Cars ok after Sunday’s incident. New Headlight and bracket required, new cycle wing needed as well though they are on a 30 day back order (made to order carbon fibre jobbies) got to buy a pair as well. All told £400 in parts to repair damage. Could have been a whole lot worse. Swmbo was out with me at the time as well and quite enjoying the ride out, had to moderate the power slides, donuts and half spins.. lol, don’t think it’s put her off thankfully.

Sorted headlight bracket out Saturday, with a grinder, hammer, chisel, and welder. A quick coat of paint and jobs a good’un. New headlight unit turned up yesterday. Binning the light unit, just using the bowl and grinding the bezel down to fit the LED unit. Fit it next weekend.  Seems sacralidge to butcher a brand new unit, needs must. Cycle wing can wait til another day.

 

Went out Sunday with one headlight, down to Brighton for breakie and pick up my soldering iron. Met up with Russ.. car broken, Graham.. in girlie MX5, too cold for the caterham, Matt.. in working bike engined car and Tony.. in working Fisher Fury.  Nice breakie at the Roedean Cafe. Sorry not a lot left lol

 

 

Been meeting about with some ideas for a bit of a livery, mostly to cover up the tatty gel coat. Had a go with some hexagons.. The kit car gang have already started on me about the pink thing..

 

 

12 hours ago, B33fy said:

Been meeting about with some ideas for a bit of a livery, mostly to cover up the tatty gel coat. Had a go with some hexagons.. The kit car gang have already started on me about the pink thing..

 

 

 

I guess I might have to borrow some of that for my 'girlie MX5'...  

1 hour ago, skomaz said:

 

I guess I might have to borrow some of that for my 'girlie MX5'...  

 

Don’t make it more girlie.. you’ll be wanting a matching handbag next.. lol

I don't know, these MX-5 owners.....

 

On 15/03/2018 at 15:41, Wardy said:

I don't know, these MX-5 owners.....

 

 

David T from the SKCC forum has bit the bullet and bought an MX5, when I say bought, he rescued it off a neighbours drive. Got the usual rot. He’s had some serious flak not least from me and has taken it well.  lol. So well in fact I went along to give him a hand to set fire.. sorry.. I meant weld it. I’ve an all singing/dancing Esab welder which I took with me for him to practice on.The thread is here if you fancy a peek. It’s a very small forum with a small core active group.

 

http://southernkitcars.com/forum/view topic.php?f=7&t=9889

 

In other news, on the hunt for an industrial sewing machine to make some proper covers for the car. Given up on the head gaskets after the symptoms returned, must be a liner issue. Last ditch effort.. threw two bottles of steal seal in the header tank and thrashed the car to within an inch of its life and.. yes it worked!!. Not sure for how long but temps are good to go.

 

Work is busy so not much time to spend on the car, need to sort a few things out before the euro blast to the alps. Hoping to sort the clutch out with a slightly bigger master cylinder today. The pedal box hasn’t got enough throw to fully clear the clutch

 when deressed so you can’t rush gear changes or in fact change gear at times when iright on it.

 

Honda still in Garage, 3 month is nearly, got a RAV4 for now or should I say RAV2...

 

Laters.

 

What's up with the Honda Mike?

And there's nothing wrong with an MX5!

6 hours ago, mdk1 said:

What's up with the Honda Mike?

And there's nothing wrong with an MX5!

 

Door mirror problems, they don’t fold and we’re doing random things, wrong parts fitted, they can’t seem to sort it. Been in the garage since the beginning of February ,

 

The mx5 doesn’t float my boat, though they are a nice fun thing. Good opportunity for a bit of a pee take though lol

6 hours ago, B33fy said:

 

Door mirror problems, they don’t fold and we’re doing random things, wrong parts fitted, they can’t seem to sort it. Been in the garage since the beginning of February ,

 

The mx5 doesn’t float my boat, though they are a nice fun thing. Good opportunity for a bit of a pee take though lol

That's not good on Honda's part, might be worth a call to customer services.

 

And you can take the pee out my new MX5, at the next Maidstone meet 

door mirrors might be the internal shut off device (SOD):

 

http://www.civinfo.com/forum/civinfo-hobbyist-traders/91011-folding-mirror-shut-off-device-sod-repair-51.html

7 hours ago, mdk1 said:

That's not good on Honda's part, might be worth a call to customer services.

 

And you can take the pee out my new MX5, at the next Maidstone meet 

 

Been in regular contact with them, they are pretty poor tbh, asked me to update them on progress because they cant get hold of the garage.. hopefully be sorted soon

 

5 hours ago, skomaz said:

door mirrors might be the internal shut off device (SOD):

 

http://www.civinfo.com/forum/civinfo-hobbyist-traders/91011-folding-mirror-shut-off-device-sod-repair-51.html

 

Later model Sko.. I think they have got confused with all the parts they have and haven't fitted. I think they have the wrong switches fitted with the wrong integrated canbus controllers as they changed the switch panel early on and not the switches.. Anyhow been out enjoying the weather in the car, went to Rye Harbour today with Mark nice run, though the showers over night made the roads greasy in places, with a few bum clenching moments.  Another run took place in the west and a front splitter was lost in a ditch with the challenging conditions.

 

 

Picked up the Honda after 3 months in the garage, door mirrors all working. Been that long forgotten what it looked like.. Neighbour came out that we had a new car lol. He was quite taken with it. Glad I persevered with it as it is a nice thing. Grungy photo below with mirrors folded!! Got a week off so spending it on the Kit car sorting the holes in the bodywork, rear lights and clutch in readiness for the Alps trip.

 

 

Been sorting out the various holes in the bodywork with varying success. Wrong shade of topcoat supplied so decided to wrap the wings. Probably best I stick to the day job. It’ll do for now.

 

 

Car back together long enough to go to Stoneleigh kit car show. Stayed in economy mode to gauge the range fir the upcoming French blat. Didnt last long.. met up with the rest of the gang at Regs Cafe in Banbury, brilliant breakie btw.. Then a cross country blat chasing an ultima.  Which basically monstered me on tickover.. Had a bit more fun with Paul and the Ultima with a few extremely hard pulls on the M40.. up to 70mph of course.. pmsl.

 

Popp ed along to the 1066 cafe today and was met with a wall of bikers out on a Hastings run. Got home and removed the awful MDF boot cover and started making a pattern for a new tonneau cover

 

 

A few jobs done today.. Changed clutch master cylinder for a slightly bigger one as the clutch wasn’t quite clearing when pressing on. Not a huge difference though hasn’t got stuck in gear yet as previously.

 

Also fitted a new 19 row oil cooler. Third attempt, hopefully last. No leaks all seems good. 

 

6 days to go before euro trip. Due to get the 1200 eurotunnel on Saturday. Apprehensive, though looking forward to it. Will hopefully post up progress and a few images each day. Mark, owner of the gulf coloured car, pictured previously is the organiser. Picked his car up after a bit of work done from the garage, them returned soon after on the back of a flat bed. Looks like alternator problems, a quick fix hopefully.

 

 

Edited 19 May, 20188 yr by B33fy

Bexhill this morning to the Sovereign Light Cafe, made famous by Keane.. 

 

 

Looking forward to pic's from the euro trip, how many spare parts are you taking or is there a support van?

26 minutes ago, mdk1 said:

Looking forward to pic's from the euro trip, how many spare parts are you taking or is there a support van?

 

Good question Mike. Breakdown and recovery insurance in place with cover for £500 of repairs. Spare spark plugs leads, coil pack, wire, connectors, gas soldering iron crimpers tool kit etc, 2 spare fuel pumps, lift and high pressure. Spare alternator and throttle cable. Hotline to Jay to send bits out if early on in holiday, otherwise dump car and rag a hire car. 

 

Forgot the Jerry cans lol. 10 litres x2 Would take more but no room in car and 30 litres max on channel tunnel. Should give a range of just about 200 miles on a very very very light throttle.

 

Support car.. Garys kit car has blown a head gasket at the thought of going so he’s been relegated to his tin top a BMW140i which will end up with all our crap in it. 

 

Not it sure on final numbers definitely 5 kits going,  a mixed bunch from Richards self built pinto engined  locost which has been around the world a few times. He does some serious repairs on the hoof, carry’s a welder might stick with him lol. A couple of westfields one supercharged. Marks Zetec engined tiger, running around 220 bhp and race chassis. At least one Elise which is currently in bits due to a radiator fan failure, clamshell off job.

Sounds like you have most bases covered and enough people with many talents, or is it a case of Top Gear rules and just wave "by see you at the hotel"

sounds like it we be a great laugh, how many miles are you planning on doing?

33 minutes ago, mdk1 said:

Sounds like you have most bases covered and enough people with many talents, or is it a case of Top Gear rules and just wave "by see you at the hotel"

sounds like it we be a great laugh, how many miles are you planning on doing?

 

I know it sounds odd, but I don’t know. I haven’t seen the ITN files yet. Mark is waiting til the last moment to email them as there are a couple of passes still closed which we would like to do. There is a plan B just in case. I think it’s around 2500 miles. 1200 miles there and back and 250 miles a day going out and about.

 

We all have walk-in talkies so will keep in contact and those that are mechanically minded tend to help each other out. Mark does the top gear thing as he doesn’t know one end of a hammer to the other. If he hangs about he just takes the pee so he’s best out of it.

Euro trip has suddenly become real! Just received the sat nav route files. Tomorrow’s plan is meet at thetunnel for 1100, 1206 shuttle, then regroup at other end before an autoroute mile muncher to virty le François of 350km.

 

Best get packed!

Edited 25 May, 20188 yr by B33fy

I'm envious - have a great time (and fingers crossed for no mis-haps!)

All ready departing after a quick coffee French alps here I come!! Lol

 

 

So a bit of a catch up.. arrived at the Chunnel to find it rammed with holiday makers, caught up with the gang, only to find our first casualty of the trip..  starter motor on robs car was fubared, quick tinker and looks like it’s push starts all the way unless he upsets us then he’s on his own. 

 

Cars attracting quite a bit a bit of attention, all positive, humourous banter, “whacky racers” and the like.. beats your tin tops lol. Made it onto the train, then to on France, a quick regroup at the petrol station then onto the autoroute and then knuckled down for a 300km jaunt.

 

A quickish fuel stop on the autoroute, then a slight cross country full on blat to the hotel. Squeezed in a comfort break, with Robs car parked up the hill in the image.