Mooch Posted November 15, 2011 Share Posted November 15, 2011 If you aren't fitting the inertia reels, then you won't need to fit the cover, Dommo. I left mine off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KugaWestie Posted November 15, 2011 Share Posted November 15, 2011 Finally for the diff, I also just about remembered to fit the seat belt cover before the diff was tightened too. I'm not going for inertia reels so should get away with fitting it now, rather than having to remove the diff later which isn't that appealing. Dom Have you got a picture of this? as I have not done this, and also dont fancy diff removal later I am putting in 4 point Westfield belts Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark (smokey mow) Posted November 15, 2011 Share Posted November 15, 2011 Finally for the diff, I also just about remembered to fit the seat belt cover before the diff was tightened too. I'm not going for inertia reels so should get away with fitting it now, rather than having to remove the diff later which isn't that appealing. Dom Have you got a picture of this? as I have not done this, and also dont fancy diff removal later I am putting in 4 point Westfield belts Gary, as mike said above you don't need to fit the cover unless you're using the 3 point interia real belts. IIRC it's there to stop the road grime getting into the belt retract mechanism. If you're fitting 4-point harnesses then you can leave it off and just rivel a rectangle of aluminium over the two belt slots in the backpanel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KugaWestie Posted November 15, 2011 Share Posted November 15, 2011 Finally for the diff, I also just about remembered to fit the seat belt cover before the diff was tightened too. I'm not going for inertia reels so should get away with fitting it now, rather than having to remove the diff later which isn't that appealing. Dom Have you got a picture of this? as I have not done this, and also dont fancy diff removal later I am putting in 4 point Westfield belts Gary, as mike said above you don't need to fit the cover unless you're using the 3 point interia real belts. IIRC it's there to stop the road grime getting into the belt retract mechanism. If you're fitting 4-point harnesses then you can leave it off and just rivel a rectangle of aluminium over the two belt slots in the backpanel. Ok thanks Dommo - do you feel like we are developing a build race? More or less at the same stages Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dommo Posted November 15, 2011 Author Share Posted November 15, 2011 I was just about to post something along those lines on your thread With regards to the inertia reel cover, I'm going to leave it in for now, but not fix it yet. I like it because it makes the area much tidier, but it will be entirely pointless once the bodywork is on! Photos to add to the above: Protection for the chassis. The right hand side was impossible to remove once I'd fitted the diff... doh! Had to cut that little gem out. The spacer originally removed from the front of the diff that became the spacers for the buffers The top bolt for the front diff bracket, which meant undoing those brake pipes to get it in The diff, and one upright/driveshaft fitted. I've since fitted the spacers to the buffers and tightened it all up. And with the inertia reel cover Obligatory tunnel shot And the nose of the diff in its new home The head is back, nice and clean and decidedly lacking in my timing marks. I'll be doing that the hard way then... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KugaWestie Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 Looking good Dommo! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dommo Posted November 17, 2011 Author Share Posted November 17, 2011 A few more jobs finished tonight. Firstly, I replaced the ball joint boot on the drivers side as this didn't survive the ball joint splitter when taking the donor apart! I popped the discs and callipers on though not fully as I'm still waiting for the paint to arrive. That's in the hands of the Home Delivery Network, so I'm not getting my hopes up. The callipers are going orange to match the car. I would probably have painted them black to be fair, I'm not a fan of 'blinged up' standard brakes. But I need heat resistant orange paint for the Mazda logo on the engine so it was a good excuse. I chopped the bracket off the upper steering column and loosely attached that. I was hoping to be able to see where to drill the hole through the bulkhead, but as I only have two of the three steering columns I was never going to get very far. Hopefully the third column comes in the completion kit and I'll then be able to measure how much Westfield need to reduce one by. I also need to read up on other build diaries as I think you have to do something funky with the mounting of the column if you're not using the standard dash. Lastly, the clip for the driveshaft arrived in record quick time and with it replaced, it was an easy push fit. I also got round to finishing the soldering on the rear loom and taping it up. Just got to fit the tubing and secure it to the chassis. Passed a milestone today - I'm now over 50% through the entire project! Granted that includes prepping the garage and dismantling the donor. 165 hours sunk in so far, still plenty to go! I think I'll have a beer... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dommo Posted December 5, 2011 Author Share Posted December 5, 2011 Painting painting painting... I swear that's all I've done between then and now. The orange calliper paint arrived and it had the general consistency of water. Any thinner and I think it would have been a gas. It took 5 coats and even then coverage isn't perfect. I was patient though and left at least 24 hours between coats. Seeing how bright the colour was, I also decided to do some of the calliper in black to break it up a bit. I think it's paid off. My masking didn't appear to be brilliant, and I've managed to get the callipers dirty anyway but the general outcome looks good IMO. For both the front and back I did just the outside half of the callipers orange, with the inner half and mounting brackets going black. Otherwise, they'd have stood out too much, I'm hoping this will be nice and subtle behind the wheels. If not, I can always paint the rest of them black. I've left off a rear calliper for now as I've lost one of the retaining clips. A new pack has been ordered from MX5Parts for just over a fiver and should be here tomorrow. The engine has also been painted, with the rocker cover naturally being the trickiest. I wanted the raised lettering orange, but couldn't think of the best way of doing it. In the end, I painted the lettering first, then carefully masked it up ready for the black paint. I wasn't comfortable with the masking though, so decided to bite the bullet, paint over the orange and sand it back. Luckily, in the course of painting I found I could just wipe the black paint off whilst it was still wet. Bonus! I've also been busy building the engine back up, with the water pump, oil pressure sender and oil cooler being refitted. The rocker cover will need to come off to fit the timing belt but I needed the bench space to paint the manifold. Much more painting ahead then. The inlet manifold needs doing along with all the little brackets that go on the engine. Oh, and one more thing. Paid for the completion kit today, should pick it up next Thursday 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nikpro Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 It's taking shape nicely Dom. Just so you Mazda guys are aware - BLiNK Motorsport 'Orange' is trade marked Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dommo Posted December 6, 2011 Author Share Posted December 6, 2011 Uh oh... so if I'm not powered by BLiNK Motorsport, I at least need to be licensed by BLiNK Motorsport Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dommo Posted December 13, 2011 Author Share Posted December 13, 2011 It's on the floor! Got the lads round on Thursday, fitted the wheels then carefully manoevured it down. Figuring the rear was the heaviest, we used the engine crane on that and man handled the front end. It wasn't too heavy, or at least the guy on the crane didn't think so. We wanted to fit the engine and gearbox at the weekend so set about planning that it. The curse of the missing bits struck again... no engine mounts! I've got the brackets, but the mounts aren't even on the pick list. I wonder why that is, maybe they're part of the completion kit. Seems pretty pointless including the brackets but not the engine/gearbox mounts though. As I was (and hopefully, still am) picking up the completion kit the following Thursday it was pretty pointless getting Westfield to post them, the engine fitting can wait. Besides, the more I delay it, the closer I'll be to getting a nice posh lowered sump like Swindon Carpentry's. Hoping to grab that in January time and if the engine isn't fitted by then, it saves swapping it over in situ. I've painted the inlet manifold now and got that fitted. I got ahead of myself and fitted the coils/HT leads purely to see what it would look like. The rocker cover still has to come off to fit the timing belt. I want to sand the rocker cover back a bit anyway as the finish has the odd brush mark in it. I think I hadn't cleaned the brush properly on the second coat. Last but not least, my injectors arrived back today. I sent them off to BLiNK Motorsport last week for cleaning. The donor had done 145k miles so it couldn't have hurt! A full report was done (which I've conveniently left in the garage), the general consensus being that the spray pattern has gone from crap to good, and the flow rate difference across all four has gone from 5.2% to 0.8%. Granted, it's a standard motor, I might not notice too much but it's good to know they're now in an excellent state and it didn't cost much. Here they are as they arrived, all shiny, packaged and with new spacers, o-rings and the like. And side by side, with an injector in a similar condition to the ones I sent (I've got 7, I sent 4) Excellent work from Fraser, I'm sure I'll be using his services again if I get bored of the standard motor/the WSCC community persuade my to part with my hard earned on upgrades! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dommo Posted December 15, 2011 Author Share Posted December 15, 2011 Today was the day and so after collecting the hire van we set off at a leisurely pace to Gibbons industrial estate. Damn you speed limiter. When we arrived everything was ready, but we found the van didn't have any blankets in it. That'll teach me for adding them on after booking it and not checking before we left. Never mind, I reaped the benefits of all that tetris playing as a youngster and everything slotted in fine. The engine/gearbox mounts are indeed in the completion kit. Why the brackets are in the starter kit though I don't know. Must be an oversight. When we got back, it was time to unload. Where the b****y hell is all that going to go? The original plan was to put the tub in the store room then the boxes could fit between it. So far, the tub is in the store room and everything else is in the garage, in and around the chassis. More tidying required! I started going through the checklist, writing where stuff was going when I came to the first discrepancy: It must be rare when you get extra stuff! I'll post them back when I send the steering column off as I'm pretty sure I only paid an upgrade to the rear lights rather than the full price of a set. Finally, I was just finishing for the day and I couldn't resist unwrapping one of the seats: I daren't sit in them for the fear of going backwards onto the scuttle and causing some domino effect. They look comfy though, and the lack of 'bucket' on the base should mean they're fatty friendly. Battle should recommence on Monday. In other news, the engine is all timed up now. Still more painting required though... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KugaWestie Posted December 15, 2011 Share Posted December 15, 2011 Full steam ahead now Dommo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mooch Posted December 15, 2011 Share Posted December 15, 2011 Loving those seats....tasty... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dommo Posted December 18, 2011 Author Share Posted December 18, 2011 Ah, the infamous fuel tank protection bar... had to file off the powdercoating from the inside of the bolt holes of course but otherwise a perfect fit. The photo shows it extends just over the bolt heads, which I presume is the purpose. The photo also shows a minor mistake on my part. I prepped the fuel tank for fitting (though didn't swap the sender over as I won't be using the Mazda gauges), only to find I've put my wiring in entirely the wrong places! Basically, the two looms prominent in the photo and the two going to the rear light clusters are all on the 'inside' of the where the fuel tank sits. Oops! No rear biggy to move it of course. In other news, I'm yet to find the union for the fuel tank vent, and I've failed miserably at fitting the bearing to the steering column support so that's gone in the freezer. As you do... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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