Be Gone Evil Soft Top

Well my days of drop top driving are a thing of the past now … Well not really, But you know what I mean. On the weekend, I decided that it was time to remove my soft top. I had a general idea of how to remove one, But I double checked online just in case I was missing something, Fortunately I came across Adam’s (Revlimiter.net) website. There’s a pretty good tutorial written on there about removing the soft top. I did the exact same thing that Adam has done too.

So, Driving Sports – Twilight Drift is this weekend, And there’s still a few little things I need to sort out before then.

Stick around!

Maxxis i-Pro

I’ve been needing a decent pair of tyres at the front for quite a while now, As I’ve had a lot of understeering issues on the track, And a lack of front end grip in general. So I headed down to JAX tyres Smithfield to get some new shoes on.

 So, Your probably wondering why I went with Maxxis ? Well I used to use Maxxis tyres back in my mountain biking days, And I never had a problem with them, They are quite reputable in the biking industry too.

As soon as I jumped back in the car, And turned out of the driveway, I could already feel great feedback, It’s amazing what a decent pair of tyres can do. The real test will be the upcoming Twilight Drift, And a new event dubbed Mid-Week Drift.

This weekend, I’ll be ripping out the soft top, And tinkering with other things.

Stick around.

Go Shorty …

Urgh, Back to work today, And what a shocker I had. The only good thing about going to work was receiving some packages from the post, Which contained my Barchetta shorty console and OEM hardtop bolts. I wasted no time to get them installed.

The Barchetta shorty console is a great quality piece, However, Upon installation I did need elongate the mounting holes slightly in order to fit the screws in, Other then that installation was, well perfect. This shorty frees up so much room too, Which I think is a good thing.

The OEM hardtop bolts were piss easy to install (As you’d imagine), Having these bolts installed means I can now rock the hardtop! I’ll have a taste of what it’s like when I drive to work in the morning, But even just sitting in the cabin, I felt like I was in a much bigger car. The car is in desperate need of a wash, So I’ll get onto that soon, Oh and I need some new, Grippy front tyres.

Stay tuned!

The Finishing Touch

Today was one of those lazy days, Where I didn’t really have anything to do. So I sat around for some of it then thought to myself “Why not paint the A pillar ?”, So I got off my ass and headed out to the garage to get to work.

I masked up everything surrounding the A pillar, And started wet sanding. I used half a sheet of 600 grit, and finished it off with 800 grit.

I then removed all of the masking paper and reapplyed it. Masking took FOREVER! but better to be safe then sorry, Heck I still had some overspray on the car, Here’s a snap of the A pillar turning white.

Painting was the easiest and quickest part to do (As usual), There are a few little things I’ll need to touch up later but all in all, I think it came up pretty damn well. I only used half a can of paint too! Anyway, Enough blabber here are the finished pictures.

Tomorrow I should hopefully have the hardtop mounted, And my Barchetta shorty console isn’t too far away either. Stick around!

Poll Time

Time to go to the polls readers!

Which do you prefer, White hardtop only, Or a combination of white hard top and A pillar ? Get voting!

Thanks Joseph for doing this chop!

How To Paint A Hardtop – DIY Style

Yesterday, John and I got cracking on my hardtop. So it went a little like this, This hardtop started off in a glossy red.

We got to work masking the seals and window before wet sanding with 800 grit paper.

After we were happy with the finish, We cleaned the hard top with wax and grease remover thoroughly and stripped the masking tape. We then re-applied some fresh masking tape.

This is halfway through painting the hardtop, You can see John getting all the little dust particles off the wet paint with a toothpick.

A few coats later, This is the finished result.

Here’s what it looks like on the car.

It took us about 4 hours from start to finish, We used only one sheet of wet/dry 800 grit sand paper, And four cans of Dulux flat white exterior paint. We used other things like tarps and masks to avoid overspray and inhaling toxic fumes from the paint. I’m going to let the paint harden then  I’ll wax it to seal the paint. Take your time with masking and sanding, The finish is all in the prep work!

I’m still waiting on my hardtop bolts before I can rock it permanently. Once they arrive ( Or I find some locally) I’ll strip the soft top.

It’s Back!

That’s right! The car is out of Dahtone Racing’s workshop, And boy does it go good! The engine runs silky smooth, Doesn’t blow smoke, And really hammers! It’s everything I asked for. The 6 speed makes a massive difference with gearing too, Paired up with my 4.1 diff it has super short ratios which improve acceleration dramatically. So anyway, I fitted the hardtop to see if it actually worked with my cage … Thankfully it does! It looks funny red though, So Kelly came around and let me try his hard top. Thanks again bro!

So next step is painting my hardtop, Stick around for that!

The Plan Of Attack

Ok, Now that I’ve got my funds sorted, It is time to plan the attack. I want to set up the car so it can handle anything I throw at it, I want a lot of seat time next year to improve my driving skills and to enjoy the car for what it has become. So, I’ve decided to replace the engine instead or rebuilding it. I’m also (hopefully) going to run a 6 speed gearbox too. I’ve noticed that my brakes aren’t what they used to be either, So I’ll be doing a rebuild on the calipers (Or I might try and source some NB big brakes), And replacing the lines with some Stainless braid.

I’ve lined up an engine with less than 30k on it. So I’ll be picking it up on the monday. My hunt for a gearbox is still going on, And I need to sort out the oil cooler plate and other little things before the current engine and gearbox come out.

After it’s all said and done, The RG MX-5 should be a very fun, And hassle free car to drive!

Stick around!