Took the ancillaries off and did some cleaning





After

 

Long time no post

Anyway... Car went on hold for the last... year? I was spending my time travelling ireland and working on my ''camper''van etc



here's me grinding some metal









Also im restoring a yacht

here's youtube link

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...kZSgqvAZM2h4fw

Back to the car

I finally have all the ingredients for forging the engine

eagle rods, wiseco pistons etc etc.. i have a new garage to work in so i'll keep you posted

 

As long as you are having fun...

 

1/3

It's been a while.

Before i start this post, i just want to clear up the 1.6 vs 1.8 thing...

I live in Ireland, where getting a 1.8 engine isn't that easy at all. So that's why i am sticking with the 1.6L engine and continuing down the route i am on... Because i have a full forge kit and i plan to use it soon.

That said, it's been a long time since i touched my car. The photos that follow will hopefully tell the story but it had a lot of rust from being in the UK for a long time (they use salt on the roads over there and UK cars are generally rot boxes). I probably should have scrapped the car, but it has a lot of sentimental value to me so i got the grinder out and started cutting. I did all of the welding after work and weekends. It was painful.



I replaced every little bit of rot with fresh metal from a supplier in the UK, and then had the car painted.

Here it is after fresh paint







I was absolutely delighted with how it all turned out, and i hadn't realised just how rough the car was until i saw how clean it is now.

After all that work, expense and hardship i was hoping to drive the car... But it ended up in this bubble for nearly 2 years.



More in the next post.

 

Continued from above 2/3

So why after so much work, just to leave the car in it's bubble for so long? (by the way, these Carcoons are fantastic. Ireland is very wet and damp and the car has remained immaculate since the day it was stored)

Priorities moved on, and i started itching for another big project. But i wanted to live in this one.... so i bought this hunk of steel in Feb of 2018.







I won't bore you with the details or specifics, but after 2 of the hardest years of work i have ever done, the boat is starting to look pretty good





Anyway, i digress but i feel it's all part of the story... Plus maybe some of you like boats. It has an engine and it's metal after all.

Moving on, and to bring us up to date... (Next post for more)

 

Continue from Above 3/3

As i said above, getting a 1.8 here was proving too difficult, so several years ago i bought the parts i needed to build the engine, but they were shelved and have been there since



Wiseco 79mm pistons and Eagle H beams. Plus the other necessary other components such as gaskets and bearings etc.

There were also some other inherent issues that my younger and much less experienced or patient self did to the car that had to be redone, such as wiring and other engine bay work i did. But, hindsight is 20/20 and you learn as you get older.

I also fitted an ally radiator over the weekend, which i was really happy with.

I much rather just post as things are they done instead of putting up a list of things i want to do... But a spare 1.6 Block is sitting in my van ready to be delivered to the machine shop and i have bought an already ported and polished head (super cheap) to fit to it. ARP head studs are also on the way from the UK. It seems that since i started work on my car in 2011, there are far far far more UK suppliers of performance MX5 parts, which has been a joy. When i started the project all those years ago, i had to import everything from the States.

I also have these Rays Forged wheels to put on the car, as i plan to do a little bit of track at some point


Hope you enjoyed the update, and i hope to get reacquainted with my old friends here again.

Rhys

 

He's back!

There's a UK vendor shipping 1.8 engines and differentials to the US for reasonable prices on the forum now, in case you need anything.

 

Thanks mate,

i dropped the block off for some machining yesterday and hope to have it back towards the end of next week
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