building the "WAR MACHINE"

[SpeedWorks]

Damn, I remember when I first got my car and joined the forum you were talking about this. Had no idea you were putting this much work into it... Much props, I'd love to see it in person once it done!

Curtis is good people you'll be happy with his quality of work, hah.

The project is taking longer than I had originally planned, but I want to get it all done right the first time around and do everything that I really want so that I don't have to come back later and redo stuff. There is a ton of work going into the car, but I just want to make sure everything is done right and as good as possible. As far as seeing it once its done, don't worry, it'll be hitting the streets and shows and meets and stuff once I finish the build, so you will definitely see it.

And yes, Curtis is good people. I've known his for a little while now and his work is just awesome. When I told him about my build and what I had planned he was more than excited to help me out with the build. He is doing alot of work for me on the project and I can't wait to see the outcome of the work he is doing for me.

You are crazy man.... so much work into so many unseen parts! But it's a fun thread anyway. ;)

Yeah, I might be a little crazy with the attention to detail I'm putting into the car and even on parts that'll never be seen, but in my opinion, thats the only way to build a car.

I love this build! I have been wanting to get a gauge hood like that for a while now.

Thanks for the props on the build. As for the gauge hood, I've wanted to do that piece for a while and I finally had some time to work on the piece so its getting closer to a finished product, then I can take a mold from the prototype to make myself the production version.

Thanks guys for watching my build. Stay tuned as I'll have some more updates on the project as soon as possible.

[tsingson]

I saw a piece like that in my HyperRev and I wanted to try and order one but I eventually gave up on it.

[SpeedWorks]

I got inspired by the Garage Vary piece that is for the NBs. I figured that with my fiberglass skill it wouldn't be too hard. Once I started on it, it was clear that it was going to be pretty easy, but just time consuming to get it perfect and a good fit on the car. I'm almost done with it and just have to find some time to do some final adjustments and finishing on the piece and then I can pull a mold from it to make my production version.

[SpeedWorks]

small update for today. Its great that Chassis Engineering is located in South Florida and not too far of a drive from me. My wife and I spent part of our afternoon today making the drive up to Chassis Engineering to pick up some material for the build. Picked up 40 feet of 1.75 OD tubing and had them cut it up into various pieces for me and brought that all home. Hopefully I'll be able to start working on that and have some pictures to show next week.

Best part of the day was spending time with my wonderful wife who is extremely supportive of my project and took part of her workday off to join me in the trip up to get the tubing.

Also decided that I'll be bringing the project home in the next week or two so that I have easier access to work on it here at home and get more done so that we can get this project further along.

[SpeedWorks]

Almost forgot..... I know I posted this in the thread already, but does anyone have a good set of upper door panels they can donate to the project or maybe sell at a good price. I need a set with all the mounting points intact as I inspected mine panels and all the screws points were destoyed. I'll be making my own lower panels, but do still need the uppers.

Anyone wanna help out?

[mhogan0]

hey man u need to start making those guage pods tho fund this project Id buy one

[SpeedWorks]

hey man u need to start making those guage pods tho fund this project Id buy one

That topic is for another thread and I need to become a junior sponsor before I can talk about selling stuff on here. We'll see though since most of my free time goes to trying to finish up the project, but your definietely right that I could make some money to fund the project by selling some of the parts I create.

Thanks and stay tuned.

[SpeedWorks]

So I went over to where I currently have the car as I was planning on trying to bring the shell home but that ended up not happening and just gonna have to wait a little longer to get the car home.

Snapped a quick pic of how the car sits as of now:



I did recently have a little time and I sanded, cleaned and painted the parcel shelf. I shot it with two coats of ruberized undercoating. Once I do the entire floor and trunk in the undercoating, I'm gonna go back and spray a nice even coat of black on all of it.



Then, since the car still doesn't have the subframes installed, I figured I'd need a way to move the car around, so with the help of Harbor Freight and Home Depot, I made this:



After I was done fabbing up the cart, I got my brother out of bed to help me lift the shell up off the jackstands on set it down on the car. It works great.

Since the day got rained out I figured I'd get to yet another project. Luckily this was one I could do in my garage. I recently found out that my door cards had become useless. They were completely warped and moldy. Luckily, I'm pretty handy and headed out to Home Depot and got some 1/8" material to make some new door cards. I used my old one as a template, and busted out the jigsaw and drill to get it done.

Old door card:



New door card:



Also, while I was at work the other day, I figured out which door panel fasterners i would need for my new door cards. Yep I found the right ones:



So I bought enough to do both doors:



Now my only problem was that I was in such a rush to leave home depot, that I didn't pay enough attention to the material I got for the door panels, cause I got one sheet in 1/8" which is the correct size, and the other sheet in 1/4" not the correct size, so I was only able to get one door card done. When I get a chance to head back out to Home Depot, I'll switch that out for the correct one and get the second door panel completed. Then I can start upholstering up the panels.

Well, thats all I got for today. Stay tuned for more progress.

[SpeedWorks]

small update for today.

Got my new axles in the mail a few days ago. They are 2001 non abs axles.



I already got all new boots for them and I'll be sending them out very soon for a nice rebuild so that they will be good as new.

Then, I'm sure those axles will go great with the rear end setup i'll be running. Picked up the setup recently from a buddy, Hyper. 3.63 gears mated to a FC RX7 clutch type LSD. (sorry for the crappy pic, haven't had time to sort out the parts in the box.)



All that will be going into my spare 2001 differential casing with all new bearings, seals and just about every other minor piece that goes in there, but only after I clean and paint the housing completely. Here is a shot of the spare diff when I got it. Still have to get around to that piece.



I'm gonna try to get some more stuff accomplished over the weekend and hopefully have more updates for the build thread by Sunday.

Stay tuned for more slow and steady progress.

[SpeedWorks]

minor update to build.

I got around to finishing these up this week. They have all been cut, drilled and sanded, now just waiting for the rest of the components so the welding can begin.



Then, I was looking at the ebay shift knob I purchased for the project when I first got the shell and I wasn't liking how its not a screw on knob but rather it has the set screws. Then I remembered that back when I had my last miata and a MOMO shift knob, I had purchased a customer adapter that was designed for MOMO knobs and would basically convert the knob from set screw type to screw on type. Once I fished out the adapter, I realized I had one problem, it didn't fit into my new ebay knob. Luckily I was able to get it turned down just a little on a lathe and it fits perfectly now in the knob. This will work perfectly now.







And lastly, I spent some time today working on my spare valve cover. I am not sure yet if i'm gonna run this one or my 323gtx cover, but I like being able to have the option. I cut the front off the cover and spent some time shaving and shaping it till I got it just right. Next i'll have to get -10 AN fittings welded on and also get the threaded perches welded on as well for my COP setup, then it'll be ready for paint. I already got the pattern thought out, so I just have to make some templates. I'm hoping I can have the cover done in the next week or two. Here are the shots from today's work.





Aside from that, I'm hoping to have the subframes back up on the car very soon so that it'll once again be a rolling chassis. And I got my front calipers back from being rebuilt. So now they have a super nice powdercoat finish and all brand new seals, boots, clips and hardware. Can't wait to get my mounting brackets done so I can bold up these calipers on the spindles and see the final version on my brake setup that has taken forever to get completed.

Well, stay tuned for more progress and update.

[Demon I Am]

Impressive. Looking forward to seeing more

[Hyper]

come on come on, move your butt Alex... by the time you finish I am going to be a grandpa....

[atank]

Very good work man, can't wait to see more!

[SpeedWorks]

Short update for the build.

I posted pics previously of the rust repair done on the windshield, but I didn't post a pic of the completed driver side. So while I was out working on the car recently I snapped a few shots of boths sides where the repairs where done. Take a look at the repaired areas. I still have to use a little bit of filler on the frame before I take that to the next step which may be coming up soon.

driver's side repair area:


passenger side repair area:


Next, I had my welding and fab guy come out to do some small welding on the shell. I wanted to eliminate the stock antenna hole, so I let him do his thing on that.







After all the welding and grinding, this is what is outcome:



All it needs now is a little All Metal filler and some sanding and that portion will be smooth and ready to move on.

Next, I got around to ordering my adjustable brake proportioning valve last week and it came in the mail over the weekend. I went with a Wilwood unit, but did not get it from the miata vendors and instead I got it from Summit Racing. The reason for this is that the unit sold by the Miata vendors all require tube nut adapters, but this is simply to run the stock miata brake hard lines. Since my car doesn't have any hard lines at the moment and I will be working on that from scratch pretty soon, I was able to order the proportioning valve with 3/8-24 inverted flare ports. That along with the 50 feel of hard line and all the necessary fitting, I'll be able to put together a pretty nice brake line setup.





Then the nice thing about working at a parts store is that I can order most, if not all, the stuff I need for the project and get it a a great price. So I wanted to change my blower motor out and figured I'd also change out the blower motor resistor. I ordered up both at work and brought those parts home as soon as they arrived at the store.





And lastly on today's update. I've been thinking off the heat and sound insulation for the car alot lately. I already know that for the floors on the interior I'll be spraying a few coats of rubberized undercoating. Then to address the head from the transmission tunnel I was able to pick this up from work:



Thats a roll of self adhesive backed heat and sound insulation thats 36"x60", which should be more than enough to cover the transmission tunnel. Along with this, I also found this in one of the parts catalogs at work that will help with the undercar temps:





that is the 3' exhaust shield piece. Once I have the exhaust on the car, I'll be able to wrap the piping with this and keep alot of the keep from traveling up into the cabin.

I also pickup up a piece of 4'x6' insulation barrier from the same people. Its aluminum lined insulation basically. I plan on using that on the interior firewall. I think that all these components will really help with heat once I have the engine in the car. The interior should hopefully start coming together soon.

stay tuned for more progress as I should have the shell back into rolling form very soon.

[atank]

Hey I know those axles!!!!!!!!!!!

[QUOTE=SpeedWorks;53955]small update for today.

Got my new axles in the mail a few days ago. They are 2001 non abs axles.



I already got all new boots for them and I'll be sending them out very soon for a nice rebuild so that they will be good as new.