LocostUSA.com

The amazing technicolor 7 is no more. Its now in rat-rod mode for the time being.

I started by filling the seam with Bondo to reduce the amount of filler required later. Then I applied 3 tapered plies of 6 oz glass cloth to the outside of the nose.


It was finished with Icing (and a ton of sanding).



Finally some primer and all of the fiberglass parts are one color.



I don't have a ton of miles on the car but little stones have already put a ton of really nice chips on the leading edge of the rear fenders. I guess stone guards are a must-have item.

After the oil pan incident everything has been pretty uneventful. The car currently has a little over 1,300 miles and everything seems to be holding up.

I have been curious how the front fender mounts would do since they are made with much smaller material (1/2" 0.063" steel tube) compared to your typical Locost design . My theory was that by making the entire mount flexible and of the same sized material the stress would be more evenly distributed rather than being concentrated where the flexible 1/8" strip meets the stiff 3/4" tube. Time will tell but so far nothing has parted ways and there are no visible cracks. This probably means they will fail within the next week or so.

The crap PA weather also forced me to make a roof (3 of the 5 autocrosses this year have been in the rain). A little Appalachian Engineering was used during its construction as evident by the crooked rear edge and the bungee cords.

Andrew
Do not even think about using polished aluminum for rear fender spats. Go directly to rubber or stainless steel. I'm using brushed stainless and clean them with a fine 3M pad after kicking up all the road kill parts. [You will never keep anything polished] I also used the old VW bug fender webbing around the edges of the sheet metal edges. I usually take them off at the end of the seanson and give them a good buffing with a fine flapwheel. I taped 8-32 threads directly into the fiberglass, and so far I have only striped one hole, which then needed a longer screw and nut on the back side. Front mud flaps will cut down the sand blasting by about 50%.
Well sand blasted Dave W

Andrew,

looking good. Some nice bodywork on that nose.

Thanks guys. I just got back from Napa - if all goes well the fiberglass parts will be Subaru Lightning Red by the end of the day.



I have left the entire body brushed aluminum. I'm thinking about doing the same for the stone guards since I still have quite a bit of aluminum sheet laying around. The brushed seems to hide imperfections really well and if it needs touched up it just takes 5 minutes with the Scotchbrite pad.

You will make your life much better if you cover the front of the rear fenders with something. I used the black anti slip tape you get a boat dealers. Very cheap and durable. You can cut it to shape and apply quickly and easily.

The rear fenders get blasted with sand and rocks and scotchbrite cant' do any thing about that.

Andrew, I wonder if I could tap into you memory regarding flywheels and starter motors. I have a similar configuration with 04 2.3L Ranger /07 Miata NC 5 spd/07 Focus starter. However, I can't get any combination of Flywheel and starter to work and it looks like Exedy is the way forward. So far;
a)Stock Ranger flywheel /Ranger starter - correct starter mesh diamters but flywheel is heavy and cannot be safely lightened as the centre falls out.
b)Stock Miata flywheel/Ranger starter - starter pinion gear too far from ring gear as miata flywheel is 5 mm smaller dia
c)stock Miata flywheel/focus starter - pinion and ring gear correct mesh diameters, but starter is in continuous engagement, as pinion gear is 17 mm long and ring gear is 14 mm from rear block face.

So, possibly the Stock Miata starter is needed with the stock miata flywheel or I try the Exedy flywheel approach. In this case I am concerned that there could be a similar gear mesh problem if the wrong model flywheel is purchased.
Do you recall or did you measure the ring gear set-back from the block face of the ZF504 since it meshes perectly with the Focus starter?
Also, I hear that the ZF504 is out of production and the ZF501 often listed for the Miata RWD might in fact not be applicable for the miata. Do you know of any specific differences between the various Exedy models ZF501,502,504 listed for the Duratec family?
Cheers for any input

Wow sounds like a lot of combinations that do not work. I guess I will stop complaining about my luck since I did not have to discover them the hard way.

I did not measure the distance but I can next time the engine is out or I have the intake off or try to get a rough estimate from my pictures.

Since the Ranger flywheel is larger, does it fit the bellhousing? From my memory it is a pretty tight fit between the housing and stock flywheel.

Let me do some digging through my notes. I remember researching part numbers but I do not remember the result.

Thanks Andrew. I did not try the Ranger flywheel in the NC, as I had a Quad4Rod bellhousing I was working with at the time, before switching to the NC - the Ranger flywheels was a waste of effort really. I look forward to any info you can provide. There seems to be some confusion between the Exedy ZF501 interchangeability with the ZF504 (which I am told is now out of production).

Okay I could have sworn there was a thread discussing this and I can't find it. I guess as long as you get the Exedy flywheel from a reputable dealer you could always return it if things don't work. What were people saying wouldn't fit?

Their website also has a tech support email. Maybe they could verify whether it will work? http://www.exedyusa.com/oe/contact

Worst case scenario would be purchasing a Miata starter to match the flywheel I suppose.

Got around to doing a little painting. I'm really happy with it.




My only regret is not applying the sealer/primer as soon as the parts arrived. I paid for it with a few small defects in the paint that took some sanding to partially repair.

My suspicions about the first Napa were also confirmed - the guy was trying to rip me off by charging $114/quart of paint. I paid 1/3 of that at another store.

Carguy - I opted to do aluminum for the stone guards. When they get beat up I'll hit them with the Scotchbrite pad and you'll never be able to tell.

BTDT you'd be surprised what will hit the alum and how scotchbrite won't even begin to correct the issue.

Never drive on a road with sand on it or someplace with little rocks, like on ashphalt.

The leading face of my rear fenders are done in bed-liner. Not as pretty as polished aluminum or stainless, but I built mine to drive.

How are you handling the alternator control? I am under the understanding that the stock alternator needs to be controlled by the stock ECU to regulate voltage etc.....so how are you handling this?

I would love to run the stock alternator for my project......so this would help a lot!

-Bryan

That is a very nice red. It also makes your rear fenders pop. I'm not sure why, but the red color makes them look better geometrically to my eyes. They look like a super nice fit.

May I ask where you bought them?

Cheers,

My '99 miata motor had the same issue...you can buy an external voltage regulator. I opted to get an earlier miata Alt that was internally regulated.