Benny's Boot

Where have I been lately? That's right, working on my other small project... anyway, back to the car:

I wanted a new shifter boot as the original was cracking. But it wasn't bad enough to warrant me paying for a new one. After another forumite showed his install of the Scala leather boots (aka Benny's Boots after Scala owner and MX-5 nut George Benedek) I asked if I cold have his old one which was still in good condition.

But Benny piped in and offered me a free set! Can't resist an offer like that.

Before:

If I was a picky man I'd complain that some of the holes didn't line up with the tangs, but that's not hard to fix for a Dodgy Brother.

Much better!

While I had the centre console out I also did some dodgy plastic welding on a crack near the hinge. Looks a little better with the edges aligned. (This is the 'before' photo. I pushed the edges together and ran a hot soldering iron over the underside of the crack.)

tail lights

Continuing with the theme of removing the orange bits from the car... I saw someone do this on the big forum and really liked the look.

I have done it really cheaply, with red self adhesive book covering, which is probably not UV stable or anything useful like that, but it looks pretty nice for $2.50... Can always remove it if it starts to fade (hope so anyway, I waxed the lenses thoroughly before application).

First light done... The contact was cut roughly to size, stuck on and smoothed out to eliminate wrinkles. Then I cut carefully around the groove at the edge of the orange lens.

Both lights completed. The light output is red-orange (not to be unexpected I guess)

bright and shiny

Tyra got buffed last weekend! The paint has been neglected for some time (ie since I bought her), for several reasons. I didn't want to mess with the resprayed side, and the weather has been ordinary so there's no point washing her when it's about to rain again. But now that the weather is more reliable I decided to spend a few Sunday hours with the products and the random orbital buffer. Came up pretty well, but still a few scratches that won't buff out without more effort.

I even (shock horror!) gave the interior and soft top a nice coat of 303 Aerospace Protectant - the best plastic rejuvenator I've used - nice and black but not greasy if you use sparingly.

This photo tells me just how much she needs lowering though...

If you're observant you'll notice the side indicators are now tinted, in addition to the corner reflectors done previously. Very tidy, I think. I'm not keen on reducing light output, but it looks so much better I think, and much cheaper than buying the clear side indicators.

If you're super observant, you'll spot the centre brake light is also darker, but I'm not happy with the tinting job done there.

I only did the brake light tinting after making the light output brighter to compensate - 10 high intensity LEDs were installed in the internal diffraction lens. A fairly straightforward job to crack it open and play with.

For the interested, the LEDs are 10mm, 10000 millicandela red ones, and the resistors are 220 ohm, 1 watt. Parts from Jaycar.
DIY wiring.

I also had a couple of new tyres fitted on the left side to replace the flatspotted ones. Amazing how much nicer it is to drive a car with round tyres!

Sandown

Second track day for Tyra! I was looking forward to this one for a while (having missed Winton), but the weather wasn't looking promising. Fortunately it turned out to be an absolutely perfect day. Pity my driving wasn't so great.

Not that it was bad mind you, I still cleaned up Standard NB class, with a best of 1:36.3.

But I am still over 1 second off James' outstanding lap record, and I only did 2.5 of 4 sessions after severely flat-spotting a couple of tyres. Not happy. I reckon I could have knocked another 0.5 or so off my best, but there was no point continuing to trash tyres.

From MX-5

From MX-5

From MX-5

From MX-5

Reflectors

Just a small mod I did that has been in the plan for a while... I finally tinted the corner reflectors. Looks good I think. Tempted to do some of the lights (eg centre brake light and side repeaters) but I'm not keen on reducing light output...

From MX-5

back in black

Ordered (and received a few days later) some black "Pop" plates form VicRoads. Same number. Goes well with the paint colour. The front plate is held on with double sided tape, so that it conforms to the shape of the front bumper better (and does double duty hiding the holes that I put in it the other day ;o)

Now I just have to get rid of the orange bits (reflectors, indicators, etc)...



Also got the stone chip in the windscreen repaired, though it is still quite visible (it just stops it cracking further).

Phillip Island - Round 1

Back at the track! (at last)

Another great fun day at the track, my first event in at least two years. I thought it might take me a little time to get back into it, but I was straight into the 2:04s and showing up many of the newer club members, teehee. Eventually got down to a 2:03.60 which is a new Vic Club class record for Standard NB. Very happy with that.

Not so happy with a massive stone chip in the windscreen (and bonnet, and bumper...) from some flicked up stones, but what can you do?

The new tyres were excellent, though I was spinning up the inside rear out of corners - really need an LSD to stop this or I'll shred them in no time.

Holey crap!

Yep, I've done it again! More damage.
Will be opting for the cheapy repair on this one (ie, forget about it and hide it behind the plate)

Lube and rubber

Had some free hours on the weekend, and I'm off to Phillip Island next week, so last chance to get ready!

Got some new tyres fitted - Hankook Ventus R-S2 Z212 to give them their full title.
Size is 195/50R15, they look very square on the factory 15x6" wheels as you can see above. As soon as I left the tyre shop the wheels were spinning, but that is (hopefully only) due to the release compound doing its thing. All going well they should be scrubbed in by next week.

With Tony busy today, I jacked the car in the street and crawled under to change some fluids.
First, engine oil - I don't think the previous stuff was too old, but at least I have a starting point now. Shell Helix Ultra full synthetic 5W-40.
Then on to the gearbox oil - good to see the gorilla still works at the Mazda factory - those gearbox fill and drain caps were on stupidly tight. It took a BFH to encourage them off. Refilled with 1 litre of Castrol Syntrax and the remainder (nearly a litre) of Castrol ATF - a strange mix admittedly, but ATF is apparently good for curing crunchy shifts (which I have badly on 2nd gear), because it is less viscous and allows the synchros to engage faster. Will find out how it goes soon...
Lastly, I replaced the shifter boots which were torn (see previous post) and topped up the shift tower (with ATF, because the bottle was open).

Dropped the tyre pressure back from 36 psi that the tyre guys had put in it,to something more sensible. Surprisingly not much difference in ride though. Must be some stiff sidewalls here :o)

I have the Powah!

She's back - at last! Sadly took a week longer than expected, which means I missed out on going to DECA. :o(
Looks good though!

I got her back just in time to go to the club dyno day.
73.7 kW of power, and 1993 Newtons (?) of force (analogous to torque) at the rollers of the Caulfield Jag dyno. This is (as I recall from previous years) pretty much normal for a standard NB, so all is good in that respect.

I have a box full of goodies to fit in the next couple of weeks, I started with some new globes tonight - Phillips BlueVision, the colour seems OK (very white) even if they're not any brighter (which was the aim...).

Are we there yet?

OK, so this isn't the MX, but it's car fun nonetheless. I thought it was about time to pull the DVD navigation unit out of the BMW. It's a Japan-only system, so as useful as tits on a bull around here. Not as simple a task as first imagined... I can't believe how complex this thing is! 6 radio sensors on the rear window, a GPS sensor, another sensor (VICS?) on the dash, a couple of signal amplifiers, the DVD unit, and several other electronics boxes scattered throughout the car - in the boot, on the parcel shelf, and behind the glovebox. What's shown doesn't even include the TV screen that must have been in there also...

I reckon I saved about 5kg.

What's wrong with a bloody Navman?????

Blink and you'd miss it

Not much happening lately - I was supposed to be going to a track day at Sandown, but given the condition of the car (see below), that wasn't happening. It's off to the shop tomorrow morning, hopefully to be fixed before the next club event.

So to alleviate the boredom of a lack of car tinkering (or maybe just to satisfy my anally retentive attention to detail) I pulled off the corner reflectors and sanded back all the raised lettering. Start with 400 grit wet and dry to buff off the lettering, then again with 1200 (the finest in the shop, 2000 would be better), and finally a buff with plastic polish.

Hopefully the panel shop guys will be able to figure out which one goes where when they reassemble it, now that they aren't labelled. I didn't get round to doing the side indicators, but they could really do with the same work done. There's a couple of letters on the rear lights too, but I probably won't bother with those ones.

But the job isn't complete yet. They're still orange. The next task is to find and apply some lens tint and blacken them up - I saw some painted on another car recently and it looks superb.

handbrake - fixed

Took the (dented) car back to Tony's on Saturday to get the handbrake sorted out properly. We unbolted the lever and disconnected the rear cables and loosened everything off (finally managed to unscrew the handle adjuster barrel. Then reconnected, adjusted the calipers correctly, and it was perfect!

The front cable section is still frayed though, we will install a new piece next week.

Bugger!

photos say it all (well, no public comments anyway til the insurance is sorted)

Interior

First - just an opinion. I don't know how Mazda managed to remove both leg room and head room between the NA and NB series but this car feels really cramped inside. I have the seat at its rearmost notch, and my legs are just comfortable. Likewise, my hair is brushing the soft top, and I haven't pulled a helmet on yet... I don't think I'm all that tall. 185 cm isn't excessive. But I really need a different seat in this thing. The only option seems to be a race seat but that's not a good option in a daily driver.

Now...
I pulled apart the centre console this weekend for some inspections.

Rubber shift boots are torn as expected (top one only a little, but the bottom one's completely gone).

I pulled out the dash trim to check the radio as it's had an annoying rattle. Tightened up the DIN bracket which has helped. I had hoped to install something less ugly (eg an OEM stereo), painfully it appears that the last installer cut out the OEM stereo plug... idiots.

handbrake

Tyra spent a couple of hours at Tony's the other night trying to get the handbrake sorted out. It is not holding properly, and will be totally useless if it's like this when it comes to DECA (reminder - gotta get my entry in soon!)

It appears that a previous mechanic nuffnuff who didn't know what they were doing has wound up the adjustment in the handle as far as it will go, and then some, seizing the cable adjuster screw onto the rotating barrel. So now it can't be backed off. Morons. The only adjustment that should ever be done is inside the rear calipers.

Will be back there in a week or so to get it sorted properly. Likely to need a new cable, as it looks quite frayed from all the twisting.

Otherwise things are all good. The entry for Sandown sprints (and a new CAMS licence) have been posted off - can't wait to get out there again! The Bimmer has landed! duty and GST paid, unregistered vehcle permit done, and it' in our hands. Needs to go down to the garage to get complianced though.

diff oil

Dodgy Steve and Lilla came round for coffees and dinner, so we drained the diff and refilled it in the driveway. Someone still has my hand pump after the last Dodgy Day, so we had to squirt it from the bottle. This is next to impossible with the car as-is. The solution was to drop the muffler to gain line-of-sight access to the filler hole. Luckily the rusty exhaust nuts came off without a murmur.

Of course, theres only one thing you can do when the car has no muffler on it. Yup. BRMMM BRMMM! Sounds awesome. Almost as loud as Craig Healy's exhaust.

Diff oil used was Castrol SAF-XA. Full Synth. Still have the gearbox to do but that's a bit trickier and we were out of time.

more stuff

a few miscellaneous maintenance things...

I checked the soft top drain pans behind the seat belts, and found the plastic stoppers that were missing from the convertible top frame. Cleaned and reinstalled.

The soft top drain holes were badly blocked up so I stuck an old wiper blade down them to clean out the crud.

And the headlight aim was awful so I tweaked it up to a normal level.

Have been shopping for fluids for the diff and gearbox next, want to get all the maintenance sorted before the first event.

Battery

More work last night! The battery in the car (probably the original, as it was a factory Panasonic) was struggling - particularly on the cold mornings - to turn the engine over. Alas the MX-5 is a hard car to find batteries for, as they are mounted in the boot and vented so the boot doesn't fill up with corrosive or explosive gases.

After some research I found a local supplier of Odyssey batteries, a brand of compact sealed units - perfect not only for the enclosed mounting environment, but also good for shedding a couple of kilos! I chose the PC680MJT model, which is quite small and therefore lacking in some capacity, but I never really run the accessories with the engine off, so that shouldn't be a big issue.



The alarm has been false triggering constantly since purchase (and before apparently) - the previous owner said it was due to the movement sensors but the code said it was due to the bonnet switch. So a trip to Jaycar found me a new pin switch, which was installed and the wiring fixed up (a twisted joint soldered properly) at the same time.

Lastly (for today!) the idle dip (to about 400 rpm) was fixed. The usual method was used - earth the TEN pin to GND in the Diagnostics box, and adjust the TB bypass screw.

Brake Fluid

I'm getting lazy when it comes to taking photos. This isn't good because I actually washed Tyra today (as well as my parent's car which has been on loan to us, and has probably not been polished since... ever?). She looked very nice in the morning sun with the blingy wheels flashing in all their glory, but the sun was showing up some swirls and scratches.

I flushed the brake fluid and replaced it with PBR BF-600 - the best stuff in stock at the local Repco. A bit pricey (cheaper than Castrol SRF though), but worth it for when I get to the track. I also flushed the clutch fluid, which was typically grungy in the reservoir. I even pulled the clutch reservoir off (needed a damn good yank!) and cleaned it out inside (poke a finger in there and wipe liberally).

Next will be the diff and gearbox fluids! Some good pads would probably help. Should be just about ready to hit the track after that.

aligned

For my last day off before I start work I took the opportunity to get a wheel alignment. Final figures are (in degrees.minutes'):
Front: L/R
Toe: 0/0
Camber: -1.07'/-1.14'
Caster: 4.17'/4.09'

Rear:
Toe: 0.09'/0.08'
Camber: 1.44'/1.46'


This was the max that could be achieved whilst keeping it symmetrical. Not much, but it's at standard ride height so far... and that needs to change!

The toe figures didn't change much between before and after, just more camber was added (and front caster was pulled back a little to achieve this).

Just need to find some good roads to pound now. The tyre man reckoned the fronts were good tyres (Dunlop DZ101) while the rears, which are new, weren't worth talking about (BFGoodrich something) - certainly they're easy to spin in the wet...

Home - and named

Well the deed is done, and she's all mine now! I haven't taken any photos, there's nothing new to see anyway. She looks great from afar, but the closer you get the more you notice the dirt. And it's only been one day of ownership so far! The rain last night and today didn't help.

The only things I've done so far are to tighten up the throttle cable, top up the coolant, clean out the junk from the bottom of the boot, clean the haze off the windows and scrape the dealer sticker off the back window. There will be more to come, but you can wait for that...

Observations? The suspension seems in very good shape - plenty of rebound left in the dampers. The spare tyre is completely bald! Also it was sticking to the underlay and slightly rusty, so some water may have been in the boot at some point. The battery is a bit lacking in grunt, but all NBs seem to have the problem of slow cranking to some degree. I'll have to get Sab in to tap some dents out of the door and straighten the fuel flap.

And I picked a name for her. I wanted something that fit the looks and personality: black, sexy curves, shiny bling, will probably be dirty, and will definitely be spanked regularly. So meet Tyra.

I got one!

With the club rules for motorsport, and my budget, being what they were, I thought that an early NB would be the best thing to get. A later NB8B is probably quicker and nicer, but a bit out of the budget, plus I don't like the shape as much as the NB8A. After checking out a few cars, I picked one that looked the best, and was well priced. An inspection at Tony's showed no major problems, so a deposit has been put down. Once roadworthy is passed (and the balance paid of course), it'll be all mine!!!

Here's some photos from the for-sale ad:







As you can see it has the polished factory wheels from a Heritage/10AE, looks very slick when the car is clean (which knowing me, it won't be for much longer).

I suspect that the rear bumper has been resprayed at some point (the plate is bent and the whole bumper sits a bit low), but structurally it all seems sound. Nothing too serious given the age.

Now I just need to control my spending on mods! Oh, and I need to find a good name for her.