Mx5 Rocketeer V6 Conversion Project

[Lewis's Friend]

After a bit of a gap, it's time for an update on this. Nothing major has happened really, hence not many updates of late! But over the winter I changed the Emotion Technology (the brand you want on your car of course) coilovers with some MeisterR CRDs. I also took the opportunity to service it - as I say, not very thrilling...!

I don't have any in depth photos of the coilover change, but it is very easy and not really requiring a blow by blow account. So here they are installed at the rear:

20210106_155228 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

And at the front

20201229_160111 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

I also put on a set of adjustable drop links to allow the car to be cornerweighted.

20210304_144434 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

And fitted

20210304_145114 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

I then re-torqued the suspension bolts as close to normal ride height as I could manage.
20210111_101548 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

I tried setting the ride height myself on the driveway, but found this was horribly inaccurate. In the end, I took it to Northampton Motorsport for an alignment, ride height setup and cornerweighting. I'm very pleased with how it's driving now,, and was also interested to see how much it weighed.
1041kg with 3/4 tank of fuel is the answer. They also said they were surprised how light it was at the front. Apparently they frequently work on a turbo converted Mx5 which is heavier - so nice to see the claims of no weight penalty for the conversion are true!

After all that, I serviced the car and cleaned and liberally sprayed ACF50 on the coilovers to try and preserve them. As far as servicing the car goes, you'll have to imagine what that looks like! But I also checked the throttle body balance and tweaked that slightly.

20210131_151530 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

20210131_153953 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

There, another exciting update complete! I have only driven a little on the new setup and new coilovers, but they feel much more suited to the local roads. They have a good bit more compliance which is very important where I live!

[Krikkit]

Fantastic to hear it's proving a good conversation. Compliance is all too often forgotten in aftermarket suspension, often because it's designed around perfectly smooth roads.

[Lewis's Friend]

Krikkit said:

Fantastic to hear it's proving a good conversation. Compliance is all too often forgotten in aftermarket suspension, often because it's designed around perfectly smooth roads.

I'm very pleased with it happily after all that work!

Still a lot to be done, but not on the conversion. Just getting the rest of the car where I want it. Weirdly it's the boot next as that has been disgusting since I bought the car!

I'm definitely a fan of lower spring rates for the local roads. It means it's more enjoyable more of the time...

[unlikelymechanic]

Your car is looking awesome- I like the wheels and interior mods

How have you been getting on with the car since your update in April? Has the MBE been reliable?

I am in the same predicament that you were in - I am struggling to get anywhere with the ME ecu - I did the firmware update hoping for great things and it has just made it worse - rich running etc. It has always had a hot starting issue even after ME tuned it after the initial build. My car is currently an expensive garage ornament gathering dust as home diy and family life have taken priority. Before my wife starts piling boxes on top of it I have decided to bite the bullet and have booked it in with BD to have the MBE and throttle body upgrade so I can hopefully use it as a reliable weekend toy which was my intention when I first built it.

[Lewis's Friend]

After some time without an update, I remembered to take a few pictures and highlight what I've been doing lately on the MX5.

The interior on this car is a bit tired, and so (very) slowly I'm trying to do it up a little. This time was the door cards. Mine are knackered, didn't originally come with armrests (which I like - some remove them for extra space), and weirdly have speaker aperture smaller than the speakers so that they set the whole door card vibrating when they play...

20210619_101532 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

Not beautiful. You can buy ready made new door cards, but none would be right for my speakers. Plus I thought I'd be cheap. With that in mind I bought a large sheet of 2mm plastic and borrowed a jig saw.

20210522_113033 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

I traced the old door card out as a starting point and started cutting and drilling until I had this:

20210601_120456 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

A fair amount of fine tuning was required, especially regarding the speaker setup, but eventually I had this:

20210621_172848 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

Then I needed to cover it and make it look splendid... So I spray glued a layer of 3mm scrim foam over the card, then glued the faux leather quilted material over the top and round all the edges. I'm pleased with the result, and am mainly now hoping it lasts. Time will tell!

So, to the finished result...

20210809_104010 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

20210809_104035 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

[Lewis's Friend]

unlikelymechanic said:

Your car is looking awesome- I like the wheels and interior mods

How have you been getting on with the car since your update in April? Has the MBE been reliable?

I am in the same predicament that you were in - I am struggling to get anywhere with the ME ecu - I did the firmware update hoping for great things and it has just made it worse - rich running etc. It has always had a hot starting issue even after ME tuned it after the initial build. My car is currently an expensive garage ornament gathering dust as home diy and family life have taken priority. Before my wife starts piling boxes on top of it I have decided to bite the bullet and have booked it in with BD to have the MBE and throttle body upgrade so I can hopefully use it as a reliable weekend toy which was my intention when I first built it.

Thanks very much - apologies for not replying sooner; I didn't see your post.

So far the MBE has been great - a total transformation. The only issue so far is that after getting stuck in nose-to-tail traffic for 45mins due to an accident and road closure, it lost the ability to idle! I think this is due to under-bonnet temps getting so high (the outside temp was about 28degC with loads of direct sunlight) the map hasn't been written to cope with such a high inlet air temp. That aside, it's been good.

Basset Down are currently working with MBE on a fix as while this issue has only effected me once, it could be more of an issue in hotter climates.

Sorry to hear of your troubles. I was in a similar position and not enjoying the car at all. All I will say at this stage is that I am vastly happier now nothing made by ME is on my car.

[LordHaveMurci]

Lewis's Friend said:

After some time without an update, I remembered to take a few pictures and highlight what I've been doing lately on the MX5.

The interior on this car is a bit tired, and so (very) slowly I'm trying to do it up a little. This time was the door cards. Mine are knackered, didn't originally come with armrests (which I like - some remove them for extra space), and weirdly have speaker aperture smaller than the speakers so that they set the whole door card vibrating when they play...

20210619_101532 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

Not beautiful. You can buy ready made new door cards, but none would be right for my speakers. Plus I thought I'd be cheap. With that in mind I bought a large sheet of 2mm plastic and borrowed a jig saw.

20210522_113033 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

I traced the old door card out as a starting point and started cutting and drilling until I had this:

20210601_120456 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

A fair amount of fine tuning was required, especially regarding the speaker setup, but eventually I had this:

20210621_172848 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

Then I needed to cover it and make it look splendid... So I spray glued a layer of 3mm scrim foam over the card, then glued the faux leather quilted material over the top and round all the edges. I'm pleased with the result, and am mainly now hoping it lasts. Time will tell!

So, to the finished result...

20210809_104010 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

20210809_104035 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

That looks so much better!

[ZX10R NIN]

Great work.

[Rushjob]

Yep, nice job

[Lewis's Friend]

Thanks for the kind comments - the last thing I need to do on the door cards (apart from make the driver's side) is to remake the tweeter surrounds.

I originally made them from MDF as a proof-of-concept bodge and they've been like it ever since. They're OK, but are starting to crack. My aim is to draw them up in CAD and have them 3D printed. The only hurdle is that I haven't used CAD for years, so will have to find a free bit of software and get used to it all over again!

[fatbutt]

Lewis's Friend said:

Thanks for the kind comments - the last thing I need to do on the door cards (apart from make the driver's side) is to remake the tweeter surrounds.

I originally made them from MDF as a proof-of-concept bodge and they've been like it ever since. They're OK, but are starting to crack. My aim is to draw them up in CAD and have them 3D printed. The only hurdle is that I haven't used CAD for years, so will have to find a free bit of software and get used to it all over again!

Try IronCAD as you can get that free for a month. It outputs STL files that you can get 3D printed...

[shalmaneser]

Fusion 360 seem very popular amongst the maker community and is professional level stuff.

[MortyC137]

shalmaneser said:

Fusion 360 seem very popular amongst the maker community and is professional level stuff.

This, it's massively powerful and there are loads of tutorials on YouTube. It's also free for personal use.

If you only need a very simple shape, tinkercad is great. I use it when I just need to print a bracket or something simple, and it's not worth firing up Fusion360.

[Lewis's Friend]

Thanks for all the software suggestions.

I fear that it may be a little complex to draw up (for a man of my limited skills anyway!). The basic shape should be nice and simple, but the face that bolts up to the door card will need to match the contours of the card. I've not thought how to do that yet, so some tutorials will be a must!

[Lewis's Friend]

After a fairly lengthy break, I have just finished another job so thought I would update the thread. This update is quite picture heavy, despite the fact it is really not of great interest in many ways! It also took place over the course of about 6 months due to parts lead time, and general laziness...

This update is thrillingly entitled 'boot refurb'. When I rust proofed the car when I first bought it, the boot had some of the most disgusting carpet in it, along with some surface rust. To stop the rust, I then did a very foolish thing. I sprayed Dinitrol underseal in there (after wire brushing etc). This was a mistake, brought about by too much time having passed and still not having been able to drive my new car.

Do not spray Dinitrol underseal in your boot. It is gross, and takes ages to get back out again. The following pictures tell a story (along with sloppy wiring, as I always intended to come back and do the whole area properly).

20210305_144214 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

20210306_150138 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

20210306_150141 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

Lovely rust...

The first job was to clean all the black filth off. This took time, solvents, scourers and rags! After a good clean and the removal of the sound proofing, the boot looked like this:

20210309_094228 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

20210308_104828 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

20210308_104837 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

After this, I applied rust converter and then a couple of coats of 2K epoxy mastic, which left the area looking much better and more tidy.

20210311_093523 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

20210311_093536 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

Next was replacing the sound deadening on the boot floor, and then a little on the side panels where the battery sits.

20210316_152735 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

20210316_152728 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

I also decided to clean up the fog lamp wiring. Being a JDM import, my car had no rear fog light. Instead of attaching one to the rear bumper, my car has had a reverse light repurposed. However, the wire for this bulb was a) too short so was pulled taught across the boot floor and b) hardwired badly to the bulb holder. I took the moment to extend the wire and route it properly, then put a plug on it to allow easy removal of the bulb holder board.

20210319_154251 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

That complete, I then ran the amp wiring. The routing here looks a bit random, but the idea was to use the OE indentations in the pressed boot floor to hide the wires as much as possible when carpet went down.
This ended up looking like this:

20210319_160108 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

20210326_102759 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

I also routed the coilover adjuster extender through the fuel filler cover to allow adjustment more easily.

20210326_102748 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

That done, it was a case of laying/gluing the new carpet set and fitting my new boot latch panel to finish off the boot.

20210626_150704 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

20210624_171033 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

And finally, all finished:

20220115_113415 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

20220115_113353 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

20220115_113403 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

It took way longer than it probably should have done, but I'm pleased with the results now at least!

[jamieduff1981]

That's really very tidy looking! This car will be one of the best examples going, even without the Rocketeer conversion making it that much more appealing.

[shalmaneser]

Wow quite the transformation! How many speakers does the amp drive? Would it be worth making a false floor to protect the amp when the boot is loaded up? Appreciate that may cut into boot space a bit too much!

[Lewis's Friend]

jamieduff1981 said:

That's really very tidy looking! This car will be one of the best examples going, even without the Rocketeer conversion making it that much more appealing.

Thanks - I'm slowly going through it all as a lot of it was quite worn. The up side of that is I can make it my own. Next up is interior and very last will be paint I think.

shalmaneser said:

Wow quite the transformation! How many speakers does the amp drive? Would it be worth making a false floor to protect the amp when the boot is loaded up? Appreciate that may cut into boot space a bit too much!

Thanks.

The amp is just a 2 channel one, driving some Focal components. I have extra carpet and some plywood for a false floor, but I haven't got around to it yet - plus I was a bit concerned about heat dissipation from the amp so will see how much of a problem leaving it uncovered is.

[PushedDover]

Nice job.
Getting v close to pulling the V6 trigger with Bruce for a full conversion. Anything I need to know / factor ?

[MrBig]

Lewis's Friend said:

20210809_104035 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

That looks great! Can I ask where you sourced the quilted material from please? I have a couple of interior jobs to do and that looks ideal. How easy was it stick round the edges of the door card?