So.. What did you do to your '5 today?

Actually very little, but not for want of trying.
Had things gone to plan I was going to jump in the car early doors and blast down to Goodwood for a gander.

Yesterday put paid to that. I'm trying to smarten up the front and rear bumpers and had the bright idea, having spent numerous days at the kerbside trying to get the filler right, to take the front bumper off.

How hard can it be - only a few bolts right?

So, it's a bit low at the front to get to all the bolts and I don't have any ramps, not that my front lip likes ramps anyway. But I do have a scissor jack, a bottle jack, a very cheap trolley jack and a couple of 3 ton Halfords ratchet axle stands. Easy peasy right?

So I'm making good progress jacking each side at a time, and was probably at a good enough height to get to everything, but why make life difficult when another 100mm won't hurt... will it?

Unfortunately gravity had other ideas and seemed to get the better of my best laid plans and the axle stand which was currently on duty. So I now had a very slammed MX5, with the crumpled stand trapped underneath it, and thankfully me on the roadside, muttering various obscenities.
The rest of Saturday was spent getting it back up on the wheels, browsing various suppliers for ramps, and then deciding to go the DIY route and knock some up out of timber and plywood.

Bright and early this morning I managed to rub down the scratched roll bar and get it resprayed, as apart from the rattle can shaking this hopefully wouldn't disturb the missus, or the neighbours, who must be getting fed up of seeing me crouched by the car, either filling, sanding or spraying for the last few weeks.
Once sensible o'clock came about I fired up the circular saw and kept on with various iterations of jack blocks and ramps until towards the end of the afternoon I finally got the car safely in the air ready to pop the bumper off, so I can get it finished after work in the week.
Beacause it's only a bumper, only a few bolts, ten minutes tops.....

So, it appears I have lots of rusty crusty bolts, a few newly sheared bolts, and numerous other fixings that seem quite happy to spin round and round without actually achieving a state of unfixedness.

The car is still up in the air on a combination of version 3.1 GBUK car ramps and platforms/chocks.

The front bumper is not quite so attached as it started out, but nowhere near what could be considered a detached state. My workshop looks like a hurricane has hit and I'm totally knackered.

So it looks like I might be needing a whole lot of replacement bolts and fixings, and who knows perhaps even a replacement bumper so I can see how it all comes off.

So there you have it, actually very little, but thanks for asking.

Aaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrgghhh.

Refitted my ME221, freshly returned from the boys at Motorsport Electronics(free of charge!) After I somehow managed to corrupt the ECU firmware.
I must of had the ECU cover off and on at least ten times in the last 3 years and all the time I was saying in my head "BE CAREFUL, THE EDGES ARE REALLY SHARP!)
inevitably, I was in a hurry as rain was forecast and you've guessed it, cut my fricking finger almost to the bone on it.
I really appreciate Japanese engineering but was it really necessary to have the ECU plate made by Hattori Hanzō?

The best mod.

Headgasket change

I actually did some work on mine yesterday

I removed the broken flasher/indicator relay (because I had no left-hand-side indicators at all) replaced it with another one that I'd ordered, went inside and took the broken one apart, spent 3 minutes looking at it and then broke out the soldering iron to re-melt the solder around one blob that looked 'broken', tested it in the car, and then swapped the broken-but-now-fixed one back one

Should have just tried to fix it in the first place!

Ah well, at least I have a spare relay now...


I also managed to wiggle my radio out of the dash to check the connections. All were fine and it was operating as it should, which was weird, because it's been constantly cutting out every time I've tried to use it in the last 6 months, and now it's working perfectly again... FFS! lol

Mind you, the door speakers still only come on about 15 minutes into a journey, if at all, so I need to trace that issue back!