upgrade to rear glass screen , advise on doing this mod please is the best option to find a Mk2 frame and fit the mk2 frame with a new hood please any experience in this would be welcome
Thanks John
Hi John
Yes, buy a good MK2 frame, complete with good mohair(cloth) hood and glass window off a scrapped MX5. Make sure the stitiching is good, no damage, etc and get the upgraded rainrail and roof catches at the same time if possible. Fitting one of these to a MK1 is straightforward and much easier than fitting a new hood to a frame.
Thanks for your reply, do the upgraded rainrail and roof catches come as standard on mk2?
Thanks John
I’ve had a glass replacement for a Mk.1 rear window but I found the weight of the glass made the top of the window hang just a bit too low for good rear visibility (newer designs may be better, but that was my experience years ago). I’ve also put a mohair Mk.2 roof on a Mk.1 and found that much better although there are a couple of details worth mentioning: the Mk.2 headroom is slightly less as there’s a second fabric layer stretched below the steel hoops and you might want to swap your Mk.1 roof catches onto the new roof. I found the Mk.2 catches became sloppy and wouldn’t stay shut and was advised they look the same but are not the same quality of casting as Mk.1 ones (“made of cheese” was the phrase which stuck in my mind). I replaced them with Mk.1 ones and had no further problems.
I seem to recall there’s also a minor difference in the profile of the pegs on the front of the catches which locate on the indents on the windscreen frame, but I don’t know the details.
Some breakers will try and sell the catches separately. Or just fit your Mk1 catches to the Mk2 hood frame.
Note, the newest original Mk2 hood is now 17 years old, and well past its service life. Breakers can be chancers, and base their pricing on 50% of the Mazda price. Yet the hood might be about to fall apart, and they are hard to inspect dismantled. While mohair doesn’t shrink, it does have a rubber layer that rots, hence the hoods need reproofing. Ditto rain rails; the best upgraded rain rail I have seen is the Robbins rain rail sold by Moss. It has a really nice construction, and doesn’t cost that much.
You can get glass window upgraded tops to fit a Mk1 frame, without having to get a Mk2 frame:
https://www.mx5parts.co.uk/mohair-hood-with-glass-window-special-colours-mk1-25-p-2905.html
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Not sure exactly when the upgraded rainrail appeared but would guess sometime around 2002/3 on the MK2.5 car. Aside from likely being younger in age the upgrade replaces the fragile, brittle plastic on the sides with rubber so fewer issues.
Not heard of the MK2 catches being inferior to MK1 but around 2003/4 the catch nipples changed shape, supposedly an improvement. The earlier plastic nipple cover replacements will still fit but forced on unless you reshape the aluminium nipple with a dremmel or similar. Secret with these catches is to use the central handle recess in the roof to exert any pressure required to close the roof, not the catches. The main catch handle can easily distort at the base, screwing up the locking catch part and loosening them up generally. New/different ones fitted will always need fine adjustment via the central hex nut covered by a plastic clip.
Martin thanks for your comments I have started to look for a good mk2 frame with a good hood I think that is the best option many thanks John