GRIZZ’s ‘79 - 2WD BLAZER Challenge over in London, England. “~It’s not a Project~”

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by LT7A

Is there not a market for parting out that mx5? Looks like a lot of stuff on that was still in good shape.

I'm sorry to hear about Sally's uncle. It sounds like it was something that was very sudden.

Nice work on that heater box. I like the three-dimensional fold up planning.

Evening mate,

Yes, Sally’s uncle was the fittest of the three.

So unexpected, but thats life.

His one daughter will take on the dog, not sure about the two cats he seems to have had as well.


The MX5 was truly dead, nothing left to remove from the carcass.

I have everything off it that could be used and removed..

It is not possibly a new refrigerator. Scrapped last week.

Heater box needs more work, but I welded it up this morning.



More later.

[Grizz1963]

Pretty pleased with the first job I did this morning.

Shaped and clamped the folded box, took a bit of time to make it all square up.

But it worked out in the end.




More work done through the rest of the day.

Back in a bit for those who are interested.

[Grizz1963]

I felt like a kid, caught out being naughty yesterday.

Had @pauly over by 09.00 to collect the cab lifter for Woody his C10 bought in 2015 https://forum.retro-rides.org/thread...0-eagle-landed

As well as his blasting pot, and a quick bacon sandwich with a mug of tea.

After he left I had gone and carried on down at the garage, followed by a visit from Stuart my one neighbour to collect his large die that I had used to clean up the track rod ends when I reset the front wheel tracking last week.

When he left it was time for a coffee, which I had just finished when @nickwhheler arrived, me sitting indoors reading the internet.

More coffee, note comparing, planning and then off to the garage.

Nick brought gifts………

He can explain them.





First job was to remove the front grille, make space and do one more trial fit, then tack weld it all in place the steering rod.


Not as tight as it looks, and later I would remove what was left of the original Ford engine mount.





Then final weld up.

More about this later.



In the mean time it had become time to address the relocated position of the MX5 gear lever vs original Ford position.

The MX5 gearbox is small, and lower than the original Ford part.



Marked, cut, and then fine tuned the piece of MX5 tunnel I had removed. This will allow a Mazda part to be bolted in place once I have a gear lever extender screwed in place.



5th gear position was what mainly drove the relocation, as the original box would have been a 4 speed I suspect.

Happy with this position too.

Loads of small fabrication jobs done.

Nick also carried on with modifications to the battery bridge and its mounts.

Coffee was consumed constantly, the machine needs fueling.

[Grizz1963]

The afternoon flew by with Nick and I continuing with a load of small jobs that are all part of the bigger job at hand.

At one point John, my current short term lodger came home, he needed a place to store his Yamaha V-Max powered trike, so I said to just bring it here.

Sounds magnificent.



In the mean time it was once again time for the body to come off.

Allowing me to cut out the remaining Ford engine mount and for Nick to drill some holes in the chassis, followed by welding in captive threaded nuts he had made to act as a foundation for the battery bridge and as foolproof earth points for the power and loom.



Body up again.



Resulting in…….



With the body on the trolley I carried on with another fiddly, time consuming job.

Removing and refitting the steering column repeatedly till all the grinding resulted in a free spinning knuckle.

John the lodger was adding a hand and camera skills.



6mm aluminium plate plus a few layers of firewall……

Eventually slick, clearance created, time not wasted but consumed.



More cleaning up, grinding back, tidying.

Through the day things like the steering shaft, gearbox mount, fender brackets, radiator brackets etc all got painted and cleaned up, in preparation for final (We hope) mounting when the body goes back one more time.

It is amazing the amount of work that goes into this build that is not recorded or reported.

I liked this posting on a South African Adventure Biking Forum by a member “EssBee”

True for both Nick and I, but more so for me, learning so much as the build progresses.


[quote author=EssBee link=topic=127490.msg4790247#msg4790247 date=1645884322]
Nice work, Grizz, and a LOT of it at that....one doesn't realise how much there is to do in a project like that. Also...it's not stuff you've done before, every step of the way is new to you and requires a brand new line of thought figuring how you're going to go about it. Lot's of kopkrap/head scratching for you guys.
[/quote]








Nick continued to remove excess materials, parts and obstructions all the time.

By 18.30 we put down the power tools as I needed to spend a bit of time with Sally and make dinner.


Nick and I usually have a post mortem after the day ends for 30-60 minutes to discuss next jobs, plans, materials needed.


One of the jobs that ended up happening while discussing was to remove the complex, space wasting clutch pipe assembly……. More about that later.

He also managed to bleed over the wiring loom up front while removing excess cabling.

As the battery bridge was completed the next trick was to simplify and reroute some power cables to and from the starter. More about that later too.

Suffice it to say that it was a great day again, and huge thanks to Nick for coming to play.

We closed shop just after 19.00 in the end, two more ad-hoc jobs done.


Final pic, tidy wiring and bridge in place.





Sunday will be a new firewall plate, many holes, brake and fuel lines…….


And a multitude of other things to do.


Progress is happening.

[Grizz1963]

Short night.

Woke knackered.

Bloody war in Ukraine has people behaving like idiots.

Sally could not get fuel on the way to work at 05.00 so texted me to go get her some petrol in case things turned silly again.

So I took the diesel company car, with less than 100 miles range left. And my days are a minimum of 65 miles.and a couple of Jerry cns.

Got to the gas station…… No Diesel.

So I went home, got the S10 and the Jerry cans and headed back, £108 later I had 25 litres for Sally, and the truck filled as it was also on empty.

Got back home around 09.30 and had breakfast and read a bit, before going to the garage, before I stepped out the house Nick arrived.

So another coffee, checking manuals and creating a shopping list of bits to purchase.

While indoors I ordered a set of 7 inch LED headlights. For the car too.

Looking forward to seeing them.



Then down to the garage.

First job was to drill the chassis and lay the two nylon fuel lines, and the rear brake line that @nickwheeler had made up and laid.

Chassis clips ordered last week, to be collected.





Drilling with 5mm and then an 8mm drill meant I could get the fuel lines sorted pretty quickly.



Fuel lines laid, bit invisible against the black chassis.

Nick also connected them to the front end at the engine.



Another of many small jobs was to drill through to the rear for the rear wiring looms, they will be fed through on ground level, Nick sorted that while I was drilling the chassis.

And then of course the transmission tunnel needed to be cut to allow the blower unit to fit.



Resulting in a huge hole.



So the next job on this will be making it fit, then closing the transmission tunnel again when I do the fiberglass work on the floor, tunnel and a few other spots.



.

[Grizz1963]

Lunch was a couple of Ginsters chicken and Bacon meat pasties.

First time I had them, and enjoyed them.

One of todays jobs with the body coming of again as well, was getting the battery bridge finished……….

Followed by a support for the airbox.

And most importantly for @Nickwheeler and I would be getting the steering sorted.



Lifting the body again meant a few Riv-Nuts could be fitted and one knocked out and replaced.

This was to ensure the body mounting points to the chassis were all secure and present.

So the Riv-Nut tool.









PITA body of and on.



Next up was to refit the breathing system.

First job was to cut off the resonator, prepare for more noise.



Also refitted the second time was the steering rod.






So the steering is back, for the first time in months.

VIDEO:

https://youtu.be/29bKFUqFDok


Nick left at 4.30 sharp for a5.00pm meeting.

And I cleaned up down at the garage.

Progress again today.




So the weekend is pretty much over again.

But very satisfied as we managed to get a few jobs progressed andmactually the steering is ticked off the list.

Thanks for checking in.

[Grizz1963]

Despite having bought a pair of LED headlights thesecame on my radar today.

May be 6” and I need 7” but I like them.


Now could one find them in the UK or a UK source?





Saw these too, love them.





Anyone know?

[Grizz1963]

Bought some bits to go with getting the Flux Capacitor going.

One if the things I remember from all the years friends had beach buggies, kit cars etc, was that earthing could be an issue.

So hopefully these will sort that out.

Also supersized jubilee clips for the MAF connecting hose.





Need to get some fuel line clips and a bunch of other bits.

I was shocked at the price of brake line chassis clips, or P-Clips as they are known, and actually declined them at £45.00 a pack, so need some of them too when @nickwheeler and I go to Car Builder Solutions to pick up a few specialist bits that are still needed.


Have a good day.

[Grizz1963]

After the shock of the price quoted for brake lune clips, I called my local motor spares shop.

10 P-clips with self tapping screws was only £2.00

So to celebrate, I bought a portion of chips with extra salt and vinegar to eat on the way home.



Treasure



Also delivered, side lights and indicators.



And certainly one of my favourite items so far….



Looking forward to getting these fitted.

Also spent two hours in the garage doing some small, time consuming jobs that need doing.


More about that later.

[Grizz1963]

I had “promised” Sally pan fried pork chops for dinner, but she had a problem with her heating and water system.

So passed on that.

Perfect opportunity to go into the garage for a couple of hours and knock together a couple of odd shaped brackets, or legs if you want, to support and anchor the airbox.

@nickwheeler and I had been discussing these for a while but other jobs kept displacing the job on the priority list.

So first thing was to scavenge some steel.



But only after another small job.

Remember we cut off the resonator on the air feed?



So it left a hole to fix.

Perfect donor, the windscreen washer bottle cap.

Shaped, glued in place with Soudal crystal glue. And some masking tape to secure while curing.



New Jubilee clamps over the MAF and screwed to the engine.

Now I could get on with the job.




Got a 6mm steel offcut, cut to shape, test drilled with 7.5mm bit to allow for M8 tapping.



Turned out it was too loose with a wobbly thread resulting.

So remade, using a 7mm bit.

Perfect, nice fitting thread.

Then made up leg no 1 to bolt into the chassis on the battery bridge footing.

Happy with that.



Followed by welding the threaded plate to the other end.

Looks like it fits too.

After this, leg no 3 was created.



May need a bit of cross bracing, but need to see it all bolted down first.

It may be stable enough.



So two weird brackets and a hole closed, plus a chat with Mickey took up two hours.

Giving me these.



That now look like this.



Very pleased with that.

Another job ticked off the list.


As soon as I drill a hole in the gutter pipe and move the airbox sensor closer to the wiring loom.


Maybe.



Back indoors by 20.00 and warmed up the left over curry from lMonday night at which time John the one lodger got in

So we sat chatting and had a JD Tennessee Honey.

Perfect end to a busy day.

[Grizz1963]

Post Man Pat delivered today……..


And it is already on my toolbox.


Thank you @mr2fc






And from Siberia, Stas suggested `I build my Rezin Rockit over one of these.







Maybe not.



Friday tomorrow.


Can’t wait.

[LT7A]

Happy Friday. You guys are really getting all the systems handled, great progress. Who wouldn't like to have that tractor that your Siberian buddy sent you a picture of - that thing is cool. But not as the chassis for the RR. BTW, what I was wondering about the MX5 was that much of the body seemed in good shape. Fenders, doors, headlights, etc. You certainly picked the bones clean mechanically, but I was wondering why you, or the guy who received the carcass, couldn't glean a few quid from selling those. Maybe they were in worse shape than they appeared... from here... haha.

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by LT7A

Happy Friday. You guys are really getting all the systems handled, great progress. Who wouldn't like to have that tractor that your Siberian buddy sent you a picture of - that thing is cool. But not as the chassis for the RR. BTW, what I was wondering about the MX5 was that much of the body seemed in good shape. Fenders, doors, headlights, etc. You certainly picked the bones clean mechanically, but I was wondering why you, or the guy who received the carcass, couldn't glean a few quid from selling those. Maybe they were in worse shape than they appeared... from here... haha.

Thank you.

I think we both want to to get on with it…..

And progress is rewarding after all.

The MX5 was way too dead.

Loads of damage etc.

I am happy for the £400.00 it cost me.

I think you are right, it was a bit rubbish.

[Grizz1963]

Well,

Speaking of madness.

Another week done, and it was tough, but I delivered in excess of my expectations, so a reward was in order.

Extended lunch break….?

Popped the garage open.

Then opened the air box and removed the air filter.

DIRTY……..



This was the problem to be addressed.



With moving the air-box about 600mm or 24” back in the engine bay the sensor wire ended up too short.

Easy to extend the wires.

Easier to remove the sensor……..



Block to hole with a bit of colourful plastic from a laundry detergent bottle cap.



Then set the step drill to the right size to replicate the hole for the grommet…….

Drill the hole.



Grommet in.

Sensor in.

Refit pipe.



Easy fix then.

Little wins that steal time.

One less job for tomorrow or Sunday.

Friday night.

Drinks?

[Grizz1963]

Right…..

Next job to get done.

One that @nickwheeler was hoping I would get on with. Maybe.

So I removed the battery bridge, which also incorporated part of the air-box support.

Then measured and marked out the holes for the M8 bolts to screw into that would hold the battery strap down, drilled the holes, tapped them.

Perfect.

Than made up the strap and burned the holes and added the eyelets.



Also made a pair of “large” plates to replace washers and also grip the strap on the bridge.



Few more little fine tuning actions, then some paint and final,fitting.

Ohh…. And terminals to be made up of course.

Another little job done.

[Grizz1963]

Bonus Ball for Saturday.





Not what I want, but guess it shows what a big check book and a lot of work can deliver.


Back to reality………

[Grizz1963]

Yesterday afternoon @nickwheeler and I went to Car Builder Solutions to pick up a few parts that were needed for some of the progress.

When I got to his place 10 miles from here, to pick him up, he was “not ready” yet.

Well, all it would take was a pair of shoes tbh. The benefit of having your machine shop under your home.

But, he was busy……..

Fine tuning some bits on the lathe.



Leaving this.



Resulting in this.



To be added to these throttle and clutch parts he had already made up.




This build certainly is becoming more and more “Hotrod” as it goes along with all the custom bits made for it so far. .

Liking it.


Once Nick had his shoes on, we headed over to Staplehurst to get the parts list filled out.

This included a massive box of waterproof electrical fittings, wiring loom tape, battery terminal protectors, cabling,sheaths, stainless braided hose, clips, bulkhead fittings and a 90’ connector for the new clutch line that needs to be made up to clean up part of the engine bay.




I had a 4.00pm day job Teams meeting to attend, so dropped Nick off at 3.55 sharply and headed home with the meeting strapped safely into the passenger seat next to me, and me on mute, camera off.

Traffic meant it took me exactly an hour to ger the 10 miles or 16km trip done.

I do dislike traffic.


Today I was awake by 03.20 and that was my night over.

A very wet George the cat came in by 04.45 for some ham and is now tucked up somewhere as I have not heard the catflap again.

It is raining outside, but hopefully once daylight comes etc, I will be able to to get down to the garage and get some stuff done.

Time marches on regardless of the weather.

Onwards in the words of @pauly




.

[Grizz1963]

Day started with me waking at 03.18

No sleep after that, not ideal.

But once I got started, some housekeeping, and in the 5’C temperature outside, I decided to use my paint stripping heat gun to warm the battery bridge before giving it some satin black



Once that was done I started on some CAD to create the insert for the transmission tunnel to make space for the heater/blower unit.



Once transferred and cut out of a sheet of Dexian cabinet backing I folded it ……….



More to be done, grinding back the hole in the transmission tunnel to almost perfectly square and also a couple of flanges needed cutting to weld onto the sides that can be bolted down.

@nickwheeler came around later as well, and with a coffee kickstart he was off……..

Loads of little jobs, including removing the wiring harness that had been attached to the chassis and then winding up a pair of wires we still have no idea of what they do……

Could be a reverse light.

Any ideas?





Another job Nick had been wanting to do for a few weeks was to relay the loom into the rear of the car, a few more holes are needed to get the fuel system wiring in under rhe rear bed.



Also prepared was the earth cable and live wires to get them connected to the battery.

Nick soldered the lugs together as well, kinda impatient jobs.



The day turned out to be one of those that showed little, but a ton of stuff got done.

Progressing the build quite a lot more.

Stand by for more updates.


.

[Grizz1963]

So actually a really busy day yesterday.

Many time thieves……

We were busy all day till I had to tell Nick to get out and leave at 5.15 as he had a family event.

Sure he would not mind me mentioning, his mum was having her 1 in 4 birthday dinners……

Yup, 29 February is a bit of a rare one.


I welded up the under dash extender tray adding a pair of side flanges for mounting and weather or waterproofing.



And once tidied up it looked pretty decent for the job it needs to be doing.



Heater matrix box and blower unit tidied up and cut back earlier looks tidy now.

Placed in position.

Happy with that.



Once bolted down with some sealant under it, this should be a decent dry space too.

Air blower holes still need to be created and ducted once this unit and all the wiring has been laid and secured.

ECU, Fuse box, controllers still need locating and fixung inder the scuttle once the screen frame is welded and located.




One of @nickwheelers jobs on the master list was to create new earth and power leads, relocate some and also create more decent earthing points on the chassis.

A fair chunk of time that you cannot see has been allocated to these jobs.

Resulting in this sort of tidy improvement and install.

Massive thanks again.




More invisible jobs include removing chunks of the loom, rerouted cables etc in order to gain an inch or two of movement.

On the drivers side it is now possible to mount some modules upright and in an aesthetic and safe way.

The washer bottle will probably get a hole or two in the bulkhead today.

With power leads being rerouted inside the firewall.



Actually getting tidier every day.

Also at last the airbox relocation is complete with the supports in place.

One had to be removed, cut and rewelded by Nick because I screwed up when I got the height and angle wrong by 20mm which is a lot when you try to make stuff look great.



After Nick left I finished the blower/heater tray and packed up so Patient, saintly Sally could get a bit of my time.

Today could see a few jobs progress visibly too.

[Grizz1963]

[quote author="@nickwheeler" source="/post/2722532/thread" timestamp="1646530101"][quote source="/post/2722531/thread" author="@foxmcintyre" timestamp="1646527839"]Is your mystery wire a gearbox sensor for the MX5? They have a reverse light switch for well, the reverse lights, and a neutral position switch which works in tandem with the clutch pedal switch to allow the ecu to see if the car is in ‘drive (in gear, clutch released)’ or ‘neutral (or clutch depressed)’. [/quote]The mystery wire is for the reverse lights. But you've just cleared up why there are two other switches on the gearbox instead of just the speed sensor, and what the switch on the clutch pedal does. Which is a big help.

There are two 4-pin plugs near the passenger headlight that we still need to identify[/quote]


Anyone clever on here …..?


@rich this is the set Nick mentioned.

They are on the passenger side loom, toward the,front, but behind the headlight plugs.




And the wires feeding them.



Thank you for any help identifying them.

[Grizz1963]

Right……..

Price me this.

Bought by my lodger and some mates to use the chassis for building a ride to be used in the Red Bull Soap Box challenge.



The wheels were sold to @craigrk, and the motor which is UNTESTED and missing part of the air filter etc is available to me for a bid.

Believed to be a 160cc Chinese copy of a Honda motor.

Wht sort of money is this worth, and also what sort of offer should I make, that is, if you believe it can be gotten to start up,again.

It is planned as part of the bar stool racer I need to build.


If it can be started.

This is it.















So there you go.



Untested motor, was ridden to destruction on a kart by traveller kids, turns over freely, wheels were knackered and indicate a hard life.



I can buy it for a sensibly stupid offer.



So do I buy, try get it to run, or run away.


Thanks.

[LT7A]

I don't think I'm much help on that little engine. I did notice that the sticker on the gas tank appears to tell you to be cautious and to read the bible, so I don't know if that helps... I don't think I would want to be bumping into that thing around the place if it wasn't running. So testing it might be a good idea, but you are in the middle of a bunch of other stuff and are on a good roll. Maybe offer them 10 pounds? More if they can get it running? I was thinking you had that neat little Briggs and Stratton already, the gold one. Would much rather have that than a Chinese knockoff, but maybe this is a backup engine?

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by LT7A

I don't think I'm much help on that little engine. I did notice that the sticker on the gas tank appears to tell you to be cautious and to read the bible, so I don't know if that helps... I don't think I would want to be bumping into that thing around the place if it wasn't running. So testing it might be a good idea, but you are in the middle of a bunch of other stuff and are on a good roll. Maybe offer them 10 pounds? More if they can get it running? I was thinking you had that neat little Briggs and Stratton already, the gold one. Would much rather have that than a Chinese knockoff, but maybe this is a backup engine?

Agreed.

I think the gold engine is a bit small.

The thing is one can get a cheapish chinese copy engine and save possibly hours worth of fighting with a dead engine.

I will think about it some more.

[Grizz1963]

Sunday

I started earlier than usual with small random jobs that all needed wrapping up and doing at some point, so decided any time is a good time.

A few parts needed painting after welding, grinding, fabrication.

Including the “space maker” recessed tray on the transmission tunnel.

Keep in mind, this was made to create space for the blower unit and heater matrix and box to be fitted in a way that left space for wiring looms, switches, dash cluster, large ECU and various chunky bits of hardware, as well as the pedals and related mechanisms.



More time consumed with measure, cut, drill, fold and shaping of the side supports for the dash panel and also side panels that will see he blower exists get fitted.

Need to still get a decent piece of ply, preferably waterproof, for the dash panel and sides plus kick panels.

Job for another day.




Another job has been to make the gear stick and hole fit correctly.

Yes, it will need an extension……….

Interestingly, the thread on the stick is different to anything I have, so a quick screw on a nut and long bolt solution for mocking up, did not happen.

Still, happy so far.



With the heater box and blower fitted in place, you can see how much space it takes up.



But Nick, and others reckon I will be thankful on a chilly spring or autumn evening.




More in a bit, day job stuff to deal with.

[Grizz1963]

One more small job done.

The gear stick needed to be taller.

Outcome was buying a spare shifter for £5.00 in case it needed to be cut, extended or whatever, and no it would not get cut.

Found an engineering shop who identified/confirmed the thread and agreed to make me an 8” or 200mm threaded extension on 15.8mm rod, with a male and female end to extend the shifter.

Time frame. Less than 24 hrs.

Price. £15.00

I think that is a decent price, free is better of course, but hey, specialised engineering I cannot do.