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Post by Bilbo on Dec 25, 2022 3:23:35 GMT
Merry Christmas all, just finished wrapping presents and it's 3am, as good a time as any to update the thread I guess 😂 Got a couple of wiring bits sorted so I could have the MAF over on the driver's side. Short intake made up of a 90 degree joiner I had lying around, and a cheap cone filter my mate had sat doing nothing. The standard crossover pipe with the inbuilt Helmholtz resonator is a perfectly good intake setup, but this just clears the bay up a little and I like intake noise, so it is what it is. It's also over on the cold side which is always good to have, bit less heatsoak can't hurt.  Got some jubilees added to the coolant hoses, and filled the rad up with some coolant and water. Seems alright, bottom hose stopped leaking when I swapped the original hose clamp for a jubilee which is a good start. I've not bled it at all yet but it's ready to bleed when I return after Christmas. We'll see how well that heater box works! A mate and I also came up with a solution after I said I wanted to feed the exhaust out with an extractor of some sort so we don't die of carbon monoxide poisoning when I'm test starting and bleeding it. We love making stupid contraptions out of things we have lying around, so this was put together:  Looks absolutely ridiculous 😂 but it was very effective! All the exhaust went outside, unfortunately for the nearby welding firm their storage area is now filled with echoing exhaust noise whenever I start it, but I don't think they care at all 😂 Not back working on it until the 27th now, but not many things left now, its nearly there! |
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Post by dadbif on Dec 25, 2022 7:20:44 GMT
Used to have a similar exhaust set up, but it fed into a box housing an old extractor fan to help the fumes on their way.
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Post by howardb66 on Dec 25, 2022 17:45:05 GMT
Wow Bilbo, so close! Top work! 👍🏻
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Post by Bilbo on Dec 28, 2022 3:55:58 GMT
Used to have a similar exhaust set up, but it fed into a box housing an old extractor fan to help the fumes on their way. It's a good idea for sure, we should get something more permanent set up, as the fumes really do build up quickly, especially in winter without the big main door open. Wow Bilbo, so close! Top work! 👍🏻 Cheers mate! Won't be long now. |
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Post by Bilbo on Dec 28, 2022 3:58:17 GMT
Got back to the unit yesterday to carry on with the Cavalier. Started with the exhaust. Got the backbox propped up where I wanted it, found a hanger from another exhaust I had lying around and got it welded on.  I'll get the excess cut down off of the hanger tomorrow. It's welded onto the box on both sides and seems plenty strong enough. Sits ok I think:  I did kind of want it tucked up and to the left a little more, but the spare wheel well is pretty much preventing that, I got it as close as possible with enough room to prevent it hitting with vibration:  When this was done I got on with a job I'd been putting off. The wiper and washer wiring. Doing the wiring got a bit tedious and I wanted a break from it for a couple of weeks, but just needed to get the last few bits sorted. It was a bit of a pain, the Vauxhall wiring diagram once again proving to not be massively clear, at least to me, about which wire was which. Spent a while twisting various wires together, popped a couple of wiper fuses trying different things.  Anyway, turned out I'd overlooked the grounding of the wiper motor itself. The metal body is the ground for the circuit. As soon as I got the motor body grounded to the frame of the car progress was made. Got medium and fast settings working, just had trouble with intermittent doing nothing. As it turns out MX-5s have an intermittent relay on the stalk assembly itself. I'm obviously using the Vauxhall stalk, so this is missing. Not the end of the world, we have wipers that wipe at a decent speed, good enough for me. Wipers work:  Screen is very dry and dusty, and the blades are very old and beyond their best, so I'll get some new ones soon, and get the wiring soldered up and ready to fit. Also got the washer motor pump wired up. As I said before some of the Vauxhall switches aren't very well suited to the MX-5 loom side of things. The washer switch on the stalk is a grounding switch, the MX-5 used a power switch, so I basically just had 2 grounds going to the washer motor, which obviously did nothing. A nice thing though was that the MX-5 washer plug is a direct fit onto the Vauxhall pump, so that was easy. I ended up swapping the wires, feeding a switched 12v to 1 wire, and then running the ground wire of the plug to the wire that goes to the stalk. Now I have the grounding switch working correctly, when pressed the washer switch on the stalk now completed the circuit and the pump works. Perfect. Will get that soldered up and find a final location for it tomorrow. Also got the breather pipe for the tank attached, fuel smell is subsiding now inside the car, and the breather will help to allow the fuel to rush in without glugging as the air in the tank can be pushed out as it should be. And finally I attached some hose to the expansion tank overflow pipe on the radiator, just need to get an expansion tank fitted now and that's sorted and we can bleed the cooling system. Pretty small jobs, but all important for a road car, that's another few bits ticked off the list. |
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Post by wannabe on Dec 28, 2022 4:05:13 GMT
Congrats on sorting that mysterious (and PITA when it goes wrong) stuff called electricity!  Are you going to paint the exhaust tip and/or backbox with some black high temperature paint to make it look more OEM/rusty and not so obvious? lol |
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Post by Bilbo on Dec 30, 2022 4:05:19 GMT
Got a few bits sorted the last couple of days. Got the wipers and washer wiring finished, and tucked away. Also got the washer bottle itself fitted, placing it next to the heater box. After this I moved onto the relocated shifter. I extended it a bit, and welded an additional brace onto it to strengthen it a bit.  [ I fitted an extension onto the shifter itself, I'll see what this is like, I may just use it without, I'll see how it feels to use when I get the driver's seat fitted. I put an MX-5 gaiter over it to see how it looks. This gaiter plastic surround is alright but I may need to make something else to hide the shifter setup completely. Also got the front door cards fitted. The plastic weather sheets that go under the door cards all came with the car and are in alright condition, so I got those fitted too. I need to remove the rear door cards and add the sheets, I forgot to do that when I initially fitted them.  The interior looks much more complete with the door cards on. The cowl plastics in the photo are MX-5 ones. I have trimmed them a bit to fit them, but I need to do a bit more to get them to fit right, I'll see how it comes out. Got a few days off now so I'll keep cracking on with the remaining list, should get quite a bit done tomorrow. |
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Post by Bilbo on Dec 30, 2022 4:12:01 GMT
Congrats on sorting that mysterious (and PITA when it goes wrong) stuff called electricity! Are you going to paint the exhaust tip and/or backbox with some black high temperature paint to make it look more OEM/rusty and not so obvious? lol Yeah the wiring is not my favourite thing, but it's basically done now. I have sprayed some parts of the exhaust with high temp black spray but the backbox section will stay as shiny stainless. |
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Post by Bilbo on Dec 31, 2022 1:04:33 GMT
Got a few more bits ticked off the list today. I found the MX-5 reverse sensor and got it plugged in. The Vauxhall tunnel is a little bit narrower than a 5 tunnel, so it was a squeeze. It threads in, so when threaded in and tightened it's fine, but it was very tight and fiddly getting it to initially thread in. Once that was in I routed the wiring over the top of the box and got it plugged in. Also plugged in a couple of other plugs under there. I believe the neutral switch, and something else. Not even sure what it was, just plugged it all in haha. Anyway, voilà:  A working reverse light. Yes the other one isn't on, that is going to be my rear fog, I didn't like the janky rectangular one attached to the lower part of the rear end. Got the tubing for the washer bottle all hooked up, used some new straight connectors and a new Y piece which is always nice, they seem to just disintegrate when they get old. Had a couple of mates help hold the bonnet as I attached the fiddly bolts, and then got the jets connected to the washer supply.  I'm used to MX-5 washer jets, and these are great in comparison. Didn't even have to clear the jets out, they just work really well. I still need to get new wiper blades, but this is all done now bar that. I cut the MX-5 cowl a bit more to see if it would fit at all. It's alright now, sits in an acceptable place. Only attached with one small bolt underneath, but it seems to be ok. Hides some of the wiring:   The stalk side is very ugly as I had to cut quite a bit of it to get the stalk movement I needed. I'm thinking I might cover all around the sides with some material, maybe a piece of black suede or something. It'll hide the big holes quite well and it won't be super noticeable. Either way it's better than having wiring and the ignition barrel sticking out. One of our mates is moving out of the unit at the end of this month, and another mate is moving in. We decided to have a bit of a clear up/out, moved some cabinets around, cleared some space. During the clear up my mate found a battery tray he had lying around, I've been meaning to buy one, so he gave me it.  Ideal, this will work perfectly for me, and saved me ordering one and waiting. The list is getting shorter and shorter, and with the bonnet on and loads of stuff cleared off the scuttle area it's looking like a respectable car now. A little before and after from when I bought it to now:   Love it. |
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Post by wannabe on Dec 31, 2022 2:02:31 GMT
Love it Don't tell the world on here, obvs, but I hope you have security (to be) added - old stuff is very easy to steal, but then I guess so is new stuff if all it takes is a 20 quid scanner off eBay to get into a Rangie... lol |
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Post by Bilbo on Dec 31, 2022 11:57:51 GMT
Love it Don't tell the world on here, obvs, but I hope you have security (to be) added - old stuff is very easy to steal, but then I guess so is new stuff if all it takes is a 20 quid scanner off eBay to get into a Rangie... lol Yeah not much I can do about the door locks, but it has factory 5 immobiliser, and I'm planning some other hidden bits like a permanent horn alarm and battery cut off. I think if I add 2 or 3 annoying features it'll basically be too much effort to try and steal it. Obviously not much I can do if someone just came and dragged it onto a recovery truck, but that's what insurance is for I guess haha. |
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Post by Bilbo on Jan 2, 2023 1:24:23 GMT
Got some more bits sorted today. Grabbed the boot carpet, cut it in half widthways, and got the rear piece put down. Cut some slits in the front piece and got it in around the fuel tank posts. Looks pretty neat I think. I have the original tank cover resting on top of tank at the moment, I will make something that hides and covers it so it isn't exposed in the boot.  Got the battery tray in, drilled some holes and got it bolted in:  I've now added some threaded bar and nuts onto the top bracket, battery is perfectly secure now. May get a plastic battery cover to keep it isolated from the tank. It will be fine like this, but just for peace of mind. I also still had some fuel fume smell in the boot and main cabin, so I got the top tank breather pipe extended and routed under the car, through the bung in the spare wheel well. Smell has started to disappear now, so that's good. Located the wiring for the number plate bulb and got it extended. It's now wired into the number plate wiring on the MX-5 harness, and the original bulb is working, so that's one less bulb to buy:  I mentioned before I had a front fog bulb out. I opened the working one up to check the bulb type as I have lost the broken one. It was very difficult to remove from it's connector plug, and I ended up breaking the working bulb at it's base. Anyway it turns out it appears to be an H3 bulb. Weird ones I've not come across before, you buy them in a metal plug, and you change the bulb and plug as one thing. I guess that's why it didn't like being removed from the plug, it's not meant to be haha. Oops. Anyway Halfords sell them for like £3 odd so I'll get 2 new ones tomorrow. One of the front fogs is pretty rusty inside the housing, and the glass style isn't the same between the 2, but the glass for both and chrome outer ring is in good condition and they are decent quality Wipac fogs, so I'll just keep them for now. I rarely use front fogs anyway, so not too bothered, they will both work. Planning to get the final bits of brake line sorted in the next couple of days, I'll get the end of the rear line flared and threaded into the brake master, and get the front lines made up and get the rubber front hoses put back on. Should have all that done soon, then we can get the brakes and clutch all bled and check for any leaks in my new lines. Was sat down next to the car, and I love the side profile of it, really like these wheels, think they suit it so well, and I reckon the height is a perfect mix of looks and decent ground clearance:  |
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Post by wannabe on Jan 2, 2023 2:30:35 GMT
Love the fact the plate appears to be period-original to the car, four-digit telephone number and all  |
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Post by Bilbo on Jan 3, 2023 0:59:42 GMT
Love the fact the plate appears to be period-original to the car, four-digit telephone number and all Yeah it is cool that it still has the original plates. I will still get some pressed black plates, but I will definitely be keeping hold of those. They're a little deteriorated but have actually held up quite well tbh. |
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Post by Bilbo on Jan 3, 2023 1:00:43 GMT
Got the front fogs sorted today. Halfords had the H3 bulbs I needed so bought a couple and got them fitted. The driver's side still wasn't working, so I wiggled the wires and it came on. Looked a little closer and realised at some point someone has done some wiring on this fog, and connected the power wire up with something that looked like one of those awful scotch locks. This was the dodgy connection. It was down by the front valance area, completely exposed, and not taped up at all, so the contacts had just corroded and stopped working properly. Got that cut out and wired it up properly, and now it works perfectly.  Got a new set of Bosch wiper blades and got them fitted. Nothing fancy, but they work well. So nice having new wipers, one of the best cheap and easy upgrades to do to a car.  The screen is extremely dirty and the washer and wiper only does so much. Whole car will get a proper clean when it's driving. After this I started on the brake lines in the engine bay. Got a union on the rear line and got it flared. That's now bent roughly into shape and threaded into the brake master. Then I started on the fronts.  Made up a small line for the front that goes to a splitter and got this threaded into the master. Made up another short line that goes down to the driver's side brake hose. Then made the longer line that runs over to the passenger side brake hose.  I just want to make up a little bracket to bolt the splitter to to hold it nice and securely. Then I just need to finish off the lines that run into each arch and get the brake hoses attached to the calipers, and that's the brakes all sorted and ready to bleed. Fingers crossed my flared lines are all good and we don't have a ton of leaks haha. As this is a 2 port master cylinder, we'll give the brakes a good test on the estate before it sees the road, if the rears are braking too strongly and locking then I will put a bias valve in to reduce the rear braking force, but for now just keeping it super simple, we'll see how it goes. |
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le sigh