Quikcurl's Mazda MX-5
Discussion
Thought I better see what all the fuss was about.
Mrs Quikcurl 'disposed of' the old Ka in spectacular fashion: she was bruised but otherwise ok, but the car was not, so I had the opportunity to purchase this:
We picked it up from Manchester on the way home from my brother's wedding in Chester at the weekend, Nano (aka Mrs Quikcurl) drove it to Hull to take my sister home, following me in the Saab, then I drove it the twisty way home from Hull to Norwich. Boy was it fun!
First impressions are that it is a lot nippier than the Diesel Saab I have been driving! (As you'd hope!)Having the roof down over the past few days has been great fun (Except the sunburn!)
Now it's not perfect by any means, but I shall be getting my hands dirty bringing it up to scratch over the next few months.
Jobs list as it stands (in no particular order):
Mrs Quikcurl 'disposed of' the old Ka in spectacular fashion: she was bruised but otherwise ok, but the car was not, so I had the opportunity to purchase this:
We picked it up from Manchester on the way home from my brother's wedding in Chester at the weekend, Nano (aka Mrs Quikcurl) drove it to Hull to take my sister home, following me in the Saab, then I drove it the twisty way home from Hull to Norwich. Boy was it fun!
First impressions are that it is a lot nippier than the Diesel Saab I have been driving! (As you'd hope!)Having the roof down over the past few days has been great fun (Except the sunburn!)
Now it's not perfect by any means, but I shall be getting my hands dirty bringing it up to scratch over the next few months.
Jobs list as it stands (in no particular order):
- Find annoying rattle coming from passenger door and fix it.
- Replace broken crackly speakers.
- Tidy up interior.
- Tidy up paintjob.
- Rust-proof before winter.
- Replace cracked rear light cluster.
- Make fog light work.
- Possibly replace door cards.
- Replace tacky clear washer jets.
- Stop heat shield from rattling at 3k revs.
- Drive it!
First off, thanks for the comments!
Not sure what the wheels are, they are in need of a lick of paint at some point so I'll have a good look and see if there are any clues.
Four-wheel alignment is on the cards, but on hold until pay day. Looking forward to it!
As the Queen so kindly provided an extra day off work I took the chance to have a look underneath the car and discovered that it appears to have been waxoyled fairly recently! This makes me a happy man as it's a horrible job I wasn't looking forward to it.
I also had a look for the rattle, and discovered it is in fact the cat rattling (I think). I'm not entirely sure of the best way to deal with this so I'm ignoring it for now! (Suggestions welcome!)
I also bought a few pressies for the '5 including:
Some pics from the weekend:
(Bonus points for recognising where the windmill is)
In true keeping with my original list I went for a decent drive around the Norfolk countryside using the excuse that A: the speakers I wanted were out of stock in Norwich, B: Nano was working shifts and C: my planned visitor got called to a job interview last minute.
Updated list:
Not sure what the wheels are, they are in need of a lick of paint at some point so I'll have a good look and see if there are any clues.
Four-wheel alignment is on the cards, but on hold until pay day. Looking forward to it!
As the Queen so kindly provided an extra day off work I took the chance to have a look underneath the car and discovered that it appears to have been waxoyled fairly recently! This makes me a happy man as it's a horrible job I wasn't looking forward to it.
I also had a look for the rattle, and discovered it is in fact the cat rattling (I think). I'm not entirely sure of the best way to deal with this so I'm ignoring it for now! (Suggestions welcome!)
I also bought a few pressies for the '5 including:
- New speakers which I hope to fit this weekend meaning I will have a radio(!) I also hope to solve the door rattle at the same time.
- Some cleaning products for the roof/black paint. It remains to be seen whether these are a waste of money or not, but I thought I'd try them before I knocked them.
- New rear light from eBay to replace the cracked one.
- New tools (It'll save money in the long run dear!).
- Cupholder to replace ashtray. (Feeding the coffee addiction!)
Some pics from the weekend:
(Bonus points for recognising where the windmill is)
In true keeping with my original list I went for a decent drive around the Norfolk countryside using the excuse that A: the speakers I wanted were out of stock in Norwich, B: Nano was working shifts and C: my planned visitor got called to a job interview last minute.
Updated list:
- Find annoying rattle coming from passenger door and fix it.
- Replace broken crackly speakers.
- Tidy up interior.
- Tidy up paintjob.
-
Rust-proof before winter. - Replace cracked rear light cluster.
- Make fog light work.
- Possibly replace door cards.
- Replace tacky clear washer jets.
- Stop heat shield from rattling at 3k revs.
- Drive it!
- Fix tiny driver's side leak.
- Tidy up wheels.
- Alignment
- Replace front number plate.
The Ka story (Potted version):
The Uglymobile was given to us by my in-laws when I first passed my test in 2009 (I'm a bit of a youngster!), and ever since I have been scheming ways to get rid of it for something a bit more interesting. Surprisingly I kind of miss it a bit now that it has gone!
Picture the scene: I'm sitting at home playing Fifa (of all things - I'm no football fan, honest!) when my phone rings. I ignore it. It rings again so I pause the game as soon as I can and answer it.
Hello?
I've had an accident.
Are you ok?
Yes.
Is everyone else ok?
Yes.
Where are you?
Hales.
I'm on my way.
My car is in a hedge.
Doesn't matter, you're ok. See you soon. Get details.
Ok.
I whisper 'sorry chap' to my opponent on Fifa, disconnect, and leave.
I arrive at the scene before the emergency services (which surprised me) and proceed to make sure everyone is OK and take some photos as best I can in the pitch dark.
Eventually the emergency services arrive, two rapid response ambulance cars, one ambulance, a fire engine and (finally) two police cars. Wow.
Amazingly everyone was OK and the worst injury was to Nano who had a large bruise to her stomach and a red seat belt mark.
Nano had seen an indicator, assumed the car was turning off the main road, pulled out of a side road and been T-boned at 60mph (min) by the car as it didn't turn off. Either that or there was a car which turned off and another which overtook as they turned. Either way, not the cleverest driving by the OH. Luckily it hit behind the drivers seat - could have been a lot worse.
The rear seats were a mess - overlapping and the right rear was quite a lot narrower than it used to be!
We had a Yaris (with a reversing camera! Crazy in such a small car.) for two weeks, then a few days where I drove miles and miles taking both of us to work each day (Nano works as a carer and can be anywhere in East Anglia), then we got the '5 just in time to save another week of crazy driving about.
Some photos:
The Scene:
Glad nobody was in the back.
The other car:
Enough Camber?
The Rental
All in all things could have been a lot worse (and now I have a '5 to tinker with!)
The Uglymobile was given to us by my in-laws when I first passed my test in 2009 (I'm a bit of a youngster!), and ever since I have been scheming ways to get rid of it for something a bit more interesting. Surprisingly I kind of miss it a bit now that it has gone!
Picture the scene: I'm sitting at home playing Fifa (of all things - I'm no football fan, honest!) when my phone rings. I ignore it. It rings again so I pause the game as soon as I can and answer it.
Hello?
I've had an accident.
Are you ok?
Yes.
Is everyone else ok?
Yes.
Where are you?
Hales.
I'm on my way.
My car is in a hedge.
Doesn't matter, you're ok. See you soon. Get details.
Ok.
I whisper 'sorry chap' to my opponent on Fifa, disconnect, and leave.
I arrive at the scene before the emergency services (which surprised me) and proceed to make sure everyone is OK and take some photos as best I can in the pitch dark.
Eventually the emergency services arrive, two rapid response ambulance cars, one ambulance, a fire engine and (finally) two police cars. Wow.
Amazingly everyone was OK and the worst injury was to Nano who had a large bruise to her stomach and a red seat belt mark.
Nano had seen an indicator, assumed the car was turning off the main road, pulled out of a side road and been T-boned at 60mph (min) by the car as it didn't turn off. Either that or there was a car which turned off and another which overtook as they turned. Either way, not the cleverest driving by the OH. Luckily it hit behind the drivers seat - could have been a lot worse.
The rear seats were a mess - overlapping and the right rear was quite a lot narrower than it used to be!
We had a Yaris (with a reversing camera! Crazy in such a small car.) for two weeks, then a few days where I drove miles and miles taking both of us to work each day (Nano works as a carer and can be anywhere in East Anglia), then we got the '5 just in time to save another week of crazy driving about.
Some photos:
The Scene:
Glad nobody was in the back.
The other car:
Enough Camber?
The Rental
All in all things could have been a lot worse (and now I have a '5 to tinker with!)
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