As I'm tidying up the inside of the car, I thought I'd have a look at the ash tray box. It's held in with a spring clip and can just be lifted out. Mine was a bit rusty and tatty looking. Only 4 small screws hold it together. The top two plastic parts were cleaned up and treated with 'back to black'. The tray and springs were rusty and treated before being painted.
Once it had been painted and put back together it looked like new :-)
My car came with 3 steering wheels. I've been using the smallest, a 300mm diameter Momo wheel up till now but it doesn't give a clear view of the instruments. I swapped it over today, to this 350mm diameter wooden rim Momo wheel, to get a feel for how well this works.
This wheel gives a much clearer view of the instruments but it also gives a better weight and feel to the steering. I'm not a fan of this retro wood finish but I will look to buy a new black Momo wheel in this size now.
The sun was out finally, so we just had to go out for a drive. Photo taken at Woodbridge Tide Mill.
The new throttle pedal bushes arrived. These things have taken ages to arrive, they were ordered in November! The throttle pedal has a bit too much sideways movement for my liking and hopefully these will fix it.
My sister is about to order a brand new mk IV MX-5 1.5 SE-L Nav in Snowflake White Pearlescent! :-) This is almost the colour I plan to get my car resprayed.
Spent the afternoon getting quotes to get my Eunos resprayed in Mazda Arctic White :-) The hardtop is going to be painted gloss black and I'm now thinking that I will do this myself. Should be booking the car in next week.
Ordered some red caliper paint. The brake calipers are coming off when the car goes to be resprayed to be painted red and refurbished. They will go back on the car with new, stainless-steel braided brake hoses.
Preparation for the respray today.
First job was to remove the old tan soft-top. All the stitching has gone, so we have a new black one ready to go back in once the car comes back from its respray. The first job is to improve access and remove the hardtop catches with T40 torx tool. The three holes with 12mm bolts inside are the ones holding the frame in place.
This then gives better access to the 3 bolts on each side that hold the soft-top frame in place. We want to remove the frame as we plan to tidy it up and repaint it too.
Underneath this mechanism is a lot of accumulated dust! Once the frame bolts are remove the soft top needs to be put up to gain access to the rear clamps.
There are three rear seal retainers that secure the soft-top along the rear edge. One long central one and two shorter side clamps. These held on to studs fixed to the chassis by 10mm nuts. These were a bit rusty and you can see where they have been rust treated by me in the past. The hidden face was even worse as you will see.
The hidden face was even worse :-( These seal retainers are structurally sound though and will be rubbed down, rust treated and resprayed with black paint.
At the end of the seal is this end cap, which needs to be removed so that the the seal can be pulled out. It it lifts off but is held in place by a plastic clip that goes through the seal.
With the end caps removed the seal can be pulled out. It is part plastic and part rubber.
And this is the soft top fully removed.
The final part to come out before painting is the 'belt line moulding' trim. This appears to be bonded with a soft sticky substance and is also bolted down using 10mm bolts.
This photo clearly shows that they didn't remove the belt line moulding last time the car was painted and the original silver paint is now visible.
My Mum took this photo of me and my Dad working on the Eunos.
Spent a bit of time cleaning up metal work and rust treating it. My red caliper paint arrived in the post today.
Booked the car in for a full respray today :-) Due to be delivered to the paintshop in 4 weeks time, so we have a bit of time to finish stripping the car and preparing it. It should be away for 2 to 3 weeks.
The soft-top clamps are now primed and ready for a final black gloss coat.
The soft-top clamps are now ready to go back on the car.
My sister's new MX-5 ND in Snowflake White Pearlescent. It's a 1.5 SE-L Nav with body coloured mirrors.