Ryan's Exocet Build

[exoRy]

driver - not sure of the price of just the disks. I ordered disks, pads (EBC Red stuff) and braided brake hoses (HEL) from Stewart. The disks are "MTEC", probably best to speak to thefreak so that he can give you a quote on what you need. I bought them cos the disks that were on the car were shot (due to rust) so thought I might as well upgrade while I'm here!

Have read your build thread....Any more updates on your build recently?? I'm going for the same "philosophy" as you, do it once - do it right!

gwnwar doubletrouble - thanks, will get my muscles out at the weekend and give it a go! When it comes to blasting and coating, have people removed the upper wishbone ball joints?? or have they left them in and protected them?? I can't see much evidence of how or if people have done this.

[driver]

I didn't follow my own philosophy unfortunately lol, I have now purchased a diy powder coating system, a powerful compressor and shot blasting equipment. All wishbones, calipers, were slowly sanded to a smooth finish and painted, but I like powder coating now so doing it all again, it's very addictive. I'll take some pics soon I've been lazy! Ye I'm upgrading my disks too I like the groove style.

[doubletrouble]

May 30, 2014 8:25:05 GMT exoRy said:

driver - not sure of the price of just the disks. I ordered disks, pads (EBC Red stuff) and braided brake hoses (HEL) from Stewart. The disks are "MTEC", probably best to speak to thefreak so that he can give you a quote on what you need. I bought them cos the disks that were on the car were shot (due to rust) so thought I might as well upgrade while I'm here!

Have read your build thread....Any more updates on your build recently?? I'm going for the same "philosophy" as you, do it once - do it right!

gwnwar doubletrouble - thanks, will get my muscles out at the weekend and give it a go! When it comes to blasting and coating, have people removed the upper wishbone ball joints?? or have they left them in and protected them?? I can't see much evidence of how or if people have done this.

Ryan, left the ball joints as is. Gonna put new rubber boots on so did not worry about protecting them. 

[exoRy]

doubletrouble - thanks, will need new boots on mine too by the looks of things - the rubber has receded and the top (near the threaded end) is very near its own base! what kind of grease do these need packing with???

Was filled with good intentions before the weekend, had made a mental note of everything I wanted to get done (all of the rear separated) - guess what??? didn't happen!!

Spent most of Saturday morning dodging the thunderous storms and getting a refil butane can for the blow-torch and some primer (for gearbox and diff).

About 3pm my socket adapter (reducer) completely sheared (was a Sealey part cost ~£4 delivered) when attempting the first rear wishbone to hub bolt, so was a bit gutted and that ended the days progress. Was very difficult, then I thought I felt it begin to loosen Culprit below:

Quick trip to Halfords after seeing their "Lifetime Guarantee" on their adaptors (£4.99) - will give this a test in a few weekends time!
The new:

Am off to Download Festival this weekend and its a mates birthday the next so progress will be non-existent.....unless I can make the most of these light evenings and get in a few hours here and there!

[exoRy]

So, back from my weekends away and thought I'd hit the garage yesterday.

Spent most of the day heating, hitting, soaking, ruining the above halfords adapter (was replaced no quibble to be fair) on the rear lower wishbone to hub bolts. Nuts came off fine, however the bolts did not want to budge. Tried using a decent set of spanners too but it wouldn't move! Burnt out most of the rubber bushes with the amount of heating i did too.

Took a trip up the garage this evening with the old man - he thought he could get them out in 5 mins - thankfully i didn't waste sunday and these bolts still did not budge. Turning the rear frame over i can see where they are rusted onto the hub. They have welded themselves together and I've been using the wire brush to no effect.

What have others done to get these out?

I think I'll cut the bolt in two places; in between the hub and either side of the wishbones. Then drill out the remaining pieces of the bolt inside the hub, does seem like the only way to get them out!

[danpollitt]

I put the hubs in a vice used lots of wd40 where I could get it in. Using a 750 mm breaker bar it slowly worked loose bug took about 30 mins each bolt!!

[exoRy]

Yesterday saw more progress, had to quickly re-arrange the garage as I've got a new garage door coming on Thursday, the current one is very old and very broke - the door that bolts into the frame is currently being held shut by a bottle cap. There's not much in there to nick, mainly grubby car parts, but still........shhhhhh, keep it to yourselves

Had to pick up and move the engine with my Dad, from the front of the garage to the rear, which was a nice start to the day after a night out and a night on my mates sofa

Solved (kind of) the problem of one of the rear lower hub bolts -> managed to get it free at least, with one of these:


I went this way as I kept ruining converters for the breaker bar, didn't want to buy a new one/new sockets with the correct size drive and they were really really seized (after being really really soaked in WD40 every 5-10 mins for most of the morning).

Went through 3 of these blades, unfortunately the actual saw (holds the blade) was too big and wouldn't allow access to the bolt, so I sawed by hand. 1 hr, lots of sweat, a "claw-like" hand and many swear words later, the wishbone was free.

Took this and the fronts I had done a few weeks ago home and lit the BBQ. Result:


And the wishbones:

Apologies for the accidental product placement, if this gets enough views I might give Mansell a phone and ask them to buy me the Gaz Gold Pros I want

So this weekend will be more of the same, will get the other rear lower wishbone out and separated from the hub, then remove both driveshafts from the diff and bring the diff and gearbox home for cleaning/painting! Might get a chance to bring all the hubs back and wirebrush/wirewheel them clean and prep ready for painting - if I'm really on the ball!

[exoRy]

Progress has been steady over the last few weeks.

Got all the bits ready for blasting/coating (just awaiting a quote off a company not too far from me!)


Also ordered a new rear subframe - the last was damaged in the car's "Cat C Crash"; delivered for £35 - not too bad.
The old had a bent tab for the left upper wishbone mounts, the car took impact from the rear right hand side of the boot and looks to have dug into the road on the rear left wheel. Was aware at time of buying and knew it wouldn't be too much to get a new one!!

Old:

Am really struggling to get the ppf off the diff, got the bolts out, however the collar isn't coming out and from the photos below looks pretty well rusted to the diff casing - have used copious amounts of WD40 and have tried nudging it with the hammer to get it moving. Can anybody recommend a way to get this out/anyone else struggled with this - am fighting being too heavy handed as I don't want to ruin anything!!!

Offender:

Thanks

[gwnwar]

Try this.. Get and turn a M14x1.5 bolt (long) into the sleeve from the bottom.(there are threads in the sleeve) Twist and pull the sleeve down (hammer and punch sometimes needed). after it is down and free install a bolt M6x1 into the hole in the side of the block/spacer to hold the sleeve in place so you can remove/turn out the long bolt M14x1.5.. After long bolt removed remove the small bolt you put in block to hold sleeve..

Is the upper control arm still good after the crash??

[exoRy]

gwnwar - will have to source one of these and have another go very soon. Didn't think of checking the upper arms (silly me) as they didn't appear crooked or creased on their own. Will be checking the lowers tomorrow too - just to make sure!
Lined them up next to each other and guess what...............

Bottom one is the one that was damaged as part of the crash, was on the left rear and was causing the wheel to toe-in slightly.

thanks again gwnwar, and I quickly have to echo Toed64's comments on his "Getting hot" thread (out of context that sounds like it should be on a whole different forum)...........................your expert knowledge is extremely helpful - is it true that you actually designed the MX5???

Good news this week, managed to get one of the rear lower hub bolts out, this took much persuading, read - drilling, pressing, punching and drilling.

and we now have this:

** Crowd cheers **

The culprits:


Not much to them after we gave them a really good going over!

Noticed there's a bit of play in one of the rear hubs, so not sure of the tolerances, but will have a word at a garage tomorrow - as I'm going to ask if they can get the drive shaft out of the other hub (seems very stuck for some reason - the other came out with ease) and will also plead with them to get the other remnants of its lower bolt out too

Other than that I will be painting the front hubs in POR15 - arrived this week. Hopefully my replacement rear upper wishbone will arrive in the week and I can get the stuff off to blasting/coating.......then its major engine service time :/

[exoRy]

Phrase of the weekend was: "The finish is all about the preparation".

Cleaned and primed the gearbox this weekend, should have really taken a dirty "before" photo, but was so eager to get started I forgot!
All cleaned with Jizer and wire wheel/wire brush/wire wool, then quickly brushed in white spirit and wiped:

Seconds after primer coat applied, (I shamelessly copied @jgilbert with the UPOL acid etch primer and hammerite paint) - the results on his thread looked fantastic so couldn't help myself!


then left to sit in the sun for a couple of hours


Have cleaned inside the "cover" section - where it houses the clutch, however unsure if there's any point in painting that area too?
Obviously no one will see it, but I'll know its not been painted (slight bit of OCD creeping in) :S
Wondering if there's any disadvantages to covering that area in paint too?

Oooooooh and M14 bolt has been ordered for final ppf -> diff removal

[jgilbert]

Ryan, nice work. I wouldn't paint the inside. If the paint comes off it's just something else that can contaminate the clutch plate. It maybe unlikely but just a thought.

[Stewart]

Trying to remember if that collar actually comes out? I thought it had 2 big collars which pry out, or you leave the bolt in but loose and give the head of the bolt a tap to free the collar.
It's interference fit so just needs persuading.
A bit of heat never hurts either.

Oh, and chuck that WD40 in the bin. It's good for cleaning stainless steel and making things look nice. Get yourself some plusgas. Much better for freeing seized components.

[exoRy]

@jgilbert - thanks, makes sense - the less "stuff" in there the better!
when dismantling, the clutch fork boot was twisted and not flush with the box, and it made an opening. Sure that didn't help with the inside of it being so dirty, will give it a good clean with some wire wool etc and leave it be!
Will get a new boot on order too!

Stewart - thanks, just googled that and got a can from amazon for £4.34 - the reviews say this stuff is the dog's nuts. Wish I'd known about this when tackling some more of the bigger seized bolts

today got the gearbox painted:


looks brand new!! Very chuffed with the finish; Hammerite spray can - Hammered Silver

Also rang through a few blasting/powder coating companies and today I got a replacement rear upper wishbone!

Spot the difference:


Jobs for this week (the list is ever growing and I don't feel like I'm making a dent);
- paint front hubs in por-15
- send stuff off for blasting/coating
- reassemble brakes (have all the service parts ready - just need to fit)
- look into painting the air intake manifold in por-15, the grey/dull silver metal is looking a bit dingy and don't want it to spoil the rocker cover

[ashneyder]

Jul 12, 2014 14:02:59 GMT exoRy said:

Progress has been steady over the last few weeks.

Got all the bits ready for blasting/coating (just awaiting a quote off a company not too far from me!)

What are you planning to do about the front upper control arm ball joint for powder coating? It sounds like it is not meant to come out and degreasing it before and regreasing it after coating might be a hassle as well.