Shoestring (for now) MX5 project thread. My first driftcar.

Thread in 'Project Cars and Builds Threads' started by wigwambam, Sep 10, 2012.

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  1. wigwambam

    wigwambam Member

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    Thought i'd start a bit of a thread here to document work done on the poo mostly just for myself as a record and document in case I wanna sell in a year or two. First I should point out that although a little shabby, having felt how light and balanced this thing is I have genuine love for this little poopy roadster. :euge:

    Having read so many insanely high caliber build threads on here :worthy: this one doesn't feel like much to begin with, however, as the car was bought as a tinkering project as much as for drifting, and I have big plans to hopefully renovate until I can call it solid not just resembling 'a solid'.

    My main concern a few months ago when I got Poo was to do as little as possible and just take it to a couple of drift days. Having done that now I started to look at which ropey bits that wanted attention first. Wanna get one or two more Pod or Buxton days in before the end of the year then get some bigger jobs done over the winter.

    Rad fan when I got it seemed to be from some sort of junkyard shitter so that was changed to Mishimoto along with the thermo before it had chance to overheat. Block and rad were flushed 5 or 6 times until all the rusty crap was finally out then burped and topped up with deionised and some water wetter in the antifreeze. Rad itself is quite new and hoses OK so will leave for now.

    Major rewiring and tidying time this weekend. Tied up some loose ends, starting to feel quite pleased about the general state of the car electrically at least but still tons to do before I would call it solid elsewhere.

    Meet the poo-

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    First priority was a shitload of cleaning and is the most cleaning I have ever had to do on any one car in the past! The previous owner lived on a farm. Washed it's poopy brown self then cleaned up the engine bay a bit and the front suspension quite a lot, the whole thing needed a proper deepclean inside and out as the car has been carrying half a field and 8 owners worth of gank since I got it. After raising and spending a good hour or so chipping mud from the arches (looked like a fookin landrover from underneath) and cleaning the suspension the car was probably a few kgs lighter at least. Stripped out the interior (what was left of it) and cleaned out all the hard to reach areas in preparation for painting.

    Removed crappy rollcage-style stylebar which was only held by two bolts. If anyone wants this item PM and come collect it free of charge as it has no intrinsic value to me.

    Sills are a bit fooked tbh and the skirts have been trapping moisture so my winter job is to brace the crap out of it then start cutting out all the rot and weld in new metal. Bad jacking practice in evidence everywhere so in places the sills are literally folded over, drains blocked and godawful rusty Hoping to get it through MOT next spring so I don't have to hire a van every time I go to Pod.

    Safety first, the car is SORN and as I plan only to drift it for now... First antideath precaution - Killswitch mounted on parcel shelf access panel after a little hammering and repainting. :smash:

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    Installed pullcable from Demontweeks through driver's side scuttle panel.
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    Unfortunately for my neighbours the killswitch was finished at 4am and needed testing Haha. Works like a charm! Very clever little switch which I didn't expect to be that great when I ordered it as it was fairly cheap. Loving not having to disconnect the battery terminals when I do wiring now! Mmm

    Second antideath precaution was to check the brakes all round, pull the abs fuse then try to tighten the handbrake enough that I can trust it to be where I left it! One of the front disks seems to bind a bit so when I do the steering washers I will check it out and see if anything needs replacing.

    Re-looming and rerouting the back half took quite a few hours to do properly but the simplified wiring is much tidyer. Lost around half a kilo of superfluous wiring and lookin much better. Probably more I can lose but I don't like removing wires when I am tired.

    Finally got around to fabricating some sort of temporary yet tasteful fluouro dash panel adorned with the beasts of 80's metal myth and legend (colour in pic really doesn't do justice) to fill the stereoless void and to hold the gauges. Stickering is mostly thanks to previous owner. I have removed quite a bit from the outside but I may just continue adding to the interior stickerbombing as I like to feel at home.
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    Did pikey string geometry setup on rear to confirm whether raising killed off any camber. Left the front for another day. Yet to decide whether to put one or two pairs of angle washers on but that is the next job, will have to look how much thread is on the inner tierods when I take them off. Also need to check how urgently I need to rebush as I want this done before I fit new coilovers next year.

    Restuck the otter who supervises the dashboard area as he has fallen out a couple of times poor little bugger, always he stares wistfully sideways, awaiting the next calamity and hiding the fact that my speedo is broken.
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    Next on the list for next year is hopefully to lose the nasty Tx coilovers and get some nice HSDs from driftworks. Once these are on and the welding underneath is done I will hopefully finally get it back on the road.

    Long-term plan is to eventually save up for a Kaaz to replace the welder to facilitate use for grip trackdays too as most of my friends are more involved with this than drifting. This, probably a respray (although I have grown fond of the poopy brown), a bit more destickering and some nicer rims and I will be a lot happier about driving this thing on the road!

    Sorry if this is a bit dull for now. May get more interesting as I add more pics of more interesting jobs. :smokin:
     
    #1 wigwambam, Sep 10, 2012
    Last edited: Sep 10, 2012
  2. Stavros

    Stavros Active Member

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    You tried trackday with the welder yet? IMO you'll find it perfectly fine. Tons of top race cars run with locked/spool diffs
     
  3. wigwambam

    wigwambam Member

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    Good to know. Haven't had time to bother with grip days yet as it's not entirely my thing but I was thinking it would only be the slowest, tightest corners where it would be that noticable. Will go with my mate next time he takes his, not sure where it will be yet. Would love to do Donny

    May save me £600odd quid in that case and just keep putting welders in.
     
  4. Henry G

    Henry G Member

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    Ah sweet, glad to see this is stil getting used, was such a fun car!!!
     
  5. ashdadrummer

    ashdadrummer Member

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    I miss this car so much!!
    It was a bit muddy but thats what you get drifting around devon :D
    The sills aren't bent from jacking bud, again drifting round devon slammed. Its what you do around these parts ;P
    Keep the welder she drifts really nice with it but its in need of polybushes long before a fancy diff or coilys.
    Ohh by the way, the "stylebar" is a genuine mazdaspeed cage, they go for like £300! so don't just give it away!
     
  6. wigwambam

    wigwambam Member

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    This car is indeed amazing fun to drive!

    Hah OK fair play about the sills, didn't realise it was from sliding haha either way I will sort them out before it gets worse. Garaged for the majority at the moment but needs to be able to be outside again without disintegrating for t&t next year. Bushes are a priority and are getting ordered at the end of the month. Probly gonna try and do at least one more Pod day before I take the suspension to bits!
     
  7. ashdadrummer

    ashdadrummer Member

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    Any more news on this little bute? Im feeling I need it back in my life!
     
  8. wigwambam

    wigwambam Member

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    Hehe still up on stands am afraid, working on trying to get it MOTable by the time Buxton reopens. So what looked like solid metal just turned out to be a horrifying degree of rot once poked a bit.

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    Few more holes to patch in the front inner...

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    planning on cutting that back to the floor section and using MORE zintec to rebuild the inside, unforunately this may mean losing some of the driver's side arch before this is over but I havent cracked the front open yet, after that not quite decided whether to attach the new outer sill panel all the way down the driver's side or possibly just the front and rear of the sill as below the door seems to be solid so that I don't have to drill out the door aperture spot welds and take out the whole sill front to rear.

    Many lessons learnt so far but lots of time, prep and 0.6mm wire seem to do the trick. Upwards welding is pretty evil but perseverence eventually pays off. I keep practicing on scrap for half an hour or so at a time. I am pretty new to welding but I am planning to take some measurements and take some zintec in to college with me next week. I am doing City and Guilds level 1at NCN at the moment and since I have done all the test pieces already there is scope for using the many cutting and bending tools for shaping some sections to weld in for the lateral strengtheners inside the sill and maybe some good shapely patches/inside panel sections for the front.

    Already got the rear arch section and the replacement sill panel ready to go. Couple of coats of galv primer on the surface rust which seems to have been transformed by the kurust ready for undersealing. Shell is mostly solid but the sills were an instant fail according to our friendly local mecahnic who will probably be doing the MOT.

    The underside looks a bit better than the pics now after much wire brush a half a litre of kurust. Started cutting away at the back layer by layer. A lot of the rot on this car seems to have been caused by previous patching up gone sour.

    Taken ages and a lot still left to do but luckily I like this sort of thing so plenty of practice! Found a fairly reasonable polybush kit from Larkspeed which I may order if I still have money in a month or so.

    Also fixing up the aero bits as a side project. The splitter is now repaired and ready to re attach to the nosecone when I get more fibreglass goop (a can does not last very long but I have been using fairly liberally).

    So basically after the amount of time already put in, I won't be letting this go any time soon haha

    Pics to follow when I get round to it. Much to do. 加油!
     
    #8 wigwambam, Jan 3, 2013
    Last edited: Jan 7, 2013
  9. wigwambam

    wigwambam Member

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    Big update. Tons of filthy rust porn.

    Six months absolutely flew by and it has been ages since the last time I went to dwyb. This is the length of time it has taken after the car I bought last year as a little project drifter, which looked like it needed a few little jobs doing to get it through the mot, has actually turned into a pretty intense balls-deep sill restoration. I'm now fully in a relationship with this car having probed it's most intimate cavities. Luckily the missus has been quite understanding so far but I have thoroughly lost count of the number of hours I have now spent on this little shitter.

    To cut a long story short I had my first good look underneath this thing after I got back it back from last time at santa pod. My intention was do a little service and look for jobs that would need doing to get it through the mot...bit of TLC, a tickle with the wirebrush...bit of rust converter here and there, underseal, different exhaust, service; sorted for putting back on the road next year...
    [​IMG]
    ...WRONG!

    I am the sort of person who is a bit of a twat when buying cars. Not quite an 'in the dark, in the rain' kind of person but I like to buy from the hip. We drove quite a way to pick the car up and arrived very late by the time we found it, so everything had to happen in a bit of a hurry if it was going to happen. By that point I was feeling a bit battered anyway from the journey but was thrilled to find a car that seemed sound, everything worked with some decent freebies and so excitement takes over.

    For a while everything was fine. Got the Poo home, pootled in the Poo, slid the Poo, driving the little bastard around on a transporter but after the tax and mot expired I missed the freedom even of just driving it to a garage to get the alignment done.

    After I finally got down to it, removed the arch liners, wings and skirts and set too getting back to the metal, it dawned on me that there were a few areas where this shell was not only a bit rotten around the edges, but some areas where previous repairs looked pretty ropey...

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    ...And other areas that are just downright fuuuuuuuucked...

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    Something had to be done. This is a budget build so I decided to do the repairs myself. I had dabbled with welding and small restoration jobs in the past but not much. I decided to do an introductory course at college over the winter. I would thoroughly recommend this approach to anyone who is thinking about welding but doesn't have much experience.

    Been pretty slack with updating this thread so I plan to recap what I have been up to.
     
  10. wigwambam

    wigwambam Member

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    Big update. Tons of filthy rust porn.

    The next thing was trying to find the missing 90%. Mx5s have a habit of rusting from the inside out, so I had a feeling this would get worse before it got better. After I decided the whole drivers side inner sill was gone to the point where the metal is too paper thin and pitted to get a decent weld, my visions of just buying a new sill panel to reattach having patched up the areas that needed attention was beginning to look unrealistic. I needed to go waaay back to the floor.

    Some areas that looked good to begin with turned out to be crude pikey patches, attached with filler concealing horror like this-
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    After a bit of poking the car basic shat a load of diseased looking crap all over the garage floor. Bad thing happen.

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    These sorts of thing obviously all had to go. I began amassing tools and materials. Armed with a decent 150A MIG and a bit more knowhow fresh from the college course I removed the door and began bracing up the aperture. I cut some box section and began welding up some brackets to bolt in the the door aperture before welding the other end to the pillar. Added some triangulation in which was bolted to the seatbelt mount.

    After that I went on a bit of an adventure with the grinder and by the time I found good metal I realised I was going to be cutting out more than I thought just to be able to access the areas that needed attention.
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    More and more cutting...
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    Beginning to get those insurmountable objective 'fuck, fuck, what have I done!' feelings.
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    ...This happens often.
     
  11. rover

    rover Guest

    what a piece of shit lol
     
  12. wigwambam

    wigwambam Member

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    Big update. Tons of filthy rust porn.

    After a lot more cutting and HOURS of prepping I was finally ready to begin attaching new metal. Prebought panels aren't really available for the areas I needed to replace so I was basically on my own in a freezing cold garage with some rudimentary cutting and bashing tools and a massive sheet of 1.5mm zintec. Zintec is great because even if you leave it sat in the garage for a year it doesn't tend to rust. The coating polishes off super easily with a gentle flap wheel when you are ready to weld.

    Worked my way from the front arch on the driver's side and tacked up a new inner sill floor section extending out towards the flange.
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    My lack of ability in the tinbashing department along with limited shaping tools meant for this section it was going to be easier to seam up a bit to attach to the flange section, rather than trying to shaped one nightmareish curved compound fold section. Testing to see how well the prebought outer sill panel marrys up-
    [​IMG]

    After this section is attached to the inner floor I can replace the section from the wheelarch which plates over it.
    At this point I have already used up 2 PD size bottles of Argoshield light and a whole can of weldthru primer! Sometimes where the metal is borderline having had all of the rust removed but still apparently solid it is possible to get welds in gingerly before it explodes into vapour but you have to be really careful to control the heat. Had a few near misses with paint fires etc but generally using a bit of copper clamped as a heatsink where you can get behind the area works well. Other areas you just have to be patient and try not to do too much at once. Cooling can be sped up a little by patting with a damp cloth. Carried on working my way back. Measuring well and using plenty of cardboard templates I was able to do a decent job of making bits that fit and the inner sill shelf front to B pillar eventually started coming together.

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  13. wigwambam

    wigwambam Member

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    Indeed! Buyer beware and all that...
     
  14. wigwambam

    wigwambam Member

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    Not much left of the area in front of the rear arch after I was finished with it. The arch itself needs a bit of work but for the rear of the driver's side sill was so bad I actually had to look at pics from one of the welding forums of another guy's mx5 restoration in order to see what was actually supposed to be there!

    After a lot of measuring and even more swearing I managed to get the central strengtheners which attach to the inner sill repaired. This gave me a solid base to work on for the rear section. After a little repair to the inner floor I was ready to attach the rear strengtheners.

    [​IMG]

    Sometimes the balance between enough penetration and blowing through is a bit of a knife edge. In the areas here where you can see weird lumpy bits of weld, the original metal was a little too far gone. I wouldn't recommend it but it is possible to horseshoe up carefully around the edges of areas where it blows through until you get to good metal before melting in well to the centre to close it off. This leaves you with a bit of a lump but once flapwheeled off, as long as there's not too much porosity or cold cracks between welds you are left with solid continuous metal.
    [​IMG]

    Beginning to feel like I am making some progress at this point.
     
  15. wigwambam

    wigwambam Member

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    ...Next thing was to replace the last missing layers of bracing at the rear and then add more metal to the inner arch so there is something to plugweld the preformed panel to at the rear when it finally goes on. Mx5s are supposed have 5 overlapping sections of metal extending down to the flange at the rear of the sill. This area was pretty much just fubar when I set out so I am pretty pleased with the progress I have made, even though it has taken literally fucking ages.

    Spotting in the last layer before the outer sill. Weld through primer on everything until I get it closed up, then copious amounts of dinitrol or similar to be injected in here after I have finished welding.
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    Once everything is smoothed off and primered up it begins to look a bit more like finished. So painfully close to removing the bracing and getting this thing back on the ground again.

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    Next stage now is carefully cutting the unwanted areas off this panel. Once I have finished a few last bits of prep I can begin seaming it up and plug welding the flange. After that the top of the arch needs a bit of attention and then I can replace the bit of wing I chopped out.

    [​IMG]
     
  16. wigwambam

    wigwambam Member

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    So there you have it. This update has kept me busy for the afternoon at work which, given the glorious weather might have been a bit soul destroying as from inside I watch all the students merrily sunbathing on the grass.

    It's safe to say I had no idea how big a job this would become. I have been quite busy doing other stuff so I haven't had quite as much time to spend on this as I might have hoped. Could have been done a lot sooner if I had concentrated efforts a bit more.

    I am doing this for the love now and have been thoroughly enjoying pottering around on this project and I have learned loads. I didn't want to see what could be a perfectly good car go to waste on my watch but I think it's safe to say I will be a bit more careful in future when buying cars lol

    Hope to be back on it soon. Even if I don't get this back on the road immediately it will be driftable again quite soon now hopefully. Even cars that look to be too far gone can sometimes be saved.
     
  17. rover

    rover Guest

    Wigwambam, how do you know a car is completely rotten when buying it because I have purchased a car before but needed to write it off because of to much rust when it came to M.O.T. time and honestly I could not tell myself why it was so rotten :(.
     
  18. wigwambam

    wigwambam Member

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    Not sure I am the best one to answer that one for you given my car history!

    Best thing is to find a car that is already a known quantity, that is to.say off of someone you know who has done what is necessary to keep rot at bay and who wasn't afraid to spunk some money on it.

    Failing that when you buy make sure you are not in a rush and don't travel too far so that you can always walk away. Take along some ramps, wood, jacks, maybe even axe stands. This alone might be enough to freak some sellers out enough to mention some things they might have 'forgotten' about!

    Have a good look underneath if it's possible and around the arches, check for accident damage. If you can drive it obviously do but if not try to specify for the seller not to start it on the day of sale as a lot of starting issues etc smooth themselves out when it warms up.

    As far as rust goes bubbled up undeseal/paint often means rusting through from the other side and often identifies rotted out areas. Magnets are also good such as those arrow shaped welding magnets which you can buy off of fleabay. Severely rusted areas aren't as magnetic

    If you can't get underneath it properly beware of skirts and arch mods as they can be hiding all sorts of badness.
     
  19. wigwambam

    wigwambam Member

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    Sill done! On to the next...

    Bit more progress made over the last couple of weeks, work and such have prevented me from doing as much at a time as I would like. Getting excited as this thing now resembles a car again. Officially off stands, ecu back in, started first time so everything appears to be well.

    Feels like a few massive milestones have passed from how it was a few months ago. The bracing is out, door back on and the sill panel that has just been lying around in the garage for 6 months is now seamed up. Last step for the sill resto was to replace the arch/outer skin for which I managed to find a reasonably priced panel from mx5city which I chopped bits off of and fitted the other day. All in all quite chuffed with how well everything fitted in the end considering how cheap the pattern parts were.

    The key thing when using ebay panels is to try to get the best fit possible when you are cutting and shaping. On sheet this thin, any sort of gap whilst butt welding is likely to result in blowing holes. If you don't get it spot on then bashing till it's close enough to weld is pretty much the only option. Heat build up must be controlled as you go and the panel will stretch and contract a little. The best approach is to work from the centre outwards where you have long sections to do.

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    Couple more smaller areas to patch in the other side but to all intents and purposes this thing now has a chance of getting T&T'd. Alignment could probably do with setting properly but apart from that this thing is almost ready to go back out. Starting to look at dates for days next month hopefully; been waaaay too long.

    As much as I love welding I just want this thing ready to bash around in again. To anyone considering replacing sill themselves at home- allow yourself around 5 months longer than your original predicted timeframe! This sort of thing is doable at home but to do a decent job there is tons of prep work that needs doing before welding anything back in which often takes ages. Do it yourself for the love of it/to gain experience, if you need it done quickly just pay someone as the overall outlay will probably be similar all things considered.

    Last thing is cavity wax and stonechip/black tar goo for the underneath. This new sill will sadly probably outlive the car now. Many folk will say that this is a lot of effort just to fix up an MX5 but I have always had a love for MK1s growing up (It was my Need for Speed car) and the experience I have gained here is going to be super useful.
     
  20. zainey

    zainey Member

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    " what a piece of shit" - good on the lad for sticking to it, i'd of scrapped it...but he's learning.... top job lad!
     

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