The build has begun!

[mathew]

Well i say build its more the stripping. After a long awaited weekend off i got down to business today armed with a socket set, assorted screw drivers, an mx5 guid book and most importantly.......a hammer!

With myself having minimal mechanical knowledge I think i under estimated the whole process of stripping the car as it was certainly a lot more work than i was expecting. The wheels took a good hour to get off due to the nuts being as tight as a gnats a*se and in turn killed 2 ratchets and rounded the old wheel nut spanner but i got there in the end.

As for the others the biggest surprise was the weight of the soft top! The hard dog roll bar that was fitted was another ball ache getting off and the bumpers ended up being ripped off in frustration so they will defo not be going on ebay ;D

All in all it hasnt been too bad a day. Ive still got both doors to dismantle and take off, the dash to complete stripping, all the electrics and numerous shell to chassis holding bolts along with a few other things. Only problem now is that ive got to wait another 2 weeks to before im back and able to continue with it

[bigjeff]

Hi Mathew - welcome to our world!!
Ive just finished the stripping and cleaning phase (new cam belt and water pump to fit tomorrow) my "top tip" would be to buy a 1M breaker bar - worth its weight in gold!
Good luck
Jeff

[PardonWhat]

Tell me, where would be the best place to by a 1M breaker bar from. Would buying online be really expensive to post coz of the weight?

Good luck with the build, I'm on the hunt for a donor right now so I'm a few weeks behind you.

Good luck.

[Deleted]

Breaker bars aren't too expensive from local diy stores, or even screwfix. Worth getting a decent one as they get very well used and abused!
Good luck on the builds chaps, body shells coming off the second donor tomorrow!

[samuelt]

I bought a 750mm one of Ebay and it has now been used to break 2 MX5's and not given me any trouble.

[tom]

I saw some very reasonably priced breaker bars in the Screwfix sale

[mathew]

Update time!

Second weekend working on the MX5 and everything is now stripped out of the car and the body is ready to lift off. Im planning on doing this in 2 weeks time when i have another weekend off.

There's one problem with this and that is room. My garage is fine to work in but im going to require more room for the hoist etc. I was considering rolling the car out into the lane that my garage backs onto to but the problem with this is that many use it each day to get to their garages. One side of me is saying stuff them for a few hours and the other side is thinking to come up with an alternative.

Sooooo here is my alternative.......take a 9inch angle grinder to the thing and cut it into managable chunks. This will also make it easier to get it to the scrappy. Has anyone done it this way or are there any obvious reasons that ive missed that will prevent me from doing it this way?

[Andy]

Hi the noise the sparks and risk of fire for 1st I did it that way with my focus so I could get it in my van we gave up with the grinder and used a rip saw with sum good blades can hire them for a weekend or I did read sum1 jacked the font up and pulled it out then the rear

[mathew]

I was just looking at that method on Alex's thread. Still seems like a lot of room is required though.
The recip saw is a good shout, i bought the angle grinder a while ago and havent used it yet so just wanted to put that to use but you make a good point regarding the noise and sparks etc.

[lukiez]

i cut down the whole length of the car, probably not the easyest way but it fitted into the hired van (morning after picking up the kit ) and took it to the scrap place before giving back the van.

its heavy but 2 people can carry a half.

[red5]

Get the scrappy to park in the rear lane and lift the chassis off and onto the back of his truck with his crane to take away?
No more than an hour
just a thought