mattj

Yeah still have all the photos, just got sick of photobucket asking for money so deleted my account with them. Still have the car, has had a few upgrades but is in bits at the moment while I try and source some motivation to get it finished

Ha ha, your ears are just soft from spending time in the Colt

Yeah still going good, needs to be faster though so have started getting some bits together for it

Hey Alex, nah wasn't me, I haven't had the car out since Chrome back in March. I do remember hearing that there was another one being built in Nelson but I haven't seen it.

Definitely keen on this, I assume details will be posted on the car club Facebook page?

It was awesome, little intimidating when I arrived and everyone was unloading their dedicated race cars off their trailers, then all donned their flash race suits while I put on some overalls that i grabbed from work. But once we actually started it was all good. The car ran like a champ so now the driver just needs to get a whole lot better / braver.

Thanks man, will PM you

There were quite a few uncaged cars there, think they were all with the vintage car club though. Cool photos Shane! Any chance of a copy of that first one?

Ha ha, nah trailered it to Chch for the guy who built the engine to check it over and tune it. It is all run in now so will finally be able to open it up and see what it will do. Have taken the family so driving it wasn't really going to fly.

I reckon next time you should drive your brothers car, he will have been giving it death because its not his..... looked like a lot of fun though, that Escort sounded awesome!

Bit more progress, I was trying to get this done so I could take it to the grasskhana that the Nelson car club ran today, but didn't quite make it, part of the reason is this When I was getting the front panel lined up ready for welding a crack opened up about 50mm from the join, so while I was cleaning up the welds I had made I did a little bit of investigating and found this. Left side Right side So it appears that I was not the first person to chop off the front sheet metal, I was however the first person to weld it up properly.... apparently a few spot welds and heaps of bog was the order of the day for that particular repair, in fairness they had used heaps of underseal behind it which kept the rust away so it was just a matter of cutting the welds re-aligning it all and welding it back together. Next up fitting the fan to the radiator, I got a bit lazy and just used those push through tie things And engine back in, oil cooler and radiator fitted, fan re-wired with a digital controller as the analogue one was a bit huckory So all that work was basically just for this Before After I have some bits turning up for the exhaust tomorrow so have decided to build the new one rather than fit the old one back on

Got a bit more done, not quite as much as I hoped as the weekend was a total fail but I am getting there All the fab is done Front welded back together So the motor can go back in now, however there is one small snag, because I can't leave things along there was something else that has been bothering me, basically the muffler hangs too low and it would be good to quieten it down a bit so a few months ago I bought these Now the exhaust is a bit of a basted to get in as it is all one piece so I chopped it and added some v-bands, this way the headers won't have to come out again Not sure if I will get the whole exhaust made this week as there are a few bits to figure out so it may end up with the old one back in for a bit longer yet, will just have to see how the week goes....

Pretty keen on doing this, guess that leaves this weekend to get my car back together...

Today I got those side panels all welded in then made up the crossmember and welded that in as well Crossmember Goes here had to tidy up a few other things while I was doing this and found some more rust which has been dealt to but it slowed me down a bit and I didn't get quite as far as I had hoped. I have started cutting and fitting the front sheet metal that I un-stitched, so will carry on with it this week.

More progress from yesterday, I decided to remove a bit more steel, basically the bits at the side were going to end up looking a bit funny as I was going to chop away most of them, so I cut them out as well leaving this. Then I made up some new ones So these will mount here and from the front this is going to give me an extra 140mm of width in the front intake and probably about 200mm of height, so that is a pretty massive gain. It is going to end up wider than it needs to be but I am thinking that if I end up needing to go to a bigger radiator (not that there is really any room for that....) down the track then at least I have some provision for it. So todays mission is to get those bits welded in and replace the crossmember that I cut out, rather than replace the crossmember with something like it had I am going to make it out of tube as I have some left over rollcage tubing that should do the trick.

Bit of an update, I have been driving this a bit and there is a small issue that needs to be dealt with, basically when sitting in traffic the temperature creeps up slowly even with the fans running, it is fine when moving but it is probably only a matter of time until it becomes a problem. when I put the fans on I went for 2 10" ones as they were the easiest to fit, anything else was going to require a bit more cutting, also the opening in the front of the car isn't really big enough and was blocking some of the radiator. I made the radiator as big as I could to have it fit between the chassis rails and below the bonnet and the fact that it keeps everything cool when moving says to me that it will be able to do the job if I can get the airflow up when the car isn't moving. So I did this Motor out start unstitching the front Then cut the lower part of the front off so i could get in At this stage I found that the crossmember at the front of the car was pretty much a write off, it looks ok in the photos but it had rusted out and had some 3mm plate welded in and all bogged over, basically it was a real mess. So after trying to decide about whether I bodge it or fix it properly I cut it out So now I have a massive opening in the front, that should fix the airflow to the radiator..... I have also bought a 16" fan so I am hoping that between increasing the airflow to the radiator and putting a bigger fan that it will take care of it. This weekend I will start putting it back together....

So cool man, nice work!

Yeah could be keen, will message you and get some more info

Hey did you ever get the mx5 motor in before changing direction? I have bought myself a b1600 and thought the mx5 motor would be a good fit for mine

Cheers mate yeah took it out of town yesterday and got into some twisty back roads which was a heap of fun, I am really struggling to keep the revs down as it just wants to keep going but it was a blast anyway. Think I have already burnt the packing out of the mufflers but that will learn me to use cheap ones haha

Yeah wasn't me today, had a few beers last night and wasn't up to much today. Definitely taking it out tomorrow though. I am in Enner Glynn

Thanks man, yeah it's a lot of fun, probably should have finished it years ago eh

Yeah it's been a long time coming

OK I'll do that, cheers

Yeah it is kind of wrong but right at the same time You will probably see some more of it to as I'm working out there at the moment