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Been busy the past couple days. Completely disassembled the car and am now cutting it up to fit the R1 motor. Should be set to start welding the puzzle back together on Fri or Sat.

non-chassis stuff done the last couple days.
-sorted out A-arms and ball joints, setup and ready to go
-painted miata spindles
-modified (fiberglass) scuttle to fit carbon fiber aero screen--rush job, but not bad.
-made up 2 sheats of fiberglass cloth using old bathroom mirror. -so much cheaper than alu and lighter too. Made one small sheat using the sandwich method--outstanding. For both the scuttle work and sheats I ended up using one bondo fiberglass repair kit $6.99, one tube of hardener $1.99, a couple of sheats of firm felt (scuttle shaper), and a $4.59 roll of fiberglass cloth. The sheats are 3 and 4 ply and will be perfect to cut to shape to cover the holes left by the old right exit header, and shiter.
-fitted sump baffle and new clutch springs



Photos soon.

Car is still cut up, but nothing going on the motor mounts etc.. Tons of cut up bits waiting to be welded together. I'm also worried about the rear axle brackets and high gear ratio.

Some photos of the parts bin.

I know how you feel. I've spent the last few months bouncing between Washington D.C., FL, OK, GA, and AL.

What are your specific concerns on the rear axle brackets?

_________________
Miata UBJ: ES-2074R('70s maz pickup)
Ford IFS viewtopic.php?f=5&t=13225&p=134742
Simple Spring select viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11815
LxWxHt
360LA 442E: 134.5x46x15
Lotus7:115x39x7.25
Tiger Avon:114x40x13.3-12.6
Champion/Book:114x42x11
Gibbs/Haynes:122x42x14
VoDou:113x44x14
McSorley 442:122x46x14
Collins 241:127x46x12

I'm worried about the welds in a couple spots and the CMC 1/2" bolt welded on the pax side for the panard bar. Just another time bust.

I see the gap in the bead. The more you weld, the better you get. Just make sure you have an angle grinder to remove it if it's a mess. Considering where it is at, touching it up with a mig is not going to require you to replace the seals, change the oil, or tweak the housing.

If your not comfortable touching that up, don't. It's poor work but if the rest of the weld is decent, the bracket is not going to fly off.

I haven't see the panhard connection.

Make something quick and easy with your welder, like an engine stand or service ramps. It won't matter if you screw it up. It sure beats burning holes in stuff you care about.

_________________
Miata UBJ: ES-2074R('70s maz pickup)
Ford IFS viewtopic.php?f=5&t=13225&p=134742
Simple Spring select viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11815
LxWxHt
360LA 442E: 134.5x46x15
Lotus7:115x39x7.25
Tiger Avon:114x40x13.3-12.6
Champion/Book:114x42x11
Gibbs/Haynes:122x42x14
VoDou:113x44x14
McSorley 442:122x46x14
Collins 241:127x46x12

I have to turn her all the way up to get decent penetration. I've come up with a solution for the rear axle which will double the contact area with the axle. Basically boxing in mounts using 1" and 3/4" width 1/8" flat stock.

My hours suck, but I managed to get in a solid 6hrs of welding this weekend. Did the steering shaft mount, rear seatbelt bar, seat mounts, and a couple of added chassis braces. I figure 3-4 more good days and I'll be able to start paint, assy, and tuning.

I found a case 11 cans, of duplicolor truck bed liner for $9 at checker. Seems one can blew up and messed up the others.

I welded in the driveshaft support, 4 braces where CMC left a void, pax area diagnal, new steering shaft support, rear seatbelt bar, and R1 upper motor mounts.



This next weekend I hope to do the motor mounts, fuel tank support, rear seat mounts and lower seatbelt mounts.

I didn't get much done this weekend/tonight--gotta work tomorrow.

Welded in rear seat mounts and pax side engine bay support.

I think I could finish her in about 8 days if I could take the time off...

I'm a bit frustrated without access to air tools or anything but a hacksaw and hand-held drill.

photos next week.

Finally got a couple hours to sort out the steering shaft. Did the dzus thing for the scuttle and will now have nothing in the dash/scuttle to allow easy removal. I put all of the bikes controls on the steering shaft. The fuel gauge, oil pressure gauge and serial input to the ecu will be added underneath on the chassis to just in front of where a normal shifter would go. It took some time, but got the Kart paddle shifter, R1 Gauge cluster and,, bikes controls to fit perfect with me seated--Used handlebars from a tricycle to mount the light anbd ignition switches. Looks mad with scuttle on...

I kept looking at the controls on my bike and thinking that pretty much everything I need is right there, but how do I mount it? Thanks for the idea, have you seen it done any other way?

I can't find the photo, but I do remember seeing what looked like an L-shaped mountain bike bar end mounted on the passenger side of the tunnel at around the same local as the shifter, leaning forward and toward the driver, putting both bike controls together in one spot. I think it was a Dax.

Got a lot done last night, though not much last week because I ended up working. I will have most of the next 3-days to play around. I'm hoping to spend one day grinding/sanding, and another getting a base coat on the chassis, then attempt to fit together a roller.

Sorted out the steering today. I need to buy 13" of 7/8" x .125 dom to finish. The empi spline and u-joint (dirt cheap) is the same as the miata and each joint gives about 1/4" plus the 3/8" play in the bottom section of the miata u-joint sot fitting will be easy. I basically had to add another joint and brace/bushing to get it around the motor.

I had test fit the header and got it to fit without issue until I fit the drive shaft. The driveshaft puts the motor at center, but now the header will need modification. 2 of the 4 pipes can't reach the merge. If I swap a couple around and cut 1" of two, I will get three to fit perfect. So will only need a bend or two to sort out #4.

Shifter worked out pretty well since adding the bike's toe control arm. The only problem now is the B&M shift cable is crap. I clamped the cable stop in place, fitted the paddle shifter and ran through the gears using the 3 or 4 times, then it stopped downshifting and found the paddle on one side more than 1/4" off. I measured the cable and it stretched over 3/16". It also is sticking now. I relly need to find another push-pull cable that is 14" shorter and smoother. I'll hit the junk yard tomorrow on my way back home from the steel yard.

One of the biggest arse pains so far has been the slave cyl. I picked up pull style slave cyl that has 5/16 rod ends on both sides. Re-build kits are only $9 and is the same as the wilwood but less than 1/2 the price. Problem is the clutch arm is flimsy with a 6mm rivot. I fabbed up a new arm and finally got her to work.. This took 4 hours as I had a pain getting the angle and arc to work so i'd get the full stroke wihtoou binding and a couple runs to the hardware shop for nuts and bolts.

Oh, I sold a bunch of old parts from the RX-7 buld and got my overall budget--not counting tools--to $9278. Instead of recouping the funds, I purchased a new mountian bike.

Steering took all day to sort out. I had to run all over the place to find tubing. There's no 7/8" .125 DOM within 200 miles of cheyenne, so I settled for 1/2" std steel pipe. The stuff is very strong, but the ID slightly larger than my 5/8" steering shaft, and the OD slightly slimmer than 7/8". I used 3 plug welds and rana solid bead around the circumfrance and managed to get it pretty straight. It is very smooth once all connected.


Today I will finish up all the areas (motor mount, slave cyl mount) that were tack welded and start grinding/sanding away. Even back to work, I'm hoping to have a roller by early next week.

Not quite a roller, but I did manage to paint the underside and steering setup. I hope to flip once the paint cures and get on with a roller the topsides. Having looked at a co-workers jeep who's bumpers and roll bars are truck bed liner coated, I think truck bed liner will work on the roll bar, and floor/footwell. Esp now that I cut out the dow tube on the roll bar so a pax will fit. I don't have the time or patients to smooth everything out. This car is a tool anyway.

Photos once camera is fixed.