At least 2 different floor pans for the Mk 3 Coupe

[manifold]

no i think floor pan is different on convertible too.

heres a couple pics of mine from inside....

with err..... temporary 'extra ventilation'. I might redo these seat wells the same as the later ones. Easy enough to do.

[Rich]

There are no depressions at all on my Convertible which was a GTM car (as was yours wasn't it?)

[manifold]

No my convertible was one of the very rare ones LOL. I got mine before GTM. Made by Pastiche. The ones that all the early (not current mind) Midas Owners Club members were extremely rude and snobby about their build quality. As a 20 year old I remember their comments very well. Fortunately I took it to the plastic fantastic experts (now demised), TVR Racing and Engineering Team who used to be nearby, and they had a completely different expert view so my fears were allayed.

Extremely hurtful if you were an owner at that time and was the reason I didn't renew my membership for 15 years in disgust.

.....Ironic that it won best car of the year last year, which was really great to receive .

Mine has a different flooring again behind the rear bulkhead, and flat in front of the bulkhead.

Incidently there is still a TVR building nearby. A very secretive place, a bit like Willy Wonkas chocolate factory.

[Rich]

I've never understood the mentality within some clubs, something that's made me avoid them in general since I stopped competing.

I suppose Alastair could have some idea of the various moulds available over time.

[manifold]

I'm not sure if Alistair is any wiser than we are.

I bet Charlie would have known though. Maybe his son, AC, does.

[Alan D.]

Well Done David for highlighting this!

The Mk1&2 have bum depressions, I guess that the early Mk 3 cars were clones of these moulds! The Mk1 car which I recently sold to Dave Angles, had a further seat moulding to go over these depressions, but for small bums only! The next time I go to my garages, I will check the situation with the Mk3 left hand drive coup which I have, as this would be the last car made from the moulds, which were sold to Germany.

( Sorry David off topic!!) As a matter of interest I have a GTM convertible and Johnny has a Corby convertible and when we were fitting MX 5 seats into our cars. We found that my car (GTM) had a floor thickness of 20mm and Johnny's Corby built car had a floor thickness of 35mm. This may account for my scuttle shake!

Charlie (God bless him) must have known about this, because on his long nosed Mk 3 convertible, he beefed up the tunnel area with fibreglass and added a third sill section to each side of the car!! Yes I mean three vertical sill sections to each side of the car!

I'm about to start work on my convertible now, so if time permits (before Stoneliegh) I may have my first foray into the black art of fibre-glassing, by doing as Charlie did, and also increasing the floor thickness with another layer of foam and fibreglass. I need to find Hans's post on measuring the droop and take some measurements before and after! Victor did a bit of research into this topic.

Some pictures of interest on fitting MX 5seats, again off topic, before I bore you all silly!!

Alan

Click on slideshow

https://picasaweb.google.com/alandonowh ... irectlink#

[manifold]

Them seats look good there Alan!

Only thing I would suggest is that the seats are raised with stainless 1 or 2 inch box section (depending on body height) the length of the runner which is what I have done on both now, shimmed up with the odd stainless penny washers to miss the bumps in the runners (if any). I used the plastic spacer bushes a few years ago and found it a bit weak on the support for the seat runners, but then again, maybe my bushes weren't fat enough LOL.

It does seem to explain the scuttle shake. 15mm difference. Quite a difference that....its half as much again! I didn't realize that. I wonder why GTM decided to do that. The tunnel area on my convertible is quite thick. Probably thickest part of the car, must be approaching 3/4 inch thick there, and the inner sills are an inch thick, maybe more, but have foam sandwich in them. The holes for the seatbelt fixings are really deep down and I needed longer bolts to fit them. The standard bolts weren't long enough.

[Rich]

Thank you for the seat pics Alan, I have a set of MX5 seats on the way. I'll measure the thickness of the floor while I'm at it.

[Alan D.]

Them seats look good there Alan!

Only thing I would suggest is that the seats are raised with stainless 1 or 2 inch box section (depending on body height) the length of the runner which is what I have done on both now, shimmed up with the odd stainless penny washers to miss the bumps in the runners (if any). I used the plastic spacer bushes a few years ago and found it a bit weak on the support for the seat runners, but then again, maybe my bushes weren't fat enough LOL.

It does seem to explain the scuttle shake. 15mm difference. Quite a difference that....its half as much again! I didn't realize that. I wonder why GTM decided to do that. The tunnel area on my convertible is quite thick. Probably thickest part of the car, must be approaching 3/4 inch thick there, and the inner sills are an inch thick, maybe more, but have foam sandwich in them. The holes for the seatbelt fixings are really deep down and I needed longer bolts to fit them. The standard bolts weren't long enough.

David,

The spacer were made from proper engineering type nylon, Rich will probably know the correct name, they seem to be coping with my great weight, so the should be all right for you, being a mere slip of a lad. The Nylon type spacer had the holes tapped out to 6mm, so in actual fact are round nuts! The reason for this is it make the fitting bolts rigid, which in turn makes the seats easy to get in and out, as you are not trying to mess with four loose bolts at once!

Rich,

I hope that saves you some time, we've done two cars with no problems. The only criticism I have is; that the leather seats are a bit slide y! Someone I was talking to, upgraded the speakers and suggested that the original Mazda speaker were a bit poor quality!

Glad to help.

Alan

[manifold]

ahh, so you taped the spacer too. OK I can see out that would work and keep it tight.

Alan, Your complimenting me there. I'm not as skinny as I look. Just hiding it well!