Any chance of you showing us how you did the plating. Been thinking of setting up a tank to see how I get on.

I'll post up some pics tomorrow after when I'm back in the garage.

I underestimated the amount and quality of prep required so I've only had limited success. I tried plating a caliper after a 3 day bath in oxalic acid to get rid of the rust, an alkaline based degrease and an activating hydrochloric acid bath but it went horribly wrong!

I've been distracted!

Congrats buddy. Was he/she born today?

Thank you! She, just over 4 weeks ago now.

My little girl is 1 today. She's a real little madam. It's getting easier though. Btw it feels like the past year has flown by so enjoy every moment even if it doesn't feel great at the time.

The past month feels like 5 minutes! That's scary!

Congratulations from mrsvmax and myself

Thank you!

Congratulations. Its absolute madness how fast the time goes. Ive a 12 week old and it jus feels like she arrived yesterday. But it wasnt her it was my steel :D

Congratulations - it does go very quickly, my two are 31 and 34 already, don't know where it all went, enjoy it while you can :)

Congratulations. I can echo the other posts....it flies by, my lad had his first day at school a couple of weeks back....where did that sneak up from?

My little girl just started school as well. Months now feel like weeks used to.

Congrats! It's bloody hard work 95% of the time, but worth it for the other 5% (numbers may vary)!

Thanks again guys, shes draped across my chest at the moment sleeping her lunch off. I need to be careful I don't squish her by Hibbing her too much!

Awwww congratulations mate, so much cooler than making a car! :D

Thanks bud, yes she is waaaay cooler!

So amidst the chaos I've found some time here and there to strip the engine and assemble the front brakes.





The calipers and carriers have been stove enamelled and rebuilt with new seals, pistons and bolts.

The engines can cover, intake and sump have been aqua(?) blasted and look stunning. The cam cover will get a red crinkle coat of paint and the intake a silver/clear coat finish. The sump, I don't know, maybe silver again.

I've a BEGI coolant bypass and coil on plug conversion to do. Otherwise the cambelt, all seals and gaskets have been replaced and various bits cleaned and painted. The gearbox also got a clean with new seals and a silicone gear lever boot.

This should in the car soon...

Nice! Is that a mk2 1.6?

Thanks, yes a mk2 engine and box.

Hi Norton
I was just wondering where you got the camber adjusters for the suspension from.
Thanks
Stephen

Hey, the threaded tubes I got from thelatheman via eBay. The actual bush holder/adjusters I made myself.

coming along nicely mate, when are you hoping to be completed?

The latter half of next year is my aim. I might trip up by choosing to go for a megasquirt setup straight off the bat what with mapping/iva emissions etc but I'd rather incorporate it now.

The rear brakes, diff, shafts, etc are all in. I'm going to turn all my attention to the engine now and get that in. That'll open up another whole range of tinkering.

that looks wicked! is it out of a can?

Yup, the VHT stuff. I cheated and used a hot air gun to dry it instead of an oven.

Nearly ready to go in.



I'm hoping to get it down from the stand in the next few days and into the car. Then I can really get motoring...

Dont get to excited! Youve got wiring to do yet! :eek:

Arrrgh! Wiring! Just taken me 8 weeks to sort the gremlins out with my wiring!
Good luck with yours :)

That's what I want to hear!

I'm gonna get The car fitted up first and leave the wiring until last but before the body work. I don't have an ecu yet so that needs building. The front of the car is currently sat high on stands waiting to receive the engine which, frustratingly is only waiting for a rubber sump seal otherwise it'd be in already :mad:

So many annoying little things to order/remember. As for the wiring, you might enjoy it! It takes a while to settle into it but by dealing with one wire at a time whilst working hard to ignore the spaghetti wiring nightmare around you is key!

I perversely, get a kick out of it, a bit like a giant stringy jigsaw puzzle! :D

Having good wiring diagrams helps too.

But your going straight to microsquirt are you not? A challenge I have yet to rise too!:cool: Nice engine btw?

Yes ms for me. I've fitted one before which went well. Wiring it up was easy compared to setting it up then mapping it... Never a whole car though. I'm not dreading it but I'll be giving it the most attention I can muster.

So I've had another go at zinc plating some bolts.

I tried a tumbler to help cleaning them but I failed miserably :(

I need the correct media rather than the aquarium sand I had to hand.

Here's the plating kit.



You have to derust/everything the part to be played. It really does have to be spotless! Then it gets a dip in an alkaline cleaner, then a water rinse, then a dip in hydrochloric acid, water rinse, plating tank, water rinse, another acid dip to activate the zinc plating, water rinse, blues passivate, water rinse, yellow passivate, water rinse theeeeeen you hang it out to dry.

There's an art to knowing the anode to part to be plated ratio. The surface area of each needs to be close to equal I believe. If not, it goes wrong...



Or it can go well!



Like painting it's all about the prep, but more so. You can paint over things but you cant plate over a poor surface. They really do need to be perfectly spotless. Sand blasting to prepare the part would be good. So far I've been using wire wheels in drills, grinders and bench grinders which is fine for basic shapes but I can't imagine I'll have much fun prepping say a fuel rail with these.

I'll take some more pics showing the stages of plating tonight or tomorrow.

Can anyone offer any insight into the likelihood of getting an originally naturally aspirated car through the iva emissions test with a turbo fitted?

I do want to ultimately turbo this car so I'm curious about starting out like that rather than re engineer several parts to later on take a turbo. Cheaper too.

More work now but less in the long run and likely cheaper and tidier too.

Moot point now anyways as enthusiasm got the better of me.



I'm not taking it out again to fit a stronger clutch.



Mrs Norton trying it out for size.

Loads of clearance around the in and out manifolds despite having the two braces in place.



I have to unbolt the passenger engine mount and drop the engine slightly in order to get the exhaust manifold over its studs but it otherwise clears the additional brace that side.

Hi
I was just wondering what size plate you used for the wishbone plates and where you got the threaded tubes from. Also what model is the bmw drag link from.
Thanks
Steve

looking wicked, i wish i had some wheels on mine!

The car and engine look great!

I don't know if it is an optical illusion of the picture, but it looks like the top front wishbone are the wrong way around. If it is the same as on the Sierra chassis, the threaded tube should be pointing upwards, and on your picture, it looks like it is pointing downwards. Perhaps the wishbones' set-up on MX5 based chassis is different ?

If I'm wrong, please excuse my comment :)