Back from powder coat!
Aforementioned front tie downs. these might be my favorite part of the chassis! It makes strapping the car down to a trailer so easy.
Love the look of fresh powder coat! Now... how soon until i scratch it?
Made these jack points out of delrin, or some sort of hard plastic. Countersunk M6 stainless screws threaded into rivnuts in the frame. This one is at the back
Here's a side jack point. I placed them so the car would be pretty level when jacked up. they work great and prevent a floor jack from scratching the powder coat.
Another final assembly task was to swap out the open diff for this Miata Torsen unit. Same final drive, just swapping diff for diff.
And new wheels bearings being pressed into the rear spindles, along with extended wheel studs.
Doing the final work on the custom wiring harness. Wrapping it in cloth electrical tape and braided sheath, sealed at the ends with marine heat shrink. Not motorsports, ultra lightweight or tidy, but good enough for me. I used DTM connectors heavily as they are easy to assemble, affordable, and look nice. All ring terminals are metal with marine heat shrink, no solder or nylon multicolored insulated connectors here.
Gave the transmission a fresh blast of paint before installation
Engine in for the last time (for now)
My first attempt at a body panel. This one hides under the dash. Stainless countersunk screws into M5 rivnuts, with a rubber seal between it and the frame so it won't rattle
Wrapped my homemade header in lava header wrap. Looks nice and cuts down on underwood temps a little bit
Double belt alternator pulley from eBay, so you can run less belt tension and avoid belt slippage. Also note my homemade alternator tensioner, for low profile alternator mounting to maximize hood clearance
Wiring harness finally done and ready to install, complete with nice miata firewall grommet
Nice little chrome fire extinguisher installed just below the passenger's thighs
I figured the nice smooth powder coat would get scratched quickly by climbing in and out of the car, so i decided to apply a roll-on truck bedliner
More bedliner, and a nice shot of my custom driveshaft. Another item that was much cheaper than anticipated!
Applied bedliner inside front fenders also to prevent rock chips breaking through to the carbon.
First body panels getting cut and trimmed to shape. I decided on pre-painted aluminum sheet from my local sign shop. At $100 per 4x8 sheet, it was a good value for me since i wouldn't have to have the panels painted or wrapped after I fabricated them.
A set of HF electric shears and an air angle grinder were all I used to trim and de-burr these panels. It took a steady hand to achieve a clean cut
The panels came with a plastic film which prevented them getting dinged up during bending, drilling, riveting, etc
Rear bulkhead panel (behind the seats), lots of measuring, drilling, riveting!
_________________
-Emile
Scratch building an IRS, RX-7 based book chassis @ my
Build Log*Make way for the luckEseven!