159 (939) 2005 - 2011

I wanted to paint the calipers, came up with an idea of colours with my husband.  He said 'you can paint them on the car its easier'. It was a no from me.  Took them off and he watched me spend a day scrubbing them in the kitchen sink. Little did I know he would design and make me a mini sandblasting box, and order the paint colours I wanted.  Setup on the dining table (most women would have a fit, not me).  It worked well, it was so rewarding then the fun part came prep and paint.  Before you say it I only did the front ones off the car, due to it being close to NAD 2022.  You may notice from the pictures I do indeed have different colour calipers (yes I know naughty me). We have blue, green, red and yellow and the reason behind that..............................massive Harry Potter fans so they represent each house at Hogworts. Yes I will blow my own trumpet, think I did ok for a first attempt. Thanks to my husband for his thoughtful planning.

Before even passing my test age 40 in 2017 I was looking.  Annoying both my husband and driving instructor with pictures, conversations and demands. I spent hours, days, weeks even months ok actually a year searching.  I found some on marketplace, checked they would fit adverstised as 5x110 did my longest drive (at the time) to get them from Berkshire to Bury.  Found a company to refurb them, spent total of £500 to find they don't fit. No one wanted to buy them so I was stuck.  Hubby got in touch with an AROC member who was selling some.  Repeated the process, loved the alloys but not 8 months later, I hit an island (don't even know how or why) chunk out of it soooooo angry.  Then opposite side after hubby was driving another scrap on alloy (he denies this, but I know every mark on the car).   Mortified couldn't bare taking it to any show with them like that.  Asked the wheel guys to sort them.  They didn't say they wouldn't match and I should have twigged.  Went to collect and they were very different, I had a show that weekend. He said stick them on one side no one will notice.  I was sooooo angry I couldn't speak.  Hubby to the rescue spoke to the garage next day, told to bring car down.  It was agreed they were very different the paint fleck was heavier.  They said they would take all four to match them.  They came back ok not as dark as I wanted but at this point something was better than nothing.  They have been on the car now for about 7 months, and sadly had to avoid someone hitting me so here we got again, the alloy has a mark, nooooooooooo.  They have now been on a year, sadly slight kerbing on edges for the same reason as before.

My husband treated me to a skid pan experience in our 159.  Was loving pushing it's limits yet trying to keep it controlled.  Went off to do my 3rd round, had a puncture.  What was worse we had no tools to remove the wheel (someone forgot to put it back in the car) to put the spare on, the guys didn't have a socket that fitted.  We called our soon to bring our socket set over, Thruxton mechanic came to the rescue.  Did the swap, the bloke said he would get his boss man to let us back again for free as didn't get full session. We poddled home.  Came back a couple of months later, same guy again he smiled when he saw me.  There was a younger lad who was going to have a go in his MX5, instructor knew he was full of himself.  So he told MX5 guy to watch her (meaning me) she knows what she is doing.  I laughed because I didn't think so.  I had enjoyed it took both my sons out, smiles all round.  As for MX5 guy, he wasn't getting it or listening to advice, even his girlfriend got out of car.

The 159 came with black leather interior, that is fine suits the car being black.  But I still pined after the cream cloth interior we had in our 1.9.  Husband to the rescue, for our anniversary he bought me cream leather interior.  Initial reaction was ok, then it was oh god more cleaning.  Steamed cleaned then cleaned with leather cleaner, came up ok.  The colour of the handle on glove box had melted off (only way to describe it).  He acquired the seats and door cards, but some trim bits are missing so its mix n match at moment.  Hopefully can source the bits I need as having different colour parts are bugging me.

I love my music, and I love it loud.  So to please his wife, Stuart upgraded the sound system changing all speakers and adding 2 amps and subs to the back.  All done subtly.