My Gunmetal Grey 'S2 Racing' Eunos Roadster

[DaxCobra]

Ah, okay. I feel like it'd have been more impressive if you'd lied and said you'd spanked a bunch of GT-Rs on the track

I spanked a load of GT-R's on the track.




...

 

[carracerptp]

Nice MX-5 👍
I must say, you have excellent taste in cars We must have a race before you get a supercharger on yours.

 

[DaxCobra]

Nice MX-5 👍
I must say, you have excellent taste in cars We must have a race before you get a supercharger on yours.

Hehehe, sure bring it over to the UK! But hurry, supercharger build going ahead very soon.

 

[DaxCobra]

Better update this!

So, I fitted my coilovers (pic shows ride height)...

And test fitted my other new buy...

And...

EBC Front discs and braided hoses fitted!!



So I had a little accident whilst fitting them which ended with my front wing dented. It turns out it was full of filler anyway and now it's beyond repair. I am picking up a new front wing today and am going to go to a body shop with the intention to book her in for a full respray within the next couple of weeks.



I am going for a gunmetal grey







My Suede center piece should arrive this weekend

Also, I have a thread on another forums which is updated far more often... Here.

 

[carracerptp]

I never noticed on the UK models they left the hand brake on the left side

 

[DaxCobra]

I never noticed on the UK models they left the hand brake on the left side

*ahem* They drive on the proper (left) side in Japan, so technically, Sir, they left it there when they made the Left Hand Drive ones for the US...

 

[FordMKIVJ5]

I never noticed on the UK models they left the hand brake on the left side

It's on the left so that it doesn't interfere with gear changes (because as Dax said, they drive on the "proper" side in Japan ).

 

[carracerptp]

OK, so I should have said, I never noticed they got lazy and didn't mirror it for the NA and NB years...

"proper"

 

[DaxCobra]

Yes, proper.

 

[DaxCobra]

Warning! Mother of all updates...


Right... Big update... *Clicks fingers*



First thing is first. Boring thing. New roof. Cheap vinyl one because it's always down anyway...

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Now the more interesting bits!





When we were fitting the grooved discs we dented my front right wing quite badly, so I set about finding a replacement. £40 later I had a new wing in PZ black, but with a little bit of rust at the bottom and a slight crease in it.



The rust was taken back to bare metal and treated with POR15.

At a Norfolk Fives tech day, Me, Chris (hoodedreeper) and Paul fitted the replacement wing....

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------







I finally recieved my CarbonMiata Quilted Suede Center Piece which meant I could go ahead with fitting my seats too. My dad 'borrowed' some metal from work and set about making me a frame for the seats to bolt to my runners, and I cleaned up my carpets as I'd been running the car without them for a couple of months, and I fit the new center piece too. We could only get one seat in as my dad didn't have enough metal so I ran the car like this for a week... (Pic by Chris aka Hoodedreeper)

Finally got both seats in and resprayed my DIY tombstone in Nightfire Red. Interior still needs a little more tidying, I've ordered some switches so I can rewire my windows into the tombstone and then I just need a gaiter for the gear knob and handbrake and little things like that.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------









And now the big juicy bit.





RESPRAY!





Last weekend me and my dad started stripping her down...

I bought my friends boot lid for a fiver off of him as mine had loads of little dents in it and his was clean. The only catch was it had three holes in it from when he had a spoiler fitted, so they had to be filled in and sanded back etc.



Here it is after it had been fillered, sanded back to bare metal and then coated in some paint to prevent rust temporally...

Back to stripping the car down again...

At this point she had been stripped back far enough.





Taking her to the bodyshop at the start of this week....

And leaving her in good company...

I am having the car resprayed at Max Bidwell at Rackheath Industrial Estate in Norwich and I cannot recommend them enough. No bull, just honest guys who let me wander in at my own leisure and take pics of my car etc (I work literally two units down from them so I pop in every lunch time)





I have loads of little car park dents on the car so they have smoothed them over and any other dents too. I am also having my arches 'crimped' (basically rolled but with a crimping tool) to allow me some fatter wheels underneath soon.





Here are some of the pics of the car that I took today!!

The bumper is already primered and ready for paint.

I should get the car back next friday latest!! (Also my birthday!!)

 

[carracerptp]

Warning! Mother of all updates...


Right... Big update... *Clicks fingers*



First thing is first. Boring thing. New roof. Cheap vinyl one because it's always down anyway...

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Now the more interesting bits!





When we were fitting the grooved discs we dented my front right wing quite badly, so I set about finding a replacement. £40 later I had a new wing in PZ black, but with a little bit of rust at the bottom and a slight crease in it.



The rust was taken back to bare metal and treated with POR15.

At a Norfolk Fives tech day, Me, Chris (hoodedreeper) and Paul fitted the replacement wing....

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------







I finally recieved my CarbonMiata Quilted Suede Center Piece which meant I could go ahead with fitting my seats too. My dad 'borrowed' some metal from work and set about making me a frame for the seats to bolt to my runners, and I cleaned up my carpets as I'd been running the car without them for a couple of months, and I fit the new center piece too. We could only get one seat in as my dad didn't have enough metal so I ran the car like this for a week... (Pic by Chris aka Hoodedreeper)

Finally got both seats in and resprayed my DIY tombstone in Nightfire Red. Interior still needs a little more tidying, I've ordered some switches so I can rewire my windows into the tombstone and then I just need a gaiter for the gear knob and handbrake and little things like that.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------









And now the big juicy bit.





RESPRAY!





Last weekend me and my dad started stripping her down...

I bought my friends boot lid for a fiver off of him as mine had loads of little dents in it and his was clean. The only catch was it had three holes in it from when he had a spoiler fitted, so they had to be filled in and sanded back etc.



Here it is after it had been fillered, sanded back to bare metal and then coated in some paint to prevent rust temporally...

Back to stripping the car down again...

At this point she had been stripped back far enough.





Taking her to the bodyshop at the start of this week....

And leaving her in good company...

I am having the car resprayed at Max Bidwell at Rackheath Industrial Estate in Norwich and I cannot recommend them enough. No bull, just honest guys who let me wander in at my own leisure and take pics of my car etc (I work literally two units down from them so I pop in every lunch time)





I have loads of little car park dents on the car so they have smoothed them over and any other dents too. I am also having my arches 'crimped' (basically rolled but with a crimping tool) to allow me some fatter wheels underneath soon.





Here are some of the pics of the car that I took today!!

The bumper is already primered and ready for paint.

I should get the car back next friday latest!! (Also my birthday!!)

Cool 👍 Can't wait to see it after.

 

[homeforsummer]

Looking forward to seeing the finished product 👍

Wouldn't have gone for red for the center console though. Looks a bit "much", particularly with no gaps for the headunit/cubby hole.

 

[LeadFootLiam]

Sweet man can't wait to see the new paint. You have the Sparco sprints correct?

 

[DaxCobra]

Sweet man can't wait to see the new paint. You have the Sparco sprints correct?

My seats are cobra monaco pros. Bloody tight fit!

Looking forward to seeing the finished product 👍

Wouldn't have gone for red for the center console though. Looks a bit "much", particularly with no gaps for the headunit/cubby hole.

It isn't quite finished yet. Wait and see.

 

[LeadFootLiam]

My seats are cobra monaco pros. Bloody tight fit!

Tight fit on you or the car? What's your height and waist. Id like to install new seats in my car some time.

 

[DaxCobra]

Really should update this more...





Got the car back last Friday and set about reassembling it...

Some pics from the Norfolk Fives barbeque last Saturday.

Might need a name change on the thread to "'Retro Gunmetal Grey 93 Eunos" or something.

 

[DaxCobra]

Tight fit on you or the car? What's your height and waist. Id like to install new seats in my car some time.

Tight fit in the car mate.

 

[FordMKIVJ5]

Liking the new colour, really works well with the wheels and is nicely contrasted by the red of the seats. 👍

 

[homeforsummer]

Yup, the colour looks great. As do the seats, and the Nardi wheel. At the risk of sounding like a bit of a moaning sod though, the Union Jack 'plates look naff though. If you're going for the retro look I'd have gone as un-adorned in that department as possible.

 

[Frisky]

I'm sure I've seen you on an MX5 forum, I forget which one. But I've seen a couple of photos with you and the HoodedReeper. Beautiful MX5! 👍

 

[Hayden]

Looking real good, Dax. The new colour is awesome 👍

 

[DaxCobra]

Thanks guys. Yeah Hoodedreeper is a mate of mine and he takes all the pics where my car looks half decent haha.

Seats are up for sale now as I want something a bit thinner and more hugging.

 

[DaxCobra]

My phone has broken and I don't have much access to the internet until I build a new PC so updates are scarce but I do have a couple of bits on the way and I have made some more progress. Will upload soon.

 

[DaxCobra]

Don't know whats happened to all the pics in this thread :/


Anyway.

So one morning I turn the car on and its running on three cylinders. Turns out that a plug was covered in oil... we replaced the oily plug and put it down to the old rocker cover gasket that I recently replaced being the cause of it. That had to be it right? These engines are bullet proof!!



Yeah, alright...



Went to use it the next day and it was still misfiring, and smoking like mad.



Anyway he took the head off to have a look at it whilst I was at work and I get a phone call.



"Do you want the bad news or the really bad news?"



🤬.



The valves were 🤬 and leaking like seives.



So this happened.

The smoking issue solved: Oil rings were stuck like shoes in a night club:

So we ordered new rings, new bearings, new water pump kit, new seals, etc and dad took various bits to his work to get cleaned up and re rebuilt the block.

Painted alternator should be worth a bit of BHP...





Currently lapping the valves in too. 2/4 cylinders done. Damn it's boring!!







Whilst the engine is out I've been cleaning and painting the engine bay too. I haven't got any pics of this yet but will take some this weekend when the engine is back in.















A couple of months ago I put a deposit on a very special front bumper for my car, which was being sold by a fellow forum member.



I finally saved up the rest of the money and went and collected it off of him a couple of weeks ago.

It wont be sprayed until next year due to funds.



But yeah. That's where I am right now.

 

[carracerptp]

I'm always scared one day I'll start the car and it runs like crap, sorry to hear it happend to you. How new is the cars clutch? If it was me I would change that while I had the engine out if it was old.

I think some pictures are still missing.

 

[DaxCobra]

I went through the whole bloody thread and reattached as many pics as I could.

The clutch is pretty much new by the looks of it.

When I boost it next year I will do the clutch then. Funds prevent me from doing so right now.

Getting there though, and it should run beautifully now.

 

[DaxCobra]

So last month my engine started to smoke profusely. So this happened.

Turned out my oil control rings were buggered and the valves weren't looking too clever either.



Out she comes for a full engine rebuild!

A little nervous about hitting the fresh paint...





So we ripped it all apart, and my dad took various components to his work where he had a bath to clean them up or something...

I spend every evening of a week in the garage reseating the valves and cleaning them up...

Meanwhile the bores were rehoned and the block was rebuilt.

The head was rebuilt and fitted to the block...

and voila! An engine.

The rebuild consisted of:



Piston Rings

Water Pump kit

Belts



Reseated valves

Polished port

Honed cylinders



New seals and gaskets all round



Total price was around £300.





Getting the engine back in was a pain in the ass. Most people I spoke to said to take the gearbox out with it and slide it all back in as one, but as my dad wasn't exactly happy with having an engine laying around let alone a gearbox too, we had no option but to take the engine out on its own. Putting it back in was a bloody nightmare but after a lot of "A LITTLE HIGHER!! NO, TOO FAR!! LOWER IT... WHOAHHH THAT WILL DO" we finally got it in and bolted up.

So we went to start it...



It turned over....



Nothing...



Try again...



It starts! Timing was out so it was running like a pig, but a few adjustments and it was running beautifully again.



Due to the fact that I was running it straight into the manifold with no filter it was drawing a LOT more air than before, so it was running very lean. We took a couple of nights to adjust the map but its pretty much spot on now.We are yet to tune over 4000 RPM as the engine hasn't worn in however.

Anyway, this weekend just gone I got round to fitting my new air filter and wiring the AIT into it.



Here is the (almost) finished artical. Safe to say I am chuffed!!

 

[carracerptp]

So last month my engine started to smoke profusely. So this happened.

Turned out my oil control rings were buggered and the valves weren't looking too clever either.



Out she comes for a full engine rebuild!

A little nervous about hitting the fresh paint...





So we ripped it all apart, and my dad took various components to his work where he had a bath to clean them up or something...

I spend every evening of a week in the garage reseating the valves and cleaning them up...

Meanwhile the bores were rehoned and the block was rebuilt.

The head was rebuilt and fitted to the block...

and voila! An engine.

The rebuild consisted of:



Piston Rings

Water Pump kit

Belts



Reseated valves

Polished port

Honed cylinders



New seals and gaskets all round



Total price was around £300.





Getting the engine back in was a pain in the ass. Most people I spoke to said to take the gearbox out with it and slide it all back in as one, but as my dad wasn't exactly happy with having an engine laying around let alone a gearbox too, we had no option but to take the engine out on its own. Putting it back in was a bloody nightmare but after a lot of "A LITTLE HIGHER!! NO, TOO FAR!! LOWER IT... WHOAHHH THAT WILL DO" we finally got it in and bolted up.

So we went to start it...



It turned over....



Nothing...



Try again...



It starts! Timing was out so it was running like a pig, but a few adjustments and it was running beautifully again.



Due to the fact that I was running it straight into the manifold with no filter it was drawing a LOT more air than before, so it was running very lean. We took a couple of nights to adjust the map but its pretty much spot on now.We are yet to tune over 4000 RPM as the engine hasn't worn in however.

Anyway, this weekend just gone I got round to fitting my new air filter and wiring the AIT into it.



Here is the (almost) finished artical. Safe to say I am chuffed!!

NICE!

 

[DaxCobra]

NICE!

You like?

 

[carracerptp]

You like?

Yes, the pipe color and the valve cover finish look nice against the paint.