Greetings fellow Tribute owners. I have finally taken the plunge, bought myself a very smart Mk2 MX5, complete with hardtop, and ordered the convertible kit from Chris. This will be very much a trip into the unknown for me. I've stripped an rebuilt motorbikes in the past but never anything on this scale.
I'll post some pictures of the base car over the next few days and hope you will bear with me as I ask some pretty dumb questions.
Cheers Tony, I've been looking through your thread with great interest and may well be in touch.
I'm intrigued to see how it looks with the hard top too. If it looks crap I can just used the soft top and flog the hard top on ebay.
Started the "destruction" of the car today.
Soft top
Hard top
No front
The "destruction" of the car has begun
Soft top
Hard top
Front end removed
Trip to the local scrap yard also proved very fruitful. Set of headlights, Mondeo grill and some original 1960's Lucas rear lights off a rust bucket behind the office.
Getting there, need to remove the bonnet release cable and flare out the wheel arches, although I might wait until I've got the kit to make sure I bend it the right amount.
A few "top tips". If you have a load of crappy old tools inherited from parents and grandparents Halfords have a special deal on their professional tool kits and they're pretty good, with a life time warranty, when lying on your back trying to remove the back bumper make sure your dogs aren't about as it's difficult to undo bolts with a dog licking your face and the door mirrors unbolt from the outside (which I discovered after taking off the door card).
I have a feeling, with the hardtop, the MX250 might look a little like this so some rear wing vent mods to be done and searching around for some appropriate rear lights. Also decide to go for quarter light mirrors which look to be in keeping with the retro look.
I'm going to see what it looks like with the standard hardtop but, as you say, it screams MX5. Not sure if my building skills extend to moding the roof at this stage but it is certainly worth thinking about for "stage 2"
Mutter, mutter, mutter - to get the boot hinges off I've had to remove the soft top. Still, it had to come off as it needs to be replaced.
If you decide to do this Tony have a look at this:
http://www.cienega32.com/miata/nb2na/nb_2_na_top_xplant.htm
Do check that you need to go this far with the Mk1 though as the captive bolts may be more accessible simply by removing the carpet under the bay where the soft top folds in. Also, have a look at the info about the rain gutter as if you damage this taking the soft top off it has to be replaced.
A few questions I hope some of you can answer. Am I right in assuming, because of the age of the car, it must have a rear fog light, reversing light, catalytic convertor and white and yellow number plates front and back respectively. If I choose not to fit these for "track" use they would have to fitted when presented for an MOT.
Also, there are some new rules coming in about MOT's around all cars having to be fitted with the original, or equivalent, suspension units (no more scrapping along the ground all you 206 owners!) unless it's MSA registered for race use. If I get the car registered as an MX250 I presume I can fit whatever I want WRT suspension as it's what I care to specify.
Forgot about the repeaters, cheers. Not planning to significant mods to the suspension, wanted to raise the rear and lower the front a bit to get a good rake angle so, hopefully, it'll be okay.
Help please - I want to put a single wiper onto my MX and the central wiper sits very nicely in the middle of the screen but how do I change the stroke to get a full sweep across the screen?
You know, I can't help but think my first dry fit hasn't gone too well
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Maybe I'll cover it in fur and have a flappy tongue sticking out
First go at fitting the kit. Needed a bit of fettling to get the back end on.
For those that have used a Mk2, what did you do to bring the nose down? Mine is sitting way too high and, if you look at the front arches, the wheels are not central.
No lights fitted yet. Already had to cut the front crash protection to get the kit on as the light bowls interfered. My concern is they now hit the front of the chassis.
Thanks Tony. The rear needed a bit of trimming but wasn't too bad. You're right about the front, think the Mk2 might be more complex than the Mk1.
Woo Hoo! Thanks eBay - a set of 15" Jag wire wires for nine tenths of sod all. Just need to get some suitable hub adapters and spacers to make them fit properly.
