JohnnyE's Mk2.5

Some more pics of the car as it arrived with me. The interior is unmarked.. leather perfect. The only problem (and it took an AGE to sort) was a mould smell on the leather through lack of use. Many bottles of solutions later... white vinegar in warm water did it!





First modification was a Racing Beat back box. Its a beautifully made thing - but fairly reserved on the noise front. It did bed in after a month or so and has a perfect mix of tone without droning on longer runs:





Next came a "style bar". Soon to be replaced though... with a GCFabrications diagonal.



After that, I added a few rings for the vents. That's me done with interior bling. I couldn't get on with the centre caps on the vents, so they are now in a drawer somewhere!



I've a good friend who does powder coating, so I got him to blast and coat a few engine bay bits. They came out well IMO.



.... but now they made the nuts and bolts look terrible!.. so a few hours later and some spray from Frost.co.uk and I had them baking on the boiler:



Add one K&N Typhoon and here's the end result. Oh... and a new plate too. At the end of the day, my son Will is to blame for all this, so I bought him a plate for the car (surname is Egerton hence the EGE!)



Next came a great interior mod that I recommend to all - IL Motorsport pedal covers. They are a bugger to fit but pop on better after some heat is applied with a hairdryer:



Front end was then treated to a honeycomb grille from MX5Parts. This one may end up coming off some day if and when I see an intercooler down there!

Last mod during 2015 was an ILMotorsport centre section. Not much more noise but I definitely feel that it picks up better on the throttle. Welds were a bit ugly on it.. but it does the job well.



This brings me up to 2015... to the decision point. What to do next?

Well, I blame you lot and Youtube too. Daft or not, I want to add boost. I started to price it all up - the car is really mint, so I dont want to bodge this. My main problem is that I'm in NI. I've NOBODY that I'd consider to be a specialist here. I can go one of 2 ways...

1. buy all the bits in and get a local motorsports place to do the conversion. They have a great reputation, but aren't into MX5's. Their first response to my queries was to suggest a Honda S2000 engine transplant.
2. save up, stick the car on a transporter and get one of our well known English based guys to do it for me. Pricey... but a better job I'd assume.

It was at this point that I realised that I don't yet have £3-4k to throw at this... plus there's no point in adding BHP until the car is fully sorted and ready for it. So that means that over the winter of 2015 into spring 16... I decided to do the following:

1. Pull the whole rear end apart
2. IL Motorsport bushes all round (the rear)
3. IL adjustable droplinks
4. Refurb rear brakes where needed (and paint up the tatty calipers)
5. Rust treat and paint the rear end parts (subframe, wishbones, chassis bracing etc)
6. Add a tasty set of Meister R CRD's

So - that's what I'm at right now. I'll update the next post with what I've been doing this past 2 months. Its a ruddy can of worms - and proof that cars that look mint up top may not be quite so pretty underneath!

Time to asses the truth of the condition of my car. I'm glad I did this... if left for too many more years, this would surely turn quite bad. Here's a closeup of the wishbones and my attempt at DIY bush removal:



Cue another couple of hundred quid expense. I decided to DIY this - and not get these blasted and coated. Wise decision?... I think not. It's been one hell of a job. I decided to buy Bilt Hamber Deox-C and create a rust removal bath. Did it work?... yes. But the fact was that most of the paint had been failing on these parts. After a day in the bath they came out rust free... and 50% paint free. Not good. The only answer was to go to bare metal. Try that on one of these subframes with modern (ie. crap) paint strippers. At this stage, I am NOT amused... but too stubborn to give in and pass them to a powder coaters. I've forked out £200+ on chemicals and POR15 paints. No turning back!!

After a day in the bath, heres a wishbone. Deox-C certainly does the job!



Next... POR15 Marine Clean and then a good soak in POR15 Metal Ready. I've used this stuff before and its great.



The subframe... well.. what a job that is. Its a complex part. As of today, I'm at the paint strip stage.

In the bath.... note how much paint came away. I can only assume that these areas had lost their grip on the steel. A chat with Pete Hamber confirmed that the only answer was to strip the rest (or as much as I can) away.



Now - covered in environmentally friendly crap. It works eventually... but we're talking days here.



So that's me up to date. I wish I hadn't started... but I must remind myself of the end goal here! I'll enjoy the car next year and then repeat this process for the front end. Then... its time to see who wants to take in my 5 off the ferry to England! I've had initial conversations with Doug from G19 and the lads at ME. I've yet to see what Nick from Skuzzle can offer, but its a long time away just yet. Plenty of work to be done first!

More chemicals today... this time it's the lower wishbones. Problem with these is, if I drop them in the Bilt Hamber bath, most of the paint will peel away. Thats worked out ok so far for the subframe where I can get at every angle, but these wishbones have hollow centres. I don't want to leave a mess of mushy paint in there.

So... its the 3 step POR 15 treatment.

First I wired brushed the parts. I use a rotary attachment on the end of my drill:



They are solid. No corrosion to the metal at all. I struggled to remove the bushes on these - my DIY 10mm rod tool snapped! A local mechanic has a proper press - so the old will go out and the new bushes in after they're prepped and painted.

After brushing, outdoors to get a good spray with POR15 Marine Clean. This stuff is a BRILLIANT degreaser. Then, over the bucket for a long (few hours) soaking in POR15 Metal Ready. This stuff is like blue water. You just wet the parts and walk away. I tend to go out to the garage every half hour or so to top it up. The trick is to keep the part wet for a few hours in it.





Right. Away out again to spray these! Once I'm happy, they'll get a rinse and they'll be ready for POR15 black paint.

I've a theory... so many Mk2.5s are rusting to bits.. we'll end up with the "rare" specimens in a few years time. (probably not though!)

Looking at your build list in your sig... I'm a bit behind you!

How did you find the stainless steel brake hoses after upgrading to them? I'm thinking of fitting a set of HEL lines now that I've the system stripped down and bled.

Brilliant stuff... that's exactly what I'm aiming for too. No stone unturned! I'm glad I did this now as there's no actual corrosion to the parts. I'm amazed at how the OE paint has literally lost its grip.

My subframe is 90% bare metal today. I'm hopingto get as much of that last 10% off as I can tonight so that I can start the 3 step POR15 cleanup, prep and paint process over the weekend. I'll be glad to see just one of these parts come out the far end of this! Seems I've been at it for weeks with no results.

Let me know if and where you have a build thread - I'd be interested to see some pics of what you've done. I'm not up to the task of FI'ing the car myself. I want it to be fast and reliable (hence not cheap - can't remember who says on here that you can only have 2/3 of those things!). Once I've got the base car back like new, I'll be sending it on a transporter to one of the mainland specialists. It'll be a big cheque to spend.. but I want it done right and done once.

At this stage, I've had some preliminary correspondence with various FI specialists. ME (motorsport electronics, using G19 hardware and the ME221 ECU) are top of my stack at the minute for doing the work. Fast and detailed replies to my emails EVERY time. I had 2 sets of correspondence to others that didn't even get a reply.... and phone calls asking directly for a quote that never came. If I'm spending money to send the car to England and back, I need 100% confidence in whomever is doing the work.

YESSSS!!! The subframe is almost done...





Looking forward to seeing some parts finished this coming week.

I've been embarrassingly slow at working at my 5. Its still without a rear end... and my garage floor is a mess of parts in various stages of treatment!

However, yesterday was roll bar day! I've had a lovely, chunky bar from GC Fabrications sat in the living room for months. I took the day off work and after about 5 hours had the job done. Quite a rewarding job actually - no major issues. I decided to drill out the spot welds on the parts to be removed under the parcel shelf rather than grind the flanges off. It worked well.

A few pics from yesterday:

Shelf and carpet all stripped back:


Drilling out the spot welds:


All ready for fitting. Can't imagine doing this job with the seats in place!


Trial fit. Its a 2 man job for the fit - otherwise you risk trapping the many wires that pass through the fixing point areas.


... and we're done! Bubble wrap will stay in place until my rear end is refitted next week. I want to retain access to all the ABS wiring, just in case!


I finished up with copious amounts of Bilt Hamber underseal spray. Their aerosol cans are fantastic. Massive coverage and it dries to a beautiful finish. As for the roll bar itself, I cant fault it. The welds are perfect. The fit was also precise and perfect. Spreader plates fitted exactly right too. A great product (and IMO a good looker with its fat bars and integrated harness bar).

I must now get the finger out and get this rear end painted this week... so that the bushes can be pressed in and the rear end rebuilt.