Hello fellow MX5 people, I purchased a £300 MX5 unseen off Ebay as a project 2 years ago. The fact it wasnt worth saving didnt bother me - I like building cars and constantly changing them. In the immortal words of Jesse ‘Theres something about engines that calms me down’
I will try and comment on as many as the pictures as possible so you know what the hell is going on in my head…
So let me massive picture upload begin!
I had to rent a trailer to pick the car up from wonderfull Stoke, luckily my dad is just as impulsive as me so we went to pick it up November 2016.
Luckily it ran, although it hadnt moved for years and I got very wet when the roof poured water onto my leg.
I started tearing into the little rust bucket, knowing there would be some rust (Im used to working on Landrovers so no biggie)
Little did I know how much rust there was…
I havent got too many pictures of the main repairs, it wasnt that much fun doing rust repair for 12 months…
So after spending so much time doing rust repair I didnt want to finish it and have it look exactly like every other MX5 on the road. So I decided that I wanted to make it a wide body, while I was working in London I picked up a set of wide arches and over arches from IMG Services. Soon after I got a set of Rota Grid V 15x8 et0
At the same time as doing the wide body I was repairing the underside, painting it and replacing every nut and bolt that I could. I also picked up a bargain Kakimoto exhaust (£100) and some Koni dampers with lowering springs (£80).
I also replaced with new:
Brake calipers
Brake Pads
Brake Discs
Braided Brake Lines
Fuel Filter
Brake Lines
Fuel Lines
Handbrake cables
Track rod ends
Anti roll bar connectors
Wheel bearings
Spark plugs
Ignition leads
Alloy radiator
Coolant hoses
Thermostat
Gear lever boot and seals
I also replaced some parts with second hand upgrades:
1.8 drive shafts
1.8 LSD from a MK1
Power steering rack and pump
After cutting so much material out of the back end I wanted to add some bracing and a decent tow point
Ordered a Driftfab bash bar and set about customising it.
I also fitted an import rear plate surround and number plate lights
I have never done any painting before apart from a few small rattle can jobs, so I bought myself a spray gun and some paint and decided to have a go. We built a make shift spray booth in the garage. To be honest it was a bit pointless as it made no difference to the quality of the paint it just made it more awkward to squeeze around the car.
After it was painted and put back together I decided to get it on the road, flew through the MOT and got a quick wheel alignment done. Driving it was fun but there was one thing that I really, really got annoyed by… It was so F****** slow!!!
Soon after I reaslised a stripped interior was also no fun so I got new carpets, fitted a head unit I had lying around and some speakers. TR Lane roll bar was fitted a while ago I think I missed that one. Got a D1 Spec snap off steering wheel hub along with a genuine Sparco steering wheel. ECU was relocated into the glove box.
On a whim I bought a hard top as the old soft top had shrank and was leaking, got that painted up in black and also fitted the biggest and gayest of wings. A second hand Japspeed carbon fibre drift wing.
Now I will tell you this - as soon as I drove it I could tell the difference. Even on the lowest angle of attack the back end was pushed down so much I had to raise the rear suspension (I had just fitted a set of brand new Meisters!)
There was only one downside…UNDERSTEER and lots of it lol
And with the lanes and drives I have to go down there was no way I could fit a front splitter with enough downforce to balance out the car. So soon after the BGW was sold…
Then the big day came, fed up of the lack of power I booked the car in with MTEC to be turbo’d. I also opted for boost control, BMW TPS sensor, launch control and anti lag.
I would love to show you the dyno graph but to this day I havent received them lol
While it was being converted there were one or two issues that delayed the build and also cost lots of money to fix!
The brand new SkidNation high flow thermostat I had fitted was faulty and wasnt opening enough - so the car was over heating. This was swapped out for an OEM one.
The exhaust was too restrictive, even with a decat and Kakimoto cat back exhaust it couldnt push past 200bhp. So MTEC made a new high flow system for me.
So after all this the basic conversion price of £2.5k turned into over £4k
Now the interior was sorted along with the chassis, brakes and power I decided to revamp the outside. I wanted to keep the wide body but also add a ‘body kit’ to make the car look lower. I decided on the Destroy or Die kit as it has a much more rounded look and suits the car more than a Duce kit or Rocket Bunny.
I had the front bumper for when the turbo was fitted, so MTEC could position the intercooler with the right bumper on. I soon after got the rear bumper after an incident with a hedge ruined the original.
The front wings were replaced with Waspworks arches, the original IMG Services arches were so bent and poorly made they ended up in a skip. I was running round on some modified ebay generic wide arches while I looked for a decent replacement.
The Destroy or Die side skirts are currently on order, should be picking up the Waspworks rear arches in the next few weeks so I can get rid of the IMG ones.
A mate who runs a local garage, and is probably the best MX5 drifter in the UK made up a front bash bar for me.
Well done, you have put a lot of effort in and it shows, great photographs too.Thanks for posting them
Welcome. Nice work for a £300 unseen-off-eBay project! - they rarely end up the completed project that yours has.
I admire your enthusiasm, your vision, your skills - and your ridiculously deep pockets.
Just curious - why ‘Project Anger Management’? I sense a back-story - if you want to share.
Steve
Wow! If ever there was a labour of love That’s It! Well done and keep up the good work!!
Thanks!
Not so much a back story, but I always have to have a project car to keep my thoughts and effort on. Building cars and going to the gym give me something to focus on, im always thinking about the next thing I want to do and the best way to do it.
If I start to get agitated or short tempered I go and work on the car, even if its late at night or freezing outside.
I know there is probably a seperate place for this but Id like to keep it together with the current project.
Just a small highlight of my previous builds:
Landrover Discovery 3.5 V8
Bought for £500, was my favourite car ever and I had a tear in my eye when I sold it.
Fiat Grande Punto 1.4 Turbo
Tuned from 130bhp to 160bhp. Bigger turbo, intercooler, exhaust, turbo actuator. It sounded great but was very unreliable!
Civic EK
Complete bodywork rebuild, full respray and track set up suspension. Loved this car but it was written off when I was slammed into a barrier my a brand new Jag on the way to work. I couldnt afford to fix it at the time although I wished Id have stored it somewhere to fix later.
Kid number 1 came along and my first house, decided on a sensible family car so I bought an Astra SRI 200. It had every toy available and was probably the highest spec in the UK.
Stock 198bhp, when I finished it was 298bhp (detuned from 310bhp to run a stock airbox)
Welcome to the forum! Amazing build on the mx5 mate, nice to see another being saved.
Loving the list of previous cars, really varied but all nicely built/modified. Keep the photos coming mate, enjoying the read.