Mk1 Eunos

[kevin]

You have seen my Singer Vogue project and I have briefly shown my mazda, but having got her out of winter hibernation today I thought I would share her with you.

After a brief dalliance with a late uk spec mx5 (broke it for spares due to excessive rust), I was perusing ebay during a period of boredom in work on the morning of Christmas eve 2012. I had decided to look for a Jap spec import, so a eunos not the uk spec mx5. A search showed a eunos in a car dealers just 10 mile from my home. a quick call and I had arranged to drop in on the way home.
The car had been in his showroom for well over 6 month and a thorough inspection showed the car to be rust free, clean as a whistle and with only 50k on the clock a good find. He was asking £2k which was quite high!
I made a cheeky offer of £800 cash and left my mobile number and headed off home. I had got about a mile down the road when the dealer rang me, as long as I paid cash and could collect that afternoon he would accept my offer, he even offered his trade plates to enable me to get it home. he also offered to put 12 month MOT on her for an additional £20!
So, home for some cash and I became the happy owner.

Over the first winter I gave her a full service and fitted new pads and discs all round. The calipers are known to seize up so these were stripped and carefully reassembled with brake grease etc.
Final job was to Dinitrol all the cavities and underside.

Done a few low key mods, 14 degree timing mod, front plate off in lieu of a sticky but mainly a good clean and detail.
She is a great little car, tight as a drum and perfect for sunny evening blasts.

On arrival home, xmas eve 2012



As sticky tyres are expensive for 14" rims, some lightweight enkie rims were bought, rough but straight



Painted up with new decals fitted and lacquered over



fitted with some 15" sticky Toyo tyres



New discs and pads, inc painting the suspension etc




engine bay cleaned and cam cover painted etc




Front number plate plinth removed and sticky plate fitted



So, there she is in a brief introduction and this is us out and about today (first time this year) with Dinas Bran castle in the background



Kev

[JPB]

Eight hundred quid? for that little belter. Two words: Jammy swine! That trader must have been desperate to sell but why? It's straight, clean and obviously works well enough. Nowt so funny as folk! Well bought that man.

[rich.]

jammy sod i want one!!

[kstrutt1]

We did pay 2k for ours!

Perhaps the difference between depths of winter and spring. (ours was serviced etc as well).

[kevin]

We did pay 2k for ours!

Perhaps the difference between depths of winter and spring. (ours was serviced etc as well).

In my opinion as good, well sorted MK1 is worth every penny of £2k, Usually though they dont fetch good money which is a bonus for any1 wanting to own one.
I was lucky to find such a good example on probably the best day of the year to make a cash deal? She is a keeper so residual value isnt important to me.
This one will be improved as a project over the winter, gonna get some new mazda springs and shockers as the originals are a bit tired imo, rebush the suspension etc and find and fit good, used LSD (weirdly, mine should have one fitted being a JDM car), apart from that it will be well serviced and dry stored over the winter months.

any pics of yours @ kstrutt1?

Kev

[kstrutt1]

Here is ours,

rps20140419_190401.jpg (62.44 KiB) Viewed 3875 times

Plans for the future are to finish re colouring the interior to a lighter beige, ( much of the tan has gone very orange), then clean and rust proof the underneath and box sections.

It is preety clean underneath some surface rust and minor deformation from grounding on the bottom of the rails and a some surface rust on the suspension components. Otherwise the engine compartment could do with a tidy up much as you have done and we are thinking about swapping the bilstein suspension for a standard set up.

Longer term we are thinking about a cloth hood plus glass rear screen and I would like to strip clean and paint all the suspension parts, possibly replacing the bushes as well.

Mainly though we are just loving driving it.

Kevin

[kevin]

Thats lovely as it is kevin
OEM suspension is the way to go for good all round handling with a decent ride height that wont grind the underside to bits.
Best product ive found to creep into all the nasty moisture traps built in is dinitrol 1000. Just elevate each end of the car as you apply it to make sure all the ends are liberally coated. Same for the box sections and chassis rails.

Kev

[kstrutt1]

It corners like it is on rails at the moment with sharp steering and very little roll, what are they like on std suspension?

The only other one I have been in had ridiculously low suspension and virtually no siderails left it was awfull.

Ours is the factory bilstein set up the ride is nowhere near as bad as the above but it is still pretty poor and the state of the roads is awful around here.

I have used a mixture of clean 20/50 engine oil and waxoil in the past, it creeps really well but does not drip out on the road even on thed hotest summer days , it has kept the tr7 pretty much rust free for the last 18 years.


Kevin

[kevin]

They are fine on standard suspension although the bilstein set up takes some beating if in good condition.
The main criticism of the factory set up is the tall ride height, however, I quite like things left as it should be (as long as its a good set up).
The roads around here must be similar to yours, pt holes and rutts are very common, how motorcycles get on beats me!
Have you been onto MX5nutz.com, great forum and good source of cheap spares

Kev