building the "WAR MACHINE"

[SpeedWorks]

A little more progress on the build.

I recently pickued up this seal from the dealer to go along with the freshly cleaned and painted Protege timing belt cover panel.





The fitment is perfect, but I need to get some black silicone to hold it in properly.



The next thing on my list to do yesterday was to start working on the front setup for the car. As you may already know from earlier in the build thread, i'll be running the Autokonexion NA/NC front bumper.



Now for any of you who followed the original thread on clubroadster when this bumper was first designed, the original photoshop had a front lip on it. The look the bumper had with the lip on it is what drew me into wanting this bumper. Since there isn't a lip available yet for this bumper and the one used in the original photoshop is an expensive Garage Vary unit that if purchased would have to be chopped up, I decided to use my fiberglass skills and come up with something myself.

First, thanks to Dliverance, I had a good starting platform, an NB2 front lip.



After alot of cutting and test fitting, I finally got the NB lip to the point i'm happy with and I can now start with tape and fiberglass to finish up the shape of the final piece. Here is how the setup looked yesterday when I called it quites for the night:







If I can really get some time together to work on this project, I should have the lip ready in the next few weeks. After the lip is done, I can start work on the turn signal setup for the bumper and then move on to the custom rear bumper I have planned.

stay tuned for more progress on the build

[SpeedWorks]

Ok everyone, so not much interest in my build thread lately by you all. I'm hoping that will change once I actually start assembling and making it look like a car again. Don't worry, assembly will start very soon and i'm hoping that alot more work will get done on the car once its back into rolling form and I can spend more time working on the car.

I have been spending alot on time lately in my garage working on other aspects of the build. Last post, I showed you the beginnings of the front lip I'm working on to go along with my Autokonexion front bumper.

Here are some shots of the progress I made yesterday on the lip. I'm about half way done laying the glass for the preliminary mold. Its actually moving along quite nicely.







Here is the half I still have to get glass onto:



You can get an idea of the shape of the lip alot more from these pictures as opposed to the pics I posted last time before I started fiberglassing it all. The lip will be a removable piece once its done and I think it'll really add that something I was looking for on this bumper.

Enjoy the pics and stay tuned for more progress.

[MLZ]

Nice Mickey Mouse slippers you've got there!

[theothersawyer]

Just read through this from the beginning and it is fantastic! I can't wait to see the finished product!

[SpeedWorks]

Nice Mickey Mouse slippers you've got there!

They aren't slippers, they are crocs, lol. thats my "working in the garage" footwear.

Just read through this from the beginning and it is fantastic! I can't wait to see the finished product!

Thanks for the compliment. finished product will come soon. just gotta get some time together to get back to the car. gonna try to have the preliminary mold for the lip done by end of next week and then I can continue from there. Still have alot to do though.

stay tuned for more progress

[wannafbody]

Looks pretty good

[SpeedWorks]

Looks pretty good

thanks, but i'm really just trying to get far enough along with all my side projects that I can actually get to working on the shell and start assembling that.

I still have alot to go, but I'm steadily moving forward on the project.

[SpeedWorks]

quick break from current project updates to show you guys some pics of one of the lives of my last miata project. found these pics while going through some old files









not many people were doing crazy stuff like this with miatas back in 1999

[turbotyla]

Some people would hate on that. But I would drive the shit out if it.
Especially in 99. I was 9 though haha.

Looks good I like the color.

[SpeedWorks]

Some people would hate on that. But I would drive the shit out if it.
Especially in 99. I was 9 though haha.

Looks good I like the color.

back then only some of the miata guys really appreciated what i had done. I know Joe from RSpeed would always tell me the car looked great, but all the old guys said i had ruined the car. I had fun building that car and learned alot of what to and not to do when building a project car from that miata.

Wow, you were 9, thats cool. by '99, i had already had that miata for 2 years and it went through many stages before what you see if the pics, and it then went through alot more stages after that.

as for the color, the car was originally white, then painted how you see in the pics. that color came from the Porsche pallet. it was called arena red metallic. the pics don't do the color justice at all. the car didn't stay that color though. after that its next reincarnation had it painted saffron metallic from the volvo lineup. you can see pics of it in that color on my cardomain page. www.cardomain.com/id/speedworks

thanks for the support

[etikoner]

I was also nine back then. Though I was just basically getting to love cars at that age. It looks pretty cool even by today's standards. It's not my cup of tea, but it wasn't terrible looking either. lol


I love what you did with that bumper though. I always thought it needed a more aggressive lip for it to look right, kudos.

[Boost93]

Props for the build...Please dont rice it out...

[diabeetus]

i was also 9. got a lot of babies here. thats cool

love the build so far and i cant wait to see whats next!!

[theothersawyer]

Car looks pretty good! I was 6 in '99....haha

Keep up the good work on the build!

[SpeedWorks]

Ok, so back on topic of my current build. So I get a call today from my buddy who is doing the engine work for the project. First thing he says is, "hey, bad news...", this can't be good. He goes on to tell me that he was looking over the cylinder head before he went any further with porting it and he noticed that the bottom surface of the head by cylinder #2 on the exhaust side is extremely porous and looks kinda like swiss cheese. He is assuming that the engine probably saw some serious overheating which probably caused the issue. He said we could cut down the head to fix the issue, but it wasn't the best option. Luckily, he said he has a spare 1.6 head at the shop and he is going to tear that one down tomorrow and check it out. If that one is in good shape, he will be porting that one for my project.

I will be picking up the new lifters in the next week or two and then the only thing left to buy for the head will be the new valves.

I'll keep you all posted on the build