The NorthernMonkey EXO build thread, soon to be with added blower action!!

[NorthernMonkey]

4 hours ago, gm said:

is going to be a cracking project when you get stuck into it ! looking forward to regular progress reports 

 

btw did he remember to give you the keys ? 

You had me worried there for a while but it turns out they were in the ignition under several layers of hot tub cover and ratchet straps!

[vaughant]

Meant to ask a few months ago if you still had my old trailer but I think you've answered the question there. Gutted I sold it but needs must and as you said, for £65 a weekend you just can't go wrong. 

Do they have a manual winch as well? 

Thinking I may hire one to move my stranded GTi cabriolet.

I've got a towbar on the Primastar now, which was ironically really easy to fit 🤣🤣🤣. Honestly took an hour for the mechanics, not the electrics.... Which I haven't done yet but shouldn't be too hard.

[Split_Pin]

9 minutes ago, NorthernMonkey said:

That would have been @gm’s car, though this one is of a similar vintage and was bought from 10 miles up the road from his as a unfinished project!

Bet it will be amazing fun once its finished!

[NorthernMonkey]

40 minutes ago, vaughant said:

Meant to ask a few months ago if you still had my old trailer but I think you've answered the question there. Gutted I sold it but needs must and as you said, for £65 a weekend you just can't go wrong. 

Do they have a manual winch as well? 

Thinking I may hire one to move my stranded GTi cabriolet.

I've got a towbar on the Primastar now, which was ironically really easy to fit 🤣🤣🤣. Honestly took an hour for the mechanics, not the electrics.... Which I haven't done yet but shouldn't be too hard.

Yep, it could do to find a new home ideally as I replaced it with a 3.5t recovery truck!

The only reason I didn’t use the truck today was I needed van space for all the bits and your old trailer is currently buried behind two non runners with a third on the truck!!

Do you want to buy it?! 😂

[yes oui si]

9 hours ago, R Lutz said:

England's shittest services. 

 

8 hours ago, R Lutz said:

I've lost hours and hours of my life in there. They've only just reopened the bridge after many years of closure.

It's been donkeys years since I've stopped there for anything more than a 30 second phonecall - do you still have to to cross the bridge to the southbound side if you need a piss whilst northbound?

[NorthernMonkey]

17 minutes ago, yes oui si said:

 

It's been donkeys years since I've stopped there for anything more than a 30 second phonecall - do you still have to to cross the bridge to the southbound side if you need a piss whilst northbound?

Nope, I can confirm there are fully functional toilet facilities in a broom cupboard on the NB side.

[yes oui si]

These modern marvels shall never cease 😮

[NorthernMonkey]

So what happened in the week that began with me travelling 275 miles each way to purchase a Westfield and finished with travelling 120 miles each way in the opposite direction to purchase a pile of car parts?

To sum up, despite having shed 5 stone in the last 12 months thanks to regular gym visits (and possibly a weekly injection…ahem…), it was still not enough to let me fit into one of my bucket list cars 🤨

On the way home, I messaged someone who had posted a rather innocuous ad on a Facebook group advertising their unfinished project, namely a MEV Exocet. Now as luck would have it, I know I can get into one of those with a remarkable degree of comfort so messages were exchanged whilst I was travelling at 125 mph through Peterborough (apparently the optimum speed to enjoy the areas delights) courtesy of LNER.

It transpired that to all intents and purposes, the project in question was practically brand new with most of the bits still in the original packaging as well as the donor MX5 included in the deal.

The most interesting bit however was yet to come…the MX5 in question was by no means standard but actually came with a dyno readout showing it producing 220 bhp thanks to its upgraded injectors, custom Megasquirt ECU and a full Rotrex supercharger kit!

On top of this was a set of MeisterR ZetaCRD coilovers, custom alloy rad and intercooler, fully refurbished calipers, powder coated and polybushed suspension arms all round and much much more besides!

He’d advertised it last year for £9k but had no takers, mainly due to not really disclosing everything included. It had then dropped in price a couple of times and now, desperate to clear his garage out so house refurbishments could get underway, he put another post up with similarly little detail for little more than a third of his original price.

Needless to say, it would be rude not to and so, after running around all week getting the van MOTd, fitting a tow bar and clearing some space out in the workshop, it was brought home yesterday and tucked up in the unit. The van is still full of boxes of tuning bits and lumps of MX5 as well as all the body panels, seats and trim etc from the original supplier.

[wesacosa]

glad you got sorted in the end @NorthernMonkey

hope it makes up for the disappointment on the Westfield. Looks great and I'm sure it will be just as much fun to drive 

[yes oui si]

Absolute bargain you've snaffled there. Congratulations on dropping the timber as well.

[gm]

On 26/04/2026 at 13:50, Split_Pin said:

Is that the Mx5 engined one that I drove? That was an absolute hoot, very sweet handling car indeed!

aye, that's the one !

 

 

[gm]

2 hours ago, NorthernMonkey said:

Now as luck would have it, I know I can get into one of those with a remarkable degree of comfort

comfort ? 

 

[yes oui si]

Compared to a Westfield? Certainly!

[NorthernMonkey]

Been rather busy this week trying to clear a bit of space to unpack the Exo bits from the van…admitted defeat in the end and taken one of the storage units next door from my landlord on a short term let so I’ve got somewhere to keep the fragile bits and stash some clutter that’s taking up valuable building space in my workshop!

 

That’s the stuff that’s going to be further down the build out of the way now… need to continue with the shite relocating over the weekend with a view to starting the build properly in the next week or so.

Found a full harness set in bright yellow and a few other interesting bits too whilst exploring the pile of bits that came with it too so that’s a few more bits knocked off the shopping list!

[Brigsy]

Looks mega. Ive always fancied owning/building one.

[Matty]

5 minutes ago, Brigsy said:

Looks mega. Ive always fancied owning/building one.

Youve enough on 🤣

[NorthernMonkey]

8 hours ago, Matty said:

Youve enough on 🤣

And I haven’t? You only live once! 😂