Fuel lines

 I've just realised I didn't post about the fuel lines! I hinted at what approach I was going to take, IE flexi lines to the back of the engine bay, then hard lines the length of the car, back to flexi near the fuel tank.

Here's the hard lines, starting at the engine bay;

I need to cut the ends shorter and spread them apart to allow the flexi hose to attach. From here they go down the side of the transmission tunnel;

Now they're at the bottom they are clear of everything;

They are mostly accessible from underneath, although I might redo the bolts from the other direction. I think some of them have the bolt trying to come through a panel!!

Once they're at the back, they're back up to get close to the tank;

Again the tails are only lightly in position here, they need to be split up to allow the flexi hose clamps to be mounted. I might even bend them vertically so I'm not interfering with the rear brake line which is also right there. 

They're fixed at maybe four points, but they are not budging at all. It does make me wonder whether they brake pipes need sturdier fixings as they move about far more than the fuel pipes do. I think I was going to use some adhesive sponge wrap on the brake pipe fixings so they don't slide about as much. 

HSR example

 While I was writing the previous post, I noticed a few things on the HSR pictures I have. First off;

This has several interesting points I'd not noticed before. First was the retaining strap for the bonnet, I plan on copying that although it's a bit worrying where it is as I'd have thought it would droop on the exhaust.

Second is the bodywork. In this case it's right up against the engine, which means it's not got the platform that I've had to build. It must have the battery above the passenger feet but inside the car instead of inside the engine bay. Having said that, the way I fitted my body the front panel actually sits dead centre rather than lining up with either front or rear, so I would have had to cut it either way. 

Then finally the exhaust is shown entering the bodywork, which is how I'm doing it. I can't see an exit point on any of the pictures though, I wonder if it's just pointing straight down. That would certainly make emissions and sound deadening easy to do, but I was kind of looking forward to a side exit exhaust. 

Next pic;

First off, I've just checked the MOT on this car and it expired in 2018. I hope it's being kept roadworthy, it would be a shame for it to disappear into history as yet another forgotten memory.

Anyway, away from sentimentality, the rear light set up is interesting. First, the two small ones aren't lights at all, they're just reflectors. That makes a lot of sense to me as I was really struggling to find anything that would fit in that opening. 

The indicators, stop and tail lights all make sense, they're standard fittings with two filament bulbs for stop/tail. But then I've realised the reverse and fog light aren't where I was going to put them, they're just mounted on the back end. That makes it so much simpler, as I can use standard square ones with the required markings. The rear number plate light is a nice touch.

Round the front is pretty simple, the bowls for the headlights are what I need to source from this years kit car show if I can't find them from elsewhere first. The front wheel arches have a couple of side repeaters, then the front side and indicator lights are as expected. 

Then finally this is a bit further up on the boot, showing the hinges and fuel cap. Nothing spectacular here although I do like the T hinges. I was going to find something chrome but a longer hinge, this way it keeps things a bit more compact. The filler is a clear IVA compliant one, nothing special there. It did also remind me that I need some rear view mirrors! 

Oh, and this car doesn't have a roll bar. So my back edge will be very different. Here there's just a black edge trim, but I need something a bit more roll bar friendly. 

Body panels

 Well, after the much needed tidy up before Christmas, things seemed to get very quiet. I guess that's what Christmas does to you!

The main parts done recently were the two side panels. These were infill panels where the seven chassis doesn't reach the Healey body. It was a fairly standard thing, basically copying this profile;

A gentle curve at the bottom, coming up to the plastic tub. But as with most things I couldn't follow it exactly. You see, the rear portion of the tub had two angles parts that line up with the metalwork, except that they didn't line up with mine so I cut them off. Which means the metalwork has to come further up the side, essentially to the occupants shoulders.

Therefore the gentle curve at the bottom tapers to the corner, then it's a flat section for the rest of it. And as pictures make more sense than words;

They will be glued to the metal frame at the top, and form the rigid support for the body. I might add some screws along the top edge, I've not decided yet. 

Here's a better picture of how the sides look;

This is with the seats in position and most of the panels in place. It's really looking like a place to be now, rather than just an open mass of tubes.

One more panel now, the bulkhead/firewall. Not a difficult one here, just a need to bend a fairly long sheet of metal in two;

With this rivetted in place there is now no path from the engine bay to the cockpit. OK, that's a small lie, I still have two gaps to fill in;

Basically a small curved section, round a right angle and up to the bulkhead. Small pieces, easily created and fixed, and they will preserve the curve. The same design can be seen in the first photo, but it's well hidden under the dash. The only danger I have here is the mating edge to the curve, if I don't get it right I have two aluminium panels perpetually doing a 'nails on a chalkboard' thing as they move against each other. 

So that's it for the build, but not quite for the posting. I've seen a few things on the HSR pictures that are interesting...

A brief distraction...

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

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

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

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

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

Wish me luck!

Fuel lines and change of plan

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

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

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

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

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

3 week gap

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Exhaust part one

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Engine in

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bodywork off and finishing welding

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

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

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

The rear looks really good though;

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

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

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

Dashboard and reusing mx5 cluster

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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