for those of you in Grantham or surrounding areas avoid the ORA garage on inner street.
Olly who I used to work with and used to consider a friend until he tried to rip me off recently.
I went to him for a quote on my suspension change.
(remove old shocks n springs, fit coil-overs, adjust the height and an alignment)
he quoted £600 minimum and 2 days.
he also tried to rip me with extra work saying that I must have the corner weights done, which in truth is an optional item.
anyway, I got the work done for £200 and it only took 4 hours.
also
I went to him about 5 years ago to have some work done on my Renault Clio for its mot.
his lad broke the ABS ring off the drive shaft (because he was messing about with a hammer) and it cost me £90 extra for a new driveshaft.
I’ll give Olly his due.
he can do good work and he can do things others in Grantham can not but you are going to pay through the nose and it is going to take much longer than anyone else and if he breaks something, it will be you that pays for it not him!
oh and he is also known the pull the whole “i can let you take it out of here that” chestnut!
which I’m told is actually illegal!
picked the car up from Thrussington on Thursday afternoon.
I didn’t post until now because I was waiting for mick to send the picture along.
unfortunately, he has yet to send them but I thought id better post now while things are fresh in the memory.
so she went in for underseal.
fast road alignment.
oils change.
handbrake adjustment.
damper adjustment.
the fast road alignment has made the car feel much more planted,
it felt planted anyway but now it feels racecar planted.
as to the oils change, I supplied the engine oil but was unable to get the gearbox and dif oil in time.
so they put in Rock Oil. which they use in their racing MX5.
It made quite a difference to the feel of the gearbox.
in short, it’s great!
long version, it has tightened up the gearbox giving the shifts a very positive feel.
it has also made it much more difficult to stick it in a gear you really shouldn’t when you shouldn’t,
it’s kinda weird and hard to explain.
as for the cold morning shift it’s made that a little silkier but let’s be honest any oil that’s made for cold changes isn’t going to be much cop once it’s hot!
as to the underseal i can not comment on that until i get a look at it.
tho there is a tiny bit of overspray that i need clean off!
so can anyone tell me what’s the best thing to use to remove the few little dots of underseal off of the paintwork?
petrol?
paint thinner?
white spirit?
WD40?
so, yesterday.
I took it in yesterday to have an upper rear brace fitted and whilst I was there I had them pop the new piper cross air filter in!
I cant say that the air filter has added horsepower but I can say it has defiantly restored the horsepower that my old, cheap and clogged air filter was choking out!
I have also seen an improvement in performance from the fitting of the brace!
basically, the power can now go straight to the road instead of having to go through the suspension and body first!
the brace has also stopped the roof from complaining every time I go over uneven ground!
here is a picture of the boot now that the brace is installed.
I wasn’t expecting him to do that back bumper!
there is a rust point on that back bumper and it’s where the bumper plate meets the body at each end.
I was thinking that I would have to have that hammerighted separately but he’s done it in with the rest!
so i am very happy, very happy indeed!
just got home from a nice drive to matlock, where i picked up a second hand backbox from another member.
nice day, nice drive, nice chap and nice backbox!
having it fitted on monday along with the il motorsport antroll bars that i got from mx5 parts.
now i just need the chassis braces (which are late) to arrive and i will have finished doing the handling mods.
i saw about 4 mx5s while out today.
saw 3 nc’s on the intime to give a flash n wave but got acknowlgement. all 3 driven by ladys of a certain age!! with the roofs up and i saw a green mark 1 parked in a village just outside matlock.
i had the new antiroll bars and backbox fitted this morning.
gotta be honest i am quite surprised, in a good way, how much difference the antiroll bars have made.
definatly a recomended upgrade.
the steering is as responsive as ever but its now firmer (tho not harder to steer) and less skitish.
the biggest difference in normal drivin is how it now handles areas of potholes before the steering wheel would go all over the place and now it does not do that, it still moves alitle but it dont yank the wheel about like it did before.
as for performance driveing, il let you know when the rain stops!
as for the backbox.
it given the car a much better sound and this particular box does it without any noticable volume increase.
the rear bushes are worn out and my rear suspention linkages are squeaking groaning and lightly clunking
esp on the drivers side.
i was considering just changing the bushes but then i realised that the ball joints on the other ends of the suspention bars are not changeable and that i might end up needing to replace some them as the car ages.
i took a look at mx5 parts and saw that a full set of rear arms would cost about 850 and that they come with oem rubber bushes anyway.
So im wondering if it might just be better in the long run to simpley replace all the link bars rather than just the bushes.
basically im thinking that even if i rebush the whole i might end up having to buy link bars anyway.
basically do i try and do it on the cheep (for now) by rebushing but run the risk of having to rearm in the futur which would mean spending a total spend of1200 on parts alone over time
or do i just do a big overhaul now and replace all the arms (that come with new bushes) at a parts cost of 800 right now and not have to worrie about it for another 8 to 10 years.
gotta be honest im leaning towards replacing all the arms
because if i rebush, it is possible i could do that and find out that its the ball joints that are the problem anyway.
so im in a bit of a quandery, which you can probably tell by my eratic thought writing and multipul edits, about this and would like to know what you all think about this?
I would get someone you trust to inspect it the car and the likely hood of the ball joints actually failing? Is it common? It’s not something I have heard of.
If the bushes are squeaking you might just be able to treat them. You should be able to see if they are failing.
the car is in next week for some work, so while it is in i will have a good look at the rear bars and bushes and also give them a very good spray greasing.
in the longer term i have decieded that i am going to replace all the bars.
because chances are in the 3 to 5 years the rubber on the ball joints is going to perish and then they will need replacing anyway.
so its best to just replace all the bars (which come with nex bushes) now and then i should be ok back there for another 8 to 10 years.
so overhauling it all will cost more in the short term but it gives a good long term pay off!
Well if you get to have a look with some help you know you are not guessing. if the wear is there and you are concerned it’s probably best to get it done. May be you can show me if you are still ok for that coilover ride, then I can keep an eye out for it on mine
Loving this progress report, you are going to end up with a thoroughly sorted automobile at the end of it. Where are you at on the supercharger vs engine swap? Speaking as a mk1 turbo owner I can recommend turbos and they often end up cheaper on a £perbhp basis.
right now i am slowly working towards a charger!
staying with the 2l enhine will make things easier for now.
However once iv finished everything and the charger is on, chances are that il blow the lump at some point and at that point i may look into going to 2.5 if i am able to use the same charger.
back when i changed my manta from 2l to 2.2l they were exactly the same engine on the outside so everything fitted. so if i find that its the same deal with the duratec 2l and 2.5 then there is a very high chance il go for the 2.5 as a replacment.
just had the rear underside braces fitted this morning.
what a difference!
makes the car feel much stiffer in the back and less crashie over areas of potholes
definatly a recomended upgrade!
i also put new brake pads on the front EBC Greenstuff pads.
too early to give feedback as they havent bedded in yet.
and lastly i upgraded my dip beam lights (xenon max from mx5parts), cant really say how much better they are untill after nightfall this evening
i also took the oppertunity to paint the brake calipers and sheilds but forgot to take a pic.
That’s a fair chunk of work you’ve done since getting the car, and it all looks good. I’m hoping to get under mine in the not too distant future and do a bit of cleaning up/painting. Unfortunately I also have another hobby that takes up most of my fun budget, so I can’t be spending too much. I have a set of very low mileage Bilsteins with springs which I’ll be putting in place of the original (2006) 50k units, probably new tyres and leave it at that for now.
the greenstuff pads are semi bedded in now and are already better than the old standard pads.
once they are fully bedded in i shall get the rear greenstuff pads fitted.
the xenon max lights are definatly better than the standard bulbs.
as to ride and handleing.
i am now happy with the way the car feels, rides and handles.
so i dont need to do anymore on that front, tho i do still have a couple of items on order (cross brace, engine bay brace) that i will fit once they arrive.
i am still going to replace all the rear linkage bars but i shall do them at a rate of a pair each month.
other than that it is time to start saving for power upgrades.
i shall be going for the BBR 180 kit + exhaust mid section first.
as any further upgrades will require that i already have the high flow exhaust system.
as to further power upgrades, i shall start saving for the supercharger.
however while i am saving for the power upgrades i will still be doing some smaller cheeper modding.
such as davefab coolant tank, sound tube delete, boot spoiler, full paint valet. LED rear lights, etc.
some of you might have wondered why i put so much time and money into suspention rollbars and braces! and the answer is so that the car will be ready for and able to handle the power of a super charger.
personally i get the feeling that if you supercharged a compleatly stock nc at this point you would over time ■■■■■■ up the body and running gear.
basically i think that a charger on an un-braced car would actually warp the chassis!
