What happened to your front frame Dave, did you break it on your nose :-)

Lol oops sorry was meant to be front suspension bracket jig I could borrow lol

Must have hit my head too lol

Very productive day
 

Today I have managed to get loads done and that is no mean feat

Last few attempts to work on the roadster have resulted in a trip to hospital with broken nose then grinding sparks went through the vent holes in my goggles and straight into my eye

But today I have had no such woes
Today I got the rear end finished off with only lower wishbone brackets to do

Also got the transmission tunnel in and sat in it making broom broom noises

And the photo?

TT

Good to know your cracking on.

If the temps pick up a bit I may be tempted to get out there and sort a few things out. Motivation is low..

TT

Took a huge effort to get my self outside especially with snow on the ground first thing was to move the wife's exercise bike the get the engine crane out of the way just so I could get to the heater

My plan for next summer is to build a lean too extension on the side of the garage and have most of my tools and a wood burning stove in there so I always look like I am busy even if I am only making another cup of coffee

Its been a while since I have had any builders come round so you all welcome to come help out with the extension build

as promised here is a few photos of the story so far
Attachment 1566
Attachment 1565

your garage looks warmer than mine ;)

Keep cracking on ;) will have it rolling in no time.

dave can you make them bigger, i may have spotted an error?

what are you thinking nathan wont let me have em any bigger cause of file size limit

hopfully this is a bit bigger

rear wisbone brackets are in wrong position also, sorry to be a pain, but at least youve found out before fully welding.

If you go with them, youll need shorter upper wishones, and piviting so far out will mean tones of camber action on the uprights through the moments of
suspenion travel

Ignore last post tho i got it wrong, tunnel looks fine, deleted

sod it measured about 20 times refering to both saturn guide and the book if they not in the right position where should they be

ignore me again, ive gone fing mental, its right i was thinking of sierra rear sups brackets. what a cock:o

had me worried :eek:

just thought i would share the latest bits on there way to my build

what do you all think of these



and they fit mx5 and sierra builds

they will be on ebay soon

:eek: :eek: :eek: Got any pink ones for Mrs Vmax?

lol no but i did tell her they would make good cake moulds till i am ready to use them

All joking aside I wouldn't mind some of these! My poly bushes are the same colour !

Keep an eye out with the guy doing the coloured ones on ebay

The ones in the photo are the prototype and not perfect yet but soon I hope

I managed to get a good day in the manlab yesterday got the steering column and handbrake mounted and have made a start on making a suspension bracket jig which I will be giving to the forum when I have finished with it just a few bits to get and I will be rolling in no time

Hope everyone have a merry christmas and I hope that santa brings you lots of roadster related goodies

I really should pull my finger out and do something, if the weather dries up then some work will be done on the Sapphire with a plan of getting that finaly finaly MOT'd in the spring.

And if the wather is not good then likewise I will be reworking the steering column and handbrake cable routing on the roadster..

TT

These are on ebay now

I like the idea of fit and forget. These slicone items I reckon are a must have, the aftermarket cheap rubber rubbish are good for a year ish. I noticed somewhere they are doing track rod end covers in the same stuff, how cool is that:cool: :cool:

Bob

i not really been about much since losing my job but i have still managed to get a few bits done

the chassis is now fully welded off the table and ready to trial fit engine when i get some 5mm plate for engine mounts





i have fitted the diff with only the diff nose to sort when funds allow whilst the chassis has been off the table i had a go at adapting the wiring loom much to my annoyance and after about 6 weeks of trying i have decided the next 50 years would be better spent doing other things like driving the thing so once again when funds allow i have decided this http://rapidfitlooms.co.uk/mazdamx5s...oomwithECU.htm
would be a better option to get me out on the road before the next millenium

thats all for now more when i start earning again

Hey Dave ...thats quite an infestation of long tailed tadpoles (and some of them are having it off)....I did not think they could survive out of water:D :D :D.
Good to know you are still at it Dave

It gets worse when you step on them the sticky ones cling to the bottom of your shoes and the infestation spreads into the house and they keep stealing my tools

Selling up
 

Well the time has come for the wife and me to return to the sunny south so my mx5 roadster is up for sale on ebay

The wife has promised I can start again when we get settled in so I have been doing the what would I do differently next time

Well first off I would go out and buy a flat pack chassis or even fully built I have built my first chassis made every cut and made all the mistakes along the way but have proved to myself I can build a good accurate chassis

I would still buy wishbones

Next build I will think about going sierra although mx5 is still a great option

Would still have all my plates laser cut

But most of all I am still determined to bring a roadster from chassis to rolling to first start to first drive to iva to on the road this decade

Its not the easiest project I have ever started but its is the most interesting

Build number 2 will be posted here when I get sorted out

build number 2
 

ok so its been a long while since i have been actively building a roadster as the planned move never did come about and we are still in the same place so here goes number 2

since the last build was sold i have been lurking about the forum making the odd post and generally regretting the decision to sell up and planning build 2

anyway about a month ago a post was put up saying there was a build gong free to the collector so had a look at the photos and it seemed a worthwhile trip 400 miles each way as at first glance it looked to be a nearly complete chassis with some suspension components and a few donor parts so i thought thats a great start will get the green light and go for it

got the wifes blessing and sent the owner a message saying i will get the sisters trailer and head on down to collect

in the meanwhile i sent a facebook friend request so i could see the rest of the most recent photos and as soon as the request was accepted i knew i would have to rethink the sisters large camping trailer

so a message to kev K4KEV secured a trailer that was big enough to collect the build

so the arrangements where made to drive down on saturday 7th march and come back same day so weekend off work oked with wife trailer secured enough funds for the fuel there and back

the friday before the weekend soon arrived and i made the short trip to go and see kev and borrow the trailer he built for his roadster after chatting for a while we set to work getting it out of its hiding place (on its side between 2 caravans) after a bit of grunting and huffing and puffing we got it out and hooked up to my car

and i went home and parked the trailer on my garden and got ready to go to work for 3.30pm

work ended at 10pm after my excitement made me show photos and tell anyone who would listen about the planned journey I went straight to bed for a couple of hours sleep i got up and left for the long journey south at 2am

the journey down went reasonably smoothly apart from a few small diversions and roadworks the traffic was light and would have been there by 9.30am as i planned but my weak pea bladder had other ideas and i had to keep stopping at services on the way down

eventually i arrived late 11.30am i got there to be followed into the farm where the roadster was situated by terry (TKPM) who kindly offered help with the loading we turned into the farm track and after 400 miles of motorway and country roads the trailers wheel arch came off and was smashed as the trailer runs over it so taking the lesser of 2 evils i removed the other arch to stop the risk of the other falling off on the motorway on the way back

we got to the farm and went into the pigpen to have my first look at the roadster in the flesh so to speak
[IMG][/IMG]

the excitement instantly built and i could not wait to get it home to start working on it but home was still 400 miles away so we loaded the car up onto the trailer and that took about 20 seconds
[IMG][/IMG]
strapped down and got back on the road at about 1pm

cont....

after i got back to the motorway and picked up fuel the return journey was as trouble free as the journey down only had one hold up around bristol cause of accident rubber necking and once again my pea bladder making its own plans i again kept stopping slowing the progress mainly cause by this time i was starting to get a tad tired and i was checking things on the car as i kept thinking of things (is there a key in the ignition barrel, etc...) i got close to home and the wife phoned saying she was hungry and could i get us a macdonalds on my way home

i got to maccy dees at 11.30 and unable to use the drive through had to park the car's and walk inside, ordered the cardboard and got back in the car and after 5 miles I finally arrived home at just after midnight to eat my tea

at 1am i went back out to unload the car and park the trailer up and went off to bed after having only 2 hours sleep in 36 hours it did not take long to drift off

sunday i woke up at 7am and took the wife to work went home and went back to sleep for a few hours then went and took the trailer back to kev and put in back between the caravans into its proper place had a cuppa with kev and his lovely missus and went home to get started moving the roadster which was still sitting on the garden
[IMG][/IMG]

i cleared the old carpets and rubbish that had amassed in the garage and with the help of a friend pushed the roadster into its new home

sunday afternoon i started looking at what i had collected and making jobs lists and set to work on the first job which was a seized wheel bearing on the front right side so removed the hub and sorted a new bearing and thats about where it is now i have removed the exhaust manifold as it was touching the starter cables so looking out for a standard zetec manifold to use till funds allow to have a stainless one made

i have also removed the inlet manifold to have that cleaned up blasted and painted/ powder coated

going to have the front hubs done at the same time once funds allow

[IMG][/IMG]
[IMG][/IMG]

so what still needs doing well.....

i need to source a megasquirt II ecu kit
some instruments
some ford wheels
clean out the gearbox
find the correct ends to get fuel into the fuel rail [IMG][/IMG][IMG][/IMG

work out where to put the fuel pressure regulator
[IMG][/IMG]

finish the seat back and trans tunnel bolt together and iva.. well maybe not quite that simple but its a dam good head start

I thought the red blocky thingys in the end of the fuel rail said sizes on them? I will search my email from the bloke who made the rail and see if I cant shed some light on the subject!
Jason

Ok just a update have not had as much tine on the car as I would have liked due to putting one of the wifes workmates cars through its test and then having a few days down in the south anyway....

I havr been looking out for some front brakes and a set came up on locostbuilders he was asking 50 quid but me beimg a tight northerner got them for 20 quid result I thought for discs pads and calipers oh and a set of flexies which i may sell on if they don't fit my car

Still on rebuilding the hub with siezed bearing just need to put the new wheel stud in and get the bearing carrier pressing into the hub

Brakes pics soon

Been Making a little progress lately found some front calipers and disks on locostbuilders they were only £20 so snapped them up and got them home [IMG][/IMG]

and painted them up and installed a seal kit
[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

then i started on the hubs remover them ripped them apart then thought maybe i should take a photo

[IMG][/IMG]

looked at the studs and they were petty badly chewed so went onto the bay and got these

[IMG][/IMG]

then thought maybe some new studs should be added so got a full set and the new bearings

[IMG][/IMG]

so the last few days i have been cleaning up and painted one of the hubs

[IMG][/IMG]

then installed the new studs
[IMG][/IMG]

so all i have to do is press the new bearing races and seals into the hub put them back together then move on to the next part of the build

i know its not much progress but am not able to spend much time in the garage at the moment due to work commitments but even small progress is a forward movement

Nice to see your making some progress. I miss the parcels arriving at the house with car bits all the time!

David

I know what you mean the wife keeps saying" what you been ordering now"

If she only saw what goes to my mums then sneaked into the man cave lol