Mr Zee's Exocet Project

[lukiez]

today was sorting out the fuel filler pipes, while i made up the piping during the week i had to wait until the tank sealer paint cured before they could be assembled.

the first pipe is a sharp bend made from angled cuts weld together, the silver finish is the tank sealer used to seal any pinholes in the welds.

using the donor filler tube i retained the ball valve which is pushed into the end, its a snug fit so it'll stay there - it needed the lip carefully ground out but not so much the valve clips in the end.

next was the donor filler neck with the breather pipe cut down to size, a collar is brazed on to match the size of the hose and tank sealer painted on.

inside you can see the splash guard for the breather, all this is to hopefully prevent fuel surge when filling up - something i encountered on a previous kit car all too often.

here you can see the sharp angle helps to bring the pipe around more to clear the rear tub in the small narrow area.

this is what i'm aiming for the complete system, the filler cap from CBS will go in the top. currently the pipes are too long and will be trimmed once the tub is in place.

after a lot of measuring combined with checking with a plumb line the filler cap is marked out and drilled/filed, i applied a dab of adhesive to retain the fixing collar and screw it in.

the complete fuel filling system in place.
you may have noticed i have cut out a section of the rear tub, after checking pipe fitments i soon realised i would have trouble trying to connect up the pipes and for future maintenance or checks (E.g. at the IVA test) i decided an access panel would be the best solution, although i have already renewed the fuel filter i previously wondered if a panel would be useful. as soon as it was cut and we dropped the tub over the tank is was easy to then check and fit the pipes on and do up the clips, the pipes were then cut to length and checked for clearance against chafing.

[lukiez]

a couple of setbacks recently, the first, after spending a weekend to flushing out, checking leaks and eventually filling the engine coolant - a week goes by and a small telltale starts to appear on the floor... damn! the water pump has a leak. while i did have my suspicions (it had an intermittant grumble), thus i decided to renew all the coolant hoses at the same time as replacing the pump.
i looked through the old paperwork shows a cambelt change was done only 5,000miles ago which was good to know, sadly it looks like the then owner didn't think it worthwhile to do the water pump at the same time.

however, after whipping off the nosecone it was relatively easy to do, access is pretty good compared to modern vehicles so i took my time ensuring everything was clean before fitting it all back on. while i had marked up the belt before removing, the alignments are fairly clear to line up and makes sense - i followed the proceedure for the tensioner pulley as per the book - perfect.
new hoses were then swopped out and the heater hoses bypassed properly with one continuous flexible hose with a metal pipe formed to shape inside to prevent kinking. coolant refilled and engine ran up to temperature - with the new, soft, hoses it is now definately water tight!

[lukiez]

seeing the recent post regarding the fog light position made me realise i had overlooked my current setup where the fog was next to the stop light and needed to be at least 100mm apart - Doh! this is where careful reading of the IVA manual can still throw you out - the requirement is only mentioned once which is in the table underneath.

i'm aware of the situation with the latching relay not being required for normal operation with headlight dipped & main only - i did find it odd it refered to position lights as opposed to dip/main, plus it isn't in the required standards.

i decided to keep it simple as possible in case i wanted to revert it back after registration, so purchased a second reverse lens to go in place of the fog, while the fog light was relocated to the centre on the heat shield panel - i have to say i'm now liking the new arrangement i'll probably keep it that way. while re-routing and adding the extra wiring for the lights, we added an extra wire for a 3rd brake lamp should we decide to fit one later on.

[lukiez]

just before the winter weather took hold fully i have finished off some more jobs, as i knew i wouldn't get anything done over christmas.

i made a start by making the brackets to fix the rear tub down using aluminium angled strips, then stuck the rubber U channel on the base.

the in-fill panel bolted back in place, looks neat and sereves as a maintenance panel.

back in the warm, i cut the grill mesh to size, once i formed it over the opening i glued in place. the same was done the the bonnet bulge - i had sprayed the mesh satin black a while ago. also stuck on the rubber U channel as it finishes the GRP nicely

i was never happy with the method of fixing the nosecone as it flexes too much, so made brackets to bolt to higher up...

...as seen here, now it feels fairly rigid.

it may be overkill but i added another support for the bottom.

[lukiez]

with the worst of winter over and more daylight, i managed to do more finishing before i became incapacitated

nosecone fully fixed in place, was tricky trying to put on the headlights again but done it in the end. looking very smart now!

final fettling of the bonnet, plus the bonnet pins needed a longer rubber tubing to meet the aero catch to prevent vibration.

rubber U channel all trimmed and stuck on and rechecked for fit. feels quite close now...

thats all from me for now as i'm having to recover from a hernia operation, so no lifting or awkward/prolonged bending over cars for a while

[trident]

Like the bottom nose cone bracket. you have some really good idea's. Hope you recover well and are back out in the garage soon.

[lukiez]

Feb 24, 2015 20:12:04 GMT trident said:

Like the bottom nose cone bracket. you have some really good idea's. Hope you recover well and are back out in the garage soon.

Thanks
Yes I hope so too, what's made all the worst is the weather has been pretty nice and mild!! Feel so useless being stuck at home

[jgilbert]

Great update, lots of good progress happening. Nice looking build like the idea of using the Mazda 'non-return ball' on the fuel line. Rear access panel looks smart as well. More posts please.

[scooby1929]

Great build and some fantastic ideas

[lukiez]

well its been long overdue since my last report, my recovery from the op took some time, but i'm healed up now. it did mean i was away from the car for about a month

however strong progress has since been made, to start with a couple more ideas that can be of use...

i'd actually done this when i put the pedals in, i found there was some flex in the bracket as you press the throttle (pedal was in fact bend down). so a stud joiner was the right length to fill the gap

once i finally got round to bolting up the steering column, i noticed the ignition barrel would still move with the steering locked which could cause flex/movement in the speedo cowling. so a thick strip of aluminium did the trick, and helped eliminate any clonking.

i made up a lower cowling to tidy it up and hide some of the wiring.

next up was the speedo cowling which i've been putting off for so long... i decided to make the speedo fit to the cowling, brackets were made and bonded on

i had to srip off the rubberised coating as it had gone gooey during storage with too many scratches, this is the speedo setup to check the line of sight

next up was to drill out the large holes to accept the savage switches for the hazard & fog, knowing how brittle the cowling can be - heart was in mouth!

then came the wiring of the switches, boy that was confusing! both switches ended up with 6 wires EACH, all to allow the lights to be dimmed with side lights and full-on once pressed on. also adding in a feed from the idicators to make the hazard flash with the repeaters.

more to come!

[lukiez]

while i had made a start of the speedo cowling, it needed infill panels made to cover the sides more - due to the awkward shape and curves and the matter to fixing it on i left it to concentrate of other cosmetic jobs that need doing..

like making a heat shield for the exhaust to cover up the welded seam and improve how it looks and keep the iva man happy

made up so infill panels for the side repeaters to mount onto, they needed a spacer to fully seat the rubber grommet - the black foam board did the trick, worth hanging on to the offcuts! panels are now sprayed black.

had to make up a new vinyl gear gator as the existing new one was far too short since its based for the mx5 interior, also stuffed some soft foam inside to avoid the bolts being contactable. transmission tunnel is finally bolted down for good.

now you can see the cowling infill panels we've battled with to follow the shape of the plastic cowling, the holes are there for the glue to bond to. extra brackets to add support and further fixing points.

the cowling all built up, could i have made life easier by doing it differently? most probably just what i came up with when other ideas were chucked out

additional brackets to hold down the cowling, this also helps to eliminate some potential rattles.
once happy with its final position, at this point it was worth double checking all the wiring still works. i filled in any gaps with PU adhesive for extra bonding and gave it a good spray over with black satin.

more is coming

[lukiez]

Quick snippet

after several coats of paint, the speedo was assembled for the final time and rubber edge trim stuck on. it was then carefully shoe-horned into place, plugging in all the wiring as i went also double/triple checking no wires were being snagged as its being screwed down.

having remembered to connect up the speedo cable, we started her up to check the rev counter etc all worked. since it was such a nice clear day i took it out for a *<cough>* *<cough>* road test *<cough!>* to see if the speedometer worked oh and the brakes too for that matter!

its a quiet estate with hardly any traffic, and i only went round the block once so no worries. it did highlight a minor coolant leak from one of the pipes requiring one of the clip adjusting.

[lukiez]

finally got round to attempting the cycle wings, first i checked all stays were still tight and as well as the spacer hub nuts since the wheel is off.
Advice: if you're using brackets to mount the wings like i have for more wheel clearance. then i suggest you drill the holes and mount the wings on the stays first, then make the brackets up to fix to the wings measuring them as you go. i made the mistake of making the brackets first to a set height for the wings only to find actually the wings needed to sit lower to the wheel thus the brackets were too tall.

i marked the centre lines on each wing to align centrally on the wings as possible, once satisfied of the position, the holes are marked and drilled. here you see one of the many trial fits so it sit correctly altering the holes as needed

heres the brackets i made up to fit the wings, 16 in total each individually made for height and shape of the wings - many holes were drilled to allow the adhesive to bond to.

after several checks the wings were still in the correct positions, the wings were lifted up to apply the adhesive and set back down again. with a weight placed on top to hold it in position more adhesive is spread over the brackets to fill as many gaps as possible.

the next day afer the adhesive has gone off i slid the wings off to brush on some thick underseal to offer the wings some protection against stones etc. it gives it a professional finish in my opinion

the underseal needed a day or so to set before the rubber edge trim was cut to length and glued on.

Still more to come

[lukiez]

ta da! the cycle wings are now bolted on with their nylocks, this was the last big thing left to do on the car and i have to say its been worth it to get to this point in the build.

its amazing the how it looks more like a complete car now, so the end is finally in sight. i know the passenger seat isn't in yet, i need to make a battery tray its easier to fit without the seat in the way.

another shot from the front

you can see the 'quarter-light' panel in its finished form, the side repeater has a rubber boot on the back for the iva and block out the light shining through inside. and my choice of rims are revealed, i got these for a bargain (virtually new, £200 - half the original price!) from RTR back when i collected the kit - i believe they came from the MEV atomic prototype, until they switched from mx-5 hubs thus were surplus, and the toyo proxes i got for a good price too at the time - £42 each delivered.

[nzexo]

Loving the white on black. Great job.