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13,700 RPM, throttle by wire, variable velocity stacks, 180lb, and 170hp here we come! Finals are this week so ill really tear into it this weekend. Already got the radiator off (ill be using it for the final build). Just gotta mark all the wires, disconnect them, and get it out of the frame which doesn't take long.

Well i got most of my rod ends in the mail. Got 1/2-20 black ones from QA1. Also got a good amount of weld in threaded inserts from Midwest Control. Then I got my 2000 Miata front spindles last week and my 1998 Miata rear spindles will be here saturday. Also built a work table 8'x4' with 3/4 MDF, the steel building 2x4 things, and then i have a 3/8in board on the bottom. Pretty stout table.

Going to fill the argon for the welder tonight and probably buy some steel tomorrow.

I only have the pictures of the current progress on the seat right now.


First i layed out a piece of felt on the mold. I cut it all over so that it would just drape right in with no folds and such. Then i pulled it out, cut it into 3 pieces (seat bottom, middle back, and upper back) and layed it over two pieces of carbon fiber cloth stacked (90* rotated of each other for strength). I cut the carbon with a pizza style exacto cutter.

Next i cut the soak cloth and the peel ply to also fit in. After that i used double sided tape and a thick drop cloth to form a vacuum bag. Might be ghetto but i had an old vacuum from the old owner of the house so i just used that haha. Anyways i wet out the mold, wet out the carbon, and very carefully layed it out. Then i saoked it more and tried to work out any airbubbles that would exist. Taped up the bag and let it cure. midway through i tore off the peel ply and cloth to let it breath.

In the last picture you can see where i plan to make small foam inserts to put another carbon layer over... its kinda spider shaped. This will strengthen the seat. Also i used a 3:1 slow set marine grade epoxy.

and the planned bracing for the rear

COOOOL!

Any interest in selling some seats to your fellow locosters?

They wouldn't be very "locost" lol. I had no idea how much work they were going to require. The mold took forever. Everything else isn't that bad. Maybe ill make some fiberglass ones and sell them later when I'm done? For now I gotta work on the car

Nice work on the seat. Do you have any renderings of your chassis. keep it up.

Andrew

Ditto!

As another BEC middy builder I'm very interested in seeing how other people are planning their chassis.

BD, how are you going to go from a bike throttle grip to a foot pedal for your fly by wire?

Well I pulled out my first carbon seat. It came out really well for my first ever carbon part. There were a few resin starved areas. I mean they got resin but not enough to make the area smooth. I added the bracing and a bit more carbon for stiffness. Also working on filling in the starved areas. Ill post updates tomorrow with pics.

Airframe- the front of my chassis closely resembles yours with some small changes like sheering rack placement. The rear will be a bit shorter and different to accept a chain drive. My uppers and lower a-arms are configured a bit different and I didn't use Miata lower ball joints. I went with a small GM car style that I found to fit physically and price wise (only 29 verus 89). ill post some renderings when I get to a computer(blackberry now)

As for throttle by wire. Its funny because I thought it would be hard too. When I broke it all down to see how it works its really the same as a regular bike. It has the same grip with a open and close cables. The only difference is they run to.a sensor. All ill have to do is extend the cables or move the sensor forward. I'd rather not tamper with a throttle sensor though lol.

I finally got my rear spindles, 04 R6 rotors and calipers for my inboard rears, and some different production interior parts from work that will be perfect in the car. One is from a Seabring. It has a 12v outlet behind a small door that has a compartment large enough for an ipod. Above that is 3- 2 1/16 holes that fit autometer guages perfectly!

Workin on getting a steering rack, output shafts, and a LSD rear diff right now.

Today I had to put down my best friend, my helper, my companion, my guard cat. Ill miss designing on the computer with her climbing all over the keyboard, ill miss working in the garage with her prowling around and just watching, ill miss her company and her companionship. I guess in a weird way I'm dedicating the rest of this build to her. She lived 19 long years. She was very well traveled and lived in Michigan and Arizona. Everone that met her fell in love, including me when I picked her out at the age of 5. Cancer can steal your body, but not your soul. Forever missed but never forgotten.

You can see a pic of her I posted on the first page a while back.

I know I have been slacking on an update, but ill have one in the next few days lol

She looks precious. Sounds like she's has a good companion for most of her 19 years. We've lost four senior citizens in our house over the past two years. It's never easy.

-dave

How big is your house? It shouldn't be that hard to find them.











Sorry for both your loses....

I feel your pain, bro!

heres some updates. I used Airframes front box as a starting point, but i will be making several changes to it like mounting points, suspension to accept R1 shocks, and completely different a-arms. Props to Airframe for sharing some dimensions though! Huge help to find the stock dimensions to use the miata steering rack.

Also you will also see, i completely redesigned the lower a-arm to be stronger, accept the lower BJ easier, and run the push rod more efficiently. The new top plate is 1/4". The ends of the tubes will be trimmed and welded closed. The bolts are tack welded on the tops to make them studs. The lower BJ is very easily removed, and reinstalled this way.

The front frame is no where near finished so hold back on the criticism just yet, but feel free to comment on the arms so far.

obviously this is just mocking up so there are missing suspension tabs, and some of the mounts will be completely different. Still deciding on vertical vs horizontal mounted rod ends...

seat support


Start on the front suspension box


start on frame with V1 lower a-arm


time to get some welding sleeves... sun burned so bad it peeled lol


front upper a-arm in my jig i made


Version 1... i hated it so i remade it!


Version 2 with new lower in the works:


View from the top


view from the bottom


and the back... the caster and camber havent been dialed in so it looks was out of whack


Malibu Guage cluster from work... probably wont use it so if you like it PM me. Ill sell it cheap.


Part from a Chevy Seabring... the Autometer guages fit in perfect and it has a 12v outlet and an area big enough for an ipod that closes. Ill probably put it on the waterfall area of the dash.


some parts for the chain drive diff and inboard rear brakes


And you have to love the magnet style holders... stick em anywhere!