The Breakup (Miata build)

[drummingpariah]

Well, I'm disappointed. I don't have a clue how these A pillars tubes could possibly fit. The vertical portion of the A pillar tubes should really reach the floor (or even a little longer, to leave a little room for trimming) and the bottom of the windshield. As you can see, it's almost 6" off from the floor and from the base of the windshield, and the bend is too shallow to follow the A pillar up.



This is more along the lines of what I was expecting, after talking to Joey Kale about it and getting some really top-notch advice. Unfortunately, it takes me over 3 hours to get up to Burlington and I was under the impression that spec miata measurements for the NA are fairly standard.


I was hoping I could get something like this

but after taking some measurements and seeing how much room I'd regain after removing the dash mounts and putting that tube as far forward as possible, it still won't work. There just isn't enough material to make this happen.

Apparently I was wrong. All the other tubing appears to be bent appropriately, but I don't think I can use this at all. I'm going to try getting ahold of the guys down at Wicked (they're campaigning the really nice turbo CRX this season), and see if I can talk them into letting me use their bender. I only have this weekend to make it happen, then I have to put it all back together so I can get to/from work, so it's going to be a bit of a mess this weekend. I don't see a problem with welding in the main hoop, main hoop diagonal, harness bars, and rear bracing ... but can't do anything in front of that without the A pillar bars.

This sucks.

[walterclark]

Yes it does suck.

As I said on Facebook, a box or step is just fine, but from your pics it looks as though the top of a step would end up way above the sill given the cut on that A-pillar bar, and I dont think that is such a good idea. What is shown in the third pic you posted is just fine.

[drummingpariah]

Thanks Walter. If I can source some DOM, I think Jay would be willing to help me out with getting it bent tonight. The problem with contacting the manufacturer is that it's now too late for him to bend and ship a replacement (there have been a few mistakes so far, so we're getting tired of having to talk to each other). I wouldn't have quite enough time to get it installed for Okemo, so I'm going to have to sort something out locally/semi-locally. I don't mind having to drive somewhere to make this happen, but haven't been able to get ahold of anyone who is open on the weekends that has 1.5" .095 DOM in stock ... yet. I'm pretty sure I can get some delivered by Wednesday or so, but that's going to make me tight on time. I'd much much much rather just get all the basic components of the cage in this weekend, then keep adding additional reinforcement until I'm ready for paint.

[drummingpariah]

Here's how I left it when I called the day 'done'.


Despite getting quite a few things done today, I'm going to have my work cut out for me trimming and cutting it all tomorrow. I finally pulled the last of the air conditioning.

I started fitting one of the spare seats I have, then realized its certification is still valid, so it's probably going to become the driver's seat. It'd be really nice to get a new (not-red) cover for it, but I think it's the safest, sturdiest seat I own.


I'll have to build feet for the cage, tack weld the main components together, relocate the ECU, and build a replacement rear cargo tray cover. The old cover had been through a lot, and has definitely seen better days. I have some sheet alu that should be pretty easy to form up and keep a potential fuel fire away from me.

It looks like the dash bar is going to have to go through some of the HVAC system, and it doesn't look like the OEM dash is going to survive being removed and reinstalled (it was super brittle, and the cracked portions just fell apart). Again, I have some sheet alu, so that's probably going to end up becoming a dash as well. I'll have to come up with a decent anti-glare solution for it though, and flocking is a lot of work, from what I've seen.

[DaveEstey]

I used Rustoleum Hammered finish on the top of my aluminum dash. It has a dull sheen, but the texture cuts reflecting light nicely.

[3rdgendennis]

Rally car trick-get some felt or similar fabric from your local craft store and spray glue it on.

[Rabbit Farmer]

Flock...

viewtopic.php?f=16&t=15&p=8119&hilit=flock#p8119

Steve

[drummingpariah]

Back to another topic, I finally started making metal go all buttery this weekent and put most of the jungle gym in the car.

The main hoop base plates needed to be ~4" tall to place the main hoop correctly, so I plated that section:

then added an 80-degree bend so the main hoop would lay back by roughly 12 degrees.


The front footings were a bit simpler, and I left a little room to run wires though.


The end result when we wrapped up around midnight on Sunday is a cage that's practically invisible from the side. It tucks up into the roofline nicely (on the driver's side, the passenger's side isn't quite as tightly fitted).



I still need to make harness mounting points, seal off the package tray and fuel tank area, and make a dash to hold my gauge cluster. In addition, I need to add the two rear braces, trunk mounting points, and finish welding the sill bars in (they're just tacked in for the moment). I took Thursday off in addition to Friday, so I think I can get it all done. If there's a ton of extra time left over, I'll tie in the front suspension as well ... but that's a whole other ball of wax and I don't think I'll get that far.

[drummingpariah]

Gear whine is only cool if you have straight-cut gears. Putting fresh fluid in certainly made the noisy transmission less awful, but it's definitely still there. I imagine whatever's causing that whine is also causing the 10hp drop on the dyno, so I just picked this up.


The plan for this weekend is to drop it in, and assuming it doesn't make any crazy crunchy noises, I'll tear down the current transmission to see what it's complaining about.

The transmission came with one of these as well, which will serve as my mockup for the ITB project I've been planning for awhile. While I have everything accessible, I'll clean those gross hydraulic lifters as well and clean up the ports somewhat. I have no expectations of making big power changes with any of this, it's just going to be a fresh head that sounds cool.

[drummingpariah]

I started tearing down and cleaning the spare na6 (1.6 Miata) head tonight.


There's a lot left to do. I also noticed that one of the lifter pistons' keeper rings was missing, so that lifter had a little cupping wear. The cam lobe appears fine, so I just ordered a new lifter assembly for it.

I'm strongly considering having the head decked a bit to get some more compression. It looks like we have plenty of valve clearance before anything but timing is affected, so I'm looking at a mild n/a build with the CBR ITB's I fitted earlier. I still need to make runners, and figure out exactly what kind of compression ratios I can manage.

I love the idea of being able to go from high compression ITB n/a to mild compression forced induction with nothing more than a head assembly swap. I'm not looking for crazy power, so I'll leave the bottom end alone unless I see reasons to open it up when I swap heads.