MX5 Fisher Fury build diary

Neville arranged for the sun to come out today and since Andy Hampshire's Striker is on the hoist above mine light was poor, so on arrival I drove the car into the yard. First job was to trim the drivers seat shape using the sander to make it fit more easily. Then I mixed some fibreglass filler and filled the few remaining gaps in the bonnet cuts. I also had a look at the wiper wiring - it appeared that there may be a relay in the Premier wiper circuit, so I wondered if that was the cause of the non-wipe - it isn't but that was nothing to the wiring surprise we got later! Nev had had to go out on an errand and was quite a while, returning with a young lady whose wheel had fallen off (her car that is). Once he had sorted that out we turned to the wiring to try to get the dash area tidied up. I had misrouted a couple of wires so did those, then started leading Premier cables for instruments to the Mazda connections, spiral wrapping them as I went. Eventually we were left with a puzzle due to the range of colours used for the various Sierra options. Testing the headlight flasher circuit we got an odd click and the intermittent wipe actually operated. It seemed that the connections I had made at the column switches were dodgy and the wires went to the wrong stalks. However I'm not always bad at these so we tried unplugging what I had thought to be the wiper plug to swop it to the other side for the indicator stalk plug. At this point to our astonishment the engine started and it was alleged by persons nameless that I must have nudged the key. However I switched off and we plugged the stalks in again, on the correct sides. Now we had all wiper operations! I then unplugged them again and this time proved that the engine would start unaided, unprompted and without my hamfistedness when the stalks are unplugged. We got out a circuit testing unit and found that most circuits are OK and simply had to isolate what was going to be needed for my car since it has a Mazda loom and ECU controlling the engine. We then ran the wires for the engine warning lights etc to the engine and I connected the temp switch at the front, the oil pressure gauge and the hydraulic fluid warning switch to the Premier circuits, as well as getting the front lighting circuits ready run to the bonnet with plugs for easy removal - Nev says because "when" I blow the engine I'll need the access. In the meantime Nev started getting the dash blank roughly cut until the "End of Play" message was sent out by our better halves.