My new baby
Author
Discussion

jtopps

Original Poster:

154 posts

177 months

Monday 13th February 2012
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Hello there, I ran a thread a while ago called "Buying an MX5: What do I need to know?" and had a fantastic amount of responses all of which were very useful and helpful and after much consideration and deliberation as well as a thorough inspection and test drive I bought my friends 1994 1.8 V-spec Eunos which I have coveted for quite some time. The car has done just over 120,000 Kilometres (roughy 78,000 miles). The engine, gearbox, steering and brakes are tight as a drum. It's running on some Meister-R fully adjustable coilovers (pretty damn expensive so glad they've already been paid for) a wide arch kit with some rather fetching dished wheels and tyres, a roll bar (can't remember manufacturers name) and a cat back fujitsubo exhaust. Came with a full service history and all the receipts and manuals for every part and aftermarket part fitted. Bad points... Well the Paint is definitely faded a bit and theres some scratches and two of the alloys could do with a refurb, the interior is looking pretty tired, also i think it either needs the wheels re-balanced or some new spigot rings because the steering vibrates quite a lot between 60 and 75 mph (disappears completely above that, not that I ever break the speed limit rolleyes ). Basically wanting some opinions from the Eunos/MX5 fraternity as to what you think of the car and a few ideas of how i can add a few more subtle modifications to make it my own. I was thinking maybe a respray as the paint is definitely past its best, a ducktail spoiler to replace the standard boomerang, and possibly a stainless exhaust manifold. Here's a few pics of it, what do you think? All comments appreciated smile





MX-5 Lazza

7,954 posts

242 months

Monday 13th February 2012
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Congratulations!!!

jtopps said:
...also i think it either needs the wheels re-balanced or some new spigot rings because the steering vibrates quite a lot between 60 and 75 mph (disappears completely above that, not that I ever break the speed limit rolleyes ).
It might just need a full alignment. A vibration at 65ish is often the chassis "shimmy" which is basically a resonance through the chassis. If it's properly aligned this shouldn't happen. A full alignment would be the 1st thing I'd do to any new purchase anyway.
However, it would be relatively cheap to get the wheels balanced first just to rule that out as a cause wink

ETA: The spigot rings are mostly just to help with locating the wheels on the studs. It's the tapers on the wheel nuts that do the real work smile

Edited by MX-5 Lazza on Monday 13th February 13:53

jtopps

Original Poster:

154 posts

177 months

Monday 13th February 2012
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Thanks for the advice I'll do that right away smile. Forgot to mention in my earlier post that it's had a dvd player fitted and was featured in oct 2011 issue of banzai magazine which is a cheeky bonus biggrin

Dave_ITR

835 posts

220 months

Monday 13th February 2012
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Looks really nice, threads like this keep swaying me towards keeping mine as a 2nd car.

jtopps

Original Poster:

154 posts

177 months

Monday 13th February 2012
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Thanks, I reckon I've found a good one for sure. Wish I could afford to keep it as a second car so i could lavish some proper love on it and keep it immaculate but this is going to be my daily driver. A lot of entertainment to be had in the snow that recently came down over yorkshire haha.

Eighteeteewhy

7,259 posts

191 months

Monday 13th February 2012
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cool

Raffles

1,931 posts

253 months

Monday 13th February 2012
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Looks great.

mneame

1,486 posts

234 months

Monday 13th February 2012
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I think the wheels, arches, lip spoiler and roll bar all look awful and should be dontated to me free of charge immediately. wink

jtopps

Original Poster:

154 posts

177 months

Tuesday 14th February 2012
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Nice try wink, although I'm currently stuck between a rock and a hard place with regards to the front splitter. May have to raise the ride hide and keep it or keep it slammed and remove it because I've scraped it a few times on the driveway and only had the bugger 2 days haha. I think it looks spot on though biggrin

mneame

1,486 posts

234 months

Wednesday 15th February 2012
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For me it does look spot on. But I'd have the same problem with the splitter. I'm going for no splitter and low.

skinny

5,269 posts

258 months

Wednesday 15th February 2012
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looks pretty low - i reckon you could come up 1/2 inch and keep the GV spoiler on.
as for the roll bar, i think i can make out a TR lane sticker on the right smile

nice buy!

Manx1

41 posts

202 months

Monday 20th February 2012
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Hey,

Did I see you parked up outside Wilco's in York yesterday???

jtopps

Original Poster:

154 posts

177 months

Tuesday 21st February 2012
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You did indeed! Was a lovely sunny day so thought I would get the roof down. Was getting myself some wax and underseal and theres a few scrapes on the bottom because previous owner may have had it a tad too low.

jtopps

Original Poster:

154 posts

177 months

Tuesday 21st February 2012
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skinny said:
looks pretty low - i reckon you could come up 1/2 inch and keep the GV spoiler on.
as for the roll bar, i think i can make out a TR lane sticker on the right smile

nice buy!
Yup it is indeed a TR Lane roll bar that it has. I realised this as soon as I posted the pics up and saw the TR Lane sticker in the pic haha. And it is bloody low, the other day my friend was stepping out of it in the dark and he couldnt tell if his foot was on the ground or still inside the car because of the lack of height difference. Definitely want to keep the splitter so I reckon the ride height is gonna come up a bit and possibly dial back the camber too as it's twitchy as hell at motorway speeds although that may be something to do with the toe angle... Not sure if that has been tampered with in any way.

JFReturns

3,783 posts

194 months

Tuesday 21st February 2012
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Its worth machine polishing before considering a respray - I got my faded paint back to it's best.

jtopps

Original Poster:

154 posts

177 months

Wednesday 22nd February 2012
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some areas such as the bonner, rear bumper and bootlid will probably just need a machine polish or lots of wax and t-cut im sure but there are some areas on the nose cones, front winges and doors where seventeen years of stonechips, UV rays and careless passers by have taken their toll unfortunately.