Angle grinder – the tool of last resort

Posted on July 21, 2011 by Dom

Or should that be first resort. Anyway, before I reveal our sparky antics, I thought it worth mentioning that I did indeed get the light fitted when I got home from work. Just.Still, just is better than not at all and now it’s much brighter at the back, meaning we can work with the door open and get some air flowing! As you can see though, the wall on the right and back could still do with another coat.

Right, back to the important stuff. This is where the offending bolts/nuts were (on each side)

Annoyingly, that doesn’t look too bad so you’ll just have to trust me that everything was horribly corroded! As its such a tight gap we couldn’t really get the grinder in that well, so we ground off the bottom one, then prised the wing/bumper apart slightly to hacksaw off the top one. Repeat on the other side and done! Aside from the clips we missed at the front but they were well behaved for once.

Of course, with the wings off it revealed some untreated rust which would probably have caused me some issues in the future:

Drivers side

Passenger side

Its surprising the passenger side wasn’t worse, you can see the amount of dirt that fell out of it!

So, in summary today I got a bit more of the wiring labelled up (rear loom is now done to the individual wire, where necessary), the wings and doors have been removed, the bonnet is off, washer bottle is out (and emptied into the missus’ car) and now the car is ready to be moved to the middle of the garage and spend its final weeks on axle stands. This wasn’t due to happen to w/c 8th August so quite pleased with that!

16.03% of the way through then apparently. The corrosion underneath should slow me down of course!

That’s it for now until Sunday. Hopefully I’ll be able to offload a few of the panels taking up space at the back of the garage before things start coming off the underneath!

Posted in Donor stripdown | Tagged | Leave a comment

It’s fighting back!

Posted on July 20, 2011 by Dom

Took a day off the garage yesterday and I think the mazda now knows what is happening to it and is retaliating. I had to cut through a few bolts to get the rear bumper off, but the front bumper has just three left that can’t be cut through with a hacksaw. I’ll show it the angle grinder tomorrow and see how far that gets me! At least if it doesn’t work the sparks will make me look cool. Memo to self: pick up some safety glasses.

On the positive side, I’m still ahead of schedule. Removing the headlights means I’ve now done all of the tasks I’d planned to do this week, and I’ve also done half of next weeks. If I can get the front bumper off tomorrow, I can continue to attack the wings and doors. The fixings for them should be much less corroded!

I also managed to get a bit more paint on the walls, and the ceiling is done. The light should be able to go up tomorrow then…

So, current status is 13.86% of the way through the project having spent 72 hours on it. 320 hours to go!

Posted in Donor stripdown | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

It begins!

Posted on July 18, 2011 by Dom

On Friday 15th July, at about 6pm the Mazda was parked in the garage for the final time. 145,657 miles after it rolled off the production line, it covered its last mile. Obviously, that was on the way to the garage, its not that big.

I wasn’t sad, happily. Sure, I’d had fun over the past 7 months but its going to get turned into something better. That and the clutch judder was really beginning to get on my nerves, I really must sort that whilst I’m breaking the car!

Having said all that, I’m still kinda hoping to find lots of rust when I take it apart to try and justify killing this particular one!

Anyway, as you can see, painting didn’t quite get finished. At the time of writing, I have done slightly more than the photos suggest but I’m still behind. Of course, with the car in the garage it does make it a touch more awkward. Annoyingly, it looks like Homebase has changed their paint and it’s now a bit thicker. If they’d have done this a few weeks ago I’d have needed a lot less coats!! Doh!

I put a thread up on MX5Nutz saying that the car was breaking and parts would be available. I decided to price things cheaper than what I was seeing on other for sale threads to try and get them moving quickly. Sure enough, I was inundated with PMs requesting various bits and pieces which took some keeping on top of! Not complaining of course!

First up someone was coming to collect the bootlid and some dash items on Sunday, so off they came. I also found a much easier way of removing the eyeball vents than the manual suggested so that was a bit lucky. They really are in there tight!

By close of play Sunday, the car was looking like this:

We’d removed a few dash bits, the boot lid and the roof mainly. Of course, what car breaking project wouldn’t be complete without getting your mate upsidedown in a footwell at some point?

Fast forward to today, and after a couple more hours its looking like this. I’ve also managed to get a bit more painting done which is a bonus. Another coat on the ceiling then I reckon I’ll be able to get the light refitted.

Tomorrow I think it’ll be up on axle stands, then off with the bumpers, drivers side wing and drivers side door. Back on the floor, turn it around then off with the passenger side wing and door. Then it can go into the middle and I should be able to finish off the interior and on with the underside. If I can achieve that, I should be a week ahead of plan and so afford some time to finish off the painting. Nice use of the word ‘if’ there of course!

Posted in Donor stripdown | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Garage update – workbench done

Posted on July 7, 2011 by Dom

Jon has been over the past couple of evenings and we’ve manged to finish the new workbench. Pretty simple, knocked up a frame and bolted B&Qs finest kitchen worktop to the top! It’s just over 2.5m long so plenty of space. Also managed to get the vice bolted down but whether I’ve chosen the correct position or not… time will tell.

And yes, I have waaaaay too many wheels and tyres! I think I might sell the set that were on the MX5, they’re unlikely to make it onto the Westfield at any point. The land rover ones will surely get fitted when I work out how much fuel I’ll be using on the ATs!

Finally, painting is still going on:

Need to buy yet another tin, but at least I’ve sussed out a knack now. Ditch the rollers, just lay it on thick with the brush!

Just 10 days to go now…

Posted in Pre-build activities | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Front of garage done!

Posted on July 4, 2011 by Dom

Managed to get the front of the garage finished off today. New light fitted and wired in. Its definitely had the desired effect on the darkness of the front of the garage!

Before:

 

Welcome to the dark side…

And now:

Much better! All that’s left to do is decide on the final route of the wiring, then paint over it to hide it a little.

Next up, clear the back of the garage, move the light switch to the other side of the garage then let painting recommence. I’ve also just measured the Land Rover and I won’t be fitting the worktop from B&Q in that! I’ll either have to tie it to the roof bars or get it delivered. Decisions decisions…

Posted in Pre-build activities | Tagged | Leave a comment