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MooSPEED IV - Build Diary

March 2004

Not that much car stuff to report as I've now started on a major new baby project.

 

This project, although demanding at least has a proper manual.

 

Here's another look at the exhaust fittings I've been making up.

Pictured here is the Fisher manifold with the lamda hole plugged up, going into a reducer made by Powerspeed. On the back of this I've used the top end of the original R1 pipe to give it a slight bend. There are two reasons for this;

  • Firstly I have two different silencers with different diameter pipes. This, along with another 1" adaptor allows me to unclamp one and clamp on the other easily
  • The 2nd reason is that the manifold isn't perpendicular to the chassis. If a straight pipe was connected it would poke out half way up the sidepod. The bend should hopefully sort this.
    This is only a temporary solution as its impossible for me to get to an exhaust fabricator at this stage. However, if it works well I may keep it until I go for the turbo upgrade - it's not on show after all...

 

Here are the relays mounted behind the dash on a sturdy bit of ally U section. This is also serving as a clamp to hold the ECU in place.
I deliberated long and hard about where to mount the relays as I was trying to think of somewhere hidden but accessible. In the end I figured that I've never had a blown relay and they'd still be accessible as the dashboard will be removable. Just not quite as handy as the regular pop-out panel on production cars.
Ignore the messy wiring - this is pre-tidy up.

I may actually mount these on the other side of this panel to allow better access without taking the dashboard apart

 

Something else I deliberated long and hard over was battery position.

I had plans to mount it low down to reduce the centre of gravity but then it was a question of finding the right place. When I mentioned it to Mark Fisher he reminded me that a bike battery weighs very little compared to a car battery - any gains made by moving this 1 foot closer to the ground would be negligible.

Luckily my hand was forced when I went to buy the battery terminals. I arranged to borrow the shopkeeper's heavy duty crimping tool but had to get it back by the end of lunchtime - about 2 hours.
Rushed home, hastily decided where the battery was going, drilled the bulkhead and fitted it as shown here. Got the tool back with half-hour to spare !! This was the fastest job on the car yet.

 

Here's a shot of the headlights, I've just trial-fitted them for now, they aren't wired up.

You might be able to see that the mounting points for the lights sits just a bit too high. There are perspex covers which fit snuggly over the headlamp bowls so I'm going to have to do some marking up and filing down.

Haven't got a clue how I'm going to fit the covers. I wanted to avoid self-tappers or bonding in with silicone. I've bought some of these mega-tough micro magnets which I thought perhaps I could embed into the plastic but it's not really happening.

 

A few words on dependence - the kitcar jigsaw This is something you quickly have to deal with when building a car. It's like a big jigsaw, you often can't fit a part you want as it's dependent on something else being done. For instance, I can't drive it yet as the bonnet doesn't clamp down. The bonnet doesn't clamp down because the clamp will be on the sidepod. I can't fit the sidepod until I've completed the exhaust, etc.

Here's another one, I'm doing the dashboard wiring but I can't fix the cables in place as I haven't got the finalised switch positions. I can't do the finalised switch positions until I've made a dashboard blank and fitted the drivers seat. Huh ? Well, the reason is that I'll be placing the switches by ergonomics alone, aesthetically they may be less than perfect. I'll do this by sitting in the drivers seat (when I've decided on the position of that and fitted it) and then going through the list of functions, horn, lights, indicator, etc. and placing stickers on the dashboard where my hand naturally heads for - I may even do it blindfolded

This is the beauty of building your own car - you decide where things are and how they work as opposed to a design "board" who have to fit Mr & Mrs Average. The switches I've gone for are following with the modern-retro theme, they are 1950's style switches mounted in carbon fibre and sited alongside a digital dashboard. Kinda goes with the 60's look of the car and the ultra-modern powerunit

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Updated 30th March 2005© Copyright MooSpeed 1996-2005