MX5 Fisher Fury build diary

Got to the workshop fairly early. Neville had said he would leave a list of things to do, in order, and being a wimp I was worried when he had not done that. But I did always want to work it out myself so after a few minutes I got stuck in. First I replaced the self tapper that we had used to get the body position right, then drilled through on the passenger side tub return to enable me to secure the removable side pod. Then I drilled through adjacent to this into the chassis rail to make the holes where the fixing rivets will go to hold the body when ready to set finally. In the photo the pod rivnuts are on the left and the rivet positions on the right.

Then I got a text from Neville reminding me about the plate for the offside pod. I found a piece of scrap ally in a corner and guillotined it to shape, then positioned it as I had the nearside plate. However this pod is riveted permanently in place so it was less tricky (or maybe I'm learning).

After that I cut and bent various pieces of ally to trim the edges where the tub meets the sills and the engine bay. Some had to be angles, some plates. I found that using a length of steel angle in the vice made a great former and then I simply worked the metal over progressively with a soft faced hammer. On the passenger side, where the tub has to be removable, I riveted the angle in place but drilled a hole so that the tub rivnut can go through it.

Then I made up two angled brackets to go at the back end of the side pods to stop them flexing and rivetted these to the tub inner panels. The pod on the drivers side was fixed permanently to the bracket but the passenger side left for securing with nuts and bolts later, as shown.

Finally I decided to drill the bulkhead to allow the steering column to pass through. I measured the height of both brackets (in the passenger compartment and the engine bay, then plotted the fall through the point where the column goes through the fibreglass. It was low so when drilled I found I had to elongate the hole somewhat. But once in position, since no one was around, of course I had to clean up the tub, sit in the car and make brrm brrm noises!