A Westie Is Born

The Build Continues

Welcome To The Build Continues

Hello and welcome to the build continues first of all happy 2010! this year i am going to have the car finished hopefully for the summer and update this site every time i work on the car with more pictures and more info for you, The car so far is on the rear to wheels and the engine and transmission is installed, The electrics are half way there and we still have alot to do, So lets get started.

Finishing Off The Front Loom

First job is to finish off the front loom and plug up the engine, This was very simple not much to do really as the loom had already been installed in 2009, I routed all the loom in the right places and then had to decide on where to mount the fuse box and where i was going to mount all the earths, I had my dad make a bracket which i rivited onto the chassis and then bolted the fuse box onto the bracket which you can see in the pictures on the Picture Gallery page, You can mount this where ever you like but for me this was a good place, Next i modified the head light wires and made sure they were the right length and also did all the other mods for example extend the air mass sensor wires, After this i had my dad make up some new earth cables and made some changes there as you can also see in the pictures, Next job will be to test fit all the body pannels including the Nose, Main body, And bonnet.

14/01/2010

Fitting All Body Pannels

First things First, The main body went on first this you will need 2 people for as its so flexible and could brake so take great care with this part, Next i fitted the front nose cone this uses 2 rivnuts which were already placed in the chassis very simple, Next i fitted in the boot box then moved onto the bonnet lid, Went on a treat and make sure that you have an even gap all the way around between the nose cone and the bonnet, Now in the manual it says to rivet the body down to the chassis at this point in the build as i may need to take some pannels back off again im just putting some self tapping screws in just to hold it down for a test drive, This also could be the way i do fix it down becuase if ever you have an accident and you need to change the body pannel you will have to drill out a hell of a lot of rivets and they will fall into the chassis bars which may cause rattles ect so i will have to have a think about this at a later stage in the build.

26/01/2010

Tidying Up Centre Loom

This part of the build will always be a little on the boring side as there is just so many wires and it all looks a mess and confusing but once you start to tape it back together again it starts to look a little more simple, I first tie wrapped up the loom to the chassis hoop, Next i started to work out where all the plugs were for the ignition, Indicators ect no problems there, Next i worked out where the amobiliser parts were as im keeping this in the vehicle which makes it more safe and secure in open areas, Next i worked out where all the fuses and relays were going to mount, I may make a bracket for all of this to make it easier to mount i will have to see at a later stage when i get the dash for the kit but for now it will do so i attatched up the small loom for the instrument cluster and the switches and yes its very close now to see wether or not the engine will spark into life!

28/01/2010

Ordering New Mazda Parts

Ok im a little stuck at the moment as far as the wheels go, If you are keeping all the old bottom ball joints, Discs pads ect then make sure these are in good enough condition to pas SVA, for me i am replacing everything as far as brakes and ball joints go, Also i needed a couple more gaskets for the engine to finish off the rebuild, So i went on to mx5 parts (link is listed in Links Page) I orderd front discs and pads, Rear discs and pads, 2 front bottom ball joints, Nuts for ball joints, Water pump gasket, Thermostat gasket and seal, Bolts for bottom ball joints and pad fitting kitts for every calliper this all came to around £250 i also orderd a torque wrench from there which went down to 10nm as the camshaft carrier bolts need to be torqued down to 13nm and my other torque wrench didnt go down to the figure so that cost me £25 it only took a few days for these parts to come so next job will be to fit them all.

11/02/2010

Fitting All New Mazda Parts

Right i have the mazda parts now and first things first i want to put on the front lower ball joints so i can get this kit on the floor, Simple job just the new bolts supplied by westifled and the new bolts from mazda parts and the nuts also after all this both front hubs were now finished, Next i fitted the front brakes and while i was doing this like i said before the callipers were going orange and they do look amazing with the car, After this the front wheels went onto the car and so did the front wheel arches, After this the rear brakes were fitted which was no trouble at all, Then came a problem which i did not expect but this is a real tip for you before you get to this stage i wanted to bleed the brakes to make sure the braking system was working ok, But we had a little problem as 2 of the bleed nipples were seized in the callipers one of them snapped off which i did manage to get out with a little time and also one just required a smaller socket hitting onto it as it rounded off so make sure these do come out beofre you do anything with the callipers as it will help you in the future, So i cant bleed the brakes yet as now i need some new bleed nipples which i will have to wait for so i went on to fitting the gaskets i got for the engine which is no big job if you have stripped and re builts your engine, For all the gaskets and seals it was a job of removing the cams and just replacing a few gaskets, I have re built this engine a couple of times now doing  few mods here and there so i did this in half an hour with no problems, i torqued down the camshaft housing caps to 13nm and the cam cover went back on all sorted.

15/02/2010

Engine Test Day

Right this is the scary part the car is on all its wheels and has been pushed outside, I have turned the engine over by hand to make sure its timmed up ok, So far so good the electrics have all been tested and checked time for a crank NOTE: before you attempt anything like this if you have done a full engine re build make sure you go over everything and assure when building back up the engine you pre oil everything as this is where alot of people suffer from early engine failure and also make sure there is no dirt in any bearing caps, Make sure you have the engine filled back up with new oil with a new oil filter, Also for a first few cranks its a good idea to put a little oil into each cylinders to make sure the cylinders are not dry and leave the spark plugs out so where is no compression in any of the cylinders this will help crack the engine over for its first time and also let oil build up and lubricate all the components inside of the engine, I turned on the ignition and went for it..................... IT LIVES!! im a very happy man the engine turns over beautifuly so now we have done this a few times we can now check for things like spark and compression issues, We have spark so i put the plugs back in and left the leads off so there is no spark in the engine at all this is advisery as there is no need for a spark until you have a fuel supply to the engine, We cranked over the engine again and we have oil pressure on the instrument cluster and also we have oil vapour commng out of the exhaust manifold so we have compression very very good stuff this engine should start with no problems at all once we have a fuel supply to it!.

16/02/2010