Arches and weights

 First fun job, the car weight. I got my postal scales and tried them out on the weekend. First issue was the batteries supplied were garbage, but luckily it came with a small power supply so it was easy enough to plug in. Now granted I should have lifted the other three wheels up (and be doing it on a flat surface), I got this from the front;

And this on the rear;

So on the face of it, 722Kg (when added together) may not seem too bad. An average Haynes is 600Kg, and I've got a full body plus framing to go on top of that. I do have some bits missing, for example there's no coolant or fuel in the front or back respectively. The driveshafts and propshafts were in the boot rather than attached (so shouldn't change the weight too much), but the brake calipers weren't on so that alone is 2-3kg's per corner. I reckon if I can get it all in for 800Kg's I'll be happy. 

Now, on to the arches. I needed to get them fixed in place and I was struggling for a solution. Turns out some coathanger wire did the trick. Suitably glued to the underside of the arch gave me a fixing point;

Then with comparable holes in the bodywork I was able to mount them. I added a few more on each arch to preserve the curve (needing a couple of overnights for the glue to cure). I ended up with this;

I really like the result to be honest, they look quite purposeful and keep with the overall 'rough rally' look that I'm after. Rears are similar;

And while I could get to both drivers side and the passenger side front, the passenger side rear hasn't been touched yet. I need to roll it out a bit to get the holes drilled and pins located. 

Underneath the front arch shows the pins in place and the cut line;

I didn't forget that part of these front arches is so I can get a greater clearance on the bodywork, as I still only have about half inch before the wheels introduce themselves to the GRP. While the suspension is quite stiff, it needs more travel than that. I'll cut the GRP back to the first line on the tape, then use new fibreglass to make it permanent. The pins can stay in place for an extra level of reinforcement, I'll just have to bend them flush to the bodywork under the arch. 

I did briefly consider keeping the arches as bare metal, but it really wouldn't survive the elements. So they'll get etch primer and paint along with the body. Again, comparing it to the inspiration for much of my work I think it'll be a fair 'homage' to the original;

I just need to find an appropriate time to get the arches fitted permanently, after all working with resin and fibreglass is smelly if nothing else. I suspect 'outside' will be the order of the day for that job!

One last photo, the seatbelt covers;

The superglue did 'ooze' in some places and it turns white when it dries, so I think I'll have to paint them. I was tempted to paint them anyway, I think matching them to the bodywork colour should be good. I just need to ensure the paint doesn't leak through on to the belt!

Rear arches

 A nice little project for this weekend, the rear arches. In the week I set up the arch template that I'd used on the front, essentially a wooden template that is the same size as the wheel and provides an endpoint to the arch. Because the rear doesn't need anything removing from the arch, I didn't want to set it quite as high as I had on the front, so I jacked the car up to suit. (I didn't want to cut the template down in case I needed it again!). Once I'd found a pleasing height to the arch, I started with an 80 degree angle and wooden sticks at every ten degrees;

Of course, at this point I didn't realise that it wasn't quite enough of an arch! The IVA manual has an initial requirement of 30 degrees forward and 50 degrees back, but also at the back it needs to finish lower than 150mm above the axle. To be honest, because the bodywork is raised where it is, it would have probably finished at the right height anyway, but just in case I added another ten degrees.

Then I needed to fill in the gaps with more sticks, and a layer of masking tape just to make it easier to work with;

A quick line and curve on both ends to make it look nice;

And a paper template to pick up the pattern;

Some aluminium fettling later, and I have a wheel arch;

As I was cutting the aluminium I simply cut a mirror image version for the other side. 

So I now have four arches. I also spent part of my garage time cleaning up and making sure I have no more excuses to avoid the wiring!

Well, one more excuse. The arches currently has no method of fixing (as mentioned previously) but the rears in particular don't even have a suitable mark where they should go. I'm thinking of some temporary fixing that might allow the arches to fit unsupported. I'm thinking about three/five drilled holes where the arch will sit, thick enough for stiff wire that can then be attached (glued?) to the arches. That way it can be fixed in place, fairly rigidly, and I can work with it as is. When it comes to fibreglassing them in place, the pins will serve as a cutting mark as well as a base for the GRP. 

The last thing I did this weekend was a visit to Aliexpress, for a magnetic inclinometer, a laser level and a 300Kg scale. With those I should be able to do wheel alignment, or at the very least camber front and rear. Toe will need the steering rack properly bolted in before that can be done. 

Little jobs

 No wiring this time, I will get there eventually but not for now. Brain trouble rather than wiring trouble, maybe another time for that.

This is a couple of small jobs that I've had on my list for a long time. First the seat belt reels. I doubt they'd have failed the IVA with them being bare, but given they're hidden behind trim on the MX5 they are pretty ugly bare units. So I designed and 3D printed a small box for them to live in;

(The clamp was there to just stop the seatbelt from retracting!). The two halves will be glued together, I'm not expecting any maintenance on these so gluing the seam should be fine. I'll do it with the belt fully extended though, I don't want superglue dripped on the belt. It's a really straightforward shape but only the near half will even be visible (the belt will come out the top in it's final position). Then they can bolt in place.

Next was finishing the seats, I went to town on the headrest edge and really trimmed out all the overlapping pieces. The seam on the back board is absolutely spot on if I do say so myself, I'm really happy with how tight they've ended up;

I couldn't have got it any better. And with the black fixing screws matching the dash;

I think they just work really well. 

Next, VIN stamping. This was just a trial but I think it worked;

That's a centre punch rather than a letter stamp, and a paper template to show where the holes should go. I'm thinking of making some 3D printed guide for the stamp to make sure they end up in predictable places (IE straight lines!). Once I've stamped the whole VIN then it'll get welded in place. Given how much this small piece of metal curved I don't want to be stamping direct into the frame!

The last update is for my rear fenders/arches. I did the fronts a long time ago, but I didn't get round to the rears. Using the same method I'd done before, I got the wheel template in place against the body, then using an 80 Degree guide I glued lollipop sticks every ten degrees around the top. That was yesterday, so today I'll go fill in the gaps then make a paper template from the surface. After that it's over to aluminium to cut a left and a right, then they'll be ready for attaching. 

Ah, attaching... I've still not figured this out. I do need to trim the front arches to make sure there is wheel clearance, but on the other hand it also means there's less material to attach to the fender to. Screwing or riveting won't work, I don't want a visible fixing and I don't have anything to screw through anyway. The only thing I can think of is to;

• Temporarily fix the fender in place (with tape most likely)
• Use fibreglass to build up underneath.
• Take the aluminium off to clean up the fibreglass.
• Bond the aluminium back on.
• (add some discrete screws for reinforcement if necessary).

The main thing is what width to do the fibreglass. In theory I could do it right to the edge (and beyond) of the fender, then actually the new fibreglass would become the fender (after trimming). More likely I think an inch or so of 'lip' protruding from the side of the car for the aluminium fender to glue on to. The lip would also give me the option of screwing the fender in place, then a bit of filler to smooth over the screw holes would finish the job. 

I'm going to try it on the front first, mainly because it's better access but because I can get to the bottom quite well just by opening the bonnet. The rear arches will then follow whatever turns out to be the best plan. 

Thinking about it, the extra lip formed on the arch will also restore the stiffness of the bonnet. As I cut away the arch I'm going to lose a bit of strength in the car. 

Post Xmas catchup (seats and electrics)

 

After a lot of messing about, I finally have tall enough seats... unfortunately it would appear I took no photos of the extensions! Ah well, at least they're solid to the correct height which should be good for IVA. The only thing I found on the way was the join between top and bottom;

It's a bit ugly and tatty, but it's because it's a triangle of metal that doesn't really accept staples. So back to the 3D printer for that;

Some simple black covers to finish it off. Now, the back... the original plan was to use a flexible steel 'clip' thing that is used for regular seats. The problem is that it needs stapling to the back. This was complicated for two reasons. First, the stapler I had was cr*p and is now in the bin, and second I couldn't get it close enough to the edge to make it fit;

This shows how much material was left up top once I'd got past the extension and the metal, and on to wood. I couldn't do that with the clip. So it's back to a wooden panel, and to be honest I think it turned out brilliant;

The black screws match the same fixings on the dash so it really brings things together. The lower portion of the panel is also tight against the back, but the top needs a bit of work;

The pleats are thicker than the leather so it holds the cover away from the surface. I need to trim the pleats so it can fit better. It shouldn't be difficult but it's one of those things that if I get wrong I completely mess things up. So I've left it at this for now;

Short of a bit of cleaning, that'll be the interior finished.

I also made a mount for the air flow meter, just some bent aluminium and screws into the chassis;

It's very secure now so I'm happy. Oh, and one more leather covering, this time the cowl;

The tape isn't permanent, this is just while the adhesive set. It looks very good for the top, I need to do the bottom in the same way. I also need to check it doesn't foul the steering wheel though, it's a bit tight.

And talking of being tight, now the seats are in place and padded there's not a great deal of room for seat belt fixings. The inner edge is the fixed plate;

It doesn't have to move so as long as the belt isn't damaged as it's fixed then I'm ok. The outer edge is for the seat belt clip;

Again, this is fixed tight and then the buckle lives above the seat. I just need to make sure the bolt heads are out of the way. 

I've finally plucked up courage to do some wiring too, so I've routed the indicator wires to the right places. That covers the indicator bulbs, the hazard switch, the tell-tales as well as the correct number and type of fuses. Next one to do will be the brake lights, which also includes the brake pedal switch and the fluid sensor. 

Hiccup on the seats

 I'm really happy with the seat wadding;

It's made a really smooth squishy surface just ready for the leatherette. It glued on to the sides quite well, I did staple it underneath but the plan is to remove the staples and trim the excess just before the leatherette goes on.

I did take this opportunity to take a quick measurement;

That's 750mm to the base of the seat to the top of the headrest. The regulations are;

• 85mm from each side of the centre line. That's an easy one, it's about 220mm total. It is slightly offset but I think it's still fine. 
• Measured at an angle of up to 25 degrees. My recline angle is 15 degrees so I'm measuring ok.
• Top of the head restraint must be at least 700mm above the R point. 

The issue is that the R point is 53mm from the seat base. That means I'm 3mm short. 

At first thought I could argue that the wadding going over the top edge of the head restraint could fill in the extra 3mm, but am I really going to measure a pass/fail on how thick some padding is going to be? Especially it it would mean redoing the seats.

So the easiest fix is simply to raise the seat back. I'm going to raise it maybe an inch or so, it's not going to cause an issue apart from where the leather pulls tight behind the seat. That's just a decorative thing. The priority is to make it strong enough to be considered a safety device. I doubt the extra inch will make that much difference from a 'seat aesthetics' point of view, as long as they're both done the same. 

I'm going to 3D print a measuring block, then take some better measurement to sort out an extension.

(The following Tuesday)

The measuring block is now printed, and it's showing something interesting.  In the IVA manual, the seat base is also angled;

But my base isn't, it's horizontal. So as I move 136mm forward, the ninety degree angle at the top actually makes the seat back 'longer'. In fact, with my 'measureometer' (patent pending) it actually measures just over 730mm;

So again, in theory I don't actually need to do anything. I'm at least 30mm clear to the metalwork, and I still have a layer of wadding to go on top. Havin said that I'm still going to increase it by an inch, it's not much effort and it gives me a safety margin. 

It does make the headrest back cover more difficult to deal with though, as it'll mean I'm trying to staple into metal. I'll have to bring the leatherette down a bit further but I'll end up with creases. The easiest way to fix that is to have a short board covered with leatherette that will bond to the back of the headrest. But that will mismatch with the rest of the back, so I'll have to do something to lift it up.

This is the back of the headrest;

The wood sits inset based on the metal, which works well for what I had planned because the metal clamp would raise the leather up and I'd be left with a nice transition from back to side. Actually, that will work, the extra board for the headrest would simply sit on top. 

One step at a time I think... I'll lift the headrest 30mm and start there.

Start on the seats

 First, a problem...

Yes, despite me having far more space than a regular Haynes roadster, the air filter doesn't fit. I noticed it after fitting the meter and the filter, then seeing the bonnet not sitting right. The filter is jammed between the frame and the body. Given that I'm not going to cut the body or the frame, the filter is the one that has to give. That'll be an interesting side project, not quite sure what to do yet. 

Anyway, back to the seats. The foam glued on really well after my dashboard exploits;

And thankfully just having that thin foam on has made the seats far more comfortable. I did manage to get the wadding from the Hole in the Wall, although storm Darragh did make that particular journey quite eventful. Before that goes on I needed to round off the corners;

The left side is the cut right angle from the initial trim, the right was after I'd smoothed it over a bit. It was pretty easy to do to be honest, the powerfile with a really coarse grit belt was enough to shape it. Then my Japanese saw rasp took off the untidy bits. So now I have two seats with nicely rounded edges;

I'm really happy with the outcome, everything has gone right so far.

There is a slight change of plan on the wadding though. I had originally planned to have the surface as one piece, and the edge trim as another. But that seemed to be asking for trouble, particularly how the rounded corners were done. Instead I've cut it so the surface wraps round and staples to the back. I'll still glue it in the centre so it doesn't slide about under the leatherette, but being able to pull it taught round the edge will hopefully give me a really smooth corner without too much effort. 

Once that's done I can apply the leatherette. 

A halt in the proceedings

 Since the last post I seem to have done very little. To be fair, it's been absolutely freezing in the garage, and the clocks going back make it even more challenging. 

But I thought I would at least update the blog to see what needs to be done. Well, I know what needs to be done, the blasted wiring! I need to get on with it but it really is painful. I could probably get it done in an hour or so, then just need to tidy it up, job done. 

Away from the wiring, I'm also looking at the seats. I put the foam on the seats to see what will happen, and I'm a bit wary it won't be as smooth and curved as it is in my head. The foam is firm and very 'right angled'. Looking on youtube I think I need to add a layer of dacron, a lighter foam that can round off the corners. If I trim the sharp corners then add dacron I think I can get it looking reasonably curved. 

The seat base is 50cm long, 41 wide. Add 5cm all round gives me 60 x 51.

The back is 41 wide as well, 77cm tall. Same addition is 87 x 51.

I also need to add a strip all round, a couple of inches thick. All four sides of base and back is 418cm. Working it all out I can get away with a 2.5 yards based on a 54" width (1.5 yards). I could 'probably' get away with a 1 metre wide, but I don't think haberdashers have embraced the metric system yet. 

Of course, haberdashers aren't as common as they used to be. Where I used to work there was one on the high street, and there's one in Walsall which isn't far. But there is a market tomorrow (Wednesday) and there might be one on there. The weather won't be good but it'll be worth the journey, especially if I can do some Xmas shopping at the same time!

I then have to;

• Trim the exhaust
• Complete and attach the arch fenders
• Finish the fuel tank plumbing (possibly buy some correctly marked hose)
• Bolt together and tighten up the suspension
• Seatbelts
• Edge trim everywhere
• Paint (I'm tempted to leave this until after IVA)
• New tyres

Dash 99% finished

 So after last weeks debacle, things worked better. For reference, this is what the brushed on glue looked like;

It makes me cringe just looking at it, but at least it peeled off very cleanly. Fast forward to this weekend with spray adhesive;

This was far more successful, and the finished product is exactly what I was after. I was so happy to see this come together, it's a huge part of the overall look of the car. 

I also did the gear shift surround bolts, which can be seen in the pic above. Problem is that the leather was just a bit thicker than expected so it's left a gap. It also means the surround is higher than 2.5mm so it no longer meets the radius requirements. A bit of 3D printing for a profiled surround and I have this;

It's not quite as clean as metal on metal, but it still tidies it up a bit and gets everything level and IVA friendly. I'm tempted to glue the leather to the underside of the frame as I'm not sure it would stay in place over time, but I'm also tempted to make another gaiter.

And that comes to yet another digression. With the dash in place I can see the black steering wheel and shroud look a little out of place. A wooden wheel would be perfect, but they're not cheap (well, some are, but they're made of chinesium and I've seen some scary youtube videos on those!). The current wheel is Momo so it's definitely good quality, and it needs a centre boss made up anyway. So I'm thinking a bit more leather work might be good. If nothing else the centre boss should be the same colour. The shroud is also the dull black plastic from Mazda, and I think I can do a bit better with just a layer of leather. That in particular will really tie it into the dash and seats. I'd end up with leather soft furnishings, aluminium interior, and black fixings. Nice, clean, simple. Well, not simple, the amount of work to make it look 'simple' is actually quite complex!

Right, back to wiring. I keep putting it off, but it's got to be done. Rather than looking at it from a 'dash' point of view, I'm going to do it one circuit at a time. Today's mission, wire in the indicators and hazards. So that's front and rear lights, tell tales, column switch and hazard toggle switch. All connected to the light relay. That's something my brain can deal with, I just hope I can find enough green/white and green/black wiring. 

Trouble with glue

 I really am not on a good streak at the moment, so this is a bit of a rant. Partly over the poor quality of products nowadays, partly over my own incompetence.

It's been about glue this weekend. I need to fit the fuel filler bayonet to the filler neck, and since I can't TIG weld then glue is the only option. To be fair it kind of did work, although I question the longevity. I used epoxy to bond the two parts together, and yes it stuck but it was unfortunately off centre. So the cap wouldn't go on. I expected a struggle when taking it apart, but the fact that it just needed a bit of encouragement with a stanley knife makes me wonder how long it would last.

Once it was apart and cleaned up, I tried some JB weld. Turned out I'd not done enough, because it wouldn't even hold together under it's own weight. After a second clean up, I made a decent lump and applied it. I also clamped it in place and left it, I am hoping that patience is a virtue here and it'll be fine tomorrow. Or next week, depending on when I want to look at it again.

The other gluing job was the dashboard leather on to the blank. I bought the contact adhesive yesterday, thinking that my challenge would be getting it flat and whether it stuck to the leather. Turns out my problem was neither of those, it's the fact that it didn't stick to the blank! I noticed it when I was painting it on, it was going gloopy and dragging. I actually got to the point where there was a visible lump right above where the steering wheel would be, so that would have been horrible.

I prepared myself for a frustrating time getting rid of the glue, turned out that I need not have worried. It just peeled off. Now, I'm not an expert on glues, but when something peels off that easily, something has gone wrong. The leather looked ok though, it had wrinkled up a bit but had accepted the glue no problem.

So at the moment I've washed the glue off the leather and left it stretched flat to dry, and I'm wondering what to do with the blank. I don't want to strip the paint off completely but I think it's going to need more than a bit of sandpaper. I'm thinking perhaps a wire brush to actually score the surface which should hopefully keep things fairly smooth once it's done. 

And of course, I thought it was going to work fine first time, so I temporarily put all the wiring stuff underneath the board that I'd laid out... so no more wiring today. I don't mind to be honest, after such a bad start to the day I'm not in the mood for more garage work. I might go in there to tidy up in a bit, I need to get some stuff sorted/binned. In fact, yes I might do that as it's fairly relaxing, reasonably trouble free, and I could do with a win today. 

Weekend progress

 Again, more of an 'aide memoire' than any actual decent blog post. I've done most of the wiring loom, I just have four white/red power wires to join up together, and the same for four black ground wires. That gets rid of the spaghetti. Now the next part is to wire in the lights and dashboard.

There's a few blockers to that though. First off is that I seemed to have trimmed an entire lighting section out of the loom!! There should be a connector on the column multi switches that powers the lights, but now I've got to the end of this particular task I have no more connectors. I'll need to go back and see what I removed. It might be that I took each individual wire out in turn, then ended up with an empty connector that I stuffed in the 'spares' box. Once I find the connector I can wire it back in, 

I also need to print out the fuse and relay positioning, again I seem to have quite a few empty holes and I want to make sure I've not unwired something important. I also need to check the relays are still in the right place, for example I know the indicator flasher is wired in but it's missing two of the wires. I need to energise the flasher with some power and then see what comes out. The flasher is listed as;

• Black Ground.
• No connection
• Orange hazard light switch to Black Ground.
• Green Black to left hand lights (front/side/back and tell tale)
• Green Red to direction switch on column
• Green Yellow to direction switch on column
• Green White to right hand lights (front/side/back and tell tale)
• Black Red to fuse block

Looking at the existing wiring in the block, I can see;

NC          GR/RE      OR      BL

BL/RE    GR/YE      NC      NC

If the one below the black is the actual 'no connection' then the other two must be left and right. 

For the lights and dashboard it's all new, so it'll just be lengths of wire of the appropriate colour.

Ah yes, colours... I seem to have some wires that were attached to the loom, and attached to the engine, but neither end is actually attached anymore! I need to find;

• White/Blue. Apparently this is labelled as battery negative. 
• Green/Orange. This is most likely going to be the horn I think?
• White/Black. Off to the alternator for the battery?

None of them go to the ECU so I can rule that out straightaway. I'll have to double check the colours to see if they're actually what I have.

For other wires, I've got Blue Yellow to come from the fluid level sensor and the parking brake switch, when either of them close that puts a ground on the far end of the brake light tell tale to light the bulb. Black Blue for the coolant temp sensor, that'll go direct to the gauge with the other end being grounded.

I also have Yellow Red to come from the oil pressure sensor, again to the oil pressure gauge. 

I feel like it's all starting to come together now. I do have a lot of fused power feeds to go round the car, and there are so many ground points to put in. The grounds are fairly straightforward though, crimped ring connectors screwed to key points on the chassis. 

I'm going to try and get more done during the week, even if it's one or two wire colours a day I'd soon get them all done. Then it's a test, then bind up the wires and secure them ready for IVA. I have a route for the dashboard wires but I will need to make it IVA friendly, there's a sharp 180 degree bend that goes round an aluminium edge, that's just ripe for IVA to fail. 3D printing to the rescue there! Behind the dash it's easier though, the current connectors are in quite close proximity and would be stable enough to hold the wires on their own but it won't take much to add a couple of cable tie brackets to make it extra secure. I'll have to remember to position some next time I get the glue out, which will be when I come to put the fuel filler together. But that will have to wait until I get some more PETG for the 3D printer, I've actually run out of a roll! Only the second roll I've managed to finish too, I must have been doing a huge amount of printing recently. 

Fuel filler

 One more post about the fuel filler, just for my own memory to be honest. The fuel filler neck arrived;

And thankfully it was a usable size, this photo compares it to my moulded one. It's maybe a little larger which is fine. The main frustration is that the Ebay listing said it was new, this was far from new. I don't think it's been used, but the chrome is so tarnished that it looks like it's sat in someone's toolbox for years. It's annoying, but not worth trying to get a refund, after all it's still usable.

The only thing was the angled edges that the cap locks on to, they were simply to severe for the cap to lock. This was expected, I knew I'd be out of luck to get them to work perfectly. Fortunately a few minutes with the dremel got me a shallower angle that the fuel cap could lock to. So that's that.

Now comes the fitting. My idea had been to weld a steel collar on to the tube that would sit inside the bodywork. This neck would then protrude above the body, with maybe a decorative trim to finish it off. Problem is this neck is actually wider than the two inch tube, so I'm not going to be able to weld a collar on and get it to fit through the body. I could make the body hole wider for the neck, but then I'd need to trim it. And again, because the neck is wider than the tube, the trim wouldn't work either. 

I think it's an opportunity for some more 3D printing... Basically I want a bracket to sit under the body. The internal diameter will be for the tube. Then I want an upper lip to fill the hole in the body where the neck needs to fit through. Then the overall part should be wide enough to fix the tube to the body.

Or... I can do the same, but have the tube come in from above. That way I can make the hole only big enough for the tube rather than the neck. I could still use a 3D printed collar to bond everything in place. That would mean I wouldn't need an outer trim, I could just make sure the bodywork hole is tight against the tube. The neck itself would then sit just above the body.

Oh, but that introduces a new problem. When I lock the fuel cap, it needs me to press down on the cap. If I do that too often, I might end up pushing the tube through the collar. However that could be mitigated by my gluing approach, if I use two halves of a collar then I can more easily apply epoxy inside the collar. I could then use a jubilee band during gluing to really press it on there. 

I could also reinforce it by using another 3D printed collar underneath the neck lip. It doesn't need to be much, just enough so the neck sits proud and so the cap has about 1mm clearance to the bodywork. I don't want it to sit on the body because that would scratch the body over time, as well as make it difficult to lock as things wear.

Right, that's my notes sorted, I can come back to that another time. My task for this weekend is to get the loom sorted, or at least get the spaghetti sorted. Even if I don't get all the way to the dash, at least I could get the engine ready to run. Two solid days should be enough, as long as I don't make excuses to avoid it. Like writing a blog post on how to fix a fuel cap...