1) dismount tires

2) sell tires

3) buy 255 plus size tires

4) have loads of grip!

^ +1


It will look stupid otherwise. Such a nice build, why not keep it top notch?

I have to agree, the stretch tires kinda kill it for me.. But thats just me, to each his own.

i can't wait to see this thing done, its gonna be sick, btw I'm very jealous of the CF trunk lid, i want one so bad but i can't justify 700 on it lol

or I can just burn them off. ;) I'm not changing them right now. Eventually yes, but I just want to drive the car. The tires are on, they are staying for the time being. I bought this car early June of last year and have yet to drive it. Swapping tires is just going to slow me down even more. If you want to swap them for me, by all means, go right ahead :)

sweet rims =)

I finally have an update! Got a lot done the past few weekends, even though I haven't had as much time to work on the car as I would have liked.

Installed my new front tow hook so when it's back on all 4s we have something to pull from so we can get it back on the trailer
Attachment 212361

Willwood big brake kit- 11" rotors, Flyin' Miata stainless lines front/rear (not shown in the pic), Porterfield R4S pads front/rear. I didn't take a pic of the rears, as they aren't on at this time...
Attachment 212362

another shot of the motor, it's slowly coming together, although I really haven't spent much time up here...
Attachment 212363

On to the rear end!

test fitting of the TII diff. I installed Mazdaspeed diff mounts, but didn't take a pic of them (we all know what diff mounts look like )
Attachment 212364

clearances are tight
Attachment 212365

diff more or less level
Attachment 212366

shot from under the tranny looking back
Attachment 212367

From here, I took the entire rear end out of the car, wire-brushed every piece of it, primed it with rustoleum rusty metal primer, and then hit all the control arms and the sub frame with rustoleum gloss black.

Finished product drying
Attachment 212368

I made a mixture of black and gray to get this nice dark gray color, and I painted the axles, diff, diff mounts, and the rear sway bar and end links gray- finished product came out perfect.

diff
Attachment 212369

control arms, rear swap bar, the hard coolant lines, and the hard line coming off the brake booster
Attachment 212368

Here's a shot of the old control arms before paint- they needed it!
Attachment 212351

shot of the subframe:
Attachment 212352

rear RX7 axles
Attachment 212353

I found a guy over on roadster drift (forum name is Dhaark for those interested- great guy) who was offering his services for custom miata/RX7 hubs, so I took him up on his offer. What he did was machine down RX7 hubs to fit onto a miata spindle, which allows me to use stock RX7 axles.

Here's the old crappy, rusty, wimpy miata hubs
Attachment 212354

and another off the car:
Attachment 212355

new hubs as I received them:
Attachment 212356

Attachment 212357

Attachment 212356

well now I have these awesome hubs, but they look like crap, so I wirebrushed them and painted them with the same black/grey paint scheme. I also cut slots in the curved portion of the dust shield and bent it all out flat so it would clear the 11" rotors out back:

finished product ready for install
Attachment 212359

Here are the diff mounts all painted up and my Flyin miata intake elbow, with an adapter I made out of some scrap 3/16" steel welded to it. This will serve as a mounting point for my apexi bov. I drilled a bunch of holes in it as I want the option on mounting it, plus I think it looks neat, and it saves oh about 2 ounces ;)

Attachment 212360

I cut up my rear bumper and the rear bumper support so i can run a left exit exhaust. I followed the contour of the original exhaust cutout and transfered it to the opposite side.

sorry for the crappy pics

rear bumper support
Attachment 212341

I also lopped off the tow point on the left (driver's) side so that it doesn't interfere with the exhaust at all.
Attachment 212342

bumper
Attachment 212343

Attachment 212344

I also painted the interior with primer and will be hitting it with a coat or 2 of the same black at some point.

Attachment 212345

Attachment 212346

I took out the access panels in the rear deck, and the center console mount and primed and painted them, but never took a pic. Oops.

Sorry for jumping around, but now on to the meat and potatoes of getting the rear end into the miata- making the bracket.

We used a piece of 5/16" steel and bent it to follow the contour of the diff, and then butt-welded another piece of 5/16" to the bottom portion of it and drilled out the 3 holes

Attachment 212347

next, I cut out a section of the subframe so that the bracket can sit flush with the top of the subframe, which allowed us to weld the bracket on 3 sides

pic of the cut I made:
Attachment 212348

here's a shot of the bracket all burned in, waiting for paint. I also cut off the backside edge of the bracket to match the same angle on the front. Not only does it look much better, but it saves some weight. 5/16" sure is heavy, but I'm not taking any chances.
Attachment 212349

Attachment 212350

Attachment 212338

One thing is for sure: This bracket certainly isn't going to break!
Attachment 212339

Got this in the mail 2 weeks ago too. It's an ETD Racing shorty tubular manifold with a Tial 44mm wastegate.
Attachment 212340

Pretty soon I'll get around to getting the motor stuff all buttoned up. That's it for now, I'm beat.

damn nigguh.

tires or not, thats awesome. Nice welding job!

Do you see any problem with solid mounting the front of the diff? I was just thinking with rubber bushings on the back, the back will move around and maybe crack the solid front mount.

Nice Manifold :)

I thought about that for a while, but all the other swaps I have seen did it this way except for 1 guy who used the stock mount. I'm going to try it and see. If it doesn't work out well, I can always bore out the holes and put in some rubber/poly bushings, but I think it will work out just fine. I have the mazdaspeed diff mounts in there, which are stiffer than stock, so we shall see.

Not going to lie, I'm still not impressed with the manifold. I called ETD to complain about it as soon as it arrived as the collector has pretty significant gaps between all the joints, the edges inside are very rough, there are metal "slivers" hanging off a couple of the joints, and the coating is already flaking off on the inside. They emailed me back and told me it was fine the way it was (I sent them pics), but it does not look like a "finished" piece to me, esp. considering how perfect the outside of it looks and the price it cost.

nice work MM... will you reveal the build cost? :D

I'll give a ballpark figure when it's all done. Let's just say I won't be selling it anytime soon :bigtu:

I definitely think it would be beneficial to anybody considering something like this. And it would probably reveal the difference between what you might think it costs and what it really costs. But for a hardcore build like this, it would definitely be interesting. My guess is in the end you will have the deal of century for what you're going to get in performance and durability when you compare the costs to others.

Very nice work MM.
-Tim

Oh I don't doubt it. I'm taking my time and making sure not to cut corners and doing as much as I can by myself to keep costs down. It certainly is not cheap by any means, but then again, if I were to buy all this stuff outright and shell out for someone to put it all together it would easily double my build cost. I've been steadily working on the car since last June. My goal is to have it driving and tuned by the end of the summer. I already have a long list of things to do this winter- painting the engine bay and a wire tuck seem to stand out the most.

More progress. I got the rear end mounted to the subframe

The black and the gray look great together, I'm very pleased with the result.
Attachment 212238

mounted under the car (yes I know I'm missing 2 nuts on the subframe)

Attachment 212239

Attachment 212240

tight tolerances between the mount and the gas tank. However, my front diff mount allows for maximum exhaust clearance, as I plan on running a 3" turboback.
Attachment 212241

axles, control arms, and hubs installed
Attachment 212242

rear sway bar installed
Attachment 212243

Attachment 212244

I measured for the driveshaft, will be dropping that off Monday to get shortened. I still have to get the center hole in the rotors enlarged to clear the RX7 hubs. Once I get that done I can finally cross off the rear end from the to-do list. I pulled the tranny again so i can start working on getting the slave cylinder modified to fit.

Looking great man, excellent progress.........

I have a few questions regarding the diff:
I found out my co-worker has a spare rx7 for me to raid, what all did you end up needing for the diff install? the diff itself, rx7 axles, and shortening your stock driveshaft?

Any info would be great. good job on the car

Not quite...

You need the diff, miata diff bushings in place of the rx7 bushings, either stock rx7 axles and a custom machined hub, or custom axles made that fit miata hubs, the rx7 driveshaft (if you are using a TII tranny as well, if not then you can get an rx7 end welded on the miata shaft), and then some form of bracket to mount the nose of the diff to the subframe. I opted to just solid mount mine. I've explained the entire process of what I did in these pages, read through them all, and if you still have questions, I gave you a site below which I used as my "bible" for this swap.

http://www.geocities.com/Crash41301/

Id go with poly diff mounts instead of the mazdaspeed ones... but looking at how the diff would move I dont think you will have too much problem with the front mount cracking, atleast not for awhile.

Depending on how it goes I might upgrade to those or derlin ones in the future. Gonna try this and see how it goes though.

sounds good, ill be waiting for vids :)

If its a t2 then you will have to mod alot of shit like the OPer stated, however what he didnt say was if its a clutch type with the 7inch R&P then it can be installed into your 99 housing. If your 99 has a torsen then you could probably sell that for 900 ish and buy get installed and have an rx7 clutch type and make a few bucks.

True, didn't think of that. I just assumed he was talking about a TII rear.

This is a great, inspiring build.

did you finally find someone to machine those rotors or hubs for you? and how do you like the part I did?

MM i did read your entire thread, but maybe missed a few posts. But thank you both for that info. Ill find out which one he has, and hopefully will get away with just throwing the internals in and not having to modify all that stuff. (so hoping its a clutch tipe)...
thanx again

No not yet. I'm still looking. I love the hubs. The rubber boots on the axles rub up against the coilovers, but I'm hoping it's not enough to be an issue with them wearing through.


No problem. But looking back, it wasn't all that bad/complicated swapping in a TII diff.

Thanks, I'm trying :-)

Back at it again. I ran into a couple fairly big hiccups the other day. The first being the radiator. I have a koyo 55mm radiator, and with the 1.8 in my 90 with the fm throttle body adapter, there was about 1" of clearance between the throttle body elbow and the upper radiator outlet, so that needed to be moved over a bit. I tried to see if I could take out the adapter, but no good. The only option was to modify the radiator- no biggie.

I cut off the old mount and cut a hole out as far over to the driver's side as I could manage, and angled the outlet so that it was pointed more or less at the thermostat housing.

Here is a picture of the cut before I cleaned it up with the dremel tool:
Attachment 211845

The second problem was the intercooler I bought had the mounting brackets cut off of it for some reason, so I had to design a new mounting system for it. Also, not that big of a deal. What I decided on doing was since my radiator was aluminum, I cut out some 1x2.5" brackets out of some scrap aluminum I had laying around. These will be welded to the bottom of the radiator and the intercooler, and then I would drill out a hole and put a bolt through them. Here is a picture of the 4 tabs, the modified upper radiator outlet, and the block off plate to cover the old inlet hole:
Attachment 211846

For the upper intercooler mount, I decided to take an idea out of FM and Begi's book, and go up and grab the hood latch mount. I cut out a 7.5x6.5" piece of aluminum and had that welded onto the center of the intercooler, in the front. Then it was off to see the welder...
Attachment 211847

Here are the tabs welded on the intercooler
Attachment 211848

new radiator inlet and blockoff plate
Attachment 211849

and the radiator tabs
Attachment 211850

The tabs are placed 4" in from the edges (my intercooler was the exact same width as my radiator- 24.5" which made measuring pretty easy

Here is a shot during fitment of the intercooler/radiator
Attachment 211851

upper intercooler mount
Attachment 211852

I had to modify the lower radiator mounts slightly as the intercooler wouldn't sit properly. Here is a pic of the cuts I had to make
Attachment 211853

intercooler/radiator bolted together
Attachment 211854

Here is a shot of the lower radiator supports installed.
Attachment 211835

another shot of the radiator from above
Attachment 211836

Upper mount bolted to the rad. support
Attachment 211837

Here is a shot from the passenger side. I also installed the sway bar (RB tubular) at this time as well. I painted the end links black this time instead of the gray.
Attachment 211838

The upper intercooler mount was ugly, and blocked off a ton of airflow to the radiator, so I decided to make some cuts in it. Here's a shot during the process...
Attachment 211839

and a completed one
Attachment 211840

Then I reinstalled it back into the car for the final time (hopefully)
Attachment 211841

one a little farther back
Attachment 211842

I also installed the radiator block off plate for the top.
Attachment 211843

Sweet.

The next thing I did was to paint my rotors and the rear calipers. I used that duplicolor caliper paint and did 2 coats.

Here is a shot of the rotors.
Attachment 211844

I don't have a shot of the calipers (oops). I also painted the front wheel hubs with 2 coats of the black caliper paint as well. Again, no shot of that either.

Lower radiator hard lines primed, painted, and installed
Attachment 211825

TII driveshaft back from the shop shortened and balanced. I painted it too.
Attachment 211826

I then went back to the tranny and replaced some of the seals as they had been leaking trans fluid. Here is a shot of some of the guts inside a TII transmission
Attachment 211827

I also cut off the hard 90 elbow on the power steering pump, shortened it some, and ground the flange smooth. I don't like how the line loops back as it did. I plan on running intercooler piping in that space, so I'd like all the room I can get. Here is a shot of the cut and the flange all cleaned up.
Attachment 211828

I angled it towards the outlet from the reservoir so it's a more direct route now.

The next problem is a major one. The manifold I got is an ETD Racing/M-tuned one. I paid 500 and change for it. I had a tial 44mm wastegate flange put on instead of the 38mm flange. I was unhappy about the fit and finish inside of the runners and especially in the collector, and emailed/called ETD racing about it. They assured me this was how they made manifolds, and as long as the outside was Ok it was going to be fine. To me, it looks terrible....There are big gaps between the joints, excess metal sticking out, and there are jagged edges. The coating is already flaking off from the inside too.
I apologize for the crappy pics as they were taken on a cell phone.
Attachment 211829

Attachment 211830

Attachment 211831

OK, well I'll just run it and if it breaks they said they'll take it back and either fix or replace it. Whatever then. So I go to install the turbo and wastegate and the wastegate doesn't even come close to fitting. I tried cutting out the lip of sheet metal between the shock towers, but it still is off by about an inch. Now I'm pissed.
Attachment 211832

Attachment 211833

Attachment 211834

I emailed Marc from M-tuned about it, and sent him these pictures. He said he would get in contact with John about it for me and get back to me. They get back to me and tell me that they welded the tial 44mm flange in the exact same spot on their jig as the tial 38mm flange, and ask for the dimensions of the 44. John had originally told me they had done a 44mm flange on this manifold for another miata and that it was not a problem at all. I was never told it would fit, just that they had done it in the past and that there was no problem doing so, which I assumed meant it would fit. Here is the email I got from Marc.

"Hi Andy,

I spoke to John this afternoon regarding your situation. John recalls you calling and the conversation you and he had in regards to changing the flange to a Tial 44mm vs. the regular 38mm flange the manifold normally ships with. He mentioned to you that he has welded different flanges to the manifolds in the past, one of which was the 44mm V-Band (never heard back from this customer however) and would be able to do that for you. He is adamant that at no point did he assure it was tried and tested to have a 44mm flange. The only configuration tested is a 38mm flange on all of our Miata Manifolds and therefore sold on our retail site.



* You would be surprised at some of the requests. John makes a ton with no wastegate flange (Just the pipe) and the user will position it themselves.



The 44mm V-Band was welded in the exact same spot (Placed in the JIG) as a 38mm flange would be welded; the fitment issue is due to the size of the Tial Gate in question.



At this point Andy, we have to apologize for the misunderstanding, and offer our apologizes. Your best bet would be to modify the wastegate outlet on the manifold to fit in your car with the Tial 44mm gate. I know this is not optimal, but we don’t have a way of building it and ensuring if would not hit.



In the future if you require any ETD or M-Tuned product I would be happy to hook you up with a deal due to the trouble this may have caused.



I hope you understand our position making a one of manifold on request. Please let me know if I can be of more assistance.



Thanks, Marc"

I feel like they went about this in a pretty sneaky way. By telling me they had done it in the past I assumed that it would fit and they would make the necessary changes to the flange for the size increase of the 2 wastegates. It's pretty obvious the wastagates are larger. I know I should have asked the direct question, but I again assumed that ETD racing was a reputable company in the turbo miata relm. I feel like I was taken advantage of and steered down a path of 1/2 right answers by not being up front with me. They also offered me a discount any any future purchases, but the only things they have for a miata is a manifold. I inquired about a downpipe, and their response was "they don't make them because of all the variations, involved- now how is that different than putting a different flange on a manifold?? I sent them an email back to which I have not gotten a response from. I definitely will not be doing business with them in the future, and wanted to warn any other potential buyer of any of their products. I also can't believe their solution is for me to modify the manifold- that was why I paid the extra cash for them to do it in the first place! I also have a feeling that if I do modify it, and it cracks because of the spaces between the joints on the inside, that they won't honor their warranty with me and blame the modification I did as the cause of the failure.

I am extremely dissatisfied with ETD Racing/ M-tuned.com, John, and Marc. Way to take care of your customers...


I'm still fuming about this, but I will end my rant for now. What I've decided on doing is cutting the frame out and boxing it in to create enough space for the wastegate.

Shame- looks like 15* downward tilt of the flange would give the wg the room it needs. What about a straight cut across the wg tube (about half way between the flanges) and then rotating it 180*? The inside of the manifold isn't much cleaner than my SSA...

I don't want to get into it here, but we get all kinds if requests for different flanges HKS, Turbosmart, SPA Turbo, F41, F46, 44/45mm and many others. We certainly CAN'T test them all and therefore offer it with a 38mm flange on the web store.

Did you know that there are even different of the 45mm.. I believe the Turbonetics 45mm Wastegate is smaller.

I did not send you a return email as your last comment was how you were going to trash me on the forums.. Sorry Dude, I don't play that way.

That manifold looks like a real PITA to make. The fact that the pieces line up as well as they do surprises me. The step between the flange and the inside of the primary in Manifold Pic #1 is a good thing. Manifold Pic #2 is useless. I'm not sure what Manifold Pic #3 shows, the WG runner into the collector? It doesn't look ideal. It'd definitely cost you at least 3 hp. ;)

Just kidding man, sorry to hear about your troubles on an otherwise killer build. The issues with the wastegate are exactly why I won't build a manifold other than the std. Absurdflow without the car in my person. To me, it's not worth the personal aggravation and diminished reputation for ~$300 profit.

your turbo diff solid mount is very clean. I did a RX7 turbo II diff approx 2 yrs ago used a plate and welded to subframe then placed a rubber mount in between the solid plate and diff. Here is a link to my install.
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/613741
Please let me know if anything cracks in your mount due to fact may revamp my mount. Good luck on your build looks very nice.

I've actually been to your site before looking for ideas. I will certainly let you know how it turns out.

absolutely awesome congrats and well done !

my only question is about the rust, surely with a build like this it would be easier to send those parts away for sandblasting / proper painting or buy less rusted ones from ebay or similiar - some of the pics of the painted parts dont look so kosher to me or is it just the camera ?

Prob a combination of the 2. I pained them with a brush instead of spraying them, and the camera I have isn't the greatest. I've only done 1 coat of the black, and there are places where the brown primer is showing through. I'm going to address them all in the winter. I'm still trying like hell to get the car up and running before then...

I have the same issue with my TII diff swap my passenser side boot rubs on my coilover just barely and has rubbed a hole in my boot. However my driver side does not have this issue but is close.

My boots rubbed on my old car and setup also..

Yeah I think they all would due to the size of the boot. Maybe over the winter I'll look around and see if I can get a smaller boot if that's possible?

updates!
More progress...Took Thur and Fri off from work and worked on the car.

I notched out the section between the shock tower braces 2 1/8" in by 1 1/8" tall.

Attachment 211519
Now the wastegate fits :roll: .

closeup of the cut. There is a little bit more bracing in there, I'm going to have to brace it back up with some gussets as this is a pretty high stress area.
Attachment 211520

side view
Attachment 211521

Next, I clocked the turbo so that it was positioned correctly for the manifold. Here it is positioned with the water lines more or less where they will be run. The oil feed is just laying loose, I still need a 10x1.5mm to -4an fitting for the block.
Attachment 211522

side view
Attachment 211523

Since I had to cut the frame, I'm going to have to paint the cut section so the new bracket doesn't rust, so I decided to just go ahead and spray the whole bay, something I should have done a long time ago. What a world of a difference.

I started to remove the wiring harness and the headlight bracketry/controls.

I sanded, primed and painted everything.

Priming....
Attachment 211524

Attachment 211525

Painted
Attachment 211526

I also prepped/primed/painted the interior access panels and the entire interior. Everything is getting painted satin black.

Attachment 211527

interior shot
Attachment 211528

prepped/primed/painted the brake booster.
Attachment 211509

Took apart the starter, cleaned it up some and painted it as well.
Attachment 211510

Painted the alternator....For the starter and alternator I used the brake caliper paint again as I figured it would hold up to the heat a bit better
Attachment 211511

painted the front bumper supports
Attachment 211512

and installed the access panels back in the car because I kept tripping over them
Attachment 211513

Here's another shot of the engine bay before tear down
Attachment 211514

I removed both fenders as well. Took the intercooler and radiator back out and anything else that would interfere with the painting off the engine bay. I started with the driver's side as it's much easier.

it's filthy
Attachment 211515

during the process of painting
Attachment 211516

driver's side done
Attachment 211517

again, the engine bay is being painted in satin black

Attachment 211518

The camera makes the paint look weird for some odd reason, but it came out perfect (just an fyi).

Now the passenger side....sigh, there's significantly more junk over here
Attachment 211503

All done
Attachment 211504

close up
Attachment 211505

What a significant difference. I'm much happier with the engine bay now.

2 more of the underside

driver's side
Attachment 211506

passenger side
Attachment 211507

Now to make the bracket so I can box the frame back in. I got a piece of 1/8" C channel and cut it to fit. I also made 2 tabs, one to go between the existing supports, and one to be welded on the forward edge of the bracket. Here they are cut out and cleaned up with the grinder.

Attachment 211508

Tomorrow morning we start welding, so I'll have some more exciting updates tomorrow. I found a shop to bore out the center hole in my rotors, so I'm dropping them off Monday. It's starting to come together.

Why didn't you just buy a FM II or Begi Stage 5 kit? Why do all this work for nothing? I mean, what's the point of wasting all this effort and money?









































Just Kidding. Your build is unbelievable to me. I only dream I'll be able to do things like this one day to my car. You're doing a mighty fine job. Attention to detail makes all the difference. So any guess as to how many cans of paint have went into this build? :)

haha. I haven't been keeping track of the paint, but it has been quite a bit.

Lookin sick, keep it goin!

sweet build. lots of effort+time+money= a badass ride. this one appeals to me even more since its focused more on engine/turbo which is a plus in my book:)

keep up the great work and frequent updates: this is worth reading

Wondered what the frame rail looked like in there. I tried removing those bolts/studs at one point and couldn't get them to budge- not even rotate. Lookin' good.

Great thread and super build. I have been waiting to see how you clean up the lower front pulleys on the motor, or are you leaving them rusted and ugly as a rememberance?

Yes I'll be cleaning them up and painting them probably next weekend.

On to the updates! It's welding time.

I got just about everything that needs to be welded done minus the clutch fork and exhaust, which must wait until everything is back in the car so I know how/where to route it. We started with the rear fenders. I ran a grinder over them to clean them up and clamped them together as we welded them up.

Here is a shot of both fenders all welded up before I cleaned them up a bit. I didn't go nuts smoothing the welds down as they are going to be covered anyways.

passenger rear fender
Attachment 211396

body filler burns
Attachment 211397

This time I ground about an inch back from the weld joint before we started
Attachment 211398

and with a coat of 3m undercoat
Attachment 211399

Attachment 211400

Here are some of the brackets I made for the next steps...
Attachment 211401

I ditched the original bracket idea for the frame notch as I was thinking and I don't want to have to worry about it breaking, so I cut out another piece of channel to fit in between the bolts for the k member (all the way to the right) 2 of the 3 "squares" are end plates for the big angle bracket, and one is for the rear antenna hole. Here is the antenna hole welded up
Attachment 211402

it cleaned up pretty nicely with the grinder
Attachment 211403

Since I no longer have the PPF, I needed some way to hang the wire bundle that used to mount directly to the PPF. I cut out 4 pieces of square tubing and welded them to the upper inside of the transmission tunnel, like so:
Attachment 211404

I'll either use a hose clamp or a zip tie to keep the wire tucked up nice and high and out of harm's way.

Now on to the main event. Here is what I am working with. I cut out this section so that I wouldn't have to modify the manifold.
Attachment 211405

Next I got out the dremel tool and cleaned up all the weld surfaces so there would be a good surface to weld on.

Here is a shot of the support gusset. It is welded on 3 sides. The welder tip was too large to get to the side facing the motor, but it should be plenty strong.
Attachment 211393

Here are 2 end plates burned in and the big angle bracket tacked in place
Attachment 211394

and all burned in...
Attachment 211395

Well a little time with the flap disc on the grinder to smooth the welds out and some paint and I am good to go! I'm planning another big weekend for the car this weekend so I'll have more updates to follow. I'm on the downward slope now!

Could you tell if those subframe studs run through tubes or are they just through the holes in the rail (as in the photo shows the studs not tubes). Just trying to get some insight on modifying/removing them.

Geez o' freaking pete... that's one heck of a labor intensive build, gotta respect that.

I'm considering doing the same, but if I'm going to do this much work, it's going to be with my kids when they're older, and it'll be a GT40 replica kit.

If I had to guess I would say that there are studs that run through them, almost as if those braces are sleeves, and the studs have "hats" that are welded to the top (the part that you see)....but I'm not really sure. It kind of looks like the sleeve is the only thing there as it has the large "washer", but I don't think that would be strong enough by itself which was where my guess comes into play.

swung by the car tonight and picked up the camera. Here are a couple of the pics I took this past weekend.

Took the cover off, and started installing components. First up was the manifold, wastegate, and turbo to see if all my hard work actually paid off.
Attachment 211253

Oh and it sure did! :D
Attachment 211254

The wastegate will sit about 1" further back as the engine right now is leaning forward a bit. I'm pleased with how it came out though. Here's a shot from up front.
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Next up I decided what the hell, I'm going to hide some of these wires and remove the ones I don't need. I'm doing everything else, why stop here?
I started with the passenger side as there is more junk over here. I moved the transistor and the capacitor to outside in the upper fender, drilled new holes for them and extended the wiring harnesses for them. I might go back and change this around some, and incorporate the stock bracket, but I have to think it over some more.
Attachment 211256

Yes, I cut off the butt connectors and soldered everything in nice and clean. I don't want to have to guess about faulty wiring splices so I figured do it right the first time. Here's a shot of them all buttoned up
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Here's the wiring after I took off the factory tape and plastic covering
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I'm keeping the towel down so I don't scratch the paint while I'm moving things around.

Got a little bored with this and decided to get back to fab work and finally finished the last big hurtle- the clutch fork. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures during the process- just kind of got in the zone and saw the finish line up ahead. What I did was cut it just below the "line" below where the pivot ball sits, and spaced it out 1/2". I then cut out a piece of 1/8" stock in the shape of a parallelogram and welded it up at an angle, resting it on the pivot ball indent. I then cut out some side plates out of 1/8" stock and welded them to the each side. Here are some pics while I was cleaning up the welds with the grinder a bit.
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