Cool....I will stop eating so much [:I]

It's nearly a month since the last update and unfortunately I don't have much to report. To keep things kicking along, I did paint strip the remainder of the heater plenum area up to the windscreen aperture, then hit the entire engine bay with phosphoric acid. Now it looks rustier then ever as it turns everything yellow!

I also managed to weld up the heater fan opening in the plenum which just needs to be ground back and tidied up.



And last weekend I took the front of the shell of the rotisserie and peeled the Mk1's face off.



I've also trimmed the radiator support some more, so my next task is to make templates for the vertical strengtheners that will be welded in on either side of the radiator - which means those flared holes in the lower panel will also need to be welded up.

Hmm, O.K. so it's been a while since this was updated. Not a whole lot has happened as a few projects around the house have been a priority since selling my X Pack Mk2, but the sale did provide me with a bit of a cash injection and has allowed me to keep collecting bits and pieces for the car.

This was the last lot of work I did before the Mk1 was put on hold again. Radiator support panel trimmed some more and the holes in lower panel have been welded up.







Oil cooler and filter relocation kit. Yes, it's an eBay jobbie but I took the approach of, "how bad can it be?!" For the price, I was happy to just buy it for the cooler core (19 row) and relocation blocks, but the fittings and hoses don't look too bad. So we'll see.



I decided that I wanted to fit steel rear forest arches to the shell intstead of the fibreglass verisons I have. It wasn't going to be cost effective ordering a rear pair on their own from the U.K., so I took the option of buying a complete set locally.



The front pair are now for sale if anyone is interested, as my fibreglass front guards from Smith & Deakin turned up today...



At this point I must send out a big thank you to Paul Mk1. When I spotted in his thread that he had ordered a set recently, I immediately bombarded him with a whole host of questions which he has been kind enough to answer. It made ordering a set for myself very easy and I am really happy with them. So thank you Paul!

A couple of other things purchased this week. Since nigel mk1 put his Mk1 Cossie project up for sale, I have been acting like a bit of a seagull waiting for left overs! So I bought his 12V mini heater unit and fibreglass six dial dash top, which I will eventually have flocked. Thanks Nigel!

Grrrrr... I wasn'ted that heater...[}:)]

I better get onto Nigel before he sells of any other bits that I want.....

Shaun

Sorry Shaun (well, not really - just trying to be nice! [:x)]) I don't think he's got much left. I think he is holding onto some of the 'generic' gear for future project(s). I was interested in a few other things too!

It’s been a while, but finally another update.

Some time ago I dressed back the welds on the heater plenum panel, but as I’d butt welded the infill panel and there was a fair amount of heat distortion after welding, the panel became quite thin in places resulting in a few hairline cracks. Oh well, live and learn! [:I]

Given that I had some “reshaping” planned for the heater plenum area anyway, I decided to cut the whole lot out and re-weld it on the bench, this time overlapping the panels and welding on both sides.





Once I was happy with it I tacked it back in place, but because I’d also shortened it up and altered the mounting angle to suit my slimline heater bubble (see page 3 in this thread), the surrounding panels in the engine bay also needed to be altered and more infill panels welded in place. It’s looking like the changes will provide another two to three inches of space over standard.





Once I’ve finished the plenum area, the gearbox tunnel will need to be moved back and then I can weld in a new recessed panel under the plenum. It’s probably a lot of work for not a huge gain, but it’s all part of the challenge and maintaining the heater bubble to keep it looking “right” has been the number one priority.

So that’s about it for the moment, however last night I couldn’t help myself and trial fitted the front panel, front guards and steel rear bubbles...

Some more progress from the last couple of weeks...

Transmission tunnel unpicked and removed. I was worried that the seat mount boxes (which I am reluctant to remove) were going to cause problems getting the tunnel out without hacking into them, but they weren't really an issue.



I've also given the welds on the heater plenum panel a quick going over. They still need a fair amount of finishing, but it should look O.K. once it's done.





I also thought I'd slot the engine and gearbox in (Ford/Mazda BP and MX5 5 speed). They're sitting high as I just wanted to get an idea as to where everything will sit, the shifter in particular.









As you can see the shifter is a long way back, so the plan is to remove the shifter turret, cut the two forward-most mounting points off, shorten the shifter rod, move the whole lot forward so the rear mounts now bolt up to the front, then weld a new mount to the back of the turret. This should bring the shifter forward 90mm and have it come up in a similar location as a Type 9 shifter.



And here's the tunnel cut for the shifter. The reinforcing panel on the under side of the tunnel also needed to be cut (as it would for a Type 9 conversion), but I'll box it up once I know the final shifter location.

No wonder you dont have any spare time!

To give you an idea on weight, referring back to an earlier post, my MK1 with full steel cage and double intrusion bars, no heater box and all steel panels weighs 900kg with a pinto. Your BP combo and glass panels should save 50kg easy.

Keep it coming, we need another track buddy!

G

Thanks for that G, good to know. The target has always been 800-850kg, and while I knew I'd struggle to get down to 800kg, at least 850kg should be achievable.

And don't worry, now that this is the only "automotive" project I have on the go, I'm doing everything I can to try and get back on the track asap!