Graham's Westfield Build (MX-5 Single Donor Vehicle)

Indicator Replacement

2011-12-20T13:07:00.003Z

The n/s indicator repeater on the cycle wing was only half working. One of the LEDs had gone so I have to replace the unit. The shame was I had fibreglassed the wires in place.

I soldered the wires of the new unit to the old wiring, covered with heat shrink then re-covered with fibregalss:

All working now:

Trim behind seats

2011-12-20T12:58:00.006Z

There is a piece of trim that goes behind the seats at the top to cover the edge at front of the boot box (this was one of the items I had to re-stick the vinyl).

I contemplated a couple of options on how to fix it in place but in the end decided to rivet in place with the rivets under where the harness mounting go so they would be hidden.

I first taped it in place:

Then put 4 split rivets under the harness mountings:

Re-sticking covering

2011-12-20T12:55:00.003Z

With the small panels that go at the sides of the dash and the piece that goes behind the seats stored in a warm room for a long time, the vinyl covering had come away. I stuck them down again using impact adhesive.

What it looks like now

2011-12-05T21:07:00.000Z

Sealing windscreen

2011-12-05T21:05:00.000Z

Carpet fitting

2011-12-05T21:03:00.000Z

Carpet cutting

2011-12-05T21:02:00.000Z

ECU plate adjustment

2011-12-05T21:01:00.000Z

Dashboard end adjustment

2011-12-05T20:58:00.000Z

Adjusting roll bar holes

2011-12-05T20:57:00.000Z

Fuel pump sender callibration

2011-12-05T20:52:00.001Z

Dashboard lower mounting

2011-12-05T20:49:00.000Z

Electrics under scuttle

2011-12-05T20:47:00.000Z

Slight adjustment

2011-12-05T20:46:00.000Z

Windscreen & pillars

2011-12-05T20:40:00.002Z

Side screen fixings

2011-12-05T20:36:00.001Z

Mastic scuttle to body

2011-12-05T20:33:00.002Z

Speedo cable

2011-12-05T20:31:00.002Z

Covering holes

2011-12-05T20:19:00.000Z

Electrics - front all done

2011-07-07T09:05:00.004+01:00

Nearside:

Offside:

Front:

Dashboard fitting

2011-03-14T08:49:00.010Z

The first building session of the year. I know it's March but here are my excuses...
- January was too cold to work in the garage
- two weeks in Asia on business
- a weeks skiing

Anyway, I finished off the tabs on the dash:

And finally the dashboard is fitting okay:

I need a slight bit of packing under the tabs. I might put a couple of layers of fibreglass or use self tapping screws. Not sure which:

Next job was to fit the dials. I'd made sure when fitting the tabs to avoid the places where the electrical connectors go. It was a bit of a wriggle getting the unit in place:

But here is the dash with the dials on the car:

There's not a lot of space under there:

Now I had to re-fit the steering column. What I found was I needed 3 thick washers at the mounting point to lower the steering column slightly as the dials prevented it from going completely up:

The next problem I found was the indicator stalk rubbed slightly against the dash. I will have to bend it forward slightly.

And the final challenge was when I connected the electrical connectors to the dials, the connector fouled the dash. I had to trim the dash a tiny amount and cut the end of the connector.

Rear lights - all finished

2010-11-28T14:40:00.003Z

I finished connecting all the rear lights. I'd covered all the wires with self amalgamating tape but I decided it would be better to cover with plastic split tubing. Even with the plastic covering I was concerned about it going past the edge where the rear arches join the main tub. The solution was to use large P clips. The wire can then be tie wrapped to the P clip:

Tested all the lights: sidelight, indicators, brake (I had to do this by shorting out as I've not connected the brake connector at the front), fog and reversing all working. Here they are with the hazards and sidelights on (only took 3 attempts before I got the picture with the hazards illuminated):

More dashboard

2010-11-26T11:14:00.005Z

More work fitting the dashboard. It's now starting to get close. I was able to put the dials in and get it all to roughly fit in place:

There's very little room between the indicator and the dash though so I might need to bend it forward:

This is the view I should get from driving. Good visibility of the dials with the bus driver's steering wheel that comes with the MX-5. Wonder how it will be if I put a smaller steering wheel on.

It isn't always the easiest to get a look under the dash:

Very elegant:

I still had the problem of holding the front edge down so I decided the fibreglass in tabs. 1st stage was to remove the steering column for access and use a bracket/string to hold in place:

Next stage was to fibreglass a tab in place. Here is my 1st attempt before I'd trimmed it:

With the 2nd one I was getting the hang of it. I stuck some plastic on the underside of the body. That way I could form the tab without it sticking to the body. Here it is with just the 1st layer:

Dashboard

2010-11-02T08:54:00.009Z

Getting a good fit for the dashboard proved (and continues to be) a challenge. The lower part of the dials area hits the steering column:

which meant it wouldn't go down:

After quite a lot of trimming and slightly lowering the steering column I was able to get it to fit around the majority of the scuttle:

Although I might have to put a couple of spacers on the steering column mounting as with it in the original location there isn't enough space for the dials to fit:

I still have a problem that there is a gap at the front where it's not sitting flush to the scuttle:

The "dome" where the dials go needs to be held down. By pressing it I can get a good flush fit:

So I'm considering fibre glassing some sort of catch or hook on the underside to hold it in place:

How it looks now

2010-11-01T15:38:00.001Z

Front wheel arches are just placed on the brackets as they will need to come off to fit new IVA compliant side indicators.

Front wheel arches

2010-11-01T13:42:00.006Z

Rather than drilling through the wheel arches I decided to the "bigheads". These are bolts with large flat heads that you can fibre glass in place. By doing this you have hidden mounting, no future problems with cracking around the holes and a very firm mounting.

The first step is to drill/file slots in the mounting brackets. The reason for slots was so that it would be possible to fit the arches without having to bend the brackets out. The bolts would be at almost 90 degrees apart.

And there are the big heads in place:

Next step was to remove the black coating from the underside of the arches. To do this I used a wire brush attachment on the drill:

Still needs a bit more to make completely clean:

I offered up the arches on the brackets to make sure I was cleaning off in the right place:

and finally I used the dremel to make sure the bigheads lay flat:

I put a layer of fiber glass down first then placed the bracket with the bigheads in place and held until the fibre glass was firm:

After the fibre glass was firm I could remove the bracket leaving the bigheads in place and apply a couple of layers of fibre glass over the top.
By applying a layer of cling film and washers I could ensure the fibre glass was held firm against the bigheads.

Exhaust - final fitting

2010-11-01T10:52:00.004Z

Originally when I tried to fit the exhaust it didn't quite line up correctly at the rear mounting. As I put in the post last November, when I was at Westfield collecting the bodywork I got them to bend the exhaust connection pipe and it seems to be okay. Now with all the bodywork on it was time to put it on for the final (did I really say that!) time.

It all fitted fine:

No sideways pressure at the rear mounting:

And the front hole is still perfect:

Rear light connectors

2010-11-01T10:51:00.002Z

Started to connect up the rear light clusters:

Rear fog light - working

2010-11-01T10:49:00.000Z

Connected up the rear fog light:

Stone guard - RHS

2010-11-01T10:47:00.003Z

I'd fitted the one on the LHS side earlier but hadn't done the RHS as it was against the garage wall. So this weekend I finally fitted the guard on the rear RHS. It should stops some stones and general road stuff from being kicked up between the body:

Clutch problems

2010-09-30T14:31:00.002+01:00

I had a big problem with the clutch. With the engine running and the clutch pedal fully pressed it wouldn't go into gear. The engine revs would drop slightly which indicated the clutch was not fully dis-engaged.

Initially I thought there might not be enough travel so checked the clearance. There was plenty of clearance.

Next tried re-bleeding the clutch. Got a tiny (and I mean a tiny) amount of air out but didn't help.

I jacked the rear of the car up and started the engine with it in gear. With the clutch pedal pressed, the wheels continued to go round. By applying the handbrake I could get them to stop and keep the engine running by applying a bit of pressure on the accelerator pedal. This meant the clutch was only slightly engaged.

I was just about to consider taking the whole engine and gearbox out to start stripping it down when we tried one more test: with it in gear I got a friend to push the car as I slowly pressed the clutch pedal. Amazingly after a small amount of travel of the pedal the car rolled easily. After about 2/3 travel the car stopped. It seems the clutch somehow re-engages it you press the pedal too far.

I'd wasted hours of time but at least I didn't have a gearbox strip down!

The next task was to work out how to stop the pedal travelling too far. In fact there is a mounting thread on the chassis (nothing in the manual of course) so you can fit a bold that will stop the pedal from travelling too far:

I put a rubber cap over the end of the bolt head and glued a piece of rubber around the pedal (the clip in the picture is holding it in place while the glue dries... must remember to take that off later!):

Grill

2010-09-30T14:25:00.004+01:00

The official way to attach the front grill is to drill holes in the nose and use cable ties. I wasn't happy with that as the cable ties wold be visible so I fibre glassed mounting plates inside the nose code and attached using self tapping screws:

I was pleased with the result as there's nothing visible from the front:

Stone guard - rear

2010-09-30T14:22:00.003+01:00

There are brackets that you fit inside the rear wheel arches that stop stones from getting in the gap between the chassis and the fibreglass body:

Fuse box mounting

2010-05-27T08:38:00.004+01:00

To mount the fuse box I re-used the bracket from the MX-5 but it needed some modification. One of the legs had to be moved round.

I then painted it black:

I then mounted it between the water expansion tank and the battery. In the manual it shows it mounted further forward but I decided it would be better on the scuttle. It would be easier to access, not get in the way of other items and be less prone to getting dirty from road spray.

Battery mounting

2010-05-27T08:33:00.005+01:00

I decided to re-use the original battery tray from the MX-5 and some of the mounting components. Firstly I had to drill 2 holes for the bottom of the plastic tray molding. I had to be very careful when measuring to make sure the holes didn't overlap with any of the chassis bars that run underneath the scuttle.

And here is the tray in position:

For the LHS I re-used the mounting bracket and upright bar. Across the top I used a new box section stainless bar:

and on the RHS I will use some M5 threaded bar with large washers at the bottom either side of where it goes through the panel to spread the load:

Washer jets

2010-05-27T08:29:00.002+01:00

The manual says there should be a "dimple" where the washer jet goes. I thought I'd found it, drilled the hole and fitted it then afterwards thought it didn't look quite central. Stupidly I didn't measure before drilling (yes I know... measure twice, cut once). It doesn't look too bad though:

One of the IVA checks is that it has to withstand a blockage for a few seconds (I assume to simulate icing up). The tip I got from other builders was to fix a cable tie underneath to make sure the connecting pipe doesn't pop off:

Number plate light & IVA mod on rear lights

2010-05-24T11:14:00.002+01:00

Fitting the number plate light was simple. I made a number plate template out of cardboard to make sure it was in the right place.

Fitting the rubber around the fog and reversing lights to keep the IVA man happy wasn't so simple. There wasn't any gap between the lens and the surround so I ended up having to file both edges and use Vaseline to get in place:

Roll bar

2010-05-24T11:10:00.002+01:00

First task was to cover the area with masking tape, offer up the roll bar and mark round the bottom. I tried to mark out the area of the bracket under neath as well as the couple of hole. This was hopefully to make sure the mounting bolts went through a solid area:

I next drilled a pilot hole all the way through, removed the boot box and cut through the fibreglass using that largest hole cutter I had. I then widened out the hole using the Dremel:

The body shell isn't quite symmetrical so the holes weren't quite in the same places on each side:

I then followed a similar process to make the holes in the boot box. I first removed the majority of the material using a hole cutter. Offered up the roll bar and slowly made the holes bigger using the Dremel. It took me ages to do as I didn't want to remove too much and leave a gap:

In the end I was really pleased with the fit:

Carpet - 1st fitting of backrest

2010-05-24T11:09:00.003+01:00

As a bit of an alternative activity to the other items on the car I decided to have a look at the carpets and see how well the backrest piece fit. In fact it was a very good fit. All I had to do was cut a few mm off the bottom and to fit around the shaped transmission tunnel. I hope you you appreciate my highly technical template:

You get velcro to fix in place but I'll put that in place until later so it doesn't get dirty. Looks okay though:

Interior Panels

2010-05-24T11:07:00.001+01:00

The manual recommends fitting the interior side panels before final fitting of the scuttle (I assume so access is easier). In fact, I fitted them whilst the scuttle was in place (although not finally fixed) without any real issues.

There is a small strip of carpet that runs across the bottom that has to be fitted first. Pictures of some older builds show ~20mm of the carpet showing. It looks like they have made the interior panels slightly larger so go almost to the floor which makes it debatable if you need the carpet at all. I put it in anyway using the Velcro strips provided. I also was worried about the position of the harness mounting bolts. There are cut out holes in the aluminum panels so all you have to do is cut through the covering. From previous experience I was concerned the holes wouldn't be central. I stuck a screw in the hole with tape so it just protruded and checked the location. It was dead central in the panel cut-out:

I tried to put rivets where they would not be seen. Down the back strip where they would be covered by the back carpet and under the top padded cover. The only one that is visible is the one half way along the diagonal. Some people have said they have black headed rivets but I didn't get any. I think I'll touch up the head with black paint at some point.

And the other side:

Front indicators

2010-05-24T11:02:00.002+01:00

Time to mount the front indicators. This involved a lot of complicated measuring. You have to measure down from the line on bodywork (the masking tape and marking on the right). Measure in from the middle of the front (the lower mark on the main bit of masking tape). Then using spirit levels find where they cross:

2 mounting hole and a larger one for the cable to go through:

One fitted indicator light:

And a second. Hopefully all in the right place to make the IVA man happy.

Relays & diagnostics box

2010-05-19T14:49:00.005+01:00

I put the wiring loom back on the car and started to fit all the various electrical bits and pieces. For the relays I re-used the original mounting bracket from the MX-5. The left hand end had to be modified to make it fit. I also took the diagnostics mounting bracket, cut down and fitted to the relay bracket. I re-used the bolt holding the windscreen wiper motor to mount the left hand end:

and from above:

with a small modification I was able to re-use the original plastic cover as well which makes it all look very neat and tidy:

Rear lights - fog & reversing

2010-05-19T14:42:00.004+01:00

I realised I'd got one of the rubber backs to the lights on the wrong way up. They have 3 small slots in them which I assume are drainage holes. So the 1st job was to turn it around:

Fitted the reversing, fog and number plate lights. For some reason I took the photo before the number plate light was fitted:

This is the rear of the reversing light. I'm using P clips attached to the bolts of the lights to hold the cable in place:

and the rear of the fog light. You can see I've finished fitting the fuel filler as well:

and the rear of the indicator/brake/side light cluster:

Bit of a clean up

2010-04-28T14:19:00.002+01:00

After all the work drilling, filling and using the Dremel on the fibreglass the whole car was covered with dust. I decided it was time to do a bit of a clean-up:

Below boot box

2010-04-28T14:15:00.001+01:00

Everything in area under the boot box has been done with the exception of final fuel filler fixing so thought it was time to take some photos before I seal it up:

and from the other side:

Mike is sorting out the plate that fixes the fuel filler after I cross threaded one of the screws so the jubilee clips haven't been done up yet:

Modifying panel to rear of handbrake

2010-04-28T14:11:00.006+01:00

When the handbrake was pulled fully up it was possible for it to just touch the edge of the panel behind.

So I decided to cut out a slot:

but in the end I cut a section off to make sure there was plenty of clearance:

Fixing tunnel top panels

2010-04-28T14:09:00.001+01:00

I decided to fit the tunnel top panels using rivnuts and countersunk M4 screws. It will make accessing the handbrake & prop shaft much easier if needed:

Rear lights (indicator/brake/side)

2010-04-28T14:02:00.005+01:00

Fitting the rear lights was very simple. They almost self locate in the space on the rear but I used a spirit level to make sure they were dead level. I had a slight panic as I couldn't remember after i take the light facing off which side was the indicator (which has to go on the outside) but luckily I'd not taken the other one apart so I could check. The green wire goes to the indicator!

and here is the light cluster fitted:

and the pair:

Harness mounting eye bolts

2010-04-26T08:38:00.005+01:00

I wasn't happy with the neatness of the holes that I'd made for the harness bolt spacers so I decided to fit rubber grommets:

The fibreglass is quite think so I had to chamfer underneath to make the grommets fit:

Once in they fit really tightly around the harness bolt spacers:

and in the end I was really pleased with the finish. It has the advantage of holding the boot box in place and should not rub or squeak (yes I know the eye bolts aren't facing the right way... I haven't tightened them up as the boot box will be coming off again):

Windscreen wiper motor & wheel boxes

2010-04-21T22:03:00.001+01:00

To fit the wiper wheel boxes you have to open up the two indented areas on the scuttle. The hole need to be quite large so I drilled a small pilot hole (as per the left on the picture below) then widened to the largest drill bit I have which is 13mm (as per the right):

Then using the Dremel I enlarged the hole to the required size:

and then the wheel boxes fit nicely through the holes:

The two wheel boxes are connected by tubes which the threaded linkage from the wiper motor runs through. The one that connects to the wiper motor has to be bent and the wiper motor bolted in place:

I first started bending the tube using the pipe bending tool I'd got for the fuel pipes but I found these tubes were so soft it was just as easy to do by hand:

And with everything bolted in place:

There is a small fillet that goes across the scuttle that makes it all nice and neat:

and here you can see the wedge shaped pieces that are used to hold the fillet at the right angle:

Dashboard fitting - part 1

2010-04-21T21:59:00.003+01:00

The dashboard had a return on it to start with. This confused me somewhat as all the pictures I'd seen of other builds showed it completely flat. After a quick call to Westfield they suggested I cut the return off so that is duly what I did. I did originally consider leaving a small return but the shape did fit the scuttle very well at all so that wasn't an option. You can see the pencil line which marks the profile of the scuttle:

After offering up the the scuttle you have to mark the area where the dial pod goes:

Then the really scary bit where you have to cut a large chunk out:

Fitting the boot box

2010-04-21T20:54:00.003+01:00

After getting the boot box in place I marked the centre points:

on both sides:

then drilled a pilot hole right through the boot box and the main body below:

The manual says to fix using rivnuts so I did. Unfortunately as the rivnut tightened it expanded and cracked the fibreglass:

on the other side I tried drilling a larger hole. This time it didn't crack in the same way but there is still a hairline crack. What I think I will do is leave it as it is and if in the future the crack gets worse I'll patch up with some fibreglass. If it gets really bad I'll replace with a piece of alu plate rivetted in place with the rivnut in the plate.

And from the outside you will never see it so it all looks very neat:

Fuel filler

2010-03-16T13:10:00.004Z

Bonnet catches

2010-03-16T13:02:00.003Z

I used a square against the top edge of the chassis to make sure the holes for the catches were in the right place and it would be vertical:

Bonnet pins

2010-03-16T12:34:00.003Z

Nose fitting

2010-03-16T10:24:00.006Z

Fitting the bodywork is definitely easier with two people (one to hold while one to mark!) so with Mike up for the weekend it was bodywork fitting time.

First with the nose and bonnet on the chassis then off we aligned the two sections and clamped together. We could then drill the holes through both for the bonnet pins and widen the hole for the grommets:

Next we made cardboard templates round the rivnuts on the chassis. Note the masking tape ready to fix to the nose:

By placing the nose onto the chassis, then taping the cardboard template to the nose we could get the exact location to drill the holes for fixing to the rivnuts:

Next was the lower bracket. It comes straight:

But has to be bent up slightly to fit nicely inside the nose. To do this I just used a couple of adjustables:

A selection of rivets

2010-03-11T08:28:00.004Z

A new selection of rivets come into play for attaching bodywork and trim. From the left:
- countersunk heads for along the top of the main tub where the bonnet goes (so the bonnet will lie flush)
- large headed for along the bottom of the main tub to spread the load
- small headed are for bits of trim like the interior panels
- small headed long body, I got 2 of these and have no idea what they are for. Maybe 2 rogue rivets in the batch

How it looks now

2010-03-09T10:43:00.003Z

None of the bodywork is fixed on yet but starting to look something like a Westfield now:

Lowering carbon canister

2010-03-09T10:42:00.002Z

The hose coming from the top of the carbon canister was touching the bonnet so I did a couple of mods.
- lowered the carbon canister slightly. The canister wasn't down as far as the tab that is meant to stop it from going any further. By filing away a bit of the plastic on the flanges I got it fully down
- after rummaging through the MX-5 bits i found the original top hose connector which had a handy couple of 90deg angles. It meant the hose didn't protrude as far up. I'll have to join it to the hose that goes to the vent on the fuel tank.

Radiator top outlet - fixed

2010-03-09T10:39:00.002Z

After rummaging through my box of MX-5 bits i found a 90deg right angle hose connector of the right size. By cutting a couple mm off the end of the connector on the radiator and cutting down the hose to the min I was able to gain enough clearance:

If at any point in the future I see it marking the inside of the nose or I get a leak, I'll probably fit a right angle connector onto the radiator like some of the other builders have done.

It's definitely worth keeping any hose bits from the donor. Still got a few bits left:

Scuttle - holes for loom

2010-03-07T10:38:00.001Z

Two large holes are required for the loom to pass through. I made a cardboard template based on the grommet (you can just see it on the right hand side of the picture). Drilled with the larges hole cutter I had then had to expand out a couple of mm with the glap wheel.

Rear wheel arch - RHS

2010-03-07T10:36:00.001Z

Followed the same process on the RHS rear wheel arch:

Rear wheel arch - LHS

2010-02-28T10:00:00.002Z

Before fitting the rear arches I had to do a lot of fine trimming around the locating blocks to make arches fit flush to the body.

Then I clamped up and drilled loads of holes using the right angle drill:

I fixed using nuts/bolts used to fix number plates. This was recommended so if anything unfortunate happends the theoory is the bolts will break before it rips chunks out of the main bodywork. I added a couple of extras on the upper rear section as there was a bit of a gap:

Very pleased with the fit now:

Front nose - fouls the radiator outlet

2010-02-12T13:47:00.004Z

Having got the nose from my fathers, I tried to see how it would fit. The main problem is the outlet to the header tank from the top side of the radiator fouls the inside of the nose. I see 3 options:
a) to pull the existing hose tight to makes a really tight bend (that will put a lot of pressure on the platic outlet which I don't think would be very good)
b) get a 90 degree connector (this would be the simplest)
c) block off the side outlet and fit a new outlet to the top where there is plenty of clearence. This approach has beeen done by the FM guys on their new build. Don't know how to securely fix it though. Will need to some investigation.

Body goes on

2010-02-04T10:17:00.004Z

We put the main body back on the car together with the scuttle and the bonnet. With a bit of adjustment it all lined up quite nicely. I had to do a bit of trimming of the underside lip of the bonnet to make it align to the scuttle and sit flay on the main body:

I'll need to collect the nose from storage at my father to check that lines up before starting to rivet the body in place.

Lots of picture before body goes on...

2010-02-04T10:05:00.008Z

Before the body went on for the last time, I though it was a good idea to take lots of photos from all round the engine. That way I might have a chance in finding/identifying things after access gets very restricted.

I also riveted lots of cable tie mounting points for the wiring and coolant.

RHS photos:

LHS photos:

Fitting scuttle - trimming

2010-02-04T09:56:00.005Z

Father Christmas was very nice this year and gave me a Dremel which definitely is the tool of the day when you are trimming the bodywork:

Like the manual says you have to cut quite a lot away to make the scuttle fit around the bottom of the dashboard hoop:

The main body hangs over the inside of the chassis. The scuttle determines the width but I tried to move the whole thing from side to side to get as central as possible:

The result was the dashboard hood at it top point was right up against the inside of the scuttle on the RHS:

and quite a bit has to be cut away for the steering column:

Main body fitting - fettling

2010-02-04T09:47:00.004Z

There wasn't much I needed to do to the main body to make it all fit. Westfield had already cut the appropriate areas to make it fit around the dashboard hoop:

A bit had to be shave off the rear of the LHS scuttle locating block as it fouled the dash hoop:

Holes had to be cut/enlarged to fit around the rivnuts where the scuttle fixes to the chassis, before:

and after:

a little had to be cut off the back of the cockpit as it fouled the seat backrest panel:

Electrics - fitting some relays & fuse box

2010-02-04T09:43:00.000Z

Some of the electrical components have to be mounted under the dash. There was a relay bracket which had 3 mounting slots but only held 2 relays. Then there was another relay on its own. So I mounted all 3 on the same bracket and bolted to the steering column mounting bracket (the relay on its own is the lower on the picture - the one with the yellow connector):

There was also a small fuse box (the main fuse box fits in the engine bay) which I fitted to the chassis just to the right of the steering column using a couple of rivnuts. I should have put the rivnuts very close to the edge of the chassis rail as it is very difficult to remove the cover.

Exhaust - hole in bodywork

2010-02-03T22:08:00.001Z

I had to cut a hole through the bodywork for the exhaust. The question was how to get it exactly in the right place. I took a hint from the FM site and made a cardboard template that fitted to the chassis:

With the bodywork back on the chassis, I marked a circle through the template, found the centre and drilled a pilot hole:

Then applied lots of masking tape to the outside to protect the surface as I drilled:

Then finally I cut the hole using a hole saw:

When the body was replaced on the chassis and the exhaust fitted it was perfectly centre in the hole:

Washer bottle

2010-02-03T21:41:00.001Z

I fitted the bottom bracket I had made for the washer bottle. In hindsight I would have riveted it rather than use bolts:

Driver's side panel riveting

2010-02-03T21:37:00.001Z

Having done all the adjustment of the pedals and just about to start working on the bodywork it was time to fit the final of the outer aluminium panels. I'd left it off to allow easy access to the driver's footwell.

Steering column - some pictures

2010-02-03T21:29:00.001Z

I didn't take any pictures of the final steering column before temporarily placing the main body shell on the car, so now having taken the shell off again I was able to take some pictures. Here is how it all looks:

New year - the build continues

2010-02-03T21:14:00.000Z

No progress over the last couple of months. Business travel, Christmas/New Year, a ski holiday and sub-zero temperatures in the garage have all meant no work.

My friend Mike came up for the weekend so with the fan heater running constantly and fully wrapped up we spent a productive couple of days while the snow fell outside.

Engine Starting - the full story

2009-11-08T20:35:00.001Z

I couldn't resist posting something last Sunday immediately after I got the engine started. Here is the full story...

With Mike up for the weekend and taking his full guidance we went through starting step by step.

First we connected up all the electrics apart from control wire to the starter motor. This included removing the aftermarket immobilizer that had been fitted to the Mazda. I didn't want starting problems caused by a faulty immobilizer!

We removed the HT leads from the plugs. Some water had got into the holes where the plugs go so we spent some time cleaning it all out with bits of rag around the end of screwdrivers. We had a problem trying to remove the spark plugs. The socket in my socket set was too large! It seems technology has moved on since I got my socket set in the late '80s; newer spark plugs have a smaller diameter. I popped round to a neighbour’s to borrow his. Mike was a bit embarrassed that he hadn’t thought to check the plugs as soon as we got the engine into the garage (i.e., about 18 months ago). Fortunately all that water hadn’t caused any corrosion, and the plugs came out easily.

With the spark plugs removed we connected the battery and turned the key to the position that turns on the ignition. The "Not Charging" light came on and we could hear the fuel pump running.

Next stage was to disconnect the rear loom connector (so the fuel pump wouldn't keep running) and connect the start motor control connection. We turned the key all the way round to the position to start the engine. This time the engine turned over. We only did this for a moment, as we realised the plug leads weren’t connected to anything, and it’s not a good idea to run the ignition system like this.

Stage 3 was to connect the spark plugs and earth them, with them lined up on the top of the engine:

We turned the engine over, and this time got a nice set of flashing lights from the spark plugs (and it's not even Christmas!).

We re-connected the rear loom and the starter motor and put a couple of litres of fuel in the fuel tank. We turned the ignition on, and this time the fuel pump ran briefly. Then we turned the engine over until the oil pressure warning light went out. We wondered if the fuel was feeding correctly, and then realised that we could smell the fuel vapour from the spark plug holes. So that was obviously working OK!

Final stage. We put new spark plugs in and re-connected the HT leads. Moment of truth, we tried the key and the engine fired 1st time. A cloud of black smoke was emitted from the exhaust, although less than I'd expected. The idle was a little low so it stalled after a few seconds. We tried again, revving a few time and ran it for a short time before turning off. It sounded really good. It was raining outside and the garage was getting full of fumes so we left it there.

I was amazed that after 18 months, a change of chassis and all my messing around with wiring it started at all, let alone at the first attempt.

Expansion tank

2009-11-08T16:47:00.004Z

The expansion tank has 2 connections on it. The main connection at the bottom and a side smaller connection on the top side:

The main connection attaches to an adaptor then to a long "L" shaped piece of pipework supplied in the completion kit. I was confused about exactly where is should route but I found these 2 pictures in the pictures from Westfield's own build:

I could see they had a slight bend on the lower section that I didn't. Initially I'd thought it had to going to the round the carbon canister bracket but after seeing these pictures I realised it didn't. After a bit of bending:

I was able to make it fit.

There was also the matter of the top small connector on the expansion tank and the top connector on the radiator. There was some debate on various forums about if they need to be connected or blanked off. The general consensus was they needed to be connected but I discussed with Simon and Mark while I was at Westfield. The result was confirmation it does need to be connected but they don't provide anything. I got a couple of meters of 8mm fuel pipe off eBay. The only problem is there isn't a lot of spare room inside the nose for clearance. There wasn't a clear picture from Westfield's own build picture but here is the closest they had.

You can just see the small 8mm pipe from the top of the radiator and it has been cable tied to the larger coolant pipe:

and on this one you can just see the pipe looping off the top of the radiator:

Mine looks a bit more messy due to all the wiring.
You can see the pipe from the top of the expansion tank and the L shaped pipe running along the edge of the aluminum panel:

here is a close up of the tank, you can see the adaptor:

and here is the connection off the top of the radiator:

Exhaust - 2nd fitting

2009-11-08T16:36:00.003Z

I had a problem with the exhaust that it was about 25mm out at the rear mounting (see post "Exhaust - trial fitting" dated 22nd September). I took the connecting section with me to Westfield when I was going for the bodywork and asked them if they could do anything with it. They bolted it to a wall, heated it up and bent it round a little.

Back on the car Mike had a go at re-fitting. At first it seemed to still be out but by wriggling it up and down he was able to get it to match up exactly. Now I'm not sure if they actually did anything at Westfield or if by rotating the various parts you can get it to line up.

The front section (you can just see the darker area where they heated it up):

the whole exhaust:

and the rear mounting, now the rubber bush isn't bent:

It had to come off again after trying the engine for the bodywork fitting.

Steering column

2009-11-06T15:54:00.003Z

I fitted the newly welded mid-section and it was perfect. I had to slightly widen the standard hole they specify in the manual. I re-used the boot that came off the Mazda steering column. Here are a couple of pictures with the hole widened and the bolt holes drilled for the boot (with masking tape):

It started - first time

2009-11-01T10:10:00.002Z

It started!

Whoopee!

Bodywork collection

2009-10-30T15:28:00.000Z

Martin picked me up at 6:30 and off we went to Westfield. We'd collected the trailer the night before so it was straight down the M6 and arrived in Kingswinsford just before 8:30.

First stop was the Beefeater just round the corner from the Westfield factory:

for the all you can eat breakfast for £7.95. (All low calorie of course.)

Arrived at the factory just after 9am. The bodywork hadn't been delivered (they make/store it at a separate factory a short drive away) so that gave me chance to drop in to see Gavin in Parts (and give him a box of biscuits - you never know when you need a friend in Parts) and spend some time with Simon & Mark in technical (another box of biscuits) to talk over a few items I wasn't sure about. I'd taken a USB stick with me so Simon copied all the pictures they took during their build as well as the latest version of the manual.

The bodywork had arrived so loaded the main tub on the trailer and all the other parts (bonnet, scuttle, fillet, nose and arches) into the back of Martin's cars (wrapped in large quantities of blankets and bubble wrap.

Off we went back home, stopping off at Congleton Propshafts on the way to collect the modified steering column mid-section.

And here are all the parts safely back home:

The 8'x 5' trailer was okay for the relatively short (~80 miles) I had to travel but I wouldn't have liked to go a long way. Even with the wooden cross struts, the tub is very flexible and I was very pleased to get home.

Steering column

2009-10-16T16:03:00.004+01:00

More steering column problems...

The upper part is taken from the Mazda. Previously I've posted some comments about the fact the mounting bracket was welded in the wrong place so Westfield had to fabricate a new bracket for me. Then neither of the U bolts they provided fitted to my satisfaction so I ended up fabricating a new U bar to hold it in place.

The lower section that connects to the steering rack is a new Westfield part. There is a bracket that holds it in place. You can just see the top of the bracket here (it's temporarily G clamped in place):

The mid section is taken from the Mazda then modified. The existing UJ is removed and a new one welded on. This was done for me by Westfield when I collected the completion kit.

It was too short by about 20mm. I wondered if the Mazda column was telescopic and could be pulled out but this was not the case. I also checked to see if the column had "collapsed". There are a couple of plastic white o[pins in the mountings that break off if in a crash to allow the column to collapse but these were still intact.

My options were to send back to Westfield for modification (which they said they would do) or get done locally. I had an extra UJ in the completion kit so after some thought I rang Westfield and asked if they could send me just the spline end section. By replacing the UJ by a spline and using the double ended UJ I could make it fit and it had the bonus that I could feed the mid-section through the hole in the panel without having to enlarge (the hole the manual tells you to cut is too small to fit the UJs through) and I could re-use the Mazda boot to cover the hole.

Here are all the parts. On the left is the lower section that connects to the rack. On the upper right is the double ended UJ and the short splined section sent to me by Westfield. Below on the right is the modified mid-section that is too short:

and a close up of the UJs:

I rang Congleton Propshafts who had shortened the propshaft the 2nd time around and they said they could do it. So off I went to Congleton.

Battery & battery tray

2009-10-16T15:58:00.004+01:00

I had to decide what battery to get and so what system to use for the battery tray. The battery that had come with the MX-5 had been commandeered by my father-in-law for his caravan motor mover (I think that was a fair price for dismantling the MX-5 on his driveway over several months!)

The kit comes with a long thin aluminium tray for the battery supplied from Westfield:

Here are all the components for the battery tray that come out of the MX-5:

and here is how they fit together (with help from my James Bond DVD collection). The far side hook clips onto a slot in the bodywork on the side of the MX-5. I used the "L" shaped bracket from the picture above to hold it in place. It's "real" use is to hold the tray in place:

I took both trays down to the local Halfords and checked out the batteries available.
The "official" replacement battery for my MX-5 NA model was a 400 Amp battery. They recommended a 360 Amp battery for the NB 1.6 models which was £10 cheaper. The only battery I could find to fit the Westfield tray was 265 Amp which I felt was too low.

So I settled for the 360 Amp battery and using the MX-5 tray.

Diff bolt tightening

2009-10-16T15:54:00.004+01:00

Getting at the diff mounting bolts was quite tricky. In most cases I couldn't get access with the torque wrench so I had to use ring/open spanners and judgement for the torque. I tested how tight they should have been on one of the other suspension bolts I'd been able to do with the torque wrench so I had a good idea how much to tighten up.

The 2 vertical bolts were east to get at with ring spanners from the tunnel side:

underneath the rear one was accessible with the socket set, the front one I use another ring spanner. You can also see the bottom horizontal bolt:

The top horizontal bolt:

Front suspension bolt tightening

2009-10-16T15:48:00.004+01:00

Tightened up all the chassis end bolts for the front suspension. Front bottom:

back top and bottom:

A collegue starts building...

2009-10-14T14:10:00.002+01:00

A colleague from work has just started his build of a Westfield. He's gone for a complete new kit:
- SEIW Sport
- 2.0 litre Zetec with Throttle body upgrade (~170bhp)
- FW Bodywork front and rear

You can see the progress here.

I sold him my chassis stands and lent him the pipe bender.

Fuel tank earth strap

2009-10-13T13:48:00.010+01:00

Part of the new IVA regulations say that you must have the fuel tank earthed. I believe the new tanks that Westfield send out have an earth connection but mine being just pre-IVA didn't. The solution I used was to attach an earthing strap to the fuel outlet. The strap is the type used to earth household water pipes and I picked mine up from the local hardware shop:

Rear suspension bolt tightening

2009-10-13T13:26:00.005+01:00

All through the build manual it says not to tighten up the bolts as these will be done during set-up stage. This makes perfeect sense as I've lost count of the number of times I've had to take something off to get at something else. Having said that with the body coming in a couple of weeks and most things on the chassis, I decided it was the time to torque up some of the bolts. I did all the ones on the chassis end of the suspension. These would be difficult (impossible in some cases) to get to after the body was on. Also, they are not involved with the set-up.

The 3 bolts that hold the upper diff bracket & upper wishbones:

The 2 bolts on the inside of the lower wishbones:

Air filter ducting

2009-10-13T13:05:00.004+01:00

Westfield don't provide anything to connect the air filter to the plenum pipe so I got some ducting from Euroaspares: https://www.europaspares.com/AIR_FILTERS_and_INTAKES/AIR_INTAKES/REVOTEC_BLACK_HIGH_TEMPERATURE_AIR_and_BRAKE_DUCTING_4602.html

I measured the diameter of the air filter outlet at 70mm so I got the 69mm dia ducting. I might have been better going for the 76mm as it went on but only after a struggle. The plenum chamber inlet is slightly smaller. I originally intended cutting off the end of the rubber connecting pipe as a spacer (although oval it's circumference looked to be the same as the air flow outlet) but with the ducting being on the small side I couldn't get it to fit.

Instead I wrapped tape to increase the diameter. I re-used the same clamps to fit it as used on the MX-5.

Here it is in place, although I might make it a bit shorter:

Engine oil

2009-10-05T14:08:00.003+01:00

Changed the oil filter:

Replaced the washer and torqued the sump plug (which is easy to get at):

Transmission oil

2009-10-05T13:54:00.004+01:00

Filling the transmission wasn't as easy as the diff. The drain plug was easy to get at (being at the bottom!). I replaced the washer and torqued up.

The fill plug is slightly difficult to get to. As the car was on the floor I tried from the front. I removed a bracket I'd meant to take off earlier (can't remember what it was for on the MX-5 but I remember at the time thinking it woudn't be needed on the Westfield):

Even without the bracket you can't really get at the plug:

So I resorted to putting the car on the axle stands and attacking from below. Even so you can't get a socket on as there's not enough gap between the transmission and the panel of the footwell.

My tip of the day is slacken off the plug while the engine is out of the car! It was really tight. I resorted to hitting the end of a spanner with a lump hammer to get off. Once off it looked like some tape or threadlock had been used to fix it in place.

Diff oil

2009-10-05T13:50:00.003+01:00

Filling the diff wasn't too difficult as there is easy access to both the drain and fill plugs. I replaced the washer on the drain plug.

The fill plug is clearly visible. The edge of the drain plug is just visible at the bottom of the diff:

Fluids

2009-10-05T13:43:00.004+01:00

Time to start filling up the car with various fluids. I got onto mx5parts.co.uk and order a job lot including the various bits need for servicing:

I also popped into my local Machine Mart and picked up an oil filling/extraction pump. The diff and transmission fill points are in difficult places to get to. I could have used a funnel with pipe but I didn't have one and I wasn't sure if I could get to the transmission from above so it might not have been possible to use a funnel.

Bodywork ordered

2009-10-05T13:36:00.003+01:00

Phoned Westfield and ordered the bodywork. For some totally known reason that is only clear to Westfield themselves, the bodywork is actually part of the starter kit but they recommend you don't collect it until you need it unless you have a good place to store it (which I don't).

A couple of days later I got the confirmation letter through saying it will be ready between the 28th and 30th Oct (about 5 weeks lead time).

I'll need to sort out a trailer so I can pick it up.

Exhaust - trial fitting

2009-09-22T16:44:00.003+01:00

Tried the exhaust. It was about 25mm off at the rear end. I was able to pull it round but there is more strain on the rubber bushing than I'd like. I'll either have to make a longer spacer bracket at the rear or try to end the joining pipe from the exhaust manifold to the stock exhaust.

Washer bottle - bracket

2009-09-21T16:50:00.004+01:00

The bottom of the washer bottle was located in a hole in the chassis of the MX-5. On the Westfield it fixes to the front passenger panel. To make it more secure I fabricated a small bracket for the bottom:

and here it is on the bottle:

Brake & Clutch fluid

2009-09-21T16:39:00.003+01:00

Bleeding the brakes is a 2 person job so as Mike was up for the day I took the opportunity.

After reading discussions on various forums I decided to use standard DOT4 brake and clutch fluid (rather than going for synthetic DOT5).

We tightened up all the brake connections and rolled the car onto a large plastic sheet to catch any drips/spills. We used an Eezibleed kit to help. Not a lot to show in pictures, if you look carefully you can see the master cylinder has fluid in it:

After making sure all the air was out we tested the brakes by rolling the car down the drive. I was really pleased with the feel of the brakes.

We also tested the clutch by putting in 5th gear, rolling with the clutch pressed then de-clutching. The engine turned over a couple of times which was nice to see.

Oxygen sensor - fitting

2009-09-21T16:31:00.003+01:00

After cleaning off some sort of resign around the plug I tried using mole grips to unscrew the plug. Surprisingly it started to come out:

and it came on coming out. It was ridiculously long:

one removed the oxygen sensor screwed in place:

How it looks now...

2009-09-14T11:20:00.002+01:00

Front Loom

2009-09-14T11:16:00.004+01:00

Ah, the joys of wiring!

Although the loom needs to be fitted in conjunction with the bodywork, I'm modifying it now and will make sure everything is working.

I removed all the tape covering the loom(s) then laid out onto the car. Then I gradually removed all the wires not required. For some areas like the dashboard this is a huge proportion: radio; speakers; heating controls (only the main power wire for the new heated windscreen is required); electric windows and mirrors (although my donor didn't have these, the wiring was still in place); interior lighting, etc. etc. all went:

There's much less to remove from the front. The main thing was the wiring to the pop-up headlight motors:

The wire to the power steering could go as well!

I still want to trace all the wires/relays and record them to help future modificatins/problem solving.

Fitting Harnesses

2009-09-14T11:03:00.003+01:00

I had a problem fitting the harnesses. The thread on one of the eye bolts provided seemed to be a bit small. When I was tightening it (not that hard!) it jumped the thread in the hole. The thread is 7/16" so I tried a spare bolt from the suspension. It seemed to be fine so I got Westfield to send me a new eye bolt (see "IVA bits from Westfield" post). That seemed to fit fine:

There are a couple of possible bolt holes at the bottom. I fitted to the rear most hole. I assume the one further forward is for some other type of belt, e.g. inersia reel: