MORRIS MIATA MX-5

[Big Al]

Welcome to the forum Maz! How about an intro or start your own build thread???

Tex, can you post a photo of what you are talking about? I did look at mine today for you but couldn't work out what it is you've got...

Are they attached or near the corner metal supports/brackets?

[Big Al]

Just had a thought...

Could it be the screw for holding the headlining wire?

[texas mongrel]

Al, unfortunately with the car being at the upholstery shop its not easy to take a picture. The stud is probably an 8BA about 3/4" long and its part of the metal corner bracket that holds the top rail of the wooden sides to the top rear cross piece that is used to nail the rear edge of the roof and also holds the rubber top seal and socket for the rear doors. The bracket screws into the top side rail (where the upper sliding window seals go) and into the big wooden rear corner upright and top rear cross rail. The upper interior wooden capping trim has a 3/16"-ish hole through it near its rear edge to allow it to fit over the stud. I thought at first that it must be for the wooden strip that holds in the back of the headluner, but of coyrse the studs are on the side of the bracket and not the rear face, so this idea doesn't pan out. Hope this makes sense: my two options are to drill my new capping pieces same as the old and then put a fancy acorn nut on the stud for decoration, or simply cut the stud off if no-one can tell me what it's for!

[texas mongrel]

Car is now home from the upholstery shop and I'm doing the millions of finishing touches needed to get the car finished. No-one could tell me what the funky little studs in the corners of the roof area were for, so out came the cutting wheel and they are gone.
The first picture shows the wiper motor installed and hooked-up to the Morris drive shaft. Everything works fine; I now have intermittent/slow/fast/single wipe/ wash-wipe functions, its great. Although it appears to be hard up against the air cleaner, in fact there's plenty of clearance.
I installed the four speakers for the radio - rear units (4" x 10") went in front of the rear seat. Fronts (4" dia) went up in the footwells.
I'm currently fitting all the side windows and interior wood trim. I keep putting off the hardest remaining job, namely installation of the windscreen, until I build up enough courage to have a go!

[woodywoodchipper]

with your talent a windscreen is easy, plenty washing up liquid and good cord, and a helper,

[plastic orange]

Don't use washing up liquid - it contains salt. I've used waxoil in the past along with thickish wiring rather than string. The professionals use parachute cord which is a bit thicker, but seems to work. It's not a hard job, so don't worry.

PO

[texas mongrel]

I've read so many conflicting accounts of the best way to do it - some say put the rubber on the glass, others say put the rubber in the opening; some say use tons of sealant, others say use none and then inject some into the corners after installation, etc. My screen is a laminated one which I believe is thicker and thus harder to install, plus I'm using the later model surround with the chrome plastic strip insert which I've heard makes things easier? At least I've got lots of things to take care of whilst I summoning up the courage!

[emjay]

It's very important when installing the windscreen to NOT end up pulling the cord out in the middle. If the last bit is in the area of the mirror, the glass will break just as you are pulling out the last bit. The glass is the weakest in resisting bending in this area. It's much safer to end up near one of the upper corners.

[plastic orange]

You'll need a load of sealant (proper automotive window sealant - not just silicon) as modern rubbers aren't really that great.

PO

[texas mongrel]

final stages! I installed the one-piece side panels I made for the interior, had them covered in perforated and pleated upholstery to match the rest of the interior. Once they were in I could fit the rear seat base and back. I used a single long hinge for the back. The upholstery pattern is to match the front seats - perforated inserts with real leather facings. I won't put the front seats in until the windscreen is in place - I reckon it will give me some room to work if there's no front seats.

Other jobs done but not pictured;
- installation of front seat belts - very easy using the inertia-reel type. I'm not going to bother with rear belts (even tho' I bought a set) as I couldn't figure out any way that they'd look neat;
= installation of the telescopic struts for the rear doors. these were generally easy, but I had to re-drill the mounting holes as otherwise the rods ran out of stroke before the doors were fully closed. Luckily, moving the mounting hole 1/2" forwards fixed things;
- fitting the stainless steel step plates and sill finishers. This was a huge PITA, nothing fit well, I had to trim loads off the top lip to make things work, and the slotted holes in the patch panels I'd welded in were about 1/2" off from the holes in the sill and stainless plates. The stainless plates also stood very proud from the bottom seam on the sill which meant that the doors wouldn't close, so I ended up drilling two holes (one each end) and using screws to pull the lip hard up into the structural part of the main sill seams
- installed the draught excluders around the door openings. Another PITA, why did they use aluminum for the guts of the excluder? if this had been spring steel, then everything would fit easily and there'd be no need for those fiddly little clips that you have to hammer on before fitting the excluder

[plastic orange]

Very nice.

PO

[Ian McDougall]

Very nice mod of the side panels, looking at the brackets holding the seat back in place does the seat rest on a large area of bracket ( always thought the bracket and gate bolt was a flimsy affair from the beginning ) do you have a close up of the bracket , very good and detailed build ,
Ian

[texas mongrel]

Here you go, Ian. the bracket for the rear seat is, I presume, as original - looks like a piece of 11/2" angle with a spring clip riveted on for the bolt pin. It picks up about 1/2" of the plywood seat back, which doesn't sound like a lot, but when I tested it by sitting in the back seat and pushing back as hard as I could, it seemed OK, so I left it as 'stock'. I did use new bolt assemblies.

I'm also attaching a photo of the stainless steel sill covers which came out looking very nice.

I think I've screwed up the wiper installation though; I test-fitted arms to the wiper shafts and they are both running in the same direction, but the wipers are supposed to 'clap hands' aren't they? I'm guessing that the worm-drive shaft should go over the passenger side wiper box then under the driver side box so the arms rotate 'towards' each other? When I rebuilt and re-installed these assemblies I put the worm drive shaft on the bottom of both gear-boxes, which I now suspect is incorrect. Can anyone shed light on this? Being a 1961 car I'm sure they clap hands, and looking at the pictures of my car from when I bought it, the wiper arms definitely point towards each other when parked. Fixing this will mean pulling out the glove boxes and maybe some A/C ducting so I want to be 100% certain of what's needed before attacking the problem. Help please!

[MM]

Agreed, fitting those door seals can be a right royal PITA! I'm guessing they used aluminium because it is softer than steel and easily bent to shape, but the snag is it can easily become loose from the securing clips.

A 1961 car should indeed have clap-hands wipers - they went over to the conventional type with the 1962 introduction of the 1098cc Minors.

[ruairidh]

Very very nice this is really looking fantastic.