kevin s's blog

[kstrutt1]

Used the tr today, gearbox is fine, the exhasut is leaking though, I didn't realise there were supposed t be seals between the downpipe and manifold (they were not fitted when I took the engine appart). SD1 ones from rimmers £2.95, stick the part number in google and i turns out it is also used on landrovers, 95p each from paddocks, guess where I got them from!

Also embarassed 16 year old daughter, picked her up from work, drove out and around the roudabout and in konked out, turned out a wire had dropped off the LPG vaporiser so only took a couple of seconds to fix, must look at adding some better support to the wiring, it is the second time it has done this. It is also filthy must give it a wash and polish.

kevin

[kstrutt1]

Decided I use this weekend to go over the corrosion issues on the mx 5 and wax it before the winter, there was some rust bubbles on the rear of one sill/lower rear wing, I cut the wing away and fortunately the sill underneath was fine.

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The other side was much better with just a bit of stone pecking on the flange.

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Also cleaned up in the wheelarch, I can see why these rust so badly, there was virtually no paint on the outer edge of the inner arch, fortunately on our car this had only resulted in light surface corrosion which was easily cleaned up and treated, also the seam in the arch was not properly sealed on the side with the corroded sill allowing water and dirt into the sill, so much for Japanese build quality!

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[kstrutt1]

The only other issue is the rh chassis rail, it has suffered from the common mx5 problem of being grounded and damaged, it is not pretty but structurly ok so the plan is to clean it up paint and wax.

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There were also a few minor spots behind the wheelrach liners they got the same treatment.

I will get the welding done tomorrow and start the painting /waxing.

All in all it could be a lot worse, and hopefully we can keep the corrosion at bay for many years with regular wax / oil mix treatments.

[kevin]

Thats really good for a lot of mx's! Most of the uk mk1's must have had the sills done by now,
Its probably the main reason I went for a Eunos, managed to find a low mile, rust free early 1.6 (auto) which is sadly going up for sale next week
Well done on the good work

Kev

[kstrutt1]

This a eunos! it has been in the uk for 12 years now though, strange thing is the suspension is all pretty rusty (only on the surface) but the body is pretty good the paint they use on the suspension must be hopeless. All welded up today and primed I will add some photos later.

[kstrutt1]

finished the mazda, welded new metal into the rear of the sill,

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then primed and painted it.

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after which I move dont to waxing it all the cavaties were treated with waxoil dilurted with engine oil, and the the underbody with black waxoil, the only problem is the last 6 inches of the plastic tube got stuck in the sill and are still there!

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At some point I want to do a more thorough job on the front and pull the bumper and wheelarch liners off but for now this will do.

[kstrutt1]

other things I have been doing, I have placed the door pillar off the minor in molasses to see if the rust removing properties work,

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we will see what it looks like in a weeks time.

But what has really been taking up my time and limited the time I can spend on the cars is this.

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before I got to this stage I had to remove some old buildings and lay a new patio, this is the last part of the job, next weekend the roof will go on and then the glazing, follwed up by a light and painting the wall, the door also needs modifying to fit properly but overall it is almost there.

[kstrutt1]

Not had much time on the cars lately, fitting new wiper blades to the mx5 is about the extent of it!

I have more or less finished the gas cylinder wood burner, just need to get some glass for the door, but I have just fired it up in the garden to burn the paint off with a piece of steel in place of the glass tonight, it gives off an amazing amount of heat, the garage should be far more cosy this winter. I will take some pictures tomorrow.

Also got dragged shopping today, found something useful though, wilkinsons do 5L of 20/50 classic oil for £8, it even has a api rating, CC which while out of date is fine for older cars doing a couple of thousnd miles between oil changes.

Kevin

[JPB]

Did the molasses treatment work?

[kstrutt1]

It removed the lighter rust but didn't do much for the heavier rust, next project is to build a blast chamber.