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Don't know fer shure, but I'd bet ya that car is only used for very, very short trips, ohhhh.... say.... about 1320 feet at a time, maybe? And probably only on weekends!

JDK

If one Metro is cool, what're two? (Stupid...?) My wife, much as she's excited by her Met, isn't going to like the fact that even though I have a shop, I've successfully taken over the garage as well...
You gotta love the fact that two of these fit in one garage with plenty of room left over to work on both of them. Ah, the joys of small cars.

So, I do have to say, having a car dipped is very cool. There is NO rust left on this thing... anywhere. Totally clean and you can see every single little issue it has. What a nice place to start working! This also marks the magic turning point at which things stop coming off and start going back on the car. Very exciting.
Let the official rust repair begin!

TOTALLY clean, all epoxy primered. Did I mention there is no dirt or oil anywhere? You could eat of this thing. I feel like dipping everything I own!!

On the other end of the scale, here are the door trim molds in process. Watching epoxy dry - could it be more exciting? These are just throw-away splash molds so only a few layers. Just enough to make the part that I'll then fit/shape and use as the plug for my production mold.

JUST CURIOUS , but how are you going to center the driveshaft from the offset drive of the engine to the centered diff? Did you price out that reversing set up and what kind of horsepower will it handle, I'm thinking of a 140 hp Ducati.............

Still not sure if I can't just run a drive shaft from the engine to the diff. I'm getting conflicting info - some of the 'experts' say it'll vibrate, others that it will be fine. I am also looking at simply running a sprocket on the engine output, run the drive shaft centered with a sprocket on the end and run an enclosed chain between them. This would also allow me to change the gearing as I see fit. I could forget about the rear end ratio issue = calculations show that I'll be spinning the motor pretty high just to get it going highway speeds... We'll see.
As to reverse, the Quaife reversing box is about $1500 and will be fine as long as I'm not trying to set world record reverse burnouts. It is kinda cool that it'd have 5 speeds in reverse and go just as fast backwards as it does forwards....

Y'know, that only-offset-on-one-plane-or-it'll-vibrate thing has never made sense to me. The theory is, you can have vertical offset, or horizontal offset, but you can't have both...that somehow a diagonal offset causes vibration. What about Daytona? Do drivelines vibrate when the cars get on the banking, or what?

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Locost builder and adventurer, and founder (but no longer owner) of Kinetic Vehicles

I had not heard of that 'rule' before, but it certainly makes no sense to me. If you visualise a combined vertical & horizontal offset, you can see that it is no different to a single-plane offset but where the plane has been rotated about an axis parallel to the gearbox output shaft and diff input (so with identical gearbox offset up and to the right, the plane would be at 45% and the offset would only be in this plane). As far as the rotating assembly is concerned, there is no difference between single horizontal or vertical offset & a combined offset.

Maybe the way everything is mounted can have an effect? I'm a relative newbie to propshafts...

I hope you don't mind me asking but, I'm in the middle of a restoration myself and I was wondering how much the dipping cost you?

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"One can certainly imagine the myriad of uses for a hand-held iguana maker"
-Hobbes (Calvin and Hobbes comics)

This thing is going to be cool!

Rod

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Driving a +442E with 450 Hp Ford 347 v8, T5, 8 stack EFI w/EDIS8 & MegaSquirt ITB Mode.
12,000+ enthusiastic miles as of 1/1/11
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqvYJlYc4GU
http://s124.photobucket.com/albums/p3/beergodrod/
Now building a 1953 Chevy 1 ton panel with Frito Lay truck parts and a Cummins 4BTA
and a 1963 Nova SS

I'm happy to share my experience but when it comes to dipping, you have some options so the answer to "what's it cost?" is "It depends...". The place I took it (Nor-Cal Metal Stripping in Windsor, CA) has a "by the part" (and I suspect, 'by the size') pricing model. The chassis was $550, fenders $95 each, etc. I may have made it more expensive by taking it so far apart. For instance, the Metro dash unbolts from the chassis so that made another part ($30) but it may have been 'free' if I'd left it in the car. But that wouldn't have been as nice a job.
They also charge to remove anything you forgot - including bondo, seam sealer, etc. I certainly had that going on... And I have to say, they told me all this up front so there were no surprises but I had assumed the chemicals would take care of all that. Turns out, at least at this place (and maybe it's a CA thing) they don't want all that stuff going into the tanks. Who knew...?
Finally, I also had them do the epoxy priming. In the end, with all the parts I had done, it was just over $2500. Ouch... But there you go. I'm sure I could have done many of the parts for less via some other media blasting but my 'working on the car' time is quite limited and I opted to "just do it" and get to the next stage of the project. In fact, I have other parts (like the gas tank) that I think I'll take in for the same treatment. Pricey? Yes, it seems to be. But the result is really nice.

Forgive my ignorance, but when you say dipping is that an acid dip?

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mobilito ergo sum
I drive therefore I am

I can explain it to you,
but I can't understand it for you.

Of course you can. You mean with two u-joints at equal angles? If you have different angles on the u-joints that's a problem. I can't really offer much of a guideline about the amount of angles etc., but there are specs on this site and also from u-joint makers. Less is better and the joints should be out of phase with each other.

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Marcus Barrow - Car9 an open design community supported sports car for home builders!
SketchUp collection for LocostUSA: "Dream it, Build it, Drive it!"
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Proper installation notwithstanding, the driveshaft will be a bit of a challenge.

If the ujoint is serviceable, the yoke OD where the grease seal would normally ride can be pressed into a steel bushing to step the driveshaft OD up to the miata driveshaft OD, which is necessary not only to more easily accept the miata driveshaft components on the IRS end, but to prevent whipping/flexure of the driveshaft given the length and rpm.

Light blue bushing press fit to black yoke.
Red driveshaft cut off, slipped into splines of black yoke and welded to light blue bushing.
Grey welds secure dark blue driveshaft tube press fit to light blue bushing.

Driveshaft tube is the same size as required for miata weld yoke at diff.

Don't be tempted to simply modify the Honda driveshaft by stepping up the OD to match the miata driveshaft. It will be weaker than the stock Honda shaft, where the smallest crossection of the shaft is spread across a wider area. If you keep the same length of the smallest crossection and then step it up gradually, the weight of the miata sized shaft will have less support, leading to whipping/flexure.

If the ujoint is not serviceable, have it modified or be prepared to remachine everything if the joint needs to be replaced down the road.

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Miata UBJ: ES-2074R('70s maz pickup)
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Miata, I was just thinking about your adapter and thought this might simplify things a bit.

1) it uses one less piece (doesn't require the male splines)
2) the adaper can have a stepped flange for aligning perpendicular to the Miata driveshaft
3) the internal weld at the adapter/u-joint is at the OD of the u-joint providing a longer weld path increasing strength over trying to weld to the splines together. If better or easier, the u-joint could extend beyond the length of the adapter giving a "V" to weld, thus eliminating the need for chamfering here.
4) It appears that there is a step in the Honda u-joint. If so, it could be brought up to the adapter and welded to the face too. I am at a distinct disadvantage here, never seeing the ujoint being used.
5)The fit of the u-joint OD to the adapter ID should be a snug fit. Interference would be nice to eliminate any cantilever action.

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Chuck.

“Any suspension will work if you don’t let it.” - Colin Chapman

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