Nosecone Grill

Here's some pics of my nosecone grill.
Made with some ali cheap mesh off ebay.

I was slightly woried about it being a little bit too sharp, so I went over it with a sander, then added several coats of paint to give it a smoother finish:

Still need to fix it in place.  Will either use some cable ties, just sikaflex it in place.

Engine Bay Wiring

Just a few pics of the wiring around my engine bay.
Still need to do a little bit of tidying, and finish wrapping the wires in tape and conduit:

Reworking Headlight Mounts

When I originally welded my headlight mounts to the chassis I didn't have the wishbones, so didn't know where the wheels were going to be in relation to the headlights.
It later transpired that my front wheels hit the headlights on full lock...doh!

My mounts did look like this:

To bring the headlights closer to the body I chopped the round bits of the end of the mounts, filled the ends with chemical metal, and drilled holes through what was left of them.

I also stuck a couple of rubber end caps over the end to (hopefully) keep IVA man happy.

I still need to find some kind of trim to wrap around the headlight bases.

Side repeaters

Side repeaters are now fitted.
I've gone for the little round LED ones (from boltonbits on ebay) and fitted them to the rear wings:

To stop the wiring flapping about between them and the body I added a couple of self adhesive cable-tie bases to the inside of the wings:

I don't think IVA-man would be too keen on stick-on bases, so I fibre-glassed them in place to keep him happy!

I also added some protective conduit to the wiring to protect from all the stones and crap that are going to end up spat around the inside of the arches!

Proof of donor/engine age letter from Mazda

Phoned up Mazda this week to ask for a proof of age letter for my donor/engine (needed at IVA to determine emissions levels, and hopefully avoid the need to fit a CAT!).

Here's what I did:

Phoned Mazda UK on 08457 484848 and got through to a very helpful chap named Adam (don't worry if you don't get Adam, he claims anyone there should be able to go through the process).

Rumour on the Westfield site has it that you need to talk to the homologations manager (Dean Armitage), I did try asking to talk to him directly, but apparently he doesn't take calls from the general public!

Adam took my personal details, and details of the donor car (vehicle reg, chassis number, and engine number), and filled in a form on his 'puter.
Because my donor is an import a few red warnings came up on his screen and he had to go away and talk to Dean to clarify.
He came back and said it wasn't a problem though!

I don't think their standard proof of vehicle age letter contains the engine number, so I asked if they could include it, after speaking to Dean again he said this shouldn't be a problem.
IVA emissions are based on engine age, so I think it's fairly important to get them to include it!

If you're the first owner of the vehicle there's no charge, otherwise it costs £35.  You can pay by bank transfer or by cheque.

I was told I should receive the letter within 14 days of them receiving payment.
I'll update you when I do!

EDIT:

I received the letter from Mazda this week - much quicker than the 14 days quoted!

It does include the engine number along with the chassis number, so well worth the £35 investment to avoid needing to fit a CAT!

Dash

Made the dash out of plywood and covered it with two layers of cheap camping mat, a layer of thin scrim foam, and finally covered it with vinyl.
I'm not quite happy with it, but it will have to do for now...
That was my second attempt, and I'm not going to have another go until after IVA now!

 

The various layers were glued with spray contact adhesive and stapled.

To fix it to the scuttle I added a few of these nuts before covering:

The idea is that it will be bolted on from behind so the fixings are hidden from view.

Roll Bar

Managed to finish off my roll bar of the festive period.
It's built more or less to book spec.  The only real deviation is the change from one bolt to two bolts each for the rear stays, as rumour has it only having one bolt for each is a potential IVA fail.

My good friend Pete got his Dad to powder coat it for me last week and I bolted it in place last night - thanks very much mate!

You might also notice my second attempt at a rear cover, in a slightly less garish colour this time!
I'll add an update about it at a later date when I've finished it.