Vindi Roadsters

[vindi49]

Bit of progress of sorts ... I sold a couple of other projects off so I can concentrate on this car. Was having a bit of a look around on Ebay and at last a Bride TTM-C has popped up, so I grabbed it. It's the same as my drivers seat but in nicer condition, so I'll have a matching pair now. Also been gradually ordering bits for the turbo build ... downpipe, intercooler, injectors are all here or on the way so I can start mocking it up and working on where the IC pipes will go etc.

I also just bought an old Civic EF to mess about in so at least I have something to drive while this project takes shape. Problem is I've already bought a load of go faster bits for it and am pricing up a B series engine swap ... so much for a cheap run around!

Russell.

[vindi49]

Right, got a turbo elbow and downpipe, got some bigger injectors (650cc EV14s), Megasquirt already fitted, got a boost solenoid through the post yesterday. I ordered some Inconel bits from Trackspeed at the weekend, and just won a Trust intercooler on ebay last night. My wallet is bleeding but surely I must be close!!!


Russell.

[vindi49]

Oh and a friend of mine is building a removeable fastback top ... Version 1 should be at a local meet tomorrow night so if I'm allowed I'll post some pics. It's only a prototype and I've given some feedback on where it needs to be improved, but fingers crossed I'll have a customised version that will be less practical but more aerodynamic.

Russell.

[vindi49]

My green car has been put slightly on the backburner ... still haven't managed to find any nice suspension to replace my broken stuff, and I decided I was chucking too much money at the turbo build so sold it all off .. gutting in some ways, but the spare cash enabled me to buy this ...

Bit too low, you can see where it's caught the wing so I'll raise it up to a more sensible height


Wheels are quite nice, steel and 14"


Interesting rear bumper, had thought it was a standard one someone had customised, but looks like it's aftermarket and came as a kit with the smoothed rear panel.


Nice enough door cards


Bit of wiring to tidy ...


bit of paint to tidy too ...


Rust coming through, to be investigated but should scrape through an MOT as is.



All in all it's not bad, few things to sort but I can do it while I'm waiting for the last of the parts for the green car to arrive.

To do ...
Raise suspension height
Fit new petrol tank (current one has a hole)
Fix proper rear number plate lights
Fit seats
Put in for MOT

Russell.

[vindi49]

So I got stuck straight in ... started by jacking the car up and spraying every bolt in sight with some oil ... not sure what I will need to undo or when so want to give myself a fighting chance!



The nice thing is, the view from underneath is fine. There's surface rust on the wishbones and various other places, but for a 25 year old car it looks really good!!

Got the exhaust removed and started working my way through the list ready to drop the subframe out



As it stands, the wiring and brake pipes are now dangling free of the car, all of the bolts have been undone and the PPF bolts have been removed at the front. The pipes and wires have all been taken off the tank, so tomorrow or Saturday I just need to put a jack under the diff and loosen the subframe bolts the rest of the way and lower the whole assembly out of the car.

According to the internet, there will then be enough space to take the petrol tank out and put the new one in ... the internet has been known to be wrong though, so we'll see!

Russell.

[vindi49]

this wasn't for the sun!!


everything undone, ready to lower away ... nervous, me?


see, no problem!


just had to get the trolley jack out of the way and there was just enough space to get the old petrol tank out.

So here they are ... one with a hole, and one without ... kindly donated by Firebucket (rob)


and up again ...


and all attached ...


Only one of the PPF bolts wouldn't attach ... I put most of the rest of it back together again and put a plea out on Facebook and on here ... from what I could tell the nuts on top of the PPF were attached together on a plate that was somehow attached to the PPF. It had got bent somehow (me being ham fisted probably) and only one PPF bolt would go back in. The problem was that I couldn't actually see the plate or get any tools to it, so I was doing everything by feel

I was hoping for someone to say, "Yes that's easy to sort, just do X, Y, Z ..." but no responses came back ... mainly because there wasn't a short cut. I managed to find a picture of the plate on top, and it was indeed riveted on to the PPF, so no way to remove it apart from removing the PPF.

The offending plate ...


ooops, a bit bent! I clamped it down and took out some of yesterdays frustration on it with a big hammer.

That's a bit better ... test fit of the PPF bolts, tick


So then it was back on with the PPF, back in with the speedo drive, wiring clipped back in place, all of the PPF bolts attached on (big tick!!) ... and then snag number two ... just need to work out how to retrieve these ... sigh ...


Russell

[vindi49]

Accidentally bought another set of wheels ... so once I've had a think one of the sets will be up for sale!

These are the ones I picked up on Saturday


SSR Type C, 16 x 6.5 with Federal RS-R tyres ... nice and light but will probably sell them as one of the other sets I've just bought are 15s, so as this car is more about daily use and cheapness, the ability to fit 195/50/15 tyres are an advantage!

And another parcel arrived ... can you tell what it is yet?


Ut oh ... hope it isn't too loud!!


Car failed the MOT test, but all it needs is a brake caliper and a steering rack boot. Really pleased as that means the engine and chassis are ok. So a bit of work to do but nothing too bad ... shame I don't have any time to do it!

New wheels (set 3 for the car ...) should arrive on Friday and I've found a nicer steering wheel so the car is improving all the time. The short drive didn't reveal much apart from how loud the exhaust is, and a bit of a squeak from the power steering.

Russell

[vindi49]

Feeling frustrated!! I'm trying my best to get this car sorted and road legal ready for the meet on wednesday, but it doesn't quite seem to be coming together!

The nearside rear brake caliper seems to be seized ... no big deal, new calipers are easy enough to find so I found one via ebay ... managed to find an MX5 breakers where I could actually phone up and do the deal direct, so at least I know that a) they actually have the item, and b) they are aware of my timescales and were happy to post it out straight away.

All seemed to be going well, I had spoken to them last night and they said they'd put an ad up on ebay for me straight away with the option for 24 hour delivery. They texted me the ebay ad number, and it was correct so I hit buy it now. Even got a message off them this morning to confirm they had posted the caliper out.

So about 2 hours ago I got another text saying sorry, they had posted a front caliper by accident ... and because they are racing this weekend they can't post the rear one until Tuesday ... which is too late for me. To be fair they've been really good about it, apologising and refunding me all the money, and saying I can keep the front caliper as a freebie by way of apology.

So on the one hand their communication has been great and it's just an honest mistake that anyone could make ... but on the other hand, AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!

So I started to try to recondition the caliper that's on there myself ... it's pot luck, sometimes they can be freed off and you can just polish the sliders a bit, regrease them and reassemble them. And other times it's like mine. The first slider came out ok (they usually do, they have been removed whenever the brake pads are being changed). The second slider is frozen in place, you can hinge it up and down a bit but no way is it sliding off the caliper. I resorted to clamping the carrier in a vice and smacking the caliper with a large hammer, but all I've managed to do is rip the vice off the bench.

So now I still don't have a working caliper, and I need a new bench. And I've just remembered that I still need a new steering rack gaiter which I forgot to order last night. Sigh.

Luckily on Friday morning a delivery arrived that made me smile


Set 3 which I think I'll keep ... so just got to sell the steels and the SSRs. So at this point I'm hoping a trip over to Junkyard Dog (local MX5 breakers yard) tomorrow morning will get me all the parts I need ... the only problem left is me having no time to fit them as I'm back at work from Monday and I want to go to the local MX5 meet on Wednesday night!!

Russell.

[vindi49]

Just spotted that I hadn't updated this for a bit ... so here goes.

The grey car did make it through the MOT in the end, and I've already covered about 3500 miles in the last month. 2200 miles of that was a bit of a road trip with some old friends ... starting in the Midlands where I live, driving down to Devon to meet up with everyone else, then on down to Lands End .... then the big one, all the way up to John O Groats without going on any motorways ... which was about 1400 miles the route we took, managing to take in all the best mountain passes in the Brecons, Snowdonia and the Lake District. Spent the night in the car somewhere on a Scottish mountain, then back home to the Midlands.

Amazingly the car didn't miss a beat, not bad for a £300 car ... I think it's earned a service!

The green car struggles on ... I have now got it in the garage, up high on axle stands to really sort it out properly. The front suspension is shot, but I have a new set ready to go on. The wishbones are a mess of surface rust and peeling powder coat as well, and the subframes don't look good either, so I think I'm looking at a full strip down, clean up and rebuild. While I'm there I might as well fit the 6 speed box I bought a while back, and I've got a new LSD from Ashcroft Transmissions to replace the open diff that's been temporarily sat there. I may as well properly fit the new front brakes I've got and I managed to get a Maruha manifold recently, so that can go on at the same time ... that's not a small list unfortunately!!

Russell.

[vindi49]

Parts are beginning to come in from my spending spree on Yahoo.jp ...

Can you tell what it is yet?


I had bought these in the hope they were Tein as they had been painted blue and the ad didn't say what they were, apart from "adjustable"
Turned out ok though


The rose bushed top mounts weren't mentioned in the ad!

A few days after buying them for the Green car, I spotted these ...



Maruha!! Not wanting to pass up the opportunity I grabbed them (there is 4, not just the 2 pictured and they are absolutely mint), then found out the same guy was selling this ...



Also Maruha, and also absolutely mint!! I doubt it will offer me anything over the Fujitsubo I have fitted at the moment, but if anything will I guess it'd be this one.

Also got this




I already have one in the green car, but when I spotted it I couldn't let it go so it'll go in the grey car once I've fitted a hood that doesn't have holes in!

So I have a busy few weeks ahead of me, which will include stripping all the running gear off the car and regreasing the polybushes, repainting the wishbones and replacing the front subframe for Mk2

I also have to work out what to do with the Tein shocks ... I ought to sell them, but I'm tempted to put them on the grey car and sell the Vmaxx

Russell.

[vindi49]

Forgot to catch up with the grey car as well ... Managed to pick up a front lip spoiler cheap, so chucked it on ... balances the car nicely


I then made it to Shelsley Walsh Hillclimb for a breakfast Club. It's the oldest running Motorsport venue in the world, and has a really good, varied turnout every month. Few pics I took

Few guys from my local club, I'm the 3rd car in?


My son wanted to run all the way to the top ... I caught up with him eventually


Few cars we spotted ...




Reubens favourite, still in regular use





I also managed to get some tyres for the Enkei Compe, so here it is with the new boots on



Which is how it will stay for a bit I think, need to stop buying stuff!

Russell.

[vindi49]

Bit of a sad post, but I'm getting rid of the MX5. A few reasons but I've just lost all enthusiasm in it. I've got another project in mind but it won't be an MX5 ... saying that I'm sure I'll be back at some point!

Russell

[— Grip Driver —]

That's too bad Make sure to post the new project here too, I always like to see what else folks are working on.

[vindi49]

That's too bad Make sure to post the new project here too, I always like to see what else folks are working on.

Cheers, I'm keeping quiet for the moment as it's a huge project ... there's a decent chance it won't come off at all so I don't want to jump the gun. If it works I'll start updating on here again ... it's too cool to keep quiet for long!!

I've sold the grey MX5 and my Mk2, and the green MX5 is now being stripped ... sad to do it but it's worth about triple in parts what I'd get for it as a complete car. The garage is being cleared as well so for the first time since about 2008 I'll have nothing MX5 related at all!

I've got an MG Midget I'll use as a fun car for a bit, and if I've done my sums right (unlikely!) I'll be buying a base car in about 2 years time.

Russell.

[— Madaboutmx5s —]

Shame mate. As mentioned already I think you should at least keep the green one as a runner so you have a mx5 to enjoy. From my experience I've sold some of my roadsters along the way and been lucky to buy one back (corns) and thanks to you been able to build another (pitcrew). Hindsight is a wonderful thing but unless you really have to that's why I'd keep then green one.