Now or Later?
 

Well currently my 94 M is totally disassembled. No engine, everything stripped off the firewall, all removable body panels removed (prepping for paint). Interior totally stripped out except for the soft top frame. My plan is to prep everything possible before boosting. The goal is to make a pretty nasty street car that may see some track time but just for fun. What parts/work should I definitely do now while everything is apart and what can wait?

Things I've thought of or started:

1. Poly bushing set. Something I should definitely do now? Or not too difficult to complete starting with a fully assembled car?

2. I've done a little seam welding around shock towers and firewall, but the seam sealer is a real pain and I've given up doing any more based on the PITA factor vs. benefit. Is welding every single joint really worth the huge hassle?

What have I forgotten that should be done now before everything is put back together?

If it were me, I would. I have been wanting to do seam welding terribly bad, to help stiffen up the car. Even if it made a small difference, while you are doing it, you might as well do it right.

Well I broke down and bought another wire wheel to finish up the seam welding. I've now done just about everything on the diagrams that FM has on their site. Along with my homemade frog arms and frame rails yet to go in, I think this chassis will be plenty stiff enough.

Any insight on the bushings?

Energy HyperFlex would be the route I would take if I was to do it again. My retarded ass spent 5x as much for new OEM bushings to keep a "plush" ride, which I never had with the Bilsteins, and certainly won't when I go with the 7/9 Tein Mono Flex setup.

I had my shop (Andrewtech) do the bushings from 949Racing. DO NOT do the poly rear diff ones!! If anything, replace w/ new OEM stock rear diff. The added drivetrain noise is REALLY unnecessary, annoyingly loud, and I think could cause more grief than goodness.

That being said, the other bushings were noticeably better and well-worth it. Do it while the car is apart. Clean up and lube everything.

That's what I was looking for. Thanks guys. I guess I'll find a set of Energy bushings for the control arms only and replace the diff bushings later since they don't look bad the way they sit right now.

What about going to FC TII diff bushings? They seemed a lot more stout then the OEM Miata bushings.

Honestly, I haven't really looked a whole lot at the different options available for the rear diff. That's one of the very few things that I haven't pulled out of the car, and I'm getting down to a point where any more projects and my car won't be running by the time school starts.

Depending on what you're doing with seats, i would get them fitted with the car torn apart, because with some seats you have to cut the humps out of the floor and that would be really easy to cut out and weld up now with nothing to catch on fire.

The Energy Suspension diff bushings do cause some more noise, but it's not that bad... it's easy enough to tune out and ignore.

So you are "hard and fruity"?

Didn't actually notice any more noise with the solid MMR diff bushings. Donno what you guys are talking about.

Well.. I'm not putting any carpet back in the floor pans. The only carpet will be the package shelf and behind the seats. So I don't think a little more noise will even be noticable. However, ridiculous vibrations are annoying.
The seats are lotus elise seats that I'm in the process of repairing. Some owner along the way decided it was a good idea to install Sector 111 harness grommets and not read the directions in the process. I'm keeping the sliders though seeing as my wife has to drive the car too.