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.