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| Building John's Westfield | ||||
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 | January 21, 2009 - A new Westfield! It starts as a rather ominous looking crate, maybe it should have a British flag draped over it? This particular car is being set up as a daily driver, with heated seats and full weather gear. The owner plans on hitting all the states in the continental US. entry 1 | |||
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 | January 29, 2009 - Organization! Organization at the beginning of the job cuts hours of hunting for the correct nut or bolt. Also, Westfield likes to use an eclectic blend of SAE and Metric fasteners. entry 2 | |||
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 | January 29, 2009 - Pay no attention! To the MOPEL behind the curtain. entry 3 | |||
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 | January 29, 2009 - High speed. This is where it seems like stuff happens fast as we drill, Cleco and rivet the aluminum panels. Also, if you check the build dates, don't believe them! I'm late posting stuff, so not all this stuff is happening in one day. entry 4 | |||
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 | January 29, 2009 - Tunnel. This is the right side of the trans tunnel. Notice the cut line marked on the alu panel. This piece is removed and a formed fibreglass panel gives a little bulge to clear the differential. We're not quite following the build manual, as we've found it easier to drill for wiring harness clips and handbrake mounting before the panels are riveted to the tunnel. Westfield wants you to panel everything first. EDIT: I would now suggest fitting the panels after mounting the handbrake lever. Drilling the holes for the wiring clips can easily be done with a right hand pneumatic drill and a broken off drill bit. entry 5 | |||
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 | January 29, 2009 - Notes! Sometimes it helps to leave yourself notes as you build. The white protective coating will be peeled off as the panels are riveted anyway. entry 6 | |||
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 | January 29, 2009 - Oops! After drilling the holes, discovered we were sent the bulkhead lid for a RH drive car. entry 7 | |||
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 | January 29, 2009 - Tricky! You have to flex this panel just right to sneak it into place for drilling. This is the rear bulkhead behind the seats. entry 8 | |||
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 | January 29, 2009 - One reason not to rivet the tunnel sides too early. The build manual calls for drilling a hole through the aluminum panel and through both sides of the upright to mount the handbrake. If the area is paneled, it's luck of the draw if you get your holes exactly right, plus you will have a bolthead under your carpet. In this picture we're using a transfer punch to mark the upright for drilling. entry 9 | |||
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 | January 29, 2009 - A closer shot. A little bit closer look at the handbrake holes being marked. entry 10 | |||
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 | January 29, 2009 - Rivnuts are your friend. 8mm rivnuts let us just drill through one wall of the upright tube and avoid having the boltheads protruding under the carpet. Also, current directions call out the wrong bolt size, these should definitely be 8mm. entry 11 | |||
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 | January 29, 2009 - Handbrake installed. Well, it was an exciting moment for me.... entry 12 | |||
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 | January 29, 2009 - More sheetmetal. Roughly a billion holes to drill in these outer skins. Cordless drill, spare batteries, sharp bits and a pneumatic riveter are your friends. I'm leaving these off for now, too. entry 13 | |||
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 | January 29, 2009 - Floor pans. Fortunately, the chassis is very light early in the build, so very easy to roll over on the jackstands with two people. I almost riveted the floor pans in at this point, until I realized how hard it would be to rivet the tunnel sides once the floors were in. You can see the black seat pans in this picture, which are new. The earlier kits came with fabricated aluminum floor pans that had to be riveted in. Current kits come with steel seat pans. Perhaps a little more confidence inspiring on a really crappy road. All Miata kits have the dropped seat position. entry 14 | |||
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 | January 29, 2009 - Skipping ahead of the class! What can I say, I got bored drilling and decided to do most of the fuel line bending while the frame was upside down. entry 15 | |||
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 | January 29, 2009 - Don't even think about it. You are not going to successfully bend these fuel lines without the proper tool. Really. You won't. Don't come whining to me when your fuel flow is restricted by a flattened bend. entry 16 | |||
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 | January 29, 2009 - More fuel lines. We'll come back and finish bending these when we run the brake line to the rear. We'll also want to have the floor pans riveted in before mounting the lines. entry 17 | |||
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 | January 29, 2009 - Uh, oh. The infamous LH drive pedal box. Looks innocent enough, doesn't it? You can see one of the two things wrong with it in this picture. No tab for mounting the factory Miata clutch switch. No clutch switch, a missing input to the ecu, not such a great idle. entry 18 | |||
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 | January 29, 2009 - And problem number two. Perhaps better seen in the next picture, but you can see the two master cylinders (brake and clutch) are at the same height. entry 19 | |||
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 | January 29, 2009 - Check out the same height holes. The problem is that the pedal ratio for the clutch master cylinder is 3/1, rather than the Miata's 6/1. This makes the clutch pedal twice as hard to depress and the clutch slave travels twice as far as it should. Westfield refuses to believe this. entry 20 | |||
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