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Ill look into the website and chemistry for sure. As for the water vapor part, yea a wetted floor would be a bad idea. looks like ill build a forced ventalation enclosed booth in my garage. With most conventional spray gun type paints i know its a common practice to wet the floors though... this is where i need to learn about painting the frame before i do it. Its may seem like it takes longer to do all the research, but its a lot easier then scrubbing and scraping a frame because you did it wrong the first time around. Again thanks for the help.

**Edit**
So i read into the product a bit more. Did you really use a full gallon, or did you feel you could have used two quarts (1/2 gallon) for just one coat of the frame? According to the website a quart will cover 100sq ft for one coat. I was thinking for the $150/gallon price i would be best off getting two quarts of the Automotive silver and one quart of the black formula for a top coat. I really want a black frame so i figured this might be the best combo. Based on your experience, what do you think about that?

I used about 3 quarts. It got me 2 fairly thick coats on a chassis that in my estimation has a few more tubes than the standard build. (I haven't looked at your build so I can't use that as a reference.) It also netted 2 thick coats on all the bolt-on bits. - Yes 2 quarts for a coat would be sufficient. I quizzed Chet about how much he used and between his estimation and the $/oz "discount" you get when you buy a gallon I erred on the side of caution and went for the full gallon. They say it doesn't keep very well, but I figured I'd rather have some extra good metal protecting paint kicking around the shop than to run out - halfway into the second coat and not be able to finish without a second order/shipping and most painful of all, a full chassis scotchbrite or sand-down to re-start the second coat.

- be as frugal as you like.

I've seen headers mounted to mailboxes and BBQ's, but I thought I'd try this to see if I could get the door to open faster...

I briefly thought about leaving the collector like this. I'll bet it would sound like the devil's own train...

There has been some considerable discussion on how to seal a collector. I ran my mouth off a year or more ago, back when this was all theory, but now I've put it into practice and it looks like it's going to work great!

Step 1: deform the primaries into tear-drop cross sections so they meet (or come close to meeting in the middle)
Step 2: weld the center star closed
Step 3: deform the side walls so they meet and run a bead long them
Step 4: Continue the bead back past where the clover leaf collector will nest
Step 5: push on the collector and run a bead around the perimeter, making sure to contact the beads between primaries.
Tada!

Here is the bead between primaries. The "inner" leak paths are now all sealed.

Then slide on the Clover leaf and run a bead around the perimeter (Where the black line is...)
Tada!

It has been a TON of work, but I'm really happy with how the header came out.
I just need to finish weld around the primaries at the flange and cut in the O2 bung and I'm there!
I can finally fit it up and measure my cut locations for the driver side tin.

Now the only things I have left between me and a garage filled with fumes from 2-year old fuel being expelled from the injectors are:

A full electrical system shake down
A fuel pump with associated line(s)
A Thermostat housing that comes straight out instead of the goofy 60° bend...
4 quarts of oil &
2 gallons of antifreeze.
and oh yeah, - Working up the guts to actually turn the key!

I also did some MORE wiring. - Man this is getting old.
I moved the MAF sensor wiring from THIS side to THAT side and the O2 sensor wiring from THAT side to THIS side. - I really do think I'm closing in on the wiring. - When I do this again (Hah, like I'll ever do this again...) I will start my wiring from scratch. I really think it would have been easier... Se la vie.

Got the header FINALLY all welded up. Here's a shot of the collector and the O2 bung all finished. Yee Haw.

I 'ovalized' the primaries at the flange so they would open up to the stock miata header flange. I then welded them inside and out. It should breathe as well or better than a stock header at the flange, and I'm hoping for at least some level of power increase with the long tube primaries.

Most of the hard work shaping the driver side sheet metal was already done so after I cut the header opening it went on pretty quickly. - As you can tell I had a lot more fun with the router buzzing out holes for components to mount through.

AND !!! Miracle of Miracles, the header can actually be removed and installed through the tin WITHOUT moving the engine. I was shocked and joyfully surprised.


I think it looks totally sick. (Sick in a good way as the kids say it... I think...)

If you fill it with antifreeze the first time, you're guaranteed to have leaks. Or you'll need to pull the engine for some reason. Better to use straight water and not bait Murphy too much...trust me!

NICE JOB on the tin work! I'm perplexed how you covered the whole side with a flat piece of metal. Are your upper and lower side rails parallel? Or did you stand the bodywork off the lower rail in the front?

Nice holes up front. Is that T-hole going to clear the spring? Did you cut those on a router table, or free-hand?

Keep up the good work...you're getting close!

-dave

Wow, you made some good prgress since I last checked your build log.
The car looks great!

How are the lower corners on the nose cone lining up with the side panels?

Moti

Thanks for the great pics of how you made your header. That's a good looking piece and I've always wondered the proper sequence for putting that together. Maybe you could do a write up for us on header fabrication so we could sticky it for the FAQ?