A few months ago - amidst a major lack of free time - I decided to take on yet another build. My addiction knows no end.

I've had it tucked in the back of my mind that I wanted to do a ghettocet type build for quite some time. I peruse craigslist daily, but never really came across anything inspiring enough to move on. In July I found the perfect donor - a well-maintained 1995 Miata that had some front end collision damage. The next day it was in my garage and we were off to a nice start.

My target car was one that already had some nice mods (suspension mainly), as I knew that would keep the total cost down. I was also targeting a car that either had light collision damage or was cosmetically undesirable, as I figured the asking price on these would be closer to my price range. The car I found was the perfect candidate – lovingly maintained, nice modifications, a pile of spares, and a reasonable asking price. We settled on $1500 for the car + spares. Some screen shots of the craigslist ad:












First Impressions - On first glance I could tell the car was in great overall condition. On closer inspection it only got better – the attention to detail was unbelievable. Other than the collision damage this is one of the cleanest cars I’ve ever owned.

Mega-clean engine bay



All the suspension stuff looks new



Racing Beat Header



Clean fluids are never a bad sign



Oil filter relocation kit with braided hoses

 

My initial plan was to do some sort of super low budget, super light weight (a "ghettocet" if you will). Something like these:











As I started to do more and more research that became less appealing. Perhaps that would be different if I was willing to build the cage myself, but welding really isn't my "thing". Quotes for decent cages came in around $2,000-2,500, and even then I wasn't sure I was going to be happy with the results.

Eventually I linked up with Alan at SalvageWon. He educated me on his experience leading up to and building the Eliminator. I was sold from our first conversation. He has learned a considerable amount about how to build these cars right, and the incremental expense of building an Eliminator vs a Ghettocet is worth every penny. First, their design takes full advantage of the space made available by eliminating the body of the car - provides a ton more room inside so that you aren't cramped against the cage. Second, their design allows you to remove as much weight as possible while still maintaining/ improving rigidity. Third, the end product is much more aesthetically pleasing than something cobbled together using an off-the-shelf cage (to me at least; your opinion may vary ). All of these would have been major compromises in the ghettocet.

If you aren't familiar with Eliminators, here are a few pictures:

 

Current status - car has been stripped, cut, and cage has been welded. Woohoo!

Here are a few "in progress" pics:

 

your last two posts.... are they suppose to have images in them?


*They're showing now

 

Pictures show fine for me.

Did you hire out the welding? You mentioned it wasn't your thing, but the welds look great!

 

My bad - posted two "placeholder" posts to add content to a few minutes later. You must have caught them during the window when they were blank!

Those aren't my welds! I've only owned one welder and it was a sh*tty Harbor Freight one. That probably didn't help.

 

While I'll agree the Eliminator kit seems better in every way then all of the ghettocet examples I've seen; the cost of the kit is pretty tough to swallow.

 

What is the cost of the salvagewon kit?

 

This. I looked on their site and did not see anything besides to email them.

 

I emailed them a few days ago- no answer.

 

Final pricing hasn't been determined yet, but think somewhere in the neighborhood of $5k. That includes the cage, a pair of seats, headlights/ taillights, a radiator and fan, and the front grille/ bodywork. I think it is a good value considering everything you get.

Speaking of cost, if you do this right you can build one on a tiny budget. I bought my donor for $1500 and have sold $4700 worth of parts off of it on eBay. The seats sold for $500, the top was another $500, the finish panel was $300, etc. Even after paying eBay/ PayPal/ UPS their share I'm still way positive on this car.

All in all I think I'll have about $2-3k in this build.

 

That's totally f-ing awesome. I have an '03 with dings and dents all over, but it runs great and isn't too terribly rusty. We're talking VVT and 6-speed. The perfect base for a turbo eliminator2. I'm sure I could make a decent buck selling off some of the parts I won't be needing anymore.

 

Sub'd.

How do you fill up gas at the end? What is the solution for this?

 

Most of the Ghettocet-like vehicles I've seen just stick the OEM filler neck up in the air, coupling it to the gas tank with a short length of hose.

Basically just like the stock design, only without the body around it.

 

What the Eff is wrong with those wheels on that car? Most-extreme heat-wave distortion? Photo-chop failboat? Rota Quality?

 

they are ultra jdm

 

Movement when the photo was taken.

 

Specifically, vibration of a very low period.

Unlike frame-transfer CCDs, the CMOS image sensor in most cheap digital cameras scans the frame from top to bottom a line at a time, just like old analog video equipment.

Thus, side-to-side vibration present during the exposure will manifest itself as waviness in the image.

 

Give Alan a bit of time - he'll answer - otherwise I'll beat up on him.

 

Correct - this is Robert Russom's first build - i helped cut on it years ago. There's a build thread on it somewhere here. Since version one - I'd have to say the current V3 is much more stylish thanks to Alan's input.