General bits of maintenance...

 Poppy needed some general maintenance done a couple of weeks back. Spark plugs were changed with very little effort (although one of Tom's leads split - whole different, rather long story!) and then it was on to a full oil and filter change. These are meant to be done every three months or something but, due to not actually being made of money, I can't really afford to spend £30 on a fresh flush of oil and a new oil filter, plus about another £15 for the spark plugs, quite that often - once a year will suffice as long as she's running well, for now, I think!

She had to be put on ramps, which was utterly terrifying to drive her up to, not least due to how low she is. Then it was on to taking the filler cap off, undoing the plug on the sump and letting the oil drain out into a waiting bowl. As you can probably see, I missed somewhat as wasn't expecting the oil to spurt quite that far! The socket required for the sump plug was a surprisingly large one - 19, and it took a bit of doing to get it undone.



Once that was, eventually, completed and the oil was draining out slowly, it was on to getting the oil filter extractor thingy round the oil filter, attaching an extender bar and cracking it off. As I have the smaller  hands of Tom and I, that one was my job - once the engine had cooled down a little, it wasn't awful. Admittedly, you can't see anything at all when your hand's underneath the engine trying to twist the oil filter off! Once the extractor was wrapped round and the bar was attached, it took a bit of effort to push against it but the filter cracked off without too much trouble.

The difficult bit then is to remove the extractor and bar and to twist the filter off by hand. It requires a quick, deft flick of the wrist to stop the filter from draining out oil all over the engine and then some manoeuvring to get it out in total but, after all that, it was absolutely worth it: it had far too much metal in it for my liking!

Nonetheless, replacing the new filter was easy, just with a little manoeuvring in around the pipes and lines, but it took far less time than getting it out did! The sump plug's washer was replaced and the plug put back in, and tightened to the required  level, and, after wiping up and getting rid of the used oil, the oil and filter change was complete!

Apparently, I did it so well that Tom got me to do his a couple of days ago! Just as straightforward although his oil was a damn sight hotter - ouch!

Fitting the CB

* With thanks to my wonderful boyfriend, Tom, for doing most of the work here while I made dinner! *

Just we did like in Scarlett, we decided to fit a CB radio into Poppy. It was fairly easy with Scarlett so we thought it'd be just the same this time 'round. How wrong we were...

Unlike in the Mk2, the MK1 radio mount is fiddly and in an extra hole in the boot so, while swapping the aerials round wasn't too bad (just watch your paintwork!), screwing the aerial cable on to the base of the aerial was a bloody nightmare. In the end, my little fingers came in handy in doing this bit but it still took us a good 15 minutes!

That done, we attempted to remove the radio/clock cubby and radio to have a look behind and swap in the CB etc. Sounds simple, right? Yeah...or not. Firstly, whoever had the car previously and fitted the remote locking had glued the clock cubby back in and that was, frankly, just a state. Secondly, as photos to be uploaded soon will show, we got the clock out and...wow. Well, I've never seen wires THAT messy. Tom was pretty worried about the safety, too. There was a ridiculously long, curled up, cable in the space too - I'd found a disconnected end of a cable in the boot that didn't seem to go anywhere after my MOT anyhow and we'd not been able to work out what it did. It did, it seems, nothing as it connected to the metre of cabling behind the radio that ended in yet another unconnected connecter. Er, what? Tom reckons it was once a CD changer but was now a complete waste of good space. Took the wire cutters to it, anyhow, and successfully removed 2 metres of utterly pointless cable. Weight and space saving too!

The black box confused us for a while - transpires that's the immobiliser. For anyone wondering, it seems that disconnecting the immobiliser from its cabling to fiddle around behind the radio is perfectly safe and the car will still start after! Nonetheless, with that in the way, the CB was never going to go in so I left Tom trying to move all that to the back in the spaces while I got on with dinner.

A little later, when I wandered outside to check, it transpired that the radio was pretty much jammed in, too, so we spent 10 minutes or so fiddling around with screwdrivers trying to press down the metal spokes on the side to get that out - eventual success (though putting it back in later was as much of a hassle again!). It also transpired, with all these bits out and the wiring tidied a little (Tom wants to put some real work into that but last night wasn't the time and we didn't have all the equipment we needed), that my CB has the aerial cable coming straight out of the middle. This is fine. Except that my car has a metal brace straight down the middle of the radio slot - that's going to need a bloody big hole drilled in it! CB doesn't quite fill up the hole either, although, admittedly, neither did the clock cubby: I suspect that this was why it had been glued in.

Not to worry - we still need to order a new Mic for mine as we only had one lying around the house. Possibly with a couple of adjustable/angled aerial mounts - both on the MX-5s are off at a slightly jaunty angle! So...lots to do, but we're getting there :-) Having a CB in the car should be a laugh, especially as Tom and I are planning a cross-Europe road trip in September with both cars and a couple of friends. Fun fun!

It was all going so well...

So, yesterday,  Poppy went in for her MOT. I wasn't massively hopeful as she does have a crack in her windscreen (oh, ok, two!) but I wasn't expecting how badly she was going to fail.

It transpires that she has a cracked rear coil spring, so really needs both of those doing, as well as the boots on both track rod ends and the o/s front upper suspension boot being dead. Not ideal and three fails on the MOT, not including a whole host of corrosion-related advisories (hey, she's 23 yrs old, what can you expect?). So she's going in to be fixed by a nice local mechanic on Friday (MOT runs out tomorrow) before a retest. Poor little lamb!

Poppy's curious structural integrity aside, it's a bit of a blow to the bank balance - £345 in total inc. parts and labour, which is a damn sight better than the £700 quoted by another mechanic, but nonetheless not ideal. Oh well, at least that'll be coil springs and boots done for a few years I suppose :-)

Poppy's Interior

I went outside today to take some photos of Poppy's interior as is:

My PG Tips monkey lives in the ashtray...'cause, y'know, why not? Either way, the interior is tidy.

 Headrest speakers, a roll bar and wind break too.

 MOMO steering wheel

Pretty standard centre console, although the bluetooth radio is pretty good.

Chrome trim looks good but am considering different coloured dials and red needles. Hmm.

Not strictly the interior but I absolutely love this little touch.










So that's how Poppy currently looks; this will be updated as and when I modify her - give something of a datum off which to work, anyhow. Hope you all enjoy the pictures!

Snow!

So, lets be honest here, I'm a wimp when it comes to driving. 

I categorically hated taking the Astra out in the snow (this may have been something to do with once skidding and driving straight into a bank...a bank of earth, that is, not a money lending facility) and that wasn't a rear wheel drive. The MX-5 grips much betters on the roads as a general rule, although that'd arguably not be all that difficult, but is apparently a right nightmare to drive in the ice and snow. Of course, me being me, I heard these rumours and, at the first sign of any snow, panicked. 

I'm glad I didn't go out last night, mind, as an almost 40 mile drive in the snow, down a few steep hills (and back up on the way home...) in a new, rear wheel drive car would have been...er...a laugh. Seriously though, I don't feel that my life is worth gambling with in that way - or my bank account contents, for that matter.

That said, we went out and got some pics of Poppy looking very chilly - I drew a heart on her boot, mostly for entertainment's sake, but it has come out very well!




Today has dawned a beautiful, crisp, sunny day with a couple of inches of snow here. So I hope everyone has fun driving today. But be safe!

Poppy's first long run

Well, yesterday, I took Poppy from Reading up to Banbury for work. I was secretly dreading the drive up as I thought her fuel economy would be sod all but, actually, she did very well and we got 260km out of half a tank. As it only took me 25 litres to fill her up from "almost empty", suggesting that her gauge is screwed, that's damn good really. Anyway, she drove like a dream, purring happily up the A34.

I took her to Abingdon today, with work again, and thoroughly enjoyed the drive. Admittedly, it was soured somewhat by the exceptional road rage incident I encountered while passing a lorry up a hill, again on the A34 - I'm not entirely sure where the bloke behind me expected me to go when he spent a few hundred metres tailgating me and beeping his horn. Idiot. She was, however, suitably admired at the Abingdon office - glad my colleagues have taste ;-)

I forgot, too - I need to change the horn for a less pathetic one (the current is definitely not in keeping with the rest of the car's image) and I'd like to get a more practical ashtray replacement. All the current one is good for is my PG tips monkey living in it.

Anyone want to buy a Mk1 ashtray?!

Welcome!

Welcome, welcome, one and all. Come in, make yourselves at home while I put the kettle on...

This is my blog about my beautiful new 1989 MX-5 Mk1, Poppy, and the journey she's (hopefully!) going to go through over the next few years in my mission to make her as perfect as she can be. Quite frankly, she's not far off as yet but I think we can improve her a little.

I bought Poppy last week for, frankly, very little. She'd been acquired by a 19 year old as his second car (*ahem*) and he realised that he couldn't afford the insurance as it was worth twice what she was. I had no intentions of buying an MX-5 to replace my faithful, but rather tired, little Astra but the boyfriend convinced me to go and see her. He bought his MX-5, Scarlett, to replace his Peugeot at the very beginning of January and absolutely fell in love with her - he thought I might like one too.

Well, having seen her at her previous home and had a look around, I was smitten. Didn't drive her that day, as I wasn't sure about driving a car so utterly different to anything I'd ever driven, but the boyfriend had a quick drive. Well, that was it - she drove wonderfully, apparently, and I decided to buy her there and then. Yes, without ever having driven her.

The following day, we went down and picked her up - I drove her home, via a pub for some dinner, and she really was wonderful. Took a bit of getting used to, considering I'd only been driving an Astra for the previous 2 1/2 years, but I did fall for her well and truly.

Poppy has a twin exhaust and beautiful chrome blower trims, as well as an awful lot of the cute additions that came with her actually being an Eunos import, such as the 'Roadster' emblazoned passenger mat, and a pretty good bluetooth radio. However, my wish list for the next few months:

• New black mohair hood with a glass screen (my vinyl/PVC one is in pretty good nick, albeit with a few minor tears, but I'm not loving the PVC rear window). 
• New dials - possibly white with red needles.
• New mats.
• Digital clock, or at least an analogue upgrade.
• Fit central locking (we have the bits, it just needs installed). 
• Possibly improve the fuel economy. Somehow. Bless her, she does seem quite thirsty.

Oh, and I've spares to sell so if anyone needs a tonneau cover or, in a few months, a good condition, albeit not perfect, cheap hood, do let me know!