I had Dzus fasteners on the hood of my 82 Camaro (way back), which was a huge piece of fiberglass. Yes, it is a pain in the ***, but those are the inconveniences I am willing to take in the attempt to meet my goals. You are right though, they are very fragile, and need to be replaced from time to time. It is also a lot of work tuning the spring so the fastener bites correctly.

My taste for how I want the car to look has changed over the years. Before, I wanted the car to be as stock appearing as possible. Now I want it to look like a race car inside and out.

 

So when do you install the wheelie bar?

 

Better question: When do you install the motor?

Most race cars have one, ya know...

 

Lol! Steve has been giving me a lot of **** about getting this car done.

I will be at the shop late tonight getting both the front and rear subframes mounted so it will again be a roller. I also have to finish work on mounting the hardtop before the roll cage can be installed.

 

Shall I drive to FL and we have a "grudge" race lol

I want to go back to the strip again.

 

That would be awesome, unfortunately it will be a race on who can push the car the fastest at the time being.

 

I worked on the car a good bit in the last few days. I temporarily installed both front and rear sub-frames, dash bar, steering column, and hard top so I can roll the car on the trailer and get it out of my shop. I am delivering it to BSI Racing for a roll cage.

I have a cheap coating of primer on the car now. When I get the car back from the chassis shop, I will strip the car and send it right out for a proper coat of primer.

 

I ended up having a few more hurdles before I could get the car out of here.

The hardtop I purchased is an ultra light fiberglass one from Treasure Coast Miata. It is hold it with one finger light. Problem is that it does not fit very well, and has a few flaws that need fixing. When I first put the top on, I got a pair of Rennen Metal front hardtop mounts. They did not fit at all, and I ended up trying to modify them, as well as stacking washers so the top would fit right.

For some reason one side of the top was raised way too high, and it ended up looking like I was going to have to do some serious fiberglass work to it. In the mean time I needed to get the car to the chassis shop, so I decided to work on the mounts to get the top as close as I could before doing any fiberglass work.

I ended up cutting the top mounts into two pieces. I bolted one part to the windshield frame, and bolted the other piece to the hardtop. I then tack welded a piece of metal to bridge the two bolted halves of the top mounts. I unbolted the now one piece, and fully welded them together.

For some reason, the top does not pooch up on the one side anymore. I am so thrilled that I do not have to do all that fiberglass work. I just need to do some minor work to make all the lines match properly.

You will note that there are only two bolts in the hard top. That is the way it was manufactured. I modified the shape of the mounts a bit, and will likely continue to remove some of the unnecessary metal off of them since there are only two bolt holes in the top.




I also made the side mounts as well.

 

I'm really glad you got that top straightened out.
I was disappointed with how it aligned at the front last time I saw it.

 

Here is a prototype seat bracket I made a while back now. I pulled it off the seat and painted it today. The seat is an Ultra Shield Spec Miata seat.

It utilizes the factory seat mounts and positions the seat properly for me. At least I think it is in the right location. It feels right when I sit in the car...with nothing happening.

I need to reposition the steering wheel.

 

I delivered the car to BSI yesterday. After all that work on the upper hardtop mounts, they tell me they can not use them. The top will now be bolted to the hoop apparently.

 

This thread has sparked my interest.

Hope to see it back from caged!

 

It should be done in 2 weeks. It gives me a small vacation away from it.

 

Picked up the car yesterday.

 

Murdered out yo. Or whatever you call that.

JK though of course. Design looks nice to me. I am nt sure what that last pic shows

 

The last pic is of BSI's solution to connecting the dash bar to the roll cage, and make it so you can still remove the dash bar if needed. There is one on each side. The coupler sides to one side during removal.

 

Is that the factory dash bar? Those things done weigh anything I cant seem them having a wall thickness greater than paper thin.

 

Leafy, not sure where you are going with this. I believe the whole point of the modified dash mount is because the best location for the window bars are right where the dash bar is bolted to the chassis. They essentially cut a portion of the dash bar out to make room for the cage, but needed a way to securely mount the dash bar. I want to have the factory dash in the car, and mounting it properly without too much fabrication requires the dash bar.

If I were to run in a class where a structural dash bar the same thickness of the rest of the cage was required, then I would either have an additional bar underneath the factory dash bar, or do some serious fabrication so the dash would mount without the factory dash bar.

 

Yeah I was going with the, "dont expect the stock dash bar to be a structural part of a cage."

 

Nice cage.

I cant see that cage fitting into any kind of cert rulebook though.

The door bars have too many bends in them for it to be very structural, but thats ok your down bars will just bend in being that you dont have a structural dash bar anyways.