Melvin the Mev Mevster

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Phaeton

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Managed to get a bit done today started with finishing the water pipes with clips, apart from the overflow tank that is done, but want to see how much space is left before committing to using the MX5 one, may need a smaller one




Next had a look at the air intake made up a pipe to take the crank breather, for now the air filter is going behind the radiator, need to make up a bracket to mount the MAF, there is also what looks like a air temp sensor, need to find if that can be mounted after the MAF



Clamps had come for the fuel lines so all that was finished off including the rollover vent, then after fitting the viton sheet under the brackets, fitted a couple of Rivnuts for the bodywork when I get that far.





Then fitted new handbrake cables, just need a couple of the spring clamps to hold the cables in place



Finally laid out the wiring, there's a hell of a lot more than I remembered & I'm missing set of 3 relays, I saw them last week, just a tip, don't get old!






 

Phaeton

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Don't you just love it with no garage



A wise man once told Danny whatever you do get it all working before you start to remove wires, I decided to follow my own advice, I've removed some of the insulation so I can get the wires where I want them.

Connected the battery, I've got ignition & it will spin over, some carb cleaner down the throttle body & it fired, I can hear the fuel pump running so we're getting there. just need to prove out all the lights, I wish now I had not thrown all the old ones away, I could have just plugged them in to test.








 

Phaeton

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Today was a good day, daylight helps rather than trying to find things with with a floodlight, started by checking the fuses for the hazards, both okay, checked for 12V after the fuse which we got, checked for 12V at the switch 0V, so started to follow the wires back & found it in an unconnected connector, lad was with me & said this one looks similar, plugged them together & we now have hazards & indicators win!

Next was the reverse, same problem, there's a huge connector which I thought had all the wiring for the rear of the car, but nope, there's 2 wires in a separate connector which I hadn't seen connected them & we now have reversing light.

So with all that done I thought I'd try for a start, cranked it over & it didn't want to know, went to check the plugs to find them under water, blew them out & tried again, still not having it, sprayed brake cleaner in throttle body & it fired & tried to run. So checked the fuel pipes, yep there is a 50% of getting them right & I had got them 100% wrong. Swapped them over & tried again, it would fire, run & then die, lad said connect the air inlet hose which has the MAF fitted, did that & it now runs nicely, didn't leave it running long as no coolant.

Which brings me to the only downbeat part of the day, filled the brand new radiator only to find it's leaking, so need to find another, problem is I'm not sure exactly what it is.
 

Phaeton

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The other day when making the brackets for the radiator I made a slight mistake I drilled & tapped unfortunately I must has managed to pierce the water chamber, not 100 % sure how, but when I filled it up water started to escape, I was hoping to bodge it until after Christmas & tried to epoxy resin up the error, unfortunately on starting there was a PSSSST & suddenly could see a stream coming out.

Bought a new one, had the option of a NIssen for £3 extra so went with that, unfortunately when it arrived the fan mounting holes where not in quite the same place, so the 2 hours of bending & bracket making the other week was wasted, but that is kit car building




It also must have the top hose in a slightly different place as it now fouled the fan shield so a little angry grinder later



New brackets made, quick spray & will try to get them back on tomorrow.




Wanting to think the harness out a bit more, but need to ensure the car still starts & all lights work each time I remove wires.

 

Phaeton

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Just an update for myself more that being interesting to others, fitted the new radiator, then the hoses, started the engine & brought it up to temperature, the good news is that the fan cut in as controlled by the ECU (so got the wiring right), the bad news is the thermostat didn't open so the engine overheated & spat the coolant out, but an easy fix.

Then I had a look at the horn, I'm trying to fit a MK1 Momo steering wheel to a MK2 column & of course they don't fit straight away. I managed to modify what they call the 'clockspring' this takes the airbag wires & horn from the wiring before the steering wheel & allows you to rotate the steering wheel, but a little angry grinder & some solder I've got it working. Found this quite interesting that the clockspring has the facility to take 6 signals plus earth to the steering wheel which means in the future buttons could be added for who knows what.

Hopefully the weather will be kinder next week & I may get some more of the wiring thinned out.
 

Phaeton

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Got a new thermostat today so fitted that along with all the hoes, hopefully this is the last time, ran the car up to temperature radiator getting hot this time, fan kicked in & out a couple of times so figured I've sorted that now, just got to decide where I'm mounting the header tank & pipe it in, it's basically a unpressurised container so nothing fancy may use the original depending on space.

Carried on removing some more wires, think they were for the electric windows this time.
 

Phaeton

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Managed another couple of hours today, virtually finished removing the wires, what's left now has to stay, some are too long, next thing to decide is do I shorten them or just wrap them up out of the way.

The only real bummer is now I've been running the engine I've found it has an oil leak, yep you guessed it the rear crankshaft seal, so everything has to be disconnected again, the frame lifted off the subframes to split the engine & gearbox FFS!!
 

Phaeton

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So between 08:30 this morning till 4:00 this afternoon I went from



To engine out to replace seal



Then back in, I'm knackered still have starter & brakes to do again, I ran out of energy



 

Phaeton

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Yesterday was taken up replacing the gasket in the son's LT35 flatbed whilst he was at work, it failed it's MOT on poor handbrake & the rear hub to diff leaking oil, the tester figured the oil was getting on the shoes. It has disc over drums so caliper off, hanger off, then remove the disc, strip down the brake shoes, remove 6 bolts & the pull the whole driveshaft & bearing along with the hub. I'd already bought a new bearing oil seals etc, but once stripped it was clear the bearing had been replaced, but when they'd rebuilt if they's not used a gasket. So back to the olden days, local motor factors sells gasket paper, so made my own, then built it all back up again, but this time adjusting it up this time, also found out the cable adjuster bolt had been stripped so had to add an extra bolt to stop is slipping again.







Today I turned back to Melvin, spend a few hours putting all the stuff I'd had to remove to get the engine out, so I'm effectively back where I was 10 days ago, had one issue though on rebuild, I connected everything up (or so I thought) tried to start it went up to 4K then died, tried again exactly the same, so I wondered had I managed to get the fuel pipes the wrong way wrong, changed them over & now he wouldn't start, so swapped back & he starts up to 4K then dies. So has to be something I'd done, spend the next 20 minutes going all the way through the engine electrics making sure everything was connected, checked over all the earths as it's a known issue, still nothing starting to get frustrated & annoyed with myself, when I happened to look at the throttle body & noticed that I hadn't connected the servo take-off pipe, once connected harmony in the universe was restored & he started & purred nicely.
 

Phaeton

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Forms filled in & submitted, hopefully with the waiting list I'm hoping I'll get late Feb, early March, although I'm booked for a trackday on the 11th March so the week after that would work out perfect.
 

Phaeton

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So the fun begins, I actually filled in the forms on the web a few days ago, they want the forms signing, but claim that just typing in your name in the signature box is enough which I'm sure I did.

First problem they tell me that I didn't fill it in although I'm sure I did, as I have no printer I wasn't sure what I needed to do, but they had sent me an image of it not filled in so using a drawing package I mocked up a signature & filled it in, that has now been accepted.

Second problem, I sent them an image of a copy of the original invoice which MEV re-issued to me for the princely sum of £75 (I'll not put my feelings here about that), now VOSA are wanting to know why I am using the invoice which is not in my name & 7 years old. I've just replied back to them advising them of the journey of the kit prior to my ownership.

We'll see if I have to jump through more hoops
 

Phaeton

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I'm sure I mentioned up thread that the kit was originally bought by a college, then sold to a guy in Newcastle, VOSA are now stating that I have to provide the invoice/receipt for the sale between the college & the guy in Newcastle, then the invoice/receipt from him to me, I didn't get one but that one is easy, but how can I ask for the invoice/receipt between him & the college that is nothing to do with me, that's his own private business.
 

Phaeton

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Update they have now accepted the application for IVA they now say they are awaiting payment, yep guess what no information in the email on how to pay!
 

Phaeton

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Got out today to do a bit, managed to fit the wiring tray, it fits under the dash & hides all the electrics including the ECU, I also intend to invert the fuseboxes so they can be changed from inside the car










I think it needs another fixing around the dipstick area but that will have to come from the outside & be a bolt rather than a rivnut







This is what will be in the passenger compartment, radius is over 2mm so should be okay, need to make a couple of brackets to hold it up at this side



Than start ed to try to fit the panels, this one was supposed to be a single piece but no way could I get it to fit, too many complex bends & notches needed, so I cut along its length, I'll get a bit of 50mm aluminium & make a joining piece.

 

Phaeton

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Well a fair bit of time has now passed & a lot of hours have been spent, but looking now I'm not sure where, I was supposed to be having the IVA on the 2nd March but due to the weather I'm not ready, I lost about 3 weekends and multiple afternoons where nothing could be done. It's now booked on the 13th April a couple of weeks further away than I'd hoped but as Stoneleigh isn't happening I suppose it doesn't matter.

I did have a disaster though with the snow, I bonded the screen onto the surround, then trial fitted it to the kit, it fits on with 8x 6mm bolts into rivnuts, I had figured on working on the car the next day so only put in 2x screws, unfortunately we had a heavy snowfall which without having all the bolts the weight of the snow tore the fibreglass :mad: :mad:






I've put an aluminium plate behind each side, Tigersealed it, clamped it & left it for 3 days hopefully it'll be strong enough & it's under the bonnet & cannot be seen. I've since found a guy who does fibreglass repairs so if there are any issues I'll take it for a proper repair.

I then had to bond the screen back in again.



Some more work was done getting the wiring into the tray, some of the exocet guys shorten up the loom but I have decided to be lazy & only chopped out what wasn't needed. I then mounted the wiper motor, which of course I put on the wrong way around to start with ;D ;D .



Then had to bond all the rear lights into the body & wire them up, Oops image upside down



Took the airbag out of the steering wheel, intend to IVA with standard wheel then look for a new one afterwards, possibly a snap-off to make getting in easier



Then started the internal panels didn't come out bad but I think I'll have another go after it's on the road & found out what needs t be changed.

I need to make some small grilles for the heaters, I was going to go with a proper heater box off the engine, but the others lads with Mevsters convinced me not to, i hindsight I should have stuck to me original idea.







Today I've been test fitting the passenger side side panel, other lads have just bonded these on but I feel that I'd prefer if they were bolted on so they can be removed making modification easier, so I think the way I'm going is 4x 6mm domed head bolts on the top, 2x 6mm bolts on the bottom then run a bead of bonding along the bottom edge which if I want to remove the panel I can cut through the bond with a Stanley knife.




















 

Phaeton

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Still plugging away at it, it's surprising how long some of the little jobs seem to take, I replaced the Hazard, Fog & Demisters with matching switches, but that meant putting some extra relays to get the changeovers. Took it the other day to add fuel & got a slight weep on the tank to filler neck so had to take all the back off again & of course forgot to disconnect the electrics & pulled the wires out of the connector, looks like it's the only plug I didn't solder. Had an exhaust made on Thursday & then 4 wheels aligned Friday, put arches on Sunday.

Also bought 4 new boots for it, the Firestones that came with it were dated 2003, although lots of tread I was concerned they may fail on age, although I couldn't see anything in the regs about it. After going up the cul-de-sac the other day when it was wet I wouldn't want to go out in the rain with them on.

I think apart from needing to work out what nut covers I need to buy it's just about finished
 

Phaeton

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Well the day has arrived, I'm going with a positive attitude, I'm positive it will fail, I reckon on at least 5 items although I have no idea what they will be. Have to be there 8am, 40 miles away, at 6:30am this morning it was minus 4 here, white over hope it's better tomorrow as we've still not changed the glowplugs in the transporter.





Funny how it seems huge compared to the Freestyle but looking at it on the truck it's still quite small the 3 series hangs over the back a few inches of the bed.





Funny how you think of these things, wish I'd have had the alloys powder coated black now, Danny how bigs that oven?

 

Phaeton

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So up at 6am, mug og coffee, out to the transporter & yep the f**king thing wouldn't start, son bought new glowplugs last year & still hadn't fitted them, he's frightened of snapping an old one. Anyway after multiple attempts it was off with a pipe in with some carb cleaner, couple more attempts & away it went, but 15 minutes of stress I could have done without. Still got there with 15 minutes to spare, but thought I'd gone to the wrong place, last time I was there it was a hive of activity, now it's deserted, they've moved all the HGV & trailer testing elsewhere. Only thing that goes on in Nottingham now is SVA, HGV Driver tests, Motorcycle tests & trailer tests.



But as expected it failed, funnily enough on 5 points ;D ;D

It failed before it got even getting into the garage on the first 2 items,

1. The wheel arches are in the correct place, but I read the regs wrong, the arch has to cover between 30 & 50 degrees, about 150mm of the centre line which how I did them, what I didn't realise is there has to be some cover on the 150mm, but it's quite an easy fix.

2. The windscreen is from a 1973 VW Beetle 1303, it is laminated, but it does not have an E mark, or state it's laminated, so another fail

3. Emissions, not sure why but the hydrocarbons were fine, the Lambda is fine, but the Co2 has to be less than 0.3, it was 0.7, but interestingly it got very hot & the fan did not cut in, so it could hopefully just be the temp sender for the ECU, the gauge & the ECU use different ones.

4. The seatbelt anchors below the seat, I used a nut & bolt, but apparently it has to be a bolt with a welded nut, you have to be able to remove them with a single spanner, so you can release the person in the seat, WTF you wouldn't just put a knife through the belt I don't know, but I'm not there to argue.

5. There is a slight weep on the rear NS brake line where it goes from hard pipe to flexi, never seen any fluid on the floor so I suspect it's only when under pressure, hopefully it can be nipped up, or the hard pipe flare remade.

Then finally the brake tester didn't work so they weren't tested, although he took it out onto a 16% test slope they have & the handbrake which I had my doubts about wouldn't hold the car so it would have been a fail on that as well.

All in all not a bad test, hugely stressful until you actually start doing the test, or at least it was for me, but I'm very pleased in a disappointed way
 

Phaeton

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Started to take the screen out this afternoon, to think I was concerned it would come out on it's own, after a couple of hours I get as far as this. Got a new one on order with all the correct marking, only issue is sides have to come off again, luckily I have rivnut'd & bolted JIC

 
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