gm's unhealthy obsession with mx5s - squeezing in a few last drives before Exo goes into hibernation

[Fabergé Greggs]

It's always good seeing this come together. There's no two ways about it man, this car is gonna be FUN

[gm]

Remember this mad looking thing ?

well, sadly not being able to use it in the Exo, it’s been hanging around in the garage gathering dust

hmm, any thoughts on what’s coming next ? 
yep, stevie wonder could have seen this coming  

the plan was to remove the bumper skin and replace it with the already cut one I saved off the donor car - what actually happened was every fastener I touched sheared or crumbled to rust so I left the original bumper in place and got busy with the hacksaw

an extra hanger was needed - this may look familiar to some 

so, how does it look ?

ridiculous ! But I think I like it  

and how does it sound ?

 

ridiculous ! But I think I like it  

not sure the neighbours agree but I’ll drive gently until I’m out of our little cul-de-sac 

[gm]

10 minutes ago, Fabergé Greggs said:

It's always good seeing this come together. There's no two ways about it man, this car is gonna be FUN

I’ve enjoyed posting my progress, now the end is approaching, I’m starting to get excited at the prospect of taking this on the open road and giving it a good hoon  

I sat and read through all 37 pages recently and it was great to read all of the encouraging comments folks have made along the way - thankyou to everyone who has joined in and kept me motivated 

 

[gm]

On 7/2/2021 at 2:17 PM, gm said:

I think we can call the instrument panel done

was that only last week ? ffs, wrong again !

this little sod arrived in the post today 

I grudge its presence for many reasons : it cost nearly £40; its bloody pointless and I'm going to have to hack into my nice neat wiring  

what it does is allows you to turn the rear fog light on but for it not to come on again next time you turn on the headlights if you forgot to switch it off manually - my dashboard has a bloody big yellow light that says the word FOG which should serve as reminder enough but mr iva wants it this way so it must be so

the dash came out again

thankfully, I'd not wrapped this section of loom (I always knew this was coming  )

a little fannying about with wires was done

might as well bung on some edge trim while I'm at it

all back together and working as it should

I'm still annoyed by the whole process - I've left it easily reversible so may remove it once the iva is done

still, another job ticked off the 'to-do' list   

 

 

 

[gm]

what else has been happening ? 

the postie dropped off what appears to be a giant cigarette end behind my wheelie bin (potato cam c/o hermes)

Investigation revealed it was my second sheet of omg£££ plastic mesh

rolled up tighter than a tight thing - needed a day in the sun to relax

I used the drivers side template then trimmed to mm perfect*

bit of tape on the edges, keep it neat

time for some red hot cable tie action

looks alright, that  

and another job ticked off the list 

[gm]

in the top left corner of the wiring tray lives the main fusebox - just next to those two white multi plugs

unfortunately, just sitting there minding it's own business will not please mr iva, he demands brackets

best get to work then

an offcut of aluminium  was obtained, chopped, bent, filed and drilled

padded with nice soft neoprene

edges taped for a professional* finish

and a wonky label applied  

 

still, the fusebox is now secure and I can relax safe in the knowledge that I have ticked off THREE jobs in one afternoon  

 

[Minimad5]

Bit shit on the FOG front, as you say a bright visual warning on the dash surely is enough ?

But well done for not giving up, lad at work has a Tiger that's nearly made him give up a few times, so I'll give the whole kit car thing a miss personally 😅

[gm]

4 minutes ago, Minimad5 said:

lad at work has a Tiger that's nearly made him give up a few times

I think there's a lot more work in one of them - is the chassis not built from scratch ? I'm really just assembling parts here (albeit quite a lot of them) 

[DVee8]

Myself and Mrs V8 went for a walk calling in on @gm on the way,  to chat shite and check the fab exo out. 

@gmasked where young master V8 was. A phone call and around 3 mins later,  Ben turned up. After a little persuading Ben slotted him self the passenger seat. Then gone 0-25ish in 1.5 -2 seconds

The grin on his face.

 

[gm]

I don’t think he was expecting me to put my foot down, it’s a nippy wee thing  

Great pics too 

[DVee8]

30 minutes ago, gm said:

I don’t think he was expecting me to put my foot down, it’s a nippy wee thing  

Great pics too 

I wanted to video it but you glf. So I had to scramble photos 

[DVee8]

Also I must stress no passenger rides were affected during this just a photo.. lol😉

[hairnet]

Hooliganz

[DVee8]

DVee8 jnr valeting services had it's second victim  client of the week today.

[DVee8]

At no point was any hooning, hooned no siree, not at all but it does GLF.....

A properly sorted MX5. @gm, class..

[hairnet]

paint the steels grey or put the wheels off the 5 on it

 

[gm]

Excellent work, chaps, many thanks. 
Glad to hear that hooning definitely didn’t occur  Now which of you is currently scouring gumtree for a mk1 mx5 ? 
 

(I hope you did let Ben have a proper go, not just on and off the drive ?  He does look quite at home in the drivers seat )

 

[gm]

just a mini update tonight

those bolts / screws / whatevers that I used to fit the side panels were a bit too sticky outy 

so got replaced

yes, much better, I’m sure mr iva will be one happy chappy when he sees those 

[gm]

The wiring tray lid needed fixing in place 

 

[gm]

then I dug out this photo taken last July 

and sort of recreated it 

Cheers ! 

[gm]

the last time the bonnet was fitted, it had a bit of an ugly gaping hole at the front

the kit includes a sheet of aluminium mesh

which I test fitted and decided it looked a bit too "kit car"  

 really, that does look shite - an alternative is required

eBay to the rescue - this is the sort of stuff that Audi owners use to upgrade* their base models

fetch the craft knife

get the bonnet safely up on the workbench

and lets have a look at that hole

hmm, needs work

rough shape marked out

turns out side cutters were a much more efficient tool for the job

Y Tho ?

 

I'll fix it properly once I've fettled the bonnet clips, for now a few cable ties will do

how's it look ?

bloody smart, that

refitting the bonnet threw up another job, the speedo cable needs a notch cut out

thinking back to the nightmare job I had drilling the harness holes in the seats, I hatched a plan

neat job but the hole is too wee

poundland hole saws are just as even more shite as they look

edge trim forgives many evils

works for me

let's have another look at that grille 

ooh yeah !

do please ignore the funky headlamp protectors  

 

 

[gm]

next - bonnet catches

more cutting of fibreglass required, I'm really not looking forward to this

which is probably why they have been gathering dust on a shelf since January !

 

 

[gm]

those bonnet catches have been giving me the fear for far too long - time to get the proverbial finger oot

the radiator brackets are reasonably* sturdy, maybe I could mount a pin here ?

and the catch close over it sideways ?

just needs to be the other side of the bodywork

a rummage in the scrap bin and a go on the grinder produced

well, it might work, bolt it on and see how solid it feels

not too bad, just needs to line up with this

measure twice etc

now, should I wait for the holesaw set I ordered off eBay last night to arrive ?  

fuck it, what's the worst that can happen ?

the poundland holesaw featured earlier did ok, now I need some sort of special tool to join the two

this worked surprisingly well

see

but does the catch fit ?

after a tweak with a file

aye, that'll do

ooh, that's tight (glad I only cable tied the fancy mesh grille on last week) I'm sure* that dent in the side of the radiator was already there

but I hear you ask, did it bloody fit ?

that is the result of much fannying about but it did eventually close

switching to selfie mode to check out the innards

surprisingly neat with the tape off, I even painted the white edge black

the bracket got a bit of a tidy up

extra nuts for stiffness ( I'll need to take it off again to fit another bolt on the side once I'm happy with the alignment)

but this looks a whole lot better than fitting them on the top of the bonnet 

pretty discreet, I like 

shame I have to do it all again tomorrow on the other side  

 

[big_al_granvia]

good work mate, those aerocatches are great looking but a pain

[Matty]

On 7/21/2021 at 6:40 PM, DVee8 said:

DVee8 jnr valeting services had it's second victim  client of the week today.

That is sweeeetttt. Lucky, lucky lad 👌

[gm]

My fancy dan eBay hole saws turned up

those two’ll do 

sorted !

I still need to make a bracket for the pin but that should be easy enough to copy from the other side

[gm]

boredom + beer + eBay = tyre pens

you need a steady hand for this job

I'm not convinced, maybe they’ll look better on the car

 

err, mebbes not  

fortunately that is an old tyre, the shiney new ones remain unmolested !

[hairnet]

not hoosier or general grabber so no

 

[gm]

it all started so well..............

the brackets I made from bits of scrap were functional but I wanted something a bit neater - with a bit of jiggery pokery, I fashioned a solution 

and onto the car, with a shortened pin and a nyloc on the bottom to keep it all nice and secure

clearly, tonight, I am the king of bonnet pins !

great, so just the other side to do

which, predictably, turned into an utter f***ing nightmare

no more pics as extreme temper loss was imminent and I had to pack up for the night

on the bright side, the bonnet is now 150% secure as the passenger side appears to be permanently locked shut - king of bonnet pins, my hairy arse !

time for beer 

[gm]

I had a day off yesterday so had another go at those bonnet catches - a bit of patience got them sorted, not quite perfect but close enough for now. no pics as I'd rather forget the experience  

So, to another of those little jobs needing sorted - my juice bottle coolant tank was rather getting in the way of the radiator fans and needed to be relocated

and could probably do with something more permanent than cable ties

so a bracket was needed

a central locking motor bracket was repurposed

taped up

and bolted into place on the firewall where there is plenty of empty space

fancy fabric covered hose to hook it up - looks pretty neat down there next to the tiny horn

it's all looking pretty tidy

I printed some labels for the fuseboxes and stuck them on the wiring tray lid (I saved them as a jpeg and used the photo printer down at tescos for a nice glossy finish)