Damn that looks great.

You and I both need to pick up the pace. LOL.

LOLOLOLOLOLOL :party: Slow progress is better than no progress .. .right? right?


-Zach

That is very true. As long as there is an eventual end, and good times driving the car. Of which is going to happen, right? Before we all die of old age?

Cmon. Pick up the pace old timers! It only takes 6 months to fully rebuild a car!

;)

Progress continues to be slow; however, I finished most of the plumbing. Yes, I machined a bracket to fixture the BOV hose to the cam cover (I don't value my time).

Sigh ... it looks almost done. Before I make much more progress, I need to order new hardware for the front suspension, i.e., control arm bolts, alignment bolts, ball joints bolts, etc.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1400506170
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1400506170

-Zach

You gotta' be kiddin' me.

That's it! Neither you nor Jeffbucc are allowed to drive your Miatas. Off to the museums!

God damn man. That is super clean.

And hornet if my schedule keeps up and my lack of knowledge of MS, it may just well stay in the garage!

Beautiful build & attention to detail! I always wondered what the heck Farm was when driving through Hollis as it feels a little out of place in that part of NH. I guessed it was some sort of high end design firm - graphic or similar.

Do you mind sharing your welder's contact info via PM? I'm two towns over and may need some welding work this winter.

John @ JAWS (John Albert Welding Services).

JAWS

Great guy to deal with. He does a lot of work for DEKA and other local R&D firms.

-Zach

It's been a long unproductive summer in regards to the miata. Not surprisingly, house hunting has sucked the life out of me (the greater Boston market is defeating).

This said, I'm now in a race to "finish" the car before Emilio ships his first sets of gen 4's. Finally pulled the trigger.

[IMG]https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1406821346[/IMG]

-Zach

FINALLY.

...Excuse me...while... I GO REDO MY ENTIRE ENGINE BAY! Jesus christ, it is perfect.

Get it running Thasac, I need a video of this perfection! Hopefully it all goes together smoothly man. Glad you got some free time.

FINALLY?

When I saw you quote the picture I expected to read:

"Your passenger side port ... BLOCK IT."

Editors note: I have 10an plugs for the passenger side in event that I track the car.

-Zach

finally as in: not retarded, like plugging the side port, when it comes to catch can setups (and the rest).

And he'll have fun fun fun
'Til his girlfriend takes his attention away

Had plans to strip and paint the miata control arms; however, the points on the GF's cl350 were acting up. Fortunately, her brother had bought her a PAMCO hall effects electronic ignition upgrade. Unfortunately for me, in the 40 years of bikes existence numerous hacks had both mangled the fasteners AND used red loctite. I hate old things.

I'm so altruistic :party:

Attachment 239054

On a miata related note, can anyone recommend cheapish rotors which have some sort of rust protection? (zinc, cad, geomet, etc.). My current rotors are a bit worn and I want to bump up to 1.8 rotors anyhow. The Hawk quiet slot rotors are geomet coated but they're a bit pricey and have slots cut in them, which is less than desirable.

-Zach

I got some of those Centric cryo rotors from Rock Auto. They were on sale at the time and even cheaper than their standard rotors. They have some kind of black coating on them that has held up really well. I think all of the Centric upgraded rotors have that coating (i.e., the high carbon, cryo, etc.).

These guys, I assume:

More Information for CENTRIC 12545050

-zach

I found the normal Centric on amazon for dirt cheap and then hit the hats/hubs with brake caliper paint. Has held up so far just fine. Found the price difference too high compared to a $5 can of caliper paint.

I was under the impression that the pricier version (cryo) used a different steel alloy; i.e., that you're paying for more than a rust prohibitor. Could be wrong though.

I would have agreed with you a while back but the rotors I bought are the same that Emilio has on his website(Centric brake rotors).

*shrug* you may be right, it isn't that much more expensive if you factor in your time to paint the hats.

Yes, the black "E-Coating." Holds up well, even at track temps.

Note that the standard Centric rotors are fine for our use (i.e., no need for improved alloys or cryo processes), so what Jeff did works well too.

So, given the prospects of me buying a home, I figured it was in my best interest to make the at least a 'roller'. I'm sure my father would appreciate use of his jack stands as well.

But, being who I am, I simply could not bolt in rusty control arms. So, I pissed away a beautiful New England fall day in my employers shop obsessively refinishing parts no one will see or care about.

Originally I was going to sand blast the parts; however, a coworker seems to have indefinitely 'borrowed' the blast cabinet. So instead, I got to spend a lovely 3 hours with a grinder wire wheeling the scaling off the arms. Fun. The results:

Attachment 238864

Once prepped and masked, it was time to move to the booth. I hope to never have to mask bushings again ... what a tedious task.

Attachment 238865

Given the fact that I couldn't completely rid the arms of oxidation and I had a ton of the paint left over from a prior chassis painting effort, I decided to use SEM Rustshield which is 1000 hour salt spray tested (not that the car will see winters).

The paint is on the thicker side (think POR-15) so I cut it with some Enamel Reducer (per SEMs suggestion).

Attachment 238866

...and the part all painted.

Attachment 238867
Attachment 238868

And a friendly reminder: Guns don't lay killer paint jobs, people do.

Attachment 238869

-Zach

Holy hell this. It was the second most tedious thing I did on my build besides removing the undercoating.

So many damn hours with a wire wheel and literally everything getting coated in metal/rust/paint dust.

Good work man, having been there, I know your feels.

Ha!

I did this on the suspension restoration of my wife's MB 380SL. That fully cured me of doing it on a Miata.

Really epic and enjoyable build thread! That engine bay is inspiring:D

It was definitely one of the projects which I severely underestimated. I showed up to the shop around 9am thinking I'd be cleaning up around 12:30-1pm ... more like 6:30pm.

Without a sandblast cabinet, removing the oxidation around all the gnarly mig welds, in the corners where the bushing barrels meet, and on the concave surfaces is truly tedious and required a combination of wire wheels, wire brushes, scotch pads, and various dremel bits.

After I was done, I questioned whether avoiding bushing removal really saved me any time. Had I removed them I could of 'dipped' the parts and sent them to the powdercoater. More money, but more valuable than my time? Perhaps not.

-Zach

Minor/boring update (as a visual person, anything auto related without pictures is lame)

Front suspension is mostly n - all new hardware, Tein Monoflex cleaned up and installed, LE/R package tie-rods, RB hollow core bar with support blocks, etc. etc.

Ordered but not shipped:

- 1.8 caliper brackets
- 1.8 Centric Premium e-coated rotors
- 90-93 CarboTech XP8 pads (I paid the premium to avoid Hawks caustic dust)
- Timken wheel hubs

Should be a roller within the next week or so.

-Zach

Hope so. Get some Fall foliage cruising in.

Thanks for the welder referral Zach. John does great work and I'll be using him again for future jobs.

Glad to hear he worked out - he's a great guy and very fair with his pricing.

-Zach

No significant updates as it is a balmy 16 degrees in the garage right now, but ... a few boxes of shiny goodness were waiting for me at my employers lobby this AM.


Glad I went with the "tungsten" finish as it, uh, tits! Huge thank you to Emilio (and team) for a delivering a killer product at an incredibly fair price. Obligatory money shots.

Attachment 238504
Attachment 238505

Hopefully come May these shiny hunks of aluminum will be clad in r compound and bolted up to a (semi)functioning car. A man can dream.

16 degrees? Where are you, Santa's workshop?

16*F is what it was this morning when I woke up. Even with the heat off all night in my garage it was still over 40.

Fuck you guys. its was -2 last night.

Nice wheels Thasac. I just picked up some 15x9s in black last week.

16F in MA is much colder than -2F in UT. Humidity is weird like that.

Well when it was in the 50s for the last week then yeah this 16F feels pretty darn cold.

Seriously, guys. That's some harsh shite. I lived in some cold places but it is a choice. You can live anywhere.

74 degrees today and 81 tomorrow. I'm going to the drag strip Saturday night an the track on January 25.

I'll take cold over humidity any day. Last time I was in Florida in 80* 100% humidity temps I felt like I was dying. 110* in Las Vegas seemed temperate in comparison.

It only gets this cold in January, otherwise it is usually 30*+

30 sounds lovely. I was having to tolerate girls in shorts and skirts today. It's such a burden.

:crx:


https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1420169450

Crimea River? Isn't that in the Ukraine?

81°F? Damn in the winter? Fuck I dont want to sweat my balls off while working on the car. It only costs like $2/day to heat the garage, it would cost a whole bunch more to air condition it.

Well, sadly the car is currently stored in my fathers garage ... which is really nothing more than a drafty uninsulated barn, albeit a very nicely built one.

As others have stated, humidity can be a real drag. 38 degree and 78 degree days can render the garage unbearable with the right amount of humidity in the air ... April and October are generally great ;). This said, it's currently ski/hockey season which means mind and budget are not currently miata focused.

I do, however, need to purchase some sticky rubber. I'm currently debating whether I should be a cheap f_ck and try the Federal 595rsr or spend more $$$ for a more established brand/tire.

My short list (all 205/50-15):

- Federal 595rsr ($)
- Direzza ZII ($$)
- BFG Rival ($$)
- NT-01 ($$$)
- Maxxis RC1 ($$$)

My primary concern, other than budget, is having a tire which is well matched for my suspension setup and use (which is autox, occasional street driving/sunny commutes to work, local meets, etc.). I've got a RB hollow sway up front with 12kg Tein Monoflex (bought from Johnwag a few years back). I have 10kg springs as well which might go in if the 12kg prove to be unbearable. Regardless, I've got a pretty stiff/competent set up which would seen to warrant some seriously sticky rubber. I considered buying cycled SM7 Hoosiers as they're cheap and I can mount/balance for a case of beer; however, I opted out for fear of flats and harassment from the local PD.

Love those tungsten 6UL's! I would so replace my bronze ones for those.

Everyone rags on California for our smog... challenges. But it does have its advantages, like rocking a t-shirt all year.

Smog challenges? I focus my CA ragging on the endless sprawl of asphalt and burger joints, mediocre to terrible public schools in spite of high cost-of-living/taxes, and tech VCs with an inflated sense of self worth.

To be fair, I've yet to spend time north of The Bay Area ... which I hear is a bit more appealing to us new Englanders.

Palo Alto has some decent public schools if you can pony up the $4k/month for rent.

And yes, north of SF is fantastic. There are some amazing roads, and delicious wine!

Well, after much tire debate I ended up getting a set of 205/50-r15 RA1s from John Berget ... I thought his pricing was pretty fair and for the cost, I don't mind buying and mounting a set of 3/32nd scrubs every spring.

-Zach

who's coolant re-route are you using?
Thx

A combination of m-tuned parts and custom pieces. These pictures explain it best:

I used the m-tuned housing at the back of the head. I bought a silicone elbow from a common hose vendor (can't remember which one). The elbow had extra long "legs" so I was able cut and splice in a m-tune thermostat housing.

Attachment 238022

...from the m-tuned thermostat housing forward it becomes all custom. I ordered some aluminum tube and L extrusion from McMaster. I threw the tube on a metal lathe, cut to length, and machined in a step lip for better sealing. I then cut the L extrusion into a bracket using a metal bandsaw. I then had a local welder quickly tig the assembly (took him all of 10 minutes including some informal chatting).

The hose to the radiator is again a generic piece from a silicone supplier, though I did insert a SS spring to prevent the hose from collapsing.

Attachment 238023

I hate shit flopping around the engine bay, so I created the hard line. This said, plenty of people have done to same using just a single rubber or silicone hose (sans hard line) ... this approach honestly is easier, simpler, and removes a failure point. So ... don't do what I did.


...also, thanks for reminding me a own a miata. A miata which I should be working on.

Those single-wire spring clamps are a royal PITA. I would not ever want to replace the heater hose with those things. The OEM spring clamps are FAR better.

Looks awesome but are you ever going to drive your car again?

I'm hoping to find out in the next week or so whether the lender approves a short-sale property I put an offer on. If it does get approved, hopes on having the car running this spring are dashed due to all the not-so-fun aspects of closing/moving.

The good news is the house has a beautifully spacious and insulated attached garage, which means I would finally have the car under my roof and not 45-60 minutes away. This means the car WILL be running by summer/fall.

Good. Need more JAFRMs* on track molesting Porsches, Vettes and Stangs.

*Just Another F***ing Red Miata

Holy crap your engine is beautiful. Something to aspire to I guess...

You spelled "faded" wrong...

:rofl:

A very small nudge towards road worthiness ...

Attachment 237838

Front suspension is in! She's finally a roller ... and will hopefully be rolled into my new-to-me garage by the end of the month.

Attachment 237784
Attachment 237785

As stated on a previous page, the suspension components for wire brushed with an electric grinder and cheapo HF consumables. I then sprayed slightly thinned SEM Rustshield through a standard automotive spray gun. The paint finish appear to be pretty durable and has a great OEM look to it.

Poly steering rack mounts were added (the OEM rubber was a mushy mess) as well as new moog lower ball joints and R/LE outer tie rods. Rotors and brackets were "upgraded" to 1.8 units.

Bump for updates and a sub. Such a clean build.

Not updates of substance.

I closed on a house 12/23 and have been consumed by it. The good news is it has an insulated 2 bay garage ... which is huge seeing as I have been commuting 40+ minutes to my fathers garage for the past 5 years. Now I can walk down stairs, turn on the space heater, and get to work.