MPG

I'm not convinced sound insulation is going to do anything, but heat insulation is certainly warranted. The standard Westfield bonnet doesn't have much in the way of vents. So the heat all ends up going down the tunnel. Insulation along there is important. Boots for the shifter and handbrake too. I also insulated the inside of the fibreglass on the left side and wrapped the exhaust. I know some have strong feelings against the exhaust wrap, but it does seem to help get some of the heat out, and I think it looks cool. I've thought on hot days that I should have added vents on the sides like some of the Westfields in the UK have done.

Revisiting this part of the build reminded me of this one from @Croc's latest weekly list: https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1962-lotus-seven-5/ Modern engines are tall! Squeezing them under a 7's bonnet is hard.

Sure: https://blog.garritys.org/2017/06/skidplate.html I don't think kevlar will do anything to prevent crushing from bottoming out hard, but I do think it'll help against puncture wounds from sharp rocks. Luckily I haven't really had to test it. It certainly does pick up some scratches thoug:

Mine are the same. Most of the run is above the bottom of the lowered floors. But ahead of the lowered floor, they are exposed for a short run. It didn't seem too bad to me because there's a lot of other stuff projecting below the floor in that area. Such as the sump! I built a kevlar skidplate to provide a little peace of mind. I do think that it's related. to the size of the Miata gearbox compared to the one the Westfield chassis was originally designed for. Things get really tight at the rear of the gearbox.

That looks great. Nice job!

Which SLA printer are you using? I was working at Formlabs (retired now) while I was building my Westfield. Lots of parts on in that were done on their printers.

I can't see exactly what the bolts on your center cap look like in the picture. But if they're the ones with a small off-center hole at the bottom of the bigger hole, then I've been there. I made a little wrench for mine. It's really kludgy, but it worked fine for years. Those usually aren't really torqued down at all: https://blog.garritys.org/2012/11/todays-kludge.html

I used acetone to clean up the sikaflex messes. Didn't realize how awful acetone fumes are. Felt like I had the worst hangover the next day. Make sure you've got good ventilation if you're using it.

One time I was gassing up and a couple of construction workers came over to start asking questions. One of them said "I bet the ladies really dig that thing". I said "It's more like 6 year old boys, if you're into that".

Yes, that makes sense.

It's for catching dropped nuts so they can roll under the rack and vanish. That's good for endless hours of fun. I did install that on mine. I don't recognize the loop sticking down (up) on the left (right) side. But oddly enough, the panel on mine has that cutout for it. I'm not sure what all that's about.

I wrote up my experience in Mass a couple of years ago here. I expect it has changed a little bit since then because the registry switched contractors shortly after I got thru. I don't think the law has changed, but having different folks implementing some of the steps probably matters.

Hard to get an accurate measurement because things are pretty crowded in there once it's assembled, but it looks like the top hole is about 30mm from the pivot and the lower is more like 60mm.

There are 2 other things I modified in this area. The Miata had 2 switches on the clutch pedal. One is wired to the ECU and tells it when the clutch is out for something to do with the idle. I mounted that switch in the box. The other is wired into the ignition so that you can't start the car w/o depressing the clutch. I just removed that from the wiring harness completely to simplify things. I also replaced the stock flywheel with a 10 lb one. That makes the engine feel a lot zippier and makes shifting really quick.

LHD Westfields use top hung pedals which are mounted to this box on top of the scuttle: There's a cover I've removed in that picture. A RHD Westfield uses floor mounted pedals, so nobody in the UK knows what you're talking about when you ask questions about this. For a Mazda based one, they use the brake & clutch master cylinders from the Miata. If you look down into the box, you can see that the clutch pedal has 2 holes. When the factory made my box, the mounting point for the clutch master cylinder was lined up with the lower hole. My understanding is that with a stock Miata master cylinder, that's going to give you a very short stroke. So Bill at FM modified the box to move the MC up to line up with the other hole. He did that by welding a filler into the old hole in the front of the box, cutting off the 2 studs, then cutting a new hole and welding new studs in. It's not terribly clear in that picture, but you also need to cut this cross piece that goes from one side of the box to the other because the top of the MC would now interfere with it. The result is that the clutch has quite a long stroke. Some folks who are shorter than me find it too long. So I think you could try mounting the clutch MC on the box and see which hole it lines up with. If it's lined up with the top hole, then the factory probably changed things since they made mine. If it is lined up with the bottom hole, then you can either: 1) modify the box to move the MC up 2) change to a MC with a different diameter 3) live with the short stroke