Dommo Posted February 4, 2012 Author Share Posted February 4, 2012 Despite the cold weather, I've managed to get quite a lot of garage time this week. The extra silicone/ali hoses have arrived, and so has the replacement brake calliper. I might not have mentioned it above, but the rear passenger side calliper had seized. I duly ordered a replacement only to get confused when it arrived - it was for the wrong side. Yup, like a donkey, I'd forgotten the hubs are swapped so ordered the wrong side. The replacement has arrived now and I'm just waiting for it to warm up a bit before painting. Anyway, with the radiator lower mounts now on rubber as suggested above (hint: turns out they can be salvaged from a few brackets that used to reside in the engine bay of the MX5), the dog leg hose duly cut and armed with more silicone/aluminium, I continued to mock up the cooling pipework. And the join for the overflow and throttle body: Finally, the coupling hose for the top pipe: When the weather warms up a bit, I'll spray them black and look at some way of securing the longer sections. I'd also been fitting the main wiring loom. Really, everything else I've done has been a way of breaking that endless task up! Started off with this, all nicely labelled up still: And then roughly placed over the car to get an idea of what will go where. From then on, it's been a case of investing many hours, mostly in stripping off the tubing and thousands of miles of tape! Whilst wondering what I could do instead of all that, I figured out I didn't really need access to the footwells any more, so the side panels went on. How many rivets?!?! God bless the air rivet gun! And what can be fitted after that? The tub It needs trimming a bit because on the Mazda SDV the dash hoop is in a different position. The tub needs to go back a bit in this photo to get the required 400mm gap in the boot area. Cue hacksaw, file and lots of orange dust It's almost car like Oops, hit picture limit! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KugaWestie Posted February 4, 2012 Share Posted February 4, 2012 Good progress Dommo - keep up the momentum now Your tub against the dash hoop looks exactly like mine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dommo Posted February 4, 2012 Author Share Posted February 4, 2012 And a little bit less wiring than before: Wiring done: Most of the 'wrapping' removed Headlight motor wiring removed Headlight levelling wiring removed Air conditioning wiring removed Wires for plugs around inlet manifold area shortened So far, the wiring removed from the rear loom and this loom is a smidge over 1.5kg. Now, I'm obviously not going for the lightest it can possibly be here, but it's nice to remove a bit of weight when it's possible, and free. I was also going to fit the rollbar today, but I need a drill bit suitable for an M12 bolt. I'll pick one up on Monday. I'm intrigued that the manual says to fit the boot box then fit the rollbar though. I'll have to watch magicians intently tonight to work out how I'll get it through with no mention of drilling a rollbar sized hole! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TIG Brother Posted February 4, 2012 Share Posted February 4, 2012 Remove the boot box. Place masking tape over the plates where the roll bar will sit / bolt through. Lay the roll bar onto plates and square up to chassis. Draw round the roll bar legs onto the masking tape. Then using a bit of ingenuity work out / mark the centres for where the roll bar bolts down. Then pilot drill the brackets off. Say 3mm / 4mm hole. Place boot box in car and settle into position. Come from the underside of the car and using the pilot holes drilled in the chassis, drill up into the boot box to give you a small hole ready to get the hole saw out and make big Looking good Tho Dom. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TIG Brother Posted February 4, 2012 Share Posted February 4, 2012 I see where the extra section of ally pipe went now. I shortened my original powder coated one for this. Which I why I never supplied a section to go there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Colonial Posted February 4, 2012 Share Posted February 4, 2012 Just one thing - I wouldn't trust that smiling fat b******* behind the wheel in the photo. I know him and he will only let you down, and let himself down in the process. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dommo Posted February 4, 2012 Author Share Posted February 4, 2012 Remove the boot box. Place masking tape over the plates where the roll bar will sit / bolt through. Lay the roll bar onto plates and square up to chassis. Draw round the roll bar legs onto the masking tape. Then using a bit of ingenuity work out / mark the centres for where the roll bar bolts down. Then pilot drill the brackets off. Say 3mm / 4mm hole. Place boot box in car and settle into position. Come from the underside of the car and using the pilot holes drilled in the chassis, drill up into the boot box to give you a small hole ready to get the hole saw out and make big Looking good Tho Dom. Thanks for that, makes sense. Kind of like this? http://westiebuild.blogspot.com/2010/05/roll-bar.html I was tempted to use the standard pipe from Westfield but couldn't make a bead on it so for the sake of £9 or so, it seemed worth it. Just one thing - I wouldn't trust that smiling fat b******* behind the wheel in the photo. I know him and he will only let you down, and let himself down in the process. Shirley there must be something you can do? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Colonial Posted February 5, 2012 Share Posted February 5, 2012 There isn't....and stop calling me Shirley. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TIG Brother Posted February 5, 2012 Share Posted February 5, 2012 http://www.fuelsystem.co.uk/Fuel%20Pressure%20Gauges%20&%20Accessories.pdf I bought the FPG002 and the FGA100 to do my pressure Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dommo Posted February 6, 2012 Author Share Posted February 6, 2012 Was that meant for Chris? Done a spot more wiring, mainly reducing the dash/switches loom, taking things like heater wiring, electric windows, mirrors and the such out. Went from this: to this: Doesn't look like a massive improvement, but I'm now up to 2.5kg of wire removed. I'll be weighing it all in for scrap at this rate. Of course, it's not until you get to the end you realise that a lot of that loom will be redundant. Largely what's left extends the main wiring loom to the dash. Now there's already a lot of main wiring loom where the scuttle will be, it certainly doesn't need extending! But, whilst it's time consuming, I'm happy taking the wires out one by one, at least you know where you are. I also followed the advice and started to fit the rollbar. First, I masking taped up the tub part, adding bits on the side to show where the plate was: I then fitted the boot box, masking taped that up and placed the rollbar on top. After making sure all was central, I carefully drew around the rollbar and removed it. With a rule, I found the centre of these circles and drilled a 4mm hole through it down through the mounting plate. I removed the boot box and using the 4mm hole as a guide, drilled a 54mm hole for the rollbar to pass through. I also started drilling through the tub afterwards, but it was getting a bit late and didn't think the neighbours would appreciate it. There's no rush, I haven't picked up a 12mm drill bit yet and don't want to fit the rollbar properly until I'm finished in the boot area. Checking my handiwork, I was relieve to see it all still lined up: I don't think the rollbar is up to much to be honest, so I'll be upgrading to a braced one next winter. Will concentrate on getting it on the road first! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dommo Posted February 18, 2012 Author Share Posted February 18, 2012 This week I've managed to finish off the roll bar and got that mounted for now (without the boot box of course, still need access to fit the brake calliper and top up the diff oil). On Thursday I finally got around to drilling the holes for the gearbox mounting. Not particularly easy seeing as the engine was fitted, but careful measuring comes through. With the gearbox mounted, I checked and the top panel is still out. That'll need trimming. I picked up a new banjo bolt yesterday and so fitted the clutch slave cylinder. It's all filled and bled, seems stiffer than I remember but then it is a different master cylinder. I'll put in a bolt to stop the pedal going to far once I've got the prop sorted and so can find the biting point. Progress seemed to pick up pace towards the end of the week, and I fixed the rear of the tub down. I clamped on the arches, checked they were central to the wheel, re-checked the 400mm measurement at the boot, then checked it all again a few more times. Fortunately, the offset of the wheels guessed at (I think Smokey Mow can take credit for that) turned out to be spot on. 15x7, et40. And then I noticed what the co-pilot thought of my car building skills He's probably right. Since then, I've cut the holes for the wires to pass through the scuttle (64mm seemed fine) and attempted to fit all the bodywork to get it lined up. Annoyingly, the bonnet doesn't seem to fit, I'll post up another thread about that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dommo Posted February 28, 2012 Author Share Posted February 28, 2012 The FW bonnet fitting saga is nearly at an end. To paraphrase the separate thread, when fitting the FW bonnet, this goes on first and dictates the position of the tub. I've had to drill out the rivets at the back and bump the tub forward, which has pushed the boot box right against the diff mounting brackets It's also meant that as the boot box is now further forward the holes for the roll bar are in the wrong place. Westfield are going to sort me out with a discount on upgrading to the RAC roll bar This uses a square cut out, and so removing the issue. So, the hinge arrives and the bonnet is mounted as close to the chassis as possible. I think I'll just about get away with the boot box, though it's going to be mighty tight. I've fixed the tub so it's all as flush as it reasonably can be The passenger side sits high a little bit, though will go flush if you apply a bit of weight. I suspect the mounting tab needs trimming a touch. Even if not, the catches will sort that out. With the bonnet fitted, I could rivet the front of the tub on, making sure the edges match. Now, it's true the FW bonnet offers great access Let's only hope when I'm broken down at the side of the road some magical solution appears to get the front end 1ft in the air to enable it! Another job I've managed to do is wire up the bank of six switches: Just need to wire up the back lighting for those and then the wiring is nearly done. Until I test it, and realise it's all to dangler. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dommo Posted March 3, 2012 Author Share Posted March 3, 2012 The rear of the tub is now riveted on too, and the boot box just clears the diff mounting brackets. I did photograph it, but it turns out it didn't show it so I'll try that again tomorrow. On Friday I popped up to the factory for a few more bits and bobs. I returned the standard rear lights and roll bar and I came away with: RAC Roll Bar Fan mounting bracket Headlamp brackets for FW bonnet (didn't realise the standard ones weren't used) Bonnet lock set Clamps for the upper steering column Unfortunately the digital dash wasn't in yet and the middle steering column was also still awaiting modification. They'll have to be sent to me when they're done. So armed with some new bits to distract me from finishing the wiring, away I went and fitted something I already had. The ECU plate. I couldn't find a strap for the ECU so used 90 degree brackets instead. A bit of sponge tape is under it as well just in case of any vibrations. Unfortunately, the fuse box wouldn't stretch to the plate as well so that will have to go on the tunnel top. I got a new fan in my kit and wanted to use it (the Mazda fan would have stuck out normally) so was going to modify the bracket to suit. When I was in the factory though I saw they were mounted on a plate. I duly got me one of those!! And in it goes. God I hate bolting the radiator on and off with those stupid short bolts! Lastly, I stuck some tape down as protection for the bonnet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KugaWestie Posted March 3, 2012 Share Posted March 3, 2012 Dom, how you have got your ECU mounting plate means you wont be able to hinge it down into the footwell for access if you ever need to. Also if you are fitting wipers you will need access to fit the motor. I have got mine bolted from the underside of the dash hoop Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dommo Posted March 3, 2012 Author Share Posted March 3, 2012 I was thinking about that, but I thought the scuttle bolts on and off? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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