Mazda-Menders

Seats

When I bought my Eunos there were many "modifications" done to th ecar and one of them was that the seats had been opened in the past by someone who had no idea what they were doing. Because of this the drivers headrest zip had been damaged and the actual zip (the part you pull) was missing.


If you are like me, the "duct tape look" was never going to do. This called for a quick visit to a tailor where I managed to bag a few various sized zip heads, hopefully one would work. Sadly none were the exact size but I managed to get the zip closed for the time being. Sadly the transmission tunnel side of the drivers headrest was all torn up and the zip wasn't going to hold forever. Ideally a professional would need to step in soon to save them.


Fast forward 6-8 months.

Now you see, with the red ratty look those seats with the optional duct tape upholstery were fine, but the car had just undergone a very expensive paintjob and those seats just HAD to go. I recalled a stunning set I had bookmarked on my phone a few months ago on the Autolink website http://www.autolinkmx5.com/seats-223-c.asp so I clicked and hoped for the best. They were still there and I had to have them. Black leather with perforated leather centres (according to Andrew at Autolink, these were the best Eunos seats money could buy) as well as all new foam everywhere, they would look the business in my car and offer comfort and support like a new set. A couple of hundred pounds and 48 hours later and they were delivered by a lovely UPS driver who used to have a 5 as well.


I know the suspense must be killing you so here is the drivers seat unwrapped, ready for a seat rail swap. Andrew was right,... these were amazing seats. Now I know the eagle-eyed members will notice the recliner handle cover is cracked, no worry, I shall be replacing that soon too.


4 bolts removed and the drivers seat was out with ease. The 4-pin seat speaker plug was a bit of a pain but eventually I got that apart too. A quick clean and time to install the news seats


Now here is were I ran into a bit of a problem. My Eunos was a basic spec 92 model but the seats were from a MSSS (Mazda Sensory Sound System) model so the clips in the seats have a 6-pin straight plug whereas my car has a 4-pin square plug. I could have cut the wires and then soldered them but that seemed like the wrong thing to do so I called Andrew at Autolink to see if they could offer a harness or something. Now what Andrew did is what differentiates Autolink from ANY other seller I have dealt with till now. He sent out a harness set FREE OF COST with next day delivery as well! now THAT is customer service. I can assure you that as of now I shall never shop anywhere else for parts.

Well now the seats are in but I still have not managed to wire in the harness yet, main reason was that the seats needed to be treated before use. I have always been happy with Autoglyms leather care balm so I gave the seats 2 coats and they became soft and pliable. I'm not kidding, the leather used to retrim these seats is up to par with that used on the finest luxury cars.

The car so far

In my excitement I forgot to share some pics of my car so far. Pic taken just before I swapped the seats, indicators and reflectors.
Do click on the image as I find that the colour really stands out on a full sized image.


I think now, with some confidence I can say that my Mazda is mended. Just have to adjust my top a bit as it's sitting funny in the corners, and a few more little bits and bobs.

That looks stunning and the seats are gorgeous, I have mk2 seats in mine but but love to go back to the mk1 with leather and speakers. Must keep my eye out but they are always so expensive.

Seats finally wired up thanks to the extra bit of harness that Andrew from Autolink sent over. Turns out the seats are from a MSSS (Mazda Sensory Sound System) spec car. This means i have pioneer speakers in the headrests and bass shakers in the back of my seats. Considering my old speakers were very past their prime this has made a HUGE improvement to sound quality and i must admit, the bass shakers actually do their job well.

In the same day I also removed the rear of my soft top as it just wasn't sitting right. Inner carpet off, removed the 3 metal trim strips and upon first inspection it would seem everything was in the right place,.... refit everything but it didn't look right. There was a crease in the base of top. Removed it all again and this time I pulled the top off the mounting bolts. Turns out the inner liner sat on the bolts but the outer liner was not on so the crease was forming. Quickly slipped them on, checked the rain rail and then refit everything a 2nd time. Now I'm no stranger around tools but it still took over an hour or so and some serious contorting to get the nuts on the car as I have a rollcage on there as well. Was worth it though as the top is nice and snug now.

Now i need to address the headlining on my hardtop as well as replace the washer jets on the bonnet and i'll be ready for UK driving (that said, this car should never see a puddle again)

Yolo, the seats have made ALL the difference to driving comfort, that said, even after 2 treatments the leather is begging for more as they must have been sitting around for some time. Now if I can only stop the damn dash top from rattling without removing the whole thing,...

Hardtop Lining

since my last post in November I was hoping I'd be spending less time on the 5 but as we all know, that's just wishful thinking. I joined the FB group for Mm as well so I almost never found time to update here.

winter had arrived and it was time for the hardtop to go back on. Unfortunately since I last had my hardtop on it would seem the headlining decided to make a run for it and was sagging so far that it would rest on your head, another DIY!


it was a simple job of peeling it all back,


spraying on some upholstery glue, lining it all up and sticking it all back down again


the following morning it was all dry and I fit the top back on


job done! time to take her for a nice long drive before the weather turned ugly.

Thermostat Housing

a few weeks went buy and I realized that the Eunos lived in a garage and I had made up my mind to never drive her in the rain again (rut is scary and expensive) so I found myself wondering why I had a hardtop on a lovely roadster,.. time to sell it. had it up for sale, 2 interested buyers, first one who saw it bought it as it really was in great condition. However, the buyer noticed a bit of fluid in my driveway when our cars were moved and apologised for making a mess of my lovely tarmac. I told him not to worry and sent him on his merry way. sadly the "fluid" wasn't oil from his car it turned out to be green coolant from my Eunos!

she had sprung a leak! upon closer inspection I found part of the pipe coming out of the thermostat housing had cracked (what I now know is a common fault)


immediately got on to Wayne & Shaun about suggestions before I placed an order to Autolink for bits. Wayne suggested to swap the thermostat housing along with a new O-Ring and gasket & Shaun walked me through an in-situ alternative. as I had time I decided to roll up my sleeves and give Waynes idea a go, afterall I refused so far to compromise on this car, why start now? got on the horn to a few friends in the 5 community for a housing and the legendary Haris Von Den Kreigshammer came up aces. he had a solid housing available was a few miles away and it was a great time to say my farewells too. it was a bit crusty when I got it but with 20 minutes of elbow grease I got it clean and ready to go.


though the inside of the pipe may have started to appear clean, we must never forget to clean all remains of the old O-ring out or this residue (only a few microns thick) can/will lead to sealing issues.


as always Andrew (Autolink) delivered the goods expeditiously


and they always fit a treat


I spoke to my mechanic and was told the thermostat in my car was good so should not replace it at this time (it's an easy job to do later too)


one final check and it was time to reassemble the bits. the O-ring sat perfectly (just proud of the face) and the thermostat gasket (not pictured) went in a treat too. no need for any dollops of any "helpers" this time.

(mods please feel free to combine my multiple posts, I'm breaking them into parts just so I don't make too many mistakes, thanks)

Valve/Cam Timing

Taking the valve cover & cam cover off was the easy part. locking the cams in place was done with some hand tolls and zip-ties as I didn't have the correct tools with me at the time (they are a few 1000 miles away). Now you'd think that someone who has been building cars (and engines) since he was 16 would know better but I was in a pinch. you can see in the pic that everything seems well tied up and shouldn't move,... right?


Pulleys off, shield off & out came the old thermostat housing


So far so good, everything has been smooth sailing so far. Time to put it all back together. Obviously we should double check all out work, but it was very late at night and I did the one thing I hate doing, I rushed. took a few more pics while I put it all back together and hoped I hadn't made any mistakes while in my sleepy state. (take a good look at the pic,.... the engine was at TDC when I took it. thank GOD it's a non-interference engine)


A couple of cranks later she started, idled ok (smokey startup), but when I tried to drive her she was having non of it! barely making 2 horsepower I didn't make it out the gate. Again on the phone to Shaun and on FB with the Mm gurus,... they spotted my mistake. time to do it again!!

This time I did the right thing to locate TDC (There is a big T marked on the guide next to the crank pulley). next I found the E & I markings on the cam pulleys and lined them up with the markings on the belt shield behind them. this in turn brought the two white marks on the pulleys to the top and there should be exactly 19 ridge between them.


While I was at it, I gave the sensor a quick wipe too.


Everything back together and she was running better than ever. No slight hesitation, revved to the top much easier, sounded slightly better and in a much better overall mood. Feel free to mock, but I had my 5 back!

Brakes

A few months back (before I sent her to the MX5 Restorer), I found that the front left brakes made a hell of a noise if I drove her any distance. the problem would vanish as soon as I touched the brake pedal though. this lead me to believe the caliper was at fault. it was suggested to change the caliper and not bother with a rebuild, so I went for it. Now I should point out that the car was NOT thoroughly tested & checked before it came back from there but it would have made sense that changing a caliper would resolve the issue.

Not the case this time as it was completely missed that the fault was with the disc and not the caliper. The front left disc was warped. it took 10 seconds with the wheel off to find that fault, but rather than adding yet another thing to the list of things which should have been spotted by a professional service, I once again went about rectifying it. nipped down to my local Tyre Centre, asked for a new set of discs (stock/OEM) and a quick once over of my brakes. within 45 minutes the car was on the ramp, parts off, new Delphi discs on the car and ready for the pads to go back on,... but with this car it's never this simple. One of the anti-rattle shims was missing. had to rebuild the brakes as they were for now, while I got on the Mm FB page and then on the phone to Andrew (Autolink) again asking if he could source me a set.


2 days later a package arrived from Autolink,... Andrew had sent me a set of shims FREE OF COST! I was floored, that's just beyond awesome of him and this probably explains why Wayne always suggests Autolink. It's clearly not just a business, they are enthusiast helping each other out, still get a little choked up when I think that in this day and age, a man I've never met, went out of his way to help me like that. I will have to have a drink with him one day.

Back to the Tyre Centre, quick rebuild with the new shim in place and I'm a happy bunny. The Delphi discs and MIntex pads seem to work quite well with each other as the brakes really do their job quite well (yes I took my time to correctly bed them in this time). No faults except a few drops of green coolant on the garage floor again,.... which were luckily down to a loose clamp on the lower radiator hose (added a 2nd like I did at the top and the problems solved.

Centre Console

Many months ago I bought a 2nd Centre console and tombstone as I was VERY tempted to have it "dipped" (Hydrographic Transfer) with some carbon fibre to recreate some of the charm from my GT3s interior. The nearest company I could find was called Unit 24 who were based in/around Camberley in Surrey. By the time I pulled my finger out, sourced all my parts and given them a call it wold transpire that they had ceased trading. The Gentleman on the phone (Jason) said that he still did paint and that he could arrange for the dipping to be done and he could still do the finishing (clearcoat) for me.

I must admit, finding their location using my mobile app was useless and having a courtesy car without navigation was beyond frustrating! that said, when I eventually made it there I was greeted by a Porsche 356, a Ferrari Daytona coupe and a few more toys. Turns out Jason used to work in the paintshop at McLaren UK and even helped mix up the batch of paint whos shade made it on to my Eunos,.... small world! brimming with confidence, I deposited my parts with him and he said he'd email me a few samples to choose from. by now I trusted his judgement as he clearly know what he was doing....

A few days & email exchanges later everything was decided. then the waiting game. eventually I was called to collect the parts, and boy was I in for a surprise. The work was better than I expected and the clearcoat was absolutely mental as he had mixed in the slightest tinge of red flake, this made it look so much better than boring grey carbon. I would highly recommend Jason to anyone in the Southeast (with Waynes permission obviously). I got to see some new colour samples for the 2016 mclarens too, the new red they are working on is MENTAL!! (but that is all I am allowed to say)

Here are the results (pics do not do it justice), the interior is a much more interesting place to be. now for new handbrake and gear gaiters.

great pics....love what you are doing with her.... keep it up.

Following on if Waynes posts on FB, I saw a little something I just had to have on my 5. A clear plexiglass cover over my numberplate. Wayne told me where to find one and it was ordered immediately. Fit it today, suits the car perfectly.



Flea, thanks bud. Means a lot coming from you. I've fallen in love with this car.

M-m

Man I love that number plate... WTF......

I had posted a HUGE update from my phone an hour ago but it's not here now. Hmmmm. Long story short, traded some seats for for some pukka door cards. Decided to make new ones so i could delete the L-shaped door handles. Here's how it went (started with hand tools, ended up buying a jigsaw). Managed to transfer the foam piece, sticker & support (cleaned & zinc coated). Now awaiting my lovely JASS door handles from Autolink (love the MM discount, cheers Wayne) http://www.autolinkmx5.com/door-pull-se ... 8143-p.asp

M-m