After numerous request (well, one from Stevo) I thought I would do a build diary for the conversion, and track the progress of follow Shelby Cobra's recipe for the AC, that of using a small light sportscar, and stuff it full of American muscle.
So keep your eyes peeled, and will try and update this page whenever I get the chance with pics and words of not so much wisdom
Be warned, this will be a strictly adult only forum as chances are there will be lots of swearing and cursing when I realise that things don't fit, have wrong parts etc.
HSV MX5
Moderators: LilRay.Sun, Furai, Growler, zorruno, jif
I actually have already started work on the car, so a few of these first posts are going to be retrospective and I will try and put the dates in the post as close as I can remember
Firstly I would like to state that I am not mechanically minded, and so am learning as I go, and may call the odd thing by the wrong name, or make a blindly obvious mistake.
I have been thinking about doing something with a MX-5 for a while now, as I knew that they were pretty good handlers, but just lacking the power that they should have been to be true sports car. I have had numerous first gen RX7's, but although they were great handlers and nice and light, the steering system in them were rubbish (same as the B2000 ute of the same era) so sort of spoiled things. The MX-5 is about the same weight and size as the first gen RX-7, so after my last Series III was sold, I turned to look at the MX-5.
So, as you can gather the original plan was to put a 13B rotary engine in it. In my quest to figure out to how (and who) to do the conversion, someone put the idea of a V8 into one of the little cars, and I thought, why not, I owned a few quick turbos (various modified Subaru's) and quick rotaries (said First Gen RX-7's mentioned) but haven't had any real V8's (the BMW 740i didn't count, too big, too quiet). Looked into a bit further, as was concerned over the weight gain of the engine, and at that time discovered that the engine in the MX-5 was not exactly a feather weight, being a cast iron block.
Firstly I would like to state that I am not mechanically minded, and so am learning as I go, and may call the odd thing by the wrong name, or make a blindly obvious mistake.
I have been thinking about doing something with a MX-5 for a while now, as I knew that they were pretty good handlers, but just lacking the power that they should have been to be true sports car. I have had numerous first gen RX7's, but although they were great handlers and nice and light, the steering system in them were rubbish (same as the B2000 ute of the same era) so sort of spoiled things. The MX-5 is about the same weight and size as the first gen RX-7, so after my last Series III was sold, I turned to look at the MX-5.
So, as you can gather the original plan was to put a 13B rotary engine in it. In my quest to figure out to how (and who) to do the conversion, someone put the idea of a V8 into one of the little cars, and I thought, why not, I owned a few quick turbos (various modified Subaru's) and quick rotaries (said First Gen RX-7's mentioned) but haven't had any real V8's (the BMW 740i didn't count, too big, too quiet). Looked into a bit further, as was concerned over the weight gain of the engine, and at that time discovered that the engine in the MX-5 was not exactly a feather weight, being a cast iron block.
So which V8?
After having picked the type of engine to use, it was then trying to figure out who's V8 to use.
First up to look at was the Rover 3.5/4.0 all alloy V8. Supposedly about the same weight as the 1.6 in my 1990. Problem was, the design of the engine was pretty old, not a great deal of a power increase for the trouble, and surprisingly not a lot of them around the place.
The Lexus 4.0 seemed like a logical choice, smallish unit, so in theory light weight (only about 30kg more than the 1.6 I think) and cheap to buy. Having a bit of a look around it seemed like there was already a few of this type of conversion done in NZ, but had a bit of difficulties in finding someone who actually had done the conversion, and willing to do it again.
I hit the internet to see what other options might be out there, and what do you know, those crazy American's have been shoving in V8's into the little car for a while now.
Choices of engine were of course either the GM LS series or the Ford V8. Now, normally my feet are firmly planted in the blue corner rather than the red (Ford for the Aussies and Subaru for the Japs) but since the engine used in the US conversion's was out of the Mustang, which is a different motor to the 5.4 in the Falcon, I had to conced defeat and switch camps for this build. The Falcon V8 is a lot heavier, and taller than that of the Mustang, and at the time of looking, didn't want the extra hassle of bringing in a motor from the US. The GM motor is much the same in the Holden as that used in the used in the Corvette in the US conversion's, bar a couple of small details with the gearbox and oil sump, neither of which were going to be a show stopper.
On the plus side, the motors were narrow being a push rod, and light (only another 10kg on the Lexus) again being a push rod, oh and produce a truckload of power, 260kw to 325kw depending on which LS version used. On the down side, they are bloody expensive in NZ. This potentially going to be a show stopper as it was just starting to push the costs out way to much. They seem to be about the $4K plus mark just for the engine, without any ECU or loom. Started to consider bringing one in from the US or Aus, as they seemed a lot cheaper than buying one in NZ, plus they came with a gearbox. Then as luck would have it, stumbled on a cheap one complete with ECU, loom, and AFM. The bonus turned out to be that the engine was the last of the 5.7 LS1 motors that Holden used, and was from a R8 Maloo ute, so 285kw, instead of 260kw. Next thing to fall into my lap, was stumbling across a LSD for next to nix including the axles, again out of an R8. Talked to a friend in the HSV club, who put me onto someone selling their gearbox, again out of an R8, which also had a modified shifter, which looks be in the same place as the Camaro (which is what they use in the US). So parts acquired, next step was what kit to use.
After having picked the type of engine to use, it was then trying to figure out who's V8 to use.
First up to look at was the Rover 3.5/4.0 all alloy V8. Supposedly about the same weight as the 1.6 in my 1990. Problem was, the design of the engine was pretty old, not a great deal of a power increase for the trouble, and surprisingly not a lot of them around the place.
The Lexus 4.0 seemed like a logical choice, smallish unit, so in theory light weight (only about 30kg more than the 1.6 I think) and cheap to buy. Having a bit of a look around it seemed like there was already a few of this type of conversion done in NZ, but had a bit of difficulties in finding someone who actually had done the conversion, and willing to do it again.
I hit the internet to see what other options might be out there, and what do you know, those crazy American's have been shoving in V8's into the little car for a while now.
Choices of engine were of course either the GM LS series or the Ford V8. Now, normally my feet are firmly planted in the blue corner rather than the red (Ford for the Aussies and Subaru for the Japs) but since the engine used in the US conversion's was out of the Mustang, which is a different motor to the 5.4 in the Falcon, I had to conced defeat and switch camps for this build. The Falcon V8 is a lot heavier, and taller than that of the Mustang, and at the time of looking, didn't want the extra hassle of bringing in a motor from the US. The GM motor is much the same in the Holden as that used in the used in the Corvette in the US conversion's, bar a couple of small details with the gearbox and oil sump, neither of which were going to be a show stopper.
On the plus side, the motors were narrow being a push rod, and light (only another 10kg on the Lexus) again being a push rod, oh and produce a truckload of power, 260kw to 325kw depending on which LS version used. On the down side, they are bloody expensive in NZ. This potentially going to be a show stopper as it was just starting to push the costs out way to much. They seem to be about the $4K plus mark just for the engine, without any ECU or loom. Started to consider bringing one in from the US or Aus, as they seemed a lot cheaper than buying one in NZ, plus they came with a gearbox. Then as luck would have it, stumbled on a cheap one complete with ECU, loom, and AFM. The bonus turned out to be that the engine was the last of the 5.7 LS1 motors that Holden used, and was from a R8 Maloo ute, so 285kw, instead of 260kw. Next thing to fall into my lap, was stumbling across a LSD for next to nix including the axles, again out of an R8. Talked to a friend in the HSV club, who put me onto someone selling their gearbox, again out of an R8, which also had a modified shifter, which looks be in the same place as the Camaro (which is what they use in the US). So parts acquired, next step was what kit to use.
Last edited by Donovan on Tue Mar 22, 2011 9:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Which, oh which kit to use.
This was an immensely difficult decision. Options were either Boss Frog's kit or V8 Roadsters kit. The V8 Roadsters kit looked less bulky than the Boss Frog's kit, and claimed to be lighter a cross member than the standard MX-5 unit, so that was good. But the clincher was V8 Roadsters made a RHD kit, Boss Frog didn't.
Job Done
This was an immensely difficult decision. Options were either Boss Frog's kit or V8 Roadsters kit. The V8 Roadsters kit looked less bulky than the Boss Frog's kit, and claimed to be lighter a cross member than the standard MX-5 unit, so that was good. But the clincher was V8 Roadsters made a RHD kit, Boss Frog didn't.
Job Done
Now with all the hard decisions out of the way, it was time to think about how this was all going to go together, and still make it going around corners.
At this point I would just to state an obvious statement and never buy anything on an impulse, especially before you have got a plan in place. As even before I had purchased my MX-5 I had gone out and done the daft thing of buying a Masdaspeed Mechanical LSD, which of course I can't use. Working very hard on getting my brother to buy one, so it can go in there.
Got my hands on a set of 17" rims from someone who used them on his race car, and wrapped them in sticky Toyo R888 205/40 rubber. Think I should have gone 16", but at the time of the purchase had the full intent of putting a set of 4pots Wilwoods with 310mm rotors in there. How things change when you do some digging around. Supposedly the Yanks are running up to 255's on the back of their cars without a widebody kit, and just rolling the inside of the guard, with a different offset wheel.
At this point I would just to state an obvious statement and never buy anything on an impulse, especially before you have got a plan in place. As even before I had purchased my MX-5 I had gone out and done the daft thing of buying a Masdaspeed Mechanical LSD, which of course I can't use. Working very hard on getting my brother to buy one, so it can go in there.
Got my hands on a set of 17" rims from someone who used them on his race car, and wrapped them in sticky Toyo R888 205/40 rubber. Think I should have gone 16", but at the time of the purchase had the full intent of putting a set of 4pots Wilwoods with 310mm rotors in there. How things change when you do some digging around. Supposedly the Yanks are running up to 255's on the back of their cars without a widebody kit, and just rolling the inside of the guard, with a different offset wheel.
After new wheels.
Notice the 4x4 ride height now, time to consider suspension. I would just like to add that if that whatever plonker stuck the wheel nuts on the orginal set of wheels must have had the torque setting on his (or it could have been her's) air gun wound up to full noise, and laughing their arse off think of the next poor sod that would have to remove them (being me). Managed to snap on of those cross type wheel spanners at the weld trying to get the bloody front nuts off. First part of swearing involved in the project, and all I was doind was changing the wheels.
The other little problem experience going to the larger wheel and tyre package was the increase of weight over the little 14" wheels, a massive 5kg each wheel. So much for being light weight rims, but I guess that's what happens with more mass involved.
Notice the 4x4 ride height now, time to consider suspension. I would just like to add that if that whatever plonker stuck the wheel nuts on the orginal set of wheels must have had the torque setting on his (or it could have been her's) air gun wound up to full noise, and laughing their arse off think of the next poor sod that would have to remove them (being me). Managed to snap on of those cross type wheel spanners at the weld trying to get the bloody front nuts off. First part of swearing involved in the project, and all I was doind was changing the wheels.
The other little problem experience going to the larger wheel and tyre package was the increase of weight over the little 14" wheels, a massive 5kg each wheel. So much for being light weight rims, but I guess that's what happens with more mass involved.
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14th Jan 2011
Start of a new year, and time to play around with the car. had previously purchased a set of Tein adjustable coilovers from Mark at Mazline in CHCH (hope you guys are all back on your feet again now) and decided it was time to shove those in, along with the Roll over bar that I got from Don at Autoways in Hamilton.
Started with the Rollover bar first, cause thought that would be the simplest job, wrong!. Especially when you don't have the right tools. The drill and drill bit that I had, just weren't up to the task, and after about 20mins of trying to drill 1 simple hole, gave up in disgust and headed to the hardware store. Any excuse to buy more tools. Got a new drill and a stepper drill bit. The drill bit was just about worth as much as the drill, but man, did it make life simple. Drilled 4 holes in half the time it took not to drill 1. So half the day gone, and only have just got the roll bar in, more swearing and cursing involved.
Also, once the seats went back in, noticed a small design flaw in the roll over bar, and that the cross over pieces stop the seats from going right back. Ok for me, as I am a shorty, but not going to be so good for anyone with lanky legs. May have to address in the future.
Start of a new year, and time to play around with the car. had previously purchased a set of Tein adjustable coilovers from Mark at Mazline in CHCH (hope you guys are all back on your feet again now) and decided it was time to shove those in, along with the Roll over bar that I got from Don at Autoways in Hamilton.
Started with the Rollover bar first, cause thought that would be the simplest job, wrong!. Especially when you don't have the right tools. The drill and drill bit that I had, just weren't up to the task, and after about 20mins of trying to drill 1 simple hole, gave up in disgust and headed to the hardware store. Any excuse to buy more tools. Got a new drill and a stepper drill bit. The drill bit was just about worth as much as the drill, but man, did it make life simple. Drilled 4 holes in half the time it took not to drill 1. So half the day gone, and only have just got the roll bar in, more swearing and cursing involved.
Also, once the seats went back in, noticed a small design flaw in the roll over bar, and that the cross over pieces stop the seats from going right back. Ok for me, as I am a shorty, but not going to be so good for anyone with lanky legs. May have to address in the future.
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Last edited by Donovan on Tue Mar 22, 2011 10:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
14th Jan 2011
So after stuffing around with the roll over bar, was still a sucker for punishment, and decided to have a go at the suspension as well in the same day. Rear end easy. Then worked on the Front LHS, after about 2 hours finally figured out how to do it and got it in. With knowledge in hand takled RHS, and completed in 30mins. Pays to know what you are doing before doing it sometimes. Slapped it back together, left everything set to how it come out of the box, and took it for a quick drive to make sure it all didn't fall apart on me (which it didn't).
So after stuffing around with the roll over bar, was still a sucker for punishment, and decided to have a go at the suspension as well in the same day. Rear end easy. Then worked on the Front LHS, after about 2 hours finally figured out how to do it and got it in. With knowledge in hand takled RHS, and completed in 30mins. Pays to know what you are doing before doing it sometimes. Slapped it back together, left everything set to how it come out of the box, and took it for a quick drive to make sure it all didn't fall apart on me (which it didn't).
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24th Jan 2011
So with armed with new tyres and suspension, and after having a quick chat to the local Tein supplier about how to make adjustments, headed down to Hampton to do some testing and some fiddling around with settings.
It is here that I learnt that the early MX5's weren't exactly designed to go around a track more than 2 or 3 times, and it started overheating, problem apparently to do with the massive gap at the top just in front of the radiator, which meant when push come to shove, most of the air was taking the quickest route and going straight over the top of the radiator, this was discovered after a quick chat to some of the other guys running MX5's there on the day, and them having been thru the same pain. So testing was limited. What I did discover is that with the damper setting set to it's firmest both on the front and rear, the car was damn near impossible to drive, and just bounced all over the place. And this was on a racetrack!!. God only when people would use this setting, certainly not on the road. Time was about the 1min 30's when not cooking itself and top speed a miserly 145kph. Don't know how accurate that is, as just took it off a GPS tracking software on my phone.
Next on the agenda, brakes.
So with armed with new tyres and suspension, and after having a quick chat to the local Tein supplier about how to make adjustments, headed down to Hampton to do some testing and some fiddling around with settings.
It is here that I learnt that the early MX5's weren't exactly designed to go around a track more than 2 or 3 times, and it started overheating, problem apparently to do with the massive gap at the top just in front of the radiator, which meant when push come to shove, most of the air was taking the quickest route and going straight over the top of the radiator, this was discovered after a quick chat to some of the other guys running MX5's there on the day, and them having been thru the same pain. So testing was limited. What I did discover is that with the damper setting set to it's firmest both on the front and rear, the car was damn near impossible to drive, and just bounced all over the place. And this was on a racetrack!!. God only when people would use this setting, certainly not on the road. Time was about the 1min 30's when not cooking itself and top speed a miserly 145kph. Don't know how accurate that is, as just took it off a GPS tracking software on my phone.
Next on the agenda, brakes.
19th Feb 2011
The Big Brake Through.
All of you that have been following my post will recollect, the idea was to run with a set of 4pot Willwoods on a 310mm Rotor. When I started poking around and getting pricing together, it was turning out to be rather expensive. The most expensive part of the whole process was the making up of the aluminum hats for the rotors, and cost where coming in at about $2.5K plus GST. So hit the net again, to see what our friends over in the good old USA had about the place. And what do you know, I could buy a set of 6Pot Willwoods, 280mm front rotors, 270mm rear rotors, steel braided lines front and rear and brake pad front and rear for pretty much the same price as what it was going to cost me just for the 4pots and rotors in NZ. So scratched my head for a while about whether the downsize in rotor size was going to be compensated by the 6pots, and decided to go for it. A lot of this price comparison came down to the fact that the NZ was up to 80c against the US at the time ($1990USD for the 6 pot kit)
Brakes were supplied by Goodwin racing, and a full set of instructions were supplied that an idiot could follow, which is good, because an idiot was fitting them (me). Got them on, drained the brake system, well that had been done removing the old calipers, and filled it back up with hi-temp synthetic Dot4 fluid (you will notice the mess I made from the photos, that's cause I didn't have a bleed hose at the time, but I do now). Bleed the brakes and had a problem with the LHS front caliper just leaking a little bit under pressure, from the connection of the braided line to the caliper. Ended up pulling that side out, and trying to figure out what was going on, ended up just tightening the crap out of it, and that sorted it. Put the wheels on, spun them, and then heard a lovely grinding noise. The splash guard on the front brakes were scraping up against the back of the rotor (no problem on the back rotors, as I had to cut the guard away). So take the wheels off the front again, and make some careful adjustments with a knockometer (smack the crap out of it with a hammer). Put it back together, spin, quiet, good. Spin, turn steering wheel, grinding sound, more swearing, take wheels off, adjust braided lines. These things don't seem to flex as much out of the way as the old rubber ones, so a bit more care and thought is needed when tightening them up as to where they are going to go when the wheel is turned from lock to lock.
Right, this time, spin, turn steering wheel, quiet, good. Drop the car back to the ground, take it for a short spin, all good, but a bit spongy on the pedal. Bleed the system one more time to get all the air out, and go for another blast, and man oh man, what a difference. Nice firm hard pedal with lots of feel.
Now the fun part, beed the pads in. Find a deserted piece of road, and thrash the brakes. Slowly and gently at first, and then hard and fast towards the end, until the whole thing is stinky and hot (inset crude joke here, cause I know you are all thinking it). Take car back home slowly and quietly to let the system cool down, and park up in the garage with the hand brake off.
One thing that did happen, was the rears where locking up under the real hard braking, I assume due to that fact I had the front and rear suspension set to the softest damper setting, and the front were grabbing big time, making the nose dive, and shifting the weight balance right forward, and making the rear nice and light. Have made some adjustments to the suspension since then to stiffen up the front slightly, but haven't had a chance to test out since then.
Brakes done, what's next. Oh that's right, that large piece of alloy to be fitted called and engine. Suppose I better get the kit sorted out then.
The Big Brake Through.
All of you that have been following my post will recollect, the idea was to run with a set of 4pot Willwoods on a 310mm Rotor. When I started poking around and getting pricing together, it was turning out to be rather expensive. The most expensive part of the whole process was the making up of the aluminum hats for the rotors, and cost where coming in at about $2.5K plus GST. So hit the net again, to see what our friends over in the good old USA had about the place. And what do you know, I could buy a set of 6Pot Willwoods, 280mm front rotors, 270mm rear rotors, steel braided lines front and rear and brake pad front and rear for pretty much the same price as what it was going to cost me just for the 4pots and rotors in NZ. So scratched my head for a while about whether the downsize in rotor size was going to be compensated by the 6pots, and decided to go for it. A lot of this price comparison came down to the fact that the NZ was up to 80c against the US at the time ($1990USD for the 6 pot kit)
Brakes were supplied by Goodwin racing, and a full set of instructions were supplied that an idiot could follow, which is good, because an idiot was fitting them (me). Got them on, drained the brake system, well that had been done removing the old calipers, and filled it back up with hi-temp synthetic Dot4 fluid (you will notice the mess I made from the photos, that's cause I didn't have a bleed hose at the time, but I do now). Bleed the brakes and had a problem with the LHS front caliper just leaking a little bit under pressure, from the connection of the braided line to the caliper. Ended up pulling that side out, and trying to figure out what was going on, ended up just tightening the crap out of it, and that sorted it. Put the wheels on, spun them, and then heard a lovely grinding noise. The splash guard on the front brakes were scraping up against the back of the rotor (no problem on the back rotors, as I had to cut the guard away). So take the wheels off the front again, and make some careful adjustments with a knockometer (smack the crap out of it with a hammer). Put it back together, spin, quiet, good. Spin, turn steering wheel, grinding sound, more swearing, take wheels off, adjust braided lines. These things don't seem to flex as much out of the way as the old rubber ones, so a bit more care and thought is needed when tightening them up as to where they are going to go when the wheel is turned from lock to lock.
Right, this time, spin, turn steering wheel, quiet, good. Drop the car back to the ground, take it for a short spin, all good, but a bit spongy on the pedal. Bleed the system one more time to get all the air out, and go for another blast, and man oh man, what a difference. Nice firm hard pedal with lots of feel.
Now the fun part, beed the pads in. Find a deserted piece of road, and thrash the brakes. Slowly and gently at first, and then hard and fast towards the end, until the whole thing is stinky and hot (inset crude joke here, cause I know you are all thinking it). Take car back home slowly and quietly to let the system cool down, and park up in the garage with the hand brake off.
One thing that did happen, was the rears where locking up under the real hard braking, I assume due to that fact I had the front and rear suspension set to the softest damper setting, and the front were grabbing big time, making the nose dive, and shifting the weight balance right forward, and making the rear nice and light. Have made some adjustments to the suspension since then to stiffen up the front slightly, but haven't had a chance to test out since then.
Brakes done, what's next. Oh that's right, that large piece of alloy to be fitted called and engine. Suppose I better get the kit sorted out then.
V8 Kit
As those of you following the progress of the build and post, you will have seen that I have already selected the type of kit that I was going with, which was being made by V8 Roadsters in the US. I decided to get this in fact via Flyin Miata, as the price was the same, but Flyin Miata had a few more other bits and pieces that I could get. So this needed some careful planning and figuring out of what I get cheaper here in NZ, what I wasn't going to be able to use from the US, and what was possibly going to go either way.
If you have had a look at the full parts list for the V8 conversion, they have they whole lot list out which can be purchased seperatly, from nuts and bolt, to the full monty, meaning the amount spend on their catalogue of parts is from not very much to USD$30K.
So on my shopping list went the engine and transmission mount kit, rearward mounted for a RHD car, a larger replacement clutch Master cylinder to drive the T56, a clutch kit, as it was about $300 cheaper buying it from the US than the cheapest Trade price in NZ (I have a mate who works for AA so can get me some stuff at trade), low profile oil pan, Frog Arm front stiffeners, Polyurethane front air dam (why, cause it was there) and last on the list the Block hugger headers, which only USD$300, and looking at $2K to get them made up in NZ. The headers are a bit of an unknown, as Flyin Miata weren't sure whether they would clear the steering column being on the other side from them. But I though for the price, if the do fit, or are even just a little bit out and can be easily shaped to fit, then it is going to save me some big bucks. And if they don't fit, well, I guess it wasn't an overly expensive lesson.
I was tossing up whether bring in the electronic to mechanical convertor for the speedo, at the speed output on the T56 is electronic only, but this was heading to be around USD$600 by time I got all the other bits as well, so will try with fitting an NB speedo cluster in it (which I got from 2LOW2C, with the plugs and wiring, thank you), and see if we can get that working.
So order placed on the 20th of Jan, money transferred, bank account empty, and have to wait a month and a half for the gear to arrive.
Now the joys of trying to get it out of the States.
As those of you following the progress of the build and post, you will have seen that I have already selected the type of kit that I was going with, which was being made by V8 Roadsters in the US. I decided to get this in fact via Flyin Miata, as the price was the same, but Flyin Miata had a few more other bits and pieces that I could get. So this needed some careful planning and figuring out of what I get cheaper here in NZ, what I wasn't going to be able to use from the US, and what was possibly going to go either way.
If you have had a look at the full parts list for the V8 conversion, they have they whole lot list out which can be purchased seperatly, from nuts and bolt, to the full monty, meaning the amount spend on their catalogue of parts is from not very much to USD$30K.
So on my shopping list went the engine and transmission mount kit, rearward mounted for a RHD car, a larger replacement clutch Master cylinder to drive the T56, a clutch kit, as it was about $300 cheaper buying it from the US than the cheapest Trade price in NZ (I have a mate who works for AA so can get me some stuff at trade), low profile oil pan, Frog Arm front stiffeners, Polyurethane front air dam (why, cause it was there) and last on the list the Block hugger headers, which only USD$300, and looking at $2K to get them made up in NZ. The headers are a bit of an unknown, as Flyin Miata weren't sure whether they would clear the steering column being on the other side from them. But I though for the price, if the do fit, or are even just a little bit out and can be easily shaped to fit, then it is going to save me some big bucks. And if they don't fit, well, I guess it wasn't an overly expensive lesson.
I was tossing up whether bring in the electronic to mechanical convertor for the speedo, at the speed output on the T56 is electronic only, but this was heading to be around USD$600 by time I got all the other bits as well, so will try with fitting an NB speedo cluster in it (which I got from 2LOW2C, with the plugs and wiring, thank you), and see if we can get that working.
So order placed on the 20th of Jan, money transferred, bank account empty, and have to wait a month and a half for the gear to arrive.
Now the joys of trying to get it out of the States.
Before I go to the joys of getting the stuff out of the states, thought I would divulge on other further thing in regards to the parts options, and that is the rear part of the drive train.
They have rear subframes kits for cadillac diffs, along with half shafts and driveshafts (even carbon fibre one's mmmmm). From what I read about them, they looked to be the same as the Holden diff, just with a different gear ratio in them.
So took a few photos of the diff and sent them to Flyin Miata, seems I was wrong, and didn't look anything like the caddy diff, so looks like the driveshaft, half shafts and rear subframe are all going to have to be custom made here in godzone
(and will pay twice the price 
)
They have rear subframes kits for cadillac diffs, along with half shafts and driveshafts (even carbon fibre one's mmmmm). From what I read about them, they looked to be the same as the Holden diff, just with a different gear ratio in them.
So took a few photos of the diff and sent them to Flyin Miata, seems I was wrong, and didn't look anything like the caddy diff, so looks like the driveshaft, half shafts and rear subframe are all going to have to be custom made here in godzone
(and will pay twice the price )- Attachments
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So, now to the joys of getting parts out of the good old US of A, which I don't know why they call it good, dealing with American customs. Anyone think I was trying to smuggle a bomb out of the place.
Talked to a friend of my wife who owns a freight distribution company and gave him the estimated dimensions of what was coming over, and price was going to be about $1500 for it. Turns out the freight charges inside of the US where going to be more than the shipping charges from the US to NZ. The problem was mostly around that half of the gear was coming from the place making the subframe in Florida, and the other half from Flyin Miata, which are in the middle of no-where in Colorado. Ended up using Flynin Miata's couriers to get it from both places and arrive at the freight forwarder in LA. That was a mission getting them both to arrive at the same time, sorting out the paper work and just making sure everyone was communicating. Courier charges in the US turned out to be USD$181. But on the 25th of Feb, the gear was finally on it's way.
Talked to a friend of my wife who owns a freight distribution company and gave him the estimated dimensions of what was coming over, and price was going to be about $1500 for it. Turns out the freight charges inside of the US where going to be more than the shipping charges from the US to NZ. The problem was mostly around that half of the gear was coming from the place making the subframe in Florida, and the other half from Flyin Miata, which are in the middle of no-where in Colorado. Ended up using Flynin Miata's couriers to get it from both places and arrive at the freight forwarder in LA. That was a mission getting them both to arrive at the same time, sorting out the paper work and just making sure everyone was communicating. Courier charges in the US turned out to be USD$181. But on the 25th of Feb, the gear was finally on it's way.
26th of March
Loaded the MX5 up on the transport trailer for it's trip down to Hamilton. discovered that my trailer isn't really setup for low slung cars, as it normally transports a Starlet rally car around which has a slightly higher stance. Meant I couldn't open the door to get out, had the hardtop roof in place, so had to exit the car "dukes of hazard" style. Discover at this point that I am not as flexible as I used to be. Found out that my 5 year old is. She managed to get in and out of the car with ease, by also to crawl thru the cross bars on the roll over and curl up on back shelve were the soft top would normally sit. Damn those yung uns
On the up side, stopped off at Hampton's on the way back to watch some of the classic racing there.
Loaded the MX5 up on the transport trailer for it's trip down to Hamilton. discovered that my trailer isn't really setup for low slung cars, as it normally transports a Starlet rally car around which has a slightly higher stance. Meant I couldn't open the door to get out, had the hardtop roof in place, so had to exit the car "dukes of hazard" style. Discover at this point that I am not as flexible as I used to be. Found out that my 5 year old is. She managed to get in and out of the car with ease, by also to crawl thru the cross bars on the roll over and curl up on back shelve were the soft top would normally sit. Damn those yung uns
On the up side, stopped off at Hampton's on the way back to watch some of the classic racing there.
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