Quote:
Originally Posted by PAdutch
My miata is the first car I've focused on the chassis first and I'm glad I did. The thing is next level handling. You will definitely be happy. I used to be the guy that made fun of people with cars that made no power.
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I sure hope so man. Even though I'm salty about all of the work now, I think that it's all going to pay off when it's done.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AWDBOB
My plans for it, are to just enjoy a damn car for once. I never have still to this day. I want to drive it.
I am going to do a top end towards the end of the month of July (2016).
I'll be replacing every bushing and suspension component on the car, slowly cleaning it up, cleaning up the bay, doing a slight functional drop (not wasting $2500 and a month of my life building coilovers again, probably spec e30-esque H&R Race and Billy Sports), 16x8 ESM RS reps with a 225/45, slight roll on the fenders, RX7 front brake upgrade, and be done with it. Minus the wheels my excel spreadsheet with parts is only around $2K, with added things like trim, roundels, plastic pieces, interior bits, etc.
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Just for affect, I thought I'd quote my first post in this thread, just to show how fast and horribly things can spiral out of control.
This is a rough list of things I need to buy to get the car rolling ($5500+ if I do AC and a few light modifications). I don't have anything close to that kind of coin, so I am trying to find a way to get this car on the road, which likely means no AC for now and few modifications to the 24V.
I finally had a day off and spent the day in the garage. Got my ground control order in to button up the rear of the car, and naturally, the tall shock mounts hit the metal dust shields on the Koni struts. Currently trying to figure out what to do without spending more money (again).
Got my Metric Mechanics cams in, they look great. I did also find out that I need to run supertech springs with these, which is yet another $650 expense.
Since I couldn't finish the rear suspension I started tearing apart the M52.
Someone cut off the engine mount bolts flush with the frame.
Got all of the exhaust manifold studs out without any breakage.
Removed everything on this side to get the harness off of the motor.
Found out the harness from a 528 is pretty different from that of the 328 which is going to make it much more difficult to modify.
Removed accessories and valve cover. Everything looks pretty good. Tried to get the crank bolt out and failed. My impact didn't do the trick, and because the motor doesn't have a flywheel on it, it makes it quite difficult to keep the crank from moving with a breaker bar on it.
Then I realized I forgot to order a Vanos timing tool so I moved onto other things that needed to get done. I disassembled the front subframe assembly that I pulled out as one piece. My goal was to prep the front subframe for reinforcement welding and the coilovers for their plates.
Front housing prep.
Inspected the Z3 rack I purchased. Someone couldn't get the knuckle off of the shaft so they just cut it. I tried everything minus heat (because seals) and couldn't get it to budge.
Then I had some extra time and decided to shave down some of the brackets I won't be using with the M52. I'm not going to "shave" the bay, but I'm going to remove a few things I won't be using to clean it up.
I didn't have the proper tools for the next step on that so I disassembled my spare cluster to inspect the SI board and to see what I could salvage. The M3 cluster is at bavrestoration right now and the SI board is bad. They want and exuberant amount of money for one, so I am trying to find a good one for that cluster.
And that's about all. Once I get the vanos tool I'll finish disassembling the M52 and get the head off to the machine shop, clean up the block, etc.
I need to make a decision on a clutch (using M20 size with the RHD flywheel) so I can start to get the drivetrain in order. Also need to find out which 944 booster p/n to buy, since I don't want to "relocate" the stocker. Among other things, this car is absolutely draining my wallet and I want it to be done so I can drive it, but it's looking like it won't be done until after winter.