Trident's Exocet Build

[trident]

******* PLEASE NOTE ******
DUE TO PHOTO BUCKET CHANGING THEIR 3RD PARTY HOSTING I HAVE HAD TO DELETE THE ORIGINAL PHOTOS.  TO TRY AND KEEP THE THREAD AS INTERESTING AS POSSIBLE I HAVE ADDED SOME OF THE PHOTO AGAIN >>>> HOWEVER THEY MAY NOT LINK UP TO THE WRITTEN CONTENT 100%.

Ok, so here we go ...I've been on the forum for a while now slowly stripping down my MX5 and refurbishing the parts etc but after last weeks show at Stoneleigh I thought it was about time I started to show others my build.. Others have helped me in the past and still do so I thought I would log my build and it may help others out in the future. 

I have picked up many ideas for other builds and I thank those builders for sharing their ideas... Hopefully I can do the same .... oh and I'll probably need more help in the future so thanks in advance. 

I first saw the Exocet at the 2011 Stoneleigh kit car show.... Well to be honest the wife saw it and liked the price and the fact that there was no need to invest in the kit straight away.... it was the ideal car to build... This is my first ever build and I am certainly not a mechanic in any way shape or form... I do how ever have a willingness to learn new skills and will try to make the finished product the best as I can. Time is not a factor in my build ..... it's more about the journey... or as my wife says my mid life Crisis.... I did the motorbike thing when I was 18!!

Anyway


The Donor.....

1994 UK 1.8 basic spec with no power steering, no electric windows or alloy wheels.... It did however have a hard top roof... The car was purchased in June 2011. It only had 78,500 miles with 3 previous keepers and a full service history, and it was green.

Plus it came with a hard top roof



and low miles ..... 


Hopefully by the end of the process it will look something like this. Black bodywork with silver chassis and various other items in red.


More to follow soon.. Cheers Chris








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[scooby1929]

Its a great project for learning on and at a very good price. The other massive advantage is this web site and there is always somebody around to help. I could not justify a 20 grand kit car sitting in the garage 350 days of the year. Goodluck and keep the updates coming

[trident]

You right it's a great car for a first build.
Here are some photos of the strip down which started in Jan 2012 !!!








Cant wait to put all this back ..Not


As you can see form the photo it was now nearly April 2012... Told you it wasn't going to be a fast build.

And below we have a 4x4 MX5





I now had the basic platform for the Exocet .... But it was a little rusty.

All I had to do now was to get shot of this........


More to follow soon.






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[jgilbert]

Chris, more posts please. Loving the Scooter in the second from last photo. I know you like fast forms of transport so I'm guessing the Scooters yours?

[trident]

Hi John, Ah yes the scooter, it probably the fastest vehicle in the garage at the moment but hopefully that will change in a year or so once the exocet is on the road....

Since you asked ..... here are a few more photos 




I think this might be a write off now. Vin plate and stamped in vin number cut out and safely stored in the filling cabinet at home so I can show DVLA and prove age of donor etc. 



Rust   It was at this stage that I decided that I would do a full nut and bolt strip down.. Alot more work and it would cost more money but I felt it would be a better end product.    


The two item in the photo are a must have in order to strip down the front and rear subframes.
I only snapped off one bolt during the whole strip down. Just take your time and let the penetrating oil do its thing then lots of
undoing a bolt and then tightening it back up and then undoing it again to free up and clear the rust from the threads.

Just don't forget to take loads of photos to remind yourself how it all goes back together.  


And before anyone asks the question .... yes it did wear pink gloves!!!!  



  

[trident]

As they were about 18 years old I didn't think they were in too bad of a condition. The lower ones had a bit more rust but in all they weren't as bad as I first thought.   



With the rear subframe stripped down it was time to start on the front. With the engine removed it was time to start on the front. 

[trident]

An afternoon in the sun and it was done. With loads of parts where a car once stood it dawned on me that it would be a lot harder putting it back together than it was taking everything apart. Maybe I should have gone for a quick clean up ..



I removed all the old bushes from the wishbones. A few of them ... even to my untrained eye looked knackered.   


Half of the wishbones with all their bushes removed. 



My plan to make the wishbones look nicer and to avoid having to put edge trim every where was to weld a plate on the side... It may add a little weight but this will be nothing in the big scheme of things and it will make the final finish that much better.
 


First though I needed to remove the rust. I tried a friends shot blasting cabinet but they were too big to move around. They would have to be done professionally. Shot blasting is defo the way to go though. To give you an idea have a look at the anti roll bar links. These I could get in my friend cabinet!!!!  









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[gnc]

It sure is a long process, but a full strip will leave you more than satisfied with the end result.

Are you going to get the wishbones and subframes powder coated or do a self paint job? Whichever route you go, just try and get the paint on within a few hours of shot blasting as they will start to rust over very quickly if left uncovered.

[trident]

Cheers .. I've had everything powder coated.. This was last year. A lot has changed and not just with the car. I'm trying to get my build thread up to date... Once the welding was done ( I'll post more photos soon ) they were given another blast and powder coated.

Love the green sub frames on your build by the way. Mines a little more conservative.

[trident]

I got the wishbones shot blasted and then we did a little welding to add the side plates.
I would like to say that I did the welding but I can't.. A friend who I work with is a very very good welder.




I was going to keep the tig welds on show as they look very nice but in the end we added more weld and rounded the edges off... Much better for the IVA man me thinks... Unfortunately I don't have a photo until it was powder coated so your just have to wait. You can see how good shot blasting cleans up the metal in this photo as well.



Here is one of the front upper wish bone... Got a little bit carried away with the polishing 

No sharp edges here .    

[scooby1929]

You are right your mate is a good welder

[trident]

With most of the parts stripped down the cambelt and water pump was changed...   








Loads of parts ready for shot blasting.. some will be powder coated whilst other items will be painted by myself. This was now about October 2012... Not much was done over the summer of 2012 as I was busy at work because of the Olympics and secondly we moved house....

The only trouble with moving house though is there is always work that needs doing when you move in... such as the garden, kitchen, living room, bedrooms, bathrooms etc etc... 

On the plus side though I now had a larger garage to allow me to finish the car ...     So it's now a mix of doing the house and doing the car. Should have both done in a couple of years !!!!!!        




More items also order purchased. various sized ball joint rubber covers and a set of alloy wheels that I found on e-bay for £180... I wouldn't need the wheels for ages but they were the correct size with the correct stud pattern and even the correct ET15 off set.. so I now don't need spacers on the car.

[trident]

Everything was now back from the powder coaters and looked lovely and clean. As you can now see I am doing my subframe and main chassis in silver. The panels will be black and I'll have various smaller items in red. 



If you get the cam cover cleaned and coater then make sure you give it a good clean out after as this was what mine looked like on the inside under the metal plates.


all the shot blasting material had mix with some oil residue... Don't think this would have been very good for the engine!! 


Simple to sort though. cleaned all the old gasket off added some new gasket sealant and screwed the plates back on. One very clean cover.



Also around this time I got the new bushes from 'the freak' They are very good and well worth the money. Highly recommend these bushes.

 

[trident]

I changed the camber bolts form my car ( NA ) and upgraded them to ones from a NB, second hand from Autolink. The new ones are in much better condition and once they were painted they looked like new.

OLD ONES FROM MY Mk1 DONOR.



NEW ( second hand ) ONES FROM A Mk2. 


The bushes were also now fitted. I really like the red against the silver..






So now the reassembly began. Much nice and easier with clean parts with no rust.

[trident]

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