My MK Indy build

[Mark G]

I've finished my build now but thought I might as well post a quick thread about my build and skim over some of the fun I had along the way.

I was inspired to build an MK Indy after I saw one in the for sale section on Piston Heads.  I called regarding the car but before I had the chance to view it had already been bought.  I've always wanted to build a car and as a life ambition I thought I'd give it a go.
The car below is the Indy that inspired me to build one. 


I was looking into kits to build and what engine to install,  In the end a Fireblade engine came up for sale for £300 not too far from me so I bought it and that was my motivation for getting the rest of it.

893cc Honda Fireblade powerplant

I bought the engine in the December of 2007,  Bought a donor car in Jan of 2008 and collected my Indy kit in Feb of 2008.

Donor Car


MK Indy in kit form

The first job in the build manual is to fit the floor, With the car up the wrong way I drilled the chassis and floor panel and riveted the panel on.  Looking back I personally think it would benifit to drill the transmission tunnel for the fuel, brake and wiring to be secured to before fitting the floor.


After the floor goes on then its up to fiting the suspension to make it look a little more like a car and less like a child's climbing frame.


Next to go on is the rest of the drive train so on goes the prop, diff, drive shafts and rear brakes.   I made the mistake of fitting the prop before fitting the brake pipes which made life very difficult when it came to fitting them.


I decided to make the wiring loom from scratch and design it my self.  This became more difficult the further I got into it,  Although there are only a few circuits to make it does become more complex than you'd think.  I made the switch pack out of an old switch pack from a new (BMW) MINI.



Whilst doing the wiring I was also eager to get the engine going so I ordered the exhaust and manifold from MK Engineering (MK Sportscars sister company).  Trial fitting the exhaust below.

The panels come solid so you have to cut your own hole for the manifold.  I made a template and then marked out on the panel to cut the correct sized hole.  I only wanted to do this once as if it goes wrong it'd look rubbish.


After getting the wiring finished and also getting the exhaust on it was time for a trial run of the engine.   The first start was a little eventful but if you watch the video's you see that it does run sweet in the end.  Or so I thought!...




Little did I know but at that point in time the engine was only running on 3 cylinders.  I couldn't get it to fire on number 1.  There was just no spark, tried swapping leads, coils, plugs.  It just wouldn't fire.  For some reason I had decided that it was a sparking issue and the cylinder was flooding due to the lack of spark.  It turned out the be the opposite.  The carb on number 1 wasn't working properly which was flooding the cylinder preventing a spark.  After removing and stripping the carbs I found that two of the jets in number one weren't even screwed in! 


Then to rebuild and refit the carbs, I couldn't believe the difference it made to the sound of the engine and the way it revved was just unbelievable.  This I should tell you is only now less than a month from SVA date.
Running behind on schedule the SVA test is booked for the 6th of April and the car is far from finished.  The photo below looks a little like you'd expect but the panels you see are only held on by cleco clips.


The side panels were bonded and riveted on and then when dried the car let down onto the floor for the first time since I picked the chassis up 13 months previous.


All the rest of the panels were fitted and this is the car finished with just 1 day to go for the SVA test


Car at the SVA Test


I needed to fit some steel wheels to the Indy to get it onto the trailer as with the alloys fitted the track was too wide to fit.  When I arrived at the test station they told me that I wasn't allowed to fit the alloys as 'its a test station, not a workshop!'  I had no choice but to test the car on the steels which unsupprisingly failed for having different aspect ratio's on the same axle and also speed ratings were too low.

At SVA the car failed on a few minor items like the rubber trim on the seatbelt mounts had to be permanent rather than held on with cable ties.  The tester didn't like the exhaust wrap as he couldn't see the clamps underneath.  I needed to fit a nylock to the collumn instead of a regular nut and I needed to fit some load spreading washers to the seat bolts.  All very minor items, the only thing that I'd class as a major item was that there was no self centering action.  After setting the suspension and steering and sorting the tyre pressures etc it still wouldn't work properly.  I then discovered that the rack MK had supplied me with was extreemely stiff and needed to be stripped, cleaned, adjusted and refitted.  I did this and then it worked perfectly.

For the SVA retest I decided to drive the car there and back.  What a drive!  It was nothing short of awsome.  Since the test I've fitted a dynojet kit to the carbs to cure the flat spots I had and should give a little more power.  I also have a steering wheel in the garage to replace the donor wheel which will be fitted after the DVLA inspection.

Fingers crossed that the inspection will go ok on Wednesday and hopefully I may have the car on the road within the next couple of weeks.

For those of you on facebook, My car has a profile HERE

Thanks for reading, if anyone has any questions please feel free to ask.

Mark.

['The Gaffer']

Excellent post Mark, thanks. 

[Bulldog Bri]

Supurb build diary there Mark and on your face book pages. Did you go to Avonmouth for your SVA? I have heard that they are very tight on the rules down there, if even too tight and that I should go to Taunton for the test as if there is something wrong that is a simple fix they will let you know that they are off for a coffee! and if its fixed when they get back then its done, just that they can't be seem to be helping you.. How sad is that?

[David H]

I enjoyed the read also. Good luck wednesday.

[Mark G]

Supurb build diary there Mark and on your face book pages. Did you go to Avonmouth for your SVA? I have heard that they are very tight on the rules down there, if even too tight and that I should go to Taunton for the test as if there is something wrong that is a simple fix they will let you know that they are off for a coffee! and if its fixed when they get back then its done, just that they can't be seem to be helping you.. How sad is that?

The test was carried out at avonmouth, personally I thought the tester did a thorough job and was fair. I wanted my car to earn its pass. They did make the comment that you cant do any work on the car whilst on site which I can see being a problem for some situations. If I was to do it again I would go back, having said that I don't know what other test stations are like so you may get other opinions from more SVA experienced people.

[Bulldog Bri]

Yeah, I too want my car to earn it's place on the road. It's just the rule saying you can't adjust something that may take just a few minutes to correct a problem does seem very petty to me.

[Mark G]

yep, but they cant stop you from driving around the corner to fix anything

[Richard]

Enjoyed that read.

Somehow the few little bumps along the way are a good reminder to those of us with the blind optimism at the pre-build stage it isn't all easy.

Looks a cracking result though !

[Mark G]

Thanks Richard

As you sais its not all plain sailing and the above story is only parto of it.  Building a car is never going to go without the occasionaly bump in the road but that said, I'd still recommend it!

[Richard]

I'm having a few "bumps" in pulling the donor apart  .   All part of the "fun".

Shame you couldn't make the meet, everyone was keen to meet the shiny new green one and owner, especially with all that fresh experience of the IVA.

[Mark G]

Fortunately I managed to get in with an SVA.  At least the car is on the road now.  I'll try to get to the next meet so you can all meet both myself and the car there.

[Bulldog Bri]

Look forward to seeing you at the next meet, the car looks great too