Mx5 Rocketeer V6 Conversion Project

[HustleRussell]

My earlier comment about the money side of this was taken as a negative remark, for that I apologise, we’ve all spent more on cars than the cold hard sums could justify (myself very much included). Some cars are greater than the sum of their parts because they are unique or represent a ‘journey’ in themselves or are the culmination of our hobby.

Looks like you’re doing a great job of it

[Lewis's Friend]

HustleRussell said:

My earlier comment about the money side of this was taken as a negative remark, for that I apologise, we’ve all spent more on cars than the cold hard sums could justify (myself very much included). Some cars are greater than the sum of their parts because they are unique or represent a ‘journey’ in themselves or are the culmination of our hobby.

Looks like you’re doing a great job of it

No worries.

I have to say I used to wonder why people spent such sums on personalising cars etc, when you could just save up and buy a more expensive, ‘better’, car.

Obviously nothing wrong with that, but I find now I enjoy doing projects on the cars as much as driving them afterwards. Hence all this now!

[Lewis's Friend]

I managed to get a bit more work in the last couple of days, so another post for all those who came here to see an engine swap and have in fact just seen a suspension rebuild!

First, I torqued up the suspension bolts. To do this, I needed to drop the car to ride height, which I did with even more axle stands. Luckily I have a stupid amount of them collected of the years!

Rear suspension compressed for torquing up:

IMG_2786 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

IMG_2785 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

With this done, it was the same story at the front, after fitting the brake gaurds and front hubs. This is after the torquing:

IMG_2787 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

I then needed to fill the gearbox with oil, having done the rear diff previously. This requires a bit of bodging to get oil into the filler hole, but a bit of hose and the bodger's friend (tape) got me through! So some Fuchs Gear Syn in the gearbox.

IMG_2788 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

This brings me onto todays work - brakes.

This was quite nice, and is also one of the last pieces to be bolted to the car from the pile of refurbished parts in the living room. Naturally its never quite as easy as you think it will be, but it wasn't too arduous, and now I have brakes! No fluid in them yet, but little steps...

IMG_2790 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

IMG_2791 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

IMG_2792 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

IMG_2793 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

IMG_2795 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

So thats it for this update. Finally getting there I feel, though lots of little bits to go still to tie it all together.

[threespires]

Congrats on such high quality work and thanks for updates..........

[gweaver]

Those pads and calipers probably look good, if you're colour blind!

I'm really impressed at the pace with which you've tackled this project, especially given the spannering unfriendly weather.

[AceOfHearts]

I'm loving the fruit salad look

[Lewis's Friend]

threespires said:

Congrats on such high quality work and thanks for updates..........

Thanks, that's kind - and nice to know people are interested!

[Lewis's Friend]

I will admit the calipers and pads lend a slightly funky aspect to the look, but I hope it'll all work out when my new wheels are on and the gold stickers removed.

Time will tell!

[ivanhoew]

i think it looks triffic !

[ECG1000]

So good! Hurry up and update please.

[MX6]

This is looking great, the standard of the build looks really good, keep it up! I really like the bright orange caliper paint, I'm thinking of going with that for my MX6. I'm not completely sold on the two-tone look though with the green carriers, but it will look good regardless.

[Lewis's Friend]

MX6 said:

This is looking great, the standard of the build looks really good, keep it up! I really like the bright orange caliper paint, I'm thinking of going with that for my MX6. I'm not completely sold on the two-tone look though with the green carriers, but it will look good regardless.

Thanks - the green is actually just an unfortunate by-product of using EBC Greenstuff pads. The carriers are orange too. Still, I guess it wont take long for the pads to turn black with filth anyway, so then the two-toneness will be incidental!

[Lewis's Friend]

Work has slowed a little of late, for a few reasons. Being snowed on cooled my enthusiasm a little, plus I may have purchased another run-around which needed a little work. I think of it as a cousin to the finished MXV6....!

IMG_2797 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

Its got the same 3.0 V6 as I have sat on a pallet in the garage for the Mazda, so come service time, I'll just buy two of everything.

I have managed a little more progress on the MX5 too though, but no major leaps forward. One thing I needed was a rear exhaust heat shield. They are about £35, and would just eventually rot out again. You can buy aluminium units from Jass Performance for example, but the basic shape was very simple so I thought I'd have a go at making my own.

This was my effort:
IMG_2800 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

It fits OK, after a little trimming, so will hopefully be up to the job. Here it is in situ:
IMG_2804 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

IMG_2805 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

The other work I have started is regarding the front bumper. I wanted to relocated the numberplate to a side mount, as I think it cleans up the whole front of the car. Plus the numberplate was badly attached with self tappers. However, on removing the numberplate, I found a rather excessive nine holes drilled through from previous plates...! Some large from the factory plate carrier, and some small from random bodging in its past...

So I set about filling the holes - notice the commitment. Not even fully thawed out!
IMG_2803 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

Many holes....
IMG_2802 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

Filled and rough sanded
IMG_2806 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

And wet sanded ready to be shipped to a buddy who will 2K prime it and send it back for me to flat.
IMG_2811 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

And that pretty much brings me up to date. Steady, if not rapid progress is being made!

[573]

Lewis's Friend said:

Thanks - the green is actually just an unfortunate by-product of using EBC Greenstuff pads. The carriers are orange too. Still, I guess it wont take long for the pads to turn black with filth anyway, so then the two-toneness will be incidental!

The more unfortunate by-product of using those pads is that they are utterly pants. They bite worse than cheap motorfactor pads yet if you take the thing anywhere near a track they'll overheat and crumble to dust in minutes.

[C70R]

573 said:

Lewis's Friend said:

Thanks - the green is actually just an unfortunate by-product of using EBC Greenstuff pads. The carriers are orange too. Still, I guess it wont take long for the pads to turn black with filth anyway, so then the two-toneness will be incidental!

The more unfortunate by-product of using those pads is that they are utterly pants. They bite worse than cheap motorfactor pads yet if you take the thing anywhere near a track they'll overheat and crumble to dust in minutes.

Agreed wholeheartedly. I've had better heat-resistance and stopping power out of OEM spec pattern pads.

[Lewis's Friend]

C70R said:

573 said:

Lewis's Friend said:

Thanks - the green is actually just an unfortunate by-product of using EBC Greenstuff pads. The carriers are orange too. Still, I guess it wont take long for the pads to turn black with filth anyway, so then the two-toneness will be incidental!

The more unfortunate by-product of using those pads is that they are utterly pants. They bite worse than cheap motorfactor pads yet if you take the thing anywhere near a track they'll overheat and crumble to dust in minutes.

Agreed wholeheartedly. I've had better heat-resistance and stopping power out of OEM spec pattern pads.

I have heard that unfortunately. I had Yellowstuff pads on my TVR, and they were OK, but time will tell I guess.

I'm not intending on doing any crazy driving on track etc in the next year or so, so if they are OK for a while and I then change them for something more performance orientated in the future then I'll be happy enough (though prefer them to be good out of the box of course)...

[MX6]

Lewis's Friend said:

MX6 said:

This is looking great, the standard of the build looks really good, keep it up! I really like the bright orange caliper paint, I'm thinking of going with that for my MX6. I'm not completely sold on the two-tone look though with the green carriers, but it will look good regardless.

Thanks - the green is actually just an unfortunate by-product of using EBC Greenstuff pads. The carriers are orange too. Still, I guess it wont take long for the pads to turn black with filth anyway, so then the two-toneness will be incidental!

Oh I see now, my mistake! In my defense I was viewing on the small phone screen previously... Yes the pads will look better when the green isn't standing out quite so much, but function is more important and I'm sure the Greenstuff pads will be a nice upgrade for the anchors.

Anyhow good to see some progress, at least the cold weather has backed off. I really like the S Type, like all Jag's when they get older, they are a real bargain.

[Lewis's Friend]

MX6 said:

Oh I see now, my mistake! In my defense I was viewing on the small phone screen previously... Yes the pads will look better when the green isn't standing out quite so much, but function is more important and I'm sure the Greenstuff pads will be a nice upgrade for the anchors.

Anyhow good to see some progress, at least the cold weather has backed off. I really like the S Type, like all Jag's when they get older, they are a real bargain.

Cheers - its definitely more pleasant working in temperatures above freezing!

And Jag S-types are very cheap. Possibly with good reason... The looks, how can I say, divide opinion, they have a rather dubious build quality rep (at least the early ones) and can be pretty juicy to run. That said, this one looked a bargain. I guess time will tell whether it is or not!

[C70R]

Lewis's Friend said:

C70R said:

573 said:

Lewis's Friend said:

Thanks - the green is actually just an unfortunate by-product of using EBC Greenstuff pads. The carriers are orange too. Still, I guess it wont take long for the pads to turn black with filth anyway, so then the two-toneness will be incidental!

The more unfortunate by-product of using those pads is that they are utterly pants. They bite worse than cheap motorfactor pads yet if you take the thing anywhere near a track they'll overheat and crumble to dust in minutes.

Agreed wholeheartedly. I've had better heat-resistance and stopping power out of OEM spec pattern pads.

I have heard that unfortunately. I had Yellowstuff pads on my TVR, and they were OK, but time will tell I guess.

I'm not intending on doing any crazy driving on track etc in the next year or so, so if they are OK for a while and I then change them for something more performance orientated in the future then I'll be happy enough (though prefer them to be good out of the box of course)...

I cooked them in a 900kg hatchback on a 15min B-Road session. Absolute pants, and borderline dangerous when driven hard.

[Greg_D]

looking at how much effort you have put into the undercarriage, have you heard of cryo blasting?

i don't know much about it, but rumour has it one can blast all sorts of crud off things like the diff housing/bushings/wiring without taking everything apart and it end up all spangly looking with minimal time/outlay. apparently it's golden for things like wheel wells/gearboxes/diffs etc.

i'm no expert in it, but it's got to be worth a google...