Finding my horn...

 All the way through the wiring I couldn't tell why my horn didn't work. It was so bad that I thought I'd have to undo the loom to fix a broken wire. It turns out the solution was far simpler! While I was fault finding I unplugged the relay, and realised there was only three out of four connectors still in the socket. Replacing the wire and reinstalling the relay got me a very very loud horn Well, I was sat right next to the sounders so it's not surprising.

I've also had another look at the wires, a lot of them are now better fitted behind the steering column, and I can find a tidy place to route the handbrake switch wire. Problem is that I couldn't say the same for the brake pedal switch. The wire was too short to route properly. Still, I was only in the garage for an hour or so, so really I didn't expect to get everything sorted that quickly. 

As ever, a couple of fixed snags showed up a couple more. Along with the brake pedal wiring, I also found one nut that was regular rather than Nyloc so I'll need to replace that. I then have a few wiring brackets to print/attach. 

Once that's done I'll be able to permanently fix the cowl back in place, and that'll be finished. 

Last night I was also thinking about paint. I don't think the dashboard will come off easily as it is, but I think it can at least come away a little bit. So I'll do that, but still have to cover the dash with masking tape or plastic. The seats will have to be covered as well, although that's where my imagination failed me. I thought the seat side would rub against the freshly painted bodywork, but actually thinking about it now the seats don't come anywhere near the fibreglass. There's an aluminium arm rest between the seat and the body. That does make it much easier to paint the side though, and it only needs the aluminium masking off. 

Bank holiday tasks (wiring secured, seats fitted)

 I'm not sure what significance the bank holiday has, but I needed a page title. More tasks done off the snag list;

• The wiring on the bulkhead is now secure with the 3D printed brackets.
• The wiring down the side to the back is now properly secured, as is the boot wiring.
• The fuel relay wiring has been extended, rewrapped and installed correctly. 
• (The fuel tank is now properly bolted in, that was another snag I missed)
• The passenger seat and seat belt are bolted in. That ended up being the last job of the day as it was such a horrible job I didn't want to carry on!

And more jobs added to the snag list;

• One more earth lead needs a fixing.
• The brake fluid wiring needs fixing. I'm not sure about this one, it's a bit 'dangling in free air' so I need to figure something out.
• Wiring going from the fuse boxes to the dash needs bracing. Admittedly this was an old job but what I had planned isn't going to work. 
• Why doesn't my horn work?
• New tyres. Not for me to do but still a job to do.
• Bleed the brakes more. I'm not happy with the pedal, even though it's not assisted I still expect there to be more braking effort. The clutch pedal was ok but that's a much simpler circuit.

I also managed to get the car moving, which means the clutch is alive. Unfortunately the steering rack limiter are far too aggressive, I was doing fifteen point turns where any other car would do it in three. So they need to come off. I also need to check the self centring, it needs a bit more space to test it. 

Snag list part 1

 Yep, I'm officially on the last few steps now, and the biggest 'job' left is to go over all of the other jobs and make sure I've not missed anything. This will still take a while as I reckon there's all sorts just waiting for me. Here's a few examples that I've completed today;

• The battery isolator switch is installed, and now the battery can be properly secured. I'm happy with the routing of the big cables, they go behind the battery but need to stay loose so I can pull the battery in and our. It's not affecting the security of the battery, and I still printed and used battery connector caps. 
• The spark plug ignitor and some random resistor are now both bolted to the bulkhead. That was a fun job, I was just going to screw them into the metal but then realised the ends of those screws end up in the passenger compartment!! If Mr IVA is really fussy about being able to get to them, they're as pointy as they can be. I replaced them with regular nuts and bolts, now the only thing visible in the cabin are bolt heads. And probably just to be absolutely sure I'll print out some caps and stick them on.
• Similarly I've bolted down one fuse box and one relay. The flasher relay still needs some sort of bracket before it can be bolted down, and the other fuse box would block access to it so I have that to do.
• I've replaced many of the temporary loom ties with zip ties so again everything is a lot more 'fixed' now. Of course, I also found a broken joint. In this case it was with the expensive connector blocks I bought for the front and back. The cheap Chinese ones seem to be ok, but the expensive ones are causing me trouble. Ah well, live and learn and all that. I've still got a few more loom clips to secure, but they're inside the passenger side wall and I need the car out to get to them.

As for things 'yet to do', I have the following that I know about;

• One of the rear lights isn't behaving itself, I might need to print a new housing for it. The bulb doesn't stay in place, it's another issue where the bulb 'nubbins' aren't pronounced enough to fit in a plastic holder. Having said that, perhaps the new printer will be able to offer me tighter tolerances. I'll have to see where I left the design, hopefully it's not in Fusion because it's been a PITA to get things out of there and into Onshape. 
• The fuel pump wiring needs extending and repairing.
• Seats and seat belts need bolting down. 
• I have a few 3D prints in progress for wiring clips and holders, they'll need screwing on to the firewall so the loom is secure. 
• One last scan of the cabin to make sure it's all compliant
• Painting (again!)
• Edge trim in the cabin and on the wheel fenders
• Front suspension castle nuts need split pins. I doubt I can remember where the proper ones are, but I've got a box of split pins that will do nicely. I just need to find the box.
• Boot lock. 
• Test drive... Yeah OK, probably getting a bit ahead of myself there!

Rear suspension

 It's been a very busy week and weekend, so I think it's time for 'updates' rather than 'update'. first off, rear suspension. The driveshafts were a bit more of a headache than I thought.

I have the original driveshafts from the donor, but removing them from the uprights killed the ends. Even if I could have got a nut back on, god knows how long they'd have survived. So I bought some new CV joints, not a big deal and not that expensive (£13 each plus postage). Then a fellow builder passed me an entire drivetrain, so shortened propshaft, a diff and two driveshafts. To make it easy on myself I decided to use the entire driveshafts as is, and keep the new joints for later servicing.

Unfortunately that's where I came unstuck. Turns out the CV joints I had use a larger nut which doesn't fit the donated driveshafts. And of course there's no way of me finding a replacement nut. So it was back to the original plan, reassembling the donor driveshafts with new CV joints. And of course, just as I was mid-job, I realised I had no CV grease...because I wasn't going to need it, because I would use the complete driveshafts!!

Anyway, long story short the driveshafts went in perfectly, and that meant I could tighten up all the bolts on the rear suspension. That took about an hour and absolutely killed my shoulders, but at least it was a job done.

That's when I realised my brake cables were not good. I'd fitted them as I had planned, and it looked to be nice and clear. But it turned out it was a bit too close for comfort, for no real reason. Routing them above the wishbones left them much more in free space and better for inspection. Of course, rerouting them required another caliper removal and bleed, but I'm much happier with the routing now. As it turns out the brake pipe and the handbrake cable follow a very similar route from start to finish, so I'm going to clip them together. Hopefully it won't cause an IVA issue, if anything having both cables support each other and stay clear of moving parts should work in my favour.

Oh, and the last snag for the day. The roll bar screws that go into the top suspension mount were too long. So I came to tighten up the suspension mount and found I couldn't get the nut in there! So I've had to shorten the roll bar bolts, and now everything can exist in the same space in time. 

And now, it's on to the snag list... all the big jobs are done, it's time to go over everything with a fine tooth comb and get it ready for testing. Cue next blog post...

Working pedals and injectors

 It was another good evening yesterday, with many jobs completed. I guess the first job was the brake bleeding. As expected when I took the rear calipers off and turned them upside down I got so much air out of the nipple. With both sides done the pedal has really stiffened up, I can't get it to the bulkhead anymore which is basically the aim of the pedal. I've yet to try it in anger basically because I wouldn't get the car moving to be able to stop it yet!

While I was there I also got the clutch pedal sorted. It didn't have the plunger installed initially, I'm not sure how I'd forgotten about it but there you go. One thing I did have to consider was the security of the plunger. On the brake pedal it's actually retained in the master cylinder, but the clutch is a simple push. I need not have worried though, given I had to have the pedal at full travel AND push the clutch cylinder in just to get the plunger to fit, I don't think it's coming out on it's own. With the plunger in place and the required pin and clip to secure it, I had to adjust it pretty much all the way out so the clutch cylinder actually closed with the pedal all the way back. 

Once I'd finished inside, I added some fluid and used the Gunsons to push it round the loop. As I posted quite a long time ago, I retained the loops in the pipe that the MX5 uses, just so the engine can move without damaging the pipe. But of course that meant it wasn't going to easily bleed. The gunsons sorted it out very quickly though. 

And then the interesting bit came up... This clutch had basically been sat for a decade without moving. So initially the pedal didn't move! It took a bit of pressure to get it to open, but once it started moving it was good. The only concern I've got now is similar to what I used to get on the bike, in that the clutch may be seized shut. Not permanently seized, but enough to cause an issue. Again I won't find out until I try and run the car with the full drivetrain. Essentially I need to have it in gear with the rear wheels in the air, get things moving (slowly at first) then with the clutch pedal in I need to stomp on the brake. That should cause the clutch to open, and assuming that's successful I can then start using it like a standard clutch. 

As a side note, now that both pedals have resistance I can definitely tell why things are normally servo assisted. The car will definitely go and stop, it's just my leg muscles will get a workout doing it! 

As a last job I also fitted some new rubbers to the pedals. The gas pedal didn't get anything, but then again it doesn't need it. Strictly speaking the clutch pedal doesn't need one, but as I bought the rubbers as a pair I put it on anyway. I can see why there has to be a non-slip surface though, even with the car not moving I can see it's so much easier to use the controls when your foot doesn't slip off.

Now that all three pedals do something, I moved back to the injectors. The seal kit had arrived so I removed the old o rings and filters, then set about cleaning them. After some thought on how I get the carb cleaner from the can to the injector, I came up with a contraption to manage it. Having a twelve volt source to open the injector on hand, I got started. And swiftly realised a can of carb cleaner can apply quite a bit of pressure in terms of the solvent released. After a few repeated attempts and patch repairs to the pipe, I managed to get a good stream from each of the injectors. To be fair I couldn't tell much difference between before and after, but I'm confident now things will be at their best. With new seals I could put them back on to the rail, and I could tell things were a lot more secure so I'm optimistic it'll help with fuelling. There may still be a leak on the inlet side causing things to run lean, but at least the fuel side will be good. 

What's next? I think the drivetrain can be installed now, then I can bolt up the rear suspension. More paint of course (I got some thinners for the remaining paint to see if that improves how it flows). The battery isolator arrived so once that's installed I can then permanently install the battery and not have to worry about disconnecting it. I need to tidy up the wires behind the dash so they look good for IVA (and the brake pedal switch doesn't get bashed while I drive). Once that's done I can fit the cowl and permanently install the steering wheel. 

Oh, the boot lock is required. That's a bit of design and some 3D printing no doubt. It's never going to be a properly secure boot (a bit of a pull and the fibreglass will bend enough for any lock to disengage) but at least I can get it tight shut while it's driving. 

Then I'll cover VIN numbers and plates, but I'll need to do a proper corner weighing again. I'll try and do it with maybe half a tank of fuel but also add a few kilos as I want to err on the side of caution in case I don't weigh it right. 

A quick check on the 'common IVA fails' I can see that wiring in conduit is favourable, I'll get some suitable conduit and get it covered. It's mainly around the engine which I was going to cover anyway. 

Anyway, that's enough update for today, time for me to go draw a brake fluid warning sign. 

Brake bleeding

No posts for four weeks then two in two days... cue some random bus joke...

So just to feel a bit more positive after the paint fiasco, I thought I'd have a go at brake bleeding. As I mentioned yesterday, brake bleeding an entirely empty system is several degrees harder than just changing fluid, mainly because the idea of pumping the pedal to build up pressure and then opening the bleed valve doesn't do much when the 'pressure' is all air instead of fluid. I managed to dig out my Gunsons Eezibleed but of course the cap was nothing like anything I had. A quick check online showed the universal cap was still available, but £25! Given that it was just a plastic plate I thought it ideal for a 3D print, so I did that. 

The newly printed cap wasn't 100%, and there were still air leaks, but I remember that with the real caps as well. It's usually to do with the pressure being too high but even with the leaks I was able to provide some pressure to the fluid. First sign of it working was the front right, with a few drips coming out of the bleed valve. Tightening that up then showed the front left doing the same. 

Unfortunately that's as far as I could get, because while the front ones were accessible without having to take the wheels off, the rears aren't. Having said that, I have the tunnel cover off at the moment, and I can hear gurgling at the T joint between the two rear calipers. I take that as a good sign, while gurgling suggests there's air still in there it also means some fluid has managed to reach that position. So next job will be to raise the rear of the car, remove the wheels and open the bleed valves. Then repeat the process.

Once I have fluid to all four wheels I can then start refining things, or more specifically looking for leaks. I do already have one weeping joint that I need to resolve. On the master cylinder there is an adaptor thing that connects one of the brake lines to a banjo joint. That seems to be leaking ever so slowly. It looks to be a fairly small part so I could replace it, however a bit of Googling suggests I'm missing copper washers either side. I'm not sure why I'm missing them as I didn't take that apart at any point, but then if it hadn't been apart I also wouldn't expect it to start leaking now. So first job will be to add a couple of washers to see if it resolves the issue. Touch wood there aren't any other leaks, so it looks like my flaring technique is up to scratch! No doubt once the pressure gets up I'll find some more but that's another day. 

As with all jobs, getting started on one has highlighted a couple more. First issue is that I've forgotten to put 'anti slip provision' on the pedals. IE rubber covers. Some builders have used sandpaper as an anti slip surface, given the pedals are flat that may be an option but surely that must wear out over time. Then again, rubber also wears out, over a much longer time of course. Unfortunately when I got the car it had some horrible metal ones that are meant to look nice but would never pass IVA. To be honest I didn't like them at all, I still have them but I really ought to just throw them away! 

Catchup, painting and 'little bits'

 And another month gone just like that. To be fair, two weekends were taken up by being on holiday so there's not a lot I could have done about that. Pesky family life getting in the way of important car goings-on...

So there really isn't much left now, hence the 'little bits' in the heading rather than anything substantial. I turned the car around and reversed it in the garage, there seems to be less room now but at least I can get to things on the passenger side now. And as expected it's a bit easier to reverse into the garage given the angle of the drive vs the garage door.

I guess the first thing is the great big green elephant in the room. Paint. Oh boy do I hate paint. I did some trials on a small panel, and everything seemed fine. It went on well, the biggest issue was dust and thinners. The former was just my mistake, I moved a box just after doing the paint and managed to get some dust into the air. The latter was interesting though. The white spirit did not mix with the paint at all, even at only 10% mix it didn't actually thin the paint. The panel was covered in voids and was not going to work on the actual panels. 

This is the test panel, the bit on the left is dusty and the right hand side is thinned;

The first test was to paint the boot panel. It seemed to go on fine, although there was yet more dust. The paint didn't float as well as it did on the first test piece which was a bit disappointing.

I flatted it back ready for the second coat, and realised a couple of things. First was that painting green on green is actually quite challenging, I'd missed a few square inches in the corner were there was no paint! The second was that it was still not cured, so there were a couple of points where I caught it with something pointy and scarred the paint. 

On to the car then, admittedly I probably jumped the gun a bit and in hindsight perhaps should have done a bit more work. But then again, what other work could I have done, it's not as if there was an issue with panel prep and the thinners experiment failed. So I went full in with the bonnet, rear arches and more coats on the boot.

As with most paintjobs, it definitely passes the twenty feet test, but fails when you get closer. The arches do look better in the correct colour so I'm happy about that. There's just a bit too much texture visible. It also didn't cover the filler, as can be seen on the arch above, and in this example;

A second coat was never really in doubt but this just confirmed it. I have now done the second coat, I've not taken pictures as it really went pear shaped...

Warning, rant ahead... So as mentioned I hate paint. I did the second coat yesterday, and it just went from bad to worse. Rubbing down the paint again, the same thing happened and I managed to get back to the base surface. I also scratched it on a few points, and the orange peel is even more pronounced. There's also runs, dust marks, and to cap it all off when I was closing the garage and giving up for the day, I heard something drop on to the car which was the final straw. To say it was a low point in the build was an understatement, I still haven't ventured into the garage but I guess I'll resign myself to it at lunchtime and get some pictures. 

What I have done is order some thinners. I'm not sure whether it's the paint or the temperature here, but the paint is far thicker than what I would expect. It doesn't run, which means it can't flow, which means it won't flatten. I've gone for the proper thinners, I don't know what it's made of but it was clear white spirit wasn't appropriate. Once it arrives and I've thinned the paint I'll have one more go (still on the bonnet obviously, I don't want to venture on to the body until at least the bonnet is sorted).

So that's it for paint for now, the documents suggest 7 days to fully cure so it should be good for next weekend. Of course, when it's fully cured it might be too hard to sand but I'll cross that bridge next week. 

What else is there? Oh yeah, the poor running. I finally managed to get the injectors removed and measure the seal, so I have a kit arriving this week to overhaul the injectors. I also have some carb cleaner and a 12 volt supply to open the injectors and get the internals cleaned. It'll be interesting to see the jet pattern, given that the injectors were the things stopping the engine from running in the first place I reckon they're going to be horrendous. At least this way I don't have to buy replacements though (which at the last time of checking were several hundred pounds even for a second hand set!).

I reprinted some new hub caps, I stopped trying to be clever and just went for a straightforward flat cap. They look fine, they fit well and I don't have to fill, sand, fill, sand, paint, fill, sand etc. 

The seatbelts run smoothly now they're at the right angle, that was fiddly to get them in and out!! There was me thinking that I was being clever not relying on captive nuts, instead I had to contort myself into a very unusual position to get to both sides of the fixing! I've got to do the same three more times to get the other mountings in place, the transmission tunnel side should be fairly simple but the outer one will be a pain in the proverbial.

The seat risers worked well, they now clear the seat belt bolts when sliding back and forth. Again, I need to bolt the seats in place and be in two places at the same time. I think I mentioned before that I had at least 20mm or so before the seat was too high for the seat belt, and the spacers were only 5mm.

Other little bits... battery covers are now printed and clip in place, I haven't permanently added them as I still want to be able to disconnect the battery. Having said that, being able to disconnect the battery is a good long term goal so I've ordered a battery isolator that I'll mount on the bulkhead somewhere. 

Ah, brake bleeding, that's another big topic. So I've tightened up all the connectors (I had forgotten how many I'd just left finger tight), filled up the reservoir and pumped the pedal. As expected, nothing happened. I've bled a completely dry system before (on my bike) and normal bleeding approaches don't seem to work. I need to dig out my Eezibleed and hope it's not degraded over time. It was hard enough to use when it was brand new, all bets are off now it's at least 20 years old!

But I want to get the brakes bled before I add the driveshafts. I always prefer to know that I can stop before I know I can go!

A win and a loss

 Another mixed bag this weekend, mainly controlled by the temperature. This weekend was ridiculously hot, even in the garage that is traditionally cool I was struggling. But I did get a couple of jobs done.

First thing was the arches. Having measure the bracket angles and printed them out, Saturday was trimming back the fibreglass garbage until I got to good material, then gluing the brackets in place. After leaving them for 24 hours, I'm 99% sure I now have strong enough arches, at least on the front. If something managed to tear apart Tigerseal or break the brackets, then the body or the arch is toast anyway! Last thing I want to do is just tidy the last few rough edges up, then give it one more coat of paint. Then that'll be the bonnet ready for the exterior paint. I do need to wash down the bonnet underside though, it's so dusty from the fibreglass trimming. God knows what my lungs are like!

Next was the earth wires on the front. No real biggie here, although I did realise my earth point was the wrong size bolt for the earth connectors. A bit of fiddling with a new bolt and some extensions on the earth wires sorted that. I put a loop in the wire so there was no opportunity for it to get tight or damaged when the bonnet was opened. 

I also managed to glue on the corner covers for the passenger seat, so now I can bolt in the passenger seat and seat belt along with the drivers seat. On that subject, I saw a Facebook post about someone with Cobra seats where the back had broken off from the bottom, the pictures show a single tube around the same size as my own. but me being the 'belt and braces' kind of person I've added some triangulation to the corners. That should mean I get a decent life out of the seats before a similar thing happens (if at all).

And now on to the loss. The steering shroud has beaten me. I thought it would be easy enough to design and print a new one, but even though I got the latest design pretty much spot on, it didn't work. The steering wheel hole is off centre whereas I tried to be clever and centred it. The top of the shroud also doesn't fit right in the dash. Given that the top surface of the shroud just won't print correctly either, I've admitted defeat. The existing shroud is currently in a bucket of soapy water to remove the glue from the leather covering. I'm going to clean it, sand it and paint it matt black, then that'll be it. That'll teach me to try and be clever, I reckon I've used at least one reel of filament with nothing to show for it. Then again, prime day did get me a couple of reels for a tenner each, so swings and roundabouts.

Staying with 3D printing though, the next bit I need to do is the rear. Similar to the front I want to make some reinforcement brackets. They're slightly different for the rear as there is still a lip present, however I don't want to cut through it because that would weaken things rather than strengthen them. The bracket will therefore have to come over the lip in some form, as well as avoiding the filler. Having said that, the presence of the lip does give me an opportunity to use screw fixings as well as Tigerseal. I'll have a think about that one.

Before I forget, seat belt reel... I noticed when my brother in law was in the car that the reel had a strong tendency to lock before it could be drawn out. It's because the reel is fixed at an angle. Combine that with the slight slope of my drive and it was enough for the reel to think the car was turning over. Given that the reel runs directly to the roll bar there's no need for it to be flush against the back of the cabin so I'll bend the bracket for it to sit upright. 

Oh, and I found the other bonnet tie down so I can get that fitted on the passenger side. I do need to fit some spacers to keep those tight but that's an easy one. 

It's my holidays soon so there will be a break in the proceedings, but I must be getting close to being ready for IVA. A set of tyres might help but that's the next/last big expense. Looking on Black Circles there's some ditch finders for around £50 a corner, but there is a local mobile fitter who can often get cheaper tyres, or more importantly better tyres for the same price. 

Milestone achieved: It runs!

 This Saturday has been so successful I could actually get away with doing non-car related work on Sunday and still consider it a good weekend. As you can probably guess, I got the car started. Or more specifically, me and my brother in law did. 

The first step was to figure out why I had no spark and no injector. Friday night I spent Googling issues, and absolutely none of the posts pointed the finger at spark plugs, HT leads, coils or ECU. As expected with an engine from the 90's, there is very little tech involved in actually burning the fuel. Same with the injectors, all it needs is a timing signal... And that's where the story begins.

Turns out the cam/crank angle sensor at the back of the engine is quite a critical piece of engineering, without it the ECU has no idea when to put fuel in or when to burn it. So my attentions started there. Thankfully with just a bit of cleaning of the contacts the engine started firing. Well, sort of. All the HT leads were generating sparks, but only header 4 was getting warm. That meant I had three cylinders that didn't have any fuel. Swapping the injector leads between 3 and 4 kept the same problem, cylinder 4 was getting fuel but 3 wasn't.

My brother in law popped over and suggested testing the injectors with a healthy dose of 12 volts from the battery. A few clicks later and it sounded like all the injectors were working, but not providing fuel. So we went for injector 4 on the wiring loom, and injector 3 being manually triggered off the battery. That improved things, to a point where injector 3 could be plugged into the loom and start running. At this point optimism was high. As far as we could tell, the action of sticking 12 volts through it repeatedly had loosened it off.

So we carried on, next was injector 2 which sprang into life, and then injector 1. So the engine was finally running on all 4, albeit a bit rough and 'tappity'. Bearing in mind that it had had an oil change but the engine hadn't been run, I suspect the first few seconds of running had simply filled the filter and the overall oil level was a bit low. So job number 1, top up the oil.

The engine started to get warm, so bearing in mind the water circuit was still empty at that point, it was turned off and the water filled up. Several burps later and a bit more engine running, we had a warm radiator and a temperature gauge registering mid point. And no leaks!

Ah, on the subject of gauges, they all work! Rev counter was the first to spring into life, swiftly followed by oil pressure. Oil pressure started high but then dropped down to midpoint. I have no idea whether that's good or not but it sort of makes sense.

Water temperature took a bit longer to wake up but that soon got up to mid point and held itself there. The last one was the speedo, and putting it in gear while the engine was running showed that was ok. It also proved the prop shaft and diff worked, which is another good sign.

The last thing on the dash was the battery light, I forgot it the first time round but went back to it later and could see it went out when the engine was running. That means the engine is charging, and more importantly my wiring was good! So now I can confidently secure the wiring in place and know there's no more work to be done. I'll also secure the battery in place as that's all good as well. Oh, apart from the terminal covers, I still need to design and print those.

That just leaves the brake fluid indicator light to be checked after the fluid is filled.

As with all my weekend work though, this one raised a few more jobs to be done;

1. Fix the earths on the front. It looks like two of the earths were wired a bit tight, and at some point they've caught on the hinge and pulled themselves apart. I need to cut them back, splice in a longer earth, and get things back together again.
2. Sort out the fuel pump. As I found last week, the fuel pump runs opposite to the chinglish instructions that came with it. So now the pump is the right way round, the wiring needs to be sorted.
3. Injector seals. I'm tempted to replace the injector seals, they're £20 for a set and would make things a bit better for not much money. 
4. Along with injector seals, I need to get the injector wiring back in place after the fault-finding.  Not difficult but still another job to deal with.
5. Steering cowl/shroud. That's in progress and probably today's job I think.

And that leaves the wheel arches. Even with fibreglass, filler, all manner of adhesives, they're still not as strong as I'd like. Opening the bonnet I managed to ping another one so it's slightly detached. So once again I'm back to 3D printing some L shaped brackets that will be bonded in place. That will be a much sturdier fixing. Four per corner, I just need to measure the angles for the prints. Then I'll cut back the sections where they'll go, and get them put in. 

So today is going to be lots of drawing and printing. But I don't mind, I have a running car! Woohoo!

(And as a footnote, the exhaust growl is spot on, although I am paranoid it's possibly a bit loud. Without a DB meter I won't be able to find out, and since it's raining at the moment, I can't try one of those Android apps to give me an indication of where it is). 

More arches, handbrake, seatbelt, bonnet etc

Turns out when there's just a snag list left it gets difficult to post something on just one subject. So this is a bit of a mix of tasks.

Firstly the handbrake. The new cable arrived and... well basically it was completely different! Shorter sleeve, longer cable, narrower ends that wouldn't fit in the bracket, basically completely useless if it had been going on the Seat Cordoba it was designed for. Thankfully all I needed was the inner cable, so a quick swap around got me back to a working cable.

Following recommendations from the Locostbuilder lot, I went for a 'non solder ferrule', basically a screw threaded sleeve with a hole in. I went for the DIY option as I didn't think any online were really up to the task (they were more like bike brake cables than anything that would hold a car). Once I'd got the bits and put it together, I found I had to pull everything tight to get it bolted in place. Not a biggie, more or less inline with the rest of the car. Ten minutes of swearing and plier-wielding got me this;

The ferrule and bolt extend 10mm either side of the bracket so they're not going to come loose. And the cable is clamped from both sides so is secure. Once the caliper side and handbrake itself were adjusted I was able to apply braking force with five clicks of the handbrake. I think any tighter the calipers would start to drag, but five clicks seems good enough. Of course, it has to actually pass the brake test but given I was able to wrench on the handbrake without the ferrule budging I'm happy that it's now complete.

The final job on the handbrake cable was to fix it in place, I've added a bracket to one of the clips holding the brake line in place so that's not moving. I've not secured it anywhere else though, the stiffness of the cable doesn't allow it to move at all. 

Next job, seats and seatbelts. First off I've made a boo-boo, I've used up the seat bolts! I had to get some more longer ones, because by the time it gets through the seat, the frame, under the car, through several washers and a nyloc, there wasn't enough exposed thread. I've got some longer bolts now, but there is a small fly in the ointment...

I got the seatbelt bolted up;

The shoulder fixing actually worked well with the edge protector. I'm not clamping directly on to the protector, there is actually a washer and a collar inside the fixing. However it's such tight tolerances that the fixing doesn't turn, I might add one more washer just to stop it catching on the protector.

The second belt fixing looks fine on the inside transmission tunnel, apart from it being a pain to bolt up it seems happy where it is.

The fly in the ointment comes from the belt clip on the outside. As you can see from the photos there's zero clearance between the seat and the side. While this shouldn't be a problem itself (the seat is soft after all), the seat frame is catching on the buckle. Even if Mr IVA was OK with it (the seat wouldn't move that often) I'm not happy.

However it appears that it just needs the seat lifting a little to clear the belt clip, and the belt clip itself needs to be solidly mounted (rather than using a collar to allow it to turn). I've cut some 5mm plate spacers to go under the seat rails, along with the longer bolts that I had to order anyway should put the seat a little higher and clear the belt. I did need to check the seat belt position though, hence the black box in the above pictures. The shoulder strap needs to be a certain distance above that reference point, thankfully I'm about 50mm clear so an extra 5mm on seat height won't affect things. 

The next subject is the overflow pipe for the engine cooling;

Not exactly exciting, it's sharing the cable clips I've used for the wiring. Metal plates bolted to the engine and printed brackets to keep them secure and abrasion free. I'm happy the engine wiring and cooling is now IVA friendly, I have a few more brackets to fix in place but that won't be difficult. 

While I was taking pictures I realised I'd not taken any of the bonnet position brackets;

The three corner brackets maintain the profile of the bonnet against the body, and the bottom one is a slider so as the bonnet comes down, the loose sides get pushed out and into position. And talking about positioning;

This is a rubber handle to hold the bonnet in place, with this engaged the bonnet is quite tight and rigid which is a good thing. It needs a rubber trim along the edge just to hold it a bit tighter, but at least that's all set. Well, it would be if I could find the other one!! I can't find the passenger side one, it'll be 'safe' somewhere. Shouldn't be difficult to fit once I find it.

And so to the nightmare of the current work, these blasted arches;

Trying to apply fibreglass upside down meant I got more on me than on the arch! I've managed to get several layers on both sides, and it 'looks' strong enough but I'm really not convinced it's hard wearing. The passenger side in particular seems to crack really easily. It doesn't help that the bonnet flexes, the edge is quite narrow, the aforementioned 'upside-down-ness' of it all. It'll get through IVA but may be the first thing that needs 'repair', I'll keep a roll of duck tape handy in case something goes missing on a drive! Long term I think it might call for some more printed brackets for stronger support, a bit like what the wire does now but a bit 'more'.

The rears are actually behaving themselves just with the fibre reinforced filler. Part of that I suspect is because the body is so much more rigid, so I'm tempted to just add another layer of the filler and smooth it flat. 

I think that's all the little jobs I've done over the last few days. Many of the jobs need repeating on the passenger side (I have a tendency to do work on the more accessible side because getting to the passenger side usually needs the car wheeled out of the garage). I still need to start the car and check it runs. I need to fill the fluids (brake/clutch fluid and coolant). I do need to find some black paint for under the bonnet, that should be a lot easier to work with than the car paint that will be visible. 

Arches first step

 As it turns out, sitting on the couch knowing I could be in the garage was a big incentive for me to go do stuff! Admittedly it wasn't all successful but it was still progress.

First was the seatbelt mounting cover, I had printed them in the week but not taken any photos;

I think they work really well, all radiused edges and the same thickness as a washer. Whether they'll hold up to abuse is another question, but once the hole is drilled and the seatbelt is bolted in place I'll be able to see more. I still don't know whether to have it solidly bolted or with a collar so it turns freely, but I can try both. 

Next small job was testing the edge trim;

OMG was this horrible to fit!! I think it's because the fibreglass thickness is uneven, but this took far too much effort to fit. It looks 'ok', but it doesn't fit smoothly, particularly behind the seat. Having said that, the same stuff applied to the arches looks really good;

The curve I decided on for aesthetics also appears to be within the bend range of the trim. In addition, with it being metal with a consistent width, it went on far better. I'm tempted to go with a few drops of glue particularly on the ends, just for added security, but I'm happy with that.

I guess that leads me on to the arches. As mentioned the GRP was not happy having to bend 180 degrees, so the plan was to use some reinforced filler to make a better angle. It actually worked really well in my opinion, bonding well to both surfaces and creating a nice base for the GRP. 

It needs a quick sand before the GRP can go on top, but this on it's own has made the arches feel really solid so I'm definitely on to a winner here. The rears were similar, although that's only a 90 degree bend to deal with. All four corners are now waiting for the last step.

And then the final task was to get the rear calipers fitted. The arches needed the wheels removed for access so while they were off I put the calipers on. This was certainly the most eventful part of the day. Turns out the handbrake cables go almost directly vertical which was unexpected. Considering I needed to change the routing of the cables anyway this isn't really an issue, but it does change my plans for the fixings. So that's another task added to the snag list.

The far more pressing issue was the brake line itself;

The flexi hose also goes vertical, and as can be seen on the picture it gets friendly with the wheel before it heads to the car!! I have a feeling the original MX5 may have used right angled connectors for this very reason.  Still, there was a pretty easy fix, just point it down instead;

This works well and keeps the flexi away from everything important. Ignore the caliper end, it looks like it's rubbing on the caliper but it's only because the bolt isn't fully tightened. The flexi is stiff enough to respond well to bolt angles so won't be difficult to fix. 

And now on to the bad news of the weekend, the loss of the front handbrake cable. I started as I had planned, to create a U shape with a ferrule. It looked like it was going to be very strong and secure, until I tried applying the handbrake. Then even after clamping the ferrule the cable still wanted to pull out. A quick check on locostbuilders suggested a blob of weld. Unfortunately while I got a blob of weld on the wire, it make the wire so brittle that the whole thing just snapped off. 

So I've ordered a replacement cable (three times more expensive this time round) and some solderless cable nipples. More specifically a length on internally threaded rod that will have a hole drilled in the side, the cable pushed through and a pair of M6 bolts clamping it in place. That should be a strong enough fixing for a handbrake. I need to make the hole every so slightly large (10mm instead of 9.5mm) but that should contribute to the strength and security of the cable. I could even double up on the fixing if I want to follow my standard 'belt and braces' approach.

Overall a mixed weekend, but considering I wasn't planning on doing anything it was pretty productive. On to more fibreglassing now, then that's the arches all done and ready for paint and trim. 

Halt in the work

Every year since I've started this build, I've been able to spend Fathers day in the garage. Even if things were going really pear shaped, or family was taking priority, I got Fathers day in the garage. Except for this year.

Nope, this year I will be sitting on my back side, doing almost nothing, all because of a bad tooth. Or more specifically a removed bad tooth. Being drugged up on painkillers isn't too bad, but busting a blood clot because I was leaning over the seat isn't going to do me much good. So I've got a couple of weeks/weekends of downtime. 

I'll have to see what 3D prints I need, working in front of a laptop is probably the most productive I can be. Or I might build some Lego cars, I seem to have a backlog. I did also want to learn a bit of Blender. 

Post sticky weekend

 Once again a bit of a mixed bag. The rain briefly held off long enough to do some back end jobs, but not long enough to do anything proper. Not surprising really.

So from the 'sticky weekend' list:

All the arches are now temporarily fixed in place;

As expected they look a bit 'stuck on' at the moment, basically because they are! Hopefully when they're finished and painted they'll look a bit more like they should be there. I also cut the underlying arches on the front to give my wheels a bit more clearance. And this is where it 'deviated from the plan'.

So fibreglassing 101 includes the line 'don't try to fibreglass round a sharp corner'. And with me leaving a 10mm lip of old body, I'm trying to do exactly that! Of course it failed miserably, it didn't bend round the corner so I couldn't get it to attach to both the body and the arch. It basically lifted and created a bubble between the resin and the mat. To be fair, it's decently strong and it did adhere to both surfaces, so I'm on the right track. I just need to improve that one edge. I've ordered some reinforced filler to go in the gap and create a decent surface for the fibreglass to go on to. I'll probably have to sand the existing stuff back as it looks awful. Then a few layers of new stuff for strength. 

Overall though I'm happy that they'll fix in place well, and I won't have to do anything too clever post-bonding. I did try an experiment with resin on a spare piece of aluminium;

And it turns out this is a really strong fixing. Don't get me wrong, I think I can still separate the metal from the resin if I use some tools, but I was able to bend the aluminium and it stayed stuck so I'm happy with the approach.

The brackets and sliders for the bonnet are now glued on and work well. There is an occasional 'hook' on the passenger side that I can't quite tell what's happening, but that seems to be wearing down so eventually it'll sort itself out. I'm very happy with the bonnet though, it sits really well and just needs the tie downs to make it permanent.

The gearshift gaiter is also done, again very happy with how that turned out. It's now properly fixed to the surround and when it bolts back together I'm expecting it to work fine.

The roll bar trims are in place, another success. It reminds me very much of the trim pieces you see on Cobras, and for me to end up with something that normally lives on a 60K+ car means I must have done something right! 

And now the seat belts. I remember saying that I'd be really annoyed if they don't work? Well, I'm not 100% happy with them. The reel fitted well, I'm very happy with that and it extends and retracts as expected. A sharp pull locks it, all that funky stuff. I had to make some sleeves for the other fixing as the holes are 15mm and the bolts are only 10mm. Fortunately I had some matching tube and after some time with an angle grinder I had some appropriate spacers. I hadn't really planned on doing flexible fixings but it just worked out that way. 

The first struggle I had was getting the seats back in. With the seat belt buckle in place I couldn't just drop the seats in, there's just not enough room between the seat sides and the body. A bit of careful angling of the seat managed to get the seat in place. The other side wasn't as bad, that just needed the seatbelt pulled in front of the seat. At rest I like the way the belt sits, it's easy to access even when retracted.

When I'm in the seat it's slightly different. The height and position of the upper mount means the belt sits very close to my neck. A lot closer than I had expected. It's definitely a comfort thing, I might need to add a pad or something post IVA. While I'm on the subject of IVA though, I did check and the regs say that it must not slip off the shoulder. It's definitely not going to do that! I think overall it does it's job as a seat belt, it doesn't pull tight against the seat so I won't fall foul of the 'structural seat' rule. It's easy to apply and can be removed with one hand as per the book. 

Getting the seats bolts down is certainly going to be a challenge, and the movement fore and aft is going to be even more restricted. Not that that is a problem, the runners are mainly there to allow ease of fixing rather than proper adjustment. After all I doubt my wife is going to be driving it anytime soon! On the subject of fixing, the seatbelt wasn't actually that difficult to fix. With the centre panels removed getting to the back was pretty easy, and holding a spanner in place with a ratchet in the car made things simple to tighten. The seats have a bit more distance between front and back, but fixing a spanner in place inside the car and a ratchet outside should sort it. 

New jobs added (after all, it wouldn't be a productive weekend if I didn't identify more work to be done!):

• Redo the upper seat belt trim piece. With the moving belt guide the old trim piece is no good, it's too tall and doesn't functionally work (even if it is an IVA pass). I want to make a new trim piece that covers the top surface but leaves a gap for the upper washer. That will go on first, then the belt guid will bolt in place, then there will be a nut cover for on top. It's a bit more of a complex design but shouldn't take too long to create. It might take a bit more effort to print, I'll have to see what to do there. The current trim pieces were printed end on, I might try and do the same.
• Sand back the fibreglass bubbles and apply filler as required before trying again.
• Fill the gap in the handbrake with JB Weld. I need to do this before I permanently fix the handbrake as it needs to come out of the car. 
• Tidy up the bottom lip on the front. I think it's just the standard 1.5mm radius requirement, so five minutes with some sandpaper will sort this one. It will need trimming first though, particularly one corner where it's not particularly attractive. I'll jack the car up and possible get the laser level on it for reference. 

A sticky weekend

 I've just seen the weather forecast, and it looks like the engine start is postponed yet again. I do want to plan this weekend though, just so I know what options I have.

And that comes to the subject, because I think glue and other adhesives will form most of this weekends work. From the snag list;

• Cut the front wheel arches as required / Fibreglass in the aluminium mudguards. I've been putting this off for a while but it's about time I just got stuck into it. I do want to see whether fibreglass resin attaches to aluminium though, that will make or break this plan. If it doesn't stick then I have some extra work to do.
• Glue on the printed brackets and sliders for the bonnet. Nice and easy for these, although it does need a bit of finesse for the sliders. They've been printed, they fit well, they need to be screwed and glued in place.
• Glue on the gearshift gaiter so it doesn't become unattached. This could be tricky, I might take my time with this one. Tiny areas to glue and very visible results so I don't want to get it wrong.
• Bolt on the rubber tie downs on the corners. This could be a lengthy task but also fairly enjoyable. Of course the main problem is working space on the passenger side, but I can deal with that. 
• Paint the body. Not anytime soon, still undecided whether IVA is first.
• Reattach all the trim pieces (roll bar, seat corners, seat belt edges). More gluing, again not difficult but will need some finesse. I was doubting whether these should be done before paint, but I could say that about a few things and end up not going anywhere.
• Bolt in seats. Ah yes, that could easily go to the top of the list. It's going to be fiddly but I really want to see whether my plan works for the runners. If not there could be some more work to be done.
• Bolt in seat belts. Similar to the seats, they can go in now and I can see whether they work effectively. I've done so much work on seat, belts and positioning that I am going to be really annoyed if they don't work. 
• Fit mirrors. These can go on although I just know that if I do, I'll spent the next few weeks bumping into them!
• Add boot lock strike plate. While I don't really need to be properly outside for this, I would be working at the open garage door which is going to get wet.
• Add boot lining. Nope, not needed for IVA so I'm going to leave this one completely. 

That's got to be enough stuff to get on with, I don't see how I can run out of stuff. I am going to print this list and pin it on the board though. 

Weekend update (exhaust and handbrake fix)

 Well, more of a midweek update as I didn't really get much done on the weekend. It was the kit car show on Saturday, a great turn out and it felt like more than previous years which is always a good sign. Lots of cars for sale though, either it was the same as previous years and I've never really paid attention, or there are genuinely more people selling up. 

So that was my Saturday, then a bit of slab work kept me busy in the afternoon. Well, technically that same work kept me busy Sunday because I managed to drop a slab on my foot and not be able to do anything too heavy on Sunday!

Anyway, enough of that for now, on to the exhaust. As I may have mentioned before, the headers wouldn't come off without me disconnecting the rest of the exhaust, so that's what I did yesterday (Tuesday). Once all the gaskets and sealants were in place I could bolt it all back up. For the most part it worked well, but now I can see how rigid it is when bolted up I do have my doubts on how long it will survive without a flexi section. It's not difficult to put a flexi in place, the layout does accommodate one inside the engine bay but it would mean two more joints. I'll add that to the post-IVA list maybe. 

In the meantime, tonight's exercise will be the handbrake cable. The plan will be to make the cable as loose as possible, then mark where it hits the balance bracket. I'll then make a loop in the cable and clamp one of the ferrules on to it. Two would be more secure but there's not enough room, using just one ferrule means I can squeeze it inside the bracket and not compromise any gaps.

That should leave me with as much flexibility to tighten it up as possible, after all the cables will only stretch over time. They're not going to shrink. 

It does mean that the self adjustment may not work as that relies on the ratchet mechanism working in the caliper. However even on the stock MX5's that auto adjustment rarely works, and most of 'the internet' manually adjust the calipers directly before adjusting the cable. Not a difficult process, just 'old school'. 

And of course, there is something in the IVA manual about it;

A parking brake lever, actuating linkage, cable or associated component must not be obstructed in its travel nor foul parts of the vehicle 

And;

Parking brake reserve travel and locking positions are required to allow components such as brake cables to stretch without diminishing park brake performance.

This could be a fail point if it's judged to be too close. The other option I've been thinking about is a spacer on the handbrake cables. This is where they're currently mounted;

It's a simple bracket, reinforced by the folds. If I use an appropriately cut and drilled piece of steel, I can bring those back 20-25mm or so. A couple of tacks to hold it in place and that would be fine. And just typing I think I'll do that anyway. As with everything on this car, I'm always thinking about keeping very clear of IVA rules. Moving it back that far will mean the cable can travel as much as it wants (the caliper itself will stop it operating any further). 

And I've just realised there's an issue with that. The cables use clips to retain them in the hole. If I move the hole I still need to be able to retain the cables. 

(quick dive into the garage...)

A quick measurement of the bracket and the cable gives me some options. The widest part of the cable is 25mm, that goes on the outside. There is then 13mm on the narrow part and 19.5mm on the last part. So whatever I use for the bracket has to accommodate a 20mm hole. In terms of thickness I'd estimate 2mm maximum, which is fortunate as most of my metalwork is also 2mm max!

The bracket is 30mm deep so that would be good for the 25mm square section, maybe with a bit of profiling on each side. For the clips I would simply cut out an access hole above both cables, while that might make the cable clips difficult to remove at least I'd be able to get them in there in the first place. Having said that, this extra bracket needs to resist compression forces rather than tension, so I'm wondering whether bolting it in place would make it simpler. Then at least the whole unit could be removed with the cables when it came to unclipping them. It would also mean not having to weld anything near my newly upholstered seats. There's enough room for an M8 bolt with washers so no danger of it being weak. 

That's that then, a small bracket to cut and fix, then the whole adjustment issue goes away. And to think, a lot of this is caused by wanting an 'invisible' handbrake! I was keeping an eye out at the kit car show for other cars that have no visible handbrake, I couldn't see anything like what I'm doing. The closest I could find was on a couple of trikes where the handbrake was a pull handle. I've seen that before where it locks in position and it's twisted to release. That was still visible though, less intrusive than a handbrake but still not 'clean' like I want it. I should have looked for early Caterhams, although just checking the site plan there wasn't a Caterham stand. 

Oh, last thought before I post this. This whole process will move the sleeves back an inch or so, but the brackets on the cable are fixed. They should go into welded brackets before heading to the calipers, I may have to review that routing. It's not like the speedo cable that has to be gently curved into position, but I still don't want them pushed into unusual shapes on their way to the calipers. I could always cross them over to reduce the bend tightness, I'll see what I need to do once the bracket is done. 

(Later that day). Well, that plan failed. By the time I'd cut away enough metal to fit in the gap, with the correct holes and big enough slots for the clips, I ended up with such a weakened part that it wouldn't have worked! I think the failure was right at the beginning though, trying to cut it from 25mm RHS. It might have been rigid, but having to remove three sides from a four sided tube was never going to work. 

So the new plan will be a metal plate bolted to the front of the same bar, with a reinforcement at the bottom against the old bracket. The same approach though, fix the cables to the plate then bolt the plate to the car.

One thing I did see was that crossing the cables won't make much difference, the next bracket isn't very far away so it won't move by a significant amount. 

(Update from the 9th). After the first failure, I went uber simple and just used a drilled plate.

As mentioned I could only use 2mm because of the fixing clips, but it's plenty strong enough. I stayed with the idea of clipping the cables in place first then bolting it to the car, with three bolts going to the original cross member and the original fixing plate. The last picture shows a much better 'home' position for the plate, with plenty of space for adjustment and slack on the cables. Just one last job to do here, fix the front cable. That needs the handbrake in it's final position, which needs the JB weld alteration done to get rid of the sharp edge. 

Handbrake

This again is more for my own benefit and possibly for Mr IVA man. As I spotted in previous work the cable for the handbrake meets in a deliberately confined space. This is for strength mainly, I needed to make sure that when I pull on the cable it actually operates.

The problem is that it might be too tight. With the cables and balance bar in place, it looks like this;

That doesn't leave much for tension. In fact, it's about 20mm;

Beyond that the handbrake will stop but the brakes won't apply any further. With the cable attached to the handbrake, I had a look at what sort of movement I'm dealing with. With the grey tape in the above picture being 'at rest', I applied 12 clicks;

That's around 17mm. Given handbrakes need to be on full lock with somewhere between 3 and 8 clicks, I should have plenty of space to operate. 

I will try all this once the calipers are actually mounted but I think it should work quite nicely. That's assuming I can adjust them correctly to start with to only need 17mm of movement.