June 10, 2007 - It's been a busy weekend.
While I've been building the car, the body panels were stacked all over the garage. The finish didn't really matter - but now it does. The best place to "store" the body panels is on the car so I've been busy installing them. It doesn't hurt that it's really satisfying work with very obvious results. It's also very interesting work as I try to figure out all the little tricks that Mazda used to put the car together with minimal gaps. My old Cadillac has stacks of spacers under various body panels to get things to line up, while the Miata is designed so that everything just goes in the right place the first time. Hanging the doors was probably the most complex part of the operation.
It was also a challenge figuring out the order of operations - to put the nose of the car on, I had to put the exterior door handles on the door, install the window regulator, the vent window and then the window glass. Now the door could go on. Hood hinges, then fenders, then the nose could go on. Amazingly, I didn't have to backtrack much at all.
Since this picture was taken, I've also installed the missing light at the front. Having the big bulky panels (and assorted trim pieces) on the car has freed up a huge amount of room in my garage - which was my excuse for putting it all together. |
THE DIARY