Evening Gents,

After a good few months pondering I finally bought myself a Zero in September 2020, the plan was/is to buy a finished example then tinker with it then further down the line self build one from scratch. Thought I'd start myself a build thread to keep track of the changes I make along the way. This is my first 7's style car so take it easy on me, I've had a couple fast coupes previously (400hp BMW e82 135i & 600hp r35 GTR) but nothing as raw and exciting as this I love it! I wanted something I could tinker with in the garage for years to come and also something considerably cheaper on the wallet yet arguably more enjoyable to drive.

Now onto the Zero, I bought it from a guy in Preston through eBay, I was also looking at MK Indy, westfields, haynes etc. It's a self built kit based on the mk1 mx5 completed and IVA'd in 2019 it had only done a couple hundred miles since being completed because of the previous owners health problems. Although not having much knowledge of 7's car I thought it was a bargain so snapped it up, however very nearly missed it as it went down to a bidding war which I won at the last second.

As it was getting towards the winter the plan was to give it a couple of long runs to give the car a shake down as it's hardly covered any miles since the build was finished, lets say we had a couple of hiccups... Also with never driving anything like this before I just wanted to get used to it's road manners and generally driving it on the road before giving it full beans. I was so nervous driving it for the first time I don't know why, maybe because it was so different to what i've been used to so at first I only went out on short trips on local roads to build my confidence.

Couple of photos of how it arrived.

First drive out was a blast I'm well and truly hooked, few things I noticed was how unstable it was at higher speed and under braking meaning it was quite a handful to drive, I guess its probably down to wheel alignment so that is on the list of things to get sorted. As far as I know the suspensions has just been bolted together and nothing has been aligned yet.

Noticed the fuel gauge was not working which took longer than I wanted it to troubleshoot and fix, the previous owner fitted the mx5 instrument cluster which is not to my taste but I guess was easy and cheap to do it this way. The issue turned out to be the actual fuel gauge inside the cluster was shot, confirmed this after many nights searching for mx5 wiring diagrams and pinning out wires to confirm gauge was receiving voltage and correct resistance just not playing ball! Ordered another cluster from eBay and swapped the fuel gauge into my current cluster and actually moves from empty

Rattle from rear fuel pump bracket, fitted a rubber lined p-clip which sorted that one quickly. While down there I noticed the fuel pump wasn't actually running with the ignition on/engine running, now this is where it gets fun....not! Traced the wires back behind the dash and was graced with spaghetti junction!!! Thought sod that and ran a new ignition wire from the fuse box, the engine seemed to run a lot smoother now the LPFP was running. That wiring gives me heart palpitations and will need re-doing at some point but I actually want to drive the car before doing anything too major lol all good fun though

I would re wire that from scratch as a priority.

surprised that wiring passed the IVA

quote:

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Originally posted by Mr Whippy
surprised that wiring passed the IVA

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It's all tucked away behind the dash so unless you remove it you can't see it, not sure how thoroughly they look at these things on IVA. Everything works....for now, but for how long! The original owner must of used the original mx5 harness, I think GBS sell a chassis harness but I'm a bit nervous to change the full wiring just in case it never runs again! I will definitely look into this though.

That would drive me crazy...It may be hidden but you'll know it's there!

Yes it does drive me crazy aswell, plans in the future to re-wire when the wallet allows.

Next I changed them awful mx5 wheels, went for 15" et25 anthracite team dynamic's with Nankang NS-2R. Car will only be used in the dry so thought I'd get something with good grip. Looks so much better with the new wheels fitted, the tyres are now extremely close to the front cycle wings s they might need some fettling.

Few more little jobs were buying red GBS 4 point harness's to match the body colour and because the current ones were too big, and I've been adjusting the seat heights with nylon washers/spacers so I can see over the aeroscreen lol Removed the indicators used to pass IVA and fitted some nice carbon ones with a smoked lens. I also removed the spade connectors from indicator wiring and fitted some nice deutsch 2 way connector to make it quicker and easier to remove the nose cone.






[Edited on 7/1/21 by Miked5]

A few more jobs ticked off over the last month:

Fitting new starter motor - the old one was getting worse after every start, it was spinning but not throwing the pinion out.

All three pedals were at different heights which made it difficult to smoothly come off the brake onto the accelerator, I've extended the brake master cylinder rod thread so all pedals are level and bent the clutch pedal straight because before it was extremely close to the infill panels.

While going for a short drive just after getting the car and pulling back onto the drive idling for 5mins I noticed water leaking, upon taking the nose cone off the leak was just from the overflow from the rad cap caused by the water (not coolant!) overheating. Having a closer look the coolant is flowing the wrong way through the radiator so stat outlet goes down to bottom of the rad out the top of rad to engine inlet. Not too much of a problem just a case of buying some aluminum pipes and silicone hoses and re-jigging everything. Luckily the previous owner only covered ~300miles since finishing the build so not much chance of engine damage. The coolant fan was also running the wrong way so engine bay hot air was getting blown out the front - reversible fan so swapped polarity of fan quick fix on this one.

My brake pedal is extremely hard and only travels ~15mm, with never owning a kit car before is this normal and to be expected? And a result of not having a brake servo?

Original setup & new setup - would like rad 90 elbow changing to straight eventually



[Edited on 20/1/21 by Miked5]