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

[loserone]

Fookin A!

[loserone]

So.. what's left to do before you come for a cup of tea here?

[big_al_granvia]

thats canny man, whey aye man, as they say in newcastle.... or fucking splendid, the beast is alive, great morale boost too

[Tickman]

Excellent work.

 

[gm]

to say I'm impressed is the understatement of the year - I'm absolutely thrilled to have got it running, without much in the way of faffing about.  It sounds angry as fuck with no exhaust but in the interests of neighbourhood harmony, I fitted* a "silencer"

and it still sounds good and angry  

can't wait to get it out on the road and kick it's arse round the twisties, there's still a fair bit of work to go before the man from the ministry casts his beadies over it. I should probably fit some brakes too !

[big_al_granvia]

brakes, bodywork well wheel arches, lights, seats, harness... all bolt on and plug in.... thats the theory

[LightBulbFun]

Yay happy to see the engine and electrical stuff all still works in its new home  

im very impressed to see how quickly this has progressed! and its been quite interesting, as I have never followed someones journey on building a kit car before  

keep up the good work, hopefully wont be too long at this rate!  

[gm]

Cheers, have a noisey exhaust video for your kind words  

 

 

[gm]

I ran it up to temperature to bleed the coolant, the fans kicked in at the right time and needles pointed in the right directions  

a quick look underneath shows nothing leaking (yet) which is even better good news 

[Noel Tidybeard]

On 8/24/2020 at 5:24 PM, gm said:

oh bollocks !

 

[dome]

Too work! Bet that feels amazing 😁

Go and have a beer now, you've earned it!

[Floatylight]

2 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

Yay happy to see the engine and electrical stuff all still works in its new home  

im very impressed to see how quicly this has progressed! and its been quite interesting, as I have never followed someones journey on building a kit car before  

keep up the good work, hopefully wont be too long at this rate!  

Yeah, I'm impressed too, I built a Robin Hood and it took bloody years!

[gm]

 

been working on this for 19 weeks so far !

[spartacus]

That's a great result. I chat to a supplier of mine who's been building a car similar to yours for 5 years, so your 19 weeks seems mega quick! 

Nice work.

[gm]

I'm really enjoying the experience and have learned a huge amount.

 a couple of weeks back, I read this thread back from the start and could barely believe how much progress I'd made. Still a way to go but it's edging ever closer  

that wiring harness is thinning down nicely (and it does still run)

 

[bunglebus]

Feel free to tell me I don't know what I'm on about but earlier you mentioned fitting a fuel filter under the glovebox (i.e. above the passenger's feet)? Can't help but think a potential failure point in the fuel line might be better elsewhere like near the fuel tank.

[gm]

2 hours ago, bunglebus said:

Feel free to tell me I don't know what I'm on about but earlier you mentioned fitting a fuel filter under the glovebox (i.e. above the passenger's feet)? Can't help but think a potential failure point in the fuel line might be better elsewhere like near the fuel tank.

You’ve got the wrong end of the stick - I’ve used the bracket that came off the glove box when I stripped the car and modified it to hold the fuel filter in place by the tank. The only thing I might put in the passenger side is a footrest and a sick bag  

[bunglebus]

Fair enough, did think the concept of having a glovebox was a bit odd!

[cort1977]

This thread is dangerous - you're making it look possible to mere mortals and some people (me) might get the idea that they could do it too.

Worrying times...

[gm]

c u l8r mr immobiliser (was quite a messy install and only had one fob, I'll probably replace later on)

The pile of scrap wires has grown

and the pile of manky old black tape is sizeable too

but there's still a way to go with this lot - I should probably get a wiring diagram before going much further

Remarkably, it does still run  

[gm]

I'll bung this in the dash at night thread too - looks less pink in real life 

 

[The Moog]

This thread is dangerous - you're making it look possible to mere mortals and some people (me) might get the idea that they could do it too.
Worrying times...

I know... I am getting saucy thoughts

[Jim Bell]

I stared at this for ages wondering what you had circled in red on the right there.......

[gm]

I've got a week off work coming up, my mission is to make this

look a bit more like this

I thought I'd buggered it up this morning, there was no sign of life when I turned the key  I did a bit of poking around and discovered the ground connection to the starter had come off - big sigh of relief when it fired up first time.

 

[gm]

I want to be on that photo this time next year

[paulplom]

Have they not got another meet this year?

[gm]

Today's mission was to get that wiring sorted out. Still lacking a wiring diagram, I very carefully chopped away more redundant sections and got fairly close to the bare minimum needed.

I bought the wiring tray with the kit but it needed a fair bit of fettling to make fit, I'll need to take it out to cut holes for the loom but for now, it's looking pretty good.

but what about all that shit hanging down next to it ?

job's a good 'un ! 

just don't look under that handy piece of Perspex I had lying around

oh my, that still needs work 

but still, it's coming together nicely

but does it still run ?

yes, it flipping well does  

like a bag of shite  

the idle was all over the place and look at the nick of that oil pressure 

 

bearing in mind this engine barely been run in the best part of a year (previous owner had it sorn for six months before I got my hands on it), it might respond to a bit of a service 

I whipped the plugs out to find they were all sooted up, a tickle with a wire brush and they looked much better, fired up again and normal service has been resumed  nice steady idle, oil pressure about right for a cold engine and revving smoothly. I'll get it up to temp tomorrow and set the cam timing properly, it's currently a guesstimate which won't be helping.

One more thing to check, are the lights working ?

great, super, smashing. 

i bunged the battery on charged and tucked it away for the night

in theory, all I need is brakes and this could be driven (illegally) up and down the street.

might not be the best idea as I have a serving and a retired traffic cop as neighbours ! 

 

[bunglebus]

On 9/28/2020 at 10:04 PM, gm said:

One more thing to check, are the lights working ?

 

Might need to adjust the headlight aim

[gm]

not much been happening, exo-wise, this week (it was my birthday and the lure of cake and beer proved too strong  )

but I got back in the garage today and had a go at this horror show

i'd been mulling over how best to approach this whole wiring thing, various build threads talk about having a good wiring diagram - the ones I managed to download made no sense whatsoever so an alternative approach was needed

i started off labelling the wires I did 'know'

then the postie dropped off a tiny air filter so I enjoyed a nice easy job instead  

back to that wiring - I dug out an old wardrobe door which fitted over the wiring tray, this proved an ideal base to fix the various components to while I figured out what goes where

as the wires gave away their secrets, I wrote it down on the base

I'd picked up some earth blocks from screwfix which came in very handy

slowly I unpicked that mess of wires and got them into some semblance of order

the dashboard binnacle was particularly satisfying

so tomorrow, I'll be doing a whole load of soldering, testing and (hopefully) wrapping it all up in tape

observed from above, there's not really much left

so now I know what all some a small number of those wires do

does it still work ? 

fuktifino ! i guess we'll find out tomorrow  

[Floatylight]

Are you using  fabric tape  for maximum points, or insulating tape for max stickiness?