Aluminium Fuel Filler Cap (August 2001)
At the Lulworth MX5 Rally, I saw an MX5 with this filler cap and (unfortunately ;-) really liked it. I thought it would go nicely with my shiny dual exhaust, so when I was in need of some retail therapy in August, I succumbed and bought one. It's a genuine Mazda part, ordered from Scimitar international and delivered the very next morning.

The new cap is a drop-in replacement for the original part. Installation involves removing 2 bolts to detach the original cap, then taking out 3 of the 4 bolts from around the fuel pipe, placing the new cap around it, and replacing the 3 bolts to attach it.

Fitting time:
4 minutes to install the new cap
20 minutes to nip down to Halfords for an 8mm socket!

Black Radiator Grille (August 2001)

I always thought the MX5 air intake was a bit empty, and that my radiator was at risk of being holed by flying debris. I finally got around to fitting a Moss high flow grille after another MX5 driver reported the cost of his new radiator! I went for a nice subtle black grille (6mm hexagon pattern).

This grille did not have "cut-outs" to accomodate the towing hooks. The instructions recommended a 45-minute process to remove the towing hooks, but as I do track days I need to keep the hooks in place, so avoided this job. As a result, however, I had to cut holes in the grille for the hooks to poke through. After careful measuring I used a pair of side-cutters to snip away hexagons until the hole was right, and was surprised to find that I had a perfect, snug fit!

As a result, once the holes were correct, fitting was very easy - remove 2 existing bolts, push in grille, replace bolts - a 5 minute job.

After 2 years, the black paint started to flake and the grille began to rust. However, I didn't expect such a cheap grille to last forever, so I still think it was good value for money.

Stainless Steel Radiator Grille (June 2003)

For my birthday, my wife kindly bought a lovely braided stainless steel grille to replace the rusting black one. This was extremely easy to fit, and looks nice, although it was a somewhat more dramatic change to the front end than the black grille!

After removing the old grille, the new one took about 5 minutes to fit.

Chrome instrument dial rings (June 2001)
I found the instrument panel in my Mark 2 somewhat bland, so I added a set of 5 chrome instrument dial rings to make it a bit more interesting. It looks nice in the day, but I think it looks even better at night with the light glinting off the rings. I was initially intending to only get the 2 large rings for the speedo and tachometer, but the kit I bought included all 5 so I gave in :-)

Fitting was quite straight-forward. To get at the dial faces I removed the steering column case (unscrew the 3 screws on the underside, then pop the upper and lower plastic parts of the casing apart - quite carefully as my alarm activity LED is mounted in the upper portion). This allows easy finger-access to the bottom of the large plastic binnacle cover. Careful levering with fingers will pop the 8 or so plastic clips (a bit noisy!), and the cover then lifts straight off. This reveals the clear plastic instrument "window" which (in the Mark 2) is again just clipped in place - release the clips and lift this off to get at the dials. Carefully apply a small amount of glue (I used Araldite) to the rings, place them, scrape any excess glue away with a knife, and it's then a simple matter to replace the covers in about 2 minutes.

Fitting time:
5 minutes to carefully disassemble the binnacle
20 minutes to carefully stick all my fingers together, get glue everywhere, and swear a lot
15 minutes to carefully stick dials in place
2 minutes to reassemble the binnacle

Front mud-guards (August 2000)
Well, there's not a lot to say. I fitted a pair of standard Mazda front mudguards because I found I got massive streaks of mud up both doors during the wet season (which in England is 9 months of the year :-(

Addition of the mudguards has made a huge difference to the amount of muck I get up the sides of the car. This may be partially because I have slightly wider than stock tyres (195's instead of 185's).

I would definitely recommend this simple addition.

Last updated January 2004