Does that reversing light help at night? It doesn't emit enough to really cast a beam of light...and where it is, surely it would light up the rear window, making it harder to see out???

reversing lights are not a legal requirement, but they do help others see what you're up to

Yeas but to others know that you are going to go back, they see the white light, not the red... If they see red they dont know. And a reverse light give some light to iluminate the back and the road... But just a Litle... XD

Hi Jon I can see that zxi is going to be one special V6 love the black leather trim and sliver I went on the mini meet at Hughie's place met up with some cool guys and they got me going for more power as I have a sparkle green 1.5 ba, she's been a god send bullet proof will be sad to see her go after all the work I put into her and I have just collected another sparkle green 1.8 as I just couldn't find a V6 so after seeing Meanie and Vulcan. I got the 1.8 got loads of stuff to do now so I hope you don't mind me picking your brains for advice as your work is very good mate the car looks the dogs !! all the best Nick

Feel free, though there are plenty of people on here who will always be willing to help and know far more than me!!

My reversing light does indeed illuminate the back window quite well at night, but it casts enough light out to see where I'm going. It's that or just fire up the rear fogs, that works pretty well too

These finally arrived today, little turned aluminium dust caps with the Mazda logo on:



And here she is all washed, polished and shiny:




Though have now spotted a few bubbles of rust starting to come through on the rear arches, so will have to tackle that somewhen

Jon

nice little addition and looking lovely and clean! Be careful with the aluminium dust caps though....they sometimes stick quite badly.

As for the rust.....best get on it...treat it now before it gets too bad

I learned my lesson with aluminium dust caps. Never again! perhaps if you take them off (while you can) and smear a little vaselene on the threads?

Are chrome ones any better?

S

Personally I've only had problems with aluminium ones......copper grease on the thread should do the trick and keep it moving though Otherwise you'll end up ripping the valve out the wheel before getting the cap off lol

Serena - I will grease them up anyway.....just to be safe

Yeah, I used a touch of copper grease on them. Force of habit on pretty much most nuts and bolts now unless it needs thread lock, but that's after lot of nasty experiences with steel bolts on various aluminium parts on a motorbike!!! Stainless steel is apparently worse too in/on ali, that's why a lot of the nuts and bolts on my bike are titanium now

Jon

What a day! Decided to tackle the rust on the rear passenger arch today before it got out of control, and uncovered a minor nest of tin worms

First off, sat down ready to start sanding back the bubbles of rust and noticed one of my shiny tyre valve caps was missing, then found that all 4 had been nicked in the less than 1 hour I'd parked the car at the back of the house this morning, little scrotes!!!

So sanding began with a fair amount of vigour! Worked all around the wheel arch and the lip under and found a fair bit of mainly surface type rust under the paint. Then decided to remove the black stone chip guard thingy in front of the wheel, oh dear! Turns out someone has already done a botch job at filling it (not even level or smooth) and not treated the rust at all



So that got sorted too (will need filling and levelling off later) and the whole area attacked with Kurust (other products available!) until it all went nice and black. Bit more sanding, taping, papering and then hit the area with a good covering of acid etch primer:



So I now have a car in part non-metallic Silverstone Grey



Looks a lot better even just in grey than it did though. Need to get some more colour and top coat, cold weather must've gotten my last bit as it came out a bit funky with blue flecks

On a plus note, finally fitted my rear badge:



Not 100% sure I like it, got used to it without one.... And also had some new (ish) Mazda logo centre caps arrive to replace the beige (see very faded) eternal flame ones I did have:



Note missing valve cap

Will have to look at other rear arch at some point as can see rust behind the stone guard on that side too. Not to mention the stone chips on the bonnet....

I hate rust.

Jon

Busy busy!

Finally got around to fitting the external coil mod I picked up back in May 2014 from silver-machine



After trying to follow the wrong instructions, the hardest part ended up being where to mount the coil and ignition module. The coil ended up being mounted horizontally on the plastic battery surround as my battery is a bit smaller than it, so had enough room to poke some short, thick bolts through:



The ignition module went up on the firewall where two smallish holes were. Had to enlarge one side of the mount to get it to fit, but screwed on no problem:



Then it was just the wiring and the horror moment when you cut those wires, no going back then!! Ran the wires between the battery suround and the bodywork/shock mount area to the coil, and then under the intake pipe and across to the now cut wires:



The earth wire was simply put on the bracket that holds the fuse box, then a bit of crimping, some spade connectors, heat shrink and then a plastic shroud over that, and it started first time much to my relief. Then did an ECU reset and took it for a spin. Feels smoother and went up to 6.5k rpm without any hiccups. Is it faster? no idea tbh, but it does idle very very smoothly compared to before.

One less job to do

Jon

Bit of an update finally:

Got and fitted a JDM arm rest cup holder:





Did this a little while back now but fitted a variable speed intermittent wipe from a 626 (GE if I remember correctly).Had to redo some of the wiring, but just swapped the arm and circuit board on to my column unit, saved half the work of redoing the indicator/lights stalk wiring



This one bends forwards a bit more than the 323 one, so I had to carefully bend it back as it fouled on the column surround. Not sure if the MX3 one does this... Pretty sure one of the Bongo ones (there are two versions on the Bongo!) is a straight swap but couldn't source one in the end

And finally got a new pair of front light/indicator units as mine were cracked and had gone green around the edges:



Will update again once I have finished adding the warning lights to my instrument cluster and have gotten and fitted the wind deflectors

Jon

Just an arty shot cos the weather is so nice (well, in the South anyway!)



About 1/2 a mile up the coast from where I live in Sheerness

good

Well, still tinkering away with her. Aside from fixing the wonky wiper arm I also finally fitted a pair of MX5 mist washer nozzles (been sat in my bits box for ages now):



Close up you can see they're shinier than the stock ones and ever so slightly smaller:



Really easy mod, part number info is here:



And a how to is here (it's for the MX5 but basically exactly the same).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qLeqN1Mgko

I found unclipping the hoses gave a little extra wiggle room, but it really is simplicity itself. find the spread is much better and doesn't hit the wiper arm like my left one always did. You can find them on fleabay under Ford Maverick / Mazda Mx5 fan spray, no more than a few quid each.

Also cleaned up the inlet and butterfly



Was a little gunky in there but never gave any problems, just thought after 150k miles it might need doing

Also bought some cabin filters and dug out the plug I found on a scrap car for fitting them after all the talk of them, just have to cut the hole in the heater matrix housing for it all. Will try and remember to take plenty of photos for a guide on it

Jon

Yup, good idea, you'd think the nozzles wouldn't make much difference but I got some Volvo ones for my Saab and they do work really well and must cut down on windscreen and wiper wear, maybe even use less water

Think I might get that done myself as I've never liked the standard ones

She's looking very nice I gotta say, well jel of the cup holder arm rest

Great idea,

was wondering about adjusting the ones on mine, I think one jet hits the driver's side wiper and/or leaves an area dry.

You've prompted me to think of Mazda 3 nozzles if they'll fit as they have three jets (at least our 2004 BK model does). Means you can aim for top, middle, bottom of wiper sweep.

Patrick

Now with added Cabin Filters



pretty simple job (if you have the right parts) and even made a guide for you, you lucky people!

Now, on to door puddle lights.....

Jon

Thank you man! That's what i needed!

I like your F verry much.Keep it in good shape!

So, alas the time has come, Pipa has now gone to the great scrapheap in the sky



Unfortunately she'd simply gotten to the point where I could no longer justify the expense (several times her value) in keeping her going, and that's before I got to the tin worm in the doors and rear wings.

At least a few of her bits will keep some other BA's going and looking pretty, in the meantime the hunt starts for another car, though probably not a BA this time, need something a bit more modern and more economical given the mileage I do commuting (over 100 miles a day!)

I'll still be around but probably less so once most of the bits have sold or have been flogged on Fleabay.

Cheers all, it's been a pleasure

Obviously I knew about this already as I've had some of the parts, nevertheless it's very sad to officially see another one gone

Meanwhile I will soldier on with Sundance, hopefully I won't have to follow you down this path too soon!

S

Sad day indded Jon. Unfortunately this is becoming the norm now with less and less BA's on the road :/

I very rarely see one on the road now which is such a shame

sad to hear that dark jon... now that you got a lot of things done

by the way you spoke about a guide for the cabin filter
where is it? thanks
EDIT: found it