Jeff and Emma Build a Car

[pikey]

Subtitle: 'How Hard Can It Be?' 

We're no strangers to tackling epic projects with little prior experience - we built the house and garage ourselves from 2009-2013. I've been involved in motorsport for many years, nowadays its pit bike motocross racing, but I've been doing drifting on and off for the last 10 years and Emma has always been there as my support crew. She knows more about the wiring on a 200SX than I do, for example! So we're not afraid to get our hands dirty 

So this is our little build diary of turning Emma's once-lovely Eunos Roadster into an Exocet, to live on after an accident earlier this year that wrote the poor thing off when someone crashed into the back of it while Emma was stationery at a roundabout! Every cloud etc..

14th November 2016. At the weekend we started by making space in the garage:



Luckily, it all fits:



So after the first hour or so, the car now looks like this (sorry for blurred first photo):






So far have removed seats, centre console, fly screen, bootlid, everything from the boot including the battery, rear lights. Salvageable parts have been put on ebay, the rest has gone in the trailer to be taken to the tip.

Bit more effort needed to remove the rest of the seatbelts, carpets and trim, roof, then dashboard etc, before we move on to the engine bay, bonnet, bumpers etc. The car is still on the ground at the moment, no need to put it onto axle stands until we finish the top bit.

We are underway 

[p5curly]

That looks an impressive workspace 😄

[pikey]

So, December wasnt very productive, we did nothing to the car at all until after Christmas, due to work, family and holiday commitments. But we've now logged 8 hours in total, so just about one single day's work in 6 weeks. Better start accellerating that workrate if we are to have any chance of having the donor ready for when the kit is!

Doors, lights, bonnet, roof, engine undertray off, carpet out, seatbelts, dashboard out, almost all of the loom is disconnected and labelled - just need to pull it all through the bulkhead. Speakers and stereo retained (going in my van). Looking forward to some mechanical jobs soon - sick of wiring:

[browno]

Looking like good progress - I am going to embark on doing the same on mine, so will follow with interest - I just need to get my 1985 mini sorted and MOT'd before I crack on!

Liking the 996 too - I am still wishing I'd upped the budget and gone for a 996 turbo instead of my old (and as it turned out, slightly ropey) Boxster S a few years back - just as prices were at their lowest!

[p5curly]

Good to see your still cracking on with the build
Where are you based you may have other Exocet owners local to you

[welshy1]

Don't forget too crack off the rear hub nuts before disconnecting the rear handbrake or brake system, unless you have access to a bloody good battery impact gun.

[pikey]

Loom is free :-)

Got some stuff sold on ebay too - both wing mirrors, one of the doors, sidelights, mats, it all adds up :-)

[pikey]

Pedals, master cylinders, airbox, radiator off. Got one of the fuel lines off but didnt have the strength left to do the other one. Not a great deal more to do other than the main subframe bolts now.

Need to arrange a visit to see my friend who currently has our engine crane as we went halves a couple of years ago - except he now lives on the south coast so picking it up is slightly more of an issue

[gwnwar]

Might be cheaper to just rent one.. Remember to make up the x4 8" 2x4 wood or metal tubes to put between the upper inner control arm and the lower shock mount so you can roll the subs and PPF out from under it and around..

[pikey]

He's a good mate, and I havent seen him for a while, so its an excuse to make the trip anyway :-)

btw - are you still interested in those bits - fog lights, wheel centre caps etc? Only we've had interest in the wheels from someone over here

[pikey]

Got that other fuel pipe off, and was speaking to a mate of mine who does soda/glass blasting who might be able to do us a deal on cleaning up all the chassis parts once the body is off.

Having taken the wheels off, its obvious that we're going to need new brakes at least at the front, but they're dead cheap anyway because they're so diddy, so thats no big deal 

[welshy1]

A good upgrade is to fit the caliper carriers from the 1.8 version allows the use of bigger discs and pads, don't need new calipers just swap the front calipers side to side on the front.

Got a set from a car I'm breaking atm if your interested.

[welshy1]

As for brakes recommend oem discs and mintex 1144 pads used on my exocet before turboing and on my daily mx5.

[scottmev]

Jan 23, 2017 20:27:21 GMT welshy1 said:

A good upgrade is to fit the caliper carriers from the 1.8 version allows the use of bigger discs and pads, don't need new calipers just swap the front calipers side to side on the front.

Got a set from a car I'm breaking atm if your interested.

Sorry to jump in the thread. But have you a rear callipers available?

[pikey]

Woo - just had a a letter from MEV to say the kit is ready