|
Project Kimiko
14 Attachment(s)
I'm new to the forums. I have a couple of build threads over on CR but with the heavy apperance and stance focus over on that forum I might fit in better here. In any case, why not start out by moving my build thread. Meet Kimiko, my '96 Montego blue miata.
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1395378637 I wish that most of its life was like that pic but the last five years have looked more like this: https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1395378637 Previous build thread can be seen here: '96 NA turbo set up for drift - ClubRoadster.net This car has seen a lot of guises. I bought it from a friend who had it turbocharged with a full flyin' miata kit fourteen years ago. From there it was a street car for my ex-girlfriend, a street car for me, a drift car, and finally an oversized paperweight. Unfortunately, more of my ownership of the car has been in paperweight mode than driving... In the last five years since it last saw service, I started building towards a new turbo setup with a top mount manifold. The build has evolved from a full on drift car, to a combined street/track car, and most recently back to an almost entirely street focused build. This has caused a lot of backtracking and unnecessary work. Where things are now: The engine is out of the car and mid-rebuild. I've pulled it from one machine shop due to horrible communication and will be giving it to another to finish shortly. Engine bay has been stripped down and spot primered to fix some surface rust from scuffs over the years. The interior is pretty much as it has been for the last five years. Soon the roll cage will come out and move to my other new track car Yui. That will kick off a lot of interior work to bring Kimiko's interior up to a level I won't be embarrassed to show. New montego blue metallic paint has been purchased and very shortly I'll be spraying some individual panels as test pieces. That may be a bad idea as my technique with a spray gun is far from "expert" and doing things in little batches may end up with three or four shades of blue on the car... no help for it though, I need to practice some before I spray everything in sight. Current plans are as follows: Engine Stock 1.8 block Wiseco 8.5:1 pistons K1 Rods Supermiata sold lifter conversion Supermiata dual valve springs Flyin miata manifold Garret 2560R turbo Flyin miata 3" down pipe Interior Hard dog roll bar Custom gauge faces for new redline Custom shorty console and trans tunnel cover Exterior Respray in original montego blue Delete current spoiler ? Wheels Fastback (long term) And to finish up, my latest pic of the engine bay work: https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1395378637 As you can see, lots of primer, and a lot more stuff to move out of the way and/or mask before I spray the engine bay. Right now I have my engine parts back from one machine shop that I wasn't happy with and waiting on another paycheck before I take them to another one. Here's some fun before and after pictures of the work so far. Block head and crank before: https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1395378637 Head after cleaning and valve job: https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1395378637 Crank after polish: https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1395378637 Block after cleaning: https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1395378637 More (as) soon (as I get another paycheck in). |
You enjoy crashing your car and wasting money.
This should be good. |
Originally Posted by Erat
(Post 1113530)
You enjoy crashing your car and wasting money.
This should be good. Plus he left CR and came here so he is headed in the right direction... In for quality work, don't let us down! |
I take it you guys don't like the slidey stuff over here! Drifting has always been my motorsport. Most of my previous cars have been built for it (this one included) and I still love going sideways. Kimiko has probably turned her last drift lap though. I have a lot of sentimental value attached to her and the idea of abusing her that way again really turns me off. That's why I am building up my '91 as a replacement track car while the '96 remains my fun street car. Even then I don't know how much more drifting I'm going to do. It really does tear up cars something horrible. I want to try my hand at some general track days and maybe see what kind of series I can run in for grip around here.
|
Track days are good. Dirfting is the figure skating of motorsports. We'll help you if you want to go faster reliably. I don't know anything about Brian Boitano.
|
Originally Posted by sixshooter
(Post 1113721)
Track days are good. Dirfting is the figure skating of motorsports. We'll help you if you want to go faster reliably. I don't know anything about Brian Boitano.
I love you Six... Not everyday you see a perfectly executed Brian Boitano joke. |
Had to hit up autozone for a headlight bulb for my daily. Went ahead and picked up some evaporust and VHT engine block paint while I was at it. I want to test out some rust cleaning on the bolts and hardware that are going back on to the car. Reading Jeff's build thread has me itching to clean up the larger hardware that will be reused on my car and have it yellow zinc plated. I'll probably go ahead and do the larger hardware from my other car at the same time.
Jeff, I'm going to have to send you a PM some time to ask about the various cleaning solutions you use. No work on the car this weekend. I'm out helping to put on a local figure skating, er... drifting event here in Houston. Next week I should get the block painted though. |
Purple Power, acetone, goof off, Adams Super VRT, 1Z Plastic Cleaner, Graffiti Remover, 1Z Gummi Pflege Stift, soap, brake fluid, gasoline, sandpaper, magic erasers, power washer, steam cleaner, shit load of microfiber towels, and a metric shit ton of elbow grease.
And a load of other crap. I can't remember what. |
Now that's a laundry list. I'm not building either of my cars to the level you have yours (but then again who does) but I do take inspiration from your attention to detail. While I have my engines out and bays open I see no reason not to organize, clean and refinish everything I touch.
|
Originally Posted by ibange
(Post 1113807)
Now that's a laundry list. I'm not building either of my cars to the level you have yours (but then again who does) but I do take inspiration from your attention to detail. While I have my engines out and bays open I see no reason not to organize, clean and refinish everything I touch.
But play it smart and use justifiable reasoning and you won't go too far down the rabbit hole as I did unintentionally. Just don't skirt the quality of the go-go bits. |
2 Attachment(s)
No updates because I've been all sorts of busy with other things. Sold my truck and picked this thing up to haul crap around in and do some van camping this summer:
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1397517458 Trailer hitch, new transmission fluid, head unit, and cleaning have kept me busy for a bit. I also sold one of my two other miatas and am working on selling the second spare. Fortunately all the selling has freed up some cash for Kimiko... and I discovered the buy/sell forum here is awesome. I have a Garret 2871 on the way from shuiend to replace my 2560. Moar boost, moar fun! (more broken parts) I also got these in from bmxfuel007: https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1397517458 ID1000 injectors. Just a bit of an upgrade from the old RC racing 550's that have been in the car since 2000. They worked fine but I've been told that technology has come a long way and who am I to argue with what people tell me on the internet? The next piece of work to be tackled will be bodywork and paint. I've spent a while trying to decide if the racing stripes will stay or go and I think I've settled on stay. I also decided to go for a full respray rather than try to tackle this in sections. Might as well do this once and do it right rather than be pissed off down the line when part of the car looks good and the rest looks like crap. |
3 Attachment(s)
Got my 2871 from shuiend, and stickers! Not quite sure what I'm going to do with them just yet since I'm no doing any graphics on the car. Toolbox maybe...
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1397766377 I haven't decided what is next for the project. I need to deal with bodywork but I'm starting to lean towards doing a racing beat type 2 front bumper. I also need to buy my wheels and tires so I can work the fenders before I finish bodywork and get into paint. So many things to buy... |
8 Attachment(s)
I got bored last weekend and decided to dig into body work a little bit.
Replaced the ~10lb runabout style fuel lid with this stock piece. https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1398121916 Actually was almost a disaster. Some wasps had built a mud nest over one of the bolts that holds the lid on and the water from the nest had turned the head of one bolt into a rust pile. Fortunately pounding an undersized american socket on was successful and I got the new lid swapped on. I still need to tweak its placement to get it to sit perfect and probably will skim it with filler to take out some ugly ripples. I finally pulled off the fiberglass "welcome to the early 2000's" spoiler. https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1398121916 Looks like it should be fairly straightforward to fill in the holes. They're big enough that I need to cut some plugs but a few minutes with a grinder and welder and I should have the trunk lid ready for filler. I put a tiny bit of filler on the hood where there were several dings. Doesn't look like much with primer over the stripes. https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1398121916 Finally I took a picking hammer and knocked some dents from things rolling around in the trunk back down. A little filler and some sanding and they're ready for some primer. Glad I got to these, there was rust from water seeping through cracks in the paint. Nothing serious yet but good to take care of now. https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1398121916 |
Looks like you are heading in the right direction with this one! My car has a dent in the same place from when the battery came loose. Pisses me off, but easy enough to fix.
|
Originally Posted by Fireindc
(Post 1123908)
Looks like you are heading in the right direction with this one! My car has a dent in the same place from when the battery came loose. Pisses me off, but easy enough to fix.
|
Ugh, these dents in the rear quarter are kicking my ass. One of the problems of owning a car shaped roughly like a jelly bean: basically no flat surfaces for easy body work. In my case the body filler is the "high point" of an arc and since it is softer than the surrounding paint I'm ending up with two little flat patches in the continual curve of the body.
I think that even my soft sanding blocks are too hard to flex to the body. I may try hand sanding with some adhesive backed disks and no block. The rigidity of the thick sandpaper might be enough to act as a "block" and let me very carefully shape the filler back to exactly match the body. |
Let us know what works out for you on this.
|
Will do. For starters I think I'm going to grab some two part finishing glaze. Standard body filler is a little thick to easily spread this thin and I'm afraid of the one part air dry spot putty I use for filling pinholes cracking down the line.
|
4 Attachment(s)
Not a lot of progress this last month. One of my other hobbies is model aircraft and I help set up and run the local event for the group I fly with. Between getting that set up and doing a lot of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=___M...ature=youtu.be, what little time I did have other than that I spent arranging to purchase this:
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...78189184_n-jpg '01 BMW 325i. BC racing coils, longtube header, welded diff, gutted interior. Kimiko is going to be built to a level of finish that I would feel bad about doing heavy track duties with her. I really have wanted a car to play with and a friend listed this up so I put some money on it. The car is about seven hours away so I don't have it in my hands yet but I'll take care of that next month. Current plans are to do a basic fix up on the cosmetics, throw my racing seat and harness in and otherwise leave it alone. https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...512_124742-jpg Back on Kimiko, I did move forward a bit... by removing parts? My current build is for the street so having a cage that requires me to wear a helmet at all times wasn't going to cut it. I mentioned to another miata guy who mentioned to someone else, etc. and ended up selling my cage. That gives me a few bucks I can put back into a new roll bar. I'm still undecided on if I am going to have one custom fabbed for absolute max clearance against the fastback or just buy another hard dog bar. I also have a friend who has committed to buying my SV650. That will fund the purchase of the autoconexion fastback I have been lusting after for years. That plus a few other select pieces will complete the puzzle of the exterior of the car and allow me to finally get on to painting. |
3 Attachment(s)
Found this on my doorstep this morning:
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1400633989 Yum, new parts :) https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1400633989 I'm trying to remove just enough of the "jellybean" look that NA's suffer from so badly by carefully selecting parts. My inspiration is largely the FD RX7 which in my mind took all of the styling elements from the miata and made them work so much better. When I saw the project-G rear flares I knew I had to give them a shot. https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1400633989 Sigh. Can't wait until I'm through paint and those old graphics are gone. I'm thrilled with the fit and finish of the parts. Project-G has definitely got their A-game on with these. The pictures were taken without even needing any tape to hold the parts in place. I did not opt for the side skirts of gfusers or whatever the hell they named the complete kit. I don't want to run any skirts on this car. I may still modify them slightly to adjust the look a little more but we'll see. I need to get more of the body together so I can see the car as a whole. More parts coming soon! With a little luck I'll be in paint within a couple of months. |
That hood shit right there, i just dont understand it. Fairly clean car with a rusted out hood. Just dont get it.
|
Don't ask me, I don't get it either. The hood (and for that matter the entire car) will be getting a coat of paint asap.
|
1 Attachment(s)
So I went ahead and changed my screen name. The ibange/iBang SN I've used forever is older than dirt and I've really moved on from that, so yeah, before anyone gets confused... same guy.
Still no more work done but I did get one of these on order: https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1401301040 I needed one for my BMW and I have a sponsorship for that car from nonstoptuning. Mike, the owner of NST, was kind enough to let me toss in another one for the miata at the same time so cool. The long hub I have on there presently puts a deep corn wheel a long way from the blinker and wiper stalks which I always found a little annoying plus I don't like the look of the cheap one I have on there right now. This nice solid aluminum piece should take care of both issues at the same time. I STILL haven't have the combination of time and good weather to get my SV650 back to my house, fix it up, sell it, and put the money into the remainder of the bodywork for the car but just be patient with me for a bit. Everything will come together eventually. |
1 Attachment(s)
More parts in. I ran across these on craigslist the other day and couldn't say no. I'm tapped for the next couple months but I have the matched pair of Elise probax leather seats that I wanted.
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1401678872 This is actually kind of fun since until I get my bike sold I don't have the cash for the bodywork so in the mean time I can play around with the interior and actually get some work done while I'm waiting. |
9 Attachment(s)
I took a little time off from the miata to do an SR20DET swap into a friend's 240SX in my garage. That turned into a three week(end) job but I'm very happy with the end result and so is the owner so that's good.
With that car finally out of my garage last week I decided to build a new bench and cabinet set and get to work on some interior pieces. I've always liked the look and comfort of a shorty console. My miata formerly did not run any center console garnish and as such looked like crap. I decided to fix that. My main issue with all of the shorty consoles is that they eliminate the cupholders and as a fat American I want somewhere to put my red bull dammit! The solution of course is to make something of my own. I started with a spare center console and cut it down on my bandsaw: https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1406138937 Then I took some depron foam and used hot glue to mock it up into the shape I wanted. https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1406138937 Not shown is that I actually did the mockup on the back of the console and then broke the hot glue loose. Skipping a few steps here, I realized that the cupholder insert would be very tall on the back side and rub against my arm so I cut it down and used some fiberglass to re-angle it. https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1406138937 Here a horrible picture of the depron foam mold being covered with a layer of fiberglass mat. https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1406138937 First trial fit in the car, the cupholder has some body filler on it and the console has been sanded a bit. https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1406138937 More epoxy and more sanding later and the shape is starting to emerge. https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1406138937 There's actually not a lot of filler that went into this. Most of the work was with spot putty filling pinholes since obviously I didn't go to a lot of trouble to get the glass cloth spot on. https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1406138937 Both parts with a layer of wrinkle paint in place https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1406138937 https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1406138937 I'm very happy with how the finished product came out. There's still a few things left to do: The window switches are going to be relocated to the area behind the cupholders, the tombstone needs to be finished in the same wrinkle paint as the console, and then I have to decide if I even like the finish. Its a bit shinier and texture-ier than I would really like but I haven't found a good way to replicate a stock "grain" in paint. I've considered sanding to a smooth finish and covering everything in a 3M carbon fiber wrap or even a hydrodip but again I'm not sure if that's the finish I want to go for. The modern "dry carbon" wrap material looks incredible but I just don't know if it would be too much. |
I'm still on an interior kick and have a lot left to do there. I need to make some sort of upholstered cover for the transmission tunnel. The trunk and fuel door levers need some sort of cover over the mechanism. The carpet cut for a roll cage needs to be removed, the roll cage mounting points need to be welded on a bit and then all sanded in smooth, and then I can mount my spare carpet and decide if its good enough or if the car is going to get a new carpet kit. I need to locate two sets of stock sliders and buy a mounting kit for the lotus seats to mount them onto the sliders. I need to track down all of the stock rear trim pieces that have been hacked to bits over the years for various roll bars and roll cages. I want to do a better job trimming them for the roll bar that will be installed. I also need to track down some NOS OEM seatbelts in black.
There's a lot to do... |
| All times are GMT -4. The time now is 05:15 PM. |
© 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands