With enough built in the car to make it run without putting the fear into me, it was time to make that happen. One key point to note on my skillset.
Engineery fabricatey mechanical stuff is my forte. Electrical guff, not so much. So to circumvent the high likelihood of a project stall or even
abandonment with the electrical part of it, I opted to rip the ENTIRE mx5 loom out with the donor, and ensure that what I had taken still made the
lump of donor parts start. See episode 1-3.
The logic there was that I could chuck all of that at the chassis, tidy as I went and thin it out as the car got built, but at a minimum be able to
start and engine once it was in a car. Obviously, this didn't happen.
What now follows is a squad of Scotsmen try to get and engine to crank, which even by my standards should be a fairly simple task.
I decided to keep this episode focused on the thinking (or lack of) that goes into solving this issue when the above function doesn't happen. In
my mind this would have been vaguely educational, but what happened instead was frankly nonsense, hilarity and general tomfoolery. Its worth a look
for the comedy alone.
quote:Originally posted by David Jenkins
What made me giggle was that the YouTube video came up with subtitles on...
(Only joking - I love to hear accents from all over the UK and if I can't understand them it's my problem, not theirs.)
I have watched my stuff with the subbies on, and its auto generated. Some of its interpretations are pretty amusing!
So onwards! If a car cranks, it should start. You just need fuel, spark and air.
Well, with the engine now cranking it would be a shrewd assumption that a start can happen. So that was the goal in this post.
You may be wondering why I am so keen to have a running engine in a car with near enough nothing else finished. Well, the loom mentioned before was
really bothering me, specifically its volume. I was keen to strip more of it out knowing that the vast majority of fuses it contained were now
superfluous (ABS, lights, central locking, you name it) and knowing where everything now needed to live in the new body, that could happen.
Also, my total lack of confidence in this task made me keen to break the back of the mountain I had to climb. Little did I know this was quite a
mountain indeed.
Having trimmed and bodged the loom to a place where I can actually understand what's doing what, it became easier to jerry rig up a test fire.
This is a handy wee run through on how to make such a thing happen now I think about it.
Every time I manage to hit one of these milestones, such as this "first start" one, I always taint it by discovering so many things that
need done as a consequence, or rather a chance of discovery following the event. Its took me a while to get over being disheartened by that. As you
can see, even here I have a whole host of reasons why the engine wont run right. I remember not long after filming it I was ready to buy another
project car (this is my go to solution to any problem... buy a different one) but the handy thing about doing the YouTube stuff is the accountability
it provides. I cant just walk away because then its just another failed build very publicly displayed to the world. Well, I think even today this vid
has had 3 to 4k views so whilst 4000 people would seem a lot, its barely a drop in the YT oven so "public" is a stretch, but still...
The key to finishing a car is a damn good list. Conscious that the obvious stuff was ... obvious, I decided to focus on the unknown unknowns and
started to delve into the annoying issues that "off book" 7 building presented. The clutch was a belter, as the MX5 slave cylinder design
has not really been accounted for in any kit adaptation, as the throw puts it right into a chassis member. The long and short of this is substantial
mods will follow.
Side note, around halfway through this video my facial hair changes. That was not a fashion choice. I messed up trimming my beard and basically
"balded" one cheek. Around 5 years from now that look will be the in thing. You heard it here first.
So with an engine check fit out the way, the big elephant of multiple occupancy was the clutch. I'm sure going inboard slave or some other high
cost solution would have resolved this issue with ease, but I have an ace up my sleeve.. the fact the car is half built.
The solution with the least wallet impact was to simply notch a space in the chassis to allow the slave to throw with no obstruction. Simple in
principle, but the removal area would be a huge structural member so that strength would need to be re-added, and in my "clydebuilt" over
engineer-y head, that meant adding with twice the strength to be very sure it wouldn't cause an issue.
So onto the floors. As the flooring and general "unseen" panelling of the car was fairly basic in its flat nature, I took the opportunity to
go a bit off piste.
Normally a thick grade of steel or thicker aluminium is favoured by fellow 7 builders, with basic riveting to complete. I opted for something a bit
spicier, and went with 6082 aluminium. Now, I call this "aircraft grade" a lot in the video and didn't really want to bog down in the
technicality of it too much lest the vast majority of viewers got bored and fell asleep, but the principle was this...
6061 is the common grade used in automotive applications, (Audi use it for the A8 and such) and its good. 6082 has a higher tensile strength at the
compromise of formability. 4mm thick flooring in the above, properly riveted and bonded would be as light as 1.6mm steel sheeting, but actually going
beyond the usual steel levels in improving rigidity, whilst also resisting corrosion. The only downside to 6082 was the lack of bend, but as the panel
sections were all flat this was of little concern.
I actually found myself looking forward to the simplicity of flooring and panelling the chassis, as it was all flat sections and would be simple to
do.... right?
Wrong.
So first up, overlaps. I was quite impressed I considered this well before making the mistake (not like me to manage that!). The potential for
riveting (AND bonding) one panel in and that closing a route to access another panel for the same treatment was high in a number of cases, so a
considered approach was needed.
Second, have you ever riveted more than 10 rivets on the go? By hand? With the CHEAP rivet tools? Take my sage advice, at least get the scissor action
one, or do as so many comments on the video suggest: Get an air powered one.
So with the lions share of the aloominum panelling sorted, it was time to revisit the contentious "other bodywork", namely that damned
Westfield body set. Remember that from the previous page? Lets get into why this was a mistake...
Having had a stab at the relatively simple task of widening the scuttle, it was time to stretch the bonnet (hood, for the yanks) to meet it. To this
day, I have my doubts over that bonnet....
Behind the scenes insight: I really reeeeeally struggled to believe that the bodywork stuff would be interesting. I don't find it interesting,
plus I do NOT really know what I am doing with glass fibre. Therefor, it stands to reason that filming it for presentation to the masses would be a
risky process. As a result, I often drop in segments of smaller jobs to break that up, such as in this episode sorting the handbrake cable mounts.
I have, however, learned a lot from this fibreglass crash course. And by learn a lot, I know a bit more than the inevitable "don't work with
fibreglass" you'd expect me to say. Whether that means we try a round 2 on the body remains to be seen.
Continuing on the body fun, and with the biggest headscratcher (the rear clamshell) still to be butchered, the chopping devices come out.
A big slice down the middle was my hope to resolve. HOWEVER, obviously not. The differences between Westy and Locost is massive. Sides, width, you
name it. This quickly becomes a plan for major surgery.
Has this really been a simpler plan over just scratch building the rear panelling? Still undecided, but its a close one. I guess I was lucky that the
last of the chassis metalwork could be fabricated to match the clamshell rather than the other way around, as this would have surely scrapped its use.
