30 Mins Later...

This morning I decided to tackle the Herculean task of sorting the front of the MX5 - specifically the dicey fill points from the previous license plate location point.

Yesterday afternoon I spent a fruitless hour trolling around Bunnings (Big DIY store) looking for some sort of spacer.

I knew I could get that sort of thing off eBay, but given I'd already removed the plate and holder I wanted it sorted this weekend - yes I am impatient!

A reminder, it looked like this:

Well, having bought a couple of screws that turned out to be "I'll be entering the radiator if I use that" sort of length, I was left with only the objects in my garage...


So this

And a bit of this

Left me with this

Which I'm so very happy about really. It's a million miles away from where I started, and I can't wait to see it out on the street to compare it with what it used to look like.

Pro-tip (not from a pro) - keep everything that's been unbolted, if I decide to sell the car I can in fact put it exactly back to how I bought it, minus the leaks...

Rainy Day

A little known fact is that the Sunshine Coast in Queensland has more annual rainfall than the Cotswolds in the UK. Look it up... (I'll save you, 1,400mm vs 850mm. "Sunshine")
An even stranger fact is that this year I believe that happened in it's entirety in the second week of October (this fact may in fact not be a fact, as a matter of fact).

Anyway, it's beyond mildly damp out, and as I've discovered the MX5 has the handling characteristics of one of those super size shopping carts with the fixed front wheels, when it's wet.

That and I don't like sitting in a tent when it's raining so I'm not about to experiment with 100Kph in one either.

So what to do, I need to do something... and then it struck me, I'd put the heaters down in the garage this last week - queue tropical sauna in the garage music???

And so I bought this:

The reason? This picture doesn't do it justice to how yellowed they were:

Considering I've been working my way through a heap of minor fixes, getting the lights sorted was certainly on the list.

Here's a halfway pic - you can see the difference is night and day, pardon the pun...

And the finished look?

Overall, I'm very happy with the outcome.
And whilst I'm not about to do a product review, I'll do some pointers...

• For $36 it's a bargain - $48 if you go to Repco instead of Super-Cheap (same product)
• RainX was the one that had a UV stabaliser - this is something that a few have said is important. As the car lives in a dark(ish) garage most of the time I think we'll be alright.
• They're not perfect, but given a single factory replacement light is ten times the price, good enough till I have the funds to get after market (and swap out/back on choice).

Application was easy enough, about an hour all up, but have extra cloths ready, you'll need one to clean the lights in between applications and one to put on the final coat.

Also, what is "generous" - I do think to quantify against a universal known would be better. Something like "three pea sized blobs" or similar would work. 

Overall, am I happy? I'm $36 and an hour happy. But if I were buying some lights second hand I'd probably not buy these. A major buff though, and they might come good. Certainly there's enough gubins to do at least another two sets till I get through it all (If I'm "generous").

Edit: The eagle eyed will notice the sort of snake bite mark above the number plate. This is where the standard plate went, this car I think had a car bra (haha, never!) as the plate is held on from underneath and there's velcro stick on pads in the bonnet. This is the next job...

Lesson time

There are many videos of Nurburgring, and probably many that have voice overs of "aarrrrrrgghhhh sheeeeet" and similar.

But this one is an unpretentious car (an Up) and generally a good lap, and by good lap I mean faster by a minute than Clarkson in a Jaaaag...

Edit: So, I saw a 9:06 on that stopwatch. I had a go in Assetto with the NA MX5 (a car close to my heart), it has to be around similar weight and power. And I wasn't even close.

In fact, it takes a pretty fancy car, and a fancy bit of driving to get somwhere in the ballpark for that time... Wow

Good Times

Cleaning out old folders on the PC the other day and I came across my GT5 back catalogue of pictures.

We've moved on for sure - last night I raced the X-Bow at Zandvoort and it has to be one of the best races I've ever had, the handling, the track, the multiple attempts following spinning out...

But in some ways it's not GT5, and certainly (thankfully) not GT Sport.

Back then you could buy a banger and probably get it somewhere near race ready. I give you:

Just popping to the shops

Temperamental but best FWD 

Artistic if not fastest

Loved the modifications for this car

Original brat pack..

George, Baloo and me

Subtle modding

Even rally was fun (mostly)