I know you guys on here aren't really so much into uncool obscure old british tat, but it's nice to keep a log and a couple of people seem interested so I'll keep updating on here.
So I haven't been up to much with this of late, took her to a couple of shows, did some camping, and while she gave me **** the whole time, she didn't (and hasn't, yet) actually let me down.
She got a little picture in a magazine as well:
The engine though, in general, isn't in a great way. One of the valve lifter thingers is really sticky, and I've known something isn't right for a while, but at a show we took the rocker cover off and had a look, and that's what it is. This is easy enough in itself but honestly the engine wants a proper rebuild, and with the way I am I'd end up throwing a few hundred at it, and... it would still be a **** engine. So basically I put her in the garage and left her there until winter.
Also really getting on my nerves is it clunking badly into gear. This I think is due to pinion angle, basically the angle of the driveshaft is a real mess now because the car's sitting on its arse, so that will need addressing either by angled lowering blocks or by moving the actual spring seats on the axle to change the angle.
Anyway, fast forward a bit, last week we bought this old bag of crap:
It's a 1991 Eunos roadster, 1.6 automatic. It's not in bad shape really. 101k miles, no history (had some discs a couple of years ago, aux belt also, has done like 500 miles since), a few dings around it, windows and wipers are a complete joke, but the hood is very new and the wheels are in good nick so I should be able to get a small amount of money back on a few bits like those and the light assemblies etc on eBay.
Basically the plan is to pull the engine and gearbox from this and put them in the minx. Along with the brake master cylinder, radiator, possibly the accelerator/gas pedal assembly, instrument cluster, and if they'll fit, the seats.
There are a million other jobs that will need doing, but the vague list (along with some jobs I no doubt will forget to list, and a much bigger list of jobs that I don't even realise need doing) is:
Pull almost everything from the minx's bay
Mount engine & gearbox - Engine mounts
should from what I gather actually mate up fine. Gearbox crossmember I will have to have made up
Make brackets for radiator
Find out how to mount the MX5 brake master cylinder, plumb it in to the minx brake system
Find out how to make the throttle work, the minx has a linkage and the mx5 is operated by a cable, might conceivably be easier to find a way to move both pedals over from the mazda (both cars are auto)
Either modify the linkage from the Minx's column shifter to work the MX5's auto box, or use the MX5's shifter - I would like to keep the column shift, which should actually be ok to do, as the mechanism on the BW35 auto box is in a similar place to the Mazda's box, and should be modifiable to work
Get suitable instruments to fit the dash, or take the whole binnacle from the MX5, or get and mount a digital dash
Find some way to mount the MX5 seats if possible - the minx has a bench seat looking arrangement that is actually two separate seats, but the transmission tunnel turns into quite a large square box that the original seats actually mount to on one side of each seat. I'm unsure if the MX5 seats will fit either side of this, and they may just look or feel wrong, so I may have to keep the original seats and put in fresh foam
Fit a suitable fuel pump - the minx fuel pump is in the engine bay and pulls from the tank but the mazda's fuel pump pushes from inside the tank. Hopefully can fit an inline fuel pump to the fuel lines
Get everything wired up - I will keep and label up as much of the MX5's loom as possible, as the Minx has very little wiring of its own being a 1964 car. I should be able to run everything I want from the MX5 engine and ECU to the car, rather than the other way around. It's really just ignition, lights and... well that's it
Look into suitable axles that will be better suited to the mighty 114 (or possibly 100) bhp of the mazda engine as opposed to 60/80 bhp of the original engine (I'm not sure of power figure but it is as fast as marmalade roughly). The original axle might be ok with this, we'll see I guess
Sort out the pinion angle by changing the angle of the rear axle in the car with angled blocks or cutting off and reattaching the spring pads on the axle
Have a driveshaft made up to fit the MX5's autobox at one end and the original axle at the other
Underseal the car throughout, the frame rails and arches have been done but I need to do the rest
Have an exhaust system made up
There's more, there's definitely way more, but it doesn't come to mind at the moment.
I feel like I might possibly need to get hold of a welder and learn how to use it, but I'm going to see how I go. I should be able to borrow an engine hoist and get some mates to help with the actual mounting of the engine, but according to what I've read that should be actually easy enough, it's making all the other bits work that will take time.
