Elapsed time vs effort

 One thing I have been wondering about this entire build is 'where has the time gone'. The first blog post is from February 2013, so it's now 11 years 1 month. Even Bentley don't take that long to hand build a car!

So I decided to have a look through this blog and add up the actual time. Up to this point I've spent 801 hours on the car, approximately 20 weeks based on a 40 hour week. It does seem a bit high but it's nowhere near as much as the 11 years suggests. 

For the first few years I didn't get much time to work on it, in 2015 for example I didn't work on the car at all. That's the joys of working away unfortunately, I only had weekends for literally everything and car building came fairly low on the list at the time. In the first five years I did 119 hours, about 3 weeks worth.

Covid also took a toll, despite having a lot more free time (because we couldn't actually do anything!) I was still unable to progress with the car. So 2022 was another year with zero time spent.

Thankfully the last couple of years have been improved, with nearly 300 hours last year and 82 so far this year. And it shows from a progress point of view, it has really moved on recently and is getting very close to finishing.

I also need to add up the costs, I did have a cost calculator very early on but I didn't keep it up to date. The bodywork was still the biggest cost (£1000), closely followed by the donor (£435), then the various metal purchases. I reckon even if I got to 3K total costs, that's only £300 a year. I pay more than that for insurance on my tintop!

But I'm definitely not making a profit on anything. Even if I sell it for 10K (which is very optimistic), that's 7K over ten years. Not exactly something I could live on. 

Fibreglass and wiring

 So one thing I've got to sort out is fixing the wire for the side repeaters, and possible the rear of the car. The guidelines say that it needs to be fixed a minimum of 300mm space, which means quite a few are needed. But just using adhesive pads isn't going to cut it with Mr IVA. 

I've asked this question before, and was pointed towards a mounting plate with a bolt welded in the centre. They're not cheap though, and I'd need maybe a dozen in total? But of course there's always a cheaper option. Strips of steel with a bolt welded in will do the same job, then I'll use fibreglass filler or similar to fix it to the body. 

As a reference, here's one that Toolstation stock https://www.toolstation.com/made4trade-backplate-for-euro-clips/p55986. But it uses an M10 bolt which is mega overkill for two wires! I can drop it down to M4 or M6 and still provide enough security for wiring. 

So I'll get some made up then figure out the positioning before fitting them. 

To do list March 2024

 After the wiring and painting is done, and the handbrake is ready to go, there isn't a great deal left now. It's time to make a more granular to-do list;

• Fuse box, battery and coolant bottle mounting on scuttle. This is a few brackets and a shedload of rivets, should be a couple of hours work max.
• Fuel filler pipe and cap. I'm not sure I can do this before the body is fitted, I'm not even sure what filler pipe I need. Time to go online to figure that one out.
• fuel pump and filter mounting on the back of the car. As with everything on the scuttle, it's a few brackets and a shedload of rivets. Or maybe rivnuts.
• Front body cross brace cut to height and welded. This is a supporting bar that has been made to the correct curve but needs to be set to the correct height in order for the body to sit well together. As you might expect this is also another job for after the body fitted.
• Dashboard. Yeah, that. 
• Seat trimming. This has been on my list for ages but I can't put it off any longer. It also means that the seats can't live in the garage, once they're trimmed they're then vulnerable. Unless I wrap them with something, maybe clingfilm? I'll have a think about that.
• Drill the wholes for seat and seatbelt fixings. The aluminium sheets quite nicely cover all the mounting holes, this will be to uncover them.
• Pedal limit brackets for all pedals. Each pedal needs to only move a certain distance. The brake pedal has a natural limit (the brakes being 'on') and the brake switch itself stops it from coming too far out. The clutch pedal is completely free in both directions so needs the most work. The gas pedal is actually limited by the travel of the throttle cable but I might want something a bit more rigid. Otherwise I'm going to be snapping throttle cables!
• Exhaust end trim. To be done once the body is on.
• Boot hinges and lock. To be identified then fitted once the body is on.
• Boot lining. Question mark on this one, it's not needed for IVA but depending on when I get my test appointment I might try and add it.
• Drill seat belt mounts on roll bar. They're currently just marking holes, they need to be opened up to the relevant bolt size.
• Paint roll bar. Not sure about the colour though, I'm sort of leaning towards either a green to match the body, or a matt black to match the chassis. In either case it needs to be a very high quality smooth surface, so probably roller?
• Trim front body to the right length. Also to be done with the body on.
• Shorten driveshaft. To be sent away after triple checking the measurements.
• Wiring brackets/fixings. I need a few wiring fixings, mainly for the front and rear bodies. Nothing clever, most likely 3D printed.
• Chassis number stamped in place. Oooh, that makes it a real car!!
• Trim under rollbar. Body on task.
• Bolt audit (I still need to do this so I can order whatever bolts I don't have.)

It looks like a longer list, but each of these is an hour tops. This is in contrast to previous to-do lists where it was a week per line!

On to next week then. I have this in mind for next weekend (if the weather allows);

• Engine back in and chassis back on skates
• Body in place to check aluminium panel fit (particularly where the panels tuck under the body)
• Bond runners and aluminium in place (this could actually chew up a fair bit of time on the weekend so I need to be careful)
• Add front and measure/mark/cut to suit. (Eeeek!!). 

Handbrake finished

 I nearly forgot, I have finished the handbrake. The initial plan was to have it under the dash, but that got a bit challenging, I came up with a location under the steering wheel, but had some fun and games with cable routing;

Ignoring the cable for now, this posed several challenges. I couldn't get the mechanism to operate on the rear cables without some major engineering. The pulling force was across the car instead of front to back, and it was slightly higher, and it had to avoid the gearbox. 

Basically the only option was a Bowden cable. So I started with a quick Ebay search for a cheap cable that seemed long enough and didn't have any fancy brackets or anything. Cue a front cable from a Seat something-or-other. This gets routed from the handbrake, into the tunnel via a reinforced hole;

As you can imagine it needed to be reinforced as the chassis rail wasn't that big to start with. A 25mm right angle with an inbuilt sleeve, all welded and then smoothed flat got me a hole through the middle but without affecting the strength.

Then I needs something at the back for the cable to pull against, a simple bracket would suffice;

Once the new cable was lashed up, it can connect to the bracket, with the rear cables and the spring also in place. My only doubt was/is that the bracket doesn't allow enough travel on the cables, but there's not much I can do about that now. Typically a good handbrake locks at between 3 and 5 clicks, if I can adjust the cable to match then I think I'm ok.

Front body electrics

 Woohoo, we had some dry weather! Well, drier weather, it was still a bit grim. But at least I was able to get the front body out and plan the electrics. This was side repeaters, front indicators, front side lights and headlight wiring. First job was to get a reference on the side and drill a marker hole for the repeaters;

I levelled the body on the ground, then measured a distance up from the ground on both sides. Then matched a similar distance from the front arch (the rear edge of the body is all over the place but not unexpected), then drilled a hole.

The wiring wasn't long enough to deal with the side repeaters, so I borrowed a couple of lengths from the wiper motor. While the main colour is blue rather than green, the trace colour is white and black the same as the normal colour. Along with a black for ground, that was the two runs cut, terminated and taped into place (obviously they'll be fixed inside rather than stay on the outside!!

The next step was to continue those two lines to the front indicators and on to the main connector. At the same time I brought the headlight wiring down to the main connector. When it was all taped up it looked like this;

This is when I realised I didn't have spare wires for the side lights, and to be honest I had no clue what colour it needed to be! Even checking the wiring diagram I wasn't sure, so I'm going to have to track it down. Oh, and I think I'm short of a length of earth wire, a section long enough to get from left to right. I'm sure I have some spare wire so it isn't an issue, I do just need to make sure it's enough to host the headlight as there's a fair bit of juice going through those headlights. 

The holes also need to be enlarged. This is as far as my stepped drill went, I had to get a larger drill bit from Amazon to finish. It's only a cheap drill bit as it needs to drill maybe eight holes in total.

Then again, I did have a thought about mounting. The lights have three fixing holes, remarkably close to the main hole in the middle. I'm not convinced using self tappers or even nuts and bolts will provide a suitable fixing for the lights. What I'm tempted to do is make rear plates, a triangular bit of metal (probably aluminium) that sits behind the lights and gives them a stronger fixing to screw or bolt into. I have spare material and wouldn't take much to knock something up. 

The next job will be the rear, and then I need to get the wiring from the connector back to the various locations it needs to live in. Fuse box and steering column are the main ones for the headlights and side lights, indicators go back to the flasher relay and fuse box. Neither should be much trouble as long as I have enough wire. 

Gauge bezels

One of the jobs I have is to make some bezels for the gauges. I can't find any online for a decent price, but I also can't machine them. I'm heading for 3D printing, but I have trouble with the material and with the output. The prints are the right shape but usually a very uneven texture. For example, here is a raw PLA print;

The front face is as rough as it looks. This is also PLA which will melt and distort in a car. The latter is easy to fix, I have to print with ABS. I did have to do some messing around with bed adhesion, but managed to do an ABS print with no distortion;

So it won't distort in the car, but the surface is just as bad. 

To fix the surface, there are two options. One is to sand and paint, the other is to use acetone vapours to 'melt' the surface. This is a sand and paint;

And this is an ABS print after 5 hours of a vapour chamber;

It's quite clear to me that acetone wins by a country mile. It's nice and glossy, easy to do (just leave it alone for half a day!!), and repeatable. So I just need to adjust the print and then do the work. I did have high hopes for the sand and paint, but it's still just too rough to be able to sit in my line of vision every time I go for a drive.

I did note that even with the acetone, the surface isn't perfectly smooth. I think I'm going to have to adjust the print to get the front edge domed slightly, but also sand it a little bit. The sanding marks should disappear after the acetone does its job, but sanding will give it a head start and give me the best result. 

So I need to leave this one to solidify so I can inspect it a bit more, then print a few. Oh, and the vapour chamber I'm using is an opaque tub so I have to open it whenever I want to check it. And of course, every time I open it I release the vapour that had built up. I think for the final version I'm going to use a glass lid so I can watch it. 

(Update) after an hour or so, here's the acetone polished one in place on the rev counter;

I'm very happy with the result, just the profile to sort as it needs to host a plastic or glass face. Probably plastic to be honest, it's easier to get plastic of that size rather than glass. 

Floor done

 I have put it off for (pretty much) ten years, but I thought this weekend would be floor day. Thursday I tidied the garage, Friday got the engine out and the chassis on it's side, then today started with a clean of the panels. I really ought to have taken the masking tape off on day one, because my fingers and nails are raw from peeling it off. Anyway, clean panels;

A fit with temporary rivets showed they were still ok;

But test fitting real rivets proved to be harder. I'm not entirely sure why, but some of the holes weren't big enough for the rivets. I even had to redrill half a dozen holes for rivets to fit. Eventually they all went in;

Of course, they all had to come back out again to apply the Tiger Seal. But after applying the seal, the rivets went on well. It looks nice too, very even and secure;

It does bode well for the other panels, I was tempted to add some more but I thought I'd not tempt fate and leave it there for today. Of course, it does mean the Tiger Seal is unlikely to survive to the next panel fit. In theory the other panels don't need the same level of strength, but it would still be nice to use it for all panels.

I've also picked the chassis paint, I have a satin black exterior metal paint to go over everything. I'll apply the bottom coat tomorrow then with any luck that'll be the last time the chassis has to be anything other than the normal way up. 

Dashboard and air intake

 I wasn't able to get in the garage today, but that didn't stop me thinking about a few tasks. First is the air intake, or 'how to get a round peg in a square hole'. In this case, the round peg is the air filter, and the square hole is the airflow meter. I was going to 3d print something, but to be honest I think I'm just going to use some 1mm plate and a circular strip, weld them together and call it a day. Much less messing about, and hopefully won't go wibbly wobbly in the engine bay.

But on to the bigger thought of the day, the dashboard;

Gauges first. I've got a speedo and a rev counter from the MX5, they need to be rehoused. Rev counter gets a digital signal from the ignitor (on a yellow blue wire). It also gets a ground and 12 volts off the meter fuse for lighting. The speedo is one less wire, with a ground and 12 volts for lighting but the drive itself is mechanical. I guess I ought to keep the temperature gauge (black blue off the temp sensor and ground/12v) and maybe the oil pressure gauge (yellow red off the pressure sensor and ground/12v). That's five wires total. 

Now lights. I would need an alternator light (white black), a brake warning light (blue yellow), left indicator (green black), right indicator (green white). I believe I also need hi beam light (red white) and fog light (red and red black). The fog light indicator is usually with the switch so I need to figure out how to rewire it to a separate bulb. That's 6 maybe 7 wires.

Lastly, switches. On the steering wheel I've got indicators and lights on a stalk, so I can leave those. There's also a horn switch on the dash that I can just reattach. The fog light switch needs to be restored (green yellow, red black). I need a hazard light switch (orange to hazard flasher). That seems to be it, just two extra switches. 

That seems a bit too easy to be honest. 4 gauges, 6 lights, 2 switches. Hmm... although that would probably explain why I've been able to remove half of the loom! 

(Later that week)

I need to take some measurements of the gauges, mainly to see how to mount them and sort out things like bezels, front glass etc. They are mounted in a shell on the MX5, so I'm going to similarly mount them on a back board first, then bring them into the dash from behind. Then some sort of bezel/surround per gauge with some glass/plastic in the middle. The back board will also serve as a mounting point for the gauge illumination bulbs. 

Anyhow, measurements;

• Rev counter. 96mm diameter on the face. 29mm from the back to the gauge face. 40mm from the back to the front of the needle (might need a bit more for clearance). 
• Speedo. 96mm diameter on the face. 40mm from electrical connectors to the gauge face. 49mm from the back to the front of the needle (again, maybe more for clearance).
• Temperature. 47mm diameter on the face. 29mm from the connectors to the gauge face. 40mm if I include the stand off (end of stand off to face). 38 from connectors to the front of the needle.
• Oil pressure is the same as temperature. 

Kind of expected really, the speedo needs more clearance as it's got a mechanism sat behind it. Should be easy to compensate with the stand offs for the other three though. The speedo also has a bigger mechanical fixing, I assume to deal with the potential twisting forces. So again it makes sense to build the base to the speedo height and get the other three to match. In theory I could mount them all separately, but then I'm making the wiring stage harder. 

I'm still stuck on material, it needs to be rigid but non-conductive, and also not brittle. I'm thinking a plastic rather than a wood? I think a visit to Wickes and Ikea is on the cards. 

Change of plan number 3

 Actually,  I have no ide how many plans I've had to change, and it definitely won't be the last!!

So the handbrake... the original place I wanted to put it would have been absolutely hideous to look at, to mount and to use. It's basically the wrong way round. If I wanted to have the good side of the handbrake visible, the action would have been wrong and the passenger would have been the better person to apply it. Not good at all.

So back to the other option, put it under the steering column. And to be honest, that's worked out quite well;

From a functional point of view it's pretty good, it can be operated from the drivers seat. It's just IVA now. The handle itself is not high enough to be in the exempted area behind the steering wheel (horizontal plane from the bottom of the steering wheel). It is 'blunted' but that may not be enough.

What is definitely not enough is the brackets, I need to cover them or round them off as they're just not suitable as is. That's not an issue though.

Next job is to route the cable into the transmission tunnel and down to the handbrake. I don't know if I can do it with only one pulley, it'll most likely be two to get to the back. 

Short day

 It was a non-garage job today, re-terminating the lights. The bullet connectors on the lights were just asking for trouble, and the wires were way too long for their anticipated location. I chopped all the wires down to six inch lengths (still look a bit too long but should be fine clipped in I think), and put them on motorcycle type lighting connectors. 2 way for most of them, 3 way for the stop/brake lights. In theory lights should only need 1 wire as the body is grounded, but that's not an option with a fibreglass body so I need earths on all lights. I've got plenty of earth wire though, there were multiple connectors for earth on the Mx5 so I can do the same here. I also have spare slots on the loom connector so I might add a few earths to avoid 'Ford Escort disco lights'. 

Next job is the handbrake. I have an idea on where it can be mounted, but I need to reverse the cable action. The ratchet is designed to pull the cables forward when the handbrake is vertical and pointed forward. I'm putting it horizontal and sideways. I might fit some brake pipe to smoothly route the cable, although I think steel tube might be stronger considering the cable has got to be able to hold the car still and pass the brake efficiency test. But that comes after the handbrake itself. That will need a welded bracket to come through the tunnel panel. 

(Update). Having a look at where the cable has got to go, not only has it got to reverse itself, but it's got to get past the gear shift turret. Some sort of guide would be the ideal method, and as luck would have it there are many production cars that use a handbrake cable guide. For example there is https://www.autocrafteng.co.uk/shop/split-screen-van_60/panels-and-body-parts_1/chassis-panels_12/handbrake-cable-guide-tube-type-2-55-67_350/ that is a 12mm wide, 1mm diameter steel tube. So I'll just follow their lead. I will keep it as straight as possible, probably weld the pipe in place maybe? 

I also found that the standard MX5 handbrake includes a return spring, and it makes sense to reuse it. 

Wiring

 Right, time to start this one with a digression. Remember that comment about finding right angle trim? Turns out we have some left over from our bathroom refit, a right angle aluminium trim that will work perfectly. So that's that.

Anyway, back to the subject at hand, wiring. Now that I know what I'm using (or more importantly not using) I had another go at the wiring loom. I wanted to separate out lighting and engine, as well as bin audio wires, excessive earths, that sort of thing. After a full weekend I managed to trim it down by about half, as well as have separate wires ready for the lights. I've also ordered some connectors for the individual lights so I can remove the wiring from the body.

However I did find some wires that couldn't be traced or identified, so this will be a list of all the wires along with comments and (hopefully) an identifier. So straight on with the photos;

white blue comes from the headlight connector

red green to stop fuse for horn and brakes

red white to headlight switch

green black and green white are indicators left/right. These wires are for the telltale on the dash

back of flasher relay, same green white right and green black left

Rear loom indicators, again green white right, green black left

These two connectors are door connectors, speaker and window winder. Both removed.

red black for side lights going to the dashboard loom

red black for side lights going to fuse box

white yellow going to a power feed, but not connected so not sure what it's powering

Shopping list

 Time to get this written down, I've taken so many notes and contradicted myself so many times, if I get a master list down then I can remember what I need to get. Hopefully this will all be from car builder solutions so one big order and avoid postage costs!

1. Japanese battery terminals. BTERS, £9.60.
2. 16mm link water pipe for heater matrix. HTHO15 £6.00 per metre (1 metre)
3. 16mm T joint for connecting to expansion tank. TEE15. £4.20
4. 32mm water pipe from rad to engine x 2. HOS32A £15.60 per metre (2 metres)
5. 32mm 90 degree bend. HSH9032 £4.50.
6. 32mm joiner SJ7 £6.60.
7. 8mm pipe from overflow to expansion tank return. RPVC8BK. £2.40 per metre (2 metres)
8. Air filter. SSFIL2 £14.40.
9. Breather filter for cam cover. BFIL15 £10.80.
10. Reverse light REVL3 £9.60.
11. Fog light FL3F £16.80.
12. Reducer for the air intake. SJ3 £4.80.
13. Two 9 pin connectors for front and back. RPMUL9 £4.80 each (2 needed). 
14. Chrome wing mirrors M23F £29.40. (A bit expensive but a decent match for real ones)
15. Rear reflectors. RR29 £2.40.

The '32mm with 8mm T piece for overflow tap. TEE328 £24.00. ' has been replaced by an Ebay part for £15.50, it's got an angled T piece and just under a tenner cheaper so can't go wrong really. They haven't got an equivalent 16mm T joint, but I doubt I could find cheaper than the above anyway.

Lights appear to be cheaper on Ebay too, a set of Landrover Defender lights (four indicator, two side and two stop/tail) are £31.80, rather than £50 from CBS. They're now on their way. 

For air intake, I have a Tee silicone hose; https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/203279942439. 70mm both ends to go into the throttle body and AFM, with a 25mm tap. I need to get down from 25mm to 18mm. There is a reducer for 16/19 through to 25/22 which should do the job (added to the shopping list). 

The hoses are quite common on Ebay but none are cheaper than here. Fog and reverse lights could probably be found but the IVA marks are important so I don't want to mess around with possible IVA failures. Several hundred pounds for a retest, vs a few pounds saving for an 'Ebay special'. 

Now for jubilee clips. For the air filter I'll use a banding kit off Ebay, £4.50. For the others I need;

• 6 22mm clamps for the heater matrix and T piece.
• 6 39mm clamps for the radiator pipes (including the joiner). 
• 2 13.5mm clamps for the overflow pipe. 
• 27mm and 31mm for the idle air bypass.

Turns out that screwfix have a box of 60 hose clips that will cover all the options above, as well as the air filter requirements so that banding kit may not actually get used!! 

I also need two multipin connectors. Assuming one single ground for them all, on the front there are;

• BLK ground.
• RED-WHT and RED-BLK to both headlights.
• GRN-BLK for right indicator
• GRN-WHT for left indicator
•  RED-BLK to both sidelights. 

That's six pins total. Side indicators will loop off the main indicators so don't need a separate connector. 

On the rear, again assuming one ground;

• BLK ground. 
• RED-BLK to both tail lights and licence plate light.
• RED-GRN Reverse light
• ??? for fog light (fog lights aren't OEM, so while I know there is a wire, I don't know the colour)
• GRN for stop lights
• GRN-BLK for right indicator
• GRN-WHT for left indicator

So seven pins at the back. Looks like I'm back to my original choice of nine pin lockable from CBS. That gives me the option of running the headlights on different wires, just in case they're a bit much for the wiring. 

I still need edge trim for along the doors and transmission tunnel. 

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!