Mark's Exocet MK3 build

[bauer]

Terrific. Looking forward to the build.

[markwill]

Time for an update.

Just been cracking on getting all of the PPF ready

Here is as it is now







New hubs at the front seeing as the old ones had done 100k miles. New bearings at the rear for the same reason and new seals for the brakes after an overhaul and a bit of paint






Started work on the radiator but it looks a bit nasty. New one on order




I've now got a chassis and body waiting for me at MEV!. Hopefully get that collected ASAP and start a dry build.

[markwill]

Picked the kit up today.

Had a good chat with Stuart.




First point to note for the build manual (looks like i'm writing it according to Stuart)

The bulkhead fouls on the coolant return to the header tank (back of engine) you can see the pipe in the photo. I've had to temp move it out of the way.

Second point to note, The nearside front mounting to the subframe makes contact with the coolant hose bracket bolts that are attached to the subframe. Again, unbolted and moved out of the way until I can find an alternative anchor for it

[Stewart]

Great work. Following with interest Might have a go at one myself later on in the year...

[markwill]

Day one of the build, thought I'd get the Brake servo and clutch slave on

Points from today

• The Brake servo just will not fit without first removing all of the pipework and the master cylinder. After that it's tight but it does go in
• There is no mounting for the Accelerator pedal. It's throttle by wire and just fastens to the bulkhead on the original car but there's nothing on the Exocet. I'll come back to that after I've thought of something
• The hole for the steering column needs opening up. Looks like it's been cut out too low down and now fouls at the top. Again, one to revisit

• I took the plastic side of the steering column to bulkhead gasket off as it's not going to serve an real purpose on the exocet. It just parts from the rubber piece of the gasket by pulling the rubber tangs out. You can see them in the photo above
• The angle of the bulkhead looks to be slightly different to the MX5 so the brake servo / pedal might need spacing off at the top. Again one to revisit
• Initially the lower steering column and pedal mount was fine but the top was off

• A bit of minor persuasion later (and it was just a tiny adjustment upwards with a pair of mole grips not a big hammer)

• The original brake lines from the master cylinder to the ABS Sensor are tight against the chassis. I either need new ones or again revisit

My plan was to re-use as much of the original parts as possible. That plan might be going out the window very quickly

Plugged all of the wiring back in and earthed up temporary points around the car just to see if it was all good. 

Yep, all good. The DSC light went out after resetting as per the manual. The ABS light went out so all good there. And with a low battery, it even cranked over albeit slowly.

Now to remove any unwanted items and re-position quite a bit of it so it doesn't look like this:-

Anybody know if there's a way to reset the milometer?

That's all for today. Gonna let the battery charge overnight and see if I can get enough crank speed to compression test tomorrow

[Stewart]

With the brake pipes, we do a kit for the Mk1 to replace all the hard pipes, we could sort something similar with this Mk3 if you want to tart up the engine bay, as the hoses can come in different colours.
With the mileometer I believe there are companies out there who can reprogram, but not sure it’s a good idea if you want to know the miles on all the parts.

[markwill]

Sounds good. Are they hard lines or flexi?

[Stewart]

Mar 2, 2019 17:06:35 GMT markwill said:

Sounds good. Are they hard lines or flexi?

They’re flexi throughout so makes fitting much easier than bending and flaring new lines.

[markwill]

A quick compression test whilst all the electrics were in



12bar across all 4 cylinders. Not bad for a car with 114k miles on the engine

[markwill]

So made up some brackets and mounted the coolant header and the power steering fluid bottle

Just tacked on which was lucky becasue a trial fit of the bodywork showed that the expansion bottle would likely foul on the body
So relocated the coolant header and dropped the power steering reservoir down about an inch





Also made brackets and got the ABS Pump fitted


And got the Accelerator pedal mounted. Had to make some stand offs to bring it in line with the other pedals


And then couldn't resist a trial fit of the body. Had to trim either side slightly to slide over the headlight brackets. So bit the bullet and went in with the dremel


That's it now until next weekend when I get back from work. Jobs for then are:- 
Sort Handbrake. The opening in the tunnel is too tight and needs a bit more cutting out.
I've had to bend the mounting tabs a little on the handbrake so that when installed it doesn't foul on the propshaft
Make up some brackets for the front crossmember and same for the rear extensions from the subframe to the chassis. They're probably not required but I plan to refit them. 
Open up the steering column hole at the top just a little
Fit the Charcoal canister. Again, not required but it fits quite nicely under the petrol tank so I might as well.
Fit the remaining Flexi to hard line brake bracket from the donor to the rear
Make up some radiator supports for the top.
Weld new front suspension mounts as supplied by Stuart. The original location which can be seen in the ABS picture was too far inboard and caused the strut to foul on the top wishbone and ARB

[hammy3601]

Any updates mate, hows it all going?

[markwill]

SO, I've been busy doing little bits and pieces. As per the last post the revised shock top mounts on the mk3 chassis meant that the shocks would foul on the upper wishbone and the ARB so Stuart sent out some replacement mounts.
After a lot of measuring side to side and front to back they were welded in

From there I made up some temporary "shocks" to get the car on the ground and so I could start setting ride heights and shock lengths to get an order in with GAZ. 
To make them I cut the mounts of the original shocks, welded on some m12 boss's and then cut some M12 threaded bar to size and attached it all to some M12 rod ends. 






So the car is now on all four wheels




Made up some brackets to enable me to use the front transverse member that ties the front cross member to the lower chassis. Not strictly needed but I wanted to




And on the same basis, some brackets for the rear cross bars from cross member to lower chassis



And finally removed the handbrake cable bracket from the MX5 and fitted it to the transmission tunnel to make sure the handbrake cables don't foul on the propshaft


I'm just waiting on 4 200kg scales from ebay due today so I can get the corner weights and then get the suspension ordered. The welding is all done and once I have the suspension measurements I can remove the chassis and get it off for powdercoating

[markwill]

So the scales arrived. I though I'd ordered 200kg scales but turns out they're 180kg




An initial weigh turned up some interesting numbers which suggest either I've not got the car completely level or the "temp shocks" are not quite the same length or a combination of both
Drivers side front

Passenger side front

Passenger side rear

Drivers side rear


Time to get the laser level out and and start playing with the shock lengths

[markwill]

So, got the chassis back from the powder coaters

They've done an excellent job with a very subtle metallic fleck in the red.

So set about final trimming the floor and fitting

I used a 1mm thick strip of solid rubber between the chassis and the floor rather than go down the Tiger Seal route

Drivers side



And all done



Then lightly rolled the edges all round


And now realize how close my colour scheme is to P2Tav!!. He must have some subliminal messages in his posts.
Could get interesting seeing two exocets from West Yorkshire in the same colour

[p2tav]

May 10, 2019 14:26:37 GMT markwill said:

So, got the chassis back from the powder coaters

They've done an excellent job with a very subtle metallic fleck in the red.

So set about final trimming the floor and fitting

I used a 1mm thick strip of solid rubber between the chassis and the floor rather than go down the Tiger Seal route

Drivers side



And all done



Then lightly rolled the edges all round


And now realize how close my colour scheme is to P2Tav!!. He must have some subliminal messages in his posts.
Could get interesting seeing two exocets from West Yorkshire in the same colour

lol yeah will be good to have 2 looking same, where are you as mine is now done if you want to meet up or call round ?