Well, my first 323F was taken away Friday morning, just too much to do on her, especially after being keyed down the entire drivers side, so farewell to the Nogmatic:



So now, I have this one!:



Picked her up yesterday from Rallycross and really chuffed, great drive back to Kent along country roads with the subtle V6 growl!

Not even had her 24hrs and already fitted Stainless steel sill plates and chrome interior door handles as well as fitting the new high output bulbs, Bosch Aero blade wipers and a few shiny blue nuts and bolts I had on Nog.

Also dropped the front bumper off to replace the broken fog light with ones I'd saved to find they have different connectors lol. Ahh well, they'll be up for sale soon Will sort out the intake pipe another time, need to grab a couple of bigger clamp thingies first. Also have a pair of clear side repeaters to go on but need the chromed bulbs first.

All I have to do now is get used to driving a manual again!

Jon

very nice indeed mate , shame about the fogs not being a straight swap over

Nice ZXI!

You could also just cut off the connectors, and solder the wires together.

Nice job on the ss kickplates and chrome handles always a nice touch for the interior.

Very nice mate

The Zxi is a great car, I never got bored with mine, they're good on fuel for what they are too

lovely BA, looks very clean and tidy

Couple of new bits added today:

New leather gear-shift boot:



Bit fiddly to fit, had to secure the tabs of the boot on the inside with couple of tiny screws else it would come unseated. Looks much better than the plastic one and less than a tenner off ebay!!

Just need a new knob (oooh er!) to go with it, thinking of pinching this idea: http://www.glasgowdave.com/?p=41

Also fitted a replacement air bag with the Mazda logo on it



No errors on the airbag check so all good, though did stand back when first turned the ignition on Just need to get a later rear panel and nose badge to match (not a fan of the eternal flame logo...)

Jon

Well, another busy weekend on the old wagon.

Went to the local scrapyard on Saturday looking for a few bit and found a green ZXi at the back of the yard. Was looking a bit worse for wear and anything interesting had already gone or was ruined, except the intake hose which must have been nearly new when the car was scrapped; no holes and the rubber is still supple!

From this:



To this:



Not bad for £10!

Also found a replacement gear knob from a Mazda 6 Sport:



Not mint but looks a lot better.

Also got around to fitting my fogs on to the car (was just a matter of soldering wires together to match the connectors) and my replacement Mazda badges, well, the front one anyway (thank you Smurf182!)



And lastly, clear side repeaters with chromed bulbs:



On the bad news found the bottom of the passenger side doors are rusting on the inside, so attacked it with Kurust and some silver Hammerite, which is a surprisingly close match (look at the front tow hook I painted in it to see what I mean)

Now I just need the leather seats, change the carpet colour, chrome dial rings.........

Jon

looking very nice indeed there Jon, glad the badges were ok, the back one looked a little faded i must admit, however a small tin of model paint should have it looking ok again

nice little updates... its always the small things that make the biggest difference

Now fitted, one Black Leather Interior courtesy of Matt:




Also got some new floor mats, thanks to 323F Rock for the recommendation, they do indeed fit perfectly. Now I'm just stuck with a grey/green floor carpet lol. Think that's far too much effort to change... would look good in a grey though, hmm....

Getting there

Jon

no worries

Last Friday saw the mighty 100,000 miles tick over, so had to stop and take a piccie



And today finally got a round to fitting new Iridium plugs, HT leads and cap etc. She now purrs like a kitten on catnip and pulls from about 1200 rpm with no coughs or stutters. Though I did break a little blanking cap off of the dizzie cap that was quickly Araldite'd back on

Jon

Just a little update, sprayed the wing mirror covers silver:



Still plenty to do but can't risk her being off the road until my bike is back (joys of buying Italian bikes!)

Jon

Well, had a busy couple of days. Had last of annual leave for the year so why not spend it working on the car?

So far have replaced the reversing lamp with a euro fog (thanks to those that replied regarding wiring of twin rear fogs, worked a charm):



Also fitted headlight covers (ty nick, they are mint):



Need to replace the indicator/sidelight unit at some point too...

Thanks to mazdaman88 I got a black carpet to replace the out of place looking dark greeny carpet I had. Bit of an epic job to replace, but looks like it belongs in the car with the black trim and black leather. Piccie taken during the refit this afternoon:



also took the opportunity to fit the chrome dial rings I brought a while back:

.

and the final touch is an Mk3 Mx5 Gear knob, though this still needs the 5 speed insert fitted, but looks really good and is a just the right weight (Mazda 6 one I had was far too light):



And finally, fitted a pair of air horns in place of the old air resonator box thing I took out a while ago (so no drilling involved!). Originally bought these for my van but really wanted a deeper sound for it than these put out; these are more Italian sports car than big get-out-of-my-way truck tone. But they work on the F



That's it for now, still have to change over the dizzy for one modded with an external coil, but a bit more wiring involved with that so maybe the weekend

Jon

Nice updates

Finally all back together, this is the finished look of the interior:



Still toying with the idea of doing a two-tone interior though, have the lower plastic panels in a lighter stoney grey to match the ceiling, and then edge with some chrome trim. Quick Photoshop job looks like this:



Not perfect but you get the idea. Just feel it would lift the interior, that and I saw a Maserati interior in a similar style and loved it, the car wasn't too shabby either

Jon

Looking good! get a video of the air horns working for us

They sound the same as these:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNUkJWXUJ3k (skip to about 20 secs)

Jon

Lovely car Dark-Jon, some really nice mods

Tiny little update. Got myself a Mishimoto Oil Cap as the stock one was leaking slightly:



May one day get around to doing the cam cover black with silver text and recess.

Also replaced the seal for the PCV valve as this too was seeping oil slightly. The old seal was like wood and I had to pretty much cut it apart to get it out! Apparently these aren't available through dealers any more (?) but it's the same as fitted to the earlier MX5's. The only place I could find it in the UK was here:

http://www.autolinkmx5.com/grommet--sea ... 7840-p.asp

Though the cam cover gasket itself is completely dry? wierd.

Also had the dash out again as two bulbs have gone in the switches, rear fog and headlight level. All I have to do now is source a replacement for the tiny little beggars!

Other than that the car is due a cam belt change as fast approaching 108k miles :/

Jon

Awesome updates mate, love the two tone interior, epicly awesome not over the top, yet looks as if it was meant to be very nice photoshopping

Love that filler cap

I've read that PCV valves should be replaced every so often - is that right? If so, I guess I ought to change mine as car just done 125k.

S

you are taking good care of it

Over the weekend managed to finally get around to installing a leather steering wheel from a Xedos 6:



Removed the cruise control buttons from the side so have a hole in the rear plastic trim where they were, but you cant see it really so all good. Feels much nicer than the standard vinyl and foam one, which was really grubby and you could twist the foam almost completely round on it self

Also fitted new tyres, big difference as apparently 2 of my old Goodyears were warped, which was causing all the noise and vibration from the rear and not the rear hubs which I replaced So no more rumbles, vibrations, tram-lining and/or pulling to the left

And the red tape? so muggins here can tell which is the rear fogs easily, that and I changed the bulb to an orange one

Jon

Long time coming but finally an update!!

Past it's MOT last week despite a suspicious clunk from the front left suspension. They only picked up a slght tear in the rubber seal around one of the front drop-links as an advisory, so all good!! Unfortunately same garage couldn't fit my recently purchased Ulter rear silencer So took it to an exhaust place in Maidstone and bingo, 30mins and £25 later fitted and sorted. Apparently one of the bolt holes didn't line up, they extended it slightly and apparently Bob is my Uncle!

Shiny new exhaust fitted:



And quick vid of the sound here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4Odmoyj2dA

Not in to bouncing it off the rev limiter, call me old but it really doesn't sound cool and you just look like a tw@

So it now has a nice burble and sounds like a V6. It's actually pretty quiet after 3k rpm, so at motorway speeds inside sounds no different!! Didn't want anything crazy loud, had a Mini once with a stupid 2" exhaust system, anything over 50mph and you simply turned the stereo off and gave up talking

Also have a cheapo DRL rigged up as a reversing light in the top of the rear window. Not an MOT requirement but seemed safer. No piccies yet but will get some later.

Jon

Looking and sounding beautiful, Jon!

S

hi dude I think you interior was very good! you will put some led light in the white line? (if you can do the ideia)

~but there are god modifications...

its legal you have a rear light in red?

I guess in portugal no ^.^ but not sure

Keep up!!!

CSR

From the photo i see that the rear light is up at the 3-rd brake light place..
And i think somewhere up i read it
Yep, it is legal umm - NOWHERE!
You must havе rear light and fog light at the back!
Thinking of that, i'm illegal at the moment lol..

As far as I've ever been able to find out, in the UK a reverse light isn't needed for an MOT, I believe it's counted as an accessory light or something.

I bought a pair of slim LED Daytime Running Lights and fitted one to the underside of the top trim inside the rear hatch with double sided sticky foam tape stuff that came with the lights:

You can't really see it until it lights up:



I ran the wiring from the original connection, back up around under the hatch trim to just under where the light is mounted. The wires from the light then tuck under where the trim overlaps and connect:



That way it's easily reversible for any reason.

The main reason I fitted it was to stop people pointing out I have no reverse light and to make it easier to see going backwards at night

Jon

Beautiful car and really nicely modified.