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Oh yeah, IT RUNS! I finished the fuel lines, filled up the fluids and gave it a try. It fired up right away but was only running on 3 cylinders. I pulled the plug leads one by one and found the dead hole, which was getting great spark and the plug looked good. I figured it was just a stuck injector from sitting so long so I found a pigtail and powered the injector up straight from the battery to make sure it was operating properly. It started clicking and it was all good from there. Here's a video of it running on all 4 for the first time.

http://youtu.be/CbxFn-pjIWo?list=UUWp6b ... VymjZD5t5w

My phone doesn't capture the sound all that great and the angle is horrible but you get the idea. The exhaust is surprisingly quiet. I was worried that it would be really loud with how short the exhaust is but it's actually quite reasonable.

Another thing I've been playing around with is color schemes. I think I'll go with a satin black POR15 for the frame for ease of application and durability. I can brush or spray it on and make repairs down the road if I need to. I'm really liking white for the body panels. I think it looks clean and might help it not draw too much attention.

Wow, looking good! I love the renderings. I thought it was a photo at first on my phone.

Are you going to tear the whole thing down for paint now that it is together, or try to keep it all in one piece? I always figured I'd end up doing the custom chopper style build.... get everything together, then pull it all apart of paint/powder coat. What a pain though.

If you were to pull it apart, I really like the Harley Davidson textured black powder coat. It has a great satin look... I plan to use a lot of it on my build.

Also, I like the Audi Aviator Grey color: https://www.google.com/search?q=Aviator ... 80&bih=628

It might look good on your panels. I actually think it looks pretty awful on most cars, but I think it would really look good against textured satin black on something like the chassis tubes or a few body panels.

If you don't mind me asking, what was the cost to have your half shafts converted from Honda spline to miata spline? Do you have the measurements of both? I'm Curious if my mitsubishi half shafts have enough meat on them to convert over like you did.

Thanks, unfortunately I am going to have to tear everything down for the final paint. There's still a bunch of final welding to do on the sheet metal and other odds and ends that will be much easier if it's nothing but the bare frame as well.

Having the axles re-splined was ~$350 after taxes at my local machine shop. The OD on the Miata shafts are 0.953" so as long as your Mitsubishi shafts have a minor diameter larger than that you'll be set (assuming you want to convert to Miata as well).

I'd like to stay on all mitsu to avoid the $350 machining, but I can't really go mitsui in the back and miata up front or the bolt patterns will be different. Anyway, thanks for the dimensions.

Sounds awesome Zac - amazing to see and hear it running!

Oddly enough, that's exactly the same colour scheme I've been planning... so, along with "cone on red Miata/ blue Subaru," corner workers will have to deal with "cone on black and white...... uh... thing."

Somehow, I really don't think anyone will confuse them. Your paint will undoubtedly be shiny, for a start, while mine will still have Tremclad brush marks...

Do you have more info on the display unit? I'm wondering if it would work with my MegaSquirt, or is it a plug-and-play for Hondas?

Glenn

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http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=16511

Thanks Glenn. It's great to see some updates on your build as well.

The instrument cluster is a Koso RX2N 0-10,000 rpm model. It's an aftermarket motorcycle cluster with a ton of features, and should work well with the megasquirt.

http://www.kosonorthamerica.com/koso/sh ... 000-rpm-4/

Zac88GT,

Out of curiosity, when you started this project you had to have some obscure guess on how much time/energy/money it was going to take.

Now that you are pretty close to complete, how close were your estimates when you first started in CAD and taking apart the donor to the actual time/energy/money spent?

That's a good question. I certainly feel like it's taking a lot longer than I had originally anticipated. I had hoped to finish the car within 1-1.5 years but now it's been over 3. That's life though. Lots of stuff came up that slowed me down, and sometimes you'll go for months without wanting to work on it. I didn't have a lot of spare time while I was finishing my engineering degree, and I'm finally able to things I've always wanted to but couldn't because I was a student. I would have liked to get more done this spring but I broke and dislocated my ankle, so that put me on the couch 6 weeks. Hopefully, I'll have it finished for my wedding next summer.

I feel like the energy is about on par with what I had expected. Things progressed really fast when I was building from my model, but once the physical car was more complete than the model everything slowed down. There has been a few things that I've redesigned or that I'm not happy with so that lowers moral as well.

The budget is pretty well exactly on track. My original goal was to complete the car for under $10k not including wheels and tires. So far I am up to ~$7500 and I still have the fiberglass work and a few upgrades to do (torsen lsd, aluminum flywheel), so I think that's achievable.

If you'd be willing to share can I discuss some of the more technical details with you, particularly looking at frame and suspension dimensions? I have no problem taking that to PM, I'm really just trying to gauge out what others have done before I go any further down the wrong road

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im CAD hat's passt

Talar Neck Fracture?

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The B-3 build log: http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=13941 unfortunately, all the pictures were lost in the massive server crash

The beginnings of the Jag Special,
https://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=19012
Again, all pictures were lost.

CAD is really great at saving time, plus your design time is in a nice comfy chair instead of a dirty garage.

Thanks for the info about time and budget. I'm hoping to do mine for $6k, but I have a lot of the parts already, and I'm not really counting any body work in that budget since I can drive the car without it. My time budget is 5 years, but I have a wife already and 2 young kids... you did yours in the right order... Race car, then wife. A smart man once told me "First you get a motorcycle, then you get a bass boat, then you get a wife". I did it in the wrong order

I was curious what made you go for anti-roll bars... They seem optional on these double wishbone setups from the little bit of research I've done, was it a "why not" sort of thing, or do you have some data on the benefit vs complexity?

The benefit is that if, for any reason, you ever flip the car your head won't become road splatter. Or worse, you avoid being permanently paralyzed. IMO these cars look better with the double hoop bars than without anyway and the added safety is well worth whatever complexity comes with it.

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im CAD hat's passt

Yes, I was asking about suspension anti-roll bars, aka sway bars... not the "roll bars" for safety protection.

Ah yes, that makes more sense.

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im CAD hat's passt

anavrinIV: Feel free to pm me about any technical aspects you'd like to discuss.

robbovius: It was a lateral malleolus fracture and dislocated talus.

Tired2: I figured that I would design in sway bars because I had them and so I could have more ways to tune the suspension. According to the ChassisCalcs sheet the addition of the sway bars reduces the deg of roll/g from 2.9 down to 0.7, and it also helps bring the roll resistance distribution closer to the weight distribution.