| MIATA BUILD |
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 | |  | August 1, 2007 - I think the most recent car to wear the Martini colors in world rally competition was the Ford Focus.
That was a couple of years back. Now they're sponsored by BP and their team colors look a whole lot like this tape ball.
entry 264 - tags: Martini | | | August 3, 2007 - Sorry, I doubled up on an entry.
Carry on, there's nothing to see here.
entry 265 | | |  | August 2, 2007 - And now the red.
Officially, it is Flame Red, remember. But it sure looks orange. In person, it's an eye-popping color. I love it. I'll unwrap the car tonight.
entry 266 - tags: paint, Martini | | |  | August 3, 2007 - It's unwrapping time!
I've been both anticipating and dreading this moment. If there's a major slipup, it's going to be brutal to fix. Naturally, I didn't think of this until I started unwrapping. I suppose if I did this more often, I'd use a more professional word like "unmasking", but it seems too much like a present.
And the initial reaction is?
Sex on wheels.
I love the look, it's just what I'd hoped. The stripes are crisp and they just leap out at you. The shape works with the shape of the car and there are no major snafus. Oh, it's not perfect. There are a couple of tiny little lines of colors that got through my masking (next time I'll just buy 3/8" tape and save myself a lot of work), a few small rough edges and a couple of spots where the line width wavers slightly - but unless you're carefully peeling off tape inch by inch, it's unlikely you'll ever see them and they give the car some personality. No souless, computer-cut stripes here! The biggest problem is a shadow on the hood, as if a gust of dark blue got under the masking. It cleaned up easily with some solvent, leaving the fully cured white intact.
I always wondered why you never saw Martini "homage" cars, while the Gulf colors are so popular. It's pretty obvious after all this work!
entry 267 - tags: paint, Martini | | |  | August 3, 2007 - Eric pointed out I hadn't shown any shots of the tail.
Well, here you go. I actually got a little tricky here, using thinner stripes on the vertical section at the bottom than the horizontal upper stripes. I think it looks better. In fact, the upper stripes don't change width anywhere other than a slight taper right at the front as they enter the lights.
Miatas have nice little round butts. I think this stripe shape accentuates it. I haven't taken many pictures of the stripes back here because it came together really nicely early on.
entry 268 - tags: paint, Martini | | |  | August 3, 2007 - The final product.
I'll take it outside and get some better pictures later, but this stance just caught my eye as I was walking through the garage.
Compare it to the original rendering. I think it's better looking, mostly due to all the hours spent moving tape around.
entry 269 - tags: Martini | | |  | August 5, 2007 - Almost done with the painting.
All I need to do is add the stripes to the hardtop. There isn't much of them and it's a challenge to make it all flow given the curves in the stripes and the hardtop. You can see one of the attempts to reach the same grace as I found on the side stripes. If I was going to run with the hardtop 100% of the time, this would have been easier. But I'll have the top off occasionally, so it has to work both ways.
The top is in the "paint booth" and the two blues have been laid down. I'll spray the red tomorrow morning.
entry 270 - tags: paint, Martini | | |  | August 5, 2007 - I'm trying to get the car ready in time for the Flyin' Miata Open House.
This implies a windshield, which means the dash will be permanently installed. So first, time to clean up and secure the wiring. I'm doing the rough bundling first, the final anchoring will come later.
entry 271 | | |  | August 7, 2007 - The hardtop is painted and installed.
It's not the best part of the car, but it still looks pretty good. Now it's time for some final assembly. Brandon came over last night and helped to install the top, clean up wiring and install the dash. Now the windshield can go in. I'm on schedule to have the car ready for the Open House, and it's all coming together nicely.
entry 272 - tags: paint, Martini | | |  | August 7, 2007 - Now that the hardtop is painted, it's time to make the rear window.
I'm going to cut one out of 1/8" Lexan for lighter weight.
Step one, take a pattern off a glass window. Tape the paper to the outside of the glass and trace the shape (then take a blurry picture when you're done). Looks as if a 60x24" piece will be more than enough.
entry 273 - tags: weight loss, lexan window | | |  | August 8, 2007 - Next step in the rear window: cut it out.
I use a pneumatic reciprocating saw, but a bandsaw or jigsaw works just as well. If you have a good template, you can have the plastic shop cut it out for you. The problem with that is that I've always had to do a bit of trimming afterwards to get the edges right. In this picture, I'm partway through that process. The first few rivet holes are drilled and various alterations to the shape have been marked and cut. The protective plastic was peeled up so I could see the lip on the hardtop.
entry 274 - tags: weight loss, lexan window | | |  | August 8, 2007 - Installing the window is fairly easy.
Just start in the middle and pop in some rivets every few inches. In this case, I used a 6" spacing until I got to the hard curves at the edges, when I dropped down to 3-4". It's also important to mark which way is us, I've learned the hard way in the past that it's easy to install the window upside down!
entry 275 - tags: weight loss, lexan window | | |  | August 8, 2007 - After about three fittings, I riveted the window into place.
To keep the rivets from pulling through the fibreglass hardtop, I used washers on the back side. The polycarbonate (generic term for Lexan) is flexible enough that it will simply bend around the curves without any need for forming, and the rivets will easily hold it in place even before they're popped..
I also tried sealing the window in to place with silicone, I'm thinking this wasn't a good idea aesthetically. I've never had to worry about weatherproofing before. It's supposed to dry clear, we'll see if that happens after more than 12 hours. The fact that I painted the lip around the inside of the window black before starting didn't help there.
By the way, the original glass window weighed a bit over 11 lbs. I didn't weigh the polycarbonate, but based on the density of the material it should be right around 5-6 lbs. A Miata windshield is 20.9 lbs.
entry 276 - tags: weight loss, lexan window | | |  | August 8, 2007 - This looks worse in the picture than it does in person.
I took some high-traction tape for stairs and stuck it on to the floorboards to keep my feet from sliding around. I've also found the Momo pedals to be on the slippery side despite the stylish rubber nubs, so they got some traction tape as well. As an added bonus, the yellow reflective strip will make it easy for me to see the footwell in the dark!
entry 277 - tags: ergonomics | | |  | August 9, 2007 - The windshield fairy has been here!
Having the windshield in makes the car look so much more complete - and smaller. At least, that's what I think. Janel and Brandon think I'm nuts. This isn't the same windshield I pulled out a few months ago. It turns out that one had a small stone chip, and may not have survived the implantation process. New glass was only about $70 or so, so that was an easy decision to make. Now that there's glass between me and the bugs, the car is much more driveable.
Brandon came over and we tore into the car. He pulled the co-driver's seat and installed the sub belt for me while I worked on suspension and also installed the undertray for the engine bay.
entry 278 - tags: seats | | |  | August 9, 2007 - Finally, some real suspension.
These Öhlins are beautifully built with an obsessive attention to detail in some places and are carefully documented - in Japanese. There's a shortage of numbers so I'm guessing there's little information on setup. I was able to figure it all out though.
They're also very, very short shocks. At full droop, the front wheels are only at about 13.25" from the hub to the fender. That's close to what I wanted to run for static height, so they're unlikely to be the suspension of choice for the Targa. Still, it gives me the chance to test them out and get the car on track next weekend at the Flyin' Miata open house.
The spring rates are approximately 450 lb front and 330 rear. That's a good aggressive street rate, but again a bit more than I'd want for Targa. I went out for a short run after installing them and the ride is very good. There's a suppleness to it that bodes well. On short acquaintance I like them, but I don't think they'll work on the rough Newfoundland roads. We'll see how they work on the track, I don't have much else to test at this point.
entry 279 - tags: suspension | | |  | August 9, 2007 - Out of the garage!
The Targa Miata visited Flyin' Miata today for the first time. Well, it's been there before, one piece at a time. But this is the first self-propelled visit. The car behaved itself and all of my coworkers were suitably impressed with the paint job.
I spent enough time looking at the car from a distance to start spotting sections of the stripes that I could have done better. It's time to get the decals on the car and distract myself from all that, I think.
One good note - the silicone on the rear window is slowly drying and going clear. In another couple of days, it should be all done.
entry 280 - tags: testing, Martini, lexan window | | |  | August 9, 2007 - A lot of little jobs got done on the car tonight.
The most obvious underhood is the installation of the red valve cover - that's an instant 15 hp gain for sure, although I need to get a filter for that cam cover breather. I installed an interior rear view mirror, the plastic cowl at the base of the windshield, cleaned up a bit of wiring, changed the throttle cable bracket and generally did a few small things on the car.
The Mazdaspeed MX-5 turbo muffler sounded terrible, so it's been replaced by a Flyin' Miata part instead. That sounds a lot better and also drops a few pounds. I also determined that my recent addition of a no-slip patch was a total failure, as it started to creep around the footwell and announced itself to be a hazard. So it's gone now although the bits on the pedals remain.
The car's heading for the alignment shop tomorrow morning and then on to the dyno to get the engine into shape. It's part of the push for the track debut at the Flyin' Miata open house.
entry 281 - tags: ergonomics, exhaust, alignment, engine | | |  | August 11, 2007 - Sticker time!
I picked up all the various Martini logos and sponsor names yesterday. It's not quite a complete set, but it'll do to get the primary look of the car done. First step is to figure the exact location of the stickers and make sure they're straight!
entry 282 - tags: Martini, decals | | |  | August 11, 2007 - After the car's cleaned off, I wetted the surface down with slightly soapy water.
This gives me the ability to reposition the decals if necessary, although it can make it difficult to position strips of letters if you have things too wet. A small squeegee was used to chase out the bubbles and make sure everything conforms to the complex shape of the car.
entry 283 - tags: Martini, decals | | |
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