Well this has had to go back to the mechanic once again after more problems with the alarm and central locking.
On the plus side I found a mazdaspeed a spec front bumper that should be on its way to me soon. Its just had some fiberglass cracking fixed and fresh coat of primer. So I'll be getting a fresh coat of pz black on when it arrives and get some pics up then.
Going to put 3 months tax on it now in august and hopefully put up a few miles on it when I'm home for a few weeks.
Here's a few pictures of the bumper as it stands:
received_10209578934859071 by davemx-5, on Flickr
Oil filter, air filter, and oil change done in March, then off to nct and failed on air filter housing bracket.
20180325_195935 by davemx-5, on Flickr
I bought a cobalt back box and dropped it to the mechanic, with all new exhaust gaskets from manifold back and to get the air filter housing bracket fixed.
Here's a shitty picture of the cobalt exhaust. Delighted with the exhaust, well worth the money and would highly recommend.
20180327_212652 by davemx-5, on Flickr
This is now back out of hibernation and took the hardtop off.
The softtop had shrunk, I had to leave the car in the sun for a full day to stretch it back to normal.
20180506_164754 by davemx-5, on Flickr
I noticed the car was getting warm and if I put the air onto hot, the problem stopped. Checked the thermostat, and didnt open at all so was swiftly replaced.
2018-05-26_10-17-17 by davemx-5, on Flickr
Took it for a 200km spin around Donegal today around the coast, top down the whole way and managed to get burnt with factor 50 on. It's such a fun car and so involving to drive and not much danger of loosing your license as your never going as fast as you feel.
20180526_135101 by davemx-5, on Flickr
I've finally got Mazdaspeed sideskirts to match the front bumper so plan is to get a rusty sil, the sideskirts and front bumper painted up and fitted asap.
I'v also been filling the sidelight holes up on a spare mx5 bumper to match up with the mazdaspeed front bumper.
Cheers Larz. I would love to turbo the car etc however, as you say about the controlled environment, I don't want to ruin that drivability. I have a td04 there, just need manifold, downpipe and intercooler, ecu. But I'm enjoying driving it the way it is so not sure what to do.
Big exterior changes coming soon though I hope.
Another year nct passed first time. Had to get 2 brake calipers greased and new wipers and that was it.
In it's fugly nct spec....
20181222_113810 by davemx-5, on Flickr
20181222_113825 by davemx-5, on Flickr
The clutch has let go in the car. Does any of the other mx-5 owners have any experience of the ebay XTD clutches? They look like extremely good back for buck. This one: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/XTD-STAGE...O1dx:rk:3:pf:0
Some mx-5 owners I've seen rate them very highly.