hi and progress so far
 

So after building a locost and then losing it when I got divorced here we go with round 2 !! with encouragement from my new missus who is dead keen on the whole idea I decided to go down the mx5 route.
incidentally not that my missus is a petrolhead but she had a mustang when we met stateside where I managed to get my first speeding fine , red mustang doing 90 on the interstate and £180 for the pleasure, enjoy the usa sir !!
anyway now we are back in sunny lossiemouth, Scotland and have got my chassis onto 4 wheels and am waiting for the engine to arrive from way down south
here is a pic of progress so far

http://www.haynes.co.uk/forums/attac...d=140389774 7

Welcome to the forum. Nice to see yet another mx5 builder. If you have any questions please ask.

I'm guessing your in the raf with your location

David

hi David many thanks , no im not RAF I am a cooper and I make whisky barrels for a living :) for my sins. Had many bikes over the years, an mgb, tvr 3000m, xr4x4 then had to be sensible and didn't like it so here we are doing what we enjoy .
thanks again for the welcome gary

Looking good, what engine are you going for? The Mazda one or something a bit more exotic / ridiculous?

yes just the plain old mazda this time, not even close to finishing, and already the missus has said what SHE wants in hers :)
So let her pick the colour and I'll teach her how to drive it on the proper side of the road and then..... :D

Welcome Gary the cooper....was'nt he a film star:p looking forward to watching another haynes take shape.

Welcome to the forum Gary, Rally Design do some really good deals, just bought a set of Gaz coilovers for £380 including springs & shipping. Very impressed ! Phil of Talon Motorsport on this forum does loads of fabricating work, the mx5 engine mount brackets are a must, makes the job a lot easier, then we have K4kev , he is the fuel tank guru. There are some really clever people on here, handy to know. Don't ask me anything, I am learning as I go ! Lol:eek: :D

Word or warning: your headlight stalks seem to be on the long side. Mine are shorter and I'm thinking of shortening them still, because the lights impact the cycle wings on full lock and suspension compression. The nose cone does not project outside the top chassis rails, so you you can judge the gap there by offering a cardboard cutout of your chosen headlight size or just measuring the distance between the headlight mounting hole and the top chassis rails. As for the 400 mm maximum dimension between the side of the car and the edge of the headlight, just remember that the widest point of the car is at the rear arches and it is 169-170 cm depending on your tub and wings. You can work out the minimum distance between the light mounting holes based on that width and the size of your lights.

Update: that said, I positioned the bulge of the cycle wings right beside the headlight, so you might be fine:

hi many thanks for that I will do some measuring and adjust as needed, I'd rather cut them now if I need to !:D

hi been busy at work but took home the heavy mob today and trina fed them in exchange for putting my engine and box in ! seriously picked it up and said where do you want it?
end of box was still full of oil though so while I swept up they had coffee. at least now I can get engine mounts made up and crack on again.
Gary :D

http://www.haynes.co.uk/forums/attac...d=140614312 6

Great to see soemone "almost" local to me building. I'm based up in the far north, I haven't started yet but have read The Book many times. Got a massive list of house realated jobs to do before the missus will sign my work permit haha.

Looking forward to watching this one progress.

thanks, how far up north are you ? Keep the faith good things come to those who wait, just make sure a nice heated workshop is on your house jobs to do list, "makes it easier to service your car dear" seems like a reasonable ploy :)

Gary, I'm up in Caithness so local(ish) haha, the workshop is already covered so I'm all good there, just need to get past the windows/doors/decorating/etc then I'm good to go. Maybe get a start this winter, then again she will probably find something else for me to do :mad:

well started to do the fuel/ brake lines this weekend got up this morning to have the police knocking at the door some t##t hit my volvo last night and ripped the n/s wheel half off moving the car 3 ft back into a bollard.... :(
bonus was an off duty officer witnessed the whole thing at 3am, so instead of getting on, spent the day dealing with police and insurance waiting for them all to get their act together despite its the weekend sir.
sorry for the rant :(

BIG parcel arrived tonight, body panels :) :)
could not resist sticking them on the chassis, oh dear, its in danger of looking like a car :)
still a lot of work to get them fitting right but a big step.
Only down side engine will need to go over a tadge (Scottish unit of flexible measurement) as intake side is just catching edge of bulge.
Guess I know what I'm doing tomorrow :)

Exciting, who's bodywork did you get? piccy needed

Hi Mike I got my bodywork from Gillham , he was advertising some seconds so I jumped at the offer as I will be painting anyway and I used to mess about with f/g when we had minis years ago.... so sorting out a few bits and pieces isnae a problem having said that they are still very good

also got pedals done and m/c's in.
only problem now is I will have to redo the engine mounts so that the engine intake clears the bonnet a combination of a little over and a little down should do it :)

as an aside for anyone interested I see he has an ad for nose/bonnet on ebay at moment

looking good there Gary and in a short period of time


Arfon

cheers its easy with plenty of motivation now, its when you start the small fiddly bits when you don't see a change outwardly that you think all day and whats been done.
thankfully swmbo is keen to see it on the road , so that IS my biggest motivation :)

aghhhhh... enforced pause whilst we get sorted with replacement daily car, Volvo written off she sheared the wishbone , twisted the subframe and floor , took a chunk out off and split the gearbox among all the obvious visable damage . Oh well don't ya just love drink drivers, not vengefull but hope she gets what she deserves when it hits the court.


ANYWAY , on a lighter note IF you are thinking of building, or are building, remember when all the partners, family and friends call you crazy just reply;
I'M NOT CRAZY JUST CREATIVELY INSANE :) :)
works for me.....
gary

ha ha still alive !!!! was out side welding the steering column and some small brackets when woosh the heavens opened with torrential rain and hailstones.... its only September.... moved supprisingly quickly to turn everything off , covered everything and ran for coffee 10 mins later the suns beeming and the grounds steaming ??????????
oh well at least a wee bit more done, side panels next not sure weather to make them or buy f/g ones as they will be painted eventually
gary

if anyone has a pair of f/g side panels they didn't use let me know :)
gary

I got a pair of panels going spare, getting them all the way up to you may be interesting...

yeah I'm used to that trying to get bits sent up here, how much would you want for them? if I can get carrier sorted would you wrap them? also where abouts are you?
cheers gary

Hi all, sorry for lack of progress reports but had to get another daily car which left the piggybank depleted but I did treat myself to one interesting "upgrade" more will be revealed as I get on. Anyway BIG news today postie came with my vin number, this is getting serious now :)
I've been pottering away doing some small jobs and will add some more photos soon :)
really like the FAQ thread it helps a lot
Gary

a few pictures of progress have to do the sides next and put the right springs on the front got the rack extensions on and been doing some other jobs
gary

[IMG]http://www.haynes.co.uk/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1756&stc=1&d=141252615 2
[IMG]http://www.haynes.co.uk/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1757&stc=1&d=141252615 2
[IMG]http://www.haynes.co.uk/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1758&stc=1&d=141252615 2[IMG]http://www.haynes.co.uk/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1759&stc=1&d=141252615 2

well here we are some pics of more progress been a busy weekend , brought home a sheet of 1.2mm steel , fri lunchtime really late supper and apolagised to the neighbours .. early start sat and a late finish , then a few hours today saw the sides made, primered and fitted and one trannie side done, did the drivers side one but ARGH measured twice and still cut it wrong :( so will redo next weekend.
mounted the charger a bit of fiddling around , its a bit tight in there :)

next must fit some bonnet catches , attach rear tub, make drivers tran tunnel side (again) and keep attacking the charger pipework, once that's sorted then an exhaust manifold, cat and silencer.
nights are getting shorter and colder up here so need to sort out some lighting , can handle the cold but obviously don't eat enuff carrots :)
gary

well been outside its cold and damp but moving forward with the sc install got the sc mounted (1 upper brace to make) got the inlet side sorted out and in, remade the exhaust manifold aka the mx Miata turbo one and the downpipes sorted.
so next up mount the intercooler and pipes and a belt tensioner (a bit of headscratching with this one) then onto the wiring oh hum :) got boxes of multi-coloured spaghetti sitting here.
Gary

got a bit more one this weekend fuel filter and lines sorted, s/c tensioner made and in place, intercooler mounted and plumbed, boost sensor mounted and a wee drop of paint on the s/c outlet. made a start stripping back the engine loom to relocate a couple of things. working back towards the scuttle ... mmm... fun ...
Gary

Is there going to be some sort of scoop to push air into the IC?

TT

Hi , was really trying to avoid that if at all possible, mounting the s/c lower should reduce some of the heat transfer issues the mx5 conversion has, the airflow from the rad /fan will create some negative air pressure behind the I/c and I will fill the edges, so will see how that goes and if IF and only if, I will look at some sort of scoop duct directly for the I/c but at the moment don't really want to go the scoop route.
Cheers Gary

got a wee bit done cos the sun came out and wife is away visiting family for a bit so been collecting making bits so hopefully can get a bit of a push on :)

Not half foggy in your garage lol :D .....nice colour scheme ..its different.

Yeah sorry about the quality or not of the pics

looking good Gary

well absolutely frozen but happy messed about finishing the manifold and got some alterations to the wiring (but nae finished that one yet...) firewall made battery in a tempory earth , connected the instruments turned the key and ............ nothing. :(
went over and over it, had coffee and more coffee. so went and rechecked it all and found 1 connecter off the back of the main fuse block, took it off to put through the firewall. reconnected it and the battery ..... BINGO lights on the dash and engine turns over. so T time. with a big smile :)
so hopefully tomorrow will run some tempory wiring to the pump and add a couple gallons of petrol and see if we can get fuel pressure and if so we will go for a start up :D

ok so after working out ive fuel engine cranking but nothing else panicking that its an ammobiliser fault , I found 2 wires that should be connected so joined them and away she went a splutter and died an adjustment on the throttle cable to the 2nd tb and she is running. :)
absolutely awesome to hear it now I need to finish the cooling system and tidy all the tempory wiring.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...&v=ZkL9IioRExQ
if this link disnae work go to you tube and enter "its alive Haynes first start up "
very very happy