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After a year and a half my 99 miata is "almost" complete. Bought the car about 3 years ago and its built for weekend driver and possibly light track use. HP goals are in the 240-280whp. It's been a fun project but we went way over budget and ended up doing a lot of stuff twice. Ive got a spare 99 block/head and a VVT head that we will be tearing into this winter for a rebuild/forged setup. We decided to wait the engine build just because its been on jack stands for a LONNNGG time and im going to try and take it easy til the new engine is in. We did all the fab work and body work ourselves and while its not perfect and they are things that we are going to change this is where we are at now.
Parts List
Suspension/Brakes
Poly Bush kit
Wilwood BBK front brakes
Stainless steel brake lines
FM Stg2 Suspension Kit
15x8 6ul's Beryllium
Conti Extreme contact sports
Random/exterior Parts
Fiberglass Trunk lid
Cappuccino Washer Tank
Door Window trim
Paint:
Upol Reface Spray Filler
Upol 2k High Build Primer
HOK Lapis Blue w/ Candy Blue
SPI 2k Universal Clear
And a bunch of other stuff I forgot.
Being from CT this car had so much rust and if i were to do it all over again, I would have started with a better foundation but we didnt realize the full extent of rust till we started breaking it down and snapping bolts left and right. It was 100's of hours of work that could have been avoided but once it was apart we were committed. Front and Rear subframes and all control arms were wire wheeled, acid etched then painted with POR15. best rust paint there is, its rock hard when it cures, and brushes on. The frame rail infront of the driverside subframe mount was also rusted out so that was replaced with 1/8 steel plate. Since its in front of the sub mount I wasnt to worried about welding on it.
Both rear quarters were rusted out as well along with some of the unibody under the sheet metal. This by far took the longest time to get cleaned up and welded back into place. Used a combination of MIG/TIG for welding on the new panels and rebuilding the inner wheel. My welding job was not that great dumped too much heat in and got some warping. Bring on the filler!!
With most of the body work complete Ive moved on to the Exhaust/Manifold while my dad finsihed up the bodywork. Manifold is sch40 304ss and exhaust is 304 stainless as well. Came out pretty good and went fairly quickly as well. I added a EGR bung so I can pass CT emissions every 2 years. It goes from 3" to 2.5" all the way back. Has a high flow cat and a resonator as well.
I also have a Mazdaspeed3 and the plan was always to paint it 16w Black mica like the 3 is. Side note love the speed3, Had a BNRstg3 meth/e85 monster close to 400/400 but parted out for a daily and this car beecame the project. Once we finished the body work it became apparent that our body work wasnt going to stand up to a black paint job but we had already painted the engine so its black mica
The plan all along was to have a friends shop do the paint work, but after getting a quote for 5k we decided it just wasnt worth $$$$. we also didnt want to cheap out and get a Maaco spray and pray paint job either so we did it ourselves. 2 coats of spray filler, Sand, 3 coats of 2k primer sand, sand some more, then some more! Then 2 coats of House of Kolor Lapis Blue with a Candy Blue concentrate. Its gotta a super deep almost blurple color to it and all in all looks pretty awseome for a garage job.
The clear coat is Southern Polyurethanes Universal Clear, Mixes 1:1 and is a great clear. Easy to color sand and has a high solids mix. We ended up using a whole gallon of clear on the car. With no painting experince I made a lot of rookie mistakes and got runs everywhere. We ended up sanding the clear flat and then respraying another 2-3 coats on top of the 2 that were already there. Most of it ended up on the floor as sanding dust.
And that bring us to today, just finishing up the re-install of the top and front bumper and a few other odds and ends. then after I run it threw emissions Ill start tuning. since its still the stock block going to be very conservative on the tune.Been a long road for sure, feels good that we are nearing the home stretch. Thanks for taking a look and welcome any advice
Solid work so far! What are your plans for the motor build?
That last picture of the car is as it sits today, right?
Thanks and Yes, That's where we are at. Nothing to crazy on the motor build, Bearings,rods,pistons ect. Im going to run either e85 or methanol once the new engine is. Had great experience with meth on my speed3 and have a progressive controller, pump and tank sitting in a box some where
12-09-2017, 08:42 PM
In too Deep 99 Turbo build
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