Chris's new build of an MX5 based car

[HandyAndy]

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" 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" , i,d "give" her the reign & she,d jump it perfectly , 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 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]

Originally Posted by HandyAndy

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" 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" , i,d "give" her the reign & she,d jump it perfectly , 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.


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]

Originally Posted by CTWV50

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.


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]

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
It'll save you countless hours starting with a pre-cut kit - well worth the small premium!

[CTWV50]

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!

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]

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]

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]

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. 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! Oooops!