Right, so, uninsulasted door in the winter. This was adequate for the miata dissasembley last year, but I definitely wanted more comfortable conditions now. So I found a used insulated door for $200 and was able to sell my old door for $180. Sweet, $20 for an insulated door (for those struggling with the math)! Hooray for a locost moment! I also picked up a 240V constuction heater to replace the hair dryers I was using last year. What a huge differnce. We've only dipped to -20'C so far this year but I can now heat the garage to short sleave comfort with in an hour or two (unlike last year, trying to crack 0 after heating over night).
Back to the locost (well not really). Back in September, I got a bunch of goodies from Jack at Kinetic. I am very pleased with everything I ordered.
Had him send everything to Pembina ND, just across the Can/US border where I picked them up to avoid silly brokerage fees. On the 1st trip took the family with. The plan was to make a weekend out of it, so we picked up the packages and headed south to the Metropolis of Grand Forks ND. After getting to the Hotel, I went back down to get the larger boxes (fenders, nosecone etc) from the trailer to store in our room. Well, I was replacing the bungee net back on the trialer, when last cord, fully extended under the trailer, slipped from my hand (yes, my mind was on other things and I only had one hand on this cord instead of two, poor choice #1) and the plastic hook hit me square in the left eye
(yup, had my face over the cord, right in the line of fire, poor choice #2). Knocked my on my butt, stunned. Put my hand to my eye, it felt depressed and had bloody discharge. Thought I'd lost my eye. Looked in the rearview mirror, and saw it was still there, though bloody, blurry and with a wildly dialated pupil. Collected the dolly that had rolled down the parking lot, and went back up to our room. My insuance carrier directed us to the nearest hospital. there, the doctor there appologized
twice for the wait (thought this was quite odd), then, once he realized I was from Canada chuckled and said 'I guess your used to that'
. We spent most of that day and part of the next (for a follow up) at the hospital, so not much of a gettaway. Sorry dear. The 'good news' was that I did not scratch the lense (had my safety contacts on). In the end, after my eye had healed as much as it seemed it was going to, I had my prescription checked (glasses just weren't working right anymore) and my vision had actualy improved form 150/125 to 70/100.
Moral of this story, is, of course- if you want better vision, forget that laser surgery hoakum, and get a friend (or loved one) to sock ya one!
'K, back to the build.The next step was the suspension. I have been working on the rear. This has been slow. Even though I'm not using unique #'s, I want to get it right. Got the pivot and pickup points figured and finally in November, transfered them to a jig. I'm using the factory outer LCA bushings. I Still need to finish them off, but the are complete enought to offer up to the frame to check that all looks good (and it does).
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As the brackets are mounted at an angle I Made up a jig to loacate the pivot points on the frame.
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And the UCAs using the factory bracket
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After a clean up, ill be moving to onto the front suspension.
Also, of note, I've recently made contact with another locoster in Winnipeg! Hi Jann!
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, and our bundle of joy has become a biped (see-dad-run, run-dad-run). Finding it hard to make time in the gargae when she's such a treat to be around.
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