Tossing my hat into the color ring: Toyota/Scion Cement gray.



I do have plans of adding some black accents (KG works spoiler and some striping).

 

So a customer of mine came in to my store the other day, haven't seen him in a while so I forgot about him while doing all this work. He owns a powdercoating business and does phenomenal work(wheel companies from overseas and industrial machinery fabricators use him) and we get to shooting the **** as business owners do(see "bitch fest") and I tell him about my project and the crap I've been dealing with lately and he says he'll cut me a deal on anything I need done....wish I would have remembered him before I painted those parts...

saying that, I dropped off a box of parts for him to do for me.

Gas tank and rear shelf aluminum covers
Gas tank feed tube
Gas tank gasket metal bracket
Trunk mount brackets and springs
Battery brackets
other small parts
Door bars

Got 3 of them back today. I went with Solar Black. A perfect matte black imho. Only charged me $12.

The little wavy part in the top left is just the metal, not the paint.

 

DP

 

Had the windshield removed to get it ready for paint and a new windshield trim piece ordered to install as well.

The bad news is that it cracked as they were pulling it. I've used these guys before and they usually don't ever break them, but **** happens. They cut me a deal on some new glass that thankfully isn't safelite.

Finished up the undercoat. All done, no more, thank christ, never again.











It is really hard to get a good perspective of the quality through photos but trust me when I say it looks really good. The drivers fender I did 2 days ago is fully cured and is incredibly flexible and hard.

Don't do this unless you have to guys. It isn't worth it.

 

This thread would represent 10 years of work if I were the OP.

 

At some point I've read that it is almost impossible to remove the windshield without cracking it. The post I read was from Savington I think, but I could be wrong.

 

Time to start sanding!...oh god...I hate paint dust.

*edit* actually, I probably should let this second coat of undercoat fully cure so it isn't sticky, that would suck.

 

Had some problems with surface rust on a lot of parts, especially the metal motor mount steel. Sanded them all out and grinded the rust out followed by an etching primer and a combination of enamel black and black caliper spray paint. Headlight housings had some gouges and overspray on them so I sanded with a wet 400 grit with plastic filler primer, leveled with 800 wet grit, and followed by auto interior trim paint. Perfect!

Lets play a game, name those brackets!

 

Looking good sir. Now don't burn out on this, you have done a TON of work but it will be so worth it in the end when you are driving a kickass sexy car that you built by hand.

 

Wow. Just wow.

Too bad about the windshield. Mazda used a windshield without tint at the top. Most replacement windshields are tinted at the top and this interferes with some people's line of sight. Watch for that and make sure you get a windshield you'll be happy with.

 

BSI racing takes out the windshield of every Miata they put a cage into. They had stacks on a shelf. With the right tools, it is no problem.

When they did my cage, they handed me back a perfectly good windshield.

Edit: I missed the part where you pulled the glass and it broke. Bummer. BSI said that they broke a percentage of the windshields they pulled, so don't sweat it too bad. You will be happy with the fact that you have a new one.

 

I love this build so far. It's like you took my attention to detail and neuroses and combined it with someone who actually gets **** done. Superb. I'm tossing out props left and right.

Just make sure to do whatever you need to do stay healthy given your sleep patterns. In a lot of ways, your "curse" is a "blessing" when you combine it with your work ethic.

 

I vote for Laguna Seca Blue.

 

I had a thread on this early last year.See: https://www.miataturbo.net/general-m...er-blue-63293/ STILL have not paitned my car, but i got other things to worry about (built engine and big turboz).

Oh, and i think i decided just to go back OEM mariner. It's such a good color.

 

Gives you an idea about how bad the paint was. Respray on top. OEM color on bottom. No primer, just sprayed directed on old paint.

 

Some new parts showed up today:
Rennemetal tow hooks
Rennemetal Crank holder
Radio Blanking plate(for gauges)
AC delete tube and plugs
Advance Autoparts window air scoops(since I deleted AC)

 

What did I to to the car today? Absolutely nothing, and it was glorious. Was getting some warning signs from my body that I was about to hit my limit when I didn't wake up until noon not hearing my phones alarm or phone calls, which never happens.

I did get an appointment setup for Monday to get the car to the paint shop, they said it would take about a week depending on the prep necessary. They recommended I not do the prep since most the time it makes it worse for them and they have to do a lot of leveling.

They wanted an extra $300 to paint the interior though. What do you guys think would be a good color for the inside? I'm thinking of doing it myself to save money. $300 isn't a whole lot in the grand scheme of things but that is $300 I could put else where; which I may need to put towards a new turbo exhaust housing.

After doing a compression test of the turbo assembled I was get leaking from the turbo housing IWG rod. I thought it was only the actuator but it was actually the housing flapper rod itself not sealing. New housings are around $230 for a T25 gt2680rs turbo. So I'd like to avoid going over budget by doing the interior myself. I still have a 1/3rd a can of truck bed liner left. Too over kill?

 

How to setup your entertainment for the weekend...



Probably going to spend most of tomorrow organizing piles of what to keep and what goes to the dump. Most the plastic from the new shell is worthless, as are the gaskets/bolts. Going to keep the bolts just in case I have a "where the hell did that bolt go" moment.

Then it is on to sanding the interior for painting before handing the car off to the shop.

 

Pulling the front window gaskets and glass is scary. Wasn't sure what was going to break first, the gasket, the frame, or the glass.



Door is all ready to be painted. Excuse the primer dust.



I can actually fit my D.D. in the garage now. Massive moving of **** was productive.



Leaning tower of wheels and seats. Wall hooks FTW. Totaled body should be ready to go to salvage after removing the wiring and gas tank.



Sleep time.

 

My color vote:



http://www.autoblog.com/2013/11/15/c...ontest-winner/