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Yea i know my angle grinder is missing the guard which isnt smart, which i have to fix. I was actually making those "buckets with the holes" for the motor mounts and i was just working too fast. I was free handing the piece with my left hand and cutting with my right. Its a bit of an ego blow to admit to such an act, but its what i did. Even if the guard was on there it still would have hit my finger. Its just one of those cases where i should have been cutting with two hands and the part should have been in a vice. Lesson learned and i still have my finger tip so im lucky.

Well the main shape of the frame is finished. Still need to add in my cross bracing though. The engine is sitting exactly where it will be in the car. It is right up next to the frame rails on the right, so there is plenty of room on the left for different things. Reference the comments above each pic for details

Tomorrow ill be making the engine mount brackets and tacking in the diagnals for the rear section. I bought some energy suspension sway bar end link poly bushings for the engine mounts. There small enough so they wont flex much yet they will get rid of small vibrations. There sized for a 3/8 bolt, but honestly a 10mm fits much more snug. They can be found here: http://www.energysuspension.com/pages/endl.html i got them for $9.99 from my local parts store

What`s up with your Bolt Hole Pattern???
Is it acceptable (legal)??
AA

its a 4 and 5 lug pattern on one wheel. Its pretty common among the import crowd, yet you dont see it as there usually covered by a cap. Im thinking about getting the extra holes filled in as they dont like the design at the tracks. I plan to have a second set of 15" wheels for the track anyways.

So a backberry update:

Got a good amount of work done over the past week in my mind.
First off I got a power steering rack off a 98 Mustang Cobra SVT. Its 2.25 turns lock to lock and I can adjust that too. There's small spacers in the actual rack that stops it that are made of something like delrin. Easy to make new ones to modify and limit my steering once its done. For my car I actually have to lengthen the rack about 3/4" to avoid bumpsteer, but I couldn't turn down the ratio and the $50 price tag.

Next I got my two roll bars bent up by Meccom on friday as a last minute type of deal (it was inbetween two places I had to go for work). I got 1.5in .120wall bent 135* on a 3.5in centerline for each roll hoop. I decided to make them bolt in to SCCA spec so I can swap it out for a full cage. Making all the brackets and such has been so much work as I have made each bracket on a minimum of 2 planes for strength. Each plate is 3/16 thick with minimum three 3/8" bolts each. I only have one hoop done so far and I'm working on the second one now.
Next I bent some tube to give the sides by the driver and passenger more rigidity. They really give the sides more of a 3D look and will look good with my plans for the body.

I also ordered the bearings for my differential and bought the 3/8in thick aluminum to make the carrier out of. It will support the Torsen diff and the calipers for the inboard brakes. It will be adjustable by a pivot point and by right and left hand threaded solid rod ends at the other end.

I also trimmed down the seat a bit so that it would be a bit thinner. I basically trimmed off a lot of the lips the overhung off the edges. Because I took out some rigidity, I need to add some more CF to the sides. So really I didn't loose weight, just made them thinner.

Probably a bit more then I can remember right now but ill post pics once the other roll hoop is done. It finally is looking like a real car!

Oh and peding confirmation of the suspension program, I might have found some tie rod ends to bolt into the top of the miata spindles with just boring them out. The SVT rack came with some straight ends unlike the angled miata ones. I setup the rack and the spindles on the car and I can get full turn both ways without the ends hitting or stopping. They actually could bend even further. So basically ill be doing my steering like Dave H. which will allow me to kick back my front axle centerline for a shorter wheelbase. I know it will work, I just want to see how it will play in with my ackerman, but honestly I can move my rack around quite a bit so I should find a proper placement.

Some more updates....

Playing around with the wheels (held up with wood) except the wheelbase will be a bit shorter


Monster bearings for the chain diff. I wear an XL for most gloves if that gives an idea to their size!




Front engine mounts... the bottom two rears will be poly also, but the top two rears will be solid to only allow longitudinal movement of the motor. Chain drives dont like side to side movement.




Fabrication of roll hoops that can be taken out to put in one single or a cage. Mounting points are to SCCA spec or will be when finished. I still need to do some work to finish them. The bolts are in 3 different planes for strength.




Before the roll hoop got welded




First roll hoop welded in

Those bearing pillow blocks are huge. what I used were the diff. side covers from a subaru. just pop out the bearing race and press in the proper bearing. theyre light weight and bolt just like yours. and they have seals for the stub axles. 5 bolts instead of 2

yea i know there huge, but honestly they dont weight that much... especially in comparison to the weight im saving over running a driveshaft with a whole housing. What size diff do the subaru's run? My RX8 is a 8in ring gear with 45mm dia bearing surfaces. I was considering using a factory part but i was worried about lubricating them as most are lubricated by the fluid stored in the differential housing. These pillow blocks will be easy to service and replace as well as their shape matches my design perfectly. My rear diff will pivot so i can adjust the chain tension and the aluminum plates that carry the bearings are not that wide to accomodate anything bigger. I plan to buy the RX7 CV to Diff seals and mount them on the opposite side of each aluminum carrier to seal it all off. This will also allow a combo of diff fluid and grease to lubricate the pillowblocks.

Now just to find out what their bolt size is and buy the proper drill bit

they are lubed and sealed bearings and just drill a hole insert a grease nipple to add grease. anyway the alum. side covers are considerably lighter and have seals in them. also doesnt matter what diff size is cause your only using the carrier, the "size" is determined by the sprocket. was just a thought or something to pass on

i only asked about the size because the 8in Diff has bigger axle shafts, so i figured with larger axle shafts that the inner diameter of the bearings would be larger on the larger differentials. Example my ID is 45mm where as i would think that the 7in early miata would be around a 40mm maybe?

Well i already have the bearings so im going to give them a shot for now.

Nice work on the mounting plates of the roll bar.
You may need to brace the front motor mounts to a lower point as well (a vertical V shape) to avoid the mounting arm moving like a double hinge.

Moti

Moti, that is exactly the plan. I plan to run them down to the two triangulated supports. I just picked up more bushings to do it, but with 70* weather I dewinterized my R1 and took it for a nice long ride instead. This weekend ill finish the motor mounts, work on the second roll hoop, and hopefully start the differential carrier.

So i have been slammed lately with school finals and work... but i have gotten a ton of work done since my last update. I have a ton of pics to post so ill jump to those... and if anyone has any questions ask away...

few more