The Dream to reality..

It's Saturday 28th January 2017, 8.00am and my partner Linda and Daniel my nephew are going on a road trip ... Yep , heading up north to the GBS factory to collect my kit and a few additional items 😊.We arrived at about 1.30 pm to find the gates of GBS closed and no one in sight 😟. Straight away on the mobile to phone Steve should have been there to meet me. No answer on the phone, "have i got the right day, of course i have, haven't i ?" A white fiesta came round the corner and parked in front of the gates and to my relief Steve stepped out " we didn't have any milk" he explained.So a cup of tea later there we were loading the long wheel base transit with my goodies.

Sorry , no pictures of the loading process, but here's one of van loaded and ready to roll.7.30pm and we eventually arrived home, been a long day.We unloaded the van of goodies into the workshop and called it a day.

Look what i've got

Something missing ...

That's better

Broomm.. Broomm..

So its Sunday morning and first job on the list is to find a home for all the bits and pieces of the kit.

Hung what i could from the rafters a few bits in the loft and others that wouldn't fit through the loft hatch i've hidden in Linda's craft room 😟 ( i'm sure she wont notice the nose cone and bonnet )😉.

Next job on the list is to get the chassis on some sort of stand.
I know i could have got a couple of trestles, but i wanted something height adjustable and mobile, so this is what i came up with.

Axle stands are screwed into timber and dowel pegs are to stop chassis sliding off when moving about.

  

Im Waiting ......

After working through the cold, wet and windy October and November, the workshop is now built and ready for it's new arrival.

Donor's having a breakdown !!!

So the breakdown begins.

Well as mentioned before, I need to collect my chassis at the end of January which set me into panic mode. The reason being that no matter how big a workshop you have it is never big enough and didn't really like the concept of chassis wall art !

So, how was I going to fit a chassis as well as a donor that had to be stripped in such a space? Answer, I wont !!

So the panic before Christmas was on to find a donor.

Low and behold the first add I saw was for a 2000 1.8 eunos 120000 miles £850 and 10 miles from me.

A text message confirmed it was still for sale.

So next day I was the new owner of an MX5 😊 for the sale price of £720 plus an additional set of wheels and tyres all nearly new, recent new discs and pads.

Had to take the doors off as once in the garage would have been too much messing around.

Performed the Christmas festivities on Christmas day and until now any available time has been spent stripping the donor to the bare bones. I’ve taken everything off, as I want to reuse as much as possible, what I don’t will resell or bin.

The saddest part of the break down, was that there was very little if any rot on the car, sills, wings etc as good as new. All panels were taken of with loving care with the hope of some resale value.  

I took the last bits of today and had to man handle the removal of engine and gearbox as supplier let me down on delivery of an engine hoist. ( it  wasn’t too bad after splitting them and with the aid of 4x2 timber,  chain and strong legs, shoulder together with a mate, the heart was removed ).

Sorry, but thought I had taken pictures of the bare bones, but in the panic I hadn't.

You may notice that one of the disc back plates is missing. It wasn't there when I removed it from the car. If found please return to owner ;)

Rear diff.

From what i've read,  if there is a flange where the prop bolts on, its an LSD

https://www.miata.net/garage/diffguide/

Body shell was removed by scrap dealer 10 mins later, lol ( I removed vin plate and chassis number).

I now have a workshop full of bits that need to be sorted and filed, so task tomorrow is to build some shelving which will enable me to see the workshop floor once more 😊.

Going to try and use the MX5 fuel pump and filler pipe. Found a fabricator online that's make custom tanks that accommodate it. Will keep you updated as to how that goes.

Filler pipe

Fuel Pump and sender unit

Panic over, and no longer have a deadline to be met, can sleep at night and start to enjoy the dream.

Refurbishment of parts is set to begin.......