Fuel, exhaust and more gas pedal

 I had a remarkably productive weekend with lots of box ticking done. First the fuel lines, they have been separated on the engine end and the flexi lines added;

They'll get a couple of clamps added per line, and there's at least 3 inches of copper inside the rubber pipe so it's not going anywhere. I didn't do the rear as the space is a bit tight back there, and I also wanted to plumb in the fuel pump and filter at the same time. 

Next, the exhaust;

Yes, that is the catalytic convertor that I've painted, and yes I know I'm not under any illusion that even VHT paint will survive Cat temperatures, but at least it's protected for now. And it looks great on the car;

It's probably a bit disappointing that the whole thing will be inside the body, as I think it looks really tidy. 

Now on to the main event, the gas pedal. I posted a few days back that the gas pedal hinge and the steering column were not happy, and that I needed to redo the pedal to get it to work. After a fair few hours of cutting, measuring and welding, I finally have a working pedal in the right place;

This also resolved the cable mounting itself, so I have an L shaped bracket bolted to two places on the chassis, that provides a hinge for the gas pedal and a suitable socket for the cable. It's all spring loaded and sits really well, as you can see I've also pushed the gas pedal over to the right. This gives a bit more clearance for the most important pedal, the brakes. I did also tweak the clutch pedal home position as the gas pedal doesn't have as much travel. The brake pedal is slightly ahead of the gas pedal, so if panic sets in the first pedal to be pressed is the brake!

After all that, it was a simple case of cutting and reshaping the firewall;

I added a side panel so it's all boxed in from inside and still isolating the engine from the occupants. I'll need to glue or rivet that small panel to finish it off, but this is as far as I need to go for this.

All of that work was to prepare me for mounting these three;

The coolant bottle needs to be teed into the heater matrix loop, with the overflow back to the radiator. The ECU just needs to be mounted on a flat surface, I've made up some tabs so it can just be riveted in place. The battery then needs to be secure, so some sort of metal strap or other fixing.

Ah yes, the battery... So I went for a cheap battery because I have no other electrics to supply, and wanted to keep things small. That has created two issues. First, the battery on an MX5 is kept in the boot, so the power connectors are about 8 feet too long!! That's a good thing though, shorter cables mean better starting. I remember that from my wife's Mini. The second issue is that the battery terminals on the MX5 were from a bigger battery, so they don't actually work on this one. I need to order new battery terminals. That's also a good thing though, rather than having to re-terminate the existing connectors I can start from new with everything. 

So it looks like I'm going shopping for my next job. I need;

• Lights front and back with suitable multipin connectors so the bodywork can be removed. 
• Water pipe for the cooling circuit.
• Air pipe for the intake. 

Once those are in place I can add the wiring loom, and maybe even start the car!