Westfield build, Mazda SDV

As a task to break up the wiring, riveting isn’t really the best. Still, I realised I didn’t need access to the footwells any more so on went the side panels. These basically add protection as water and small debris could find its way inside the tub from underneath and the rear arches.

It had been a while since I fitted a panel, so I’d forgotten just how much drilling was involved. I regretted two things, not charging the battery on the drill, and only having the one battery! The air rivet gun made fixing them on a breeze though. Pun intended.

With those on, the tub could be lifted into place. You need at least two people for this to support it.

If you are using the FW bonnet with standard (ZK) rear, do not do these steps! The bonnet is fitted first, this will be covered in a later post

The dash hoop is in a different place on the Mazda SDVs, so the tub needs trimming a bit. It will need to go back a bit in this photo to achieve the 400mm measurement at the rear.

After a battle with the hacksaw and making lots of orange dust, the tub fitted and I could get it in the right position.

The good thing about fitting the tub though is it vastly improves the look of the car, particularly in the looking-like-car department

Urgh. Probably the worst part of the build this. I wish I’d spread it out over the course of the build to break it up a bit rather than have it all as one chunk, but then I did wildly underestimate the task. Hint, don’t think it’s just what the manual says, that looks easy!

Here’s the main loom before modification, all nicely wrapped up and labelled. Thank God for the labels!

Roughly placed over the car, still doesn’t look too daunting.

But, and here’s the horrible part. I then removed all of the covering and insulation. Loads of the stuff! Now, I’d agree you don’t have to do this, but it would end up a pretty messy looking engine bay – most wires would be too long and you’d have a lot of wires you don’t need.

Firstly, apologies for the delays here. I encountered a few problems and wanted to get them resolved before updating the blog. That will all be covered in a later post.

Once the remaining silicone hoses arrived, I finished mocking it all up. Thankfully, it all fits and I don’t need any more hoses to finish the coolant re-route. That said, I may use orange silicon when it comes to fitting the header tank, we’ll see.

Here’s the radiator return section:

I might stick a cable tie mount on the chassis to secure the ali pipe. From there, it connects to the feed for the water pump. The two pipes coming off here go to the throttle body (small pipe) and header tank (larger pipe).

Finally, the coupling for the radiator top hose. Perhaps not the most complicated part in the build.

So I’m happy all the pipes fit. I’m currently spraying them black now – gotta stick with the theme!

The major job I started this week was fitting all the coolant parts. As mentioned previously, I’m following the “coolant re-route” so the manual and parts Westfield supply are of little use. The reroute itself is well documented on the WSCC, and the parts can be sourced from a couple of guys on there.

Firstly, and the picture suggests otherwise but it was first, I fitted the radiator:

This meant I could test fit the parts and find what else I need. First up, the route from the 1600 thermostat cover (now at the back of the block) to the radiator. The first pipe is a custom designed 90 degree bend to get it up over the exhaust manifold. I’ve had to unbolt the dipstick to achieve this so will have to make a new bracket to mount that on.

There’s an aluminum pipe that goes across the manifold, a dogleg silicon hose, then a shorter pipe to the radiator. I need to source a short section of hose to attach it to the radiator.

Back out of the radiator, there’s another dogleg to get around the chassis. As you can see, it’s a bit tight so I’ll have to trim the pipe. It’s also been suggested that I mount the bottom of the radiator on small rubber mounts which will space it out a bit and absorb the vibrations coming through the chassis.

The original thermostat housing is blanked off, and a bleed screw has been added.

So it’s just the bottom of the radiator back to the water pump to sort, with a path from there going to the throttle body (which goes across to the oil cooler then the back of the block).

Lastly, because I’ve forgotten to add it to the other post I made today, I also fitted the horns using rivnuts. Pretty simple to be fair!

A few simple jobs done this week, plus some work on the cooling which probably warrants a post on its own.

Firstly, the holes for the passenger engine mount were drilled. This was a bit tricky as it’s on a plate over where two parts of the chassis meet. You need to ensure the holes don’t go into the chassis tubes, and leave space for the washers to go on!

I paid a bit of attention to the pedals too. I chopped 8mm or so from the clutch stud, and 4mm from the brake. This meant the pedals could sit further back and has improved the driving position beyond recognition. OCD means I still need to make the brake and clutch pedal level!

I’ve also drilled the hole for the steering column to go through. Once I’ve decided on how far along I’ll mount the upper column I’ll send the middle column off to Westfield for modification.

I’ve fitted the washer bottle, just a couple of bolts. I’ve mounted it so that the bolt heads are inside the footwell meaning as little intrusion as possible. I doubt if it would be noticeable to be fair, or at least I wouldn’t notice them!

Last of the small jobs – I fitted some clips to the fuel hoses and convoluted hosing. I need to buy some more clips, because I’ve bought them the wrong size. Doh! The engine end is all done though:

I’ll need to secure them to the chassis rail to keep it all tidy.