Disappointed/frustrated

Well, I expected at least one downer on this project, although I did expect it to be DVLA induced. After removing the diff, and cracking it open, I've found it doesn't fit on the Talon diff cover. The mounting holes are on a circle that's approximately one inch wider than the diff. They're in the right place in terms of angles around the centre point, the screw threads are correct and the two stub axles fit nicely, but there's no way the diff is going in. I do wonder whether it's a difference between a 1.6 and a 1.8 diff, as the one in the picture is a 1.8 but mine is a 1.6.

I've emailed Phil to see what happens, I'm not sure what he can do though. At best a refund would leave me just out of pocket for the postage and packaging, but then unless he can make a new one to fit I'm going to have to go back to the original plans for the rear suspension. Which was what I was trying to avoid!

There might be a possibility that I can use a 1.8 diff, but keep everything else. That's if they bolt together...

Well, there is an update, rather quickly actually. Phil is putting together some CNC created covers, so hopefully I can arrange with him to swap my prototype one for a 'real' one. It should also fit the 1.6 diff, so win win really.

Oh yeah, and I've figure out my diff is a viscous LSD. Not as good as a Torsen diff, but better than a completely open one.

We have lift off!!

Everything stripped off the car, all bolts undone, and engine stand in position;

Take the strain...

And lift...

Rear wheels moved to where the front wheels used to be;

And done!

There was a slight miscalculation with the length, the exhaust hung outside the garage. So a bit more spanner action and the exhaust was off!! It was way too big to reuse, so the scrap man got that one.

So the garage is now full of wanted kit...

As well as unwanted kit...

So it's time to start getting rid of the unwanted bits. Everything went on MX5nutz first, a few nibbles but nobody local who could collect. And none of it can realistically be delivered. Over to Gumtree, and the wing mirrors and soft top have already gone, so that's £100. The panels are still to be sold, so fingers crossed. If not it'll go to Ebay, but I suspect that will be hard work.

Nothing else will happen with the build for now, with all that stuff in the garage I can't move. But I'm off to Ireland for a couple of weeks, so it will just stay there. I hope the empty shell can be removed before I go, I did have one place that wanted scrap metal but when I phoned them I found he'd moved to North Wales. Fingers crossed I find someone to take it.

Chassis build

I've just noticed, I got so distracted by my donor strip that I hadn't logged my progress with the chassis. So the tunnel is done;

I did have a bit of trouble with the diagonals on the seat back. For some reason I'd cut them identically, but where they met the suspension top mount on one side, it was a good inch or so off on the other side. I actually left this one for a couple of days, so frustrated with myself that the chassis was that twisted. I'd measured everything as close as possible with my eye, each of the horizontal bars on the rear were identical and the verticals were a perfect match as well. But of course, same length on parallel sides either makes a rectangle or rhombus; the former being good and the latter being bad.

I finally came back to it and had a good look at what I was doing. Then I found the problem. The horizontal bars are at different angles, the middle one being 'flat' to the seat back and the top one being horizontal. This means that the diagonals are cut at quite a sharp angle on either end, with a 'diamond' profile being presented to the top bar. I'd basically been measuring the wrong part, the wrong end of the diamond. Once I started comparing the centre of the diagonals rather than the corners, it all lined up. I now have a matching set of welded in diagonals, and there is roughly 1mm difference between the two. That does suggest there is still an element of error, but 1mm is a huge improvement over 1 inch!!

I'm quite happy with how the diagonals have gone in all over the chassis to be honest, I cut them all as matching pairs and they all fitted correctly with no trimming. That means that with the laser alignment checking the horizontals, the verticals are similarly accurate.

Anyway, enough chassis waffle, the MX5 is nearly stripped and might be losing it's bodyshell this weekend, so it's all steam ahead for getting the last few donor bits off the car!