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- 92 & 16 Meyatas
Washed it for the last time this year, in the garage for some major work, tranny, diff bushings and new control arms!
What have you done to your Miata today?
- Thread starter Antoine
- Start date
- :
- 2016 GT ST 47A
Yes, I've washed mine for the last time in the driveway as well for the season. Put my hoses away a couple of weeks ago.Today, I swapped out my stock fog lights for some Morimoto LED fogs I bought from TRS. Light output is much improved and they look better with the HIDs and LED parking lights.
Stock
TRS Morimoto LED
It's been a busy few weeks, but been doing more work to fix and finish a few things with my bumper and fenders.
1. After putting the flares on, they pretty much covered the Dzus fasteners for the bumper that take the place of the bracket that bolts the fender to the bumper, which had to get cut for wheel clearance when moving to the 15x10s. So the dzus fasteners on the bumper got moved forward exactly 1 Dzus length lol. Essentially, the forward most rivet hole from each was retained to use as the now-rearmost hole, then drilled a new forward hole and a new hole for the dzus fastener to fit through. After that, the bracket on the fender needed to be moved forward the same amount, and then welded to the fender.
The result is that I can now access these without completely removing the flares.
2. I've started welding out the rear fenders, which is a massive pain in the ass, because the sheet metal is like friggin tin foil. What that means is that even on its lowest power setting, even being super careful, it'll often time just burn through instead of welding the sheet metal. All that means is that it's really finicky and takes WAY more time than running the same amount of weld on thicker steel would take, as there's a lot of time spent just waiting for it to cool.
Here's the starting point, with weld-thru primer that I sprayed on when I originally cut them to prevent rust from building between then and now, with a cleco clamp to hold them together. The fitup's not super great because it was done with angle grinders and cutoff wheels, and that didn't help matters, but I worked through it.
About half way done or so. There's basically no "running a bead" on metal this thin. More a series of tack welds that eventually you get to fill in all the space.
Fully welded out. Pretty ugly, but effective for the most part. The fenders are SO much stronger now that they're bonded back together.
And finished up with a flap disk, which puts a really nice finish on things. The final grinding revealed a few pin-holes that needed to be filled, but that was expected with stacking tack-welds like that.
And of course, the bad part of welding in awkward positions is that there ain't no avoiding getting some molten spatter where it hurts.
The next steps will be to do the exact same thing on the other side, then hit them with a couple coats of rust inhibiting primer, and then running a bead of 3M seam sealer around the rim, and to fill in the larger gaps where I cut the inner-fender to get them to meet the outer.
1. After putting the flares on, they pretty much covered the Dzus fasteners for the bumper that take the place of the bracket that bolts the fender to the bumper, which had to get cut for wheel clearance when moving to the 15x10s. So the dzus fasteners on the bumper got moved forward exactly 1 Dzus length lol. Essentially, the forward most rivet hole from each was retained to use as the now-rearmost hole, then drilled a new forward hole and a new hole for the dzus fastener to fit through. After that, the bracket on the fender needed to be moved forward the same amount, and then welded to the fender.
The result is that I can now access these without completely removing the flares.
2. I've started welding out the rear fenders, which is a massive pain in the ass, because the sheet metal is like friggin tin foil. What that means is that even on its lowest power setting, even being super careful, it'll often time just burn through instead of welding the sheet metal. All that means is that it's really finicky and takes WAY more time than running the same amount of weld on thicker steel would take, as there's a lot of time spent just waiting for it to cool.
Here's the starting point, with weld-thru primer that I sprayed on when I originally cut them to prevent rust from building between then and now, with a cleco clamp to hold them together. The fitup's not super great because it was done with angle grinders and cutoff wheels, and that didn't help matters, but I worked through it.
About half way done or so. There's basically no "running a bead" on metal this thin. More a series of tack welds that eventually you get to fill in all the space.
Fully welded out. Pretty ugly, but effective for the most part. The fenders are SO much stronger now that they're bonded back together.
And finished up with a flap disk, which puts a really nice finish on things. The final grinding revealed a few pin-holes that needed to be filled, but that was expected with stacking tack-welds like that.
And of course, the bad part of welding in awkward positions is that there ain't no avoiding getting some molten spatter where it hurts.
The next steps will be to do the exact same thing on the other side, then hit them with a couple coats of rust inhibiting primer, and then running a bead of 3M seam sealer around the rim, and to fill in the larger gaps where I cut the inner-fender to get them to meet the outer.
- :
- 92 & 16 Meyatas
nice work!it's been a busy few weeks, but been doing more work to fix and finish a few things with my bumper and fenders.
1. After putting the flares on, they pretty much covered the dzus fasteners for the bumper that take the place of the bracket that bolts the fender to the bumper, which had to get cut for wheel clearance when moving to the 15x10s. So the dzus fasteners on the bumper got moved forward exactly 1 dzus length lol. Essentially, the forward most rivet hole from each was retained to use as the now-rearmost hole, then drilled a new forward hole and a new hole for the dzus fastener to fit through. After that, the bracket on the fender needed to be moved forward the same amount, and then welded to the fender.
The result is that i can now access these without completely removing the flares.
2. I've started welding out the rear fenders, which is a massive pain in the ass, because the sheet metal is like friggin tin foil. What that means is that even on its lowest power setting, even being super careful, it'll often time just burn through instead of welding the sheet metal. All that means is that it's really finicky and takes way more time than running the same amount of weld on thicker steel would take, as there's a lot of time spent just waiting for it to cool.
Here's the starting point, with weld-thru primer that i sprayed on when i originally cut them to prevent rust from building between then and now, with a cleco clamp to hold them together. The fitup's not super great because it was done with angle grinders and cutoff wheels, and that didn't help matters, but i worked through it.
about half way done or so. There's basically no "running a bead" on metal this thin. More a series of tack welds that eventually you get to fill in all the space.
fully welded out. Pretty ugly, but effective for the most part. The fenders are so much stronger now that they're bonded back together.
and finished up with a flap disk, which puts a really nice finish on things. The final grinding revealed a few pin-holes that needed to be filled, but that was expected with stacking tack-welds like that.
and of course, the bad part of welding in awkward positions is that there ain't no avoiding getting some molten spatter where it hurts.
the next steps will be to do the exact same thing on the other side, then hit them with a couple coats of rust inhibiting primer, and then running a bead of 3m seam sealer around the rim, and to fill in the larger gaps where i cut the inner-fender to get them to meet the outer.
The foot? Naa, not too bad. The nice thing about literal molten metal is that it cauterizes itself pretty much instantly (rlaugh)
Which "that"? Well, I guess I've got both covered. Great wife, plenty of scars.Just remember chicks dig scars.Oh wait, you have that covered.
Thanks. Last night I started on the driver's side, which in honesty, is the side I learned all my lessons on when cutting the rear fenders, so it's...a good bit more buggered than the driver's side.
If I've learned anything about welding, it's that you cannot weld to air. Plain and simple. And that sheet metal is just too thin to take the heat of stacking a bunch of tacks together to bridge the gap. After mulling it over and talking to some far more experienced buddies, one recommended getting some 1/8" bar (available from just about any hardware store), and using it as a filler in the gap. The added advantage of doing that is that the thicker metal will pull heat out of the weld faster so it won't burn through the thin sheet metal as easily. It basically makes it a lot more forgiving.
After cleaning up some of the hackery where I attempted to weld across that gap, here's the process:
A little time with a flap disk in the grinder (how did I ever live without flap disks?!) and it'll clean that right up. Unfortunately my fun came to an abrupt end. In my business we preach "two is one and one is none." Well, one is in fact none. When I started welding, I figured a 2# spool would last me ages. And then I kept finding problems that "welder" was the answer to.
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- 92 & 16 Meyatas
Love to learn to do some welding
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Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
1 word: YouTube. Trade School would obviously be a lot better, but I ain't got time for that these days. YouTube + some scrap steel to practice on and figure out what the changes on the knobs of your machine "mean" to your work. Having friends who do it for a living (or close to it) that you can bounce questions off of helps too, obviously, but seriously, I watched a few intro videos on YouTube and then dove in.
You must not be very patient then lol. There was quite a lot of cleanup from not waiting enough for the metal to cool and welding on it again, causing it to burn through the steel. That's one place where the bar stock filler really played a big part. It helped so much in pulling heat out of the weld.
also got around to building my own LED Blanking Plates, wired them up to the map lights to make the car alot nicer to get into (excuse the potato quality photos)
What did you install the LEDs into? Did you use the old visor plates, or fab up something new?
I used something like these for the lights, then covered them with translucent white plastic, cut to fit the holes and held with the original screws. They're honestly a bit too bright!
I'll have to get some pictures of them turned off. I admit, they're not the prettiest things, but since you can't look directly at them when they're on anyway, I guess it doesn't matter! The second pic doesn't even have the lights in it, but you can see how well they light up the interior in a mostly dark garage!
Attachments
The vent windows aren't bad to install as long as you can keep from getting the black spooge on the moisture barrier in the doors from getting all over. I just don't understand why the ones Levi has are mounted so high, I have the ones from Project G and they are much lower down in the triangle.
I ordered a few bits and pieces from The Parts Group since they are scrapping a low mileage 2000 SE. Already have the lower rad mounts and some parchment pushpins, I'm also buying the dash from him as mine was drilled for a cupholder mount in the lower console area that has bugged me since I replaced it with a different one. I also got some powder coated rear A-arms (full set), not sure yet if those are going on the Miata or on the RX-7 (I need to take measurements to see if an independent rear end from a Miata will fit under a FB).
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they werent too bad to install. a little slow on the first one til i figured how to rip it all apart.
What did you install the LEDs into? Did you use the old visor plates, or fab up something new?
I used something like these for the lights, then covered them with translucent white plastic, cut to fit the holes and held with the original screws. They're honestly a bit too bright!
I'll have to get some pictures of them turned off. I admit, they're not the prettiest things, but since you can't look directly at them when they're on anyway, I guess it doesn't matter! The second pic doesn't even have the lights in it, but you can see how well they light up the interior in a mostly dark garage!
i installed a 4 LED light similar to what you have in the stock location in the center. I drilled a hole in the middle of a visor blanking plate and installed an LED into it. Screws in just like stock.
Mine are from Miata Roadster, his design has them higher.
i ripped off the moisture barrier, covered all the black tar goop in duct tape. that made working on them so much easier
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- 2016 GT ST 47A
That doesn't sound too bad at all then. Yes that black goop is nasty stuff. I had fun playing with it when replacing the clip for the door lock on the P5. I wish there was an option for these on the NC. They'd be nice to have...a vent visor for convertibles if you will.
Got it all back together, finally.
Tape job for the sealant.
Sealant applied.
You can still see the seam sealer from just the right angles, but I don't think it'll bother me at all once the wheels are on. If it does, black paint isn't expensive
Tape job for the sealant.
Sealant applied.
You can still see the seam sealer from just the right angles, but I don't think it'll bother me at all once the wheels are on. If it does, black paint isn't expensive
- :
- 92 & 16 Meyatas
Right on!!! [emoji106]
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Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
