mx5cartalk.com

Hi all, well i joined up after having a look around and sold a few parts, so a big thank you to the website to be able to do this with as little hassle as possible. So my handle here is mx5towreck, and it's served the purpose, but i thought i would stick around as i'm sure to have a bucket load of technical quaestions in the coming months and years.

A bit of background as to what i am actually doing.

I'm building a Lotus Super 7 Clubman, based on the design from Haynes, which incorperates the front chassis from Saturn Sportscars http://www.saturnsportscars.co.uk/ and the rear diff cradle from Voudou AutoKits http://vodouautokits.co.uk/. And all powered by the running gear out of a NA 1.6.

It all started years ago, and the bug bit, but the build started for earnest in August. So being away with work always makes things go slow, but i've just about completed the chassis, along with the mock up of the engine, gearbox and diff. As with all posts, it's pretty boring without pictures so here goes (i made em small so i could fit a few more without overloading the post):


Starting construction




My First "test drive"


Rear diff cradle













So a few pictures for something to look at. Hopefully people won't rip me for destroying a perfectly good MX5 It's taken a long time and a bucket load of work to get it up to this stage, so if any of you would like a bit of a read, i started a blog on the research of ADR's and the building of it up until now. Catch it here http://locostclubmaninnsw.blogspot.com/.

Hope to meet a few people around as well as the guys i met today, and i apologise if i get you names wrong, but cheers to Dave from Melbourne, and Dann and (bugger it i can't remeber your name) but its a heck of a stripped out daily driver you've got.

Ben.

Nice to meet you, and make sure you update this when you get back into it. I got back at 8:00pm. Total trip was 29 hours including going to my brothers place to have a sleep 50km's south of your place.

I also was at this gentlemans place today.

The chassis looks great.

Amazing what you can do with a small Amount of money and plenty of ingenuity.

Dann

Good to hear you are back mate, good luck with fixing it. Also, send me a PM with your address details and i'll send the side indicator lights to you. We forgot them after strapping down the car.

Huh you destroyed a perfectly good MX-5? Least it's not a 10 hour project ala Scrapheap Challenge

Thats an 88-91 Mazda 121 steering wheel isn't it?

hope it all goes well

Id rather see an MX5 get destroyed for good reason than for stupidity. I look forward to reading as you go.

Blog bookmarked

God i love the shape of caterhams... good luck with the build

Ben here is a website that you should have a look at http://www.ozclubbies.com.au/.
You will need to register to view the fourms.
Lots of information especially on registration issues plus a very helpful group of people to answer any questions.

Great looking project so far...... they are a wicked style of car & they handle unreal if done right.

good blog ,i will be watching your progress

Haha! Love it! I toyed with the idea of building a Birkin or PRB for some father/son bonding but my son was still a bit too young and hadn't quite developed a depth of interest in cars, so I bought the MX5.

My logic was that IF something did happen on track, I'd hopefully still have the engine and some other parts for the clubbie! Not sure I could go to the extent of what you're doing - I can't weld, so will need a "bolt-together" kit.

Apu wrote:Haha! Love it! I toyed with the idea of building a Birkin or PRB for some father/son bonding but my son was still a bit too young and hadn't quite developed a depth of interest in cars, so I bought the MX5.

My logic was that IF something did happen on track, I'd hopefully still have the engine and some other parts for the clubbie! Not sure I could go to the extent of what you're doing - I can't weld, so will need a "bolt-together" kit.

For a project like this you can pick up welding quite easily really. You dont need to know all the funky techniques for welding uphill or anything like that. A few night classes and some scrap to practise on at home is enough to get good MIG welds going.

Have a look at NitroDanns thread about welding and see what he has taught himself.

Yes, but one of the reasons for doing this was to have my son involved. He's only turning 10 so all he can do is turn a spanner.

I'd probably learn to weld when I'm in semi-retirement, but trying to do that, build a car (and the likelihood of re-work) would probably drive an impatient 10 year old insane and I'd lose his interest before the project ends!

Wow! This looks like an excellent project. Have you joined up with CDCofA yet? They have quite a few Locost owners/builders in the club, and we regularly see a few of them at the NSW Supersprints. If you come along to a Supersprint next year, you would be able to meet the guys and get some experienced tips and tricks on your build process and ADR issues.

+1 for OzClubbies, particularly for dealing with the old RTA (now renamed). Look fwd to your progress. Caffeine was looking at building an NC based clubbie a little while back & Juffa now has a non-MX5 'project'.