Everything Everywhere All At Once

Everything Everywhere All At Once is the title of a science fiction film - haven't seen it - but from the trailers and reviews it sounds very confusing. The title represents how my build project feels right now. Just about every major system of the car is in progress, but none of them are really complete.

Here's where I'm at on my wiring schematic. I'm not including all the ECU wiring because that's already provided by the Microsquirt people. There are also some subsystems that I am using directly from the Miata shop manual:

For instance, there is no reason for me to re-do the starting/charging schematic above because I am going to follow it exactly. Well, more or less exactly - like, I'm not using the diagnostic code system (Microsquirt has all that stuff built in and accessible whenever you plug it in to your laptop).

To actually start wiring though, I need the things that I'm wiring to actually be in place. Laser Amy got the gauge faces done and the cool thing about these is that I can use the OEM gauge lighting scheme. So I revised my housing for the fuel, water temp, and oil pressure gauges to accept OEM instrument light bulbs.

I had to paint the housing white inside to keep the light bouncing around. I hooked up one bulb just for a preview.

Only one bulb installed, so the light is uneven, but I think this will look good. This will sit behind a panel with round cutouts, and gauge lenses and bezels, so should look like 3 separate gauges. 

Aforementioned gauge panel is the middle one above; image from my SendCutSend.com shopping cart. The extra holes are for some switches, and of course the obligatory switch guards. As soon as I finalize this order, SendCutSend will laser cut the parts for me out of 304 Stainless and I will get them in the mail about 6 days later. The only reason I haven't finalized this order is that I'm not confident of the main gauges panel. It may need a cutout for the steering column in the middle, between the two big gauges.

Why am I not sure whether that panel needs a cutout for the steering column? Well, the sharp-eyed reader may notice in the above picture that the steering column is hanging from a bungee cord. I haven't fixed it in position because I'm not sure how high it should be, in turn, because I don't have the final seats in the car yet. The sharp-memoried reader may recall that I was planning to fabricate my own seats, but the more I looked in to this, I realized it was going to be not only a huge job but also very expensive - more expensive, actually, than just buying decent quality seats.

On the left, Lotus Elan inspired seats from BB Classics in the UK, on the right Lotus Elan inspired seats from GTS Classic Seats in Texas. Very similar - this style is the only thing on the market that I think will really fit the style I'm going for. GTS actually makes their seats in-house, taking measurements from both the driver and the car. Stephan, who owns the place, says the basket weave material where you sit is not as breathable as it looks and cloth fabrics are actually more durable. As soon as he said that, I thought of a dark Tartan with blacks, blues, and greens - would go nicely with the car's color scheme and also emphasize the British theme - and Tartan is exactly what Stephan was thinking. I'm waiting for a quote from Stephan, which I know will be quite roughly double what the BB Classics seats cost.  So probably some time next week I will either order seats from BB Classics and wait for them to ship from the UK, or from Stephan and wait for him to make them. Either way, I won't know exactly how high I want that steering wheel until I get the seats in.

So I thought maybe I could work on the cooling system. White was on sale, so I got all white coolant tubing and got that installed, including the fittings through the firewall where the coolant either goes through the heater core or bypasses it and comes back out.

On the other side of the firewall, there wasn't any conveniently located structure to hang the heater core from. I couldn't find C-channel in the same gauge as used by Andy at ANC, so I bent my own piece on the brake out at Pops Racer's shop and fitted it in to the existing structure:

Brazed it in place and painted it, and it looks just like it belongs there.

So now I can bolt that heater core in place and actually have a full system - the cooling system - complete. Right?

Well, no, because there's some stuff in the trans tunnel that needed doing and if I put in the heater core I'd have to pull it right back out because it's going to be a hassle to get the trans tunnel in and out with the heater core in there. 

So, let's get the trans tunnel finished up. I got the shifter and p-brake handles and boots and trim done, but the shifter shaft felt too tall when I had the donor car seat in more-or-less where I want to be sitting. So, I figured, time to shorten the shifter shaft (say that 3 times fast).

So my idea was just to chuck this thing up in the lathe and turn the tapered part down to the circumference of the threaded part - then cut new threads - then cut off the top of the threaded part. Presto, shorter shift lever.

However, while turning the lever down on the lathe I discovered that it is not solid metal: it's hollow. The lower part of the shifter shaft goes in to a rubber bushing and the rubber bushing goes in to the black tapered threaded part in the picture above. And whether Mazda filled the extra space with black tarry goo, or whether the rubber bushing eventually deteriorated to become black tarry goo, I was turning the taper down on the lathe when suddenly the threaded part falls off and disgusting goo starts oozing out the hole. I didn't think to get a picture, which is a pity.

So now I had a kind of Loathsome Lollipop, the handle being the lower part of the shift lever, with a giant blob of semiliquid rubber and tarry goo on top and absolutely no desire to find out what it would taste like. The loathsome blob resisted all attempts to cut it off or wire wheel it off, so eventually I had to Burn it Off with Fire.

I knew it was going to make a very unpleasant smell, so I clamped it to a hand truck and rolled it outside. Burning this stuff smelled even worse than I expected it would. A line from H.P. Lovecraft sprang to mind: "... certainely nothing but the most lively awfulness..."

So back to the lathe to make a new upper shift lever

Cut the threads and then welded it on to the lower part - which was tricky because the lower part is hardened steel and the upper part is mild steel and they really weren't sure they wanted to be Forever Friends. Pops thought silicon bronze would be better - and it probably would have - but despite all my efforts with fire and toil, I could not get the lower to that pristine state of cleanliness that silicon bronze requires. So, welding and now my upper and Mazda's lower shift lever are stuck together, not prettily, but pretty strongly.

I thought about the tarry goo in there, on the Uncle Ray principle that car manufacturers don't go to the trouble of putting something in a car unless it has some kind of purpose. Insulating the shift knob from vibrations, maybe? Heat?

A quick trip via Google Shopping shows that the more expensive aftermarket short shift levers are solid metal with no rubber, no bushings, and no goo in evidence - so hopefully this will work. 

However, I also heard from Sir John of the Knight Kit Car Templars that the plastic bushing on the bottom has to go - brass is a needed upgrade for short shift levers. So I can't put the shifter back together until I get the brass bushing.

And even if I could, I'm still not ready to finalize the transmission tunnel because I am waiting for some heat insulating material and I need to punch some holes for the speedometer cable and the wires for two electrical gizmos on the transmission which I am guessing are the backup light switch and, well, not sure what the other one is, but both of those need new wire spliced on and then run through a hole in the trans tunnel that I haven't made yet so they can hook up to whatever they hook up to.

So, can't finish the cooling system quite yet.

I do like the way the cherry wood theme is coming together:

So I thought maybe I'll just jump to a totally different system and work on the fuel tank and fuel lines. Got the donor car fuel tank down from the rafters and set it in place. 

It's kind of an awkward shape, and I have seen some really ingenious work people have done to finish around it and create as much useable space in the trunk (boot, I suppose, to be Brit-themed) as possible. I already knew I'd be facing that hassle with the donor car fuel tank, but this was even more concerning:

I was aware of some rust around the edges of the pinch flange where the upper and lower halves of the tank are welded together, but I hadn't noticed this spot, where the Rust Monster has gnawed its way right up to the actual tank, where the actual fuel is kept. 

Building this Ill-Advised Sports Car Project, I have burned myself a couple of times on metal I just cut or sanded or welded. But, I feel like getting completely immolated in a ball of petroleum-fueled fire would be a bit further than I really want to go.

At this point, I'm starting to feel the draw of something like this:

Look at it, just sitting there basking in the light, acting like it's never even heard of the Rust Monster. No reason it should have, being made of aluminum. And look at the nice flat sides and square corners: it's really easy to imagine useable space coming right up beside this thing.

There would be some challenges along with it, like getting the Mazda fuel pump to move in and make its home inside there. Or, maybe just get an external inline fuel pump. 

I look at this thing and I don't see visions of myself on fire. It's a racing grade fuel tank with anti slosh foam inside and aircraft grade fittings. Yeah. I think this "not on fire" thing could be an attractive feature for my Ill-Advised Sports Car.

So, some delay doing the fuel system, obviously.

So I decided to install the horn.

It was a little more complex than I was thinking, but just look at it:

It's an actual air horn. As in, uses its own little air compressor. As in, sounds like a ship. 

I think this will be another interesting feature for this little car.

Here's another incomplete system: the cold air intake. The aluminum elbow tube needs the IAT sensor bung and a fitting for the idle air control valve hose welded in. Also needs the intake end trimmed (it extends all the way to the end of the air filter at this moment) and both ends re-beaded (trimming cut off the beaded ends). So nowhere near complete, in fact. But it looks pretty good sitting there, I think.