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Mattt

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Everything posted by Mattt

  1. Mx5 diffs are decently strong. Theres heaps of options of factory lsd, aftermarket lsd and diff ratios. The beauty of the beams is that its a very well known engine that has been done heaps of times and has a tonne of aftermarket support. I can buy an off the shelf wiring loom for the link with the plugs and everything for the ITBS ready to go. The adapters are off the shelf. And parts are cheap as chips. Plus the 6 speed comes attached to most of them. I think the beams will lay down around 180hp atw with itb and cams but will make much better torque through the rev range. Also, they're pretty bloody cheap. I hadn't considered the electric steering option, but I was wanting to go with a rack so the mx5 seemed fairly easy, but may still require alot of thought The biggest issue with my car is its fucking narrow. Mx5 disk face width is about 200mm wider than the corona. Not much is as narrow with IRS. Also, again mx5 stuff is cheap, readily available and has huge aftermarket support. For reference, the corona is 950kg from the factory. The mx5 is 1050. The corona is 1150 wide to the disk face, the mx5 is 1350. I will have to run flares or push the arches out to get the wheels under. A certain amount of camber will help as well of course
  2. So I've got a few disgusting ideas rolling around in my head. The first is that I'm going to fit an mx5 IRS set up to this thing. Second is I'm considering seeing if I can make the mx5 front subframe and suspension fit so that I can utilize all the aftermarket parts available and also swap to a power steering rack. Last is I'm considering swapping out the 12a for a beams 3sge with ITB. I feel like the beams might be a more appropriate engine for the car. As much as I love the rota if it goes boom I'm going to have a hell of a time rebuilding it being a 12a. I think the 3sge will be more reliable and have a heap more low end torque. Talk me out of it.......
  3. Ok so a bit of a better update. Someone suggested yanking the gear lever while giving the car a boot load and I managed to pop it out of 3rd. I changed out the fluid and found no signs of metal so was hopeful. I realize at this point that the box has issues but hoped if I drove it like a normal human it would suffice until I could get the car legal and then spend money on the fun things like IDA, electronic dizzy, light weight flywheel and new gearbox. Unfortunately after going out for a test drive the noise that I thought was ujs seems to have got worse and once it warmed up it jammed in 3rd again. I managed to get it out again but obviously this is going to be a continuous issue. For now I'll leave it as I need to pull the box and engine out to weld up the inside of the gearbox tunnel anyway so hopefully I can have a nice new box sitting there to swap out. In the meantime I'll push forward with all the other things on the list. I've put off the lowering for now as I wasn't sure where the gearbox was at. Will book it in for middle of the month probably.
  4. Fuck it. Killed the gearbox. Its stuck in 3rd. Will pull it out and strip it down.
  5. Boring update but will add it for my own records Got drivers window sorted Got headlights working Got seatbelts, rear 1/4 interior pieces and rear seats back in. Spent forever getting the boot popper in and working properly. Probably could have done a engine rebuild in the time it took to get that thing working smoothly. A couple of photos of the boot popper for storytelling appeal. Then I got it out and went for a dodgy, green stickered, no wof, no cert drive around the local industrial area for about 15 minutes to iron out any issues and get a real feel for it rather then 30 seconds up the road and back. Everything went really smoothly. The last noise left seems to be universal joints in the driveshaft. Will dig into those shortly. When I first bought it and put the engine in the brakes were absolutely useless, I couldn't fit in the car, the fan belt slipped and kept throwing itself off, everything mechanical was hitting the body, the handbrake cables were rubbing on the driveshaft, there were no window rubbers, the boot popper only worked occasionally, the steering wheel was so small it was a struggle to turn at slow speeds, the accelerator pedal linkage was a disaster and wouldn't pull secondaries and the trim paintwork was all falling apart. When I remind myself of all this I realize how far I've come in a fairly short time. The car is now really comfortable to drive for an old girl and although far from perfect I'm not scared to drive it. Anyway, enough of this. I'll keep moving forward with things slowly and hope to have it legal for next summer.
  6. They say answer to every question can be found if you just look hard enough. This was proven tonight. Question: Does the exhaust hit the gearbox cross member? Answer: I suspected that might have been one of the last noises I was hearing. So I thought I'd better sort it out. And like some terrible magic trick we have clearance. Yeah, maybe I erred past the point of caution into unnecessary but eh. Tomorrow I attempt to fix the driver door window and finish the handbrake off.
  7. Got it out for a little drive. Man, its so nice to drive now compared to when I got it. Most of the random noises are gone, the engine vibration through the whole car is gone. The brakes still suck but thats on the list. Booked in for lowering on the 25th. Looking forward to getting it slammed.
  8. Managed to get most of another job ticked off over the last couple of nights. Running the handbrake cables internally. Due to the fact that the cables were already rubbing on the driveshaft and that the cars going in for more lowering in a few weeks I decided to get creative. Everything's working nicely. I will have to make up a cover and some little mounts for the cover so that it can be removed if it needs any repairs but the majority of its there. Its nice to be getting these things sorted. Hopefully the cert man doesn't shit himself
  9. Well after staring at this in the workshop for the last 3 months while we've been massively busy at work and I've been caught up on the weekends entertaining my son I finally managed to get a couple of days to spend on this so I managed to mount my seats and get my tunnel fab'd up. I had to change my plan for the seats as my original design ended up too low and too far back surprisingly. Also the cert man wasn't happy with me removing the stiffer running the width of the car. So, I went back to the drawing board and came with this Then I made up a cardboard gearbox tunnel. And decided I better turn it into steel Happy to have those big jobs ticked off. I do still have to pull the engine and box to weld underneath but the hard work is done for the tunnel fabrication which is great
  10. Started on the tunnel and finally got some trim parts painted!
  11. Got this started yesterday. Decided to start with the plates for the seats. So I can tack them in to stiffen things up when I take out the top hat stiffener. Much better seating position now for someone of 6’3” however the mrs might not be able to drive it anymore...
  12. No, but I’ll be cutting it out piece by piece and welding in temporary bracing as I work my way along. Not to mention the likelihood that when they made the disgusting mess of a tunnel originally that nothing would have been braced. It will probably allow the car to sit more naturally when I cut that abomination out haha
  13. So I’ve been waiting for weeks now to get my grill, mirrors trims and stuff back from the painters before taking the car home but he’s been flat out and I’m getting it done for free so I’ve decided while the cars sitting at work to get into the main fabrication work. Pulled everything out to start dry icing the floor tomorrow after work. Then the plan is to cut the entire gearbox and driveshaft tunnel out, fit all new stuff done properly and that gives extra clearance for the driveshaft when I drop it lower. Then I’m cutting the channel out that runs the width of the car and I’ll fold up a 3mm plate that welds straight to the floor for the seat rails to bolt to which will give me about 60-70mm drop in seat height so my head won’t touch the roof and also stiffen the floor back up since I’ve taken the stiffener out. Wish me luck
  14. New tyres and spacers on. This thing just gives me one step forward and 2 steps back. I discovered a few amazing things today: The front end of off centre by 4mm. The LF wheel has 7-8mm guard clearance and the RF has 0. I will have to remove the subframe, slot the holes 4mm then weld the slot and reshape the mounting holes. The rear end has been fitted 10mm off centre. The LR wheel is flush and the RR is in 10mm. I will have to cut the mounts off and reposition them over 5mm. I have found some rust underneath that I’ll have to fix up and the chassis rails need tidying up before a wof. The car came with a receipt for the exhaust from a reputable car modification company here in Christchurch. $2500 worth. The rear muffler has 2 mounts. The forward most one is hard bolted to the chassis with no rubber so that explains the vibration through the car. The rear most mount is a cotton reel that has been mounted as a hanging set up and in a way that it has pulled itself apart. Cotton reel exhaust mounts have to be compressed! Anyway. Enough chat for today. Here’s some photos.
  15. Maybe it’ll look better with wings rather than wheels?
  16. Yeah fair call man. I’m happy to sort something out I’m just not 100% on when I’m going to be doing the interior. There’s a bit of work in the old girl yet.
  17. Hahaha! It’s even got similar colour wheels. Consider me moist.
  18. Thanks man. I really appreciate that my car can be inspirational. I will be having new door cards made although my vinyl is peeling at the bottom so not sure if it’s of any use to you or not? on that note have you got a RH rear pillar vent internal cover? It’s the metal cover that goes on the inside of the vents on the pillars I only seem to have the LH one for some reason.
  19. Fuck I’m hesitant to post these photos! I kinda went pretty out the gate on the wheels. I wanted something different and I thought the japs used to have pretty crazy wheel colours back in the days. So I present to you my new wheel set up. This sure as hell won’t be for everyone but I’m really liking it. Please keep in mind the cars getting dropped significantly, I got the wrong size rear tyres so they’re being changed and also my spacers haven’t arrived yet. Anyway, I’d love to hear people’s honest feedback......... Again, discussion here:
  20. One of my new seats turned up. Stoked as. The other ones on back order until September but that’s fine. I need to recess the inner seat brackets into the floor 50mm as since day one I’ve been too tall for it and it’s not comfortable for me to sit in it. I’m going to do the gearbox and driveshaft tunnel and the seat rails all at the same time.
  21. Polished me some rims today. Now I look like a coal miner. Totally worth it though.
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