Sawzall miata "build" thread
 

The goal for this car is cheap fun.

Use: Autocross & nice day drives with one of the kids

I found this website after doing a google search on sawzall miata. I found RHarris' thread and then posted to it, but because I'm doing better with this project at taking pictures along the way, I figured I would start my own "build" thread and go with it. I say "build" thread, because I'm mostly dissassembling the car, not really building it, but hey...

I bought the car about a month ago and started carefully removing parts so they can be resold.

Since then I've been selling parts and sent the car to a friend's body shop so they could do some seam welding prior to the cage so the car won't fold up when driven hard.

I'm going to try to remove everything from this car that doesn't make it stop, go, or turn better...without sacrificing rigidity.

I know a 7 replica would be lighter, but I want this thing to be a sub $2k vehicle with minimal effort.

Sounds like it should be fun! This is exactly what I am just starting to do now. Make sure to take pictures!

The way I bought it. A VERY used 06/89 Miata

The guy I purchased it from is a friend of a friend. He had owned it since 2002 and it was his daily driver.

It was customized while sitting stopped in traffic. The 18 wheeler in front of him began rolling back and contacted the car just above the bumper cover. It pushed the car backwards and into a pickup truck behind him that contacted the miata just above the rear bumper cover.

I had been thinking about building an open wheel miata for awhile so when the friend told me about it and showed me a few pics on his phone, it was game-on!

First day of dissassembly

Being dissassembled

I'd hammer the rear back into shape a dzeus quarter panels in place.

Where do you live? Send me the black dash.

Cut the rear off so the trailer hitch could become the rear frame rail support just behind the subframe.

Getting it "street legal" for a ride to the bodyshop across town.

I'm in Bham.

Check out that wheel well gap! On a stock suspension, that means this thing is losing some weight!

Just picked up from the body shop, dropping it at the cage shop.

This is how I drove it. :)

The power was out at the cage shop because of all of the recent tornadoes in our area. His power has now been restored so we will begin the cage design Monday.

These pics are up to date, I'll post some more once the cage starts going in.

If anyone else has a sawzall miata please post up!

Additionally, if anyone has successfully completed a rear mount radiator setup please let me know.

Thanks!

This looks like a very fun build without the PITA of having to put a proper car back together. I am interested to see how exactly you plan to make this thing street legal again. I'd love to do a dirt cheap, fun de-construction build one day.

Where's my beer bitch? Gotta get that driver's window from ya too.

Today's pics. Got some more bars to add.
-Double Diag. in down legs
-Through the firewall
-Nascar bars

and 1 more

Great work so far, I'd love to do something like that. Can't wait to see the finished product.

Hey Gene, I know, I know, I keep owing you some reebs. Me-outta give you a call, get it?, when I get this disaster back to the house where it will be power tool time again!

Work Order

Picked it up from the cage shop this afternoon and drove back across Bham in rush hour traffic. It was raining when I left to go pick it up, but at least it had stopped before I started driving.

Obviously I still have a lot to do, but at least the cage is done so I can start cutting some more.

Alright - I'll have to come by this afternoon and see - and get my beer!

A few pics in progress

and some more

Any access to scales? You have intrigued my interest in my project again.

Glad to see that you still have A/C

I do live in Alabama ya know. :)

I need to mount the radiator in the back for better weight dist.

Trying to figure out the best placement. Any ideas?

Of course it needs airflow, but I'd like to keep it as low as possible too. The muffler looks like it will fit best taking the stock exhaust's path, just snugged up to the subframe.

I'm trying to decide positioning of:
-Radiator
-Battery box
-Tail lights
-Tag

Lets hear some ideas...

Not anymore, but considering how light this thing is, if I can find some fat-boy scales I might be able to do it. The cage is probably right at 100 lbs (1.5x.095) I'm thinking this thing is maybe 1400 lbs?

What do you guys think?

Looks like locost 7 fun for 1/900,000th of the price. I dig it.

I'm so sick of seeing flat black these days, it's just over done so I spent forever in Wal-Mart this afternoon looking at colors, but I walked out with Rust Oleum Satin Black, not really what I wanted, but it was about the only color that was available in a spray can and paint can. I walked out with some of each and some rollers. There is a new Rubbed Oil Bronze, or something like that, that looked real neat, like a very slight bronze version of dark charcoal with a very slight metallic, if that makes sense? I tried it on a sample, but when the reality of quick touchups, rolling around crap under the hood, etc. hit, black it is.

Was using the .095 more expensive than .120? Around here it is a special order size at my suppliers. It would probably be worth it in this setup though as 1.5 diameter .095 wall is 1.426 pound per foot & the .120 wall is 1.769 pounds per foot.

I still want to see someone use the front and rear subframe to build a tube chasis for an easy kit car. Not to take away from what you have done.

The guy that does my cages doesn't like using .095 either, so he doesn't stock it either. I convinced him the car is so light that even 1.375x.080 would still be legal and he kind of went along with me at that point. I didn't talk price difference though. It would've had to have been A LOT more expensive though to go with .120. I told him I didn't hack this thing to nothing just to weld a heavy cage in it.

As for the tube frame deal, I'm totally for it. There was a thread on GRM about that same type of thing. This was just quick, easy, and cheap.

Interesting that the .120 would have been more expensive. Around here the .120 runs abour 4.39 a foot and the .095 runs about 4.70 a foot from what I can remember. Not a huge difference, so the availability made it for me.

Completely agree and should be 100x quicker than making a new chasis.

Can't wait to see it painted, shouldn't be too bad looking, for what it is. Why didn't you keep more of the rear quarter on the passenger side, like you did on the driver's side?

Ahhh, my reply was kind of confusing. The .095 could have been more $, I didn't ask, and he never splits the invoice to show material seperate than labor. When I mentioned cheap, quick, easy I was saying this type of build vs a full tube frame project.

By the way, kind of picking up from the scale reply. Bruce and I pm'd a few times and I settled on using the 325 that I had on the back of another miata for the front of this one and then ordered some 150# & 200# to try on the back. I sure wish I had scales...

Both sides are gone now, that was just an in-progress shot when I stopped to get some water.

Is your gas filler just sticking up freely? Idk why but that would tickle me in the right way.

I've wanted to do that for years. The NY laws being what they are, I'm not sure I could ever get it registered. Hence my switch from finding a donor car for a locost to finding a runner to fix and drive.

So are you going to have to put different springs on it since it weighs so much less?

Well, kind of, its just the car around it is gone. The bracket on the hose just before the pipe make a 90 up, is still bolted in place. Haven't decided what I'll do with that yet.

Rear spec miata on front, and then a 150 or 200 on the rear. GC over Koni. I just hope the springs themselves aren't too long

Any news?

Very cool project ++++ for originality

I just got the Koni/GC stuff on, sanded down the edges (which are remarkebly smooth now btw) and primed a few spots. I can't wait to get back to work on it some more! I had to leave out of town the day the Konis came back and once complete, I was running uber late and didn't get a chance to take pics. I just got it and the donor on their wheels so I could stash the "chopper" in the back of the garage and get my DD back in. I've got some adjustment to do for sure, but it looks very cool! I pulled a set of Eibach bars off the other car too, so I'll get those on when I get back. As it turns out, the bumpstops were trashed on the units that I had to put back on, so they will have to come back off to install new ones. (I was out of time and it was sitting on jack stands in my wife's parking place with me about to be out of town for a week and a half!)

Whats coming:
You guys may've noticed door sill covers mysteriously taped to the A-pillar in some of the pics. It was all I had in the garage that was roughly the right length and I was trying to get an idea of what the changes I will do to the cage will look like. I've decided to cut the current bars leading to the front towers off and replace with a straight bar that will angle all the way from the top of the A-pillar-w/s bar, all the way to the front sway bar pickup, and I'll drop down on each side of the front towers. I'll connect the front frame rails at those landing points and then I will cut the rest of the front off...and then of course rattlecan prime and paint it so it doesn't continue to rust.

Thanks! but I can only take partial credit here. I've been wanting to do one of these for a long time and before I started chopping I did a google search and found that 2 guys on here had actually already done it. I had never been on this forum prior to that. rharris19, quoted just above, is one of the 2, and from the sound of it, my "chopper" has renewed his interest in his rolling tetnis shot too!

Now that I'm outta work, kinda, I'll have more time to help ya out - and drink yer beer!

I'm FINALLY back in town and I hope to get some more work done on the chopper soon.

I was in Pahrump, NV the other day and saw this thing riding down the road so I had to chase him down and get some pics.

Oh well, just tried to post and evidently I've surpassed a picture quota...

Woah this thing is gonna be legit!

Future plan for moar power?

Any updates? I'm thinking of something similar.

Whoa this is actually pretty sweet. Based on your weight estimates on street tires I'd be thinking like 400 lb fronts and 200 lb rears with the wimpy RB solid bar and a stock 11mm rear bar. If on slicks I would think 600 front 300 rear and the big tubular bar + stock 11mm rear.

I might have to update for him, seeing he's failing at doing it himself.

He's been autoxing the car a bit - and as expected it's quite fast. I'll try to get some pics of the monster but it's had me been thinking of doing something similar since I have 2 wrecked shells to hack up. I'll try to get his spring rates too.

in for details on weights. i ran across this XP build yesterday. if modernbeat is 1300# then surely this one is less. with some downforce i'll bet it would haul ass.

ref http://forum.miata.net/vb/showpost.p...3&postcount=17

Good to see locals doing good work. Keep it up.

What part of town is this being built? Looks familiar.