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-   -   Chris's new build of an MX5 based car (http://www.haynes.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=6206)

CTWV50 31st March 2011 06:59 PM

Chris's new build of an MX5 based car
 
OK I'm 40 years old and I'm bored! Bought the locost book 10 years ago and 2 years ago I bought the Haynes Roadster book. Always hated fords, sorry ford people, so was put off really, couldn't bare to buy a sierra donor, especially as people seem to think they are a classic these days!:confused: Also I was put off by the welding but I'm a big boy now so I reckon I can do it.:)

Currently in the process of cleaning out my tiny garage, getting rid of loads of junk, practicing welding and dreaming about the build, seriously!

I'm serious about doing this project, My last car project went way over budget (VW Corrado G60 2.0 litre 250bhp/235lbft) and when it was finished (read not a challenge anymore) I sold it! I was also skint which helped make the decision. I live 10 minutes from my own I.T. business so walk to work with my dog everyday and so this means I can build a roadster with the money I savve from not running a second car. My other car is a Volvo V50 R-Design 2.0D, lovely car (based on a ford :cough: ) but not too exciting.

So here I am and here is my Donor!

minicountryman1961 31st March 2011 07:12 PM

You do realize that Ford owns a major percentage of Mazda?

MX5 is a great donor, fits the concept of the Locost/Roadster/Lotus 7 perfectly. Good luck with your build!

Quote:

Originally Posted by CTWV50 (Post 56241)
OK I'm 40 years old and I'm bored! Bought the locost book 10 years ago and 2 years ago I bought the Haynes Roadster book. Always hated fords, sorry ford people, so was put off really, couldn't bare to buy a sierra donor, especially as people seem to think they are a classic these days!:confused: Also I was put off by the welding but I'm a big boy now so I reckon I can do it.:)

Currently in the process of cleaning out my tiny garage, getting rid of loads of junk, practicing welding and dreaming about the build, seriously!

I'm serious about doing this project, My last car project went way over budget (VW Corrado G60 2.0 litre 250bhp/235lbft) and when it was finished (read not a challenge anymore) I sold it! I was also skint which helped make the decision. I live 10 minutes from my own I.T. business so walk to work with my dog everyday and so this means I can build a roadster with the money I savve from not running a second car. My other car is a Volvo V50 R-Design 2.0D, lovely car (based on a ford :cough:) but not too exciting.

So here I am and here is my Donor!

http://gallery.me.com/christophertwa...13015906430001


spud69 31st March 2011 07:14 PM

All the best with the build CT, its a real shame to pull them apart that is a lovely looking donor but at the end of the day there are many thousands of them and its going to a better home....;)

All the Best....Andrew

CTWV50 31st March 2011 07:48 PM

It looks better than it is believe me, sills are about done!:)

CTWV50 31st March 2011 08:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by minicountryman1961 (Post 56243)
You do realize that Ford owns a major percentage of Mazda?

MX5 is a great donor, fits the concept of the Locost/Roadster/Lotus 7 perfectly. Good luck with your build!

I do, I just refuse to pay good money for a Sierra! They should be free!:D

deezee 31st March 2011 08:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CTWV50 (Post 56249)
I do, I just refuse to pay good money for a Sierra! They should be free!:D

Your not buying a Sierra.... your investing in a Haynes Roadster :D

mark 31st March 2011 10:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by deezee (Post 56251)
Your not buying a Sierra.... your investing in a Haynes Roadster :D

Thats how i had to look at it when after 6months of no luck in finding a good donor i had to part with £350 for one :eek: :rolleyes: :D it was in supprisingly good nick though

If i wasnt building the roadster i wouldnt give you a tenner for a J reg sierra!

twinturbo 31st March 2011 11:56 PM

I have had a fair share of cars and have to say that the sierras have always been the best drivers cars out of all the cars I have owned.

I hated fords until I gog my first sapphy in 1994.

Had a Few VAG's and other FWD cars and find the battle of torque steer and axle tramp under acceleration to be a BIG turn off to the FWD idea. ( my daily is a Galaxy and it's sh...t off the line. )



TT

CTWV50 1st April 2011 01:21 AM

Yeah FWD VWs and audis, I've had a fair few, not great at getting off the line and not as reliable as people would have you think. Anyway back to the MX5, I can't believe they fitted an aluminium sump and a stainless steel exhaust manifold as standard, such a bonus, engine should be nice and lightweight, bye bye production car understeer!:D

I'm reading a book about the design/development of the MX5, weight was a massive deal, people were threatened if weight wasn't kept to a minimum. They even lightened the crank and flywheel compared to the 323 transverse engine it was based on allowing to rev to 7200rpm.

The Donor is a 1.6 1995 model but it isn't the later tweaked 90 bhp engine that was not available to buy till Nov 1995 and had a steel sump. Mines a May 1995 and has a B6 engine code. So if anyones looking to buy a 1995 mx5 check the engine code is the correct for the one your after and seeing as the emission test was tightened up for cars after August 1995 you may want to play safe with the earlier engine. The 90bhp engine code starts with BP. Had another nose under the engine bay today just before dark, the rad fan is only half the size of the radiator and looks like it will be suitable for the roadster if it can be made to attach to the polo radiator.

Signed up to mx5oc forum to get a seller thread going when I'm ready to break the car down.

Need to get the garage sorted first and get some welding practice in before building the build table. Took some measurement and if I keep the garage clear I should be able to keep the whole car in the garage when finished along with other essential garage belongings. I may need to sort a shed at some point though for the gardening tools. I digress...:rolleyes:

That is all goodnight.

CTWV50 1st April 2011 01:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mark (Post 56269)
If i wasnt building the roadster i wouldnt give you a tenner for a J reg sierra!

That made me smile!:D

twinturbo 1st April 2011 08:01 AM

Alloy sumps almost always weigh more than their pressed steel counterparts. the use much more material.

TT

CTWV50 1st April 2011 12:18 PM

Going to list some other details for my own reference as much as anything.

Engine dimensions 620 x 580 x 615
Bore Stroke 78.0 x 83.6
cc 1597
CR 9.4:1
Max Pwr @ 6500
Max Tqr @ 5500
IVO 5˚ BTDC
IVC 51˚ ABDC
EVO 53˚ BBDC
EVC 15˚ ATDC
Gearing 1st 3.136 2nd 1.888 3rd 1.330 4th 1.000 5th 0.814 R 3.758 FD 4.3

CTWV50 1st April 2011 02:26 PM

Two pages from the book about compactness and lightness......



skov 1st April 2011 02:32 PM

Great to see you've started a build thread, I'll be watching with interest!

You want to get signed up on the mx5nutz.com forum too, the OC forum is a bit of a graveyard nowadays...

CTWV50 1st April 2011 02:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by skov (Post 56302)
Great to see you've started a build thread, I'll be watching with interest!

You want to get signed up on the mx5nutz.com forum too, the OC forum is a bit of a graveyard nowadays...

Will do thanks.

CTWV50 1st April 2011 08:18 PM

Main fuse arrived today! Got it started and warmed up on the drive, sounded great, alt. belt is very loose but took it for a spin on the neighbours farm track. It goes it stops and it made be smile, but it still has to die for my build!:D

Brakes were rubbish but it had been sat for two years, engine was fine other than the alt. belt, gearbox felt great, no whines or unusual noises so my mind is at ease!

CTWV50 4th April 2011 07:44 PM

OK I have rebuilt a new and improved workbench at the back of the garage with old fire-doors (my preferred method of building workbenches) vice is very handy and well lit, sealed the garage floor as the concrete is crappy and by 6pm on Sunday night I had started knocked up a new and improved shopping basket and walking stick attachment for my old dads mobility scooter which I finished at about 10:30pm, he was well impressed. My welding technique is improving but I now understand the importance of jigging and weld magnets, oh and big gas bottles! I bought a big hacksaw, new wire-brush and a round file today too. I want to paint the garage floor grey this week and get more practice in but on 25mm SHS.:) Oh and put up some halogens over the bench.

CTWV50 6th April 2011 03:58 PM

The last 24hrs have proved useful, discovered my hoard of retro gaming paraphernalia is worth a bob or two and will fund a good part of the build, it was cluttering up the garage! 2 birds, 1 stone, springs to mind. Just got to test and list the lot, which I'm not looking forward to.

This morning I went over to a steel fabrication company we do some IT work for and had a chat with owner and he's going to supply the steel and allow me to use some of their equipment for bending and cutting, he also gave me some great advice on cutting angles in steel using a mini-grinder, and using co2 rather than argon due to cost, argon only really necessary for stainless steel apparently. Got some 3mm 40mm SHS, 3mm plate and 5mm channel to mess around with, Might even have a go at the wishbones with their help. Very Happy!:D

Bonzo 6th April 2011 05:40 PM

Sounds like you are making some great progress towards the grand build start day :) :cool:

Ebay is certainly a great place to help top up the build pot.

Pleased to read that all is well with your donor, I know what a relief that must be :)

Eager to follow your progress :cool:

CTWV50 6th April 2011 09:54 PM

Cheers bonzo, determined to do this right, involve the kids and keep the financial cost impact on daily living to minimum. My other family pastime is horse riding and that does a good job of emptying the current account regularly!

Bonzo 6th April 2011 10:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CTWV50 (Post 56726)
Cheers bonzo, determined to do this right, involve the kids and keep the financial cost impact on daily living to minimum. My other family pastime is horse riding and that does a good job of emptying the current account regularly!

I can well imagine :)

That takes me back a bit, it's been a good few years since I was last on a horse .... Mind you, much the same as my motor cycle days, spent more time off em than on em :o :o :D

CTWV50 7th April 2011 04:28 PM

Nice to meet a fellow rider on here, I love riding horses the thrill at a gallop on the beach or jumping them cross country or even show jumping, it really does fill a void in my life. Motor bikes I have steered clear of because if I hadn't I doubt I'd be here to type this.:rolleyes:

ozzy1 7th April 2011 05:24 PM

horse.!mmm tasty!!

Bonzo 7th April 2011 05:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ozzy1 (Post 56785)
horse.!mmm tasty!!

What !!

Even more tasty than Roo :D :D

ozzy1 7th April 2011 06:25 PM

Roo just like beef just a bit stronger in flavour.:eek:

Apparently Australia the only country to eat the animal that is its national emblem!!!!!????????

CTWV50 7th April 2011 07:57 PM

The french will eat anything!

HandyAndy 7th April 2011 08:46 PM

Horse rider here too, had 2 of my own a few years ago, well 1 for me & 1 for the wife, hers was a good little , what I would call a "plodder" , a Welsh section "D", cracking "in Hand" show horse...

My own was a 16 hand Thoroughbred chestnut mare, & wow was she "flighty" :eek: a great show jumper, higher the better, she was great, used to turn her into the jump, she,d see it & her ears twitched as if to say "I see it, here we go" :eek: , i,d "give" her the reign & she,d jump it perfectly :cool: , tho I then would "take" the reign in mid flight, as otherwise we,d be off like a speed train once she,d landed :D .

I used to spend more money on horse shoes in a year than I,ve spent on shoes for myself in my lifetime LOL.

Tho, must agree, its a great feeling galloping flat out along a beach, its hard to describe, but , wow, took my breath away.

I also dabbled with motorbikes....used to race them for a team....ouch.

cheers
andy

CTWV50 8th April 2011 01:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HandyAndy (Post 56806)
Horse rider here too, had 2 of my own a few years ago, well 1 for me & 1 for the wife, hers was a good little , what I would call a "plodder" , a Welsh section "D", cracking "in Hand" show horse...

My own was a 16 hand Thoroughbred chestnut mare, & wow was she "flighty" :eek: a great show jumper, higher the better, she was great, used to turn her into the jump, she,d see it & her ears twitched as if to say "I see it, here we go" :eek: , i,d "give" her the reign & she,d jump it perfectly :cool: , tho I then would "take" the reign in mid flight, as otherwise we,d be off like a speed train once she,d landed.

I used to spend more money on horse shoes in a year than I,ve spent on shoes for myself in my lifetime

Tho, must agree, its a great feeling galloping flat out along a beach, its hard to describe, but , wow, took my breath away.

I also dabbled with motorbikes....used to race them for a team....ouch.

cheers
andy

Yes they aren't cheap and it's always nice to have a horse that enjoys their jumping, the one we have at the moment is inexperienced but a joy to jump and will hack out anywhere on his own. Such a good horse but expensive to run.

I know if i had ever got into bikes I'd of taken one too many risks as my confidence grew and would of ended up dead or in a wheel chair so I steer well clear.:eek:


Back to the build, I have sold a large portion of my retro gaming stuff in one sale and should have £500 cash burning a hole in my pocket by tomorrow morning. I have decided it will buy the steel for the chassis pay for a larger gas bottle and the build table and some much needed tools. So tempted to buy the chassis precut but doing a mazda (saturn design) build I have to wait for the drawings for the diff/tunnel sections.

spud69 8th April 2011 01:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CTWV50 (Post 56845)
Yes they aren't cheap and it's always nice to have a horse that enjoys their jumping, the one we have at the moment is inexperienced but a joy to jump and will hack out anywhere on his own. Such a good horse but expensive to run.

I know if i had ever got into bikes I'd of taken one too many risks as my confidence grew and would of ended up dead or in a wheel chair so I steer well clear.:eek:


Back to the build, I have sold a large portion of my retro gaming stuff in one sale and should have £500 cash burning a hole in my pocket by tomorrow morning. I have decided it will buy the steel for the chassis pay for a larger gas bottle and the build table and some much needed tools. So tempted to buy the chassis precut but doing a mazda (saturn design) build I have to wait for the drawings for the diff/tunnel sections.

Nearly Ready Chris,

Chassis will be rolling today with engine in and mounted, will also put up some new pics. I've spent a fair bit of time cadding it up this week but have a bit of a headache getting upto speed with google sketchup. Nearly there though. Will have the flat pack chassis kits ready soon as well as everything else.

Regards....Andrew

skov 8th April 2011 01:58 PM

95% of Saturn's MX5 chassis is identical to the book.
I started with one of Handy's standard flat pack kits, and have only had to change/replace a few parts for the MX5 version.
I'm sure if you talk to Handy nicely, he'll come up with a plan to get you started - he's been a great help for me :cool:
It'll save you countless hours starting with a pre-cut kit - well worth the small premium!

CTWV50 8th April 2011 02:08 PM

Great news Andrew, are your flat packs seamless tube or ERW? Don't want to sound dramatic but I'm putting my sons life in this car and I want to do the best by him. If bike frames are made with seamless surely a car frame should be made with seamless, or does the mount of steel used in conjunction with triangulation resolve this. Sorry just a bit worried about frame strength. Some one at the local suppliers said it would be a good idea to tig weld it for strength while someone else has suggested purging the tubes with inert gas to improve the internal weld strength. I'm sure some of the above is unnecessary but just need some reassurance really as to the details. The saying "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing!" springs to mind.

HELP!:o

Matt, I am so tempted to I really am. Can't imagine my son being to keen to help cut steel by hand/grinder.

CTWV50 8th April 2011 02:22 PM

OK so I gather seamless is pretty much unavailable after speaking to a few companies so I guess ERW is the only and a safe option. I guess the book meant "seamless" as in, you can't distinguish the seam externally? :shruggs:

spud69 8th April 2011 04:41 PM

Hi Chris,

Just seen your post, had visitors for last 2 hours - comes with the sun i suppose.....:)

The car is designed around ERW box section and as you say the triangulation gives it its strength. What HandyAndy does is to cut and put together the chassis packs in 2mm walled box, unless otherwise asked, which gives the frame a lot more strength and stiffness for not a great deal of extra weight.

Andrew

CTWV50 11th April 2011 10:41 AM

Thanks for the reply Andrew. I have decided that taking a chassis kit from HandyAndy would be my best option, it's a great price he's selling at considering how expensive steel is and the cost of equipment and time to cut it.

I have built my build table after flat planing many bent bits of scant and discovering quite how out of level my garage floor is.:rolleyes: So after many hours being quite particular I now have a perfectly flat and painted build table.

I started marking out but then stopped as I decided it would be easier to do when the steel has arrived although I did manage to get BR5, 6, 11, and 12 marked out and after checking diagonally I was maybe 0.6 mm out iirc! Which I thought was quite good.

I have spent most of the weekend either asleep or in the garage, that build table started to look very comfortable and inviting.:) Oh also this weekend I managed to knock the passenger side wing mirror off of my donor by letting the build table fall on it!:D Oooops!

HandyAndy 11th April 2011 05:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CTWV50 (Post 56960)
I have decided that taking a chassis kit from HandyAndy would be my best option, it's a great price he's selling at considering how expensive steel is and the cost of equipment and time to cut it.

I have built my build table after flat planing many bent bits of scant and discovering quite how out of level my garage floor is.:rolleyes: So after many hours being quite particular I now have a perfectly flat and painted build table.

I started marking out but then stopped as I decided it would be easier to do when the steel has arrived although I did manage to get BR5, 6, 11, and 12 marked out and after checking diagonally I was maybe 0.6 mm out iirc! Which I thought was quiet good.

I have spent most of the weekend either asleep or in the garage, that build table started to look very comfortable and inviting. Oh also this weekend I managed to knock the passenger side wing mirror off of my donor by letting the build table fall on it! Oooops!

Hi Chris,

Cheers for your kind words, with the amount of steel that I purchase it helps to keep the costs down :cool:

Nice work on marking out your build table so well, 0.6mm is barely the thickness of a fine tipped marker pen ;) , the time taken at the early stages will really benefit the build later on.

I,ll reply to your PM :)

cheers
andy

CTWV50 11th April 2011 06:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HandyAndy (Post 56981)
Nice work on marking out your build table so well, 0.6mm is barely the thickness of a fine tipped marker pen ;)

Ahh that's why it wasn't spot on, too fat a line.:D I'm joking!

These tools helped, iphone apps for your haynes build!






CTWV50 12th April 2011 04:21 PM

Well I never! Never buy those disposable 60 liter (950cc @60bar) halfords bottles of weld gas they are such a rip off! I have only bought one and it ran out very quickly. After a little bit of brain power I have worked out that you get.....wait for it.....at a gas flow of 10 liters/min.... a total of..............6 whole minutes of weld time!!!! I couldn't believe it! No wonder you can just throw away the bottles! Jesus!

Just got myself a 2,420 litre bottle (10.5 liter@230bar) with a proper reg and some 2 mm walled box for practice. Should keep me busy with 4 hours of trigger time! :)

CTWV50 17th April 2011 10:15 PM

This weekend I've managed to mark out my entire table, all modesty blocked out and decided to involve the children aged 4 and 7 by jacking up the mx5 on axle stands and removing all the wheels for cleaning, obviously I ended up finishing the job and my eldest decided he wanted the wheels painted gold, not my first choice for a red car but hey-ho!:D

CTWV50 23rd April 2011 11:12 PM

Today I finished the house re-pointing (a nasty boring job) and other odd outstanding jobs. Don't want anything slowing me down once my steel arrives!!:cool:

Oh and found a dead half eaten rat in the garage! Now it's all clean and nice I guess they thought they'd have a bloody party! Literally! B'stard things!:mad:

CTWV50 2nd May 2011 01:50 PM

One successfully 450mm narrowed mx5 seat. Once I'm happy with the recline angle, I'll remove the adjuster and use it as a template to make a 3mm plate bracket instead. Bit baggy on the base but hey it was free!:D Oh and it weighs only 9.5kg without all the extra brackets and gubbins.


DSC00002 by CTWV50, on Flickr


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