Chris's new build of an MX5 based car

[CTWV50]

Originally Posted by Stot

For what its worth, my reciept for the steel to make the chassis was just a printed out email.. could have been from anyone..

Cheers
Stot

Agree with this, they just see pieces of paper and tick boxes.

[SeriesLandy]

I ended up making 2 templates. The first was made of lining wall paper and was a failure. The second, I used a piece of clear polyethylene. I used the straight edge behind the seats as a starting point. Made a template for the headrests, cutout and then selotaped the sheet to the rear of the car. I pulled the sheet tight at the front and then marked with a sharpie
I got my mum to sew it up after transferring it to the fabric. She ended up using her old hand powered singer machine as her electric one wasn't stong enough.
Along with a centre zip.
Template picture

[CTWV50]

Time for a drive!

[K4KEV]

Enjoy mate you've long deserved it and you are a jammy burger ....thats a nice plate and probably worth money

[CTWV50]

Cheers Kev, don't worry there are a couple of extra numbers that I've removed but I do still like the reg. Making sure you have an invoice that says NEW chassis goes a long way to getting you an age related plate. Had a couple of blasts in it, used about a 1/4 of a tank. Scared the missus, got told off, scared my best mate who was trying to look cool in a fluffy hat and just waiting to take the kids out.

First off the speedo wasn't working and my sunnies and hat where trying to go AWOL and during the initial first 10 minutes the engine was struggling to rev past 5000rpm, then it had a bit of a episode, I just kept driving it returned home, sorted the speedo and then went back out. Stopped in a car park and rev the bollocks off of it. and then it seemed to sort itself. Might change the fuel filter just incase but it seems ok now. It's great on the twisty stuff keeping it in 2nd and 3rd above 4500rpm, runs out of puff on the straights though so I think I will fit this 1.8 engine sooner rather than later.

Since I've had nothing better to do I've spent the last 5 weeks doing this!


Will fit a lightened flywheel to it and a drilled sump (for the turbo)

So LSD and 1.8 is next on the cards, once the stripes and the wheel alignment are sorted.:

[CTWV50]

Shot when we were cruising waiting for the traffic ahead to clear the bends we were coming to.



Shift light is really good, really helps to know when to change gear, I love it!

[Ianr]

Thanks Chris and Stot for the advice - Chris - looks absolutely brilliant - I like the disguise - and the car - er and the new engine, definitely jealous

[CTWV50]

The full face mask is ace, really keeps the cold out. I'm basically wearing my winter mountain biking gear with a retro helmet and goggles. Cosy!

Well last night after I took the kids out for a blast, which they both loved, I parked the car in the garage, when I got out there was a nice trail of oil on the floor!

I don't remember hitting the sump or anything, did I not tighten the sump plug properly!

Nope the T adapter for my oil sender and oil warning light had failed! Lost about 100ml of oil, I think most of it was on the garage floor. The adapter was made of aluminium, I know I know, but it was the only one I could find at the time that was male 1/8BSPT to female 1/8NPT and 1/8BSPT female.

As a temporary fix this morning I managed to get a loctited self tapper from one of the spark plug wire brackets in there. And later on I drove over to screw fix to pickup a set of stud extractors with Gabe (8). Pretty boring drive in the school run traffic but got plenty of stares and beeps, one kid couldn't quite believe his eyes I don't think, he just stood staring at us with his mouth open at the lights. Made me laugh, maybe he thought he was looking at some undiscovered superheros!

Mate came round later and we had a quick blast, he couldn't believe the acceleration, "kicked football" I think he described it as!

And last but not least my V5 turned up "WATSON SUPER 7" it says! That did make me laugh!

So I'll be back in the garage tomorrow fixing it! Good times!

[CTWV50]

Originally Posted by SeriesLandy

I ended up making 2 templates. The first was made of lining wall paper and was a failure. The second, I used a piece of clear polyethylene. I used the straight edge behind the seats as a starting point. Made a template for the headrests, cutout and then selotaped the sheet to the rear of the car. I pulled the sheet tight at the front and then marked with a sharpie
I got my mum to sew it up after transferring it to the fabric. She ended up using her old hand powered singer machine as her electric one wasn't stong enough.
Along with a centre zip.
Template picture

Think I'll attempt this this long weekend, going to be a bit rainy so this will keep me busy. Thanks for the tips.

[CTWV50]

Went to Stoneleigh yesterday, I was only there for three hours. Spoke to an Ultima owner who was selling his car or his miss was, he didn't seem to happy, £45k. Then into hall A-E quick run round there, popped my head into the cars for sale hall, not much there.

Quick watch of the Westy's being ragged around then finally found show halls 1 and 2, spoke to a guy who built a roaster back in 2012 and had since built 3 other more expensive cars and was now doing key turn builds for MEV's Aston Martin replica which looks ace.

I was then stopped dead in my tracks by this......



After staring and drooling for 20 minutes I finally dragged myself away spoke to westfield about the s2000 car and dimensions and then had a long chat with Canems ECU's and the Road Runner Racing guys. Some clever mx5 engine tricks going on there and the SR2 chassis design is on another level better than caterham or westfield in my opinion. Bought a QR boss from rally design quick look at the show stopping Supercharged Ultima, more drooling and then I was heading back to the car.

So many 7 types it was a bit overwhelming. There are some M3 donor 7's there but with the enormous wheels, look like you could go off road with the ground clearance. A lot of haynes roadster look a like chassis there too.

Think I'm going to concentrate on more power with my car over the next year start the double garage build at the bottom of the garden and then "maybe" start thinking about creating an uprated fully triangulated round tube roadster chassis. LOL I can't believe I've just typed that.

Oh btw on the way back from screw fix the other day, about half a mile from home we heard a chirping noise, weird. When I sorted the oil sender issue I noticed I was missing something......



Couldn't get one on Saturday but should be able to pick one up today hopefully. Bought that belt 4 years ago when the original donor spat it's one off, only lasted 50 miles!