NJ's Basingstoke Build (UK)

[NJ.]

Hi Everyone,

My names Nick and I've recently taken the plunge and purchased a MK2 '98 1.8iS to use as a donor for the Exocet. 

I'd been browsing the forums and looking at other peoples builds for the last year or so and after spending the last two months getting the garage ready, I was finally in a position to buy the donor.

I'm super excited to be starting work on the build and if my car resembles some of the awesome builds I've seen on here when I'm finished I will be very pleased...

So, with that said here are some photos of the garage prep and donor car.

Picture of the garage when we moved in.










I tiled the floor and painted the walls, plus installed a new light.
I'm a little worried about chipping the floor when dropping tools etc but I'll see how it goes, so far so good...

 

[NJ.]

So this is the donor car, it's a '98 1.8iS that has covered 130K miles.
I picked it up last weekend for £400 which I thought was a pretty good price considering it has a fairly new roof (2014) that should get good money and also because I think this model should have the type 2 torsen diff.





When I bought the car it was running on 3 cylinders due to flooded spark plugs from a leaking cam cover gasket.
Since getting it home I've also noticed that there is a big oil leak at the front of the engine and some damage to a component around the water pump area (possibly one of the mid cam covers I think).  I'm not too sure how this happened or what exactly has broken as there is loads of oil in the area but figure I can take a closer look when the engines out.  


Oil Leak 

So last week my dad popped round to help remove the doors, (thanks) and I've now got the car in the garage and started stripping it down.
Working in a single garage is fun, there's not enough room to store all the bits you remove....



I'm planning to strip down the doors in the week for selling, and will hopefully get some more of the interior removed.

[jgilbert]

Welcome to the forum, take lots of photos (for your and everybody else's benefit). Strip down is fun. Very nice garage.

[zeitgeist]

Great looking donor and i like the tile floor garage. I'm always surprised at how much gets done in some of these ultra tiny UK garages. That space is about 8' narrower than my last garage which I thought was tight. Good luck with the build. Hopefully your oil leak is something minor.

[gwnwar]

Loosen he front and rear center axle nuts they are staked in place. Do this while you still have brakes to hold the wheel from turning.. I would get some large cardboard boxes to cut up for the floor. Holds oil and not as cold to lay on as tile..
These might be of help..

wiring for a'99 should be close to yours..

www.mellens.net/mazda/mazda_miata_extra_manual/1999_wiring.pdf
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service manual..

www.mellens.net/mazda/Mazda-Miata-1999-2001.pdf

[trident]

Nick, welcome and nice to see another Hampshire Exocet being built.

[pleurotus]

Just up the road from the ferry!
I am about as far through, though held up behind getting a garage that does not leak water!
Halfords have foam interlocking garage mats for £10, very comfy, provide a bit of insulation and wipe clean.

[NJ.]

Thanks for the welcome everyone and glad you like the garage.

Thanks for the links and advice gwnwar, I need to print out that wiring diagram document.…  I've put some cardboard in place to catch any stray oil but so far no leaks.  I’m happy to lay on the lovely smooth tiles - the four layers I’m wearing to stay warm seem comfy enough.

Trident, I've browsed through your build thread before but didn't realise you were so close.  I should have seen if you were about when I collected the donor from Eastleigh....

It seems from reading other people’s build threads that the initial strip down is largely left out, but I’m going to add photos of these initial stages - mostly so I can look back and reminisce. Apologies to the seasoned builders who may find this a little boring but I guess it might be useful/interesting to others.

So, I've been busy the last couple of days. Spent Monday continuing with the strip down of the dash with the aim of trying to uncover the loom. I’m starting to get fed up of cutting the tape and plastic wire retention things that seem to be everywhere on the loom. I managed to get the console out along with the steering rack and all the extra bits in the area.






I spent a bit of yesterday stripping down one of the doors after helping dad shift some plasterboard but forgot to take photos.
Today dad popped over to help put up some additional storage as I’m running out of room in my ‘Ultra tiny’ UK garage. (lol zeitgeist). It’s so sad but true. I’m always envious of the huge American double-garage-come-second-homes that you see on here. Having said that, I’m lucky to have a garage in the first place and I think whatever size garage you have you could always do with more space.

Creating extra storage space and promptly filling it.
 







After making some room by shifting the parts up to the eves, we removed the bonnet, soft top and carpet.

Carpet out..




The next job is to figure out how to remove the heater box in the centre front, along with the metal pipes in it, and then get to the point of poking the wires through the bulkhead.

[jgilbert]

Looks like your doing a good job in stripping her. Remember save all the nuts and bolts you remove many of them can be used again for the build. Rubber groments where the loom passes through the bulkheads (front and rear) can also be reused.

[NJ.]

Thanks jgilbert for the tip, I'm saving the nuts and bolts already but the tip on the grommets has probably stopped me cutting them off...


So, just a quick update although progress seems to be going slowly.


The other day I continued stripping the interior and got the heater box removed.


Today I managed to remove the front bumper and headlights and have poked the loom on the offside back through the bulkhead.

I think the car has an aftermarket alarm/immobilizer fitted though - has anyone seen one of these boxes with this siren?
My keys have a fob/remote (and I think central locking) which I assume is not standard?


Aftermarket Alarm? 


Siren 


Siren 2 

It's obviously wired back into the loom so I'll need to figure out if it's worth keeping, or cutting out.

Progress shots...


Left side loom removed


Bumper and headlights off 

[gwnwar]

For the alarm system Google "Toad Sterling One - Thatcham Category One Alarm System" lot of info there.
On eBay UK check number 290313827231 they are a UK dealer for the alarm system..
Hope you are putting some plywood squares under your jack stands and floor jack so you don't crack the tile..
Nice looking garage..

[NJ.]

Thanks again gwnwar for the info. I'll do a bit of digging and see if I can find some fitting instructions or similar and worry about it later when I get round to stripping the loom.  Good idea about the plywood - I'm using it for the jack but the axle stands are on bare tile at the moment.  I'm being careful not to position the feet on a joint line but figure it's a garage so I shouldn't have to worry too much. I have spare if I do manage to crack one. 

I got the idea for tiling the floor after seeing Jack Olsens 12-gaugegarage.

www.12-gaugegarage.com/

It's a sweet set up and he's got a very nice looking Porsche.   
He used cheapo tiles for the floor and has lifted loads of heavy items on it without any problems so far.
There's even a video of him thumping on the floor with a lump hammer....




So I'm hoping I won't have too many problems with the tiles based on the above.

So, back to the car. I managed to remove the n/s engine bay loom and after poking it back into the cabin the loom was packed away.  Following the guide, the throttle body, clutch master cylinder and pedals were also removed.


Looms removed from engine bay 


Loom packed away for later


Pedals and front of interior stripped

The next job is to continue stripping down the engine bay centre loom and brakes etc.
Which reminds me, I've seen people mention to depressurise the fuel lines which I obviously read too late and after I started taking the car apart.
I assume this just means fuel may spray everywhere when I disconnect the high pressure lines? 

[gwnwar]

It will spray just wrap a rag around hose to catch fuel.. if you still have fuel in tank put a bolt in hose and clamp it to stop leaks over night.. check you might have a drain plug on lower left forward corner of tank..

[welshy1]

Before removing the fuel lines take the fuel cap that will release most of the pressure, when you do remove the fuel lines a bit of fuel will come out from the pipes.

Oh and when you get the car stripped a good way and only tbh way to check if it has a lsd is remove the driveshafts and look inside the diff if you can see all the way through its a lsd if it has a bar going across its an open diff. The spin one wheel the other wheel will turn the same way method doesn't really work on mx5.

[NJ.]

So, update time.

I've not been able to do anything too drastic on the car as I've been on holiday for a couple of weeks at the beginning of the month. Also, most of the work hasn't been particularly exciting and there's little to show for it.
So, as a quick summary I've completed the following;

• Crack off hub nuts as per recommendation whilst I still have the brakes connected. (Required a 29mm for the front and 32mm for the rear as they are not the same size) The impact wrench was great for this and after a few seconds they broke free. Fronts were in perfect condition as the dust covers were on, but for some reason the rears were missing...
• Removed radiator
• Removed the brake master cylinder, lines where possible and ABS distributor.
• Removed engine bay components so the front is pretty much stripped.

Here's a photo of the engine bay as it stands.

Whilst working on the car I also started thinking about what to do for the suspension and sub-frames etc.
My car has 'Sport S' suspension according to the info label below. (sorry for the blur - low light phone pic)




But when looking at the suspension it appears to have normal-ish looking coils with double red dots on the front shocks and nothing visible on the rear.

Front


Rear

So I'm wondering if anyone could confirm if these shocks are anything special or what makes the 'Sport S' suspension different? Also they don't appear - at least to my untrained eye and without removing the dust covers - to be in that bad condition so I'll probably aim to reuse them after a quick clean up.

I've already decided to powder coat the sub-frames, so the bushes will need to come out.
As the cars done 130k miles I'm assuming they could probably do with replacing anyways and so I managed to order a complete set of SuperPro bushes from Moss Europe whilst they were on sale.

www.moss-europe.co.uk/superpro-complete-car-bush-kit-polyurethane-mxv8165.html/ 

They look like the bees knees of PU bushes with the fancy hatching to retain grease and chamfered bearing faces. Hopefully they won't squeak after 6 months or so. I think the kit is for a Mk1 though so some of the ARB and Drop link bushes might not fit but I can probably sell those later. (let me know if interested)
 
I've also spent a few evenings getting the parts on eBay and in fact had a milestone today as I sold the first item! This car will be paying for itself in no time.   

I'm borrowing an engine hoist from a colleague at work tomorrow, with the aim to possibly remove the body over the weekend. Might not happen though as still have a few things to remove (Fuel tank pipes, handbrake, stuck front brake lines - I've rounded the hard line union where it meets the flexible line)

Hopefully next update will reveal the PPF and a closer look at the engine oil leak/mid timing belt cover damage -  exciting times