Hoodedreeper's MX5 (Purple Project)

[Smokin Donut]

Thanks for posting, it was a good read! Hope you get many more years enjoyment out of the 'Purple Monster'. It appears you will never be 'finished' and the pleasure is in the journey rather than the outcome, so I wonder whats next?

[mikey P 500]

Had a look around this in real life at JAE today, really nice, loads of detail to all the mods to take in, and very well presented too.

[hoodedreeper]

Thank you Did you enjoy the show?

The 1st September marked 4 years since my previous MX5 caught fire. On the 10th Sept it'll also be 4 years since i got the Purple MX,wow how time flies!

The weekend just gone saw the return of JAE (Japanese Auto Extravaganza), the UK's only 4 day jap show. It was also a year ago i had the running/ECU problems coming back from the same show. You'll be glad to hear i made it there and back with no issues

We went up with the club we always attend with,although attendance was very low this year,but we still had an awesome weekend. The week before the show i had one of the organizers ask for my car to be inside the hall for their Show & Shine







We stuck around till the end and watched the awards (couldnt get the car out any sooner). And to a huge surprise I ended up winning Best Mazda! Its great to finally see a reward for the work. A mag feature and trophey in one month is pretty awesome!



Monday just gone and me and the other half started to strip the daily MX. The MOT (annual inspection for those overseas) had an advisory of the passenger wing/fender due to corrosion. Managed to source a replacement along with another front bumper for a very good price. (bumper had severe paint cracking,so it made sense to change that too)



The bottom didn't look great...



Gave the inner wing and bumper fixing areas a coating of underseal before refitting



All back together along with an import plate surround and some 6mm front and 10mm rear spacers.



We also picked up a twin exhaust and silenced de-cat. The initial plan was to cut the existing bumper and eventually fit an R-Package rear lip. Then this Auto Joy/VIS Racing fibreglass bumper came up for sale locally so went with that instead



Found out the rear lights were siliconed in,which resulted in 2 snapped studs on the driver side light,luckily i had a spare pair of lights. Also swapped the broken number plate panel for my painted carbon fibre one i had on the other MX



So yeah.... we've done more to the daily MX in the last 2 weeks than we have all year lol

[hoodedreeper]

I feel I've reached a point where it's time to move on from the Purple Monster. The project needs a lot more money spent before it's finished and unfortunately I feel reluctant to spend it.

The car will be broken in September, that way I can still enjoy it over this show season and use up the remaining Car Insurance.

Its time to own my dream car, the R34 Skyline (GTT), I know its very cliche, but oh well.

[Pulse]

I've been interested in this car since you started it (albeit without the big spoiler, etc.). PM me when you come to sell.

[leglessAlex]

hoodedreeper said:

Its time to own my dream car, the R34 Skyline (GTT), I know its very cliche, but oh well.

Cliche or not, R34s are just stunning. I'm very much looking forward to the thread on it

[hoodedreeper]

A few weeks back we advertised the Blue MX for sale, no one was interested but received a few messages asking about breaking. So we ended up stripping the car and the shell got scrapped (which is a shame, because it was pretty rust free). Before the work begun we had one last photoshoot with them both together









Time to say goodbye



We took the Monster and R34 to the Japanese Performance Show a week or so ago. Having decided we won't be attending JAE for the first time in many years, this was the last show for the MX5





We got back and i jumped into a friend's car to take some rolling shots. This is something i've wanted doing for alooong time

[alec.e]

The blue one looked great, why scrap a perfectly good car though? I would have thought there would have been a buyer out there.

[HorneyMX5]

I guess the purple shell will go the same way sadly. No one wants bare shells as re shelling a good car is too much effort. After breaking the purple one it’ll cost too much to buy all the bits to make it a working MX5 again that he’d never get his money back.

[hoodedreeper]

We advertised it on the facebook selling pages and on a few forums and no one wanted it. It needed to be moved off the drive way so scrap was the only way

Sunday just gone I arranged a photoshoot with a few friends of mine who have Japanese cars too. Very pleased with how the group photos have come out,also did some solo photos of each car too

































Only 8 more days till the final day I plan on spending this Saturday driving it as much as a i can as its my last full day, I'm sure there will be more photos. Wednesday 5th is the very last day, which i'll be spending taking it to pieces

[hoodedreeper]

HorneyMX5 said:

I guess the purple shell will go the same way sadly. No one wants bare shells as re shelling a good car is too much effort. After breaking the purple one it’ll cost too much to buy all the bits to make it a working MX5 again that he’d never get his money back.

Oddly enough someone wants the Purple shell lol

[alec.e]

Just seems like such a tragic waste, after all the time, effort and expence put into the project. I have just re-read this thread again, a great story. It seems to be a common thing to break up heavily modified cars, rather than sell, something I do not wish to do to mine, should I ever sell it.

[HorneyMX5]

The problem is stuff like this will always “Chris Bakers old MX5” unless you really change things up. At which point you may as well have bought a different car. Modified cars like this are worth 2 or even 3 times more money in bits and it’s therefore no surprise that when it’s time for the next project and the required cash it makes sense to break them.

I’m glad you’ve got a buyer lined up for the shell for this one.

[R8Steve]

How much are you wanting for the full car? Feel free to PM me if you want.

[hoodedreeper]

I've taken deposits for about 90% of the parts so I'm afraid the whole car isn't available whole.

The buyer interested in the shell is a friend of mine whos been building MX5 based drift cars and misses his previous car (1JZ powered MK1) So i'm sure it'd be turned into another one of those

[mazdajason]

I was just away to type " Look forward to seeing it (again) at JAE this weekend" then i read you weren't taking it along and it's been / being broken for parts. Gutted! All the best on the new venture.

[hoodedreeper]

The time had come to start stripping the car, it went extremely smoothly and we ended up doing it all in 2 days.







My friend Matt purchased the shell, he has previously built 2x drift MX5s both 1JZ powered,S14 rear subframe,skyline diff etc etc. He's been wanting a car that had history and this was the perfect car.



The car will be staying the same Honda Amethyst Purple and will still have a BGW! This was awesome to hear

Here's a couple of photos of his first build which he'll be using as a carbon copy for the new build





So i guess thats the end of an era, MX5 ownership over the past 7 years has taught me alot whether its mechanical side of things or choosing modifications. I've met some amazing people cos of this little car, and I've been lucky to call some friends. I can't thank every single person enough who has read/viewed/liked/commented on the build threads.

Thank you all again

[Pearcyy]

What ducktail is that? Looks nice! Any updates on the new car?

[hoodedreeper]

Pearcyy said:

What ducktail is that? Looks nice! Any updates on the new car?

The ducktail is a KG Works one

R34 build thread can be found here https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...