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First off I want to say Curly is a good dude. Hopefully I'll have a complete harness soon and be able to post a video of it running. Still not sure what I'm doing on the exhaust side so I may just put the stock exhaust manifold in place to drive it around the neighborhood. Eventually I'll want to turbo the car, but I want to shake the car out before making that leap.
Made a little more progress yesterday and today. Nothing too exciting, but things I've needed to do nonetheless. Got the front right fender bolted back. Everything lined up pretty well. Ironically, the only good that comes from all the spray paint on the car is that I can use it to realign body panels. Helped when I had to mount the door a while back too.
Also received the dash button for the cruise control. Going to use this car for driving to work on a regular basis so I want all the modern conveniences and comforts. Very satisfying that I've finally installed the last missing dash button. I don't know if I mentioned it previously, but all of the dash buttons below the gauges were missing when I got the car. The parts car had the dash light dimmer, but everything else I've had to chase down. Still need to figure out what I'm going to do about the gauge bezel. I do a lot of sheet metal design at work so I may get creative...
Last thing for this update...I cut the rear window out with an xacto knife. Going to go the cheap route and glue in a piece of vinyl type plastic film...going to see what I can find that's slightly tinted and good outdoors. Really just needs to last until I find a hardtop.
Some of the other toys. Next project is behind the pickup.
Well learned a lesson the hard way today. Took the 94 off the jackstands and finally put the car on the ground....the stance is not so good. After putting the racing beat springs and kyb shocks from the 93 on to the 94 the front is too low and the rear is too high. Checked to make sure I didn't somehow install them backwards and they're right. Maybe with some gas in the tank and driving it around a bit the rear end might lower a little?
So I guess for now I'll use it as is. If I was building a drag car it would actually be ok I bet. Luckily I had planned to swap the racing beat setup to the ghettocet (which is a 1990) eventually and put something better on the 94. Now that may happen a little sooner. Don't have a good photo of the stance as it's been raining...will back the car outside when the weather permits and see how bad it really is.
Well I checked and I'm fairly certain they're correct. Long springs in the rear....short springs in the front, right? Might reach out to racing beat and see what they suggest.
Edited with a side view photo. The front is definitely lower and the rear is at about stock height. Not so sure how this will handle. 93 springs and shocks on a 94.
Didn't take a photo, but last night I took a look at the springs while the car was on the ground by turning the wheels to full lock (will add a photo when I get home). I removed the dry rotted dust boots before installing so the piston rods are visible. Because I can see the rods I can tell they're almost completely compressed. Is this common for lowering springs or are the shocks bad? My understanding is that the springs should support the car and the shocks just control the nature of the springs so it makes sense by installing lowering springs you'd lose some of the shock stroke. So if the shocks were bad they still wouldn't be compressed because the springs would carry the weight, right? I've also left the sway bar loose while tightening the main crank bolt so maybe that's part of why the front is so low. There's no gas in the tank so maybe it's light by ~60lbs in the rear and the car will sit lower in the rear with fuel? Either way the rear springs and shocks appear to be ok.
While removing the engine harness that'll soon be replaced with a 4 pin harness I had a plug disintegrate in my hands. Looked to be damaged by heat. Pretty sure this is the sending unit for the coolant temp gauge. I've already ordered a new sending unit, but wouldn't mind a confirmation. At the rear of the block just above the transmission bell housing.
RE Front Shocks
Depending on how much is left, it sounds normal. The shock do not support to car at all, just dampen the spring. Spring has all of the weight. Car doesnt look overly low in the front, but the rear look HIGH. Also, sway bar has zero effect on ride height.
RE Front Shocks
Depending on how much is left, it sounds normal. The shock do not support to car at all, just dampen the spring. Spring has all of the weight. Car doesnt look overly low in the front, but the rear look HIGH. Also, sway bar has zero effect on ride height.
Yeah I don't think it's right either. I guess I'm pulling the suspension off and putting it on the ghettocet. Red suspension will look good exposed on the red car anyway. Have quite a few parts on the way for the engine, but most aren't showing up until next early to mid next week so I might put the 94 back on jack stands and swap the suspension over to the 'cet this weekend. Will need to decide what suspension to put on the 94. Might as well change the bushings out while I'm at it....time to invest in a shop press. All said I will have installed shocks and struts 4 times now!
I'm very tempted to remove the egr.....but need to make sure I can still pass emissions without it. Pretty sure it's a sniff test in GA. In two years it won't be required.
Well I guess part of me was looking for any excuse to NOT remove the suspension today. Procrastination is usually the downfall of my car projects, but today it actually paid off. Got on the local miata forum last night and found a hood. Was a good price and the seller was willing to meet me half way so I got a hood. On the way to meet him I passed a junkyard I recognized from a craigslist post and knew they had a miata there so I decided to swing by on the way back on a whim and see what parts I could get off the car. The car was pretty smashed, but I got a hardtop off of it. The fiberglass will need a bit of work, but it should be salvageable. Convinced the guy behind the desk to only charge me for the rear glass since the fiberglass was damaged. He agreed....$100 for a hardtop. Pretty sure I can fix the rest so yeah....this project just got a little more interesting!
I still need a rear finish piece between the tail lights, a front bumper, and a windshield. The junkyard had the finish piece for $75, but I think I can do better. Might end up trading my parts car when I'm done with it for some of the parts they have there....especially if they'll come get it.
Installed the hood. Fits pretty well, but may need a little massaging. Between the 3 miatas I have at my house not one of them has a hood support. Did not realize that until today...
Also gave the hardtop an initial cleanup. Got the writing off of it and all of the shrink wrap removed. Shrink wrap adhesive is a bear to get off. Ample amounts of degreaser and scotchbrite got it all cleaned up. Fiberglass is a bit more crunched up than I initially thought, but I still feel pretty good about saving the top. The driver side latch is broken (thought it was bent originally) and the fiberglass at the front mounting points is cracked. Beginning to wrap my head around how I'll want to repair it....where to cut, etc.
Going to buy the garage star mounting brackets. Figure the best place to start is to secure the top to the car and cut at the breaks to make the shape right. Because the top is cracked at the mounting points I may have to run bolts all the way through. Then sand, glass, etc. I really don't want to do the fiberglassing while the top is on the car as I'll want to go from the inside out, but I'm not sure how else to hold the parts rigid and in shape without it being on the car.
New body parts installed. Rear isn't as high anymore thankfully. With a tank of gas and battery in the trunk it may actually be close to okay...
Drivers side crack. Passenger side has a similar crack, but not as bad.
Driver side latch...if you look closely you can see it's broken.
Passenger side latch operates okay, but the fiberglass is still cracked above it.
Tried to remove the screws from the hard top front brackets, but they're bent and won't come loose. The grinder made quick work of the screws. Passenger side was bent, but not broken. Pulled some of the sound deadening back to get a look at the damage from the inside. Still haven't lost hope I can save this top! Might hold off on the garagestar brackets as I'm pretty sure the factory hard top mount locations have to go. They're too far gone. Can probably fab up some brackets myself anyway. Also pulled the weatherstripping off. Passenger side looks ok...driver side inner metal lip is a bit mangled. Scrounged around and found the frankenstein bolts leftover from the ghettocet teardown. Glad I held onto all the hardware.
I got the 4 pin ebay coils in on Friday. Harness Curly sent me should arrive soon. C'mon UPS!
Still waiting on the harness so in an effort to continue making progress I kept working on the hardtop tonight. Broke out the 'ol dremel tool and got to work. Had to remove some pretty big pieces to get all of the cracks from the top side. Attempted to leave the edges of the top intact as I'm worried those will be hard to replicate. Tomorrow night I'll flip it over and begin working on the underside. The good thing is that before the top didn't side even across the windshield structure before. Now it looks close to normal.
Definitely going to have to fab my own brackets....also definitely going to need a cold shower tonight. Itching like crazy. Might invest in the proper PPE before continuing this hardtop part of the project.
Driverside post hack job:
Passenger side hacked:
Front crack removed:
Front lip resting against the windshield frame much better now.
Didn't do anything to the car tonight, but did get some harbor freight stuffs for more hardtop work. Not sure if I'm getting older or wiser, but the main reason I went to HB was for some better PPE.... Damn that itchy crap!
Tomorrow I'm to go check out a local hard bar for sale. Seller wants $100....not sure if this is even worth the effort to install or the $100. Anyone have experience with this sort of bar? I feel like it's "better than nothing". Please speak up if this is a poor purchase to make!
06-03-2017, 08:49 PM
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