Total MX-5 – July 2019

58 | TOTAL MX-5 |^ Summer 2019

[ READER’S RIDE ]

show that it had been cherished. I

believe that the first owner was a

committee member of the MX-5 Owners

Club. When I’d finished converting the

car I sent a picture to the guy I’d bought

it from – his response was, “I just need to

warn you, this is gonna cause trouble...”’

It was always Tim’s intention to blitz

the build, so he spent many a long hour

in front of the laptop. ‘I did lots of online

research,’ he tells us, ‘and joined groups

where people had done similar

conversions. It all added to my pool of

knowledge, and enabled me to work out

what the best components were and

where to obtain them. I was also able to

determine which parts I would have to

have fabricated myself.’

Amongst the latter are a custom-made

steel front nudge bar that bolts through

the front bumper and opens to the tow

points on the chassis, and a light bar

above the windscreen onto which are

mounted eight Hella Comet spotlamps –

‘It would have been easier and cheaper

to settle for LED strip lights that have

become commonplace these days,’

reveals Tim, ‘but I wanted to replicate the

look of those Tamiya r/c cars, so it had to

be Hellas. It’s all about attention to detail,

you see.’

The wheels are another example of

imaginative fabrication. ‘I wanted steel

wheels,’ explains Tim, ‘and found some 6

x 15in Renault items that had the right

stud pattern but the wrong offset. So a

local fabrication shop cut out the

centres, spun them round, and re-welded

them to give a -10mm offset. They did a

really good job. We then painted them

here at Autoworks in a black sparkle

mica, and put RAYS Engineering stickers

on them just for fun and to have a

Japanese theme to the conversion.’

Prior to the build commencing, Tim

stockpiled all the parts he would need,

so that once the conversion work began

there would be no waiting around for

bits to arrive. Amongst the components

lined up for fitment were a Paco

Motorsports suspension lift kit from the

USA, which bolts to the damper

mounting points and gives more than

15in of ground clearance; Pro-Sport

adjustable anti-roll bar drop-links; 29in

Roadcruza all-terrain tyres, a set of ‘drift-

style’ wheelarch flares; a pair of steel

roll-hoops; a ducktail boot-lid spoiler;

stainless steel exhaust system; Ford

Focus RS bonnet vents, and a great deal

more besides.

As a result of this careful pre-planning,

the build was completed – in the

evenings and at the weekend – in just 10

days. In the spirit of ‘doing things

properly’ Tim made sure that the

wheelarch enlargement was no mere

hack-and-cover-over affair. ‘The cut on

all the arches was around 100mm,’ he

explains, ‘to allow clearance for those

giant tyres, but we then fully TIG seam-

welded between the inner and outer

skins of the arches.’

To complement his car’s somewhat

more bullish appearance, Tim decided

to change the colour. ‘A respray would

have been way too expensive so I opted

for what is essentially a sprayable wrap

called Full Dip. The colour is NATO

GreenGrey and it’s an extreme matt

finish that perfectly suits the look I

wanted to achieve with the car.’

The whole job done and the MOT duly

acquired, Tim took the Monster MX

home to show his wife. ‘I’d shown her the

MX-5 in its unmodified condition when I

first got it, but she didn’t see it again

until after the work had been completed.

Car builder and ex-owner, Tim Blacker