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Post by Kevin Patrick on Sept 26, 2010 20:35:52 GMT
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Post by nigel on Sept 27, 2010 19:46:39 GMT
Looks like an excellent donor car Please keep us informed, I'd be specially interested to know of anything that you find awkward or that could cause a problem for other builders. When do you get your kit ? nigel
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Post by Kevin Patrick on Sept 28, 2010 18:40:13 GMT
Thanks Nigel. In talks with Stuart earlier this month he estimated ~8 weeks for production of the LHD Exocet. Based on that, I would hope to have it in my hands by December. Should leave plenty of time to properly strip the donor, sell the unused parts on flea-bay and do some restoration on the donor parts that will be used for the build. If all goes to plan, I hope to have the build finished (at least in it's first iteration) in time for spring.
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Post by 300tt on Sept 28, 2010 21:52:52 GMT
Have you actually ordered a kit yet or are you waiting on the LHD before ordering? What are you doing about shipping/importing? I've been waiting on the LHD version too. I found my donor as well...couldn't pass it up for the price.
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Post by Kevin Patrick on Sept 29, 2010 15:24:12 GMT
Your donor is looking good!
I shipped Stuart a couple of LHD steering racks last month so he could mockup the LHD version. I believe another forum member also sent him a steering column and pedals as well so the LHD version should be coming together.
Shipping/importing - looks like this will be around £1200 including a case and packing. However, Stuart mentioned that the cost of shipping over two kits is almost identical to shipping one. If that is the case, I think those of us in the US should consider going in together and having the kits shipped in pairs. It sounds silly for us to waste the extra money on shipping when we could be putting that cash back into the build.
When we hear an update from Stuart on the status of the LHD kits, we should explore this option.
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0100
Newbie
Posts: 7
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Post by 0100 on Sept 30, 2010 6:39:33 GMT
Looking good! Can't wait to see how this build goes.
I am still thinking about the whole thing, and don't really have the funds yet, but hopefully eventually will be ordering a kit. I am in the Boston area so if anyone else is in that area we could have two kits shipped together, once I decide to go in on this.
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Post by Kevin Patrick on Oct 4, 2010 15:52:48 GMT
Great weekend. Friday night: the new shop crane arrived from Harbor Freight. Saturday, Petit Le Mans (photos here if you are interested: www.flickr.com/photos/thekevinpatrick/sets/72157625083193396/). Sunday, I finally got a chance to get some work done on the donor. Making good progress. Rear Bumper and Trunk are stripped: Front Bumper/Fenders are off: Top is off: Took her out for one last spin with no doors/fenders/bumper/trunk: Interior is out: Overall, I did not run into any major problems. All work was done with assorted screwdrivers, metric sockets, wrenches, pliers and a breaker bar. The only things that gave me a hard time were the crappy plastic front bumper screws. 20 years of life meant they were brittle and stripped easily. The hardest bolts to remove were the seat bolts, but with the breaker bar it made getting them out fairly simple. Lots going on over the next couple weeks but I hope to get back in the garage and finish stripping this beast soon.
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Post by nigel on Oct 4, 2010 21:18:17 GMT
Wicked Love the Pictures - Keep it coming ;D The thing that I thought might either cause some difficulty or at least require diligent attention would be the removal (in one piece, correctly/carefully labeled up) would be the loom (I did notice on the MEV Demonstrator at Curborough that there did seem an abundance of wiring and left over redundant electrical plugs) Please keep me updated. nigel
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Post by Kevin Patrick on Oct 6, 2010 18:27:29 GMT
I think "diligent attention" nails it on the head. My process so far has been to use masking tape and a Sharpie to label all the different areas and connections in the harnesses. Also trying to take as many photos as possible in case I forget anything. The plastic clips that hold the harness to the body are fairly easy to remove and I do not foresee any issues removing the harness from the body in one piece.
Regarding the demonstrator, I also thought the extra wiring in some of the photos looked extraneous. Part of me wants to go through the harness and remove the unneeded areas and connections to clean things up, but I have a feeling that might be a long, tedious process. I suppose it would not be as bad as creating a new wiring loom from scratch, though. I'll see how work progresses during the build. I would probably be OK with the extra wiring/connectors hanging around initially, but over a long enough timeline I'll definitely want to remove them. The goal is for the car to have everything it needs, nothing it doesn't - simple and extremely effective.
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Post by rafterman on Oct 13, 2010 14:45:06 GMT
Hey, it already looks like an Exocet in your "one last spin" pic! Great progress so far, I know many of us LHDers will be watching your build closely and living vicariously through you (at least for the moment). Cheers, ash
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Post by Kevin Patrick on Oct 25, 2010 21:01:22 GMT
Got married on 10.10.10 so the stripping slowed a bit these last two weeks. Back in action and ready to get back to work. Spent another ~5 hours on the donor - felt like I spent most of that time labeling wires, but made some decent progress. The rest of the wiring harness has been removed, the fuel has been drained, the radiator is out, A/C components are out, power steering pump removed, and most of the other items in the engine bay have been removed. Not much remains. Barring any unexpected issues, I hope to get the body off this weekend and have it down to the Power Plant Frame. Most of the items from the engine bay are out. All wiring has been removed. Only pedals and steering column remain. One question I am asking myself at this point centers around the power steering rack - Flyin' Miata has a great walkthrough on depowering the rack at www.flyinmiata.com/tech/depower.php. Should I depower the power steering rack or source a manual rack? From what I have read, it seems that the power steering rack offers a slightly faster ratio over the manual rack. Am I off base to think that a slightly faster rack would be a better option to the manual rack in our significantly lighter Exocet?
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Andy888
Full
Exocet Builder
Posts: 212
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Post by Andy888 on Oct 25, 2010 22:13:10 GMT
I read that article too on FM, but to be honest, I'm used to power steering and it looked like more additional work that would take time away from proper building!
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Oct 26, 2010 9:44:44 GMT
Guys, as far as I'm aware, you can run the power steering rack without the power, simply remove the powersteering pump, and loop the feed and return pipes on the steering rack. The Exocets light and doesnt need PS. I drained most of the fluid from my rack and its fairly light steering. I figured I'm unlikely to do much parrallel parking, so wont need it!
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Post by Kevin Patrick on Nov 1, 2010 8:10:59 GMT
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Post by squelch on Nov 1, 2010 11:08:11 GMT
i think your about one step ahead of me on the strip down as i still have the doors and bonnet on plus a couple of pipes to disconnect and i will say that your undercarridge looks so much cleaner than mine
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