Betty
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Well shes called Betty cos all of my cars have girls names and she took over from a 1965 Morris Trveller (Hilda). She just felt like a Betty, inspired by Mrs Rubble off the Flintstones cartoons. I had taken Hilda from a £500 quid heap to a 4 grand daily runner over 5 years until a divorce necessitated sale.
Anyway shes a 1996 original 1.8i V6. She came with two previous owners, the most recent of whom had only had her for 6 months during which time he had replaced the front brakes and shocks and the original owner from new having spent an absolute fortune on scheduled mazda maintenance and repair.
Two years on and she's been a little diamond bringing a big grin to me and the missus whenever we take her out which is whenever fuel consumption, load capacity, or comfort aren't an issue. She was made for tearing round the welsh A roads.
Last summer a new motorbike meant she went on the back burner and hadn't really been loved and cared for as she deserves.
Ive been off work for a while and daytime TV is notoriously dull. About two months ago I stumbled across wheeler dealers on discovery turbo, the one where they find 80 and 90s classics and do them up a bit to flog on. This sort of twiddled my car tinkering button and got me thinking about looking after Betty a bit more.
Sooooo I started looking around and discovered this place and I am now on the slippery slope.
Well betty is so original that it seems a shame to spoil that. And of course the MX3 is ridiculously underpriced (possibly the most bangs per buck in the sports coupe market) and are at that stage where an awful lot will be scrapped for simple mechanical faults. So it seems to me that shes a keeper and I should just maintain her myself to keep the cost down and hold onto her for as long as I can. So thats my plan.
With this in mind I have a few practical upgrades planned.
I love leather upholstery in cars so I would love a set of the Leather and suede seats and interior, I will keep the originals for originality.
Im gonna fit an in box foam filter, purely because the paper disposable elements cost more in the long term and are more restrictive. Im hoping it wont be too loud. That just arrived and prompted this post. I will let you know what I think after its fitted. Im not expecting much of a change in performance.
The back discs are orrible and the pads are down to a couple of mill and although the discs would probably clean up ok its not much of a bigger job or very expensive to replace them at the same time as the pads. The bits have arrived from probestore so I just gotta wait for the rain to stop.
I got some 100w bulbs at the same time to try to improve the lighting situation. Just gotta wait for the rain to stop.
I bought and fitted some mazda original fitment wiper blades which have stopped the annoying drag and screen abrasion. I have no idea why that should be so.
Come spring I will sort out the rust on the rear arches. I might even treat her to some welded repair sections if she needs them if finance allows.
I will post some pics when shes had her spring clean in a few weeks time.
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Nice to see a start to the Project log…
I got 100w bulbs too.. Don't make a huge difference.. but enough to keep them in...
Hammy
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Excellent, look forward to the pics.
If you love the welsh A roads, lower her by 40mm and you will love them even more, cant believe how much better mine is after lowering her and the ride isnt that much harder than before.
Dont be afraid either changing springs on these takes about 2hrs, they are very easy :wink:
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Well I fitted the piper cross foam filter today. The old filter was dirty but hardly beyond use. Betty has always had a reassuring burble at 2500rpm which I got rather fond of. Well thats gone. Overall she seems quieter and more refined, more sewing machine kinda thing, seems more at ease is how I can best describe it . Power seems the same but smoother. Time will tell if its just for now or whether it will stay that way or if theres any appreciable mpg changes.
I also put the new 100w bulbs in. Now before I put em in I checked how bright the old ones were and it turns out the lamps are so badly aligned that at first I thought one of the bulbs wasnt working. Bit miffed cos the MOT garage adjusted them just before xmas. Mebbe they was having a bad day. I will sort that when I get a minute.
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@e2aaeac7d6=djmarcopolo:
Dont be afraid either changing springs on these takes about 2hrs, they are very easy :wink:
Or 2 days if your car is anything like mine :lol: