My '91 V-Special

[Pendric Lumpybeard]

As I promised on my intro thread, a few quick pictures of my new toy .







Not really had chance to do much to it yet - though the very first job I did within 10 mins of getting it home was to get rid of the horrible 1970's / 80's style vinyl steering wheel cover, complete with that very sharp plastic twine they come with to tie them on. I had no idea you could still even get such things.

from this:



to this:



Much better - I was expecting it to be pretty shot as they'd covered it up with something that nasty as an improvement, but maybe they just didn't like wood wheels!

I treated the car to a Nardi gearknob from Driftworks ( way cheaper than I saw a new one go for on eBay, and not much more than a 2nd hand one I was offered) and as you can see in the main pictures a few bits of chrome interior bling. Just because, really.




You can also see it has a cheapie stereo and presumably the original still fitted. The stereo is mad an doesn't tune properly, I'm wondering if there is a frequency extender from the old one still in circuit. One for the job list. The previous owner has also stuck some teardrops straight over the top of the standard speaker covers on the non teardrop door cards, which I don't like too much:



Still, found myself a good set of later doorcards on eBay (the type with door pockets) - as I want to fit strap handles anyway, that will be good. Can change the speakers while I'm at it as they are shot too.

Well, that's my starter for ten. A large box of service bits turned up from Autolink today, plugs, leads etc. - so this weekend is change the fluids and really have a good poke around time I think. Time to see if I'll make a proper mazda mender one day!

[flea]

[DavesBRG5]

Lovely looking car! Same as my first one.

I got my strap handles from this guy on MX5Nutz. Look a lot better than the standard handles in my opinion & also gives you more leg room.

http://www.mx5nutz.com/forum/index.php? ... 117458&hl=

[Pendric Lumpybeard]

Thanks Dave - those are just the ticket.

I had seen some gorgeous Nakamae ones, but the price was eye watering...

[Mazda Mender]

Nice to see that she still as the OE stuff still on, gear knob for one
M-m

[Pendric Lumpybeard]

OK, quick update with what I've been up to with the car over the last few days.

Got myself some proper V-Spec mats on fleabay, very nice happy with that.

Tried my first bout of Mazda mending:

Changed plugs and leads
Changed oil and filter, after putting some engine flush in, came out nice and black. That filter is a right pain to get to, I should have thinner arms I think. It was on good and tight too, would have never got it off (not even with excessive swearing) without one of those 3 legged filter wrenches, well worth the investment. Went for 10w/40 Mobil super 2000 from the local factors and a genuine Mazda filter, probably well worth the few extra quid. Hopefully it should be easier to get off next time!

Cleaned the K&N filter that is fitted and re-oiled that.

Changed the brake fluid - wasn't as dirty as feared, when I got the wheels off there was evidence of fairly recent looking brake work, newish pads etc. and one replacement calliper on the rear so I guess it must have been changed reasonably recently.

The clutch fluid was a different story when I changed that, quite dark brown and a fair amount of sediment - I think that must have been in there quite some time! I flushed lots of fresh fluid through the system until it was consistently coming out clear. No sign of any leaks from the slave cylinder which is nice .

I then fitted the flash to pass mod, nice and quick and satisfying to do.

Then it was on to replacing the gear shift upper and lower boots which were totally shot when I got a look at them - that was my first bit of diagnostics with the car when I drove it home after collecting it, thanks to the heat and noise coming up from there
Replaced the nylon bush on the shift lever and i would have drained the turret oil, but there pretty much wasn't any - it had all made its escape already! So refilled that and put it all back together, cutting some insulation material to match what from pictures should have been there (and wasn't).

Checked the diff oil level, clean looking oil trickled out when I took the filler plug out, so I've left that for now. Didn't get chance to check the gearbox oil, hadn't really got it high enough to get comfortably to it.

A quick test drive showed that it feels much better now, so much quieter in the cabin and smoother. The shift has improved too, not so notchy.

The underside, sills and chassis rails all looked rust free and solid after a bit of a poke about, some surface rust on the wishbones etc, so I think a good clean up, paint / Dinitrol session is called for underneath before the winter and salt properly arrives.

Bushes looked OK to my inexpert eye, all steering / drive shaft / boots / gaiters OK, no signs of cracking / splitting. One rear spring was pretty rusty, the other one slightly less so - this was an advisory on the MOT so I guess will need doing for next year. I'll have to start a thread asking for what to look for / how to check the suspension components over.

So, overall pretty happy with the state of affairs - pleased with my efforts. New tyres this week I think, we'll see what difference they make. I have a sneaking suspicion the ones on it may have flat spots as the car only did 170 miles or so last year and then under 15 miles in the 5 years before that, so it will have been sat on the for some time.

I've got a huge job list for it now, next up I think sorting the shot speakers. Got some cheapo Maplin ones for the headrests, may get their matching ones for the doors, not sure yet. Also need to change / flush the cooling system before it starts getting cold.

Wow that turned into a bit of an essay

Still got my Mazda Menders training wheels / armband floats on, but I've made a start

[DavesBRG5]

Good work

And you can rest assured all was done well as you did it yourself

[Mazda Mender]

Get in there
M-m

[Pendric Lumpybeard]

Well, not done a huge amount this weekend, but I have managed to:

Change the door speakers - cheapo Maplins ones that will do for now, replacing the nice but blown infinity ones in there already.

Fitted some nice chrome washer jets off fleabay, just a bit retro looking. Just because I liked the look of them, really.

Replaced the reflectors with used clear ones from autolink and the Mazda nosecone badge with a Lotus-a-like Eunos one again from Autolink (again beacuse I like them )

Replaced the side repeaters with clear ones 'cos I like that look generally.

Washed it and attacked the paintwork with Farecla G3 Scratch remover, paint renovator and superwax (the consumer stuff, not the pro!) and it came out nice and shiny, but really could do with a mop, there's a lot of swirls in the paintwork, and some bits do look a little shotblasted with stone chips, so I'll have to have a go at them.







Other than that, drove it in this lovely October sunshine we've been having

Not quite sure what next, maybe the headrest speakers though I think an engine bay clean might be a good idea soon:



Not too sure about the wheels (mostly as they're not Rota RBs ), but as I can't afford a change yet, maybe I'll give them a repaint. Anthracite? Or maybe actually a light silvery anthracite colour. Maybe

Weekends are fettling time now, the bug has taken hold

[Pendric Lumpybeard]

Another weekend of minor fettling, managed to get what seemed like 20 years of ingrained dirt off all the interior plastics and gave the seats a clean too, but they've definitely got some sort of (not very well applied) leather paint on them which is worn away in places. Looking up close at the other plastics and doors etc I can now see tiny spots of this paint on them so I guess they sprayed the seats in the car, Lovely.

Got a Gliptone leather renovation kit to attack them with, but I gather I'm going to have to use cellulose thinners to get the paint off the seats first before doing anything else. I'll report back on how it goes when I get round to it.

Only other thing I did was clear the hood drains - or in my car's case - internal compost bins

The carpets over the drains were damp / wet again today (but nowhere else) - does this happen from water running to the drains? It really is just the little bit of carpet directly over the drain tray that seems to be wet.

Edit: oh yes, changed the head rest speakers for some cheap Maplins 4in ones, now I can haz bangin choons! ( you should see the look of pity mixed with sheer horror on my teenage sons face right now..)

[Mazda Mender]

M-m

[Pendric Lumpybeard]

Had a bit of 'fun' with one of my hood drains - carpet still seemed to be a bit wet on the drivers side in all this rain so I thought I'd rod it through again, reasoning that last time I did it i might have just cleared a channel and that had since blocked again. Pushed my cable down, it seemed to get stuck, ah ha, the block I thought, so I pushed harder, and it suddenly gave. Only, it didn't - it was the drain tube popping off the connector and dropping out the bottom of the car.. Oh. deep joy I thought having read that it is a nasty job to get them back on again.

It was.

But still I thought I'd give it a proper clean out and flush through as it was off and I am glad I did, because even off the car it seemed not to want to unblock - eventually attacked it with a piece of bamboo and look what I found:



No wonder it wouldn't clear properly and popped off when I gave it a bit of welly - one ancient AA battery well and truly wedged in there. Still, its properly clear now. I managed to get it back on after best part of an hour lying on the wet ground teaching the neighbours cat some quality anglo-saxon If anyone else has to do it, the technique that worked for me was to feed some wire through from the top out the bottom, then feed some plastic tubing just a bit narrower than the drain tube down the wire and out the bottom, then fed the drain tube back up that, having softened it first in hot water and put washing up liquid on the top end to help it slide back on, which it did, confirmed by sticking a finger down the drain hole. The wide tubing really did the trick, I'd tried with the wire alone and I'm guessing it just was not hitting the right spot to go back on.

Still, properly sorted and hopefully no more wet as a result

I also went round with the spray grease on hinges, bonnet catch etc., lubricated the windows channels and fixed my intermittent interior lights - the drivers door switch had corrosion on it as did the switch on the drivers footwell light itself. Bit of wet and dry and all working perfectly now. I love little jobs like that - they cost nothing but time, but make an appreciable difference to the car day-to-day. Satisfying.

The Roadster fettling bug has really taken hold now

[DavesBRG5]

Job well done by the sound of it

[Mazda Mender]

You would be amazed what i found in them and where, and the cuting of corners and dodgy bodgies
Refitting those tubes is a pain, but by the look of it, it needed to come out,can not beat a bit of fettling
M-m

[Pendric Lumpybeard]

I decided a while back to tackle the leather seats in my V-special, to try and get them looking a bit better. They were grubby and had obviously had some sort of leather paint on them at some point but it was partially worn off now and the drivers seat had cracking and splits and wear on the side bolster in the usual spot.

I got my self a furniture clinic leather repair kit with leather filler, glue, scalpel etc to tackle the cracks and splits and a Gliptone Scuffmaster kit to condition / recolour them. Its taken a few days work off and on, but I'm pleased with the results for the total of about £80 spent.

These are the seats as they came out of the car showing the general condition:




They first had to be attacked with cellulose thinners to clean off all the old leather paint, followed by cleaning with the Gliptone cleaner. Then followed rubbing in Gliptone leather conditioner several times over a period of 2-3 days to try and soften the hard / biscuity leather, leaving it to soak in over a good few hours. It really did soften them, they feel much softer and have that leather squeak back now.

Then it was a case of filling the cracks etc. with the Furniture Clinic leather filler - this apparently stays flexible so shouldn't crack / fall out - gently sanding it with fine wet and dry after (in the kit). I tried to fill the big hole with the filler but decided after painting it to actually cut the damage out and stick a small a new leather patch in, and fill round it to blend in. Think it is less noticeable that way, the old leather kind of bulged at the edges where the filler was.




Then it was a case of putting the thinned dye on - I used a brush to start with, then finished with my airbrush and compressor to put the final coats on, about 4 / 5 in total I think.
Very happy with the results



and back in the car:




Well chuffed with that.
I took the opportunity to give the carpets a good clean while the seats were out too, and my hood drain cleaning last week seems to have paid off as despite all the rain, its dry as a bone in the car.