Selene - Nev's NB SE

[MadMikey]

Hmmmmm, all these parts piling up, which one to install next?

I had several grands worth of parts sitting in my living room at one point, things start to pile up if you let them!

[rascal]

FINALLY!!!...... I can relax a little bit.....

It's probably a bit irrational, but I've been unreasonably paranoid since buying buying my car about it's 10 year old timing belt..... I've been trying to avoid driving it too much or too hard for fear of it failing and 'lunching' my engine.....

btw, the MX5 engine isn't an interference design, so even if your timing belt did snap, it wouldnt lunch the motor. It would just stop, with no damage..

[Tristan_ACT]

FINALLY!!!...... I can relax a little bit.....

It's probably a bit irrational, but I've been unreasonably paranoid since buying buying my car about it's 10 year old timing belt..... I've been trying to avoid driving it too much or too hard for fear of it failing and 'lunching' my engine.....

btw, the MX5 engine isn't an interference design, so even if your timing belt did snap, it wouldnt lunch the motor. It would just stop, with no damage..

I didn't know that, but was wondering the other day. Thanks for the info Rascal!

Nev mate, sounds like the car is coming along great. Can't wait to see some more install photos. Keep up the great work!

[Okibi]

..I had several grands worth of parts sitting in my living room..

That's me at the moment

[Nevyn72]

Ummmm...... Me too.....
Although in my case it's split between the dining room, office, garage and various courier companies inbound.....

[Nevyn72]

..btw, the MX5 engine isn't an interference design....

Well you learn something new every day! Thanks Rascal.

I suppose, at least it would have saved me some serious embarrassment and a hefty towing fee.....

[Nevyn72]

I'll take the MX to work tomorrow for a longer drive and let you know my thoughts when I get back.....

So to follow up.....

- Gearbox is definately easier to use with cleaner changes. Not sure how much is a result of replacing the 100K old fluid and how much is from using fully synthetic this time.
I still think the short shift kit (on order) will make a huge difference as the throw is still a bit vague and too long.....

- Exhaust? Still love the new subdued 'burble', it's nice to be able to actually hear the car! You can actually hear more turbo 'whine' too which I wasn't expecting.
The turbo is definately spooling earlier and there's noticeably more power from 3000-4500 RPM, unfortunately this makes the lul @ 4500 RPM more pronounced....


In terms of what comes next on the performance mod front?
I'll drive the car for a bit then probably install the larger intercooler and inlet elbow, although I don't anticpate any discernible improvements from these changes.
I just want to see what these do before changing the intake. I plan to leave it at the stock boost for the moment.....

[davekmoore]

..btw, the MX5 engine isn't an interference design....

Although mine interfered with itself without even damaging the timing belt. It even interfered with the steering rack (see sig).

[Nevyn72]

Well that was fun..... Not!

Just spent the last 3 hours wandering all over Sydney trying to find someone to chrome my new MX5+ rollbar. I had 3 main contenders lined up based on online research so tried each in turn.

First stop, one of the largest operations in Sydney. The bloke came out to see the bar in the back of the car.... Took one look and slowly started backing away... "I'm not touching that!" was the bottom line. Now I knew it wasn't going to be an easy or cheap job given the complexity of the design but if an operation like this one wasn't even willing to consider it things didn't look to promising.

Second stop, the chroming place used by rodders and restorers in Sydney. I figured they would at least consider it as they should be used to dealing with more "interesting" car parts..... Nope, got a straight "That's too big for us"..... Oh well, one more roll of the dice....

Before the next stop I dropped into Autobarn to pick up some VHT Satin black engine paint for another job and while there looked at paint options..... You'll never get a 'chrome' finish, but I figured if the result was similar to a satin alloy bar I could live with that. Would probably end up costing around $100 for materials to complete the job and an awful lot of work so still not particularly keen on that option.

Finally, to the third stop, on the other side of Sydney of course.....
I didn't think it was a particularly good start when the first reaction of the guy there was to burst out laughing when I showed him the bar.....

His next reaction wasn't much better. "So what do you want me to do with that?" he asked.
"Errrrr, chrome it" I replied.


Long story short, he took the job on, for a surpringly reasonable price in the end too. The catch being they will only clean and chrome the bar, there will be no polishing. So as a result all manufacturing defects will show through the chrome.... Good thing the finish ex-factory is pretty clean so should still come up fairly well.
The additional cost of polishing it for a true mirror finish overall was going to pay for too many other bitz for the car (more than doubled the cost of chroming) so I'll live with the imperfections.

Should be done in a week or two so I'll post pictures when it's done, then I need to work out when to install it......

[shuey]

.. cool, looking forward to the photos of the finished product.

[Lokiel]

.. cool, looking forward to the photos of the finished product.

Not me, I'm scared it may look great and make me want to do it too. I wanted to do this originally too but couldn't find anyone who would/could do it and I slowly grew to accept my black roll bar.

[Nevyn72]

.. cool, looking forward to the photos of the finished product.

Not me, I'm scared it may look great and make me want to do it too. I wanted to do this originally too but couldn't find anyone who would/could do it and I slowly grew to accept my black roll bar.

Hahaha.... That would would be different..... you copying me for a change!

I must admit I'm a little nervous just how well it's going to work out without the polishing, we'll just have to wait and see....

[chops]

will be interested to see how the roll bar turns out

glad to see you are enjoying the exhaust and that it all went on cheaply and easily

[Nevyn72]

Shiny! :-)



48 hours! Not a bad turnaround, was very surprised when the phone rang at lunchtime.....

Now, as expected, without the polishing the finish is somewhat 'textured' but stand back a bit and it looks great.



Also, as expected, with such a complex shape, there a few areas where the chroming is very poor or even non-existent....





There is also some fluid still trapped inside some of the tubes that needs to be fully dried out.
Once I've got it completely dry and clean, I'll touch up the spots where the coverage is poor with some clear coat for rust protection.

Overall, for the price I paid ($400), I'm very pleased with the results.
It could be a lot better but the polishing would have added another $600 and that still would have had the electroplating coverage issues.

I suspect the only way to get a 'perfect' shiny bar would have been to have it made out of stainless steel (weaker) and had it polished to within an inch of it's life.....
I shudder to even think how much that would have cost!

[dave2221]

to get it smoother it wouldnt have been THAT much more expensive.

but what is cheaper, would have taken you HOURS of hand polishing and sanding in prep

so for the cost benefit i think you did quite well.