Hoodedreeper's MX5 (Purple Project)

[hoodedreeper]

You may remember my MX5 Turbo





Sadly that caught fire in September (braided oil line arced out on the alternator)





So I stripped it down to a bare shell,sold the turbo kit and everything else that I didn't need/want and was on the look out for another Mk1 but it had to be spotless.

I got in contact with someone on MX5Nutz who had one which had a lot of history,a few phone calls later we had struck a deal and had arranged a date for it to be delivered.

The car was purchased in Japan when new,over there it had thousands of pounds spent on it including a highly tuned engine on carbs,Garage Vary body kit,Garage Vary bonnet,centre shotgun exhaust,roll cage,quantum suspension and much more! I've been told it was used as a Touge Car while over there.

While it was over there it had a respray (originally Red,arent they all!) in Honda Amethyst Purple The inside has been stripped and the floor and behind the seats have been painted the same colour.

The car was imported to the UK in 2007,and has covered hardly any miles in that time. The shell has only covered 40k and you can certainly see that! Theres not a single spot of rust on her,every single nut and bolt un-does with minimal effort.

The car got sold earlier this year and was stripped and put back to standard form. The car had a Veilside front bumper,which got removed and a stock bumper was refitted,hence why its a different colour,same goes with the bonnet.

The engine was removed and a stock 1.6 long nose engine was put in its place.


Day of purchase







First list of jobs were done

HSD Coilovers & Alignment
Carbon Bonnet
Carbon Bootlid
Carbon Plate Panel
Clear Side Reflectors
Smoked Side Repeaters
Offset Plate Bracket
Dished Momo steering wheel
Classic Dash
Cleaned and hovered the interior and boot too









Took delivery of a Racing Beat Type 2 bumper

[hoodedreeper]

New wheels arrived in the form of Japan Racing JR10 15x8j ET15 and the 195/50/15s fitted from the previous MX5









Jass Performance Low-Pro Headlights fitted



Runabout Type 2 fuel lid



Day 8 of ownership I get woken up by my neighbor who came over to tell me he had reversed out of his driveway opposite and hit my car







A few phone calls between insurance companies later and a date was booked for the body shop to have it repaired.

TR Lane GPD Roll Cage fitted



At this point I had decided that the car would have a purple and gold theme,so the first part to be painted was the cage





MX5 Parts Dual Backbox fitted





Jass Performance Stealth TSIs



Fujitsubo (Jasma) Stainless 4-1 Manifold





370mm stainless decat

[hoodedreeper]

Went to the MX5OC Alignment day,treated the 'ol gal to:

- Engine Oil Change
- Gearbox Oil Change
- Diff Oil Change
- Brake Fluid Change
- Front Discs & Pads
- Rear Discs & Pads
- Full Alignment



Mk2 dashboard conversion parts



First photos from the bodyshop











A parcel from the U.S









Heres a video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=015KTxjhY70

Some more photos from the body shop





The side of the dent repair

[hoodedreeper]

Mazdaspeed Sideskirts



I've had a lot of inspiration from RevLimiter's Sharka build and I loved the retro Mazda badge he bought. After I searched the internet high and low I couldn't find a badge that I liked. So I went back to the Sharka build to see where he got his from. Found one in the US and It arrived yesterday.



As I'm a wheel we,i ordered a new set of wheels. Traklite Apex 15x8.25j ET20 weight 8kg each



A little bit under 3" of dish







Refurbished door and boot catches

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7341/11177225965_898...

Front bumper repair

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5519/11177436073_076...

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7302/11177284606_88d...

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7421/11177281116_7f2...

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5520/11177308444_95a...

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2810/11177272726_ece...

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7400/11177421483_665...

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7331/11177298264_189...

[hoodedreeper]

custom vinyl centre caps



RevLimiter Stirling Gauge Faces

[hoodedreeper]

I collected the car from the body shop this week,i'm extremely happy with the result!

Photos aren't the greatest,its very difficult to capture the true colour. I know the front plate is wonky,thats something I need to sort out

[hoodedreeper]

Fitted my RevLimiter Stirling gauge faces today. Fantastic quality,would highly recommend getting a set if you havent already (if you have an MX5)







A friend kindly took some photos today too.Credit to Ben at Define Detail for the images!

[hoodedreeper]

Number plate just needs adjusting on the bracket,should be sorting that out over the weekend

[hoodedreeper]

ST150HB said:

Great work Chris, can remember seeing your K11 at the pod a few years ago, can appreciate the time and effort you put in to your projects!

Thanks ST150HB its nice to know my work is appreciated

[hoodedreeper]

Gilhooligan said:

Is this car going to be a more form > function type build? The last one seemed to be the other way around. What's next for this one?

Yeah this will be more form>function,i wouldn't mind doing something with the engine,but I'm liking the reliability at the moment :P

Will be having an interior retrim in March,apart from that I don't really have many other major plans (except to fit the Mk2 dash)

[hoodedreeper]

Thanks for all the kind words

Sadly the engine will be left alone,as much fun as I had with the previous one,i need some reliability at the moment. Who knows what the future may hold

I hope everyone is having a good Christmas The Monster received some goodies











The other half knows me too well and this was one present from her. Excuse the dirty car,i'm waiting for some cleaning products to arrive before I clean her for the first time















Finally fitted the new Steering Wheel and also a new Neo Chrome Gear Knob to match













KG Works Interior Mirror

[hoodedreeper]

Alloys were about £500 and the respray was £2200

[hoodedreeper]

Took some quick photos this afternoon. Apologies for the poor quality,i used a too high of ISO to compensate for the crap weather,and didn't realize the amount of grain until I uploaded them onto the desktop











I've even sorted out the front number plate! Fitted a smaller one too (9x7)

[hoodedreeper]

Did someone say Mk2 dash conversion?







The Mk2 door cards need some custom brackets made,and the hole for the window winder was in the wrong place so they left them. Heres the fitment of the Mk1 doorcards with the Mk2 dash



Unless you know its there,you cant really tell!

A MASSIVE thank you goes to the guys at H&S Performance in Norwich for the fantastic job in the conversion and for fitting all the other plastic trims and carpet!

[hoodedreeper]

Tested out the new Autobrite Snow Foam Lance





Washed with Meguiars Gold Glass Shampoo,followed by Megs Ultimate Polish and Ultimate Wax



Me and Mrs Reeper then embarked on a 3hr journey to the Birmingham NEC for the Autosport International Show. First time I had been to this show and I loved it! Certainly will be making a return visit in the future! Here are a few photos I took aswell as others so far



















My photos from the Show can be found here https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.57601553...

[hoodedreeper]

Arches rolled and flared approx. 5mm

15x8.25j ET20 195/50/15

Unsure how much the HSDs are wound down,i can measure the wheel to arch distance tomorrow for you

[hoodedreeper]

Just before Christmas I started to gather bits and pieces for the new Audio install.



Unfortunately theres very little photos of the build itself as I done bits and pieces during my lunch breaks and after work at night.

I first started by removing the door cards,cleaning the insides of the doors and applying the sound deadening





Next I routed fresh speaker cable/RCA

Boot > Dash
Seats > Dash
Doors > Dash

Wasn't an easy task routing the new wires through the door,especially as the speaker cable is quite thick.

With those done it was time to mount the Cross Overs. I originally thought mounting them to the centre dash bar was a good idea,so I connected all the wires and mounted it. Tried to refit the glove box and it wouldn't shut,doh! So I managed to tuck them along the side of the glove box and the fuse box on the other side.

Next was mounting the new speakers and tweeters. Speakers were a doddle and fitted with zero problems. The tweeters needed mounting on the top of the of door card. So I cut a hole and gradually filed it bigger so it was a snug fit. I then made some brackets to hold the tweeters in place. Luckily the Hertz Tweeters have a small screw in the centre,which was perfect to use along with the fixing screw for the door card crash pad.

With those mounted and wired up,i got the door cards back together and it was time to wire up the amps. This was pretty straight forward,until I came across an old RCA lead had snapped inside the terminal on the Amp. After much fiddling about and prodding,that was sorted and it was time to hook up the live to the battery.

It works!

I changed the settings on the Head Unit to suit,i haven't done anything with the amps yet as I need to do some reading up first. But with it being 'out of the box' its a MASSIVE improvement over stock! Here are some phone videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ua70PypSLcU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2Ltd-crEGw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDq-ABhK760

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpx_C6fGbDM

I've been playing around with painting with light,think these came out pretty well for a first attempt.

[hoodedreeper]

Attended the first 2014 MX5Nutz EA Meet yesterday down in Felixstowe







Got back to Norwich and took some randoms







Gonna bore you with some more random photos. Its gonna be at least another 6 weeks until I have another decent update

The car is filthy,and this was a last minute decision I only had the camera and tripod,so had to rely on the camera settings and lights in the car park,which didn't help a great deal

[hoodedreeper]

This brings us to yesterday 2/3/14

I got these made by Dan Heeks while the car was in the body shop having the respray. Finally got my good friend at Vinyl Works here in Norwich to fit them for me.

We did try fitting the stripes on the side skirts,but with how the skirts curve,it distorted the overall look of the stripes and didn't look right.











I've been honored to have Top Miata post quite a number of photos of the Purple Monster on their Instagram. They're doing a limited run of stickers,so thought it'd be rude not to represent

[hoodedreeper]

It was nice to have some sunshine yesterday,so I took advantage of it,removed the hard top and took a coastal drive along the North Norfolk coast.







(I made the mistake of making the car level,and not the house in the background,oops!)