The Bogan

Need something reliable, like a Mazda (non-rotary), or a Honda, or a .......... Commodore 🤣, the only issue with my cars is me 🫤

It always makes me laugh when I hear things like this, when I was a young bloke I bought a old Mk1 Escort, one of my mates said "how do you expect to have a girlfriend in a old car like this", my reply was "if she doesn't like the car she can walk, and if she is more interested in the car I drive than me she can fark off" This is how you can tell if you have a good woman, they care not about things like the cars you drive or what it sounds like Pandering to crazy obsessed women who care more about how they look in a car than the person driving it is something that I've always kept away from Not saying my Mrs isn't crazy at times, but it's typically me being a idiot that incites the crazy 🤪

But where's the fun in that, for me it isn't about the money, I have money, and I have time, I enjoy the process of things, the picking parts, the "adventure" of it all, and for the bits I can do myself, the actual work is enjoyable, well, varying levels on enjoyment on hard to reach things like that farking thermostat I just changed

The Bogan Sports Car now has fresh gear bag and diff oil The old gear bag oil was nice and clean looking, the old diff oil was average looking, not horrible, just dark, I've seen worse in other cars, much worse Good things was that both drain plug magnets looked good with zero bits of anything apart from a small coating of that typical black goo you get on the diff plug, it was probably the original diff oil, but nothing shiny The shifts are sweet, and the Torsen is Torsening like a boss (tested in the work vehicle maintenance yard after work). LOL In other noise related news, the Racing Beat axle back sound nicer than stock from outside with the roof down, but still pretty quiet, but it's not noticeable at all really inside with the roof up.....maybe it needs a header.....🤪 This is what a OEM header looks like 😝 > 🤣🤣🤣🤑

Does it have a vacuum brake booster? If it does, and the booster isn't connected you will get TPS and all sorts of other codes, and it will struggle to idle Have you driven the car, checked the brakes?

Did you disconnect the battery for a while? It might need to relearn how to BMW, maybe?????

Gave the Mazda it's first wash, it will need some clay, a light compound, and polish polish to remove a few swirl marks, but that will be a job for when I have a full day to get my DA polisher action on

Did some maintenance on the MX5, did the engine oil and filter which was uneventful, then I drained the coolant to put in the new reservoir and a thermostat, reservoir took 5 minutes The thermostat, well that took.........3 bloody hours, what a job, the issue was the 3 bolts holding it on, one was easy, 2 were hidden and required a few 1/4 drive extensions, 1 more than I had, and a 1/4 swivel, which I also didn't have, and a good amount of playing contortionist Getting the 2 unseen bolts back on was a time consuming nervous nightmare, as I couldn't see where they went there was alot of stabbing and hoping for the best, trying to line up a 8 mm bolt straight, which you cannot actually see or get a hand in there, with a 1/4 swivel in the mix was a nightmare Anyways, it's done now, all burped out, and run up to temp a few times, happily no leaks thank Jebus After the thermostat fiasco I decided I need a few mental health days away from tools before doing the rest of the servicing on it As for the Dunnydoore, it had the aircon regassed and it has a clean bill of health, thinking about taking it out on Monday for a cruise down the coast to look at some houses if weather permits

It's like Xmas

I did think about taking the engine and box out of the Commodore and dropping it into a old Holden EK, but, strangely for me, common sense prevailed A mate had a 1962 EK in my youth in the early 1980's that he put a 202 in, t'was a fun little car that we use to roll around the neighbourhood in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holden_EK You can buy the conversion kits easily enough https://www.rodshop.com.au/conversion-kit-for-ls-engines-into-fb-ek-holdens But the amount of money, time, and hassle was deemed excessive, you cannot find a clean EK for less than $40-50k nowadays, so it could easily turn into a $100k misadventure to finish The Commodore will suffice for my cruiser, and the MX5 will suffice to drive to work in Maybe if I win Lotto I'll get one built, like the picture, I just need to buy a Lotto ticket

Whilst putting a V8 in a MX5 would be fun, it would negate the whole cheap to run fun daily that the MX5 will be used for If I wanted a faster little convertible I would have got a engine check light, I mean a BMW Z4 M, but going off the issues that the guy at work who recently got one is having, it is lucky I didn't Meh, horses for courses, the Bogan Cruise Ship is my go to for some horse torques

Bored at work, so... Out with the old In with the new Sounds good, and most importantly, no drone Thinking about being bored at work again tomorrow, or maybe give myself a EKO so I can do the new thermostat and coolant reservoir

Talking about tools, my trombone cleaner arrived, talk about weird speciality tools....

I thought you might have asked about the Honda, but as the boy just wrote off his Patrol, and was trying to find a cheap daily to get by with, I decided to give the Honda to him

Axle back, new thermostat and coolant bottle arrived from MX5 Mania, I'm still waiting for Super Cheap to get back to me with my order, once I get everything in my hands I'll take some leave and "play", starting with serving and fitting parts, then detail I honestly think this is the most fun part about getting a new old car

Reliable, but no

Nope, it's just a fun "reliable" daily

Talking about deliveries I have one on the way from MX5 Mania already, only for a little added noise really Plus I'm waiting on Super Cheap for every oil, fluid, filter that goes in it, and some new plugs for it as well, because why not After that is all finished it's off to MX5 Mania for the ECUTEK, mainly because I want the rev match for when I'm racing to work or the local Coles shopping centre 🤪

The one I got has 50k km less on it, and is in good nick, plus was relatively local, I wasn't going to fly into QLD to look at a old MX5 As for the mods, meh, I just want a comfy fun little car for the street In other news, we took it to Goulburn today to lunch with the daughter, good times Mrs did insist on me putting the roof up about half way there as she said it was to cold, I did tell her to rug up before we left, but, nope, fashionable attire won, bloody convertible rookie

Went out for drive with Jackie for a while in the Mazda and whilst it was raining cats and dogs, the interior and boot are still nice and dry so the top and drains are working well to keep the elements out, winning

Found a issue, after driving through torrential rain, the drivers side roof drain is blocked and some water ended up in the boot I've parked it up, stripped out the boot, and dried it out with a towel Initial fix was poking a big long cable tie down the drain to unblock it, then poured some hot water and detergent into it to flush out what I could, which now has it working, but I'm assuming it needs a good old fashioned proper "rogering" of the drain holes Next step is waiting for the trombone cleaner that I just ordered from FleaBay next week Luckily nothing made it into the interior and it is all drying out nicely and the roof drains are working well enough for now I found the same issue with my old NB when I first got that, a couple of broken down leaves and some dirt was enough to block the drains, I did have a trombone cleaner back then, but I cannot find it anywhere, although, going of other times when I buy something to replace something I cannot find, the old one will probably turn up any minute now

I'm 59, so yes, sort of, my other car, the Bogan Cruise Ship, is as fast as I need fast And I'm well past my mid life crisis ever since since I got rid of my Skyline 🤣, now I'm just aging disgraceful 🤓

@Kinkstaah ....Shut up with all your good ideas, and common sense, but keep reading for a laugh In other MX5 related news, work was quite so I went and looked at a few cars today, none passed the clean and un-abused, un-molested criteria that what I'm looking for, most were unloved junk really that kids had thrashed I did have a tip from one of the guys at work to look at a certain MX5, I actually forgot to ask about what model it was or the transmission, so after driving for another hour I arrived, got all excited about how the car looked from a distance as I was heading towards it, then when I actually got closer I found out it was a "NC" soft top, red, 99k Km, 6 speed manual, service history, garaged all its life, spotless, and most importantly 100% standard and a seller that was "motivated" to sell The soft top roof line actually looks better than the hard top roofs that I have seen, so I decided while I'm there I might as well check it out, did some googling on common issues for a while and I spent about an hour looking for any issues, nope, not 1 issue, so I took it for a nice long test drive to see how it felt and fit Within a half hour of driving the car around Kinkstaar was proven right, and I wrong, I was judging the looks of a hard top car, but not the soft top version, and the NC is a much nicer place to sit than a NB, and the engine reved out really well The car drove beautifully, handled great and everything worked as intended so I thought I might as well see how much I could low ball the car, just for my fun, and the owners annoyance I low balled, we negotiated, and yeap....... $14'000 later, ....I have new toy car, again Next step is I'll do all my usual "service everything" things for pure fun, and detail the thing the thing to within an inch of its life I swear, this car will stay standard, and I have no intention to modify it In other news, whilst googling about common faults and stuff, I found this interesting....and if you cannot see it, is it really a "modification" https://mx5mania.com.au/products/copy-of-ecutek-race-rom-tune-normally-aspirated-mx5-nc-2005-2013-2-0l-or-2-5l?_pos=2&_sid=1a693f332&_ss=r Cheers Kinkstaar

Found another MX5 NB that looks Ok in the pics to look at on Saturday, this one is a series 3 Luckily they are both in the same direction Finding unmolested or non-track car examples is proving tricky I've got a hard budget, I'll access the situation and attempt some "polite" good old fashioned negotiating (low balling)

Still don't like the shape, especially when the hard top is up If I get a NB MX5 it will definitely require a colour matched hard, either when purchased or I'll need to find one As for wheels, yes, of course, in a 15" wheel size with a little "streetable" drop suspension wise Like this random pick from the googles, basically like my old one but nicer