LocostUSA.com

Looks great Adam! Did your wheels not fit because the +4 rear width made the chassis too wide? Also if you are looking for a cheap project focus on the wiring harness. It took me three weeks of fiddling around and squinting at diagrams to trim the fat and sort it out to a workable size. It ended up costing me around $100 in heat shrink connectors, a nice new set of wire strippers and crimpers.

Hi Chet,Thanks for the comments.  I think I am about done with the wiring - I am researching if I need high level brake lights and side repeaters for the indicators - if not I may remove that stuff too.The wheels didn't fit bacause of my +4 frame.  I just had the trunk space too wide. 

Well another few months have passed us by, and the garden is looking good, so it must be time to do some more locost. It looks like Chet won our little race - and what a beautiful car he has built.

I have spent a few months procrastinating about the scuttle, and ultimately decided to make my own out of steel.

**The deeper I get into this build the more I think I should have built a book chassis. Nevermind! **

Here is the scuttle frame.



This has allowed me to tidy up a lot of the wiring and start hooking the various components up. It seems odd, as I know I am going to have too strip it all back down again.





Now I have to mount the fuel tank. My tank came with 2 bulkheads on the top.



I want to move these to the side as it is already a little too high. Would this cause a problem? (I will post in the right forum too).

Then I mount the pump and filter, throw on a battery and see what catches fire first!!!!

Thanks Adam, I have a longer "working season" than you do. You are taking your time, doing it right and it will show whenever you do get it finished. I cut a lot of corners to get mine on the road.

Glad to see you back at it.

I was able to get a bit more done on the car this weekend

The fuel tank now has a cradle. I made this bolt in so that I could still get to the diff if need be. I also added 90deg fittings to tidy up the plumbing. (These fittings are very charp and I now have a perfect circle cut into the top of my finger ) Just got to add some straps to keep the thing in.



I also made a cradle for the battery and adjusted the loom lengths to fit.



Finally I made a plate to mount the fuel pump and filter.



Now I just need to get some hose and/or pipe to get the fuel to the front of the car......

I used 5/16" brake lines up the tunnel. Total cost about $10, I think.


Looks good...it's nice to see your pics, as you and I are at about the same place with very similar builds.

Keep up the good work,
-dave

Well I had hoped to post a video of the beast running - instead I will post a plea for help (and duplicate it in the electrical section)

I hooked everything up, fuel and wiring that is and turned the key - nothing.
I tightened the nut on the starter solenoid turned the key, and it turns over But nothing else.

The fuel pump has not power, and there is no spark.

I have checked all the grounds (that I can find).
I have reconnected a couple of wires that were left over after removing the air bag stuff (this at least gave me lights on the dashboard)

I added a wire to run the fuel pump directly temporarily - this proved that the pump will not work with the top mounted fittings - so I moved the feed fitting to the bottom of the tank. I now have fuel circulating manually.

Any ideas why I have no spark or feed to the fuel pump? I have one red wire on a connector with 3 wires that is spare after removing the air bag stuff, and one green and white wire that I cut at the fuel inj. fuse but went to the air bag loom.

Everything else is as Mazda intended, I think. Well there is one spare large connector in the vicinity of the dash that has no label ( I labeled everything as I disconnected it.)

Double check that you have the clutch safety switch engaged or disconnected and jumpered with a piece of Mig wire. (like I did )

Make sure the airflow meter is plugged in and functional, finally check your fusebox for blown fuses. All of the above confounded me at one point or another.

It won't have anything to do with the fuel pump, but check the coil packs. My second engine wouldn't start at first, and I found there was water in the plug holes, and even in one of the coil pack holes where the wires plug in. I replaced the wires, plugs, and coil pack, after mopping and blowing out the plug holes, and it ran fine.

I stripped my harness and rebuilt it, basically, and I think that may have saved me some problems, as I deleted about 3/4 of the wiring, making it much easier to diagnose any potential problems.

Make sure the MAF is pointed in the right direction... I did that one, and that really screwed things up.

Guys

Wow

Thanks for all the responses. The following link is an excellent troubleshooting guide!

http://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread.php?p=3102421

I followed this and by step 2 I had it solved. The real mystery now is how this happened.

I drove the donor into my garage and stripped it. The reason the car would not start is the 30A Inj fuse was missing. Where the **** did it go?????

Anyway it now runs (very very badly)

Time to tidy it all up and hopefully it will run smoothly!

http://s67.photobucket.com/albums/h308/ ... I_0383.flv

Now that is what I am talking about

Adam,

Have you had your first drive yet?

Not yet - in fact the diary is a bit behind.

I have ordered the nose and arches, but the car has been put away for the winter. The best part of this is I have proved I can get 3 cars in the garage.

Soon as spring is here I will be stripping the car, doing the final welding on teh brackets etc, painting the frame and doing the final build.

It's all looking good!!!

Thanks for asking.

Thought I would add some pictures taken months ago of some of the last little bits that I worked on.

This shows the seats and the little brackets for the handbrake cables.







The nose cone from COLD arrived and it looks great

The arches from Curtis arrived and they are excellent.

With these bits just resting on the car it looks cool. No photos yet though.

Hey Adam
Hows the car coming, wouldn't mind droping by to check out the new fenders and your build progress so far, any new pics ??.
just did some work for your neighbour across the street this past week and doing Gregs basement next week, I was hoping you were going to be home when I was up there giving them a quote, no luck, I,ll catch up with you soon.
John