Another MEV Replicar kitcar build.

[Daley Down Under]

Always good to get to that stage. Well done on progress

Cheers Adrian

[Quarrycars]

I've been a bit slow updating, but things have moved along, starting with the final assembly and changing all the plain nuts to nylocks.  The final (hopefully) fitting of the body:



Four front upper mounts, the frame extension supports the tail and sills are bolted to the floor panels:



Adjustable supports under the rear wheel arches:



All feels pretty solid.  Arizona requires a safety glass windshield and wiper on a 4 wheel car, I fitted the windshield that 'fell off' the Furore after it was inspected, hopefully be OK if the car has only one seat.  Also need DOT spec lights and reflectors, a set of trailer lights should meet the requirements:





Not pretty but they may not last long .

Inspection scheduled for the day before we head back to sunny Wales:



'Inspection' consisted of looking at the paperwork and checking engine numbers.  Took about 15 minutes and cost $25, didn't even put it over the pit, a bit disappointed as I was hoping to get some pictures of the underside!  Arizona identification number is affixed:



Round to the MVD office, present receipts etc. and the car is registered as a '59 Aston Martin:



I love AZ!!  Car is now street legal and seems to run fine but plenty of work to do when we get back in October.

[Bulldog Bri]

Is that it to get a car registered over there?!?! No fair. probably cheaper to export my Locost over get the paperwork done then bring it back

Great progress not long till it's finished then.

[Daley Down Under]

How good is that?  Wish it was that simple in QLD

Keep up the good work

Cheers Adrian

[Moleman]

Glad it all went well. Your also right about those rear lights. Don't forget to show us the new lights now it's road legal. 

[Bulldog Bri]

Can you not get a more subtle number plate or at least one more period looking?

 

[Iancider]

Green is the colour of ENVY! 

[Quarrycars]

Can you not get a more subtle number plate or at least one more period looking?

On my list of things to take back in October are UK number plates, not sure what to put on them - 59 ASTON?  Also will get a better AZ licence number - DBR1?

['The Gaffer']

Great video and swift progress as usual. Amazed at how easy it was to register.

[Pilgrim Anna]

Looks great!

[Quarrycars]

Heading back October 5th, hopefully it will be starting to cool down a bit and I can get back to work on the car.
In the meantime I've been playing around with the engine that I left here:

['The Gaffer']

Interesting vid. The engine sounds in good nick, shame we could not hear you over the exhaust.

[Pilgrim Anna]

Looking great! Well done on all your hard work. Keep us updated with pics

[Quarrycars]

Back in Arizona, just starting to cool down a bit here (38deg), nice to get back to work on the car and try to remember where I left everything!

First job – remove the temporary parts and start final assembly.  Plenty of work to do.





Drove it round a bit, no oil or coolant leaks and engine temperature looks stable.  Suspension is surprisingly compliant but the rear shocks are 'topped out' so I need to get some rebound travel into them.  The car doesn't look bad at the current ride height but I do want to lower it a bit.

['The Gaffer']

Looks great, its going to be quite a car when it's finished.

PS, post us a few of those 38 degrees when you get the chance

[Quarrycars]

Progress on the car has been a bit slow, other stuff going on.  Got an upholstery shop to make a headrest/fuel filler cover and a cover for the center tunnel, turned out pretty well:



Started applying some decals:



Still plenty of jobs to do, side vents, mirrors - they need to be mounted high to get good sighting over the rear wheel arches.  Still thinking about the suspension, would like to keep the stock Mazda springs and shocks but lower the rear by about 40mm, might try a set of adjustable spring seats, they are cheap enough but I'm not sure how they fit to the stock shocks.  Has anyone had experience with these?

[Moleman]

looking good. You can't be that far off now finishing it now? 

[Iancider]

Looking utterly gorgeous!

Tell me is that a fire extinguisher or Nitrous Oxide Injection!

Ian

[Camber Dave]

If the suspension is topped out you need shorter (or softer) springs. These adjusters will only raise it. I think they sit on existing spring perches.

The 'o' rings shown look like they space the black adjuster bits away from the damper body. The pic is upside down, see the alloy top seats at the bottom of the pic.

To lower my car I cut 1.5 coils off the spring. I then ground both end of the coils tapered (full wire dia to zero in ½ a coil rotation) giving a flat face to the seats (this should also prevents the common coil breakage problem – the normal coil end puts a point load on the next coil!)
I have welding gas so was also able close the coils at the ends.

This lowed the car (too much; but it is an MX 5 not your glass fibre body.) It also raises the rate of the spring by 25%. (106 to 134Lb/in)
I have now changed these to conventional coilovers so my springs are available but postage to Arizona is more than they're worth.

[Quarrycars]

Thanks Dave,
I have to admit suspension is not my area of expertise!  From experience I know that when you lighten a car the springing is usually too stiff, so I was pleased to discover that the stock springs give a compliant ride on the MEV.  It turns out Mazda set up the MX5 with soft primary steel springs and use the bump stops as secondary elastomer springs, essentially the car corners on the bump stops.  There seem to be a range of aftermarket bump stops of different lengths and densities.
According to the information I have the yellow dot rear springs are nearly the softest that Mazda use - 96.94 lb/in.
There is a softer rear spring listed - 93.53 lb/in for auto trans MX5s, would my car sit much lower on these?



It looks fairly easy to shorten the springs but this raises the rate?

The later NB MX5 spring top mounts are about 20mm higher, not sure if they will fit the earlier strut though.


I had imagined that the treaded collars are designed to fit over the shock after the original spring mounts are ground off but not sure how this would work.

[Camber Dave]

From the bottom - Your last post first.

Those mounts look worth a try. My mounts are rock hard so the improved ones would transmit less road noise. They will place the damper closer to the middle of the damper and raise the spring a little.

" It looks fairly easy to shorten the springs but this raises the rate?"

Imagine the spring unwound like a torsion bar – if you shorten it the rate will be stiffer.
The formula for spring rate is      Gd4   over 8nD3
Where G is the modulus of the wire (use 11000000), d is the wire dia (say 0.405")
Divide this by 8 x n = number of working coils (7) and D is the mean Dia of the coil (3.68")

Crunch these numbers and you get  106 Lb/in (see previous post)
Cut off 1.5 coils and the rate goes to 135 Lb/in

Now in my car the spring is compressed by 540 - 85 Lb (corner weight – unsprung weight) multiplied by the suspension leverage MX5 Rear 1.258. So  572Lb

This is supported by a 106 lb spring,  So 572 / 106 = 5.4" This is how much the coil is compressed by the weight on the rear of my car.
After I cut the spring the coil crush was 572/134 = 4.3 " BUT the spring was about 3" shorter. So Lower and stiffer.

Your earlier point, if the adjusters are supported by the top of the damper after removing the steel perch – go for it problem solved.

And I fully agree with the first two para's.

[Quarrycars]

Dave, great information, thanks for taking the time to explain!
I'm trying to find some green dot springs then use your formula to optimise ride height.

[Quarrycars]

Went for a bit of a drive today, got some pics on old Route 66:







Seems appropriate.




Old gold mining area.

[Daley Down Under]

Car looks fantastic - great back drop too 

Cheers Adrian

[Lucky Ed]

Great car and pics

Not a patch on Blighty in December though

['Mendip Wurzel']

Its the nice blue skies that I like ..... and naturally the nice car.

[Iancider]

Absolutely beautiful

['The Gaffer']

Wow, what great pics. Great car too, you should be very proud about how quick and well you are building it

[Quarrycars]

A real rarity, we got snow in the Mohave Valley yesterday, no one can ever remember seeing this before:



Great fun and very pretty, all gone now and temps back up to 20deg C this weekend!

[Bulldog Bri]

Great pic. Did you go for a drive in it?

[Iancider]

Santa Claus on his way home?

['The Gaffer']

A real rarity, we got snow in the Mohave Valley yesterday, no one can ever remember seeing this before:



Great fun and very pretty, all gone now and temps back up to 20deg C this weekend!

Wow, how strange, snow in the Mohave Valley!!