Newbie in the American colonies

[grahamf]

As some have pointed out, I am based in California, just south of San Francisco, and just finished an MX-5 SDV build. I built my kit using a donor supplied from Flyin' Miata, with a few upgrades from their selection. e.g. Lightweight fly wheel, stronger clutch, little big brake kit.

 

I reused the Miata cluster, and the visibility to the instruments is not great. It may be possible to adjust the angle of the steering column to make this better, but there are enough other issues with the left hand drive steering column routing that this was not a priority. If I was more confident with wiring, I would have considered doing Smokey Mows wiring modification.

 

I'm happy to help with any issues that you may have.

 

Graham

[JohnCh]

Welcome Dan!  I don't get to the boardroom too often these days (trying to change that) so just came across this thread and also learned about GrahamF.  For those of us in the States. make sure to visit USA7s.  It's brand agnostic and good source of local information for those on this side of the pond. For some reason very few Westfield owners post there, so it would be great for the marque to get a little more representation.  I know someone who recently moved to the Chicago area who built a Miata kit about 3 years ago.  Happy to put you in touch if you like.  His build blog is here.  Also, given you're location, check out California Caterham Club forum.  Despite the name, all marques are welcome.  It's essentially a social group of guys primarily in Southern CA, that organizes a lot of blats and track days.  In fact I think there are a few members in your specific area.

 

-John

[NVP66S]

Thank you all. I am now in the middle of refurbing the donor car parts. At the moment that means cleaning up a few hundred fasteners by putting them in the rock tumbler and hitting them with Rust-Oleum using the airbrush. I'm sure I'll get tired of that soon. I've also spent some time on Smokey MOW's build site. I see a lot of attention to detail and pride of craftsmanship. I hope I do half as well. A box-o-stuff came from Flyin' Miata to do the engine/clutch/trans refurb.

 

I didn't see the California Caterham Club, thanks. I tried the AHA Association of Handcrafted Automobiles, but they seem to be not interested. I went to their show in Pomona and the various Shelbys were well represented, but the only 7 replica was a one-off that the current owner purchased.

[KugaWestie]

Remember to run a build thread, it helps people spot any mistakes and also I found it useful to help see the wood from the trees when you sit down and update it.

 

My thread can be found by clicking the link in my signature strip below

[grahamf]

A build thread is very useful. It is even more useful to you in CA when you come to the BAR part of the SB100 process (http://home.thegrid.net/~ffr4776/SB100_Registration.pdf). They wanted proof that I had built the car, and I pointed them to my build thread on this forum. It had picture of my kit arriving in my garage, the car being built in the garage and the final car, in the same garage.

 

Graham