Jeffbucc

Rear subframe photos

Diff has lots of rust all over the housing



Drained oil, bolts for fill/drain were completely rusted over, need to replace or wire wheel



One good hub one bad




control arms and bushings, lots of rust around the welds



Group photo

concealer404

iTrader: (3)

That's.... not terribly rusty at all. Your OCD is showing.

rleete

iTrader: (21)

You don't know what rust is. That's only surface scale.

Jeffbucc

I swear it looks much worse in person. I blame you for my already bad OCD being turned up to 11. You just HAD to mention zinc plating!

I apparently don't. But the orange color drives me insane! Which is ironic because I live in the ******* desert!



My OCD shows like a hooker in Vegas, very very obvious and dangerous to ones health and bank account.

I can't help it!

turbofan

iTrader: (1)

So, seriously... is that amount of rust actually even significant? I mean, I look at it and say "that looks normal or better than normal to me." Even that "bad" hub looks fine and normal to me. I mean, no it's not pretty or new but I would expect it to look like that and can't imagine it significantly affects the structural integrity of the hub.

Jeffbucc

I'm are it would run just fine with no issues. I just get stuck in a "I'm restoring a car with new paint wheels etc etc so I might as well do it while the car is in pieces". I do this with everything. My store, mountain biking, computer, cleaning....it honestly doesn't bug me though. After owning a business for 5 years I can't just sit around and do nothing, I go stir crazy. Plus I only sleep 4-6 hours a days(if that) so lots of free time.

Plus the car is in paint until the end of this week/next week so why not? I'm waiting to fix the wiring harness after I can put it in the car so I can see where everything goes.

I'm going to take my sweet time assembling the car. I know I will run into many road blocks of confusion.

Sorry, I segue'd there....

rleete

iTrader: (21)

Quite frankly, I'm jealous. If my car was that clean, I'd be less inclined to blow off working on it. As it is, I'd kill to have your fully restored car, or the patience to do it to my own.

Braineack

iTrader: (62)

7 posts with no more pictures...disappointed.

Jeffbucc

Look at my last 4 posts on page 8, that'll satiate yah!

hornetball

iTrader: (4)

Seriously, that's one of the cleanest rear subframes I've ever seen. Throw some paint at it and move on.

Jeffbucc

Yup, just gonna spot treat the welds.

So I did something I may regret at a later date. I washed all the bolts to send them out later today to Northern Utah for a Zinc coating.

Soaked them in 100% degreaser followed by a dangerous concoction, followed by a diluted phosphoric acid to neutralize the rust. Then I put everything in a big storage tupperware container and got my power washer out and hit them with the turbo nozzle until no more flecks of paint/grease/dirt/grime came off the bolts and the water was running clear.

After that I got a big *** fine mesh strainer from my bakery and put all the bolts into it and attached my shop vac to the bottom to pull all the water off the bolts while using my air compressor to blow the water down to the shop vac. Then quickly laid them out on some towels and gave them a shot of wd-40 just in case.

Only took about 3 hours to do all that if you don't count letting them soak overnight.

At the beginning I felt like this...



Then after I had cleaned everything and the shear cluster **** sized pile of bolts appeared I had this reaction.



Then I realized that that is about 2 cars worth of bolts, and I relaxed big time after that. Strangely I can mostly recall where everything goes, or at least the general area it belongs. It'll suck major donkey *****, but worth it in the end.







While I had my power washer out I quickly cleaned the gunk off of the outside.



Still waiting for a little of the dampness to leave the seat covers then they will get some black magic.

curly

iTrader: (25)

I can identify 99% of those brackets and bigger bolts, the hardest part is getting the correct length for all those M6x1 bolts. They're absolutely everywhere.

Just keep in mind that the Miata is one of the few cars that was designed with lightness as a major priority. Do the work to make sure you only use a bolt who's tip sits flush with the end of the threads, or barely protrudes and you'll be fine.

Jeffbucc

The variance of M6 was always pretty redamn-diculous in my head until you said the bit about lightness. That makes complete and utter sense now.

Granted my bolts were from about 2 cars and had a lot of brackets shipped as well, I barely was able to ship them before UPS closed and I figured give or take 30-40 lbs...50lbs. 50! That weight adds up really fast now that I've actually carried them all.

The lower control arm bolts have to be 3 lbs each. And the washers bout 1/2 lb.

It is crazy how much I have whittled away in this past week; I only have a couple cosmetic projects left.

The advertising company called and said my ABS plastic came in for my door panels. So I'll get those made this weekend. Decided I needed some padding for the roll bar and spontaneously bought some Aero Catch hood latches(locking) as well. I hear they are a bitch to install but it can't be worse than anything I've done so far.

Just need to bolt on my downpipe and figure out my wiring harness, once I get the shell back. Also, I reserved the hardtop someone had for sale here. Just waiting for an open weekend to drive to Sacramento, CA to pick it up.

Oof apologies about the book. I'm a little gossipy bitch right now.
*edited for hopeless grammatical errors*

Fireindc

iTrader: (13)

If I took my car apart and had that many bolts, I 100% guarentee there would be at least a dozen left over.

Props.

turbofan

iTrader: (1)

see you SAID props but the 1 at the bottom of his last post with photos is from ME.

Jeffbucc

Oh ****! Lets not turn this into a Vlad thread!

I will take verbal and forumatically given props.

Jeffbucc

Hmm forum at my last post. Basically duplicolor won't fully (giggity) penetrate the fibers of the Buddy Club seats, it looks really terrible. Used 3 cans and it still wouldn't hide the red.





Peoples thoughts on going to an upholstery shop and just getting some black cloth/vinyl matches made to fit the foam on the Buddy Club? I have no idea what the price would be for 2 seats.

curly

iTrader: (25)

Or put them in a bath of dye for a while? Like tie-dye.

Zaphod

I can't believe how clean all the nuts and bolts are... My project car had rusted bolts everywhere, so rusty that I broke at least 1/3rd of them...

Everytime I go to this thread and see your wonderful and soooo clean progress it makes me cringe about my own project - (I might have to redo all of it after I saw your work...)

Braineack

iTrader: (62)

yes. go to a fabric store and get real black fabric dye...