Greetings Earthlings
Yesterday was a BIG day for yours truly.
After 2+ years of much interrupted part time tinkering my oddball lighweight 2 litre Mirage project, known to us as the MUTANT was driven for the first time, YAY!
I'm not sure if a project like this is ever 100% finished but in this last chapter I'm calling it job done.
I can report that its a VERY pleasant surprise to have a small cheap hatchback that willingly accelerates up a steep hill in top gear.
Its only travelled a handful of kays and no attempt made at tuning or even new plugs but early signs of effortless torquey performance are promising.
First gear is not really needed. I even did a painless rolling start in 3rd (thought it was in first silly me).
Must get it weighed ASAP as I'm hoping my efforts pulled the finished weight down to around 850kg which is close to that achieved by the pioneer of the hot hatch class the Peugeot GTI 1.9
Since my last report a few important items were sorted.
Special thanks go to Ron Black of Exhaust Fix Croydon Melbourne for my custom exhaust. He did a modified 4G94 engine pipe/cat with a new custom 2" catback for what I call crazy money $350!
New aftermarket carpets were thrown in and were a swine of a job but look nice.
CE dash, CH instruments and steering column/steering wheel went together with minor trimming of plastic parts as CH column shroud is wider than CE type. See pic link
https://www.flickr.com/photos/93358098@ ... 993115080/
Final electrical job was hooking up the wipers.
Plan A called for me to connect stock CE wiper motor to CH loom. I studied wiper diagrams for CE & CH and spliced the 4/5 wires the only way that made sense to me, the fuse blew! bugger :?:
A spoke to a sparkie and he suggested I tow the car in and he would spend a few days to see if he could get the wipers wiping, expect a LARGE bill because home built project cars are always a prick to work on, terrific..........
Plan B called for me to mechanically adapt the CH wiper motor to the CE.
Firstly I yanked off the CE wiper motor, linkages, scuttle plastic moulding and wiper arms.
The scuttle interior was given a thorough scrub to get rid of 12 years of crud, no rust found fortunately.
I yanked off the big steel mounting plate from the CH wiper motor and fitted it with a CE crank arm.
The CH motor was offered up to the bean shaped hole in the scuttle.
Although the CE and CH wiper motors are very different animals the CH has three cast alloy threaded posts that sort of naturally found a home around the bean hole perimeter.
Three carefully drilled holes in the scuttle and three cup head screws inserted from inside the scuttle had the CH wiper motor mounted. No rubber mounts so it whirs a little louder than usual. Pic shows CH wiper motor fitted with stock CE type sitting above.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/93358098@ ... 2993115080
As part of my war against weight I plan to swap the stock battery for a motorcycle type and possibly a light fibreglass bonnet but that is a big deal, not sure.
Thats all folks. One more way to skin a cat, not the most popular way but suits my priorities.
Flickr folder has all the important pics of my build.
Thanks to all who offered encouragement and tips along the way.
Cheers.