What I've done to my car this week!

[KYPREO]

That bent gear lever is from series 1. The shifter extension housing on the s1 gearbox is actually slightly shorter than s2/3, placing the shifter further forward. The shifter itself is then bent to put it in a better position for the driver.

For s2/3 they moved the whole shifter extension back

[rotarypower]

So a bit later than planned.

Some updates.
As some may know, I had the barmy idea of putting the full double wishbone suspension from an MX5, into my S2.
The idea being that from the outside it would be totally standard, but underneath I would have a much newer suspension design with plenty of upgrade options due to the popularity of the MX5 platform.
Dimensions wise, these cars line up almost perfectly with regards to track width, the FB has a longer wheel base.

It took me a while to find someone who not only could do the work, but was as enthusiastic as myself about the project.

Anyway, its all well underway, the amount of rust that was uncovered during the project on what looked like a mostly sound car was rather surprising, and also caused big delays.

Some pics. I've left loads out, but you get the idea, right now its not too far from a rolling shell.

[Andrew Duff]

Last 2 weekends I've been waking our 1979 build from a 4 year sleep. New battery, oil and fuel, she started first time. Next got her a service including replacing the coolant. Since Friday she has been up on a stand getting all new bushings, shocks, springs and other suspension components. Can't wait to see just how different the ride is going to feel!

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Some more updates everyone. She is in the paint shop this week, getting stripped down to get her new coat of original Sonic Bronze Metallic paint.

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I'll send more next week as they strip off all the paint and repair a couple of small rust spots on the rear quarters -- Australian car garaged for years so luckily rust has not been a huge problem.

[Andrew Duff]

More photos from the painters. Body is pretty naked now, steel work looks great though.

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[Andrew Duff]

It's been a few weeks but it's worth the wait! She's back to her original Sonic Bronze colour and looking really special.

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She's with the upholsterer where they are working on sound deadening and getting the seats ready. We chose a vinyl as close as we could to the original Mazda brown and then went for a hazelnut Alcantara for the seat interiors. This will also form part of the door trim to bring it all together.

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White discolouration is chalk markings.

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[Andrew Duff]

Hello All,

Well we finally have our baby back, the new paint and interior look incredible. Hope you agree

Back to original paint, looks so amazing -- but does show up that we need to clean up the wheels!!

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The interior has been rebuilt keeping the 'brown on brown' 1979 aesthetic but with some modern class like alcantara inserts.

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[gt_james]

Very nice! lovely to see an original S1. Quite like the colour now its all done!

[DKWW2000]

That looks good, some hard work gone into her. S1 is a rare beast...........No Tax

[spirit r]

thanks, sharing the outstanding result of your nice work. Now have fun!

[Diesel747]

Finally repaired my slow power windows, windows have been slow for many years, pulled the switches apart & cleaned them(made a little better but still slow) pulled door trims off th check & clean the motors & connectors and check power@the motor , so 12.7v@battery-good ,11.8v@motor-ample to run the window motor, on pushing the switch the voltage@motor dropped to 4.8v ,so decided rather than pull half the car apart decided I'd relay the motors with a new 12v supply, found a good 12.4v acc feed under the dash, fused a feed off this to each door + an earth to each door & relayed the motors with 2 SPDT relays(2 for each door so 4 in total)....here's the Utube link to the motor operating. The Utube description gives the details on how I wired it.
https://youtu.be/gp9CQU4LSBI?si=UphqXzkm6R6Ox2Bv