D Prepared Miata Build

[aMaff]

Got my thermostat neck delete w/ temp sensor fitting from JamesCH (seriously, if you need anything made up for a Miata, hit him up), and he threw in a 'surprise' to go with it. He tells me he's thinking about doing a run of them, so if you want one, hit him up

 

[Reitrof]

Which one is the delete??

 

[aMaff]

Which one is the delete??

The round black one with the number 8 on it..

 

[aMaff]

To go with the new dash:

 

[thejeans]

That's pretty sweet!!

 

[JamesCH]

Approve!

 

[THE Phen]

Neat!

 

[WillD]

That has been on my wishlist for a long time.

 

[aMaff]

Last major piece of safety gear acquired for TT / HC. I was planning on begging / borrowing a HANS from a friend, but this one came up for sale locally for utter peanuts. It's an older model, but I took it to Downing Atlanta (ie: the people who created the HANS) to have it re-certified and get sliding tethers installed. So... new-to-me HANS device for <$200 all told (including initial purchase). Friggin. Score.

Before:

After:

 

[aMaff]

Did some work on the car this weekend. A lot of it was finicky fitment type stuff (make sure the front hoop firewall support doesn't interfere with my left foot, make sure the clutch actuation isn't affected), so not a ton big progress, but a lot of the hard stuff got done. The remaining work will be the relatively easy door bars, rear-to-front-hoop supports, and a few gussetts.

While we were there, we also did a bit of work on getting a dash cover made up. Dave had the genius idea to keep about a third of the stock dash bar to support the center 'console' and the steering column, and tie that into the front roll hoop.

Front hoop up top, stock dash bar bits on the bottom):

Made a cardboard template of the space available for a dash cover:

Since it was all straight lines, we cut it out of the 8x4' sheet of ABS with a circular saw. Easy-ish. I'll have enough ABS to make the air-dam for a proper front splitter, and a rear spoiler.
Here it is in place and taped in. Dave's going to get a few weld-in Dzus brackets to put on the leading edge, and to make a few supports up from the front hoop to the dash cover, also with dzus tabs, so it'll be 6 or 7 quick release fasteners holding the cover in place.

It looks better in person than in pics, but it'll have the added bonus of helping shield the electronics from spray (much less of a concern now than it was last year, but still)

 

[aMaff]

Still the passenger side down-bar and a gusset to go (and a couple of mounts for the 'dash' and master kill switch, but I got this from my fabricator last night:

 

[aMaff]

Going big. Picked up a set of the JB 15x10s that Flyin' Miata had. Should be here by Wednesday of next week:

Same weight as SpinWerkes or Wide 5 REALs at 60% of the cost and way better looking? Yes please

 

[aMaff]

Some solid progress. Got the cage complete (paint to come this week, probably), and wanted to see how the dash looked with the hood on. The car looks even MORE purposeful than it did before, and the rest of the cage going in has 'fixed' the proportions of the rollbar, I think. It looks awesome, can't wait to get back to driving it next year

First time it's seen daylight in a while. Note the Dzus fasteners on the dash cover.

Put the hood on just to see how it looked covered up. Awesome. It looks awesome.

Dave said that since he had dimple dies, he might as well use 'em.

 

[aMaff]

Max Headroom (and elbow and knee room).

 

[aMaff]

Got the first couple coats on the majority of the cage. Touch up on the red-bits will be later tonight. Then probably Friday I'll mask off all the bits I want to remain red (that'll be fun...) and paint the dash & front hoop / firewall supports. Next week, the floor / tub.

I'm still waiting for my vision to return to normal. Even with a respirator, painting is f**king awful.

 

[aMaff]

Tonight's goal was to get the front of the cage, the front bits of the tunnel, and the driver's side floorboard done. I think the end result will be worth the trouble, as the OE paint was starting to run through in spots. I guess they don't design it to be used sans carpet for extended periods.


First: mask off everything that was red that you want to STAY red.

Awful picture, but you can see how much of the red on the floor is just dust that basically wipes right up. A little mineral spirits and isopropyl alcohol and voila, paintable surface.

I feel like I should have left that until after the last coat of paint was on before pulling it.

End result of part one. Now the rest of the 'bathtub' is going to get the clean with mineral spirits > booze > paint Machine Gray treatment in about a week or so, but I got the important bits (ie: the cage and all the mounting poings) done.

 

[aMaff]

I'm just going to leave this here.

 

[aMaff]

Teaser:

 

[Reitrof]

Hey, it's coming along nicely.

 

[aMaff]

I'm... I'm gonna need a minute