| MIATA BUILD |
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 | | June 4, 2007 - My house is conspiring against me.
My "Targa time" has been eaten up by a recalcitrant irrigation system (if you think of electronic sprinkler valves as fuel injectors it's all quite obvious, although I do prefer that fuel injectors aren't buried in the dirt) and some interior plumbing problems. Regardless, I've managed to make some progress. The remaining body panels are now scuffed up and clean, so they just need a final wipe down and then it's time to paint. I'm hoping to have the primer on them tonight.
entry 188 - tags: paint | | |  | June 5, 2007 - Primer time!
I don't have enough stands for all the parts, so I'm having to do this in stages. However, most of the body panels have primer on at least one side now. I'll finish the rest tonight.
Thanks to better gun setup, I'm seeing a far superior finish than on the car body. The larger smooth surfaces of the body panels - as opposed to engine bay crevices and roll cage - make it a lot easier to practice, and I've learned just how critical gun distance is. I've also learned it's really hard to tell where you've applied white primer to white panels!
entry 189 - tags: paint | | |  | June 6, 2007 - Okay, that's it for primer.
Tomorrow I'll break out the top coat and then it will be time to start assembling great big chunks of car!
I'm really enjoying the painting. Once you get the paint gun in hand, progress is very visible and very rapid. I wouldn't want to do it for a living, but it makes a great contrast to wiring!
entry 190 - tags: paint | | |  | June 8, 2007 - The painting is done.
Well, almost. I forgot to do the headlight covers and the gas cap cover. But those can wait.
The end result was pretty good. I did the top coats in two sessions. The parts in the second session (the big obvious surfaces such as the top, hood and trunk) didn't turn out that well. I think I laid down too thin a layer of paint and it didn't get glossy. You can see on the hardtop that the edges are quite nice, but the top is just dull. The edges got about twice as much paint as I hit them first to make sure they got full coverage, then they got covered in the sweeps for the body of the part.
It's not a big problem. This picture exaggerates it and it's under fluorescent lights, always the toughest test. In the sun and at speed, I think it will look just fine.
entry 191 - tags: paint | | |  | June 8, 2007 - The front fenders turned out very nicely.
You can tell they weren't factory fresh fenders to start with - they have a little character - but at least the paint's pretty smooth.
The white I used is supposed to be the white from 1990-93 Miatas. However, I have an original 1990 white hardtop in the garage and it's not as blinding as this stuff. Looking at the mix, my paint is almost pure base with just a touch of blue and a tiny bit of black. No wonder it's so bright!
entry 192 - tags: paint | | |  | June 8, 2007 - Naturally, as soon as the paint was dry enough I had to put some panels on the car.
They're not bolted in place yet, but it's a start!
You can see the 2005 Mazdaspeed MX-5 turbo exhaust protruding beyond the bumper. Those cars have a deeper rear bumper. I'll cut the pipe down a bit, it's goofy looking.
I never thought I'd get so excited about seeing a white Miata.
entry 193 - tags: paint, exhaust, interchange | | |  | June 8, 2007 - Now that the doors are painted, it's time to reassemble.
This is quite a puzzle. I'm building the car with the regular glass right now, although future plans involve Lexan for at least the triangular side window.
entry 194 | | |  | 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.
entry 195 | | |  | June 10, 2007 - The door (right) and the rear fender.
In other words, my original paint and my new and improved job. It's good to see I'm learning something!
entry 196 - tags: paint | | |  | June 10, 2007 - Sexy, lightweight carbon and aluminum mirrors.
Those aren't plastic made to look like carbon, they are carbon. Oooh. I've been waiting for a while to bolt these on!
Did you know that Mazda used the same door for power and manual window cars, but the outer door skin is different for cars with power mirrors? Go figure. Naturally, these mirrors need the power mirror door and one of my doors was a manual mirror type. That meant I got to do some cutting on my nice new paint.
entry 197 - tags: weight loss, interchange | | |  | June 10, 2007 - I've been amusing myself with colored fasteners again.
The door hinges are black or red as are the hood hinges. This amuses me, I don't know why.
entry 198 | | |  | June 10, 2007 - The most difficult job I did this weekend was installing the pins for the trunklid.
Usually you only have to deal with two of them, but I'm a glutton for punishment. They're all on now and the trunklid slips on and off easily. The panel gaps are pretty much perfect, but they look bad in this photo.
Was this really necessary? Well, I was able to cut a bunch of weight out. But no, it wasn't necessary at all.
entry 199 - tags: weight loss | | |  | June 10, 2007 - The hood has been pinned as well.
Notice that oddly colored headlight cover? Not the missing one, the one on the driver's side. That's the original 1990 Miata white. I like mine a whole lot better.
The body of the car is complete, with the exception of the headlight covers, the gas cap lid and the hardtop. The latter only needs a window. Before I install the windshield again, I also need to install the dash. That means bundling up a bunch of wires, but I'm not 100% sure they all work. I'll have to do something before test driving! Or I could just go without a windshield...
entry 200 - tags: weight loss, paint | | |  | June 10, 2007 - I didn't just bolt on body panels this weekend.
I also finished the installation of the driver's seat, and that involved finding a way to bolt in the sub belt. Naturally, the anchor point has to go right in the middle of a longitudinal frame rail. This means I can't access the back side of it to put in a nut.
But check this out - Mazda put a nice little access panel in the floor for the frame rail! After cutting out a bit of seam sealer, the panel popped off. As an added bonus, I was able to feel that there were multiple layers at the base of the bulkhead so I had a very solid anchor point. A bit of "Automotive Goop" (a nice silicone glue) and the panel was back in place. This made me happy, as I was expecting to have to build some sort of odd bracketry.
I've also learned that it's hard to take detail pictures of a blinding white car. Sorry about the over-exposed shot here.
entry 201 - tags: seats, safety | | | June 10, 2007 - This is a very sad announcement to have to make.
We are postponing our Targa effort until 2008.
The culprit? My marriage. I'm a Canadian citizen, and Janel is American. This will result in a green card for me, but until that is granted I am not able to leave the country as my existing visa is now void. The turnaround time for a green card is 2-3 months and I have to gather some other paperwork from Canada that will take a couple of weeks. If you look at a calendar, you'll see that it's very likely that I won't have a green card in time and there's no way to speed the process.
I can get permission to leave the country - but this also takes 2-3 months to obtain. In the meantime, Eric and I were scheduled for a Targa driving school at Mosport next weekend and there was a good chance I wouldn't be able to get back into the country. Meanwhile, there's the added complication of a ridiculously slow Canadian passport office, who have been sitting on my paperwork for about three months now. I did consider trying to bluff my way through, but the long-term consequences of getting discovered are too great.
This was a surprise to say the least. Had I known about this, I would have scheduled the wedding (at least the legal part) differently. Janel's the sort of girl who was willing to forgo an immediate honeymoon so I could run the Targa, so she would have been fine with that.
There is a bit of a silver lining. This will give me more time to test and prepare the car. Eric's job was interfering with his preparations pretty badly and now he has an extra 12 months to get ready.
I'm torn up inside. I've known about this for about four days. It's not the reason I've been working so hard on the car over the weekend, but it does make the postponement seem like less of a defeat. I'm used to overcoming obstacles with race cars and races - the ability to knuckle down and get things done is one of the skills that separates the lightweights from the serious competitor. But the combination of the Canadian and US governments has defeated me temporarily.
While we will not be competing in Targa 2007, we will be in Newfoundland in 2008. We've already registered.
entry 202 - tags: announcements | | |  | June 13, 2007 - These inner fender liners weigh nothing at all, but they'll keep rocks and other stuff from piling up inside nooks and crannies.
They were rescued from a salvage car headed for the crusher. Now if only I can find all of the fasteners!
entry 203 | | |  | June 13, 2007 - A temporary intake.
I'd like to run individual throttle bodies eventually, but that's a project for a bit later. With the Hydra Nemesis, the intake doesn't need a whole lot of complication! The sensor is an intake air temperature sensor stuffed in a grommet in the silicone. The filter will end up right behind the radiator, a poor choice for temperature. It's just temporary, remember.
entry 204 - tags: engine | | |  | June 13, 2007 - I did a bit of cleanup on the wiring and stuffed the dash in the car.
The dash isn't removable with the windshield in place thanks to the cage and the welded-in structure. So it would be best if I had all the wiring sorted out or at least well wrapped and secured before the dash was attached.
I expect I'll have the dash out again soon, but it feels really good to have it in there!
entry 205 - tags: wiring, weight loss | | | June 13, 2007 - While flipping through a Classic and Sports Car magazine, Eric found an ad for a Lancia Delta S4.
Very sexy car mechanically, but it's also a Martini car. The shop's website has a number of excellent photo galleries of various classic rally cars under restoration, and it's fascinating stuff to see. Definitely worth a visit, especially the painting of an Integrale - step-by-step on a Martini paint job! That's useful.
Makela Auto Tuning
entry 206 - tags: Martini | | |  | June 13, 2007 - Time out for a bit of organization!
I was running low on certain common fasteners, so I dumped out one more box of random parts and sorted them into their appropriate places. This makes life much easier.
entry 207 - tags: tips | | |
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