oh hell. id better not tell him that then....have to say though he only paid £400 for it but its done him proud and handled everything thrown at it.
its safe to say though andy you have had a pretty good excuse for not doing much on the car

And Baz, yeah its been a bit all non stop, but i do enjoy it

Yeah apparently their well know for head gasket faliure and the head is quite susceptible to warping if overheated too much
Don't tell him that lol, just tell him to keep an eye on coolant level, usual stuff
That's what put me off getting one a while back, I opted for a Zafira instead (big mistake)

Yeah I know, I got it the car this morning and as I waited a few minutes for her to warm up I realised how much of a tip it is inside, empty crisp packets all over the floor and spent coffee cups from the stints in hospital

Having a nightmare with the exhaust at the moment, few problems, it seems to be leaking water from the underside of the backbox, thought it might be condensation but there is lots of water dripping out when i pull up anywhere, i have a blow in the pipework just before the join of the backbox section and finally i have a blow at the join between the mid section and the back section...... , took it all apart, checked the join, all was ok, replaced liberal amounts of fire putty tightened the bolts, filled the holes in the pipework, let her runs for 15-20 mis to get some heat in to get the stuff to go off, all was good , lowered the car, started her up again......blowing like hell...aaaaaarrrrrgggggghhhhhhhh
lets hope for decent weather tomorrow so i can get her up on the ramps and start all over again

Had the same problem with mine a couple of years ago, spent more time under her covered in putty to no avail, total waste of time as basically a pin cushion. Bought one of these
http://www.ebay.ie/itm/MAZDA-323-F-1-5- ... 23094efb5a Never had a problem since. May be cheap but compared to the cost of putty and heat wrap I used, well worth it

oops backbox sorry man
http://www.ebay.ie/itm/Exhaust-Rear-Bac ... 1c18a581f6

cheers for both the links , i think the main problem is with the mid section, more specifically the join with the back section, as you say its in danger of becoming a bit of a pin cushion....hmmmm.

but for that price, even with shipping thats not too bad at all

started the spring clean yesterday, good wash, clay,compound and then carnuba wax , must admit it feels nice to the touch and is shining nicely.
today i got under the bonnet...i should be ashamed of myself, it was pitted
managed to get all the pipework metal cleaned and shiny, the underside of the bonnet now shines too, plenty left to do but decided to keep a bit of skin on my knuckles....lol
sun has come out again so i think ill go and hoover the inside...
even had a play with rattle cans on a little idea i have
a good weekend all in all
i was going to post some pics, then i had a read of howie's spring clean....mines not fit to share the internet at the moment......
all i can say is his work and attention to detail is inspirational

well last night i gave her a good clean n wax and also tackled the inside too, feels so much nicer to have a good clean out , paintwork was all shiney, resprayed the rear brace(now white...of course), and then today took it out for a local car meet , her first proper one(well in my ownership).

Very cool. Did you get any photos from the meet

how do ayrton , i only had my phone with me so the couple of pics i did get are not too clear, i parked up, grab a bacon bun and by the time i got back i was in the middle of a sea of scoobies....lol
never really been a fan of scoobs, prefer evo's ,
but they all looked prettymuch the same....and the pic i got of the cherry(flip) red GTR, didnt turn out....
but womble didnt look out of place and got a good few compliments so all's good.
i just need to sort out the paintwork now to make it truly shine, and get a few small dings out

Well its been a little while since ive added an update, mainly as work has been busy and taking up a fair bit of time.....
then again not much to add, all i have done really is give womble an oil change, and put some new spark plugs in, must admit i was shocked at the state of the old ones...charred a little bit but not too badly, however on number two cylinder there was a LOT of oil on the plug, also a lot of carbon build up on the exhaust tip


so to chear myself up i gave her a wash n wax....picked up a new meguire's box set from Boyes for £19.99
so after the wash n wax i got the tyre gel on, never used it before, always considered it a little poncey...looks bloody marvelous though....im converted
and in the box set there was some crystal clear window cleaner
see how she shines.....

Looks great Paul

If the engine runs well I wouldn't worry about the plugs, gawd knows how long they've been in for
Those Megs sets are a bargain, I was looking at them in the boyes down chester last week

Cheers Andy, i tell ya, they must still be the original ones , the car runs so much better for having them in now too.

Yeah ive picked up a few of the sets now, building up quite a collection of goodies
All i really need now is a DA polisher, id love to get the paintwork as good as i possibly can, if we get decent weather next weekend, the plan is to get underneath the car and get busy with the underseal....our sea salty air is starting to attack the car

looking really nice paul. As for a DA I personally just use a halfords 240v jobbie which has done me fine for all my cars. Yes I would like a proper DA but this was a lot cheaper and did the job

is that the two handled ones? i keep seeing them for sale on ebay, then think if there are so many on ebay they must be a bit pants

this is the newer version of the one I got off them...

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stor ... yId_165640

well, after what seems like an absolute age of doing nothing really to the car apart from cleaning it, i bought a shiney treat...
jdm number plate hanger and a new plate.....so once again the front end changes..



so tomorrow is the mot, got a few little things to do, the drivers seat belt doesnt seem to retract as quickly as it used to, so ill get the cover off and see if there is a twist.
apart from that im not massively over worried

edit....the bolts have had black covers put on them now

Very nice, must admit i have been uming an aring about this, does look

Good luck with the M.O.T, fingers crossed mate

Cheers Baz, yeah ive been after one for a while but kept putting it off, then i stumbled across this one of ebay for a tenner, then the plate only cost eight squid


And thanks for the good luck, took the cover off the seatbelt mech....roughly 17yrs worth of dust n fluff, gave it a good clean and seems to running much better now.

Theres nothing like a late night, last minute decision.....ive been planning to do this for a while now but never really had the time to do it, so a free day (Bank Holiday) beckoned

Firstly put womble up on stands....

took the wheels off and got the sander out.....'borrowed' last nights paper



then first thing this morning, shot off to town and grabbed some good old rattle cans, which has resulted in....



Got to say im really happy with the results,mostly, as one of the wheels has the very slightest pink tinge to it as i thought i would let them cure in the sun....hmmm however this will be remedied next weekend as ill be doing the back drums black, and possibly the front calipers red.

Sets her off a treat Paul, makes a world of difference

Cheers Baz, how you getting on with the clutch? was it a vacuum pipe the wrong way round in the end?
Im not sure of the inner workings of the v6 engine or i would have tried to offer a bit of help/advice

No luck yet mate, thanks though, searching for guides for the mx3/6 for how to bleed the system

cant see why or how i've messed this up back to the search

Womble is looking sweet these days

Ohh nice white rims. Looking cool man. I want repaint mine too myself. Just thinking of black more then white. And would like to lower car lil. U dont want lower it man?

That looks awesome. Nice job Paul.

Cheers guys, i think the car is just the right shade of blue to carry off the white wheels, and ive decided not to do the calipers red.....however they will be getting painted, ill just keep the colour as a little teaser lol.

Scalman, the car is already lowered by 40mm, i would like to lower a bit more, but it would be impractical as i have 3 teenage children and it sits a lot lower with them in it.
I could go the coilover route, but at the moment i cant really justify the cost

Yes coilovers cost a lot. So its lowered . Somehow i wouldnt tell that by look of it. My back is lower then front, tell me about when i take 2 adults and one teen in back car looks like it carys a ton or smt best to drive alone i guess. Lol. For many reasons. So 40mm looks like this then . Ok. Its kinda not enough i think for look. And then i would have exuse to not carry many ppl in car
Now your car looks like it have a mouth with those eyes too. Cool kinda.

Womble had her annual check up today, mixed bag really, but she passed ,
i thought it was all over when it came to the emissions test....put his foot down and a huge cloud of blue smoke came out, i looked at his face and mine went white.....but the guy percivered and eventually got through ok.....i dont tend to hammer the car so im guessing a bit of oil hanging about had built up so when revved it flushed it all through.

Got advisories for rear drop links and anti roll bar bushings too, parts ordered and will be fitted at the weekend.
slight cause for concern was the front passenger side top mount bearing was sticking a little, advisory for that too, will i need to get full strut mount replacement or can i buy the bearing alone?
and are they a bugger to fit? i will have to purchase some spring clamps.
also a slight misting on the rear shock, again new one ordered and will fit on saturday.......who likes a lazy weekend anyway eh???

Congrats on the fresh mot

Least they're was no corrosion failures

cheers andy, yeah the guy did pay her a few compliments which was nice , i was very nervous come the emissions test as thats what the last car failed on, however that time there was no reading possible as they were that bad, but new lambda sensor later and it sailed through..
just trying to find the bits for the top mount bearing. local motor factors quoted only one uk supplier and a cost in the region of £140....but im finding strut top mounts/mount kits for £35 ish on ebay, so think i might be looking at the wrong part....head scratcher.