Safety first! Or… last?
Another (lengthy – grab a cuppa) Update.
The time came, this weekend, for me to install the GC Fabrications roll bar. I’d been putting this task off for a while as it looked like an absolute ball ache. But was I wrong! Totally wrong! It wasn’t a ball ache at all. I would have been happy with a ball ache. This was a ball ache coupled with someone hammering your Gooch with a meet tenderiser whilst someone performing a prostate exam with a glove covered in Deep Heat!
It doesn’t look too imposing does it?
I started off with removing the seats. This is very easy, they’re held in with just 4 bolts but care needs to be taken as they’re easily rounded. I then took out the upper strut brace held in with 2 bolts, one on each seat belt tower:
The red nail still looking out enviously at all the care and attention. Her turn will be next year!
Seats out, it was time to turn my attention to the trim around the seat belt towers. I’d zip tied the passenger seat belt in place as it was broken and I didn’t want it to retract and not be retrievable again:
A couple of 10mm bolts to remove and then some T40 torx screws holding in the hard top clamps
Once the trim was removed it was off with the parcel shelf carpet, held in by approximately 2604089 billion plastic plug cap thingys.
This reveals the parcel shelf panel, held on by yet another 83892 trillion 10mm bolts.
Broken passenger side seat belt removed:
Drivers side belt to be removed. This will replace the broken seat belt as I’ll be fitting a harness on the driver’s side:
After removing all of the bolts ever made in the world ever, the parcel shelf can be removed, revealing 2 channels into the boot, where the total extent of Mazda’s sound deadening efforts can be revealed. In the form of two 6” by 10” pieces of shredded… well… stuff.
The supports for the parcel shelf, circled in red below, needed to be removed either by cutting them back, or by removing them completely.
I tackled the driver’s side first, and decided that drilling out the spot welds would be easiest. I was wrong. I couldn’t get enough purchase on the drill to get enough of a bite through the welds. So with a combination of drilling, grinding, ,swearing and performing a Maori War Dance, it all came off. I marked up the area that needed to be cut for the rear legs, cut that out and ground down the area so it was flush:
I then applied a few coats of primer to protect the exposed metal. It’s not pretty, but will do the trick:
For the passenger side, I decided against the Maori War Dance, as fun as it was, and just cut off the lip, leaving the spot welds in situ. Again, covered with a few coats of primer for protection:
During this grinding and drilling stage, particularly the grinding stage, there were a lot of sparks. I’d been using an old pillow case to prevent the interior from getting showered in red hot metal shards. Well, it worked
… Better this than the car though eh!
Now all the holes had been cut, it was time for a test fit. There were a few wired that needed moving, but it slotted in beautifully:
Once it was in position, I replaced the seat belt bolts which located through tabs either side of the roll cage to ensure it was in the right position. I then marked up the holes in the feet of the cage. I can’t seem to find any pictures of this stage. Can’t remember why. Oh, wait. I remember. It was because it was the most infuriatingly, frustrating and pain in the rectum job of the whole task.
After marking the holes in the feet, whilst it was in position with the seat belt bolts, I’d removed the cage and, with drill in hand, confidently smashed some 5mm pilot holes in. Then, purposefully loaded my 10mm bit and widened the pilot holes ready to receive their bolts. After de-burring the holes I replaced the cage, replaced the seat belt bolts and set about inserting the feet bolts. f
k. Why the f
k don’t these holes line up? It was in this position literally 15 minutes ago (there’s no adjustment in the seat belt bolt tabs either). For f
ks sake! One or 2 bolts went in ok, but the others were too far out.
I needed to get under the car, removed the wheels and remove the wheel arch lining anyway. So after I did that, and revealed my inch un-perfect holes I used them as a guide to drill up from the bottom. After a lot of swearing ( at the Maori God of War for not upholding my dancing), the sandwich plates were bolted up on the passenger side. I’d run a bead of sealant around the plates to prevent water getting to the newly drilled holes. Preventative maintenance is not my strong point, so I patted myself on the back after this!
It rained over the weekend and when I returned to the car on Sunday morning, I’d noticed that there was little pools of water where it was getting through the roof rain rail. The rain rail holds the bottom part of the folding roof to the car and acts as a gulley to drain away water. There are 13 bolts holding the rain rail in place and they require tightening in a specific order and to a specific torque.
That’s not surface rust, it’s the swarf from all the grinding that’s rusted in the newly formed puddle of water. I’d guess that the carpet had previously soaked up this small leak until now:
The below diagram is the sequence in which they need to be tightened. I was able to tighten some of them a good half a turn to get the required torque, so a worthwhile job:
All cleaned up:
I also took the opportunity to ensure the drain tubes weren’t blocked as this can lead to all sort of issues and is one of the main contributing factors to MX5s ending up as brown piles of dust on the floor of the garage. An easy job, they’re located right behind the seat belt turrets and the job was made even easier using the areal from the Red Nail
All bolted down from the top:
It was then time to trim the parcel shelf and the plastic trim around the seat belt turrets to fit around the legs of the cage. A 4” strip needed to be cut out from the back of the parcel shelf, down to the low part of the bend. For the plastic trim, the lip needed to be cut away to about 3” down after where it bends:
Then refit the carpet and very badly trim around the legs:
All fitted
So once the cage was finished, I picked myself up off the floor and did a little victory dance. But then it was onto the seats.
The VR Limited cars come standard with very lovely, black leather seat with the “Roadster” emblem embroidered into the headrest. What I’d noticed though is, as lovely as they look, they’re god awful seats to have in a zippy roadster. Slippery, with very little back or bolster support it’s a mission to not fall out of the entire car when manoeuvring even the slightest of bends. They also sit very high up which, coupled with a standard steering wheel inspired by the wheel from HMS Victory, made it a very awkward driving position. This is not something I experienced in the Red Nail. Quite the opposite in fact. Therefore, I decided that I would reinstate the old, cloth seat’s position at the helm. After rescuing them from their tomb in the footwell of the Red Nail, a good hoover and a healthy dose of Vanish carpet cleaner saw them clean up very well! After a quick test fit, I noticed they didn’t bloody fit. But soon realised I was trying to fit the passenger seat in the driver’s side!
But I won’t go too much into that!
Before I fitted the seat for good, I had a nice Sparco harness (donated by Craig AKA Superchickenn) to fit. Having not fitted a harness before, but thinking “how hard can it be” I proceeded, very confidently, to entirely f
k it up, as you can see from the below photo. This has since been rectified.
As you can see, this is a 3 point harness which isn’t ideal for this setup due to the harness bar being so close to the seat. However, it came at the right price and seems to be doing ok so far.
After a quick (1 hour) hoover as the previous owner appears to have actually been a dog of some kind, the carpet was looking fresh:
Seat fitted with harness. This will be replaced with the Sparco seat I have once I manage to find a cheap set of side mounts to fit the 5:
Once the driver’s side seat was in, it was onto the passenger side. What I’d noticed is that the seat belt clip on the old seats were very different to the leather ones as you can see below. I can only assume this is due to the geometry of the seats being different. Also, the newer seats have a loom to detect if the belts are plugged in or not.
Leather seats:
Cloth seats:
I had a quick look around in the Red Nail and noticed there are 2 sets of holes and, depending on which seats you run, one of the holes is plugged with a grommet. Below is the existing hold for the seat belt bolt:
After a quick rummage around, I’d located the other hole (FNARRRRRR) and made a precise (not precise) incision in the carpet:
I recovered the old seat belt clip from the Red Nail. Crustiness galore.
Installed:
I’d then plugged the old hole (oh god) to prevent any liquids seeping through (must stop) to the delicate insides.
Interior complete!
To reward myself for such a good job, well done I, well, carried on working on other bits. First was the battery. The mighty zip ties that had been used to secure it in place had failed (RIP ZIP TIES 2K18) so I replaced them with something a little more, err, robust:
I also fitted some Ultra Brilliance bulbs (again, robbed from the Red Nail) and cleaned the throttle body with some carb cleaner which has helped with my low idle.
Between finishing the above and writing this update, I’d also received by EBC Yellow Stuff pads and have secured a good, used set of Nankank NS2R tyres that I’ll be picking up on Friday.
Next steps now include:
find some cheap(ish) seat mounts to fit my side mounted Sparco seat.
Fit Sparco
Drink beer
Install new Steering Wheel (on order)
Fit Yellow Stuff Pads
Fit NS2R
4 wheel laser alignment
Rob bank
Drink beer
Shiny things
Small update this time – no cuppa required. Unless you already have one. In which case .
I had my new steering wheel delivered and am very pleased with it. It’s a genuine copy Nardi wheel with a horn button encompassing all the quality of a Happy Shopper paper bag. But, it looks much, much better and more importantly, fits my driving position! I’m no longer turning my wipers on every time I turn left!
It’s a 350mm suede wheel (I was hoping to get a 330mm) with about a 50mm dish:
I also collected my Nankang NS2R tyres from a nice chap in Harrogate when I was visiting Hull for the weekend. A car full of the OH and her brothers meant they had to travel in first class on the way home. I tried her brothers first, but were getting some funny looks. Goes without saying this absolutely RUINED my MPG on the 240 mile trip back to South Wales.
I took some time out from spannering the car as the OH wanted a coat rack for under the stairs. Be f
ked if I was paying £40 for a cardboard one from Ikea. So, some spare wood and fixings I had laying around in the garden saw me knock up this absolute masterpiece!
This weekend I’ll tackle the clutch, brakes and get an alignment done.
This time in 3 weeks, we’ll hopefully be in Amsterdam.
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