10 July 2021 I remembered that a friend had dropped off his collection of cleco fasteners ages ago, I dug them out and used them to fasten the gear lever surround to the front gearbox cover. They made the job of aligning things so much easier. Then I started looking at the rear tunnel section but thought I should fix the lower rear panels in place first. So trimmed the 3 panels and fitted them with Cleco fasteners too. Managed to get all 3 panels in place almost ready to rivet on. I need to drill holes in the rear panels to allow the handbrake cables through and I want to have some grommets around them to seal the cabin. I also need to figure out a way to seal under the gearbox tunnel to prevent spray and dirt coming in to the cabin that way. Also need more 2-4mm drills I'm getting through a fair number drilling all these holes. 12 July 2021 Did some trial fitting of the upper bulkhead panels. They need to be trimmed/fitted after the bodyshell is in place but they overlap the lower sections so I wanted to get them in position with some locating holes drilled. Got them positioned, and secured with Cleco's, the bends needed adjusting and a bit of trimming was done at the edges so the panels were sat flat to the chassis. 14 July 2021 Made up a template for the panel that will seal between the transmission cover and the chassis. Made up a plate and then spent a lot of time trimming and bending it to fit. It will need some sort of rubber seal to fully close the gap but happy with the result. I pop riveted it in position and sealed with Tiger seal. I looked at the handbrake cables where they pass through the rear bulkhead I drilled a couple of 25mm holes in the centre panel to fit some bulkhead grommets I have and they seem to fit quite nicely. Also took the oil pressure sensor off and sealed the threads with thread-lock which should stop the leaks (hopefully). 16 July 2021 I've decided to get on with positioning the bodywork so I can start to position everything around it. I've sent the wheels I bought to be repainted in matt silver and once they are back I will get the tyres fitted. In the meantime I've ordered an electric winch that I will hang up on the joist and use to raise and lower the body as needed while I am getting everything lined up. My plan is to get some friends to help lift the body on the chassis and roughly locate it then figure out how to support the shell so I can lift it up and down with the winch. My current solution of boards through wheel arches won't work anymore. I'll probably need to build some sort of frame. It will probably be a week or 2 before the wheels are ready to fit so I will get the electrics for the engine connected again and check if I've managed to fix the oil leak, and hopefully there aren't any more. 27 July 2021 I've not been able to work on the car very much the last week or so. Despite being off work, I've been doing some part time work and DIY jobs around the garden. The winch has arrived and I've bought some wood to make a lifting frame and to help mount the winch. In the meantime I've started working on getting the seat mounts sorted so I can drive the chassis up and down the drive. The MX5 runners need modifying so they can be mounted flat which I did by carefully bending the ends in my vice. One corner couldn't be easily bent due to the way it is formed. I made a cut with my angle grinder to allow it to be bent. I also had to trim the locating dowels and the ends of one of the runners so I could get a socket on the bolt. I need to mount the seats further back so I can get a nice driving positions so the runners can't bolt directly to the lateral chassis rails. I've cut some 5mm flat bar that the runners can bolt to and then the bars will bolt to the lengthwise chassis rails, inside the runners. I also cut some 40mm sq sections of the bar and drilled an 18mm hole in them so they could sit on the raised locating holes on the runners. The holes in the runners are just over 14mm so I've ordered M14 HT bolts and nuts to attach the runners to the bars. Wheels haven't come back yet so I need to chase those up. 30 July 2021 Got into the garage and finished off the drivers seat mounting, happy how they've worked out. The mounting plates need trimming, shaping and painting to make them look tidy. I've used M10 bolts through the bars and chassis rails to secure the seats to the car. Now just need to do the same on the passenger side. Wheels are due to be picked up on Monday so need to source some tyres next week. I'm going to buy Avon ZV7 in 205/60-R15 which is about 7mm smaller in diameter than the 195/65-15 originally designed for the kit. The Avons are also relatively quiet, which I think will be important with an open top car like this. 1 August 2021 Cleaned up the edges of the bars for the drivers seat mounting and then painted them with etch primer and satin black paint. Made up the mounting pieces for the passenger side and drilled those. They are ready to paint once the drivers side ones have dried overnight. Cleaned up and polished the steering wheel so I can get that mounted properly. Need to tidy up the little covers for the spokes and refit those. The horn push supplied with the boss kit does have the same wiring connector for the wire that is in the boss. Looking online it seems they are all like that so I will need to make those fit together. I'll also need to fix up something for the slip ring on the back of the boss.
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AuthorThis is my first kit car although I've messed about with cars all my life. Archives
November 2023
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