Thanks! It doesn’t feel properly part of the family until some of the ‘essential’ jobs are complete 
Also started on some cleaning and detailing, but that can be for another post!
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“What have you done to your MX-5 today?”
Broke it? 
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What happened Mike?
Oh I’ve been suffering with gear lash for weeks. It’s been gradually getting worse and I am getting varying answers from various mechanics in my area.
The most helpful, MX-5 Restorations in Ilkeston, have booked me in to have a look and a road test, however others have said I’m buggered and theres permanent damage considering it’s likely been a problem since the new clutch was fitted in 2021.
Only owned the car 5 weeks. 
Prepping for two step paint correction yesterday, took longer than I expected to mask up and I ran out of tape (hence the two tone. Also never had to mask parking sensors before, they’re a faff). Unfortunately it went dark and rained before I could admire my handywork so I’ve had to make do with satisfying beading this morning instead.
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Today was the turning of the tide, started actually sticking bits back in the car after the Great Derusting. Rear end all back to metal where needed, couple of very small holes handled, everything treated with rust encapsulator then 2 coats of epoxy mastic and a final cosmetic/expendable coat of black zg90, plus wax (front end and trans tunnel all had the exact same treatment when we were fitting the 2.5 lump)
This time last week,
Some smaller parts still being painted so today, got the tank back in and plumbed, the rear subframe sorted and waxed, fitted a few polybushings and got hte first of the arms in, plus the rear crash bar/jacking point. Frustratingly slow going cos we mixed up all the nuts and bolts 
But also nice to take it slow and make sure everything’s right rather than just slapping it together like usual
End of the day looked like this
(the arches aren’t fully rustproofed yet as they want rolling, I’ll do that once the hubs are rebuilt and fitted and they’ll get painted after that, no point in risking cracking new paint)
Feels like a big step forward, even if only because I’ve been tripping over the subframe in the kitchen for weeks Still lots of little bits of paint and prep to do, and a few small parts to replace/order, but definitely feels like I’m on the home straight at last, as we enter month 8 of this quick weekend engine replacement.
But tomorrow is back to wire wheeling rust 
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Looking good Northwind 
Put my dehumidifier in the garage to hopefully absorb all the moisture in the garage. Not had my ND long but seemingly every time I go out in it a large rain filled cloud follows me around.
“The Great De-Rusting”
That should be the title of a book
The stuff you used, is that going to protect the car long room or even indefinitely? My car is wax-oiled to death but I’ve recently been advised I need to consider redoing it.
To be honest I’ve never used it on this scale but there’s a good chance it’ll outlive me now. It’s a ludicrous amount of work though, tbf it probably makes no sense considering the sheer time, and the product costs add up too, there’s hundreds of pounds of primer paint and wax on there. I mean, realistically I could have just sprayed it with a rust slower and done a bit of welding every couple of MOTs and it’d work out more cost effective for a long time 
Never mind the time involved. But this is nicer, it’s a real pleasure to do a good job of stuff for once. Even if I’ll probably drive it backwards into a tree way before it’d have rusted out
Dunno. I cannot recommend it for normal sensible people, I had quite a bit of time on my hands and it’s been good to have a project.
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The satisfaction is worth it. I did all this before on my nissan s15 and by the time it was done it was like a better than new car under there. Only trouble is once you’ve put that much work into it it makes you reluctant to treat it like any old car. Its a significant investment in time and effort.
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I work away from home all week, so idk if doing it myself would even be the wise choice when I only spend a day and half before going off on my jollies again haha
Yeah I wouldn’t if I was you then 
TBH a lot of the time I wish I’d just half assed it, I’d have been out driving the car instead of picking rust out of my eyeballs.
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First repair/addition/modification done yesterday - fitted the upgraded module for CarPlay/Android Auto in my ND2 RF. It took me longer than expected as I was extra careful with all the plastic trim parts.
I am glad to say that this has been the best job I have done of refitting trim back in place. All the visible areas where two panels meet are bang on!
Next on the list is a short aerial.
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I’m prepping the basics for a track night on the 15th. I already replaced 1 front brake and rebuilt the other some months ago. I’ve now popped in some Mintex pads on the front.
For the rear though? Honestly kill me, everything is stuck. Both brakes have a slight bind to them but after taking off the rear right the pistons aren’t dead which is good. The old brakes pads (some cheap nasty ebay stuff) had plenty of life but where glazed badly due to the piston binding. I’ve got 2 rebuild kits coming before I take them apart because currently they do work, just not perfectly. It’s also just started raining so there goes my day .
Like these gaiters.
Dark grey or black?
Also, I cant find Alcantara on their site, only suede.
Could yours be suede??
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I would go black for the main colour, but depends what you want to match in the cabin really.
It might have been that they were a ‘synthetic suede’ - same as Alcantara really, but without the trademark! I have an official Alcantara one for the ND to go on, and it feels very similar to me.
Cheers,
Steve
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Had a new windscreen fitted.
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Cleaned my nuts (ahem).
One thing that has stuck out ever since I bought my 5 was the state of the locking wheel nuts.
Grody.
Today, I decided to try giving them a spin with some abrasive to clean them up a bit. To be fair, the chrome bits remain relatively shiny underneath the muck, but the middle body seems to be unplated hardened steel (or the chrome is long gone) and to have rusted accordingly. I tried 320 but had to go up to 240 (+WD40) to make progress
The idea was never to make them immaculate, just make them a little less visually offensive. There was some pitting, but not as bad as I had thought.
Before I started, I had thought of slapping some chrome paint on the un-chromed body to protect it a bit. Turns out I don’t have any chrome in a can, but I do have some gold. Hmm…!
(I didn’t in the end - probably wisely!)
I fully expect them to corrode again, probably faster, but if they do I’ll just clean them up again.
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