building an Exocet kit car - lockdown 1 project creeps into lockdown 2

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myself and Paulplom took our mx5s to Teeside Autodrome to do a couple of trackdays - excellent fun

during the first one we swapped cars and i managed to break his car after 2 laps

you can just see me pulling into the pits to his left, bonnet steaming - a coolant hose at the back of the engine had split



we got it fixed and did plenty more speedy laps

on the second day, it was my car that had coolant troubles - after about 10 laps, I caught a feint whiff of coolant and pulled into the pits, just in time for this to happen

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it went with one hell of a bang !

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anyone got a bottle of K-seal handy ?

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a mad dash to see "mazdadudes" and a new radiator was obtained, an hour later we were back on track, taking things easy* for the first few laps



tough little cars, these Mazdas

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Love it!
Keep us up to date.
I took the easy route and bought one of these with the engine in the back.
I think yours will be better driving as the back end on mine can get a bit tasty (snaps out on the limit).

a Rocket ? or an Atom ? both interesting prospects - have you posted a thread on it ? I can't wait to get this finished and out on track

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with radiators being a 'hot' topic, lets see about getting one fitted onto the kit

first off, to save my back, I got it up at a decent height to work on

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original mx5 fuel tank cleaned and painted, just bolts in place to the rear

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I'm temporarily fitting the donor cars radiator, it's not in bad condition but will be replaced with a fancy dan aluminium one when funds allow

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twin fans for extra cooling goodness

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mmm, suction

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progress is good

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so, we have fuel, we have cooling, we have steering, we have suspension, we have gearbox, what do we not have ?

oh bugger - must mean it's time for electrics

here is the original mx5 loom

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maybe if I stretch it out it won't look so bad ?

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ok, drape it over the car and see what goes where

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when I stripped the Donner, I labelled all of the connectors - took a while but was very worth it

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time for a vido

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time for another vido

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no exhaust was a tad extreme so I bolted up the one that came off the donor car

looks mental

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sounds pretty good too



sadly, the IVA regs will only allow 15cm of exhaust hanging out the back, I suspect this would be considered taking the piss

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noisey exhaust fun aside, let's have another look at those 'lectrics

the simplest solution is to cram everything into this handy tray and slam the lid shut

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the sticky old loom tape was a piggy to remove

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which left me with this nightmare

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there's no need for half of that lot - sections for the wipers, radio, windows, heater etc can all get chopped out

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but still I'm left with this mess

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and I want mine to look more like this

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still a bit of work needed here then

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I downloaded the wiring diagrams and quickly discovered that they made no sense to me

a different approach was needed - an old wardrobe door was clamped in place and various bits were fixed to it as I tried to track and trace what did what

the immobiliser was the first to go (I only had one fob and it was poorly fitted) but will be replaced with a new cobra one later

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using choc a blocs, I shortened what I needed to keep and removed what was not required

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much less scary already

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making notes on the board helped enormously

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once I'm happy with this, I'll solder and wrap it all away neatly

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[brandersnatch]

This is brilliant stuff. Please carry on.