Wanted to say a hello to all fellow owners out there, though a late one at that considering I've owned the car for over seven years! D'oh. In my defence I've worked away in Scotland for a lot of that, then there was of course that covid thing, so the car has rather regrettably lingered in my parents indoor garage. Mind you, the MX5 I took up North instead rusted badly after that (surprise surprise) so probably a blessing in disguise! It has still been used (a little), serviced and had fettling here and there, so definitely not a 'sit around and rot' scenario.
It's my first Mk1 (& ironically the longest I've ever owned a car!) though I had a rather lovely Rev3 Turbo over a decade back. Amazingly it's all on original panels owing to previous garaging (other than its first 3 years of life) and a fastidious engineer owner. Lots of wax-oiling was my over-riding memory when buying it!Though it's certainly no show car, it's decent all round and only has 51k. I'm currently trying to get everything up to scratch for more consistent use, though it will remain fair-weather-only as I have other Jap stuff to use. So I therefore get to enjoy the spoils of corrosion on everything I own!
I feel the suspension is perhaps a teeny bit tired, so new shocks would definitely be a benefit, though as a whole there's not a whole lot of suspension stuff to do. I'd also like to fit a manual choke kit as that waxstat cold idle is rather a pain. It doesn't hunt or anything though, so at least it's a consistent noise
One thing that's certainly become startlingly apparent in recent months is valvetrain noise on cold start. I suspected it was valve clearance related and an appropriate check by me has shown that a number of the exhaust valves are either right on the tolerance limit, or have already passed it. The O-ring on the Dizzy is also leaking a bit of oil. Unfortunately I don't have either the special tool to do the shims or a timing light post O-ring replacement. Is there anybody around my area that might wish to be paid to conduct such a job?
Otherwise, as I'm back in my home area properly, always happy to meet similar minded peeps. I'm based in East Sussex btw, down on the coast in Rye.
Headcase (Patrick Chambers) is the man for you, highly regarded in MR2 circles, not very far from you in Bexhill on Sea 
Love the sound of the time off... 