The Bogan

That would be my Shoei helmet

I've owned a few scooters over the years, a Vespa PX oil burner was my first scooter, followed by a few others, including a little 50cc BeeWee that I used as a barracks bike, and I've had a blast on all of them, they really are the cheapest for of city/suburb transport around The only issue with scooters in Australia is lots of people look down on them due to their size, maybe they need a big bike to make up for something else where they are lacking, unlike Europe and Asia where every man an their dog owns one, and now that filtering is legal in NSW, local traffic is never a issue Not to say I haven't owned my share of big cc bikes over the years, but they were for more blasting through the hills or Hwy riding where it needed to sit on Hwy speeds Safety wise, I ride like everyone is always trying to kill me, everyone is running a red, or running stop/give way signs, or generally asleep at the wheel, which most people are duringtheir commute, I also ride really safe, and give myself, and everyone else enough room in case I need to pull some hasty evasive actions, I've done a few rider training days over the years, which has come in handy on more than a few occasions As for mods, there's nothing really, and yes your right about aftermarket exhaust, all you get is loud and obnoxious noises from them, like every 250-300 cc you hear with a aftermarket muffler, in saying this I did put a rear muffler from a 125 Aprilla on one of my old 125 scooters, it was horrendous and no amount of full face helmet and ear plugs would dampen that noise As for coming from the Harley, and what a overpriced POS that was, I no longer do big rides as my poor old busted joints ache after about 1/2 an hour of riding, long cruises are so much more enjoyable now in a car, so a big bike would be pointless

As the MX5 isn't apparently "manly" enough, and I need something for runs to the local shops, and also take to my part time job at the salon, basically I can keep the MX5 away from car parks and stuff......like "flying lockers", I was wondering what I could buy to fix this issue LOL, I pick up a new Yamaha 125 Delight this arvo from Trooper Lu, basically a R1 that you can fit a slab of beer on between your feet, also, it was $29400 cheaper than a R1, so actually it's 2 x better than a R1

Damn it, I was at work last night, and stayed in a room there during the storm with the car outside, but undercover, I just went downstairs and well....there was a large steel locker that has come from some place last night, it wasn't anywhere I could see yesterday, and yeap, it landed on the fraking car....of course it did..... LOL So, I'll need to take it back for paint and panel, luckily it was only the boot that took the hit, so it could have been worse Serves me right for staying at work and getting on the cans with some of the boys

Yeah, really happy with how it all turned out As for aftermarket lip, nah, I'm not really a fan for practically reasons on a street car that gets driven everywhere I did have the full lower kit on my 2015 STI, but found the front lip scrapped alot, even at stock 4x4ish ride height As the NC sits now, with the lowest point of the car at 110mm, so just legal, some steep driveways and steep speed humps will still "just" scrap those little plastic OEM air dam thingies on the undertray just before the front wheels

More than happy with the colour match Talking to the painter he recommended to give the top a few weeks for the paint to 100% cure prior to sealing it with the ceramic stuff Also, because why not..... I have a fancy pants Fluidampr harmonic balancer on order, the 2.5 engine uses the OEM 2.0 balancer off the old motor as the 2.5 balancer is a larger unit and doesn't fit clearance wise, which, because the two engines have different harmonics, isn't optimal, the OEM balancer does the job, but as the gear driven balancer in the bottom end is removed to fit a RWD application there is slightly more vibration, the Fluidampr helps with the harmonics that the gear driven balancer once took care of, basically makes life easier on the oil pump and bearings when thrashing it around Hopefully the weather gets better soon because I'm keen for some cruising around, and currently, with the winds and storms we are getting, the amount of detritus being blown around from trees on the road isn't something I want to be driving around in

Lucky pick up Best to find these things before something horrible happened to the yoke flange thingies I would hate to think what would happen if it dropped the tailshaft Hopefully the holes are not flogged out in the yokes and it was just the bolts that got munted As for the hand brake.....ouch, look like the disc got rather hot, and I assume smokey, I recall when I had a front caliper seize on the Commodore, there was lots of smoke and the disc was glowing cherry red when I was able to eventually stop and have a look, and stopping a big heavy car, going down a big hill with some rather high RPM down shifts and some hand brake action is something that makes you think hard about life

Dropped the MX5 of this morning to get the hardtop colour matched and some PDR done, they are also going to give it a buff to remove some "stubborn" swirl marks and light scratches in the clear coat Over the last few months the poor little thing has copped some shopping centre car park abuse, I try to not park in them, but hitting Westfield's a few times over the last few months has taken its toll, nothing really bad, but enough of a trigger for a "while we're in there" thingie Once it's back and all the one colour, with a few dents and mark's removed I'll give some of these products a go and see what they're like

Give me convenience or give me death

I ❤️ Clark Rubber Pretty much all the stick on foam stuff or pinch weld shapes and sizes you could possibly need

In this thing about this 100% renewal energy stuff I hear no one really talking about anything other than power and fuel really Power and fuel, whilst being a huge part of how we use the billion year old Dinosaur juices, are only 2, of the probably thousands of things that we need to use it for in the chemicals industries for making nearly everything we use nowadays I'm all for a clean planet, but if we want to continue to have all the day to day appliances and stuff that we rely on everyday we will still need fossil fuels Whilst I do love science, and how it can bring innovation, there's really a limit to how far it can go in relation to "going green" As for EV's, unless your charging of your own solar panels, it isn't helping the environment when you consider the the batteries, the mining processes required, the manufacturing process required, and how long a batteries (read: the vehicle) lasts long term If I was supreme dictator of the world, I would ban the use of sugar for fizzy drinks and food additives and use that for ethanol manufacturing, petrol engines would be happier, and people would be alot healthier Disclaimer: Whiskey manufacturing would still be required, so says the supreme dictator of the world Same same for all the vegetable oils that get pumped into all our food, use that for bio diesel Disclaimer: the supreme dictator would still require olive oil to dip his bread in This would take some of heat off the use of the use of fossil fuels which are required for everything we use, unless you want to go back to pre 1800 for heat and power, or the early 1900's for plastics and every thing else that has come from cracking ethylene Would I be a fair and just dictator, nope, and I would probably be assassinated within my first few months, but would my cunning plan work, maybe, for a while, maybe not Meh, in the end in an over opinionated mildly educated arsehole typing out my vomit on my mobile phone, which wouldn't be possible without fossil fuels And if your into conspiracies, we only need the fossil fuels to last until a meteor hits, or thermonuclear annihilation, that would definitely fix our need for fossil fuels for manufacturing and power issues for quite some time Meh, time for this boomer to cook his lunch on his electric stove and then maybe go for a drive in my petrol car, for fun

Nah, if I need to fit people in a car I'll just use the Mrs car, the MX5 is perfect for what I need as a fun little sports car for fun on the street As for getting in and out of the MX5, I have no issues as I am a short arse who does lots of mobility training 🥷 If anything, I have been looking at Daihatsu Hi-Jets for a work hack, I helped one of my mates move some stuff with one recently that he picked up from Just Jap, it was a little ripper and plenty big enough for what we needed, it would also be super handy for me as I do alot of gardening, and plan on having some veggie patches and native gardens in the place I buy next year when I retire I did alot landscape gardening and growing veggies prior to my current job, and loved it, and that is a hobby that can keep me sane in my retirement, and as such, the little 300kg load capacity would be more than enough for what I need it to move around I have been looking at utes for just this purpose for a while now, and a near new 2024 Hi-Jet can be had for under $30k And I would rather look at a quirky little Hi-Jet than pretty much any other little ute, well, apart from a Brumby, I love the little Brumby, and weirdly have never owned one yet I was going to buy a heap of raffle tickets to try and win the Brumby that MCM built for Subaru Australia, but sadly I totally missed the raffle, I even filled in some form to be told when the raffle started so I could buy tickets, but to my dismay I was never contacted and found out I missed it when I was randomly googling Brumbys last year... #conspiracy Maybe I should just buy a Brumby for a little "work hack".....LOL I use to be indecisive, but now I'm not sure

I just rolled over "my" first 10k km in the MX5 Every time I go anywhere it always ends up in a adventure to look at houses and find some random country roads I've been on leave since early November but unfortunately need to go back to work on 19 January Luckily though I still have a fair chunk of leave left to burn until.... Not that I'm counting 😁

Tips look fine to me......but Boring stuff: Legalities - Vehicle standards notes that exhausts cannot extend to a point where they could cause injury Scary stuff: Mrs cuts open her shin putting stuff in the boot (ensure you have some bandaids and shiny jewellery handy)

The "rag on a stick" is a easy way to fit in between the wheel spokes into all of the barrel Albeit I do have 10 spokes on the MX5 which limits the access to actually jam my hand in to clean the barrel, but it was also makes much easier to clean the 5 spokes on the Dunnydoore with it as well, as you don't have to worry the caliper getting in the way if you have at least about 15mm space between the caliper and barrel This of course depends if you actually have the clearance between the barrel and caliper, and the amount of OCD you have to get the barrels as clean and shiny as the face of the wheel The thing is bendy as well so you can actually shape it to conform to the inner lip of the barrel

I clean my wheels every time I wash the car, I also clean the barrels, the only product I use on the wheels is truck wash and a pressure washer, followed by (inset your chosen name brand) wash and wax, time per wheel is probably 2 minutes total, cleaning the barrels is easy with one of these microfibre thingies on a stick from Sabco, they're also great for getting in between the front guards and body, and tight spots in the engine bay

Is this not just about people wrecking, and storing, multiple cars in their front yard? I now a tow truck driver that was contracted by the council to clean up housing commission front and rear yards in houses and unit car parks I'm all for working on, and doing maintenance on your car in your garage or driveway, but some people definitely take the piss There's one house locally to me that I walk past regularly where the front yard and driveway looks like a wreckers, multiple cars in various stages of being stripped, and the yard looks like all of fluids are basically dumped on the ground I may be wrong, but it seems that the initial reports, which I've seen nothing actually official about yet, may be getting taken out of context, like alot of the latest "the sky is falling" stuff found on the youtubes for clicks

Might be tricky matching the seat trim material If your got the funds you "may" want to get the rear re-trimed as well to match the front

Thanks for that.... If only I could do something once and be happy with that, like some people do....

Got a quote back Manifold is $1500 and the dump $740 My only concern is the stainless dump, and the possibility of it cracking, I need to look into it more IRT the dump It does look like it would be the best method though, albeit a costly best method

Has anyone used > https://performancecoating.com.au/

Good point, I think you can get black ceramic coating as well, so that could be two birds with one stone

What's the difference in wrapping it in this stuff in relation to overheating the 304L stainless dump material and having it cracking at the welds from overheating the material? It would well on my exhaust manifold as it is some fancy pants cast material, but, I've used similar stuff before and it is problematic to get it looking neat as you need to fix it with "all" of the SS ties The stick on stuff is just for the firewall and OEM heat sheild I believe that, as I am only going to be running low boost and not pushing the turbo too hard (hence asking about the differences between a 0.64 and 0.82) extreme heat in the dump shouldn't really be a issue I am happy to talk metallurgy about a 304L material and what makes it crack

From talking to the mx5 guys the NC doesn't actually need bonnet vents like the earlier NA and NB models, due to a better designed cooling system and undertray design There's plenty of them used as street cars and weekend track toys running anywhere from around 170 to 250kw with stock non vented bonnets, I initially was going to get some bonnet vents, but, as they are not actually required, I'll put vents on hold for a while and just monitor temps, though I do need to get something to actually monitor engine oil temps though, coolant temp can be pulled from the OBD2, but the oil gauge in the car is not actual oil temp, it is only a calculation based off coolant temp and RPM ☹️ They do recommend upgrading the radiator, which I have already done with a triple pass, and the only other thing they recommend for a street car is heat management, like I talked about above to protect bits in the engine bay from radiant heat, and to either replace the nearly 20 year old plastic coolant expansion tank, which I have done, or get a aftermarket alloy jobbie for some bling They did also say that if I wanted to track the car on occasion a oil cooler and sump baffle would be required, and as I already have had a sump baffle installed when the engine was out......... I'm going to get a oil cooler with a thermostat....... just in case I do eventually track the car, but probably not, but still maybe...🤪

Pre-empting heat management 1. The Kraken manifold will be ceramic coated 2. Just purchased some peel and stick heat shielding stuff from car builders, I'll cover some of the firewall behind the dump and a little on the cam cover, this will be done prior to installation as I have ample room to get where I need to now before that realestate has more bits in the way, I'm also planning to modify the OEM heat shield to go back on, but that won't happen until after installation so I know where to hack it up, I'll also cover it with some some peel and stick to neaten it up after the hacking 3. As the dump is stainless with a flex joint coating isn't really a option, and wrapping isn't recommended for a stainless dump, so once it is installed I'll grab some shielding from car builders to cover the dump, as it has some stand off, it "shouldn't" cause any issues and it "should" just keep the radiant heat away from " melty engine bay stuff" Not for heat management, but I've grabbed some more black crinkle coat to paint all the shiny intake pipes, I'll pick the pipe work up prior to installation and use the paint booth and big oven at work to cure them, I'll then wrap them with some bubble wrap so they stay nice during installation