Michaels' NA6

[the_darkside]

Well last Sunday I bought a NA6 Mx-5, bit rough round the edges but for the price I was happy, it was good just to have a car again.
Mods started almost instantly, I started by changing the headset with one I had lying around, was happy to finally get my Killers CD back
Now the tombstone had cracks in it so when I took out the centre console it fell apart, shortly after I bent my only key to the car, so the first day I had the car had been more destructive than anything and I still ended up riding to work monday.

Now I actually bought some stuff from the states nearly a week before I got the car and its not here yet Howeve my stuff from Mania I ordered Wednesday/Thursday came Friday so I could start modding. Luckily that night mum had to go somewhere so the garage was free and with my VERY LIMITED range of tools I managed to replace my upper and lower shift boots.







And that concludes my Friday night.

[the_darkside]

Now I still had to work Saturday but in the late afternoon I took the door car of the drivers side to see if I could make the lock a little bit better, being very stiff along with the fracture in the key is what bent it.



Helped a little bit, tried to also get off my driver side mirror so I could see why its so tight and doesn't move very well but one of the screws seems to have near welded itself in place so it didn't come off before it was too dark to do anything.

So today, my only day off work this week, after cleaning out my snakes tank I got to work on the bar the sits under the soft top on the inside, I noticed some surface rust so I wanted to take it off and clean it up, it originally being green I wanted to paint it black, when I started sanding the paint was very thin and easily went back to bare metal, now I wanted to polish all of it but the rust had already done its damage in spots so I did this.



So it started as this.




Then I sanded it, and sanded it, and sanded it some more...




Then polished the top bit and masked it up ready for paint.



And after paint.



And for someone who works in a paint store, I should probably be ashamed at how I did this, but, it wasn't what I planned to do today. The rust wasn't treated and will come back, however its only painted in etch primer so when it comes round to doing it properly i'll be better prepared.
Just to show how much work went into this, heres the center piece originally, I couldn't polish this anywhere near the standard of the side pieces but as before, it'll do for now.




And it all installed.



Ran out of time to take pics of the side ones, sorry for dodgy quality but i only have my phone to take photos with, and so far none of the actual car itself

[the_darkside]

Earlier this morning before doing my running round I decided to check out the boot lock and see what was going on, no real signs of any issues with wear and tear or a faulty spring and the latch worked fine when the boot wasn't closed, the boot was also a bit hard to close. I found it was easier to open the boot if I was pushing down on it, so I decided to lower the latch on the bootlid.

Start with this.



Add these.



And you get a working boot! However it seems I forgot to take a picture of after it was done, basically the washers went on the lid side of the latch therefore lowering it just enough to make it easy to open and close without raising it enough to leave a gap at all or have the lid raised above the rear quarter panels.

Thats pretty much concludes all my mods so far, still I have a few parts sitting here waiting installation then some modifications coming.

[PaulF]

Congrats on your new car. Is it basically stock at this point? We don't actually have any exterior shots.

[the_darkside]

Yeah pretty much stock aside from what I've done, what I din't put in there is that I covered my steering wheel in electrical tape because it was in such a bad condition and it actually feels really good, i'll put up pics when I get some time and its still daylight

[the_darkside]

So today we replaced the radiator, rocker cover gasket and thermostat, yesterday I broke my side view mirrors so i fixed them today and also put a coat of 2-pack black over the bars I previously left in etch primer. Got some goods coming in this week, can't wait

[the_darkside]

Well i've been slack on updates, basically replaced my steering wheel, fixed and painted my side view mirrors, installed new coilovers, did some oil changes.








Random stuff I found in my boot, condoms, 'peace pipe' and a lighter. Don't know what kind of people drove this car.


The stuff that make your side view mirror a side view mirror, any questions on how to fix it PM me.

[the_darkside]

Done plenty since last time, rollbar, wired up the demister, front lip, redid my passenger side underlay due to massive leak, and front lip. Sorry about the lack of pictures.

[davidau]

Looks better everyday!!

[the_darkside]

Wait till the end of next week...

[the_darkside]

"I saw a red door and wanted it painted black"

If that wasn't obvious enough, these should help













Don't get me wrong, i'm no proffesional, it is satin black but there is imperfections and inconsistancies thoughout it, working out a way to rectify these as its not gloss so I can't just sand it back and buff it up.

[the_darkside]

Now while waiting for my paint to dry I took a shot at trying to make my window rubbers look better, as you can see in the picture they were grey, bubbled, and generally unnattractive, so I sanded them, yeah thats right, 80, 180, 240, 400, 800, 1200, 2000 and now they look heaps better, maybe not like new but good enough for me, saves me $100 anyways, just something to pass the time doing the final coat on some pieces.

[lea]

Wow mate. I'm impressed with the paint job ! Looks great!

[mr bender]

love it

the paint looks neat but not to pretty to worry about it!

great work

[the_darkside]

Exactly! now I just have to figure out what to do with the hood...