Progress reports

[Davidbolam]

Originally Posted by NeilW

Probably bidding against me lol

Give AK automotive a call. They get loads in to scrap and have contacts all over looking out for them. Should be cheaper than eBay

[jps]

I'm in the middle of major house renovation so car has taken a back burner. Ironically I am now living with my-in-laws, where my car is actually kept, but have not had the chance to touch it in the 2 months i've been here!

Fabricating my engine mounts are a big sticking point at the moment. I want to get them sorted before I get the side panels on (and the rest of the body work) and the floor. But I am finding it hard to position the engine. I'm hoping to ship the chassis, gearbox/engine and diff off to Phil Eagle (Talon) in the New Year so he can sort it out!! Hopefully things will move a bit more after that...

[Stot]

I have been out every chance I can to let autotune work on my new turbo setup.

Bloody freezing out there today but worth the 20 mins. Happy New Year!

Cheers
Stot

[TheArf]

Well i have striped the car back to bare chassis, its on the trailer in the garage ready to go to grit blasting.
i'm waiting for the weather to change a bit so that as soon as its done and comes back i can paint it the same day, so watch this space.
i was going to get some body work trimmed to fit but have been in bed for the last few days with the dreaded lurgy.
i had also brought some of the cobra panels home from work to work on but they are still there waiting.
Back to work on Monday and then i am being SENT to Autosport international on Thursday, its a swine of a task but someone has to do it.

have a good new year everyone

Arfon

[davidimurray]

I'm in the middle of my engine swap. All the details here - http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/view...php?tid=192871

[JasonL]

Originally Posted by NeilW

Likewise, expecting delivery of chassis kit in the next few days.

Me too. Donor stripped, donor carcass/chassis scrapped and waiting for my Christmas present from Phil!!

Happy New Year everyone!

[skov]

Got loads I want to do on the car, but can't be ar5ed at the moment
I've been getting back into bikes recently, and all my enthusiasm's been directed to two wheels.

[PorkChop]

For those struggling for a donor; from what I've seen of the current market, I would strongly consider just getting parts piecemeal if I was doing it again.

Over the last couple of years, the market has been flooded with NA MX5 parts and prices have fallen sharply (there might be one or two possible exceptions).

[dubzter]

Originally Posted by PorkChop

For those struggling for a donor; from what I've seen of the current market, I would strongly consider just getting parts piecemeal if I was doing it again.

Over the last couple of years, the market has been flooded with NA MX5 parts and prices have fallen sharply (there might be one or two possible exceptions).

I'm not so sure, been thinking about that as well but these are the sort of prices I've seen on ebay.

Engine £100-£300
Gearbox£50-£80
Diff £50+ (£150+ for LSD)
Hubs £??
Driveshafts £??
Prop £10-£20
Wiring Loom £??
ECU £??
Wheels £??

By the time you take all of that into account and if you can get a half decent donor for £500-£750 you could probably do better out of the donor car route if you are willing to go to the effort of selling the unused parts.

[PorkChop]

I've been involved in MX5s since 2011 (because of my Roadster), I now have a NC as a daily driver, and I still have bits left over from my donor, so I generally pay attention to market trends etc. There are a number of bits where there is absolutely no call for spares (fuel tanks being one example I can think of).

EBay is not the only place to look, although saying that there's a 1.8 prop on there for £10 BIN.

If you're paying £300 for a mark 1 MX5 engine, then look elsewhere. I've seen an engine/box combo being offered for £150 from a reputable source in the last week. I sold my spare engine/box for a similar amount.

AK Automotive were selling mark 1 gearboxes for £30. I saw a GWO one being sold privately for £15 (if that was local I would have bought it as a spare!).

Hubs are £20-25 with good used bearings from breakers (what I paid)

A OEM ECU is £10-20

You can get an open diff for less than £50 quite easily (if you're lucky, then you might luck onto 2 for that amount of money). In the not too distant past, Torsen LSDs used to command £300 all day long (the 3.6:1 ratio usually went for a little more). Now a 4.1:1 Torsen will struggle to go past £200.

Driveshafts are anywhere between £15 and £50 (I've paid both amounts, in fact don't get me started on my car and driveshafts!)

Brake calipers start from £15 each. £10-15 will do the seals per caliper.

The majority of builders seem to buy aftermarket wheels or wheels from a different car. The ones on my donor were heavy aftermarket ones, needless to say they aren't going on the Roadster!

The only real advantages I can see of getting a donor car is if you have geography against you, being able to see where everything is on the loom and having all the little nuts and bolts spare (so long as you don't lose them!). Just because you have a full donor does not mean you don't need to fork out on replacing parts (in my case, driveshafts and calipers).

I should also point out I don't understand the fascination with needing to have age related plates (unless it's something like a Cobra rep). I know it does to some people, but I'm not one of them!

If you've never broken a car, take it from my experience that it takes up a LOT of space (I thought I'd made enough space, then quickly realised I hadn't). It actually stopped me from actually building the car on much more than one occasion because I had absolutely no room to move.

In short, I think people might just be getting a little too hung up on not being able to get a donor. So why should that stop you from building?