Author Topic: Mk1 G40 Turbo  (Read 74866 times)

Offline JoeH

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Re: Mk1 G40 Turbo
« Reply #120 on: August 17, 2015, 02:20:27 pm »
Is this what you want? somewhere between 3" & 8cm. From my standard interior wise G40

« Last Edit: August 17, 2015, 02:22:04 pm by JoeH »

Offline dubstar

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Re: Mk1 G40 Turbo
« Reply #121 on: August 17, 2015, 04:36:07 pm »
Joe.

You Sir, are a true Gent. I've been after this dimension for ages.

I didn't really want to guess as it impacts on where the stalks sit & such. Yeah, it probably wouldn't of been far out had I of taken a punt, but it's nice to have it perfect.

Many thanks  :) 8)

Offline dubstar

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Re: Mk1 G40 Turbo
« Reply #122 on: August 23, 2015, 09:07:44 pm »
Ok.

Rear Interior. I'm leaving the final build of the engine until last, and so concentrating on getting everything else done first. The aim being to get the interior done now.

First though, I got the IC in - took a bit of dicking about the get the speedo cable position right on the Mk1 dash (as it's spring-loaded) but I cracked it. Any idea what the black & red plugs are for? I'm sure its something simple but I've run out of plugs to go in to!!



Then welded up the column once it was 100% level, gave it a coat of paint and lobbed it in. Tidy.





The Elise seats don't fold forward, so it's two seats all the way! In fairness, I've left all the fixings in so if in future I want to bang rear seats in - it's an easy job. I never intended it to be a four seater, but unlike the Mini (which is full of roll cage and no useful space (not even a glovebox!) this needs to be usable. Load friendly, even. Here's the plan. I make a cover for where the rear seat base would of been. A new seat back and parcel shelf too.

I've done it all out of 3/8" birch ply. It's all hinged together too, so when it's up it looks relatively standard (apart from there are no foams, it's carpeted) and I've got a standard boot and space behind the driver seat to store stuff if needed. But it folds down too, giving me a large load space for camping & lugging stuff around if needed. Check it out....

Made the rear seat base first. It bolts in to the original rear seat back pivot holes.





As you can see, I've extensively used Jetnuts. They're ace. Allowing the use of standard metric threaded bolts into wood. We use them a lot at work. IKEA use them a lot too haha!



Then I made my parcel shelf... (and put a birra detail in it for strength and style too.)





Then connected it all together with the seat back. So here it is, done.





And here's how it looks put down...





The 6x9's in the parcel shelf can be kept in at all times and so will fold down with the shelf. I'll devise a prop to hold the prop up at the right angle. I'll do a combination of covering the easy stuff myself and asking the trimmers at work to help me with the double-sided parts.

I finished the day by installing the rear 3/4 interior panels on both sides and getting the sound cables (both rear speakers + amp phono) to sit correctly under the panel on one side, and the rest of the loom & amp 12v feed & exciter sorted on the other.



Front & rear carpets next, along with covering the new rear interior parts.

Offline dubstar

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Re: Mk1 G40 Turbo
« Reply #123 on: December 20, 2015, 10:10:47 pm »
Hi guys,

There's been quite a bit of progress and this is an update i've been meaning to write for a while. I'm sure i'll miss stuff and gloss over some others, but the most important thing to me, is that it's not far away from a fire-up now (in the grand scheme of things).

My man at work covered my woodwork in the rear for me - being a trimmer by trade, he did a much better job than I could of. It's the same guy who made & fitted my headlining for me. Ledge.





Then I sorted the carpets. Cleaned them up first as i'd just ripped them out 4 years ago! Bit of a job making it fit around the new seat mounts and in fairness not the tidiest of finishes but it's fine - I'm being picky.





I needed to re-visit the seat subframes. Mocked & tacked them up at the time, but they needed refining. They needed seatbelt points welding in for the buckles too.

The passenger seat is fixed, drivers moves forward & back. When I put the seat back in now with the headlining in place, there was just not enough headroom. The same problem I had back in the day with my Mk2f GT. Needed a radical solution. The BMW mini seat-runners are really good as they are so adjustable and narrow too. I needed to loose the height of the mechanism to get the seat down as far as possible. To cut a long story and a lot of frowning short, I lost the mechanism which operates the two runners together, then put swapped the right & left runners round on the subframe. It's worked a treat - I have one tab each side of the seat I press which realises each runner. Lost about 50mm in height too. All good.









So I've got the seats & belts in.



Sticking with the interior, turned my attention to the gearknob with integral switch for changing the boost state, and after that the auxiliary gauges.

So first, I got my pool ball and bought a tap for the random thread pitch! Then used some plywood in my machine vise to stop the ball from being marked, and drilled it out like this:

1) Spent a lot of time lining it up in the vice.
2) Ø5mm pilot right through.
3) switch rebate - Ø19mm wood bit.
4) switch body clearance drill to depth.
5) used 5mm drill to line up ball 180° round in vice.
6) gearstick tapping drill Ø through.
7) tap for gearstick.
8) fit & admire.
9) brew.











It looks good. When I tighten it up straight, the last quarter turn will cut threads and hold it in place.

The dash is more of an organic shape than I thought. The template I knocked up in ally for the aux gauge pod as symmetrical didn't fit, so got some pizza box cardboard and got busy making a new template...



That fits better. So I made it out of ally (again!) folded it up, cut the holes & got the gauges out for a shufty.



Then got the boys at work to knock me up a faceplate on the router while I painted it black and bonded on some plastic sides to cap it all in....



Gotta have a birra fun eh?!



It took me an age to find out that the Mk1 interior light is in the dash! I couldn't remember and thought I'd missed it out in the headlining. So anyway I took the opportunity to put it in the base of the aux panel. So the LED under the boost gauge tells me when the bleed valve is switched in. The WOT led tells me when the ECU is seeing WOT, which is handy in conjunction with the AFR.



Back under the beast, there are two things which need my attention before the car can be put on the floor. Handbrake cable and exhaust. I'm mating Mk4 golf cables to the original Mk1 polo front cable. I found a NoS front cable on eBay which I fitted, then worked on the rear cable. I've cut the cable sleeves down on both the LH & RH cable. Drilled through & counterbored an M14 bolt for each side to hold the outer sleeves and cut the inner cables down to be joined. I sent the M14 bolts went for re-plating (BZP) so they wont seize. CABLE-TEC joined the cables for me (in fact, they ditched the original inners in favour of one complete new cable the right length with new ends) and I fitted it earlier today. Works a treat and I've got adjustability at three points of the system. Bonus.







Obviously those are pictures of the mock-up so I could get the cable lengths right.

So I'm trying to set myself up for a few days over Christmas. A539 rubber is going on wheels, the bumpers are being pulled back, re-textured and painted matt black in PU, Andy blew me a chip with a 'safe' map which is going in the ECU, and I've pulled the doors, 'gate and bonnet out of storage & I'm building them up too.

Happy days  :D

Offline PeteG40

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Re: Mk1 G40 Turbo
« Reply #124 on: December 21, 2015, 07:52:07 am »
very tidy as always!

Offline 86C

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Re: Mk1 G40 Turbo
« Reply #125 on: January 24, 2016, 02:05:59 pm »
Just read through all this build thread, proper good stuff going on here. Keep the updates coming  ;)

Offline physicsfool

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Re: Mk1 G40 Turbo
« Reply #126 on: August 21, 2016, 08:22:17 pm »
How was the start up? All running smoothly? Any final pics?