I can't quite believe how clean and tidy you've got the underside, rear beam, brakes etc. very nice...wish I'd had the patience. I started to refurb the standard brakes but got bored with it....hats off to you. Not sure you will ever get the seat to steering position optimal without butchering the shell and/or altering the column position.
Nice seats! Lol
Thanks, it did take ages, but now all these things have been done in one go I don't have to worry about them again. It nice knowing it doesn't look like its gone around the clock twice any more.Originally Posted by AndrewC
I don't really mind the steering wheel position, I don't particularly notice it when driving. It's just very noticeable getting in the Nova after driving another car all week, I certainly don't feel the need to try and change it though.
When you have a reputation as a 'car guy' its funny how often you get asked to look at or fix cars for everyone you know. The most interesting repair I've taken on recently is my step dads MK1 MX5, which had a few little rust spots that needed attention.
Both front wings had a few bits of the brown stuff, which inevitably was much worse once I started poking at it with a screwdriver to see how bad it was. It was quite annoying getting some of the bolts undone as several were so rusty they had no hex shape to attach a spanner to any more. The damaged bolt removing tools never seem to work for me, so I ended up welding nuts to to top of them to get them out. Naturally I later replaced the useless old nuts and bolts with stainless ones, it's a shame cars didn't leave the factory with them, at least in places where they will meet the elements.
The lower part of the front wings sit flush with the body and are a real rust trap. So the wings were beyond help and had to be scrapped for new ones. The shell where the wings sit needed tidying up but thankfully the rot hadn't eaten too far so the metal underneath was ok.
Some piles of rust forming on the floor:
It was nice to be able to make more use out of the mig welder again. Sill repair sections are readily available for the old MX5, this one needed both the inner and outer sections.
The drivers side sill was in worse shape, its funny how much a cars paint can hold it together, as it actually looked fairly good before the screwdriver inspection happened. These cars like to rust almost as much as Novas it seems, particularly in this area as I now notice when I see other MX5s on the road.
Outer repair section going in
All rust removed inside the wheel arch, painted up and protected ready for the new wings to go back on. MX5 pattern wings are a much better fit than Nova ones!
Its always a bit awkward when working on cars away from home as no matter how many of my tools I take with me the one I end up needing has frustratingly been left behind.
It took a few spare Sundays to finish, getting the filler to match the bodywork is probably my least favourite aspect. Obviously I try to get the metal near enough right in the first place so to use as little filler as possible on top. My technique of applying filler could probably be improved though, as it goes on quite messy and I end up having to spend ages sanding it down again and again.
The car all finished and looking nice again, another car saved from the scrapyard!
Last edited by paul james; 24-11-15 at 10:38 PM.
Back to the Nova:
I had bought some chrome door latches and pins ages ago and totally forgot about them. I remembered and dug them out this week, they add another bit of subtle shininess to the car.
I got fed up of the typical oil leaking from the rocker cover and having to clean it up. So I put another gasket in along with a small bit of gasket sealer around it. The oil cap was letting oil out too so I bought a new rubber seal for that which will hopefully cure it.
Its a much tighter fit now
In my continuing quest to lose some weight from the Nova I decided to ditch the horn from inside the drivers side wheel arch. As its an SR it has a multi-tone horn which it managed to achieve by using two seperate horns, the other of which is still attached by the gearbox. This horn didn't work anyway and it still sounds fine with just the remaining one. Its not a big weight saving at 0.41 Kg, but every bit helps.
Last edited by paul james; 24-11-15 at 08:08 PM.
My future plans for the car will probably be slowed down by the boring reality of money, having a house that needs paying off gets in the way of spending on toys.
I do need to respray the front bumper when the weather is better again, as I got stuck behind a gritting lorry a while back which seemed to be dispensing stones, jagged rocks and the occasional boulder instead of grit. So my bumper currently looks like a star filled night sky with all the white dots of primer showing through.
I intend on keeping the 1.3 engine, and any further gains from that will be pricey. So I mostly want to improve it by further reducing the weight of the car. An easy start will be door cards without speakers in them, uncut GSi ones if I can find them for a reasonable price, or perhaps some carbon ones and ditch the door pockets too.
I would like a fibreglass (or even better carbon, I can dream) bonnet to help get rid of some weight in the front. A lighter battery might be a good option, no idea how good a racing type battery would be? I'm pretty sure I've currently got a heavier duty battery than I need.
Not sure if I want to reduce any more weight in the back by going for a fibreglass tailgate, losing the spare wheel etc. as I don't want the car to be completely unbalanced with all the weight at the front. I'm not keen on having polycarb windows as I really need to be able to stick my head out of the window to reverse the car into my garage, its a tight fit through the enterance! I'll probably stick with electric windows and keep the heater as thats too useful to ditch.
I had thought of getting lighter wheels but it turns out after doing some weighing that the Astra alloys are only 7 kilos each anyway. I doubt theres a huge amount of weight to be saved without going silly expensive. Surprisingly the Goodyear Eagle F1 tyres I run are heavier than the wheels at 8kilos each, as chunky as the alloys appear they are pretty light.
Since I've already stripped a good amount out my options are a bit limited for weight reduction without going extreme and removing the few luxuries like carpet and headlining etc. It probably doesn't help that I've recently put on a stone either, most of it muscle... I hope
Last edited by paul james; 24-11-15 at 10:34 PM.
Good progress there.
I'm glad I looked through your project, did wonder where I could get a longer Spare wheel "holder" from and what car, now I know!
NovalutionGSi - Donkey Kong In a Go-Kart
Thanks, glad I could help!
I was thinking of cutting out the normal metal support in the boot and replacing it with something else to hold the wheel. But then I had a look on ebay and found a much easier solution with the longer Corsa C plastic holder and noticed the bolt bit was the same type, nice of them not to change the basic design all those years later.
No that's good that. Why change something when it ain't broke just increase the length.
NovalutionGSi - Donkey Kong In a Go-Kart
First update of the year!
I figured the most cost effective way to reduce the weight up the front of the car was to get a lighter battery. Things have moved on since I last checked out 'racing' batteries and now lithium Ion batteries are available. It took me a while to make up my mind on getting one, as unlike fancy wheels or fibreglass parts, well a battery just isn't particularly exciting or even visibly noticeable with the bonnet down.
I opted for a Varley Li-5 battery, and a suitable charger to go with it. I know there are cheaper lithium batteries on ebay and such, but I thought I'd go with a trusted name.
The difference in size between the old and new battery makes a fun comparison! I laughed when it arrived and I took it out of the box.
The weight difference is crazy, I don't think there is anything I could buy for the car now that would reduce the weight so much in one go. The old battery weighed in at 13.8Kg, the Li-5 is just 1.1Kg!
I quickly used a bit of the usual CAD (cardboard aided design) to knock up a bracket to hold the battery down, since I'm putting it in the standard place. It was suggested to me to stick the battery inside the car somewhere, but I don't want to use a load of heavy battery cable.
Its more than a bit rough, but its just a quick solution for me to be able to try it out without the battery jumping around. I'll either improve it or come up with something else to do the job. The bracket currently weighs in at 200g, so between it and the new battery I'm currently saving 12.5 kilos. I'm going to have to get the car weighed somewhere one day. I guess it started out somewhere in the middle of an SR and GSI in weight terms, it will be interesting to see where its at now.
I also need to replace my earth cable again as its too short, it's temporary bodged with a second cable at the moment.
Since the car has been in hiberation all winter, I ended up draining the Lithium battery without the car getting to fire up. So I hooked up the old battery and turned the engine over enough for fuel to get back up to it so it would start. The Lithium battery fully charges pretty quickly, I didn't time it but I'd guess it took about an hour. I crossed my fingers, hooked it up and it started the car no problem this time. I took the car out for a good run, stopped and started it a few times along the way to make sure the battery could cope with multiple starts, which it managed to easily enough. I'll either have to use the car more often, or keep the old battery on a trickle charge in case I need it for starting. I should drive it more often anyway as its so much fun, especially after months of pretty slow French diesel motoring.
I'm happy with the upgrade, it wasn't a cheap purchase but I thought it was a better experiment than just buying something done before. I'd searched online and couldn't find any mention of one of these batteries being used in a road car, just proper racing ones and motorbikes. So it was good to find out it could cope with a normal alternator etc.
Oh and the oil filler cap rubber seal I'd changed before has definitely 100% cured the oil leak which I had always put down to shoddy cork rocker gaskets, no more annoying little oil leaks hooray!
Last edited by paul james; 20-03-16 at 08:56 PM.
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