Project "Poirot"

For anything else not specifically DeLorean related....

Project "Poirot"

Postby mec » Mon Sep 30, 2019 11:08 pm

Hi All

Hope you are all well, I thought i would share with you my latest project, not delorean related but i thought it may interest some of you.

So what is Project Poirot i hear you say, well for a while I've had an itch to get myself some open top motoring fun, in the past I've had a couple of spitfire's and very briefly an MX5 all be it an auto which is definitely not right for an open top B road blast.

So I started looking around to see what was about and the search soon lead me back to the MX5s, the criteria was simple, it had to be as cheap as possible, not completely rotten but a project car would be fine to keep the price down. So the search went on and on until i found the following... (these are the pictures from the Ad...

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So as you can see from the pics it needs rescuing, it has some questionable mods (more on that later) when i found it it had about 6 days left to run in auction so like many others i stuck it in my watch list and kept checking it every so often until it got to the last day, based on all of the many others I had watched i thought its bound to shot up in price right near the end, however to my surprise it didn't and with less than 20 secs to go i put in a bid and won it !

Now the MOT has run out in August so I'm now thinking how am I gonna get this back from Marlborough just past Reading to my house in Romford... In steps Mr Dan Stacey who I had been speaking to about the car a couple of days previous to the auction end, he said "my mates got a car trailer we can borrow" I said really superb !! so Monday Last week we set off around 4pm In Dan's trusty Audi A3 with the trailer on the back ...

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Just after we arrived the heavens opened and it continued to pour down all the way home so it was challenging conditions, however about 15 mins into the journey home Dan realized he had left the trailer tool bag at the side of the road where we loaded the car so we unhitched the trailer with the car still on and Dan raced back to get it..

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We then stopped for a cheeky Burger King

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and carried on

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arriving back at mine around 10.30pm

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So a long day but I'm pleased with my purchase, i will continue with the progress made since last Monday in the next post :mrgreen:

I have to say a MASSIVE thanks to Dan for all the help and giving up his time to come and pick it up, it was a proper road trip :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :dance: :clap:
NTH347X... now DMC 81X
Mike C aka MEC
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Re: Project "Poirot"

Postby mec » Mon Sep 30, 2019 11:20 pm

So then 1st thing to address is why is this thread called Project Poirot, well when i 1st saw the car, the moustache sticker on the front instantly reminded me of Poirot, so that the cars name now, anyway on with the post...

Fast forward to Sunday just gone, this is the 1st time since getting the car home that I've had the chance to have a proper look at my long distance purchase, so far I'm pretty chuffed with it, the things that need addressing straight away are the stickers all over the pop of lights, fuel filler, dash board and wing mirrors, obviously the drivers side wing and front bumper need sorting and we will go from there, here's some pics...

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Finally got Poirot into the garage...

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I even got Gem outside to help me ...

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Under the stickers the mirrors were also painted black... nothing a bit of thinners didnt sort...

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the silver under the black is not in that great condition so I will repaint these in the near future

So the interior ...

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Gem did this part too, it is very much improved ...

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Petrol flap done, just needs polishing...

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1st headlamp done...

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I then moved onto the wing and bumper and set to it with paint thinners...

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when i got to the front there is some filler in the wing which the previous owner did mention so i was expecting this ...

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Then went onto the front bumper ...

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The front bumper is a bit worse for wear so this will also require painting but definitely savable if i cant find a replacement.

So the work goes on :dance:
NTH347X... now DMC 81X
Mike C aka MEC
vin - #4395



2009 DMC Europe open house Roadtrip member
Official 2010 Silvercoast "Chaved Banana"
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Re: Project "Poirot"

Postby eric » Tue Oct 01, 2019 6:17 am

Loving it..... Quite amazed at the time they must have spent putting the stickers on, I thought it may have been a funky design option when I first saw them. What kind of price did you get it for <500 ? <1000? <1500 ? No idea on the prices for stuff like this just curious...
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Re: Project "Poirot"

Postby mec » Tue Oct 01, 2019 9:10 am

Well most I had been watching were going in the 4-500 region however with this one i think people couldn't see the good car hiding behind all the dodgy mods and i was very lucky and won it for £265 !
NTH347X... now DMC 81X
Mike C aka MEC
vin - #4395



2009 DMC Europe open house Roadtrip member
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Re: Project "Poirot"

Postby cis6409 » Tue Oct 01, 2019 2:44 pm

Brilliant mec, always have a soft spot for the mx5 myself, so very cool to see ya rescuing this one!
Love it
Best of luck with it, should be easy goings after the delorean resto ;)

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Re: Project "Poirot"

Postby bandit » Tue Oct 01, 2019 5:45 pm

Looks a bit of fun, that Mec. £265 for nowt eh!
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Re: Project "Poirot"

Postby A Van » Tue Oct 01, 2019 6:26 pm

Cracking mate well done


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Re: Project "Poirot"

Postby DJK73 » Tue Oct 01, 2019 6:39 pm

Nice one Mec, first things first I know but if you ever fancy making it go a bit quicker I know a bloke that specialises in them and has I dyno etc
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Re: Project "Poirot"

Postby mec » Tue Oct 01, 2019 11:37 pm

Hi Guys thanks for all the nice comments, as you say Shane it should be easier that the De resto !

That sounds very interesting Dan, I may have to take you up on that once I've got it back on the road ;)

So then on with a bit more progress, the next thing I have turned my attention to is that drivers side front wing, as you saw in the initial pictures, there is a big rusty hole at the bottom, you could see this had been welded before but you couldn't see how badly until I attacked it with a grinder ! ...

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As you can see the corrosion on the outer wing has started to effect the inner sill behind but I think I've caught it just in time so I started removing the wing which is supposed to be bolted on all round, this was the case until i got to the 2 bolts at the bottom where its attached to the sill, whoever had done the previous welding "repair" ( i use that term loosely) had ground the heads flat on the bolts and welded the plate over the top and onto the sill lip :roll:

So i carefully ran a thin grinder blade along the weld to release the wing, this allowed be to remove it completly and gain access to the inner sill and the 2 bolts (or what was left of them) ...

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this is what was left of the bolts...

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So i cut a slit in both of them to make it into a giant flat head screw and super heated them and with some persuasion they came out ...

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So with those removed and all the old weld cleaned off I cleaned back the area with a flap disc and gave it several coats of rust remover ...

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I then applied some etch primer and normal primer over that, followed by 3 coats of stone chip to hopefully protect it for the future ...

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I Also now have the front bumper removed, this proved more of a task than it should have been as all the bolts are rusty, a few had to be cut but i got there in the end..

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doing this job however has revealed my next job ...

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you can see a scrape mark on the side of the headlight trim where the panel is bent, this damage was obviously sustained at the same time as the wing hence the filler :doh:

So a little bit of panel beating is next.. watch this space ;)
NTH347X... now DMC 81X
Mike C aka MEC
vin - #4395



2009 DMC Europe open house Roadtrip member
Official 2010 Silvercoast "Chaved Banana"
Unofficial 2011 Eurofest Autotest WINNER ! 128.7 secs
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Re: Project "Poirot"

Postby Dan 6511 » Wed Oct 02, 2019 8:02 am

Awesome work as ever mec.

Shocking bodge by the previous owner. I don't understand what goes through peoples minds with some of the 'repair' work you come across. Why would you grind down bolt heads and weld somthing that is meant to be bolted!? :roll:

Top work getting the remains of the bolts out though - a new wing should just bolt straight on now :thumbsup:
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