Another Exocet Build from Ireland

[waveydavey]

Hi all

I am a novice builder from Cork in Ireland, I have wanted to build a kit car for years but just haven't had the time or money to consider it until now.

I had decided to build a locost 7 until i stumbled across the MEV website. After a bit of research and plenty of looking at all of the build diaries on this forum i decided to jump in feet first to my build.

So after a bit of searching around online i have managed to find a donor which i think may be the lowest millage mx 5 for sale in Ireland. It is a 1995 Eunos 1.8 with 55K on the clock.

[h20boynz]

Good luck and have fun!

[Robin Wiggs]

Good luck. Post lots of pics. It's a great forum.

[waveydavey]

So i got the donor car into the garage today and begun the strip down. This is the last time it will be in one piece for a while.

[gwnwar]

waveydavey.. Just sent you a Private Message.. gwnwar

[waveydavey]

Not bad for 4 hours work I managed to remove both doors and the dash. I am however having trouble removing the control switch from the steering column. I loosened the screw on the bottom but it won't come off. I will have to go googling for a solution. I am sure it is something simple that I am overlooking. 

[waveydavey]

I spent a few more hours at the weekend working on my donor and i managed to get the interior striped out.



I also managed to get the bumper off, it was much more difficult to remove than i expected.

[waveydavey]

Another productive day in the garage, I have managed to get the two front wings and the rear bumper off today. The strip down is going much quicker than I expected. I have noticed that all of the bolts on the front and rear bumpers are new stainless steel bolts so I think the car has had a bit of work done to it.









I

[gwnwar]

Make sure to loosen the 4 center axle nuts from the wheels while you still have brakes and the weight of the car.. There should be a drain for the fuel tank bottom left front of tank..

[waveydavey]

gwnwar thanks for the heads up i will make sure to loosen them before i go to far.

[waveydavey]

The wiring loom is never ending just when i think that i am near the end i find more and more. I dread to think how much wiring is in a new car with all of the electronics in modern cars.

So i decided to put groups of wires form different corners into bags, all labeled up and hopefully this will make it easier to sort out at a later stage. I was thinking about stripping out the unneeded wires from the loom but i am having second thoughts at this stage.

Has anyone tackled stripping the loom and would you recommend it?

[miket]

I stripped out redundant wires okay and I'm a complete novice. Just need to watch out for junctions mid-wire and at ends - so trace back along wire rather than diving to the other end with the cutters. Get hold of a wiring diagram if you haven't already - plenty of links in threads on here. Safest to get the car running before starting to remove stuff and then test all's still well after each bit of trimming.

It cuts out a bucket-full of wire and allows the loom to be bent/curved more easily when you're rerouting it around the Exo to use up all the excess length.

[waveydavey]

miket cheers for the advice I will hold off stripping any of it until I am back up and running.

[gwnwar]

First get the car running and lights and all working.. Then trim out the wires starting car and lights as you cut wires out.
Remember 1 ground lug may ground several things same for power from fuse boxes. go to www.mellens.net/mazda/ and print off the wiring for the 94 and 96 they don't show a 95.. Put the sheets in plastic sleeves and take/keep in shop. A white board and pens for notes, good too. When I work on mx5 I use the wind screen and grease pencil..

[waveydavey]

Thanks to everyones advice i made sure i loosened the axel nuts while the body is still on and i had some weight on it. It was surprisingly easy to move them. I just needed a big lever.