Westfield build, Mazda SDV

It’s on the floor! Got the lads round on Thursday, fitted the wheels then carefully manoevured it down. Figuring the rear was the heaviest, we used the engine crane on that and man handled the front end. It wasn’t too heavy, or at least the guy on the crane didn’t think so.

We wanted to fit the engine and gearbox at the weekend so set about planning that it. The curse of the missing bits struck again… no engine mounts! I’ve got the brackets, but the mounts aren’t even on the pick list. I wonder why that is, maybe they’re part of the completion kit. Seems pretty pointless including the brackets but not the engine/gearbox mounts though.

As I was (and hopefully, still am) picking up the completion kit the following Thursday it was pretty pointless getting Westfield to post them, the engine fitting can wait. Besides, the more I delay it, the closer I’ll be to getting a nice posh lowered sump from Bassett Balancing. Hoping to grab that in January time and if the engine isn’t fitted by then, it saves swapping it over in situ.

I’ve painted the inlet manifold now and got that fitted. I got ahead of myself and fitted the coils/HT leads purely to see what it would look like. The rocker cover still has to come off to fit the timing belt. I want to sand the rocker cover back a bit anyway as the finish has the odd brush mark in it. I think I hadn’t cleaned the brush properly on the second coat.

It’s been a couple of weeks very much focused on painting! The temperature resistant calliper paint arrived so I started painting those. Unfortunately, the paint was far runnier than expected and it took 5 coats in the end. I took my time though and left the suggested 24 hours between coats. The final result isn’t perfect, but as long as it doesn’t melt I’m not too fussed. They’ll be hidden behind the wheels after all!

As you can see, it’s just the callipers I’ve painted orange, and even then only the front halves. I didn’t want them to stand out too much, hopefully they’ll look ok behind the wheels. If not, I can always paint the rest of them black!

The engine has also gotten some attention. I wanted to paint the raised lettering on the cam cover in orange with the rest being black. After much head scratching I painted the lettering and once dry started to mask it up ready for the rest. I wasn’t too confident in the masking though, it was quite fiddly so I decided I’d bite the bullet, paint over it then sand it back. As I painted over it I fortunately discovered I could merely wipe the paint off the orange bits – that made life nice and easy!

With the head back on, the block/head was painted black and reassembly started.

So far the water pump is back on, along with the oil pressure sender and oil cooler. The rocker cover will come off again to fit the cambelt, but I fitted it for now as I need the space on the bench to paint other bits. The exhaust manifold is currently drying and should go back on tomorrow. Then it’s the inlet manifold and all the little brackets dotted around.

In other news, I’ve paid for the rest of the completion kit and the collection should be on the 15th December. I need to get the engine in by then and the store room cleared. Chop chop!

A few more jobs finished tonight. Firstly, I replaced the ball joint boot on the drivers side as this didn’t survive the ball joint splitter when taking the donor apart!

I popped the discs and callipers on though not fully as I’m still waiting for the paint to arrive. That’s in the hands of the Home Delivery Network, so I’m not getting my hopes up. The callipers are going orange to match the car. I would probably have painted them black to be fair, I’m not a fan of ‘blinged up’ standard brakes. But I need heat resistant orange paint for the Mazda logo on the engine so it was a good excuse.

I chopped the bracket off the upper steering column and loosely attached that. I was hoping to be able to see where to drill the hole through the bulkhead, but as I only have two of the three steering columns I was never going to get very far. Hopefully the third column comes in the completion kit and I’ll then be able to measure how much Westfield need to reduce one by.

I also need to read up on other build diaries as I think you have to do something funky with the mounting of the column if you’re not using the standard dash.

Lastly, the clip for the driveshaft arrived in record quick time and with it replaced, it was an easy push fit.

I also got round to finishing the soldering on the rear loom and taping it up. Just got to fit the tubing and secure it to the chassis.

Passed a milestone today – I’m now over 50% through the entire project! Granted that includes prepping the garage and dismantling the donor. 165 hours sunk in so far, still plenty to go! I think I’ll have a beer…

A bit of a delay with this. I’ve been waiting for Westfield to send out some 4.5″ bolts and spacers for the buffers on the rear diff. Well technically they’ve done that so I’ve been waiting for the postman to deliver them. The postal system still hasn’t given them up so I bought some more bolts and decided to make the spacers myself. I also picked up an M6x35mm bolt for the brake pressure switch. Then managed to lose a washer for it in the process.

Anyway, rear diff fitting. First up, the brackets for the arms of the diff. The drivers side fitted without too much argument, but the passenger side was horrible. It required a lot of jiggling around, loosening one side, tightening the other until the holes vaguely lined up. Then, slide the last bolt through and tighten the lot!

With that done, onto protection for the chassis. Fortunately, the wood Westfield use package the fuel lines seemed just right and so that got chopped up and taped to the chassis.

Onto the spacers, and I’ve finally found a use for the original spacer in the front of the diff. I thought that as that was an M12 bolt in there, the spacer should be the right thickness. I called Westfield technical to ask what length it should be. Unfortunately they didn’t know off hand, so I fitted it in full length then measured how much needed to be chopped off.

The diff was bolted in loosely at first until every bolt was in, then it could be tightened. The top of the front bracket proved most entertaining, requiring the removal of the brake pipes in this area.

The bolts were then tightened up, requiring much less expletives that the brackets before hand.

With the diff fitted, the uprights/driveshafts (and thus rear shocks) could be done. For the 1.8 (at least with the open diff) the driveshafts slide in rather than bolt in. They’re secured with circlips instead. Circlips that have to be of a certain size it turns out. The specifications state they shouldn’t be larger than 28mm, and I think on removal one of them was deformed. The passenger side goes in without any fuss, but the drivers side just didn’t want to play ball. I’ve ordered a new clip from Mazda, but they’re on backorder so likely to take 5 days to get in. I guess the chassis won’t be making it to the floor this week. Never mind, still around 4 weeks until I pick up the completion kit anyway.

I also remembered the cover for the inertia seat belt reels. Now, I’m not going for the standard seat belts and instead fitting four point harnesses. Cleverly, I thought this meant I could fit the cover now rather than removing the diff later.

Less than clever of course, if there’s no reels I don’t need to cover them. I thus justified it because it looks tidy, but in reality it won’t be seen.

A few more diff shots

So that’s it on the diff front for now, at least until the clip arrives. Other jobs to do include:

• Fitting the upper steering column so I can measure how long the lower column needs to be.
• Painting the brake calipers and fitting them (paint ordered Monday)
• Rebuilding the engine

And on the engine front, the head has been skimmed and rebuilt

It only needed one pass, so I guess it wasn’t really warped. I’ve checked the block and that seems perfectly flat. I guess it was either a dodgy gasket then or a problem with fitting. Either way, confidence inspired that it shouldn’t leak when it all goes back together.

I contacted Westfield on Monday and they duly sent out the lock nuts for the top ball joints. These arrived the next day and fitted a treat. I just need to buy a 22mm spanner to tighten then up!

On Wednesday I picked up a long bolt to finish of fitting the spacer to the diff. It duly snapped! The next day I took it to the garage and pressed the spacer back out. It wasn’t as damaged on the top as I thought (I may have tapped it with a hammer once… shhh) so I was able to turn that out on a lathe. I cleaned the holes in the diff up and it pressed in with absolutely no argument. If only I’d have done a better job of cleaning the holes to start off with! Lesson learned.

With new found enthusiasm, and a hope of being able to fit the diff finally I started fitting the bracket. This is held on with two 4.5″ bolts. I couldn’t find these, but there were two 4″ bolts on the pick list so I presumed it was just a typing error. Wrong, they weren’t long enough. Looked like I wouldn’t be fitting the diff after all. Further checking showed I also didn’t have the spacers required for bolting the ‘arms’ on. A phone call to Westfield the next morning and they were all on their way to me. For the record, the spacers are supposed to be rescued from the Mazda. It rings a bell, and I think I might have done this but I have no clue which safe place I’d have put them in!

Lastly, I paid the deposit for the completion kit this week. I’ve gone for:

• Orange bodywork
• FW front end
• No dash
• Sport turbo seats (black with orange piping)
• 4 point harnesses
• Cat silencer (my donor is a ’96 model)
• Detachable rear arches

I’ve forgotten to specify that the front arches should be black, and I also meant to add the carbon effect rear lights. I hate carbon effect, but I like the design so I’ll probably just spray them black. Must remember to tell Westfield about those things though!

I’ve got a preliminary collection date of 14th-16th December. Plenty of time. Only got the rear wiring to finish, the diff to fit and of course the trivial job of rebuilding the engine and fitting that.