A brief distraction...

 Following today's video on Tools N Track, it's really given me some food for thought on my working environment. Over the weekend I spent 3 hours fitting the gearbox rubber mount. That was 2 hours 45 minutes of finding the damn thing, then 15 minutes of drilling to fit it!! If that seems ridiculous, well that is how bad it is in there at the moment. I'm getting fed up of tripping over stuff, not being able to move the welder to where it needs to go, even being able to get to the gas and electric meters to take this quarters readings was a mission.

So I'm putting the car deliberately on hold, and tidying up the garage instead. I really should have done this when I dropped the engine in, as that 'should' have given me a lot more space. Of course, it didn't and things still can't move about.

I need to make a list of the stuff that needs to be sorted. Just off the top of my head I can think of;

• The thousands of tins of paint that are littered everywhere. And probably a fair few chemicals, cleaners, greases, that sort of thing. 
• The coats that are hanging up at the back that are basically useless now (the adults and children of the household have gotten too big to wear them anyway!).
• Sort out the racking to see if there are any unused gaps.
• Sort out the half a dozen boxes of old computer stuff that is most likely useless (for example, I needed a replacement laptop PSU, and while I did have one, it promptly blew the fuse as soon as it was plugged in!)
• Be absolutely brutal with the stuff I need to keep. I've now got to the point in the build where I know what I can use and what can be disposed of. Hopefully that means the couple of boxes of spare parts can be reduced. 
• Have a general clear out of everything that was 'just put in the garage'. 

I think I'll take a few photos before and after, as I suspect this particular job may feel like a complete waste of time if I don't see any visible benefit. 

Wish me luck!

Fuel lines and change of plan

 Today's job was fuelling, which should have been a basic job by all accounts. OK, getting the fuel lines connected to the engine was a bit of a challenge, but I managed to get the old pipe removed and the new pipes on there.

I then started feeding the pipe down the transmission tunnel, and that's where it got a bit 'challenging'. The first thing was that the pipes are thick, and it's difficult to feed them through. Second was that the brake pipe needs to be there. That makes it even more challenging.

But the biggest issue was one where I basically get the engine permanently stuck because I can't disconnect the fuel! I thought I was being clever by keeping the minimum number of connections, but it does mean that if I wanted to remove the engine I'd have to remove the fuel lines from the fuel rail, and it's not an easy job.

So change of plan. I'm going to go for rigid lines down the transmission tunnel. I'll use the fuel hose from the engine to the copper line, just in front of the bulkhead. Then solid down the centre, and back to rubber hoses to get to the tank, filter and pump. 

I now have some copper fuel line and some clamps on their way, once they arrive I'll finish the fuel. Tomorrow will be back to the body. 

3 week gap

 And just like that, another big (ish) gap. This one is a bit more understandable though. The lack of work should have been good for working on the car, but obviously it's bad from a finance point of view. The weather also got a bit grim, and while I don't need sunny weather, the minus sign at the beginning is usually a bit of a challenge!!

Anyhow, the next job is to finish off the panels between the aluminium chassis and the fibreglass body. It's mainly a bit awkward because I don't actually have the metal, so trying to figure out how much I need was going to be the first challenge!

Then I finally figured it out, I need a paper template. So, first part is the bulkhead;

 This is a fairly easy one, a sheet of aluminium that is roughly 1000mm wide, 310mm tall and 250mm on the horizontal. So 560mm with a fold.

The sides are a bit more complex as it needs to be a smooth transition from horizontal to vertical. The first part was to make a wooden template for the front so I can form the pattern round it. That comes to a point at roughly elbow position, then it's flat to the back. As ever, a picture is better than a description;

The paper is unfortunately deforming on this shape so I do suspect this isn't going to be easy when it comes to making it out of aluminium. But at least if I can get the edges top and bottom sorted, and make the curve at the bottom, the rest can be pulled tight. These panels work out to be 1000mm wide, with the maximum height following the curve being 400mm. Oh, and I need two of them. 

This does make it obvious that there is a gap. It's not overly visible as it's directly under the body, but I think it would be sensible to fill it in;

As it'll follow the same edge as the side panel, it's also 400mm maximum height. I think I'll maintain the right angle though, so it's 320 wide between the two vertical bars and 110 for the sticking out part.

There's also a strip along the back behind the seats, I'm not sure this will be aluminium as it could do with being a bit more sturdy and there's no support there at the moment, but just in case it needs to be 1200mm wide and 110mm high.

The next big section is the boot lining. Nothing difficult, basically a big box. It's maximum 850 wide, 500 high and 400 deep. It also tapers towards the back so that should be easier too. I'm going to make it as a separate component that then just bolts in place. That way I can maintain access to the fuel tank and diff. 

Lastly is the two sides of the radiator. These will be 'half cones' to fill the gaps in the front grille. Going back to an older picture;

The radiator is 380 wide, and since the weather is horrific the measurements off the above picture gives me 255mm either side. The hole is 290mm at maximum height gap. But it needs to be 'bowl shaped', so I might give this one a miss with the sheet and come up with some other way of doing it.

Panels come in 1m x 1m, or 1m x 2m. Now, I got a quote from forward metals 10 years ago and it's basically half the price of the metal store. But given the amount of metal I need the postage from metal store would be free, whereas I'd have to drive to forward metals. I'll get an updated price and see which one is the cheapest. I used 1.5mm for most of the panels, and it's basically unbendable. So the choices are either 0.9 or 1.2, and I'm tempted to go for the thinnest. 

Edit: Turns out Forward Metals actually have their prices on the website, and they're not far off being half price of the metal store. So even with the half hour drive it still works out cheaper! I'll do a quick check to make sure they can fit in the car, then go get some later on. 

Exhaust part one

 After putting the cat and the back box in place, it was a 'fairly' simple process of chopping up the pipes and tacking them in place. It was a little frustrating at points, mainly because of the bends going in three dimensions, but I got there in the end;

At this point the horizontal pipe hasn't been cut to length, so I have a bit of flexibility of where the cat will live. It ideally needs to be midway between the bodywork and the chassis metalwork. Even so, I think there's going to be a heat problem.

Cats get hot... and they're also meant to be outside the car. This won't get much airflow. I'm going to get it positioned, but then I think it will need some heat shielding on both sides. The exhaust is potentially similar, especially being right next to the passenger hip and the seat itself. 

Tomorrow I should be able to finish the exhaust, which will mean welding up the pieces as well as the three brackets required to hold it up. The cotton reels arrived today and they'll work well. 

Edit: Looks like I was mostly on the right track with the exhaust, apart from what I was looking for. I'd been searching for examples with 'Haynes Roadster exhaust', but actually I should have been looking at the Fisher Fury, SSC Stylus or STM Phoenix. They all have enclosed bodywork with the exhaust inside the sill. Looking at some of those they just have the exhaust 'right there', and in some cases it's even more enclosed than mine is!

Having said that, I don't feel there's any need to make things more uncomfortable than they should be, so I'm going to get some heat resistant mat and line the chassis and the bodywork. There's a fabric that is basically aluminium foil on fibreglass mat which should work quite well, I'll bond it to the metal and to the body inside. 

One other recommendation from locostbuilders (thanks Adithorp!) was to open up the front to let air in, but put woven mesh in there to block potential combustibles getting to the exhaust. Given that our drive is regularly covered in dry leaves I think that would be a good idea. I'll replace that edge of the body panel with some woven mesh. 

Engine in

The last few days have been very productive, mainly because I got the engine back in. I wanted to get it in for some time, and I thought now was a good a time as any;

Two things had to be sorted straight away. The engine mounts hadn't been drilled, it actually turns out they needed to be slotted as well. The engine is just too narrow for the mounts so they sit right on the inside bars rather than on the welded plates that I added. Structurally this isn't an issue, it's still load bearing through some substantial bars and they're all connected and plated. Even if the bolts somehow fail their more than 3 ton load limit, the engine still can't drop through. But I am still going to weld a washer in the right place, as I'm not sure how Mr IVA would react to a bolt going through a slot rather than a hole. I cut the slot in the mount rather than the body so it's easier to put the strength back in.

The other thing that needed sorting was the radiator mount. It was entirely in the way, and I couldn't safely tilt the engine far enough to get it into the engine bay past the bracket. Two minutes with the angry grinder got me here;

Not the most attractive resolution, but I had the engine in the air so force overcame grace on this one. Still, it didn't take much cleanup. Removal of the welds and some tabs on the bottom of the bracket leaves me with the whole unit being removable;

Holding a radiator and fan doesn't need high strength, but this is still a high tensile bolt into a rivnut in the chassis (ignore the left hand one, I'd not cut the bolt down when I took this photo). The radiator fits fine again;

Talking of rivnuts, I put some more on the centre console panel. With dome fasteners that are pretty much the same profile as rivets I'm happy that it's attractive and IVA compliant;

I also sorted the required hole for the gearstick so that's ready to go too.

Back to the engine. Having it in place gives me a load of jobs to complete. First, clearances. I needed to confirm the clutch pedal and slave cylinder don't want to occupy the same space;

That looks pretty spot on to me. The brake pipe is a bit tight but still plenty of movement space before things get dangerous. 

Next, the steering column. Everyone who had put an MX5 engine in their locost has said the alternator bracket needs to be cut. But if you recall I wanted to move the column to make it extra IVA friendly. The additional angle means that my column doesn't get close to the engine;

I also had a look around the engine to see what was going on. First the plugs and leads need to be replaced, here's an obligatory photo of the leads so they go back on in the right order;

The cam belt kit I have also comes with a water pump, and just looking I can see it's desperately needed;

It looks to be a mix of limescale, dried coolant and who knows what else, but as this is being replaced I'm ok for now. I'll get a hosepipe through the rest of it before going too far.

While I was on this side of the engine I removed the brackets for the air conditioning and power steering, they won't be needed. 

The cam cover comes off for the cam belt too, so I took the opportunity to have a look around;

Turning the engine over manually shows things moving quite smoothly, no horrible scraping sounds. There's no marks on the lobes or caps either. But everything is dry, proper bone dry. If I started it like this I reckon I'd get some issues. I'm going to give everything a spray with clean oil when it goes back together, that should be enough to keep things slippery until the oil pressure builds.

Oh, and last check, the whole short/big nose crank issue. My car is a 1992 so it 'should' be clear, however the VIN is below the threshold. So the only way is to visually check;

This is an 8 slot pulley, along with a 1.4 inch bolt. Both point towards a 'good' crank which is a relief.

Next jobs then. With the engine in place I have the following to do;

1. Coolant pipes. This will be from the rad to the engine, through the VW coolant bottle, and back round. I do need to buy the pipe, but I also need to figure out the routing before I know how much I have to buy. 

2. Breather delete/reroute. There's a couple of cam cover breathers that I want to sort, they seem a little excessive in my application but it'll be up to 'the internet' on whether they can be removed completely.

3. Fuel pipes. Simple really, I have the hose, two ports on the engine and two on the tank. No real problem, although I do need to find some suitable fuel hose clips for it's journey down the transmission tunnel. 

Here's the two pipes as they came off the car;

Depending on what I think is easiest, I might connect the new hose to these connections, or remove these lengths completely and connect new hose direct to the fuel rail. I'll reuse the corrugated tube to protect the new hose, but I think that will be the cleanest solution. 

4. Clutch pipe. I've got a length of kunifer ready to make a clutch pipe. The routing will be simple, although I do want to include a 'loop' like the factory pipe uses. This will make it easier to fit and give it some movement.

5. Exhaust. I have everything but brackets for the exhaust so that can be built up and welded together. Oh, and I've just thought... the exhaust usually has a load of IVA stuff to deal with, but mine is inside bodywork!! Therefore I've got a lot of flexibility on what to do. 

Here's the first part of the exhaust ready to bend and exit out the car;

Just on the subject of exhaust, I have been looking for a flexi exhaust section that could fit in the gap that I have. But after doing a lot of reading online I'm not sure a flexi is needed. The original MX5 didn't have a flexi, and apparently it's more about how transverse engines move. The rocking of a transverse engine puts the exhaust under bending stress, whereas an longitudinal engine is more of a twist. Given how an exhaust is secured, a small twist can be tolerated a lot better than a bend.

The build manuals don't mention a flexi joint, and just trying to find a Haynes roadster with a flexi is coming up remarkably thin on the ground. So for now I'm going to leave it and go for a hard pipe all the way through. That's not to say one can't be mounted afterwards, but at least for now I can go for a standard exhaust with no cleverness involved. 

6. Engine electrics. When I took the engine out I left a lot of the associated electrics connected. But it's not attractive, there's still a load of wires that need to be removed, and the fuse box needs to be mounted. 

7. Engine servicing. So that's the cam belt full kit, plugs, leads, and all the fun and games. 

8. Propshaft double check. I just want to make sure I got the measurements right, then I'll get it sent off and cut down. 

That seems like a nice amount of work to get through, and it's nice to have some variety in it. Welding metalwork can get a bit dull, at least a lot of this is more about designing and building the smaller details. 

Bodywork off and finishing welding

 Today's job, remove the body and finish the welding. Most of the braces had only been tack welded, and I needed some better access to finish the job. The body came off relatively easily (certainly a lot easier now the face has been cut away). 

This was the first time I'd seen the frame without the body hiding part of it. For the most part it looked ok, but the three bars were 'odd';

These pictures show that they don't quite line up. The ones under the body look consistent, with a gentle change between the two. But the bonnet one is very different, with a centre 'peak' that the other two don't have. This suggests that while the bonnet does need to come down, it's actually the centre that is holding it up. So rather than bringing the whole thing down 78mm like I thought, I think the sides are correct and it's the centre that is holding it up. That bar is going to be left alone for now, I've not cut it down any further so I still have an opportunity to reprofile the bar. 

The rear looks really good though;

The second photo is after I'd turned things upside down to finish the welding. The rear is probably better than most of the rest of it, mainly because I had cut it straight to the chassis rather than have it conform to the body. The whole chassis looks quite good while upside down though;

I finished the day welding up all the missed parts, painting the whole bottom, and preparing the bottom for putting the floor in. Yes, I think that is going to be the next job, partly to make things look more complete. I am now getting very close to the stage where there are not many jobs left, so I might as well start making things permanent. I just need to find the drill attachment for the rivets, it's a big yellow thing so can't have gone far. 

Oh, and rivnuts... I want to get those installed for the centre console and probably the side panels. They're easier to deal with, as I only need an M6 bolt to set them. 

Dashboard and reusing mx5 cluster

 As I mentioned in an earlier post, I wasn't particularly impressed with the dashboard blank. It just doesn't suit the car, and it doesn't fit. So I do need to find an alternative. But my thoughts turned to the instruments from the MX5. I had originally planned to use the cluster as is, just drop it into place. I had no idea how it would work if I tried using different instruments, and I wanted to keep things IVA friendly. 

But it's the same as the dashboard blank, it won't fit. So I decided to have a look at it. 

This is the instruments as they stand. A nice collection of bright lights, two main dials and a few extras. I was going to be able to use nearly everything here, only losing the fuel level and a couple of warning lights.

When I disassembled it, I found that the instruments are actually quite well self contained;

With the fixings screws doubling up as the electrical connections. So for the rev counter there were three screw holes for positive, negative and 'trigger'. Furthermore, the instruments come out;

Having them removed from the cluster does present some opportunities and challenges. Firstly, rehousing them in something should be fairly straightforward, with a plastic clear face. I'm thinking maybe a 3D print in ABS. The challenges are obviously getting a 3D print to work correctly, to be able to reuse the screw holes and not melt in the temperature of a car! 

Still, this is definitely the way to go, no need to reuse the entire shell. I'd need to figure out the indicator lights though, typically this would be a 'bright 6' module. Another 3D printed option no doubt, but they would need to have clear symbols so printing negative images on clear plastic would have to be done. 

None of that is impossible though, and then I can mount them wherever I want. Hopefully in the centre of the dash as I want to. I'll lose the fuel gauge but keep the oil pressure and temperature gauge. 

Body bracing

 I have got a lot done in the last couple of days, unfortunately it's all under the skin. Literally, as in it's the support for the body skin. 

So it starts from the front, as mentioned the front of the body would come directly where the battery and coolant reservoir need to sit. So from this;

To this;

It still needs tidying, but it had to be trimmed before I could do anything under the body. With the frame top fully welded and flattened down, I got it clamped underneath the body, then at each corner I created a stand from the frame to the chassis. It'll make more sense once I take the body off and I can fully weld everything, but as of now the body support is 100% done.

Oh, no it's not... I'm still missing one support for the front of the body. This will be where the bulkhead ends up. It's the same process though, a slightly curved piece of metal joined by two vertical supports. I'll do that last one before taking the body off and welding it up.

While I've been working on the body I have been thinking more and more about how to fix it. I am wondering whether trying to maintain a smooth surface is worth the effort, or whether I should just drill and rivnut the whole thing. At the moment gravity is the biggest player in the 'keeping the body in place', at least for the top frame. Another time for that one I think.

While this work was super productive, visually there is absolutely nothing to show for two days in the garage. So just for something to look at, I put the steering wheel on;

Despite being ridiculously dusty, the column and the wheel went on with no modification to the body. This was a big surprise as I thought it might need something. Even with the column clamped in the right place it was fine;

The only thing I need to deal with is the cowl. The IVA inspector would have a field day with an exposed key lock, so I planned to reuse the cowl. The bottom half went on no problem, but the top half had nowhere to go. So it turns out I do need to cut the bottom lip of the body. And luckily the steering wheel controls also sit proud of the body so I can keep the lights, indicators etc.

But the dashboard was a different matter;

This dash that is currently perched on top is meant to sit behind the wheel, but it's not even close. Even if I trim the dash depth I am almost certain it will stop the indicators working. But to be perfectly honest, I'm not overly bothered. I just don't like the look of it. It works fine in the white demonstrator as that is meant to be a modern take on the car. I want something a bit more traditional, a bit more 'home made'. Even to the point where I don't want anything behind the steering wheel, I want things to be mounted in the centre. Or I could follow the Healey inspiration and just have the rev counter and speedo behind the wheel, at the '10 and 2' position relative to the steering wheel. The original plan had been to reuse the MX5 cluster, although again that isn't going to work now, not unless it gets embedded deep into the body. Perhaps I ought to look at taking the cluster apart and seeing what mechanical parts are used for the rev counter and speedo. That could be an interesting side project. 

So next job, finish the one support bar, then remove the body and just go to town on the rest of the weld joints. I've got front, back and body to fully weld, then paint. Oh, and the bonnet crossmember that is already rusting due to being outside, that needs paint as well. It just goes to show how quickly things rust, especially welded joints. 

Oh, and I need another tank of gas so I'll have to sort that out sometime. 

Boot / crumple zone

 Given that the body has a built in boot, I did want to make use of it. I also wanted it to be a crumple zone of sorts, at least sturdy enough to slow down whatever imbecile of a driver might decide six inches is enough of a braking distance. 

First thing was the rear bar, made in the same way as the other bent bars on the car. This time it follows the back of the bodywork, where it will attach via 5 bolts with big washers. I did check with a strategically placed clamp, they are quite difficult to see so just having colour coded covers will make them effectively disappear.

As posted before, I then braced that rear bar to the diff cage;

At this point I realised something was amiss. While the body had got lined up as best as possible, the centre line (spirit level!) was no longer in the centre of the body. That means the body is twisted somehow.

So I need to enforce the centre line, and let the body sort itself out. The centre section was to be a 'V', to make the whole thing an upside down 'W'. Instead of just cutting and filing to fit, I made the V section away from the car;

With a centre line at the peak of the V, and the two lengths being identical, I could be fairly confident that this would give me an accurate centre. And it did... for the metalwork;

You can see here that the centre line on the V does line with the centre mark of the metal, but not the centre mark of the body. This is where the twist has come in. So from this point forth I decided to ignore the body, and just make a perfectly aligned frame. A few cuts of metal later, and I had a fully triangulated rear frame;

OK, it's not perfectly triangulated, the V section is welded a little in from the fixed points. I could say something clever like 'its designed like that so in a crash it collapses gracefully', but to be honest I just couldn't get a weld into that tight corner. A good weld is going to be worth more than getting it right into the corner, so there you go.

So next job it's back off with the body, full weld this frame (as you can imagine all this needs welding from underneath and from the sides hidden by the body). While the body is off I will add the required captive nuts for the rear end, yet more M6 nuts! I might try something clever to get the nuts in place but then I might just cut some holes and weld them in! They don't need to be mega strong like seat belts or similar. 

Photos for ideas

 Over the various shows I've taken plenty of photos to give me ideas on what to do. I think it's time to add them to a post so I have them available. Here's some that I'll be using as reference for the next few jobs.

These two show the side panels, how they've been filled in with aluminium and brought down to the chassis. I intend to do the same, however because the triangular body section completely missed my chassis that has now been removed. I'll simply continue with the aluminium up to shoulder height. I will stay with the idea of riveting across the top, and most likely use rivnuts to attach it to the chassis. Then I'll need some edge trim as that corner will be too sharp to pass IVA. I'm not sure of the trim on the plastic itself though, I'll have to look at how I finish that edge. Just thinking about it, I could have the aluminium on the outside and hide the rough edge of the body.

These two show a couple of back panels. One thing I have is a gap from the body to the chassis behind the seats. It's about three inches all the way across, and I need to fill it. Since the majority of the back panel is already aluminium it makes sense to make the infill panel also aluminium. This is visible on the Thruxton. Since I've trimmed the panel in line it should be fairly easy to put a piece in at an angle (or even rounded if possible although I might be pushing my luck there). Alternatively I could go for a more traditional fabric or carpet back panel like the green car. If I'm not too blasé with the leatherette I could come up with a padded section there, although I have no idea what it would look like. 

This one shows that I'm not the first to fit the roll bar supports through the body, I'm happy that they look very similar. This also shows how the dashboard fits. I'm not sure whether I'm using the dashboard but it seems to suit the car quite well. It'll need to host the MX5 instrument cluster though, and I don't like the plasticky look so I'd have to cover it with something. The plexiglass 'screen' is a good idea though, and I have another picture that shows how to form that;

This is for a car where the screen is a very tight radius, but using it for a ninety degree bend would at least give some consistency between left and right edges.