jrmotorsports55

Yeah, garage is a mess right now between tearing parts out of the car for sale, gathering new parts for install, and now tearing parts of the donor engine that are being replaced with new goodies.

Jason

jrmotorsports55

Update: rec'd box 1 and modified K member from Martin. Also have ordered and received energy suspension bushings for all control arms, and differential housing mounts. Got tranny rebuild kit, rear end install kit, and 2 new axles. Definitely coming together.

Jason

jrmotorsports55

So, got some work done yesterday. Cleaned up and painted the K member (removed shipping stickers and repainted all the scratches). Decided to just pull the whole front suspension out as complete units on each side, as I have to swap in the new poly bushings, so I removed each side as a unit (upper and lower arms, spindles, and coilovers). Looks like a car blew up in my garage. Also started cutting in to the wiring harness, as I am removing all of the stock Miata engine wiring that is no longer needed.

charchri4

I love that Navy blue color of your car. Great build thread!

jrmotorsports55

Lol, it's actually black, just the florescent light reflection. Planning on wrapping it with blue vinyl (like ford grabber blue).

MX-Brad

Wow, good progress. I got Martins kit a couple months ago and just getting the old driveline out this week.
What did you paint the subframe with? I was going to POR15 mine, but it's not rusty so I figured I might just use good old Tremclad gloss.

jrmotorsports55

Yeah, I was thinking of POR15 as well, but same thing, the car is rust free, and does not see bad weather, so I figured why bother. Honestly just used gloss black VHT roll bar/chassis paint.

Jason

charchri4

Brad for what it's worth the best bang for the buck I have ever found in painting stuff like this is John Deere tractor paint. It's cheap, tuff as nails and comes in gloss, semi gloss and the flat on many a 55 Chevy known as blitz black. The rattle cans are OK if you don't want to clean a gun but with a $5 harbor freight trim gun, quart of paint ($11), 1/2 pint of hardener ($15) and dab of any enamel paint thinner will be enough paint to cover all your frame and suspension parts twice with a far better finish than any rattle can.

BTW I came to this conclusion after using VHT roll bar paint on my roll bar and found it not to be very durable.

jrmotorsports55

Yeah, will probably cover it with rust oleum gloss black if the vht seems weak.

Jason

jrmotorsports55

Quick update, ended up getting rustoleum professional gloss black for the k. Also burned the stock bushings out of the front suspension, as I am going with Energy Suspension Poly bushings at all 4 corners.

More to come.

tbone heller

I have used this cheap paint from Home Depot on a lot of stuff & had great results. I painted the entire undercarriage of Mr. Miyagi with it as well as the entire frame & flatbed on my F-450. Quick Color 10-oz. Gloss Black General Purpose Aerosol Paint-J2851812 at The Home Depot If you look at the manufacture's address on the can, it is the same as the address for Rustoleum. You can get almost 5 cans of this stuff for the price of one of the name brand paint.

jrmotorsports55

Good to know.

jrmotorsports55

Quick update, front suspension is back in with the energy suspension bushings installed. Also got box two from Martin, so I have everything except for the headers which are on order. Now I just need to find the time to work on it.

Jason

jrmotorsports55

So, winter has hit, not feeling very motivated right now. Next on the list is hacking up the stock wiring harness and removing what is not needed, and integrating the Ford harness in to the car. May be a while before this is done. After this will be clearancing for the V8.

Slow and steady.

Jason

charchri4

See this is one of the few benefits to living in snow country. We have a build season! Not that I'm counting but it's 134 days till April...

jrmotorsports55

LOL, yeah, spent 3 hours on it yesterday pulling unnecessary wiring out.

Jason

jrmotorsports55

Quick update, finished pulling out the wiring that I don't need.

Today I removed the A/C to get it our of my way, removed the radiator brackets, and did the cutting and welding to remove the rounded gussets per the Monster Miata kit.

Coming along, slowly but surely.

Jason

jrmotorsports55

Update: Cut out the gussets, evap mounts, water pipe mount, and hole for the wiring harness. Also clearance the trans tunnel/firewall. Threw on some black paint. Next will be installing the wiring and making necessary splices.





More to come.

Jason

V8MiataMike

So other than me having no parts yet, we really are about at the same point! I just did more wiring today to finish it up as much as I could. When I put the engine in my plan is to plug the engine harness in and start it up!

Looking sweet!

Mike.

jrmotorsports55

Unfortunately I still have to do a rebuild on the tranny (used one from my 91 mustang that I put a z spec in), and have all of the rear end work as well, as I am guessing you do as well since you don't have parts. I talked to Martin on Thursday, and he was shipping my headers, the last parts I am waiting on. I'm gonna do some custom fab work for the radiator/condenser/fan mount, as I want the fans to be pullers, and want to integrate a shroud. I did some extra relief work on the firewall, and I'm not running air pipes, so I can push the engine back a little more. Lots to think about.

Jason

jrmotorsports55

Productive weekend. Got the mods done to my EFI wiring harness, and installed in engine bay. I got wiring harness clamps and used existing holes to mount to firewall. I still have to splice it in under the dash, that will be next weekend. Found one mistake I made when cutting out original engine wiring, I accidently cut wiper fluid pump lead out. Now I have to run a new wire. Could be worse. It's coming along, so that makes me happy. Also started reinstalling some engine bay parts and installed the radiator cage.

MX-Brad

Will you be keeping the Miata diagnostic port? I'm getting ready to start my wiring and wondered if it stays or goes....but without the factory computer I presume it's superfluous. Don't know for sure though.

titangts

^^ curious on that myself. Does the diagnostic port run directly to the OEM computer or does it have functions without it?

jrmotorsports55

Diagnostic port won't be hooked to the ecu, ford efi harness has it's own diagnostic testing port.

Jason

V8MiataMike

l did the exact same thing! Went back to the pile of wires and reconnected it before final tape/covering. This "mistake" made me go through all of it again with the Miata wiring diagram to hopefully ensure I did not remove anything else that needed to stay. I think I'm OK.

I removed the diagnostic port wiring as based on the wiring diagram, it is basically loose wire ends that come from the Miata computer that have nothing on the other end to "diagnose" (no Miata computer). That was my assessment anyway.