Do your windows still roll up and down?

 

They still go up and down. You have to grab the window and slide it up. The window seals hold them up, but I intend to put a clamp in the window track to hold them in the desired location.

More details here. https://www.miataturbo.net/race-prep...ur-door-60378/

 

"I decided to do some major weight reduction to go fast"

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"Then, I filled the engine bay with bondo to make it pretty."

wat

 

Wait... is that bondo?

I thought you were trying to lighten the car, not add weight purely for cosmetic reasons.

edit: Full Tilt beat me to it...

 

I hate shaved bays, just modern rice IMO.

 

Modern rice? Really? They have been cleaning up engine bays for years. Silly little boy.

Firewall lip was cut off, welded, and then filled. Holes from the wiring harness, ac, and various holes were filled. Every hole had a very thin sheet metal peice cut to fit and welded. The filler you see is paper thin in most spots. I took my time and did not half *** anything.

The only thing that is modified significantly is the top reinforcement that is on top of the shock tower. I cut the gusset off, welded it around the fingers, and around the shock mount, and for the most part only hid the welded areas with filler.

When you consider the metal that was cut off and the seam sealer that was removed, the little bit of filler that I used is pretty much a wash. If anything, there will be a pound of filler on the entire car.

Most all the body lines in the engine bay are in the stock location. I left just enough clutter in the bay that people will hardley notice. The wiring will be hid, but the brake lines, some factory plugs, etc will be in place so it still has many characteristics of a Miata.

I wanted to have a fast car, but a nice car too.

 

tl:dr

I know its a "hotrod" thing too, but I hate modern hotrods anyway. That **** has turned to rice too.

I dont have a problem with removing unecessary brackets, cutting off studs, or even welding up some holes, but as soon as you start putting bondo down you have gone into ricer territory. You are adding weight for the sake of looking pretty, which is no different than a body kit or neons. The difference is that its what is cool now, so lots of people (modern ricers) will say its "clean" or some other **** that they used to say about cars that looked like this:

 

My car will look nothing like either of the pics you posted. Stripped down, bare bones, with some very subtle details to make it a nice car.

 

Yeah, I posted my gutted doors in that thread. I went all and took the tracks out. So now my windows are either all the way up or out of the car. I didn't/don't know if the tracks will clear my door bars. I kind of want to get another door and redo it but keep the window tracks in it.

IMO I think your engine bay will look good, a little bit of mud isn't going to add that much weight. Just please don't go all crazy and do it like that orange Honda posted up there.

So you are saying muscle cars and street rods with the firewalls cleaned up and smoothed is the cool thing to do now? I can personally say I have filled holes (AC lines, stock wiring harness location, and a bunch of other small holes) on my Darts firewall and I plan on smoothing it with Bondo before I spray the bay. Does that make me rice? I also have Bondo on my dash board trying to make it perfectly straight. A little bit of filler to smooth out the small waves in some sheet metal does not add much weight. Hell, high build primer probably adds more weight to things.

 

It is doubtful your bars will clear if you built the cage after removing the track. You might get lucky though.

I have to admit that I am slightly torn whether or not to keep the window track. I like the idea of the added room between me and the door bar. Luckily (I guess) is that I am not a big guy, and will still have room between me and the door bar even with the track in place.

Also, I promise not to make my engine bay tacky, but I like to design stuff, and just cant help myself to make some tasteful cosmetic changes.

 

Don't worry about Full Tilt Grumpy.

Amen. I'd love to have a mild smoothing in my engine bay someday.

 

I almost have the engine bay project done. I know there is still some work left, but I thought it was time to take care of some other problems before I went to far.

The repair job that was done when the car was wrecked years ago was absolutely horrible. It has driven me crazy for years. During part of the engine bay smoothing I already repaired some wrinkled metal, but the radiator and bumper supports were so mangled I thought it would be best to cut them out and replace them with new sheet metal.



It took me forever to get it ready for new sheet metal.




Here is a test fit of all the sheet metal and nose cone. I will put the hood on tomorrow just to be sure it all fits. I will then tack the new metal in place, remove the hood, fenders, and nose cone then weld everything up.

 

You should come make my car less ugly

 

/\ I am never going through this hell again. I can see why really good paint and body work is so damn expensive.

 

Looking good! I'm glad to see it going back together for a change!

Please tell your adoring fans how may hours you spent scraping seam sealer and undercoating off the car. Give us an estimate.

 

Where'd you get the new sheet metal for the front end?

 

Gosh, I do not know for sure. I scraped on and off for over a month. I would say I have over 12 hours of undercoat and seam sealer removal invested. My techniques improved over time. If I ever do it again, I know I could do it much faster now.

The engine bay project however, I will have over 100 hours invested when you consider all the welding, body work, sanding, and painting. It was brutal. More to do!

Curly, I purchased the sheet metal from a local Mazda dealer.

 

I know you spent many entire days working under the hood, and that isn't counting the time you spent dropping the front subframe and removing components and brackets.

 

Looks great, I love it when everything lines up that well. It just makes the finished product that much better. Looks really good, and props for taking the time to do it right by replacing the radiator support.

 

Thanks guys for the encouragement.

I think I am at a point that I need to stop doing more body work to the car. There is some fabwork that needs attention, and I do not want to scuff up my hard work.

I ordered an Autokonexion rear trunk lid last week. I plan to attach it via Dzus type fasteners. It could be a couple weeks before I get all the parts for that project.

The big cross road I am is whether I build my own cage, or pay to have it done. I have built 2 roll cages before. Both sucked, but I am a much better fabricator than way back then. I will have to buy some tools to pull it off.