K&N filter

Hi

Just a little more progress today mostly in the engine bay but before that I had a look at the fibre glass repair and it came up very well indeed. I feathered in the outside repair without taking to much of the fibre glass repair away although you can hardly see the repair so hopefully it will be the same when the paint is on.

I have test fitted the spoiler to see if it fits in the middle, Terry has told me that because of these cars being hand made that there is a huge variations in the build and that some cars require a spacer in the middle. Mine seems to fit ok but I have just clamped it in the middle without the wings on, you may be able to see the holes already drilled from its original fit and they are a lot more forward. These will need filling if they remain in this position.

This is part of stage 3, the doors off stripped and repaired, windscreen out, wings back on and new steps to be made and spoiler to fit not to mention all of the paint rubbed down and filled where necessary then painted so in the loft with the spoiler till then.

Not a whole lot left to do in the engine bay but still an afternoons work. The spark plugs went in followed by the HT leads, I had printed sticky numbers for the distributor cap and hopefully I got them stuck on in the correct firing order.

I was going to go for the large round black air filter from Europa spares but have decided to go for a Chrome K&N performance filter

I spoke to the guy at Fast road cars an authorized Weber dealer who seemed to know his business and he recommended this filter, one of the questions I asked was about the emission pipe from the rocker cover that fits into the original filter and also the small 5mm pipe from the carb to the filter. He says that the 5mm pipe can be plugged and the emission pipe is fed down somewhere under the engine and allowed to vent. Seems a bit hitty missy to me but apparently no performance filters have these pipes plugged in, so see what happens.

The rest of the day has been spent cleaning the plastic surround and painting where I can, It is badly cracked in places and very gunged up and took a lot of scrapping to remove the waxy oily residue.

I was going to remove the wiper mechanism to clean and get underneath it until I removed the cover and thought better of it.

I was still able to lift it and clean under by removing the bracket then put the lid back on and gave it a good scrub.

I have also removed the bonnet hinges as they are in need a good polishing although I nearly gave up after struggling with the bolts, must have been some fun job to fit these originally.

Other than the air filter I have been doing plenty other buying while I have been home.

The first was a set of snail horns, maybe a bit premature but I like to have things available. At around £9 with P+P so not bad.

The next I decided on when I removed the center console and it is the cigarette lighter, same as the horn I like to have it available. This cost £15 inc p+p but on opening the parcel I found that it also came with the gear knob which is sold separately for £17 inc p+p. Whether or not this was a mistake on there part I don't know, but I now have a new gear knob.

From first buying the car I have been deliberating about the seats, whether is was cheaper and easier to buy new one's than to have them re-furbished or to fit one's from another car. I have been in communication with Terry B for quite a while over this and had virtually decided to have them recovered by Ray at Vee Six, I would also have had to buy headrests from Bruno at over £30 each so it was working out really expensive. I have now been informed that the seats from a TVR Cerbra fit but require a bit of alteration to the runners and the moving of the seat belt mounts, not a problem. The problem is finding them, well I did not find the Cerbra seats but I found a set of Griffith seats which are Cerbra seats as they used the same seats in both models. The one's I have are from a 92 model in Magnolia and I found them on eBay, I have only gone by the photo but for being 20 years old look in better condition than my MX5 seats at 12 years old. The guy who is selling them is happy to hold on to them until I get home next time as we are going away for the weekend so I don't want to take the chance of missing the delivery.

I shall either have a go at restoring and re-coloring the leather myself or get a price for a pro to do the job although after blowing up the photo I can see very little scuffing and the guy selling them says they have been well looked after but could do with a good cleaning and conditioning of which I have all of these creams for my other cars seats.

The delivery is £30 and the seats cost £104 so hopefully I'll get them to fit and I will have saved myself a few hundred pound and have nice comfy seats, will have to wait till next time home to test fit.

see ya Paul