build diary

July 22, 2004:
A very different mood from yesterday.
The exhaust is properly welded up (thanks Brian!) and will receive some final finishing tonight. First we had to install it and then run the car. Much excitement! The car has a very, very deep voice and is a good volume. It's not silent but it should be quite streetable. It's probably similar to my Miata. It's great fun to blip the throttle and see things blow away from the side of the car! There are still some wiring problems to be worked out but that's easy.
entry 497

One of the rubber mounts for the muffler.
I had to weld a tab to the frame for this and a hole will need to be cut in the side panel.
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The complete exhaust system.
Anyone need some short lengths of pool hose?
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The fully welded exhaust.
It's not terribly pretty yet but it will be cleaned up.
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This is the size of the hole that needs to be cut in the front panel.
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July 23, 2004:
I'll be taking the body panels in for painting before too long, so I'm working on getting all the holes drilled and everything worked out.
Thus I built the stone shields for the rear fenders last night and finished the drilling for the front fenders and mirrors. The nose cone received the final Dzus fastener underneath the radiator so it's ready. That Dzus, by the way, is going to be difficult to reach when the car's on the ground. I think I'll have to make a special little tool for it. Brian and I also started cleaning up the welds on the header today. It'll look nice when we're done!
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Working out the pattern for the rear fender shields.
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Rear fender shield in place - but I did the measuring on the left side.
Turns out there's a small difference in the shape of the right fender at the bottom. I'll be able to tweak that easily then round off the corners.
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An installed mirror.
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Cleaning up the welds on the header.
By the time I'm done, it will look like a single pipe. The reflections make it look as if I've really cut down the thickness of the pipe!
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July 26, 2004:
It was a weekend of fine detail work.
Lots and lots of sanding on the fibreglass body parts to prepare them for painting. They're very high quality and needed almost no touching up - except for the two extra holes I drilled in one of the front fenders. Whoops. So that had to be patched. I also spent some time grinding down the welds on the exhaust to make everything look good. The side panels have been cut to clear the exhaust and they're now installed. It's getting very close - the only large jobs left are the painting and the exhaust. Then it's all down to troubleshooting and tweaking.
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I had to redrill a couple of holes in one fender.
This meant patching the fibreglass.
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Getting the nose ready for painting.
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July 27, 2004:
No major progress to report.
Some pinholes in the exhaust welds have been filled and now I have to spend a little more quality time with the grinder. One thing I don't believe I mentioned - the only part of the stock exhaust manifold that was retained was the flange. The collector was shelved and replaced with one from an unused Miata race header. It's larger and constructed with more attention to the flow. The body parts are now off at the paint shop. The final colour scheme is the orange and black you can see in this mockup. That should be finished this week as should the exhaust. Then it's a matter of a half hour of assembly and I'll be test driving! Once the fibreglass parts are in place I'll build a hood (bonnet) for the car. This shouldn't take long, just a lot of careful measuring so I don't have to buy another big sheet of aluminum!
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July 28, 2004:
Big news!
The body parts are painted already! They look spectacular. They need wet sanding to smooth out the finish but the colours are awesome. The front fenders are a metallic BMW black while the rest of the body is Lotus "Chrome Orange". In the sun it's blinding. Lotus paints are extremely expensive and I'm in a little shock there, but this will encourage me to do the paint justice in both finish and attention to detail. Kids, if you buy a Lotus Elise in Chrome Orange, do NOT scratch it. If I'd been smart enough to ask about paint costs I might have ended up with a Daytona Blue car. Naaaaah...
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A small tweak to a water line gives more clearance for the header.
This line usually runs on the forward side of the dipstick tube.
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A small hole needed to be cut in the side panel to fit the exhaust bracket.

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The cutout for the header exit.
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Side panels in place!
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The body parts are painted! That's a BMW metallic black for the front fenders and Lotus Chrome Orange for the other parts.
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All of the parts out in the sun.
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This shot of the nose shows a bit of the pearl in the orange.
The camera is confused by the bright sign and obnoxious colour.
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BMW carbon black mica - it's a pretty colour with some good depth.
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