Michaels' NA6

[the_darkside]

Thanks guys, Brendan, that was just done with a spray can so I'm not sure it counts haha.

[the_darkside]

So theres something new and shiny on my car, to scrape along the ground, FRAME RAILS!!! Sorry I would post pics but it seems half my photos have disappeared off my thread, anyone see them? Also have a new exhaust which fixed my idle issue and gives a smoother power delivery, slightly more power I think but its hard to tell, its loud, and when its warm, its really loud haha.

Its the 4-2-1 Hurricane headers into a hi-flow cat and 2 1/4 mild steel with a resonator and a super simple hi flow muffler. They've tucked it up nice and high so I cant destroy it

[the_darkside]

So my trans tunnel was getting really hot and I burnt my toe on it.

Solution: Heat Wrap.







Its almost a shame to cover up the blue, but meh.

Heres a basic photo of the frame rails, I painted the outside with black etch primer just to be less suspicious.

[the_darkside]

So today I retrofitted an NB door handle.



Mini write up, i'm planning to make new door cards, if your not, this will look tacky. You'll need to use your imagination because I'm lazy with photos and it's pretty straight forward.

Start by removing your door card and unscrewing the three screws holding the old handle in place.

Remove the locking rod from the actual door, its too short to work on the NB handle, just unclip the opening rod from the handle.

On your NB handle, the bottom clip that holds the opening rod will have to be take out and put in the other side, for it to fit properly you'll either have to file it down slightly which is the easier, low quality way, you will probably have to do it slightly anyway because the rod seems to be slightly thicker. Better option is to bore out the top of the plastic handle so that it can clip in, if you look at the hole on both sides you'll notice the bottom side has a recess, thats what your trying to recreate on the top side.

You'll then have to slightly straighten out the opening rod so that it will actually slide under the NB handles metal bit which the NA handles don' have.

So once thats done, clip it in and you can locate where you need the two holes for the handle, make sure before drilling that both of the latches can move, its likely it'll have to sit 3 or so mm higher than the NA handle.HAVE YOUR WINDOW UP and make sure none of the wires will be where you're drilling. Drill the hole closest to the rear of the door first because it should be on flat metal, screw the handle in place, then drill the other, this is more so it doesn't wiggle around and doesn't actually support much.

Next, you have to fab up a locking rod, simple enough, the hardest part is finding a way to make it not slide at the handle, I made mine from a coat hanger wire and used super glue and special metal reinforcement powder to make something for it to bite in to, you may, like me have to bend it so it doesn't hit the door itself, I will warn you, my coat hanger wasn't very thick so it bends a bit and therefore there's a little play.

Place it in the clip, adjust as nessecary and voila, NB handles.

[the_darkside]

So yesterday a mate and I made a ghetto heat shield out of a Keep Left sign, no I didn't hit it or steal it, it was given to me. We stripped the paint so If someone checks out my engine bay I don't get queried about having a sign for a heat shield.

We made it because Saturday night my filter fell off half way through a mountain run and just sat on my exhaust for the remainder of the trip.

[RedMX]

Well done on the heat shield, looks like it should work appropriately for what it is.
the car is looking great too!!! since I last seen the thread when it was near stock looking.

[the_darkside]

Thanks man, yeah haha, funnily enough It seems to do a pretty good job, went for a bit of a drive yesterday and could actually hold the mesh of the filter without burning myself, every bit counts.

[the_darkside]

So I decided to make some custom door cards, half following this:

http://clubroadster.net/vb_forum/86-diy ... s-how.html

and half my own. So basically I just made them out of ABS plastic, straps are nylon webbing, its mounted by putting screws through the original pop in things that have been shortened, the speaker holes I just cut out and used the mesh from the originals.

Still needs a little work and i'm going to re-trim the top when I find what i'm looking for, but for now, i'm happy with them.

Before:


After:


And low life...

[the_darkside]

So, finally an update, I have just done something to my car, it feels like it's been forever.

First things first, spot the difference.




Got it from Pham, and in case anyone was wondering, my old drivers seat, although it was stuffed, has gone to a mate for his Celica build.

Now I also changed my diff, which I also got from Pham. So it went from a NA open, to an NB Type 2 Torsen, same ratio, 4.3:1.

Just realised i'd deleted all my pictures before writing this, fail.

It was all pretty smooth till we had to get the passenger hub off the half shaft... we bashed it so hard with a hammer that it shroomed bigger than the hole it was then supposed to fit though and it still wouldn't budge.

So a good friend came around and picked it up and was going to use a press to get it out Monday. Of course, being as lucky as I am, it didn't fit in the press either. So back to plan A.



He ground off my shroom, because I already had replacement shafts because of the upgrade, and hit it with a bigger hammer. It worked!!!

So in a mad rush Monday afternoon, after work and before college, we had my car back together. Took it for a quick run round the block and it ran, and thats what mattered.

However, as this was my first time in the Sprint V, I hated it. But over the last few days, i've got the position of the seat right, and my shoulders are healing from laying on the ground and raging at my diff. I'm happy to say, I now love the seat, and i'm only just starting to get used to it, so if you're going to buy a seat and it doesn't seem comfortable at the start, give it some time.

And thats all I've done, undecided about my next mod, I have lots in mind but i'm not sure what comes first haha.

[the_darkside]

Oh, and while I wasn't doing anything to my car, between everything else, I refurbished a Nardi for Crooz. Sorry for the poor quality pictures.



















And I cleaned up my sparco a bit too.

[the_darkside]

Pictures don't really do it justice, but here it is mounted.

[mrpham]

Good stuff dude!

I know I've said it before, but I love that steering wheel finish

[the_darkside]

Thanks Pham.

Speaking of Pham, I got a pedal assembly off him on the weekend and changed it over last night, sorry don't have pics of the install because, well, i was using my phone as a torch.

+10 HP

Why you may ask? if you didn't know, my accelerator was supported by a door stop I put behind it because it was fractured, I was lucky to notice when I did or else I would have had it break at a probably inconvenient time. If you thought your MX5 lacks power, try driving one with a pedal support that moves more than the pedal. Anyways, so here is a pic of the old one before and after I decided to see if it was hard to break off, it wasn't.





Needless to say, it feels fantastic now, and I can actually adjust it properly, which is great. I do however have cuts and bruises everywhere and don't wish this job upon anyone that still has their dash in place.

Mini write up:

NOTE: YOU HAVE TO SORT OF DROP YOUR STEERING COLUMN. I don't have pictures but when you do it, you'll see what I mean.

You need:
12mm spanner and socket
Decent socket extension.
10mm socket
14mm socket
Flathead and phillips head screwdriver
Pliers.

FIrst, take out your drivers seat, you will be there for a while and it will be significantly uncomfortable even without the seat. (14mm)
Also remove the cover under the steering wheel. (PH screwdriver)

Basically undo all the bolts you can see that hold the pedal assemblies in place including the two at the base of the steering column, but leave the top ones in. For the clutch, you also have to undo the one at the bottom left of your slave cylinder if looking at the car from the front. (12mm)

Detach the accelerator cable from your throttle body, then where it connects to the pedal, pull the wire through a little, unclip the yellow ring that holds it in place and slide the wire out the side. Take the brake pedal off the brake pole thing by taking out the clip and sliding the small bolt across where it goes through the pedal. Also undo any clips that connect to the assembly, mine had three, one on the clutch, one on the brake and a weird one at the end of the brake/accelerator assembly. Does help to unclip the main easy one to get to on your steering column. (12 & 14 mm, FH screwdriver and pliers)

Remove the plastic that covers the bottom of the steering column where it goes into a joint, mark where the column sits in relation to the bracket that it is held in by, remove the bolt attaching the column to the steering rack. (12mm)

Now undo the two bolts at top of the steering column and slowly pull the column toward you, the only thing that should be holding it in place at this stage is where it connects to the steering rack unless you've missed something, mine didn't come easily. (12mm)

Then take your assemblies out, making sure to put the little shaft thing off your old clutch where it went from the pedal to the master onto the new one, check to make sure all the bolts are in the same place so that you have to do less adjusting later.

Reverse, making sure you put everything back in, this is your control of the car after all.

Enjoy.

[the_darkside]

So after doing this and servicing my car, which had been long overdue, a friend and I embarked on a road trip, over two days, covering 1200kms, in this.

It was one heck of an adventure, from compacted sand roads to my car scraping on the middle of roads in poor condition littered in potholes to awesome roads with no speed limits. The whole first day, everyone was staring at my car like 'How the hell did he make it here?' and even went to a service centre to check I hadn't destroyed anything important under my car and the guy didn't even know what it was. As i was checking out my underbody, besides the scratches, parts of trees and a few broken plastic covers, I found that I had chipped off two of the frills on my sump, but no crack in the sump, win. Anyways, I don't have many pics of the trip, but this is what the car looked like after, oh and I installed a tow strap before we went too.

[the_darkside]

So today I had a fair bit of study to do, being the good student I am, I changed my third brake light over to LED instead.

Basically followed this:

http://www.miata.net/garage/led_cbl/index.html

However I didn't have the clear plastic bit so I had to fabricate my own, unfortunately where it sits isnt flat so they currently point upward slightly, I'll fix it someday, but heres the change.

Before:


After: