Dan's Exocet Build

[bewgy]

Also I collected the kit from Exocet, I was nice to meet Stuart, although we had a long drive and I was not able to spend as much time at the factory as I would have liked. But did get to see the new G-Type Exocet in the flesh, which looked really good.

The frame is upside down and I have fitted one of the floor panels, made a bit of a mess with the tiger seal and forgot to rivet the cross members 1 Doh. I will add the cross member rivets and second panel tonight and update the blog. 

I am going to go with Miket's idea of using the original MX5 brackets for the fuel and brake lines, Stuart also mentioned that they reuse these bracket in the factory. 

[bewgy]

Another Doh moment, looking at Miket blog, his rivets seemed to be better than mine, which looked smaller. Then realized the kit comes with rivets!!!!!!! At least they are on the bottom so no one will see.

[bewgy]

Both sides of the floor are now fitted, but there are a few Doh moments. For what ever reason my kit did not include the pop rivets (MEV are sending me some). So I purchased my own, but these were 10mm which I think are to long. I hoping that it doesn't cause any issues. It may be problematic to turn the car upside down when it is built so fingers crossed.




I am looking at how to make the old MX5 clip for the fuel lines work. The donor was a 1999 Mk2 which has four lines in the clip, one brake, one fuel feed, one fuel return and another one which according to my now barley legible labels goes to the black charcoal canister thing.

I am not sure what this fourth line does. 

Can anyone tell me if I need to run this line and what is does? If it is a breather can I put something on the tank instead of running the pipe?

[miket]

From memory the MEV supplied rivets are/were pretty long too and their kits hold together just fine 😀.

I ended up reading up on rivet sizes - there are indeed recommended lengths depending on material thickness.

When doing the cross members try to avoid where the seat bolts will want to be!
Welds might need flattening for a flush fit of the floor... but you'll have found that by now!

I know it's a bit late for you, but to avoid adhesive mess you can just remove a strip of the ally protective film where it needs adhesive and leave the rest in place - just draw round the inside of the chassis as well as the outside.

The 4th line draws vapour thru. You can stay 'green' and keep the charcoal canister or delete the whole thing. If you remove it then leave the short section of pipe and valve on the tank (there's a reference to this in the most recent build manual).

[bewgy]

Cheers Miket, unfortunately bit late for the PU tip , I did make a bit of a mess.  I noted your comment on seat belt holes on your blog and was going to make longer bracket and extend the clip up into the tunnel, which needs to be about 80 cm.

If I do this do you see any problems with the clip fouling on the ppf or other part of the sub frame?

[miket]

At 80 cm the problem might be with fouling the headrests!

At 8 cm you'd need to watch for where your cabling / conduit is going to go - the main pinch point is the rear of the tunnel where there's a kink in the ppf - gets very tight and everything passes thru there. Not saying that the 8 cm is necessarily a problem there - it's just a problem generally.

[bewgy]

After Miket's helpful comment I decided to avoid the seat both bolt problem by using the clip with the brake line at the top. I made up some brackets, which stand of the chassis to avoid the bottom of the clip being pushed out by the rivets. Rotating the clip meant that I could not use the small locating tab, but I figured reinforcing them with PU would provide enough strength.












However after fitting my new clip, of which I am rightly proud, the brake line will be slightly lower than the floor pan.











upload photo to internet free

My clips are spaced 300 mm apart only because I had six clips. Since then I read on a forum 300 mm is the minimum distance between clips. So I am not worried that the brake line being below the floor could be an IVA fail. Does anyone know if this could cause problem with the IVA test? 

[kiwicanfly]

I might be wrong here but are you sure 300mm was minimum, sure it's not maximum?

[miket]

Regardless of IVA, it's probably a bad idea if the first thing a speed bump hits is your brakes and fuel lines - even if it's via twisting the clip. I have a recollection that the vapour line was a slightly different size to the brake line so you might want to make sure the brake line's in the correct channel of the clip. If the vapour channel is the lowest one you could saw it off the clips (4 down to 3) and still be able to do brake and fuel in the channels above floor level... Or just mount them higher.

[bewgy]

Sorry, yeah it 300mm maximum.

Food for thought on the road bumps, I may have to rethink my options and re position the clips. All this in an effort to avoid the seat belt bolt.

[bewgy]

After reading Miket comments I decided the best option would be to cut the clip and remove the small unused part. However I did not read Miket comment properly or look at the picture that I took and in my enthusiasm and haste I cut the part of the clip I needed off!!!! and was left with an over sized clip that did not hold the brake line securely and would definitely fail the IVA!

The problem was solved by using a bit of silicone fuel line tubing from an RC plane, I put this around the brake tubing and it formed the perfect fit. 







Some of the clips are still slightly proud of the the floor pan, I have checked the IVA manual and there is no reference to the distance of the lines from the floor pan. So I am hoping this would not be a problem if anyone knows different, please let me know.

I am in the process of fitting up the fuel and brake lines. Lesson on learnt less haste, check and double check!

[timbo]

You might also want to consider how you plan to run the wiring to the rear. It is possible to run some conduit along the opposite side of the tunnel to the brake/fuel lines, but you may want to consider drilling holes/fitting rivnuts before you drop the chassis on, as access is tight afterwards.

Tim

[mscott]

Isn't the opposite side where the Exhaust runs ?

Might be better following Mazda's example and clipping the Wiring Harness to the P.P.F. ?

On the Race Cars we run the wiring through the Cabin as we drop the Gearboxes far more often than a road car is ever likely too and need the P.P.F. out in a hurry some times.

Just a thought...

Regards Micky..

[bewgy]

I have started to mock up and run the brake and fuel lines. Plan on finishing the rear brakes without the sub frame bolted up, I think I will have to finish the front brakes with the sub frame bolted on. Using all the donor fittings for the brakes.

Pictures of work so far:





If any one see any problems with how the brake and fuel line are run please shout out. I am not sure whether to use the existing clutch line or run a new one. The old clutch line has a coiled section, I assume this is some sort of damping. Are there any issues running a new direct line from the master cylinder to the slave?

I plan on trying to use the old clip for the wiring loom wherever possible, given my previous experience I will definately mock it up before I fit!

Thanks for all your help and comment, I don't know how far I could have got without the help of the forum.

[miket]

For brake and fuel just make sure they're supported at least as frequently as IVA spec for wiring (30cm), make sure any connection from solid-to-flex is supported at the join and flare your fuel line where hose is attached.
I preferred nylon p-clips for the brake/fuel lines but others prefer metal/rubber.