Meerkat's Silver Mk1 OEM+

I love how mint this is

So I haven’t done a huge amount so far, mainly because I haven’t needed to really. The car was pretty ship-shape already. But I have done a few bits and pieces.

First job was to upgrade the rubbish stereo. It was a Japanese unit so the radio didn’t pick up much in the UK (Japan’s FM range is from 76 – 90 Mhz, while in the UK we use 87 to 108 Mhz), but the sound was really tinny and horrible and the headunit had horrible ‘touch’ style buttons which didn’t work properly.

I found a nice Blaupunkt headunit which didn’t look too “teenager’s hifi”, some decent-sounding Pioneer speakers, and a 2-channel pioneer amp for some extra oomph, and set to work.

First job was to remove the old speakers. I discovered that the rubber suspension had entirely dissolved… no wonder they sounded so crap:



The wiring in the loom for the speakers was pretty narrow gauge, so I decided to upgrade it to proper speaker cable while I was at it. What an absolute £$%^& of a job. It took me nearly three hours to feed the cables from the doors, through the awkward lumpy, S-shaped rubber sleeve between the door and the car body, then through a tiny access hole into the cabin. ON the passenger side the blower motor assembly is in the way, and on the driver’s side it’s the fusebox.

But I managed it eventually:

From the door:



Through the crappy rubber sleeve:



And into the car:




New speaker in place (I had to drill an extra hole in the speaker surround for one of the screws):




I then installed the amp unit into a space I found just above the driver’s footwell. There is not a lot of space in the back of the dashboard, but there was just enough to secure the amp in place there.

Amp unit:



Cables connected:



Installed above HVAC outlet on driver’s side:



New headunit in place, along with a clock I found to match the instruments:






Next I installed new discs and pads on the front wheels, after I discovered one of the pads had worn right down to the metal. I also had to replace the caliper on the driver’s side as it started leaking when I removed it.




I then installed some more modern-looking rear lights. They won’t be to everyone’s tastes but I prefer them to the originals.






Installed a dashcam:




And a grill for the front air intake:




Refurbished the wiper linkages with new grease, and cleaned up the front bulkhead.







In the process did this, might be familiar to some other MX5 owners….



The offending culprits:




Exchanged the dash and HVAC lights with LEDs:




Next I had the car booked in for undersealing:










Then I managed to get hold of Fizbne’s old steering wheel from his car’s new owner, which was just the model I was after:



Before:



After:




And that brings us pretty much up to present. Here’s the car as it looks at the moment.










I also got a borescope down inside the sills to check for rust, and thankfully they are like new in there. I’ll post up some videos in a bit. Next job will be to get some cavity wax in there to seal them.

I was pretty amazed by it I must say.

It's funny you should say that actually... weirdly it was completely covered in Gun Oil. I had to spend about 3 hours cleaning it all off....

It is a good wheel indeed! I like the smaller size better cos it's easier to swing from side to side. All of which just proves it's not the size that counts but what you do with it. 

Anyhoo, I will take good care of it and if I ever choose to part with it you'll be the first to know!

*jealous*




Would you be able to say what the cost of your undersealing was? I guess summer is the best time to get it done!

Cool, thanks for the info - I think that's pretty reasonable for a messy job that takes some time/expensive kit and requires blocking up some ramps for a while.