In the last post I had got as far as putting the engine in. The throttle body was the main concern there but a look around the internet and a chat with Richard at GBS has put my mind at rest as there are a few options that will fit in the car. Nothing further to report there and I think it's probably going to be one of the last things I do on the car.
I have the rear suspension on now. I tackled the left side first as there is more room that side of the garage. The wishbone suspension arms are supposedly identical on both side but some trial fitting with the uprights with the new bushes fitted suggests that there are some slight differences. The drive shafts as returned from GBS after modification look pretty much new. The CV joins certainly are but I thought they reused the shaft itself, if so they have been cleaned up very nicely. I found the best combination of wishbone arms and set about attaching the left side suspension arrangement. The CV joint slipped easily in to the wheel bearing with the aid of a little grease, but the other end did not want to go in to the differential housing.
When I took the MX-5 apart I really messed up one of the CV joints by hitting it too hard trying to get it out of the wheel bearing, and as putting it in to the differential housing required hitting the same end again, I was a little apprehensive about the liberal application of hammers. The problem is the end of the CV joint shaft has a ring on it to lock it in to the gearing within the differential. The ring takes a bit of force to get through whatever hole it must pass through to arrive in its working position and with being new it wasn't going in without a fight. After a few hours of gingerly trying to persuade it home, I ended up just hitting the other end with a bigger hammer. Job done. To completely fit the right hand side suspension took about 15 minutes...
Side panels now. These need to be installed before the front suspension can be fitted as the wishbones pass through the holes in them. When I drive the demonstrator at GBS I noticed there were no obvious rivets holding the panels on. Turns out there is a quite lethal adhesive known only as "Black Stuff" used for holding panels on kit cars (and to be honest holding anything on anything) which I duly purchased. Starting with the left panel I put a thin bead of Black Stuff around the edges and areas that would contact the chassis and offered it up to the side of the car. No kidding, I had about 5 seconds to make minor adjustments before the Black Stuff took hold and the panel was stuck solid. It drys completely in about 24 hours to I put a few clamps on to hold it in position and left it to set.
With the left panel successfully attached I did the same to the right, this time with a little more Black Stuff (possibly too much), and offered this one up to the chassis. This time I had about 2 seconds before the panel was stuck fast. A little stressful that job, but I'm glad it's done.
Next up: electrics. I'll make that the subject of my next post, but as a taster... I will be making my own wiring loom for most of the car but I need to use some of the old MX-5 loom for the connectors. We ripped it out complete from the Mazda and put it in a box:
Perhaps the box wasn't big enough. Never mind, until next time...
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