Well, I'm finally starting to put this thing together.  It's been a slow process but hopefully will be worth it in the end.  I appreciate all the information that has been posted on this website.  A lot of what I have done has been gleened from the builds that are shown here.  Shooting to be finished (whatever that is) by early spring.  Have started wiring and would like to get that completed in the next week or so.  We'll see.

Nice color! It's coming together and getting closer to drive!

That's a very clean engine bay.
It's too easy to end up looking like a How Much Can We Cram In Here competition.
Now, all you need is to hide the wiring like the Custom guys do :}

Ivor

Thanks Calvin.  The color is Dodge Viper Blue.  It came out looking pretty good.  It's not perfect but it will be fine for a driver.  Ivor, the engine bay now looks like a bowl of spaghetti fell in it.  Plan on putting the relay panel on the shelf at the firewall.  Hopefully it won't look too bad when finished.

Ed, you could plan to visit us at the Blount County Brit Car Show in May 2014, Early May.  Townsend is a great place to visit and try out a Sports Car.    SAFETY FASTER !

QuotePlan on putting the relay panel on the shelf at the firewall

Here's a good example:

Kelly, that definitely sounds like something to shoot for.  Have been camping in Townsend and it is a beautiful area.  Dan, that is good example of a clean wiring layout.  I've got my relay panel where the MSD ignition box is located in the picture.  I will probably try to put it in an enclosure.  Might help to hide some of the mess.

Great Color and every time you fire it up, take it for a spin, you will know it was all worth it!

Ed:

Very nice color.  Can you share with me the specs on the radiator?

Thanks

Art

Art,
The radiator is from KMJ Performance. http://www.kmjent.com/cart/chevy-gm-style-crossflow-aluminum-radiator-19x24.html  
Because of the width, there was quite a bit of cutting and welding to get it to fit.  Made some pockets for the bottom of the radiator to slip into just on either side of the body mounting bolts at the front of the frame.  Had to modify the radiator shield below the radiator and also the bumper brace to accept the new width.

Put some finish on the steering wheel today. Now if I just had the dash finished to install it in. Plan to cut a dash from walnut to match the steering wheel.  Wiring is coming along, a little slower than expected like everything else.

Some pictures of the steering wheel fabrication.  A guy on mgexp.com made a wheel like this and did a pretty good job documenting what he did.

Six sections glued up with splines between the butt joints.  The sections are 1/2" thick walnut

Six sections of 1/8" oak glued to one side

Cutting the groove for the spoke ring

Spoke ring setting in one half

Some more photos of the steering wheel.

Cut OD and ID of each half

Used a roundover bit in a router table on the OD and ID

Used a cove bit to cut the fingergrooves

Looks pretty darned good!
(Of course an MG wheel would have to be made with 8 sections...)

Jim

Thanks Jim.  The work you are doing on the TR7 with the Lexus V8 is amazing.  You guys are making great progress considering the few weekends that you have worked on it.  Keep going.  Looking forward for more posts from Dan.

Ed

Ed - I've done a lot of woodwork but that pic showing the jig and cutter used to route the groove has me scratching my head.  Do you have any pics from a bit further away - showing more of the cutter head and whether it or the jig table is what rotates?  I have a jig I made to route circles, but it blocks my view of what I'm routing.  I'm interested in seeing your set-up so I can borrow the idea!

Rob, I cut the steering wheel on a 3 axis CNC machine.  I built the machine a couple of years ago to be able to accurately cut the dash.  I've cut a lot of stuff with it but have yet to cut the dash.  That's next since the dash area is what wiring I have left to do.

There are quite a few plans on the web to build a CNC router.  These came from Solsylva.com.  Mine is the 24" x 48" version. There are a couple of more pictures of it in the gallery towards the end.  Really wasn't very difficult to make as the plans were very detailed.  Purchased the stepper motors and controller online also.  Runs off of the parrallel printer port on just about any PC.
I would highly recommend building one, it will add another dimension to your woodworking skills.

Have made some progress on the wiring.  Have the engine compartment pretty well completed.  Taking longer than anticipated but I've come to realize that is the norm for me.  

It started out looking like this:


And ended up like this.  Still thinking about putting some type of cover over the relay panel.  Either that or spend some more time trying to tidy it up.

Fabricated a Bob Danielson style hood release.  Think I'm just going to use this and not use the cable.  Used the hole in the firewall where the cable came through for some wiring.  Never did like the cable.  Broke the plastic T handle trying to get the hood open many years ago.  Haven't driven this car since 1998.


Made a walnut T handle to attach to the rod.

That steering wheel fabrication is fantastic!  I may have to look into this CNC router idea.  hmmm, need more shop space.

Thanks Mike. It was a fun project.  More shop space.... Can't go wrong with that idea!

Took the tail light assemblies off the shelf to re-install and hadn't realized how bad the lenses looked.  They were very dull and had lots of small scratches.  I thought I'd just buy some new ones.  Also didn't realize Roadster Factory sells one side for $450.  Even at $250 on ebay was a lot more than I wanted to spend.  So after a little research, got out the 1000 and 2000 grit wet/dry sandpaper and went to work.  After a pretty short time sanding and some buffing I was happy to see that they looked good enough to install.  Well worth the small time invested vs replacing.  Don't throw those old lenses out, they can be brought back to life.  Wish I had thought to take a "before" picture.  I guess I really didn't think they were going turn out as good as they did.

Am starting to wire the dash components.  Had decided to use an aftermarket windshield wiper switch.  It has two speed capability and push to wash.  Thought it wouldn't be much trouble to wire it up.  Got the wiper motor to run on low and high speed but was unable to get the motor to drive the wipers to the "park" position at the bottom of the windshield.  After some head scratching and looking at some wiring diagrams, I realized that the aftermarket switch did not have a set of contacts that would allow the motor to continue to drive in the "off" position to get the wipers to "park".  Was able to add a relay to the circuit with a normally closed set of contacts that would provide the power to the motor when the wiper switch was "off".



When the switch is in the off position "B" is connected to "5".  This provides power to the motor and the relay allows R/LG to be connected to N/LG so the motor drives until the limit switch stops the motor at the park position.

Hopefully this will help someone who wants to get away from the original rocker switch.  Mine broke a long time ago and I installed an Allen-Bradley switch and kept adding contact blocks until it worked right.  Worked ok but didn't look too good.

Always feels good when you finally connect the dots doesn't it?

I'm probably half crazy, but I actually enjoyed wiring my car.

Started cutting the dash.  Cut the tach, speedometer and gauge holes first.  Plan on using leds for turn signal indicators, high beam, alt warning light, and emergency flasher.  That's the 3/8" diameter holes.  There will be 4 toggle switches below the gauges.  The holes for the aftermarket wiper and headlight switches are also 3/8" diameter.



Cut the rest of the gauge openings and the passenger side vent opening.  Used an 1/8" dia end mill to cut these.



Switched to a 1/4" end mill and cut the recesses for the tach, speedometer, and gauges.



Used the 1/4" end mill to also cut the outside perimeter.



All that's left is the glove box door.  Was planning on using some 1/32" diameter bits so the door gap would be as small as possible... but the bits have a shank length of only 3/4" and the dash is 1/2" thick.  I made a bunch of test cuts and somehow thought the dash was only 3/8" thick.  The bit just barely made it through the 3/8" test pieces.  I need at least 3/8" of bit length to allow the collet adapter and router collet to grip the bit.  So... I ordered a 1/16" diameter bit that has a shank length of 1 1/2".  Hopefully it will be in soon and I can finish the dash.

Ed