aidandj

iTrader: (5)

Cool build. Looking forward to updates.

MatosMiata

Of course, nothing with a Miata engine can ever be so simple. I looked at the timing belt and quickly realized why the car has trouble starting... the timing belt is loose and it's very likely that it jumped a tooth. Time to do a timing belt job lol.

MatosMiata

As it turns out, the timing was not off, the belt tension simply isn't set right. With the valve cover gasket changed and the spark plugs cleaned up, the car is starting much better. It's a lot easier to make a spark when oil isn't falling on you from above lol.

MatosMiata

I set about trying to remove the lower bolts on my fenders. The bolt heads had sheared off on the passenger's side before the car was painted, so the body shop replaced them with self tapping screws. My attempt to remove the driver's side bolts ended in two more shorn heads. That's extra annoying given the fact that I had taken them out and greased them in the past. So, I decided to try a bolt extractor and ended up breaking it. I decided to take the fenders off and see about getting the bolts out another way.

Of course, you can't take the fenders off without removing the bumper smh


I took both fenders off and then decided to kill any rust I found under them. There was some light surface rust in some areas and heavier rust in small spots over by the cowl

MatosMiata

I ground all the rust off the surfaces using a combination of an angle grinder and a cut off wheel on a Dremel (for small spaces the grinder didn't fit into). From there, it was all coated in a primer for rusty metals and finished in gloss black engine paint.


I ended up with my office looking like this


Note the carbon hood for my truck in the background... I have too many projects built up

MatosMiata

With the fenders off, I decided I should kill all the rust, everywhere on the car. So off went the hood, cowl panels, trunk, rear finish panel, and taillights. All of the jambs and places under these things had small paint cracks and some rust starting to form. I took a pressure washer to all of these areas in order to remove the light dirt that had built up on them.

MatosMiata

Body shops always amaze me. They took off one tail light seal before paint, but completely ignored the other one. So I have one black seal and one white. SMH!

MatosMiata

Now the office looks like this

MatosMiata

With all of that off, there was no way I was going to just leave the door jambs intact. I've wanted to make them black for the longest time.


Now the junkyard is complete lol

MatosMiata

Although I love how the door jambs look with the gloss black, that paint is slightly absorbent. It would eventually absorb moisture and allow rust to form.



So out came the media sprayer and a quart of truck bed liner.


This stuff comes out beautiful Let's see the Miata try and rust through that(All rust scraped to bare metal, rust proof primer, gloss black, bedliner)!


I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, but I love it.

MatosMiata

By the way, I ended up with some overspray on the body. The tape I used was supposed to have some edge lock tecnology that would lead to perfect edges. I may as well have used conventional masking tape. This stuff was so lame, it had trouble sticking to itself! Fortunately, my paint was sealed with Klasse so all the overspray comes off with a fingernail. A quick pass with a clay bar and some nail action should get it all cleared away.

MatosMiata

Here are some more detail shots of how the truck liner looks

MatosMiata

I took a dremel to all the areas where the various panels and brackets attached to the body in order to eliminate the rust on them

Trunk


Fenders




I eliminated all that rust and gave the bare metal a protective coating.

MatosMiata

With everything dry, I started reassembling the car








I left the car without fenders or bumper so I could take some extra time to clean those parts up and to take a break from the fumes (I use a respirator, but still)

MatosMiata

I plan to replace the trunk and fenders with carbon fiber ones in the near future. I know the fenders don't represent much of a weight savings, I'm mostly interested in not having them rust. I may go fiberglass on the fenders to save money. Eventually, I would love to do the doors as well. I was shocked at how heavy the Miata's doors are.

MatosMiata

I've wanted to do this since my friend bought his AE86. With the floor and every likely spot for rust covered, the car will last longer (stuff is strong, flexible, and waterproof). All you need is a media spraying gun meant for sandblasting and a compressor. It will allow you to shoot the bed liner stuff they sell at the car parts. I learned that when my body shop dude sprayed the black lines on the sideskirt area of my Miata. Pretty sure a qt. would cover the entire underbelly of a Miata.

MatosMiata

Got a little behind on putting the Miata back together. For starters, the respirator I used when I was spraying the car was probably expired and my throat got irritated. I got sick as a result and spent three weeks coughing up phlegm and taking medication. Learn from my mistakes kids! Always wear proper PPE and make sure your PPE is up to date, nothing lasts forever!

MatosMiata

Besides getting sick, I ended up with a new project that probably didn't help my condition. It's a ZX6R, they are carbureted, and there is no charcoal can to catch the gasoline fumes smh.


It belongs to a friend of mine who doesn't know much about mechanics so he left it with me to do some repairs. The bracket for the right brake was broken, so I replaced that and added Spiegler SS brake lines all around. I also threw in an oil change and coolant flush. It now runs and stops like a charm. Not bad for my first time working on a bike. It's actually much easier than working on a car It went back to my friend's house performing like new.

MatosMiata

4-10-2015 I also managed to finally get the Miata back together. The fenders went on one day -between bouts of working on the bike and the bumper went on this morning.

MatosMiata

4-28-2015 My car overheated the other night. I redid the coolant and was not able to get the car to overheat no matter how long I left it on. I did seafoam the next day, the motor had trouble starting and it started heating up while I did the seafoam. Tried running it again today, no overheating.