Selene - Nev's NB SE

[Nevyn72]

id start off with some Mothers Plastic polish. its not too harsh at all... actually some people have used Brasso too if you have that lying around

They bought up my NB headlights like new,

Thanks Regie, hoping it would be that simple!

I have some top shelf Chrome polish (Hipo-chrome) which has zero abrasive in it, is that worth a try?
I think Meguires has a dedicated product (lens polishing) for the job too.....

[AntHarmer]

I used the mothers headlight restoration kit. Not usually a fan of mothers products but the kit includes the right sort of applicator for the job and is available from supercheap for convenience sake


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[Crapweasel]

In other matters, a question for those in the know on the detailing front.

I have a slight cloudyness on the front of both headlights.
How would you go about cleaning and/or polishing this?

The only stuff I have found online about this involves sanding and recoating the lens which isn't very appealing, it may affect the tinting of the headlights too.....
Anyone else out there had this problem and how did you fix it?

Don't bother with the sanding & recoating, a mild abrasive will fix this right up. Just wax after and you're good. Also, the tinting is on the inside in the silver housings.

If you're going the hand application route, Mothers, Rain-X & Turtle Wax all sell a kit to deal with this issue.

If you have a mild cutting compound & wax, just use that.

Alternatively, if you're bringing the car to Brisbane any weekend, I'll fix your problem for free and it'll take all of 5 mins with a machine
If not, hit up one of the guys in Sydney who do the detail & coffee days, they'll sort you out quick smart.

[Lokiel]

:
Still not bad, however I think I've found the wheels for me, lovely clean, simple 5 spoke design, unfortunately only available in 17", made by some mob called 'RacingHart' or something.....
:

Have you seen these 15x8 Traklite Burn 4x100, 35mm offset, Machine Gloss Black?

http://www.good-win-racing.com/Mazda-Performance-Part/61-1368.html

They seem to fit most of your requirements (and I'd like to see them on an SE).

[Nevyn72]

They seem to fit most of your requirements (and I'd like to see them on an SE).

Price is pretty good but not sure about shipping to Aus.... I'd like to see them on an SE too..... in 16".....

[Nevyn72]

Alternatively, if you're bringing the car to Brisbane any weekend, I'll fix your problem for free and it'll take all of 5 mins with a machine

Thanks for all the replies guys, really didn't like the idea of sanding the headlight lenses!!

Thanks for the offer mate, ummmm..... last time I headed up to Brz-Vegas it was a 3-day round trip.... without stopping!
I'll try some of the products I have on hand first, then get one of those kits if they don't work.

[Nevyn72]

I was out today getting some quotes for my 100k service and some other bits and thought I'd see what my local tuning shop would charge for the same work while also asking about the future ECU upgrade and tuning I would want done.

Needless to say they were way more expensive for the servicing work and that went to my regular mechanic, next week it goes in for the;
-100k service including timing belt (all new seals, ancillary belts & synthetic fluids)
- water pump replacement
- install my supplied MX5-Mania 2.5" exhaust system (2nd hand)



As for the ECU & Tuning.....the shop recommended an Adaptronic standalone ECU (said he's good mates with Andy so tuning my car, even though they normally specialise in WRX/EVOs, wouldn't be an issue). The Adaptronic standalone would be able to properly control both the factory alternator and factory EBC so they could both be retained with the factory BOV.
The need for a fuel pump replacement would have to be determined based on flow rates during the tuning process. He also recommended Injector Dynamics 750cc injectors as part of the package. You should have seen the look on his face when I told him the factory ones were only 265cc!!

All up price for ECU, Injectors, fuel pump (possibly) installed & dyno tuned....... ~$4000! YIKES!!
Was really hoping it would have been closer to the $3K mark, MX5-mania charge $2900 for exactly the same setup without the fuel pump but include a wideband O2 sensor and gauge....

Any thoughts? Is this a reasonable price for what is being offered?
(the shop has a fairly good rep so I was expecting them to be a bit more expensive, but $1000+.....)

[gslender]

Its the dyno time. Ask Mania how much time your car is on the dyno.

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[Nevyn72]

Its the dyno time. Ask Mania how much time your car is on the dyno.

From what I've been reading about the quality of people's outcomes from the Mania tunes I suspect I already know the answer to that one!

My local tuner spends at least 4 hours working on the tune if that helps for comparison.....

[Nevyn72]

Ohhh goody! I like it when a new package turns up!

My strut tower brace is here, not perfect being 2nd hand but at half the price of a new one, with a bit of polishing, it'll do nicely....

And as mentioned earlier it does flex a bit (a couple of mm) if you push hard in the middle.
Will have to wait until I remove the factory one to see how it compares. However this does come with the brake stopper and is only a fraction of the weight of the OEM unit.

As they say, without pictures it never happened so, here it is!

[Nevyn72]

On the issue of cloudy headlight lenses.

If you have a mild cutting compound & wax, just use that.

A bit of a followup on this one.....

Was going to use the Hipo-chrome but, reading the back of the pack, I came to the conclusion it had a chemically active content so wasn't willing to risk it.
Looked around at other products on hand and decided that Silvo was about the mildest I had.
Result?..... Brilliant!
Worked liked a charm, now I have nice, shiny, and above all else, clear headlights again.


OH Wow! 100 posts in this thread and I've done almost nothing to my car so far......
Need to pull the thumb out I think!

[Lokiel]

:
The need for a fuel pump replacement would have to be determined based on flow rates during the tuning process. He also recommended Injector Dynamics 750cc injectors as part of the package. You should have seen the look on his face when I told him the factory ones were only 265cc!!

All up price for ECU, Injectors, fuel pump (possibly) installed & dyno tuned....... ~$4000! YIKES!!
Was really hoping it would have been closer to the $3K mark, MX5-mania charge $2900 for exactly the same setup without the fuel pump but include a wideband O2 sensor and gauge....

Any thoughts? Is this a reasonable price for what is being offered?
(the shop has a fairly good rep so I was expecting them to be a bit more expensive, but $1000+.....)

265cc is fine for a car that puts out ~110rwkw, but we all want MOAR POWER so they become too small very quickly.

You should expect around 150rwkw with your setup and I doubt that you'll have any issues with the OEM fuel pump at these levels so that will get you closer to the $3,000 mark.

You can use smaller/cheaper injectors at this power level (440cc would be OK) but the Injector Dynamics injectors are the latest in injector technology and are what I'd buy today - sometimes it's nice to know you've bought the best, you tend not have any regrets that way.

Another thing to consider is doing as much work as you can yourself, even it's just removing trim; the more you can do yourself the less time they have to spend for their labour. These costs add up to quite a bit and you can probably do most of that yourself anyway.
eg. When I first got my car I had the speakers+stereo+alarm professionally installed. They charged me $50 labour to remove each door's trim - I would have preferred to have that $100 in MY pocket.

If you're a DIYer, consider making the ECU bracket yourself too and fitting the ECU in place but don't wire it up. Custom fabrications do take time so you can save a lot of labour $$$ time there too.

MSMjohn on CR.net has an excellent guide on installing injectors, with great pictures, but the factory ECU will not be able to idle the 750cc injectors so unfortunately you can't do that yourself.

[kenson]

Hey Nev,

There are a few shipping options now that are very well priced.
You can get wheels shipped to AU from around $200-$350.

Checkout Shipporter and PriceUSA. They have calculators.
Though the $AU isn't looking too good

Keep the posts coming!

[sailaholic]

Dyno time with the tuner is often about $200 an hour in the sort of place your going to.

So say 3 hours more then mania, 600, fuel pump $200? Labour to fit $100.

Difference is almost gone


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[Nevyn72]

Thanks for the responses guys.

Dyno time with the tuner is often about $200 an hour in the sort of place your going to.

So say 3 hours more then mania, 600, fuel pump $200? Labour to fit $100.

Difference is almost gone

You're right sailaholic, this is pretty much the conclusion I've come to, it's just that I have (or should that be had?) a budget for this total project and while the ECU + injectors + tune are an absolute must, it's going to chew up a lot more of the budget than I had hoped.... However this isn't the first surprise I've had on this front, and I expect, not the last!

@ Lokiel, I'm already doing as much DIY and buying 2nd hand as I can to save money, unfortunately there's not much I can do for the ECU & tune process..... Will be interesting to see the tuner's reaction to my DIY CAI airbox solution if I end up doing what I've got planned at this time.
.
.
.
Now I've also come to the conclusion that I'm going about this whole process in an unnecessarily convoluted way and just trying to do a bit too much simultaneously.
So as a result I'll break it up into two phases....
Phase 1: Safety/Performance/Handling
Phase 2: Aesthetics Cabin/Exterior/Engine bay

Phase 1 includes;
- CAI/Intercooler/exhaust/Inlet elbow (purchased 2nd hand, mostly install myself)
- ECU/Injectors/Tune/Boost gauge/(possibly fuel pump)
- Rollbar
- DRL (for visibility)
- Strut tower brace (with brake stopper) & oil catch-can replacement
- Fender braces/(possibly frame rails)
- Adjustable coilovers (BC racing?)
- Wheels & tyres (not if I can help it!)

Phase 2 is going to depend on how I go with phase 1, however I have pretty much decided to go for a 'softly softly' or slightly 'stealth' approach.....
By this I mean that the majority of the mods in both phases will be aimed at making things look more classy and 'up-spec' while still appearing OEM. This means replacing painted silver with polished metal or chrome, adding subtle highlights, nothing particularly in your face.
The hope is that it will just look 'better' and you'll be wondering a lot of the time if that's a mod or factory part/option.

Unfortunately, just doing back of the envelope calculations, what I have listed in phase 1 will go well over the budget I had..... and that's before you even look at get it engineered to make it all legal!

I'm sure someone mentioned in a thread I read along the way, "Take your budget and double it....." *Sigh*

At least at the end of the process I'll have a car with a style I like more than anything else out there of a similar type, that goes harder, handles better, and (hopefully) cost less overall than something brand new, with the added satisfaction and enjoyment of having 'created' a lot of it myself!.... But that's why we all do this isn't it?