MX5 Fisher Fury build diary

I seem to be in one of those periods when progress is glaringly obvious and I think that maybe it will be a car one day. The Samco cooling pipes also arrived from Demon Tweeks following Nev's review. I was quietly pleased that he recommended the layout I had envisaged a couple of months ago. He has a special tool for cutting the silicone and it was easy to assemble.

I also replaced the pipe linking the water pump to the fuel rail with some narrow diameter silicone pipe I had left over from another repair.

Then I went to XL Spares and bought the stainless jubilee clips and heater hoses anticipating buying a heater from an old Mini so installed those roughly, linking to the header tank. Nev had provided a suitable bypass T piece so possibly perhaps maybe we can fire the engine up when the electrics are installed to see if it works!

Nev had explained why the body sits awkwardly and left me to measure it up. He had taped a datum in the centre of the rear chassis above the diff and by measuring diagonally to the left and right of the body and vertically from the chassis cross rail to the same point, then down to the ground from the bottom of the arches as well as checking the hoist was level, it was apparent that the body was within 3mm either side. He said I won't get closer so I got out the fibreglass matting and now the tub is fixed. Of course once the resin has "gone off" you see the flaws elsewhere in the alignment and there is nothing you can then do other than tweak the bonnet hinges and so on.

Now that the tub was locked in place relative to the chassis I could trim the leading edge of the tub at the front chassis cross rail and next time I will seal it and trim the rear of the engine bay with aluminium plate.

Finally I thought to final fix the steering column but I could not remember the order for making up the bearing and the washer so will have to look up the Sierra manual. I've won a late model Mini windscreen wiper motor and rack on ebay for £55.00 delivered vs £140.00 plus post for a new one from Cranbrooks.