Mx5 minus try hard Internet points

Thread in 'Project Cars and Builds Threads' started by prblmslvrs, Jul 23, 2014.

  1. prblmslvrs

    prblmslvrs Active Member

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    Bought an 328ci E46 to learn how to skid in but with all the horror stories of the rear floorpans being made of cheese I sold it for my friends Mx5 that was lying in his drive for just over a year after he bought his E30 325.
    This was it shortly before it went off the road.
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    Was a solid motor, only let him down once when the master cylinder went. UK 1.8, previously supercharged by previous owner but blew the engine so was replaced with a standard 1.8 Eunos engine. Bought for the price of the Roll bar and the hard top.
    Rear discs and pads, of MOT centre. Fail. Welding to sill needed and emissions. Mate welded up the sill and re-sealed the backbox and it was home.
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    Mate took back the Rota's to fit to his E30 before he sold it.
    Pottered about with it for a bit just as it is, enjoying how much more fun cornering and shit it was, but the open diff was a bastard to skid in. Would never break traction no matter how hard i tried in the dry.
    Started hunting for an open diff to weld up, my mate phones up and says he's got an mx5 diff lying about. Pick it up and drop it off to my mate to weld.
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    Turns out the fucker was a torsen. Tidy.

    Being impatient for skids I did the job myself.
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    What a wank it was to do on my own. Wrestling it out and in with only a jack. fuck doing that again.

    Wasn't a fan of the two tone so I had a mate price up painting the car for us. The day I was going to go meet him and get an idea of price, some wank hit my NS Arch. Think whats the point in having a nice car if folk are cunts. Decided to roll it like a hack bastard.
    Started the prep and came across this gem.
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    Professional repair carried out.
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    Ripped down my shed to make a paint booth/somewhere to work in the wet.
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    Done.
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    Mate offered me two Recaro's for a fucking bargain. Obviously I snapped his hand off. Got some harnesses from a mate who's putting a MK1 golf back to standard-ish and a Mintfab Harnessbar.
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    Seats flexed like hell on the rails so pulled em out and made up some brackets to fit the sidemounts directly onto.
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    Anyone still running sidemounts bolted directly onto the original runners I'd recommend this ten times over. they don't slide but are way more sturdy and you lower the seat about an inch.
    Picked up some MIM 1900's to use as daily wheels and sprayed em white, they look terrible as i didn't bother with any real prep other than cleaning em then a wire wheel attachment to a drill.
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    So, Torsen, Buckets, harnesses, a good service and some spare wheels to skid with. One thing left...
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    Get to crail and thrash the fucker.
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    Had a bit of an issue going through the middle section at one point and ended up slamming its stupid face into the tyres.
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    Fair amount of looks driving it on the way home and all.
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    Plans are to fit some lock spacers as there was a couple times where I spun it at crail where I probably could have saved it with a bit of extra lock. Not going for the fancy hubs cause I'd rather learn with relatively normal lock, and a £5 spacer is more in line with this project than £100 hubs. Need to get it running a bit cooler too as it was hitting max temperature after 5 mins or so on track. I expected a bit longer but never drifted before so fuck knows if thats normal.
    Trying to spend as little money on it as possible then will upgrade to an S body once my skills are up to it.
     
    #1 prblmslvrs, Jul 23, 2014
    Last edited: Mar 3, 2015
  2. prblmslvrs

    prblmslvrs Active Member

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    My mate showed up at crail to practice with his Drone too. I put a few clips together with some on board stuff from a go pro we had and made a video.
     
  3. PikeyMike

    PikeyMike Member

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    Handbrake entries ? Fuck no.
    That song took me back about 10 years haha
     
  4. t2901

    t2901 Member

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    looks to be a nice build
     
  5. prblmslvrs

    prblmslvrs Active Member

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    Aye that was on my first or second run just experimenting a bit. My mate in the E30 came out with me and pointed out the handbrake wasn't locking so was just slowing me down and being a bit pointless. Just abused the clutch afterwards.
     
  6. BenRice

    BenRice Well-Known Member

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    Good to see someone saying they want to start drifting and doing it properly, and learning skills by giving stuff a crack. The plans for the future sound perfect too, people get too hung up on doing modifications for modifications sake and staying with one car forever.

    Really like the lack of lifestyler mods but still using quality parts, and the focus on track time too. Have to admit though, I'm not a fan of those black wheels (ROH?). Any plans to replace them or just keeping an eye out for a cheap secondhand pair?
     
  7. prblmslvrs

    prblmslvrs Active Member

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    Yeah mate, Just everyone seems to swear by Mx5's for learning to skid with and I can definitely see why. Commitment and speed over power. Learning in a 5 then transitioning to a 200sx or something with more power will be well easier I'd say.

    Aye the Recaro's and OMP's were just right place at right time type things. I wasn't going to buy buckets until I saw them in a mates garage and asked what the crack was with them and they were expired from his rally prepped sunbeam and £100 was too good a price to turn down even though I couldn't afford it at the time. Wheels are just standard NB mx5 ones I believe? Plan was always to buy some Schmidt Modernlines as I loved em on my old mk2 golf but then those MIM's came up for a bargain price with some ditchfinders so was also hard to say no! Black ones are going to be the track wheels. Didn't even make it through one pair at Crail after a good days skidding so I doubt i'll need more than 4.
     
  8. BenRice

    BenRice Well-Known Member

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    I shouldn't talk tho I'm still running thebsame Advan SA3R's I boight as cheapies. Cope a bit of flak but they take a beating and now have 8 of the buggers.

    Keep on buddy, shit rocks
     
  9. jacksheps

    jacksheps Member

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    Looks good bud!
     
  10. Fred Gassit

    Fred Gassit New Member

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    100 for Recaros? F*ck, bargain of the century! :)
     
  11. prblmslvrs

    prblmslvrs Active Member

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    I've done fuck all to this. Did my first Lifestyler mod, bought a Genuine Nardi. Apart from that the front ARB was removed as the two front mounts on the chassis side have snapped. Then bog standard stuff like discs and pads, Coolant flush and Rear ARB links.

    Went to Driftland and did some skids:
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    Was a pretty successful day. Loved being on a proper track as opposed to just the oval as I had down at crail. Only downside was a weird misfire/low idle after starting it when I let it cool down, couple blips of the throttle and it picked up and drove fine. Also I ended up going through the outside edge on my front left yokohama. Since I only had 3 legal tyres and a half skidded on tyre I had to borrow some tyres from my mate.

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    Although I think it looks boss they're just slightly too big for what I want but its given me the motivation to finally finish painting these MIM's as I've been running odd wheels for months now.
    On that note as well I'm picking up a full wishbone polybush kit for £60. After I've finished doing the polybushing I'll be putting it in for a 4 wheel alignment. I take it positive camber on the front will help with the outer tyre wear on hard cornering? Thinking 0 toe, max front camber, max caster, rear 0 toe, 0 camber?
     
  12. Leno

    Leno Member

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    Just get a fast road/standard as possible setup on the alignment dude, ive tried messing around with it and found standard was best for tyre wear/driftability! A touch of negitive front camber will reduce tyre wear, and the more camber you have on the back will reduce traction i think..
     
  13. prblmslvrs

    prblmslvrs Active Member

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    Nothing too exciting happening with this. Been meaning to get down to Driftland for the past month or two with my mate in the E30 but he is having problems getting it trailered and I'm waiting til its sorted so its not just me tripping down.

    Finally ended up painting the wheels and fitting decent front tyres on it. Was going to go with BMW Graphite Grey but opted for something different for over winter then will do Grey with a spray gun in summer.
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    The torsen has been good fun at crail and driftland but having getting stuck in the snow with it spinning one wheel it's convinced me to fit a welder. So welded up my spare diff and fitting it tonight.

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    If I prefer it I'll sell the torsen and get decent coilovers. Convinced myself to go with the welder over Torsen for a few reasons. Will be better in snow (been stuck once spinning up one wheel), I've noticed a couple times it feels like the power isn't getting down to both wheels properly and my next car is most likely going to have a lot more power in it and unless it comes with a 2 way or similar lsd I'll just be welding it. So learning how a welder acts in a smaller, less powerful car will make it less lethal when I jump into an Sbody or something with a welder.

    Heres a video a mate took (potato style) on his phone from the Driftland day. Gutted its the only external shot I have.
    https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10153272993479018&set=vb.515394017&type=3&theater
     
  14. Combejo

    Combejo Member

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    Car's looking nice man, from the pictures you've done a very good job rollering your car white!

    Do you think that a welded diff>LSD? Or is it still early days?

    That video with the drone is impressive too.
     
  15. prblmslvrs

    prblmslvrs Active Member

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    Roller job aint too impressive in real life haha. I was going to flatten it down then machine polish it. I did the bonnet and its come up pretty well. Then I slammed it into the tyre wall and lost all interest! Haha. Might fix it at some point.

    Cheers mate, Was Sam's first time flying his drone for "action" so was learning how to keep up with the cars and stuff and wasn't too happy with it but the next one should be a lot better. Was a fun first skid day!

    Welders still pretty early to say, only driven it twice since I got it in yesterday. The car always wants to pull straight which I actually really like but makes steering a bit heavier. Bucks a bit going round wee roundabouts but it hasn’t broken without me expecting it to and it’s been pretty damn wet/slick up in Inverness the last couple days. Feels a lot more controllable whilst skidding though, I don’t know if its just in my head but feels like the power is getting to the wheels a lot better. Lifting off then putting the power back down seemed to be a bit quicker but I kind of expected that with full lock. Once I get it properly skidding i’ll be able to say for certain but at this point I think a welder is better but that just could be me trying to justify the swap!
     
    #15 prblmslvrs, Dec 19, 2014
    Last edited: Dec 19, 2014
  16. Combejo

    Combejo Member

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    Pfft. Who has time for all that? Just keep it ghetto :wack:.

    I'm excited to see the next one!

    That makes sense. The people I've spoken to about LSD vs welded always prefer welded just because they too feel they have more control. There's only one way to find out eh :D
     
  17. prblmslvrs

    prblmslvrs Active Member

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    Nothing exciting has really happened with this but tbh it's an Mx5 so nothing exciting really going to happen is it haha.

    Keeping in line with the cheap mods I bought some ebay coilovers, then the day I planned to get it into a mates garage to fit them some HSD's came up on here for not much more so bought them as well.

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    Sat perfectly bar the rear needing lowered an extra 30mm or so. Raised it for winter though as I had a couple incidents with the packed ice/snow and ripped off the under trays.

    Picked up a braided clutch line and slave cylinder to try and solve some weird clutch issues I was getting as well as fitting some void fillers to the diff.

    Been trying to get back down to Driftland for a while and have been waiting on mates to get their cars ready for it. Decided on Saturday night that we may as well just fire down in the Mx5 on its own for one of the Winter Practices since we had nothing to do on the Sunday anyway.

    Was quite different to the first two days with the conditions and the welder but I felt way more confident with it and could predict it better so was pushing it out a bit wider which the extra lock helped with too. Felt like I was getting way more consistent through the whole track but the Gopro footage doesn't confirm. Was getting through each section better and better just not for whole laps. Last 2 runs didn't record so maybe it was part of those where I felt I was getting it a bit better through the whole track.

    James took some photo's on his phone.
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    Ended up having someone with a proper camera take a couple pictures too which I'm pretty stoked on considering there were a lot better cars and drivers out there.
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    Next up I'm going to de-cat it and try my hand at welding up a shotgun exhaust for it. Potentially have a spoiler for it but i'm not sure if I can be bothered with the hassle unless I get an alternative for transporting wheels. Need to finish off the MIM's so they are all one colour too and space the fronts out 20mm. Priority is definitely seat time though as usual.
     
    #17 prblmslvrs, Jan 26, 2015
    Last edited: Jan 27, 2015
  18. prblmslvrs

    prblmslvrs Active Member

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  19. BenRice

    BenRice Well-Known Member

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    Still doing stuff right, good to see mate.

    Try throwing some 25mm spacers on the rear, a wider track will give you a bit more stability at speed.
     
  20. prblmslvrs

    prblmslvrs Active Member

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    Cheers mate, hope to keep it that way. Have come up with a solution for a spoiler and the skid wheels but might patch it as its going to be one of those love/hate things haha.

    Yeah those were just my Skid wheels I got for £40 with 4 good tyres. So thats why they sit so horrifically on the rear. Running ET25 7j's on rear normally (excuse the super cool camber, haven't had a chance to dial it out yet.)
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