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I thought that made sense, but you were moving things around in inch incriments so I thought I would ask to be sure. One thing I couldn't tell from your table was control arm lenghs. Could you post those numbers?

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He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.

the lower control arm is 417mm

the upper arm is 287mm for the initial design, 272mm for the 1" higher and 283mm for the 1/4" higher

Sorry for the units mix and match - I use whichever units are on the tape measure I pick up

I should really know better

Well after a long and miserable winter, followed by a few horrendous months at work I finally managed to get back to the fun things in life,

I have spent the last few months fabricating my suspension arms - the biggest concern being that it has been so long since I did the design that I cannot remember which sketch I finally settled on.

Anyway the arms are complete so I figured I would do a loose build to make sure everything fits. Well, almost everything fitted, I will need to change the rear mounts for the upper front control arm. Best part - the wheels go up and down. I did think I had done something dramatically wrong on the rear end as the wheels hit the frame - turns out that that just happens at full rebound

Next stage - rad and rack

Nicely done Adam, you are kicking my tail. I remember we started our Miata builds at about the same time and I have been doing a decent job keeping up with you... until now. I'm still working on my A arms and I hope when they are done it looks as good as yours.

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He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.

chetcpo your build is still looking great. We have just attacked different areas, Thanks for the kind words though.

Here is this weeks update I have now added the steering rack mounts, the floor (16swg sheet), bulkhead, rear quarters and seatbelt mounts.

The steering rack has been shortned as per Keith's book and it came out okay. I spent the rest of the weekend sitting in the car trying to work out how to do the pedal box.







Excuse the lighting conditions for the photos, and the fact that one is on its side.

Last weekends effort - not too much as we celebrated getting our Canadian citizenship (and Chetcpo having read some of your recent posts I was also in Charleston on Tuesday - if only I had known)

This weekend
Steering rack - using Keith Tanners guidelines in his book

Hand Brake - as far abck as I could go, the lever was straightened and a bit of material removed from the back

Pedal box and steering column - I used the Miata pedal box, cut and shut to fit. The pedals were all trimmed and the pedlas shortened. The steering column was mounted using the Miata top mount and modified remount.

And the weeks cock-up - how do you suppose I am going to route the steering column without going through the master cylinder reservoir? This needs a rethink I think I will have to redo the brake pedal, for it too work as it is I will have a pedal ratio of 1 - I will need to go to the gym!

Next step - radiator. $5 from e-bay

Looks good Adam. How much did you take out of your rack? I was able to get almost 6" out of mine and at that point the Aluminum housing hits that big steel collar that slides in the end. In Keith's book he says he took out 5.5" but he doesn't mention that that's about all you can get out. Yours is mounted much lower than mine will be. I'm still scratching my head as to how I can get it up level with the outer tie rod pivots at my low ride height.

FWIW I ended up aiming my steering shaft between the brake and cluch pedals just below the reserviors.

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He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.

Chet,

I got about 5 1/2" out, and yes it does get a bit tight in there. It still seems to work though!

I have seen anumber of pictures with the column routed under the reservoirs, but I have got no idea how that will work for me. I should have mounted the entire pedal box higher I guess. Then I wouldn't have hed to cut all the pedlas down

Hey there Adam, It was nice to meet you this weekend. I thought I would post this so you'll know what name to look for to find me.
Jason

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If everything seems under control, your not going fast enough

It seems that I habe been a bit rubbish at keeping my build diary up to date.

The next few posts show what I have been doing since August.

One of the first jobs I completed since the last post was painting my frame. Completely stupid thing to do at this stage of the build but Princess Auto had a deal on a spray gun and I wanted to see if I could do it. I used grey Tremclad with about 10% varsol, and I think the results were quite good. Of course since spraying the frame I have made a number of significant changes which has meant a lot of grinding. D'Oh!

After much procrastinating I finally finished my suspension. I am very happy with the front suspension - if it handles at all well I may well remake the control arms with a bit more patience.





The photos show the new brake rotors. Ebay - all 4 for $65 and picked up in Toronto. I think the seller was "the spares hut" or something similar. I also got new lower ball joints and outer tie rods from ebay for about $60 for the lot.

Can't complain at that

Having posted a question regarding my pedal box the next thing I tackled was redoing the whole thing. I ended up mounting it above the column, changing the brackets for the column and welding the cut down pedals back together - luckily I still had the parts I removed. I then bent the brake and clutch pedal to position them roughly where I want and reinforced them.

And then there is the rear suspension.

HAving spent several weeks thinking about what coilovers to buy I finally settled on DAmpertech (gaz) as Dave Ainsworth was very very helpful.

The front shocks were easy 11 1/2" fitted, and I selected 275lb/in springs. I hope these will be okay.

The rears were much harder - spring rate is 225 lb/in but I couldn't decide on the fitted length. At first I was goint for 9" - no idea where this number came from but it is far too short. Then I had 15" - far too long. eventually I setteled on a fitted length of 13".

Roughly $750 shipped from the UK.

They got in in less than a week and I fitted the front ones easily. Then I got to the rears.



I my design I had left absolutely no room for the rear shocks. I will keep the post clean and just say "oops"

After a quick trip to Crappy Tire for a new Reciprocating Saw I cut out the most outboard diagonals and rewelded them further in. I also added a couple of extra uprights to improve the rigidity of the back end. I will probably add some shear plates too.

With the structure modified I was able to get the coil overs in. Of course with the redesign I would have been perfectly okay with 11 1/2" shocks, the same as the front and the more typical length. Now I have had to add "towers for the top shock mount and my lower control arms are going to be really ugly!





...and look what I've done to my paint.

It looks like I still have a couple of weeks before the weather gets really nasty so I may get the car on its wheels this year yet

Well another winter has passed us by. We had almost a record amount of snow, which equates to roughly 4ft of snow. But is has all gone now and the temperature has increased such that I can go in the garage without freezing.

I didn't get my car on its own whhels for the winter as the wheels still didn't fit and and didn't hold air.

Since my last entry I have continued to battle with my rear suspension. Having redone the rear structure I was extremely "upset" to see that me wheels still didn't fit. This time my solution was to buy a pair of 25mm wheel spacers from ebay.



In the mean time I also finished the pedal box and added some brake lines - all just rough at the moment. No final attachments.



I spent a long time trying to come up woth a proper PPF but there just wasn't room in my transmission tunnel for another structure, so I decided to completely steal Chetcpo's solution as his looked so good.



I am still waiting for some rubber "cotton reels" to build a tranny mount.

With the brakes basically installd (no hoses yet) and the wheels ready to go on I discovered that I had cocked up the steering rack mount too. (Inner tie rods from ebay). The steering rack was not centered, so I had to cut my mounts off and move them over 15mm. Then the steering was complete - and it worked



I forget to mention - the drive shaft was also installed over winter, and I have the wiring harness loosely installed (minus all the air bag gubbins)

Finally I attached all the wheels and wheeled the car onto the drive - 2 yrs so far and it sees the light of day











This last photo shows that I have at least 2" clearance on the sump, which I am confident is more than enough.

Does any one know how much a dry sump arrangement costs for a Miata????

I'm not sure what to do next. I do know the garden has a lot of weeds though and we had an $8,000 dog bill from the vet over the winter whicj severly affects the locost budget.

I think I need a scuttle before I can go any further,