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No offense taken. You bring up a good point. I do plan on adding some triangulation on the aft UCA mounts. If you look close in the above pics there is lots of masking tape hanging from here and there. I like to string tape across the connection points to get a feel for the placement before I make sparks and smoke. The X-brace will probably look like one of the attached pix.

I wanted to get everything else in there before I started adding more triangluation tubes that could cause large headaches (not being able to remove the engine/tranny or conflict with belt/pulleys come to mind)
- It's definitely a work in progress...

As far as body panels go, in studying the book it looks like the first 2 feet or so of skin are kind of 'free floating' anyway. My nose cone is not straight up and down on the sides, it bows out a little in the middle. I plan on massaging the shape of the skin to match the curve of the nose, thus it will be non-stressed in the forward section and will intentionally float out away from the V bracing up front.
I couldn't find a good picture, but hopefully this makes sense.

I made some great progress in the last two weeks. I got the shock mounts finished. In retrospect I would have made the diff mount plates a little longer so the the triangles could be a little straighter, but this will work. And because they are removable I can move the shock point if I need to down the road without tearing in the rear structure too bad.

I also spent a lot of time and effort putting in the compound angles for the 'floor' of the trunk. I got tunnel vision and thought this would be a great solution, - and it is, it does work, but in retrospect I realize I could have put one single tube across the "W" (yellow line) and hit the same points at the outside. - Oh well, this works too. - And, I'll certainly be different.

I also got the rack tacked in place. I obviously haven't shortened the rack yet, but I put it in the right place so the tie rod joints are inline with the mounting points once I cut 5.5" out of the rack.


I'll wait until I get the rack finished before I final weld the mount in.

It looks like the two halves of the steering column will match close enough to use the tried-and-true Kieth Tanner UHMW-PE pillowblock bearing method. - Off to Grainger I go!

(and no, that's not the tube I will be using for my column extension, it just happend to have the right id to slip over the splines. It just gave me a way to see where the two will meet.)

- And yes, I am in the market for a tubing bender.

If you just need a few bends in 7/8, 1", or 1-1/8" tubing, I can save you some money over buying a bender. Let me know what you need. You can PM JagLite as a reference...he seemed pretty happy with the work I did for him.

-dave

I got the steering column modified and installed this weekend. Does the install look familiar? This picture could be of just about any miata-based build out there.
Thanks Keith for documenting your work so well. I'm sure all of us could figure out a viable solution on our own, but why re-invent the wheel when a simple and sufficiently robust solution is already out there?
I'm sure it's mutually beneficial, you get a buck or two from royalties on each book sold, your publisher gets 15 or so, Barnes and Noble gets 5 or so and we get a documentation of a well executed build.

I struggled on how to get the extension concentric with the column. I bought DOM because the id was a little closer to the shaft but it still wobbled a little. So I thought I was being so clever - and it did work at first; I put the tube in the freezer and heated the stub with my propane torch. I knew I had to be quick once it went together. It was snug at first and I tacked it in place. Then of course the one cooled and the other warmed up and it went back to wobble-land. - Oh well it was a nice try, but save your time and just go for it as is. I was able to mount the column in my vise spin it to see where it was off. I bent it back in place and gradually added tack welds until it was solid, then ran a full bead. It turned out nice.

I did have an adventure boring out the PE bearing. Without a machine lathe, mill or the exact drill bit size I did a dumb-yet effective thing. I put an end mill in my drill press and held the bearing in my hands. I shaved off just enough to make it fit. And it's remarkably centered and true. - Not my brightest move, but effective!
-(Kids, Moms, Dads, Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents, Stepchildren, Cousins, Friends, Strangers.... don't try this at home!)

I also started fooling around with the lay-out of the front shocks. I realized these shocks were too short to use them the way I wanted 'conventionally.' They're so short I'd have to mount them in the middle of the LCA putting it in massive amounts bending. I was planning on buying another set of QA1's that were a little longer but I got looking at the geometry up front and thought, "why not just go inboard? It's lower unsprung weight anyway. So I started looking at how to pull it together. It looks like they will actually fit under the nose cone.

I've pulled out my design of machinery books and I'm dusting off my vector loop equation solving skills. Hopefully I can produce a user-friendly excel spreadsheet to post here. I know others have struggled with the specifics of linkage - rocker arm motion synthesis. I've seen Dhempys respectable use of small angle approximations, but the Engineer in me wants a full blown solution. More on that later.

Not to ruin your math fun, but you could always put a tube across the top and move the upper attachment points outboard to get the lower points closer to the ball joints.

Nah. I have to justify the five years of 'pounding my head against a wall' math fun I had in college. Ironically I had to have my degree to get the job, but I don't really use it at work. This will be an ACTUAL application for my machine design / motion synthesis class. -That is if I can remember it all!!!

The radiator came in last night. It is the usual 2" Aluminum core 'race' radiator commonly found on ebay. I made a cardboard mock-up of it before I placed the order but I was still nervous about fitting it all under a standard nose cone. It's going to be a TIGHT fit! But it WILL fit.
As you can see the lower outlet will just barely clear my bracing in the lower front corner. There is going to be some creative plumbing involved.
I'm not worried about laying it back on an angle, I have a nice 16" pusher fan that will keep the air flowing.
I can finally put those dzus fasteners to work on mounting the nose cone!

Radiator is in... barely.
I had to mount it about 5/8" to the left of center in order to get the clearance I need at the lower hose.

My current 'sports car' can be seen under my build table in red.
Gets great gas mileage!

Looking good! Where have a seen that radiator before.

J. R.

I got my headlights from Mr. UPS yesterday, Dietz chromies from Speedway. They look Saaweeet! I'll post pics when I find my camera again. (oops)
Now I just have to figure out where to mount them. I acutally like look of an original 7 with them mounted a little higher. I'll let y'all know what I come up with.

Taps on order,
Bungs and more rod ends on order,
Found a local guy with a bender for the roll bar,
shopping for gas tank
shopping for exhaust goodies

Movin' forward!!!

(Confession, I still can't write the word 'bung' without chuckling and thinking of Beavis and Butthead...)

Agreed, on both accounts

Sorry for referencing such an old post, but what angle are your 2x2 mounts at? 45 degrees?

Thanks,
-Winston