths to ensure nice clean surface for the pain.
Insides of wheels also done (know you canāt see this really once on the car, but my OCD makes me a fussy sod!
Next, got them etch primed then into high build primer (looks like gloss in pics cos took photo just after applying paint!) Gave them 3 coats each.
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Then once that had dried, on with the colour of choiceā¦white! They were originally silver, but I love white wheels (when theyāre clean anyways!) and they seem to be a trade mark of my cars!
Wheels look shiney, but this will dull down overnight. Then tomorrow it will be a case of on with the lacquer.
The original centre cap badges were well past their best
So tracked down some nice new onesā¦in red to match her bodywork!
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Also done the centre caps in white as these were originally blackā¦plastic primed first, then one with the white. Much better! Again, these will be lacquered tomorrow.
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Really enjoying this, although forgot how much hard work it is refurbing wheelsā¦that plus Iām not getting any younger! The fumes had a funny effect too even though I was wearing a mask. ??
Will post pics once they are done and fitted to the car. The tyres are all being replaced with new ones as they are all odd ditch finders that are on them just now, and have signs of cracking.
Nice one - I have the same wheels on my 1997 MK1 1.6
Getting harder to find original wheel centres so well done finding suitable alternatives.
I did up a MK2 to sell about 4 years ago with original 14" TSW Stealth wheels, quite similar to ours actually, just a little more convex. Completely changed the wheel centres as at the time cheaper to buy a replacement wheel than a good original TSW wheel centre - I doubt that has changed.Ā Ā Ā Ā
lol know what you mean. It seems the aftermarket wheels are quite expensive when it comes to replacing wheel centre caps! had the same issue with TSW, but the worst was finding and buying a replacement centre cap for a set of Speedline Chronos alloys I had on my MB6 Civic vti. For one centre cap i had to pay over Ā£30! A Honda centre cap didnt even cost that!! lol
The thing I did notice with the centre cap badges I bought for Mindy is that they are the later style logo. The eternal flame seen on the original cap was produced until 1997, when Mazda changed it to the same as the red ones I bought. From what I read though, the eternal flame badges were mostly produced for export models, so weird how she has those ones. Yours might be the same with it being a 97 too, looks like our 5ās were both on the year the new logo was released.
soooo, been out in the garage most of tonight finishing painting the alloys. When I was done, I went to put Mindy back in the garage and when I fired her up, she made a loud rattling/ticking sound. popped the bonnet and sound seems to becoming from top of engine, near the back. Sounds like a really noisy tappet. Not sure why it started making the noise as she was fine when i drove her out of the garage earlier tonight. Any ideas what it might be? Was thinking maybe either a tappet or cam follower? Will check oil tomorrow when I get home from work but it was deffo up to the mark last time I checked a few weeks ago. Hoping itās nowt serious!
Suggestions welcome chaps!
Hopefully nothing to worry about. Take her for a run and the top end rattle will hopefully go away.
I get this on my 1997 MK1 1.6 but usually after not being driven for a few days.
Perhaps your hearing has got more sensitive as the day wore on:-)
Dave,
Donāt fret. As He of the Long Horn alluded sometimes though not always " Hydraulic Lash" is evident for a bit until the self adjusting ābucketsā get sufficiently pressurised.
Mine has done it off and on for yearsā¦with two different engines. It can be quite alarmingā¦sometimes a wee tick tickā¦sometimes a right good clatter but if it persists, Iād say do an oil & filter change using a Mazda filter, and any good quality oil. Donāt rev it to stop it thoughā¦let it take itās course.
That Sport I met you with would not do itā¦solid lifters.
Lol I wish! My hearing seems to be getting worse as I get older mate!
Iāll try and take her for a spin tonight after checking oil. Hopefully thatās all it is. Iāll post back here tonight, if she still has the rattle Iāll try and get a video (although I find that videos posted of weird sounds tend not to sound like the noise recorded! Lol)
Well, checked oil tonight and itās right up to the mark where it should be Not had a chance to take her out for a run, but a bit worried in case running it causes damage. Thanks Robin, will hopefully get an oil and filter change done asap. Funny how sheās never done it before, hopefully the oil change will sort her out!