Yes, but I won't do it. This is supposed to be a budget build. That said, I generally can't half-ass anything so I'm sure it will get worked over. When you see it with the good spare parts installed it will look much better. The doors and fenders took a rust beating. It spent it's running life on the east cost and 8-10 holes through the body work for each piece of trim will do that.

I've got a set of hex head screw drivers that work wonders for stubborn bolts- but your's are probably beyond anything I've ever come across.
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1329750335

I didn't think it was a realistic prospect, just that it would be a no-BS way to effectively clean it to the steel.

I think at worst you might need some wire wheeling in strategic locations but it did clean up pretty well. Forget for a moment that it started out white so every bit of dirt makes it look much worse.

Also, regarding the big head phillips, I feel your pain. An impact gun and big phillips drivers does amazing things.

Wikipedia tells me the phillips head is designed to F up the bit to prevent damage to the screw or work. That's probably why they used them--no way to properly torque the fasteners.

Lovely build.

So when your done with it you can swap V8 in it. Did it still have the gearlever next to steering wheel?

They'r much love'd in Finland and scandinavia, love'd child has many names as sex shuttle, kayak twins and so on.. They used to hot rod those with Ford Taunus 3.0 V6's, that way it became quite BMW killer for it's day...

Dont blink or you'll miss it..

That's like me disassembling my last miata. ------- bolts ------- break all the ------- time son of a bitch when will this end.

I can't even imagine phillips head bolts :bowrofl: :bowrofl: :bowrofl:

Keeping it classy.

Top Gear's tribute last sunday made me even more glad you're doing this build.

Report for today. Everything that can be removed has been removed. As of tonight here is a very large hole in the firewall and the floor. I did not photograph it. It is a hole. Get over it. That is all.

great build!!! looking forward for this :)

Who is up for an east coast build?;)
http://atlanta.craigslist.org/sat/cto/2868762690.html

That thing looks comparatively clean. Buy it for $800 and you can recoup some $ selling the drivetrain and end up with a better shell than me. Motor/trans will sell for about $400.

In my case I didn't heed my own advice which was to start with the nicest donor that you can find. A couple hundred bucks goes a long way with these cars. If mine hadn't been an hour away I wouldn't be doing this swap.

Bought some RX7 550's today, lol. Drivetrain isn't even in and the budget build has started.:giggle: I'm excited because I get to try Megasquirt this time. Had Adaptronic on the 99 so this will be fun. Now I'll be able to post up my msq or whatever it's called and Hustler will be able to tell me that I'm not running crap for timing.:noob:

I neglected to report that I have made progress. Y'all know that I'm bad about taking pics. I'll shoot some tonight. I should have the Miata floor installed.

Why the floor?

Because the subframe bolts to the footwells in two places on each side. I need the floor roughly in place, bolt in the subframe, then I can position the subframe/floor combo forewards and aft which will position the center of the front hubs in the center of the wheel wells.

The existing firewall is at least 2" behind where I need it to end up so I will have no issues related to tying everything into the rest of the car.

An interesting tidbit:

When I cut out the floor from the Miata I cut it as large as I could. It ended up being 50" wide at the front footwells. 50" back was as far rearwards that I could cut it out before hitting the rear bulkhead. At that place it is 46.5" wide. When I measured the SAAB where the floor is going to drop in, it's 50" wide at the front and 46.5" wide 50" back. The floor pans are exactly the same size.

I wish I hadn't sectioned it. After measuring the door, I tack welded the floor and tunnel back together. It was a bit difficult for one person but I got the whole thing into the car in one piece. It dropped right in where I need it.

pics or die.

lol brain is getting antsy

Skipping right to death? Whatever happened to ban?

Steppingg up my game

OK, OK, I want to avoid certain death. Some pics of today's progress.

Very large hole where floor used to be.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1331095070

Floor set in place where it will end up permanently.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1331095070
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1331095070

I have since removed the floor, prepped the SAAB floor for welding and tack welded the firewall back onto the floor. The floor will still fit through the hole in the floor from the bottom up with the firewall in place. The nice thing is that I can finish weld it outside of the car where access is easier. In addition it really tightened up the floor so it doesn't splay out sitting over that large gap.

Picking up a roll of .025" wire and some tips for the MIG tomorrow. I have .035" in the welder now and it's no good for sheet metal.

holy crap this is brilliant.

my friend trying to miata swap a triumph spitfire NEEDS to see this.
sending link now lol

My dilema is how far to carry it. I've added the firewall to carry all of the pedals, plus grommets for wiring harnesses, etc and the HVAC system if I want. Then I was carrying through the front frame rails to pick up the front subframe mount. THEN I figured, why not keep the stock shock pockets in place? It now appears that I could keep the entire Miata fender UNDER the existing fender. We will see.

I also cut out the entire rear center section of the car that holds the rear subframe and the gas tank.:giggle: I just have to watch weight. It's easy to add weight when grafting in other parts.

This is quite some awesomeness! In for detailed pics of subframe mounting structure madness. I've always wanted to try something like this.

Links to Spitiata build thread??

Don't think he has one, but I'll encourage him to start.

Yeah weight is our enemy, but having a modern bellypan+all the stuff to mount suspension/etc stuff to is truly great, so I'd carry over as much as I could get away with.

Besides, an extra couple hundo pounds can always be offset with MOAR BOOST:D

the thread is started...
https://www.miataturbo.net/showthrea...522#post844522

not a Spitiata... its the spit and shove... named for the raping it will be dealing out...

awesome build so far... i luck out...the spitfire has a frame so bracing doesnt have to be too extensive.

You've piqued my interest here. Academically anyway.

What are the prospects of doing a body swap on the miata? You've seen pictures of naked miatas before:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1329808064

It seems (from my limited ability to see your project up close) that just popping the bodies off both cars, trimming the miata's extremeties, and slapping the Saab back down onto the miata chassis would be ... logistically possible?

The biggest issue is the Miata has a 9" shorter wheelbase.

I'd really like to know how legal that would be in NY. I imagine you'd need stuff like a windsheild, wipers, headlights. But I wonder about no hood/fenters/doors. Maybe cloth ones like a Jeep?

you want some of it back for aero.

What are you doing for a fuel tank? Reusing the Miata tank? Why not look into a fuel cell? Apologies if you've already addressed this and I simply missed it.

option a: Saab 96L

option b: saw off 9 inches of the power plant frame.

option c: move the front suspension pickup points 9" rearward.


Where do they eliminate this "9 inches" compared to a miata?

can you not cut the shell in half and make it 9" shorter?


n/m roofline will be a bitch.

Re-using the stocker. Keep the pump, lines, everything. I had kept the rear subframe holder part of the unibody and figured, why not keep the tank mounts and tank?

Couldn't you could just cut the Miata tub in half, use tube inserts in the frame rails, and then a section from a second tub to extend the interior sheet metal?

this would probably work.

Buying a new toy today at lunch! I've always wanted a plasma cutter and this project justifies one. On top of that I stopped at my local Linweld shop for some .023" wire for my welder yesterday and they were having an open house. Hypertherm is the best brand out there for plasma cutters but they were always $1,400 and sometimes $1250 on ebay. They have them on the open house for $1,033 and included a $180 air filtration system for free. Picking one up today. They had the Thermal Dynamics unit for $872 but the Hypertherm is the best unit and you can drag the tip. Helpful when working in a cramped area. I'm very happy.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1331218212

OH the MIATA is the shorter car.

then that's easy.

You just need a spare wrecked miata to section the middle from and then you can overlap joint the power plant frames.

I was thinking a second tube with damaged ends would be free vs. the overlap. I would have the piece needed if this build was a year ago.
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1331227676

Got to play with my new plasma cutter tonight. The question is: How did I get along without one for so long? This thing is awesome! More rust than metal? Cuts right through it. Undercoating? Like it isn't even there. I even had some 1/8" thick tar paper sound deadening sheet inside of the car on the fenders. Strike the arc and cut through it even with the tar paper on the inside of the cut. I was worried that it would need clean metal. Chuck Testa.

I haven't cut anything thick yet. The guy said it would be a rough cut but it can do 3/4" thick. It's rated for 3/8" on a fine cut.

I got the floor pan into position and measured out where I need to cut for the front subframe rails. I laid it out with a sharpie. Then measured again. Then drank a beer looking at it and measured again. I get one shot at cutting this so I decided to wait until tomorrow.

You need bumpers to be legal, and like Brain said, there are aero issues.

Got a bit more done today.

Marked out where I need to cut the unibody/fender liners to fit with the floor in the location needed to position the front wheel in the middle of the fender as well as lowering the car from 4x4 ride height.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1331359121

Cut away the offending metal.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1331359121

One side of the front subframe mount tacked into place. After I tack in the second one I'll bolt in the subframe. It takes eight bolts in widely spaced locations to bolt it in place so that will help locate everything for final welding. Depending on how the weekend goes the motor/trans may be in place by Sunday night, at least for a test fit. Everything is lining up really well.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1331359121

Nice build.
IN for more..

Stein,

Nice to see the build comming along. As I mentioned I found a SAAB-entusiast fairly close to me. The car on the pic in the other thread is dug out and sold, but he recently pulled a lot of parts from a donor, so he has some stuff for sale. He is going to do some inventory during the weekend and let me know. Just checking what you might need:
- Rear lights? Only the glass or the whole insert?
- Front lights? Only the glass or the whole insert?
- Front indicators? (I noticed at least one was gone on your car).
The white reverse lights in the rear are apparently a PITA to find...

Anything else you think you need/might be fun to have? Trimp parts? Emblems? Interior bits?

Of course, I will not be buying anything until he gives me prices and you say GO!

Torkel, I'll check tomorrow. I have a lot of spare fenders so I need to check them all to see what I have to work with. Thanks for your help.

Front subframe mounting is tacked in place.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1331524331

Here's the "fender inside of a fender". Everything clears so my Miata shock mounts are completely inside of the old fender due to the wider track.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1331524331
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1331524331
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1331524331

Mounted the front subframe. Everything lined up perfectly. Tightened up the eight subframe mounting bolts and started to finish weld the car back together.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1331524331

Knowing what I know now, if I ever did it again I'd keep the whole pan, firewall and both subframe mounting arms and fenders all in one single piece. It would be difficult but it could be installed from below with some help and would be stronger and much faster to fab. It would eliminate a lot of welding parts back together.

There's been a lot of progress, but I'm in a lull of no major visual progress so no photos. Floor has been bolted in place every 6" to pull it down tight and then completely seam welded around the perimeter of the floor. I also finished welding the front subframe mounts completely to the body.

Started on gussets over the subframe mounts that will tie in from the SAAB unibody to the Miata subframe front rails/mounts and next is tying in the Miata firewall to the existing firewall and the areas in the front fenderwells need to be tied in as well. I ran out of C25 for the welder tonight so I stopped, plus I need to pick up some sheet metal tomorrow.

Someone asked me about paint, or what I'm planning to do with the car. I'm going to do all of the rust repair, body work and paint myself. It won't be fancy or perfect. It's going to be a track car. I'm actually planning on using either the Topside or Brightside boat paint on the car. It's been done before and can be rolled, brushed or sprayed. I used it on my track plastics for my bike and with a foam brush and a brushing liquid that they sell all of the brush marks flow out. I'd probably spray it with my hvlp gun outside. That way if it gets dinged on the track I can repaint as needed without worrying about color match or clear coat.

I haven't decided on color, but I'm leaning towards Medium Blue or Largo Blue, kind of like the Mustang Grabber blue and some white stripes.

Like this concept car for the "new" SAAB 96 that never happened.

http://starcityracing.com/Forums/att...1&d=1328286904

http://images.jamestowndistributors....s/large/64.jpg

Paint it pink, that'll really get to the camaro, vette and mustang guys :)

If you're thinking medium blue with some kind of stripes...

...can I interest you in a Swedish flag theme?

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1331829186

Well, so much for my targeted sub-$1000 budget build. Picked up a set of Tein Flex shocks today. Guess the Bilsteins and R springs will be going up for sale.

Paint it camo. Or maybe red.

No. Just...no.

Your right that was a bad idea, if your car where camo then people wouldn't be able to see you and you'd get into an accident.

*I'd like to point out that I was kidding, just encase anyone didn't get that. Camo paint is a terrible idea except for some older trucks & SUVs.

Saw this on InsideLine.com and thought of this thread. It's about a 1960 Volvo PV544.

Reminds me of a car a friend did years ago. Put a 350 Chevy V8 in a PV544. Complete drive line really, auto & narrowed 12 bolt rear. Had it going about 3 weeks when someone ran into it and totaled it!

^Neat car.

I have made progress but not photo worthy.

Firewall is completely done, inner-fender-to-floor-and-fender patches in, floor-to-doorsill patches are cut, need to be welded in tonight. There is some additional gusseting and bracing that needs to be added such as tying in the seat mount humps to side sills and two angled gussets on the firewall under the dash that need to tie into the inner fenders.

Next is tackling cutting out and installing the rear subframe/gas tank mount. Fortunately after doing some investigation and measuring last night it should go in pretty easily. Fortunately, the "top" surface of the subframe mount which was essentially everything around the "bulge" for the gas tank and fuel pump mount is flat. That will make it easier to cut away the proper amount of SAAB to position the rear subframe mounts vertically in the correct position with respect to the bottoms of the frame rails. I had used the frame rails measured to the floor and subframe mounts measured to the floor on the Miata before cutting everything up to set the differential so everything sits properly when the car is on the ground.

This is also one of the reasons I bought the Tein Flex as I'm sure I will have to jack the front or rear around a bit to get the proper rake. I didn't have that option with the Bilsteins. OK, I could have ebay-sleeved them but I guess I wanted the better shocks.

Sadly, last nights progress only entailed removal of the two rear fenders. Yes, it took three hours. After finally digging through the undercoating to get to the bolts they proved to be stubborn to remove. In the end I broke off one on the drivers side but three on the passenger side. Might have had something to do with using the impact wrench on the passenger side but I was tired of dealing with it.

All of that aside, I think that I came up with a truly brilliant plan for installing the rear subframe unibody section. As alluded to yesterday, the to surface of that frame where it will be welded to the SAAB is flat and all on one plane that will end up being parallel to the floor. Cutting that surface out of the rear of the SAAB which has many curves and angles would be difficult at best. Then it hit me. I am going to mount an adjustable pole to one of my little Harbor Freight furniture dollies and affix the plasma cutter torch to the adjustable pole pointing out horizontally. Then I can roll around the torch cutting away the required area. The dolly will eliminate up-and-down drifting of the torch, leaving a completely parallel surface to accept the unibody section. If there is a hiccup while cutting it still won't jump around vertically. It should yield a very nice surface for welding.

I will post pics.

Been a bit lax on updates so I had better make up for it with many pictures.

Firewall is pretty much done. I still have to box out around where the master cylinder and clutch master are located. They are outside of the original SAAB fender but the Miata inner fender is completely intact inside of that fender so it is just a matter of piecing in a bit.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1333425168
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1333425168

I have moved to the rear subframe area. Here is the section of the Miata subframe that I cut out of the old car. It carries the rear subframe, shock pockets, gas tank and the legs at the bottom tie into the frame rails that will be welded between the front firewall legs and the rear legs. The old rails were smashed badly but because I am adding 10" of wheelbase it was a moot point. I will add sections of 2" square tubing with 1" angle iron wings welded onto the top edge and then bolt through the floor to the wings and finally weld the floor to the new frame rails.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1333425168
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1333425168

Initial progress was to cut out the old axle box just to open up some room. The string represents the axle centerline that I am carrying through to the new subframe mount.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1333425168

Next I opened up the area to approximate the space needed for the new subframe mount.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1333425215

I decided to not use the plasma cutter and to go with the sawzall because I had to cut through multiple layers in the old SAAB shock pocket area. So, I rigged up a height stand on a HF furniture dolly and mounted a pen to mark the cut line parallel to the floor.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1333425215

After cutting and two test fittings the subframe mount is just sitting in place.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1333425215

It really is working out well. The area where I need the most strength is right above the shock pockets. The old SAAB shock pocket weldments came out right on top of the Miata shock pockets so with a bit of contour grinding there will be a very solid place to mount. You can also see where the SAAB unibody swoops inside of the Miata shock pocket allowing plenty of welding surface area.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1333425215

Not a lot to report today. Did some final fitting of the rear subframe mount last night, pulled everything back out and started with the wire wheel to remove all of the paint from the weld areas. I'm doing a more thorough job up front this time as it was difficult to do it after the fact when the front section was tacked in place. On that one I got too excited to see it in position and tacked away.

I also ordered $400 worth of square and round tubing, plus some angle and flat to restock the shop. I was getting dreadfully low on raw materials. So, I got all of the tubing for the cage coming tomorrow. A guy I know has an EZ bend hydraulic tubing bender that he said I can borrow, so I'm going full cage instead of roll bar. That way I can tie in the front and rear subframes. I'm going with a "B" hoop, cross braced to the rear of the rear subframe mount, crossed to the front corners of the rear subframe mount, two tubes over the doors and down to footwell corners, x-brace the roof section, door bars, dash bar tied through the firewall to tie into the shock Miata towers.

i can't believe this project isn't completed.

- brain.