This and That

I've been slacking on updating this and have been meaning to make a Bullshittin' In The Backyard 3 post... I'll get to it eventually. In the mean-time here's a quick random collection of photos from the last 6 months or so. Hover over the images for descriptions. 

Miata Cage Timeline 1

I've been slowly chipping away at caging the new Miata chassis; working a few hours at a time after work maybe once or twice month. I'm fitting the cage and tacking it in but having Dale burn it in because I don't trust my welds enough and because his will look better.  I'm extremely grateful that Dale has gave me full access to the shop and his tools; I can't thank him enough. Working around my free time and Dales has been challenging to say the least, but he's okay with it sitting in the shop, and I still have the other Miata for seat time. 

The interior has been stitch welded in all the important areas, the driver side floor and the Destroy or Die brackets have been modified/massaged to fit the bucket seat. I recommend buying a flat bottom seat if you want a plug and play bucket with these brackets, but I'm still glad I went with the seat I did. Most of the front half of the caged is fit and tacked in, just need to finish the driver side door bars and get the anti-intrusion bars mocked up. Hoping to get the cage completely fitted and welded in by the end of June. After that I will be painting the interior and engine bay, then trailering the car home wo start Engine stuff. KMiata swap stuff should be arriving later this month.

I didn't take photos of every step, but you'll get the idea. Hover over the images for descriptions. I've referenced Tom Hamptons blog (LINK) a bunch as it's been the best resource for photos of the installation process of the Advanced Autosports Spec Miata cage. Not a fan of some of the things he decided to do, but either way it's a solid resource and a fun read.

K power!

 Pulled the trigger on a K24Z3. This complicated the new build, but I think it's a better route than turbo-ing. Pretty excited to have 200ish WHP NA and Honda reliability. Got some new seats too. Driver bucket is bolted to a set of modified Destroy or Die brackets. Passenger is a stock black miata seat.

Miata Dump

 Some photos sent to me from a FullLock MacPark event earlier this year when the miatas front sub frame and frame rails were still straight and it didn't look like a rolling piece of shit.

 

 Another couple photos from the last event of 2020, Fulllock at OMC. Obviously this is after my wreck with the 350z I posted about earlier. Looks terrible...the sub frame is tweaked and the hood latch is off by about 2 inches which is why it's  hood-less, but its good enough and still rips. 

Slowly working on the new miata... I'll update when its worth while.

Good Enough

Still need to yank the core support over to get the hood to latch, but it's good enough for now and it doesn't look THAT bad I suppose. Headlights even work! Now two of my three running cars are hoodless...time to get the integras painted and FINALLY installed 4-5 years later.

New front LCAs, driverside UCA and long bolt, tie rod ends, ball joints, tie rods, and steering rack up replaced up front. Feels decent even with my eyeball alignment. Hoping Alec can get it sorted out here in a few weeks before the Mac Park event mid-September. I also put the godspeed rear UCAs on while I was at it since this thing needs a full alignment anyway and I want to see how minimal rear camber feels. I'm ready to rip this thing again. Shouts out to Alec for making me put this back together.

The new miatas pre mandrel bent DOM tubing spec miata cage parts came in, waiting on the straight DOM tubing to get here and I'll be starting that soon.Updates whenever it's worth it.

welp, here we go.

After getting the car back and taking a closer look at everything; The frame rails are shoved over roughly 2.5inches to the passenger side, seams on the strut towers have ripped and a lot of sheet metal is buckled. The front driver side coil-over lug is also bent.  I could probably cut everything off, weld another front end on (tube or factory) and be fine, but I decided to go another route.

Last weekend my pops and I picked up a 91 Mariner Blue (barf) rolling shell in Loveland, CO for the low low price of $500. Body is straight as an arrow with absolutely ZERO rust. The 1.6L in the car is half there, but it's scrap at this point. The 5speed feels decent (hooray, another spare). PO did a 1.8L LSD rear end swap (another spare!), and it  came with garage star fender braces, which I didn't realize until I got home, and the interior is maybe 50% gutted. Good for me because that's less work I have to to. If I didn't find this car I would continue with and rebuild the 95, but this was too good to pass up.

I've replaced the front LCA's on the 95, taken the hood and fenders off, put on a new PS rack from the junkyard, also replaced the endlinks and outer tie rods with some shit I had around the house. Hoping it can get a decent alignment and I can drive it for the rest of the year and maybe next year at events. I fucking hate being that guy with the cobbled together piece of shit, but I'm going to focus on rebuilding the 91 for now and keep racking up seat time in the 95 until the 91 is completed. The 95 will be stripped and I'll hoard it's parts as spares.

As far as the 91 goes: I already ordered a Spec Miata cage that I'll install and paint to match the car. I'm going back to Montego Blue because I fucking love that color and I don't want to paint my OEM hardtop. I'll fabricate some front and rear bash bars while I'm at it too. Uh, I ordered some cheap Godspeed rear upper control arms to get closer to zero degrees. I know, they suck but I'll use them as a template to fab my own or just swap in some better bushings. Just got a Racing Beat tubular front sway bar and some heavy duty mount brackets to hopefully reduce the body roll enough to where I can keep my existed Tein coil-overs (replacing the bent one only). Planning on going polyurethane for all bushings in the suspension... Might get some stiffer motor mounts? I'd like to get a nicer steering wheel and a seats too. Engine wise I can either swap the 1.8 that's in the 95 into the 91, or rebuild the original 1.8L from the 95. I'll likely do the latter to build for turbo and to keep the 95 seat time going as long as possible. That's about it really. I don't want anything to crazy, just making this new chassis a little more resilient to frame damage when crashed, a little better suspension, hopefully close to 200whp, and a halfway decent paint job. I got my work cut out for me if I want to get this done by next season, but we'll see what happens.Cheers!

Another Wreck...

Well, got into another wreck... Tandemed behind a G35 and a 350z and the G35 spun and hit his brakes. 350 hit the Z, I crunched the Z, and almost got t-boned by a Mustang coming at the passenger side ass first. I need to stop tandeming with people that don't understand that you DON'T hit the brakes when you spin.

Damage report:
The driverside headlight, fender, LCA, endlink, and turn signal are fucked. Core support is shifted a little; I think I can bend the frame back though. The OEM impact bracket or whatever is crunched (I'll take them off)Hood isn't bad, I think the brackets deformed a little..I should be able to get that back to "normal" to where its barely noticeable once the frame is straightened. The passenger fender buckled also. I think my outer tie rod ends are okay? I'll know once I pull the rack. Got the headlight motor to work too.

Plans are to get new driver and passenger LCA's, a new steering rack (been long over due), inner tie rods, maybe outers?, fabricate a bash bar, new turn signal (IDK if I want OEM or the intake style), stitch the bumper, and end-links. Hopefully that's all it takes to get it feeling normal again. I might wind up having to replace parts later on that I haven't noticed, like the lower coil=over bushing, but we'll see.

Kind of sucks, but whatever; it happens. Drifting is still tight as fuck.