Rexanne - Gold s2 restoration project

[Steve-A]

Well yesterday afternoon I made the first baby steps on my project, so I thought I\'d get a thread started.

Firstly, I\'m Steve and over the past 6 months I fitted a 13b into my mx5, as some of you may have seen at rotorstock. Its turned out amazing and makes for a fantastic drivers car. Unfortunately in the time between the project starting and completing it I now need to do many more miles and I cannot afford to use the 13b mx5 as my daily driver.

After lots of thought I\'ve decided to sell the 13b mx5, but a normal mx5 for daily use and re-invest the money from the sale into restoring a 1st gen.

When I was looking for an engine and gearbox for my mx5 I spotted a bargain on ebay. A760 EPH was a gold s2 1st gen that hadn\'t moved in 10 years, and to the untrained eyes of my friends and I looked like it wasn\'t far off getting back on the road! ( I\'ve read since it was posted in the \'how many first gens running\' thread that it was probably just a breaker!) Not only did it look an interesting car project for my friend but it came with an s4 13b and gearbox as the previous owner had planned to do a conversion but never got that far.

The auction ended at £281, which was a total bargain really. Ever since we went to view the car before the auction ended I had a bit of a soft spot for it. There\'s something about it that has so much character, so when I\'m looking for a 1st gen project and Ross was loosing interest in it for various reasons it was the natural choice.

So picture time... Here\'s how she stood when we arrived at Ross\'s aunts where she was stored:




First thing to do was to loosely re-assemble the rear end so it can be pushed around, and onto a trailer to transport to mine soon. Ross had taken it to bits to start refurbing the suspension links but got not further than taking it to bits really.



He/we had already stripped the rear seats out to investigate the rust better, so we took it all out of the car and organised it. I\'ve brought it all home with me now to clean and store in a dry environment.

With all the stuff out of the car its fairly clean inside. Thought its very obvious how bad the rust on the upper suspension link mounts is.




Finally we got any remaining water out of the car, there\'s some rust holes round the lower edge of the rear hatch letting rain in, and put a car cover over her till I can come and collect her in a week or two.



Thats as far as we got yesterday. I\'ve gotta do some work on the garden to make room for her next then organise a trailer to transport her to her resting place for the next few months while I fix her up.

The plans once I\'ve get her here is to sort out the welding thats needed on the front wing, both upper suspension link mounts, both rear sills and the small holes round the rear hatch. Then it will need a complete set of bushes, and all new brake lines. That should get it through an MOT I should think.

After that I think I\'d like to fit some appropriate retro japanese wheels, quite possibly Watanabes. I\'d like to try and get hold of the re-speed \'coilover\' kit front and rear to improve the definitely aging standard stuff on this car. The interior is in prettygo condition really, but not sure whether it will stay or if its a weekend car it may get stripped for fixed back buckets and that race car feel. Engine wise its currently got a powerflow full system on it, but is otherwise standard. I\'m quite tempted by the idea of twin throttle bodies, in a webber IDA style design, with Megasquirt fuel injection and using 2nd gen CAs and coils for electronic ignition timing. On the other hand maybe a 13b would find its way in.

Finally from me today, about the name. Project cars have to be girls. They cant be boys, they need too much time and love and attention and are far to unpredictable and touchy Ross has generally called it \'the rex\', so my friend Ian suggested Rexanne, and then if any warning lights come on we could sing \'you don\'t have to put on your red light....\' with an appropriate era of music reference!:rollin

[evans.I]

Wahey! Glad the name \'Rexanne\' stuck Look forward to the progress on this and also lending a hand from time to time

Ian.

[Brett]

Looking fairly typical for rust - nthing too difficult its just time consuming making up the panels.

Found any real horror stories?

:wave

[Ian65]

Welcome to the fold Steve, I\'m glad this cars going to get the attention it deserves.... she was always too good to break but us seasoned 1st gen\'ers could see that she needed lots of tlc.
Looking forward to seeing your mods and improvements...
Let\'s hope every little thing she does is magic!.........sorry!

[Steve-A]

No real horror so far.

The section I photographed looks worse from the outside! The rear of both sills is pretty gone, wont know how badly till I get the outter sill cut back.

There\'s plenty of surface rust about, and as I said pretty much every bush on the car is perished to hell.

But the engine starts and runs great, Ross\'s aunt lives up a private lane so we\'ve run her up and down there through the gears and stuff and she felt fine. Aside from a little wear on the drivers seat the interior is fine all electrics work properly etc. All the trim is present and all orginal and in pretty good nick really. The paint comes up nicely where its not rotted away.

I think she\'ll be pretty nice when done

haha Ian. I can tell the theme of police lyrics is gonna have to run and run.....

[captainbizzaro]

Hiya Steve, good to see you settling in in the 1st gen section. It\'s great to see so many FB\'s recieving some TLC at the moment.

[David Nock (RIP)]

Hi Steve. \'Rexanne\' it is then. We\'ve got \'Gus\' and Tim\'s got \'Nev\', but you did say project cars so maybe we\'re OK.

[TiddlesRX7]

Arn\'t all 1st gen\'s project cars! Sorry couldn\'t resist. Steve looks like you\'ve bagged a bargin. Looking at the work you did on the 5 im sure Rexanne will be back on the road in no time. Go on drop a 13BT in her you know you want to.

P.S how much you after for the 5?

[CHC (RIP)]

Hi Steve - welcome to the RX7 1st Gen.  As said by others this isn\'t just a hobby it\'s shear didication but definitely worth the experience.
My project is JAZ and after 6 months of very regular evening and weekend tlc I\'m nearly there, so soon I\'ll be able to say "I\'ve been driving in my car" and it isn\'t a jaguar.

You will come across a number of issues where \'this is the place to solve them\'.  The wealth of experience, useful suggestions and leads cannot be surpassed anywhere else.
Remember - plenty of photos for the forum.
Cliff
:Thumbs-up

[Steve-A]

haha Tiddles, I guess they are!

I\'m struggling to value my mx5. I know stock mx5 of my condition (once I\'ve swapped drivers door), age, uk model, etc go for £1500ish. Turbo/supercharged version with similar mods to mine in terms of handling and interior seem to go for £2700-£4000 depending on how well those mods have been executed and how well written the add is! Nice clean turboed mx5s with 200+ hp can often go for more like £5,000. I\'d like ot think considering the rarety of the build, and the large amount of custom fabrication gone into it, along side the fact that its an easy swap to 13bt and biiiig power that £5k wont be unrealistic. Time will tell once I get in on the market. I don\'t think it will appeal to many, but those who like it will really like it and so I\'m hopeful!

Cheers Cliff, I shall be posting plenty of pictures. This thread will still for a few weeks now though while I help my mum re-locate her vegetable patch to make room for the rx7!

[captainbizzaro]

You\'ve got to admire the dedication of someone willing to move an entire vegetable patch!

[Steve-A]

Yes, I cannot say how much it means to me that my mum has given up her vegetable plot for me to take on this project. Realistically between work and a very tough time with my girlfriend having the car project this summer has really held me together. It, whether its just me whiling days away fettling things or saturdays with car type friends all mucking in together and having a laugh, has given me something to be happy about when I\'ve been struggling.

I think my parents see this, so even as I\'m 23 and looking to move out in the not so distant future my mums relocating things so I can have take on Rexanne. I\'m looking forward to many more happy hours with my socket set and the guys!

[Hobbawobba]

Hope to see this around malvern when its completed! Do you guys have another red mx5 by any chance? haha.

[Steve-A]

It\'ll be making loud noises around Malvern in a few months time I\'m sure!

Yes, I\'ve got my highly modified one and my mums got s totally standard one, both in classic red.

I\'ve not seen any 7s around Malvern, I\'ll keep an eye out for you!

[Hobbawobba]

Haha sweet, looking foward to it. I\'ve only seen 2 7\'s in malvern before, both of which seem to of been passing through.

Ah yes, I walk past them every day when I\'m walking to work!

Whoops! I should of said it before, but I don\'t actually have a 7 . I am trying to learn as much about them as I can before I hopefully get an FD one day! Although it would be cool to get an FB to learn in, depending on how much insurance is? (I\'m 20 and don\'t yet know how to drive :\'( )