Bilbo's Eunos

Haha yeah man, got to have chunky tyres. No stretch for me. You need chunky tyres on 13s or they just look like Lego wheels haha. Also love a bit of tyre writing. Had it on my old mk2 with the Toyos. Not sure Falken is such a cool brand to write on there, but I'll give it a go and scrub it off if it looks awful haha.

Fingers crossed for the arch rolling, my mate has done it before so it's all good, he's got a heat gun too. Just hope it goes smoothly, and then I'll finally have it looking more how I want.

My god, what did you have to go and do that for, I've been looking at those wheels for some time, telling myself not to be dumb as they will look prarrie canoe and you go and post those pics.

Looking forward to seeing this.

So the Superlites are now on. Arch rolling was a tough job in the cold, luckily a mate was a total legend and offered to help, which was great as he had done it before. The heat gun helped so much. Overall the arches were in alright condition, a tiny bit of filler on the left side but nothing too bad. Quite a bit of paint cracking on the lip itself, but we used the heat gun extensively to prevent it making its way onto the visible panels. I'm going to sand and treat the rolled lips to prevent any rust forming in the paint cracked areas.



I think they look great:


MX-5 JBW Superlight 13x7 ET-7 13 inch by Chris Oldham, on Flickr


MX-5 JBW Superlight 13x7 ET-7 13 inch by Chris Oldham, on Flickr


MX-5 JBW Superlight 13x7 ET-7 13 inch by Chris Oldham, on Flickr



Got myself along to Sussex Brekkie Meet, and being black they look better in daylight I think:


MX-5 JBW Superlight 13x7 ET-7 13 inch by Chris Oldham, on Flickr


MX-5 JBW Superlight 13x7 ET-7 13 inch by Chris Oldham, on Flickr


MX-5 JBW Superlight 13x7 ET-7 13 inch by Chris Oldham, on Flickr


MX-5 JBW Superlight 13x7 ET-7 13 inch by Chris Oldham, on Flickr



Some decent cars there too, some kit cars, Caterhams, a couple of Lotus Elises, some nice bikes, and a few others, as well as the 5s of course.


MX-5 JBW Superlight 13x7 ET-7 13 inch by Chris Oldham, on Flickr


MX-5 JBW Superlight 13x7 ET-7 13 inch by Chris Oldham, on Flickr


MX-5 JBW Superlight 13x7 ET-7 13 inch by Chris Oldham, on Flickr



All in all I'm pretty happy with them, and the Falken ZE914s feel decent so far. The tyre garage put 32psi in them, so I need to change that to 28 soon. Now just waiting for the warmer weather so I can enjoy it more!

So MOT time is coming up and I know there's a few things which should cause a failure:

Fog light smashed (stupid bumper mounted one, may have caught a kerb when parking ).
Driver's seatbelt frayed.
horn button not working (horn wiring is fine).
Right side indicator lens snapped off.

So, safety first. I started with the seatbelt. Fairly simple job in all honesty.

MX-5 seatbelt replacement by Chris Oldham, on Flickr

As you can see this is in no fit state to be used. The fray sits right on the buckle when I've got it on, so it's only going to get worse. I'm not one for living dangerously when it comes to seatbelts.

As I said it's pretty simple, even with bucket seats in the way. The Skidnation mounts helped a lot, literally just unbolted the two rear side mounts on the seat and pivoted it forward to access the belt. The trim itself is just screwed in with one screw, and then it has a couple of metal push clips that go into the side panel that just pull out.

So I changed over the belt, as it is a Eunos it comes with the pre-tensioner electrical connector. This was the most annoying part as the connector clips together underneath the metal panel across the parcel shelf. I got pissed off at the prospect of having to remove the carpet and panel and just unbolted two of the bolts and bent the panel out of the way:

IMG_20180309_130115 by Chris Oldham, on Flickr

You can see the white connector I'm referring to there. It bent back completely fine and was then just a case of looping the new belt through the seat hole and bolting everything back together. Job done:

MX-5 seatbelt replacement by Chris Oldham, on Flickr

An interesting thing I discovered during this job was that there's an access hole to the sill area behind the plastic shroud, just behind the door. I got my phone torch on and had a little look. Now this isn't the very rear of the sill, but it is still towards the rear of the sill area, generally where rust forms. I know that I need a new driver's sill eventually, as it is starting to show. However this photo shows that it hasn't spread along to here yet, looking very clean in there (the discoloured areas are just dirt, I wiped them away with my finger after this):

MX-5 seatbelt replacement by Chris Oldham, on Flickr

The photo doesn't really show it off that well, but there was very little rust to be seen here. I have an endoscope so I will have a proper look soon.

So moving onto the smashed fog light. I decided to ditch the crappy rear fog and re-wire it into the right side reverse light. I am in no way electrically minded, I've never crimped a wire, only soldered once (and almost set the headphones on fire that I was soldering) so this wasn't a job I fancied, but I bought a set of wire cutters/crimpers and a box of various spade connectors etc. and got on with it.

I cut the old wiring down, pulled it back through the boot hole, and then cut and crimped the existing reverse live onto the fog live. Started up and it all works perfectly, except my other reverse light wasn't working. I was gutted, knew I'd messed up. Anyway turns out the bulb was just blown, changed it and all good now. Just need to replace the fog with a red bulb as it's currently white, and then electrical tape over my crimped together wires.

No photos as my phone died, soz.


Last part of the update is that I'm getting a mig welder. I had a long think, and really a decent sill repair will set me back £360 after VAT with MX5Restorer, and to be honest I hate taking this car to anyone for work, even if the work they do is fantastic. I've done almost everything myself, so thought why not this as well? A basic setup will cost me about the same money, and after it's done I've got a repair, a welder, and a new skill.

Eyeing up a Sealey MightyMig150, which will run as low as 30A which will be ideal for thin bodywork from my research. Also there's a company near my parent's who are distributors of rent free cylinders, so I'll be getting some 95/5 mix Argon/CO2 from them. Planning to have all the gear in a couple of weeks, and then I'll get cracking on some thin scrap metal!


Bonus snow photo from last week:

Eunos Roadster MX-5 snow by Chris Oldham, on Flickr

Thanks mate. I love them, they suit the mk1 so well, proper retro wheels.

So "Project: learn to weld and sort the sill" is beginning.

I had this delivered last week:

IMG_20180326_194315 by Chris Oldham, on Flickr

A Sealey MightyMig150. Ultimately a budget option but in all honesty I think it'll serve it's purpose well enough. Sealey had their Anniversary sale and they were £200 on Ebay, with the one-day Ebay 20% sale on top I got it delivered for £160. Not bad.

The side door hinges were broken on delivery. Not ideal but seems a pretty common issue from the reviews I've read. I'm really not too fussed about this though, it still has a lower clip to hold it in place. I've already changed the polarity for gas welding, and had a look over it. The wire feed mechanism is mainly plastic, the rollers themselves are metal. It feels quality in some places, but cheaper in others. For the price I can't really complain, it seems like it'll be up to the job.

I got an auto-darkening helmet, respirator, and leather welding gloves from my family for my 25th, so that was a few more things off the list.

I've bought an industry size dual gauge regulator with the hobby bottle converter, some impact resistant safety glasses, 0.6mm wire, 0.6 tips, and gas shrouds to suit. Just need to get a rent free cylinder from a local motor factors and I'll be good to go. Going to practice a load on some 1mm mild steel to get the feel for it, then crack on with the sill when I'm comfortable with the job.

Also got a Dremel 3000 for my Birthday which will come in handy for various tasks I'm sure!

So this is really a turning point for the car now, hoping to get it clean and sorted underneath by the end of the summer. I've done a fair bit of research, and I'm confident enough to give it a go.

Also went over to the Sussex Brekkie Meet today. Turnout is getting better now it's warming up, some cool stuff there:

IMG_20180401_103132 by Chris Oldham, on Flickr

IMG_20180401_103139 by Chris Oldham, on Flickr

IMG_20180401_104852 by Chris Oldham, on Flickr

IMG_20180401_103229 by Chris Oldham, on Flickr

IMG_20180401_103243 by Chris Oldham, on Flickr