rowen210

Not a huge update but progress is better than nothing. I have been grudgingly fixing my engine bay wireing. It is boring and not worth pictures. I did receive my Flyin Miata VMAXX track coilovers. I am just a work a day guy so these kind of purchases take a while to save up for. This is the whole reason my car is not built yet. Anyways... I am very impresses with FM's customer service but they sent me the wrong springs. I asked for the V8 one piece springs but I got the regular track two piece springs. They are willing to exchange them but since they are already installed and scuffed up I will keep them. I will but the V8 springs later if these bottom out all over the place.

I figured out the oil pressure sender relocation and water temperature sender fitting. O'reillys had all of the parts. Shocking!

I put the '95 two tone door cards and painted the dash to match.

rowen210

Got my custom aluminum driveshaft. I took the stock mustang shaft to Thrash. It is a local hotrod shop. Turns out a buddy of mine that I haven't seen in years is working at the counter. I told him about the project. He determined my car deserved better than stock. So he hooked me up with an aluminum shaft for no additional cost. Just $99. Can't beat that deal.

MRM331

The helper springs actually make a big difference. I had a set of custom FCM coilovers made for two of my cars and the same as you have above on my last. While the FCM are far superior in most ways the helper springs on the VMAXX's keep the car much more stable on "undulating" road surfaces.
If I upgrade I may take the helpers with me.

Please put the part numbers up for the oil and H2O adapters if you have them. I have numbers for aluminum bits from Summit but it would be good to have the brass part numbers up as well. I'd be willing to bet they are cheaper.

Looks good,
-Jason

97miatam

So it was only $99 for the complete driveshaft to be made to a custom length? That's really cheap!

charchri4

I paid $150 for my shaft from a local drive line shop. They used the yokes I brought in and put in a new tube, U joints, weld, balance and paint while I waited. That was a steel tube, aluminum would have been $50 more but it's so short I didn't see the value in it.

Never could understand why the swap shops need to charge so much for a simple drive shaft.

rowen210

Unfortunately I do not have the part #s for the oil sender and water temp fittings. I trashed the packaging a long time ago and they have no distinguishing marks on them.

As for the drive shaft, Thrash charges $99 to modify the length of your existing shaft and balance. It's extra to have the U joints rebuilt.

It has been a while since I have posted. I couldn't even find my build thread. But I like how they are now divided into ford and chevy builds.
Anyways... I started it for the first time. Just headers and insanely loud! It was a little tricky though. I had no ignition so I just shot gunned a new MSD dizzy and TFI. But the problem was in my A9L. All three capacitors in it were blown. Did not burn the board thankfully. I replaced them and the motor came to life although I had coolent leaks. The damn thermostat fell on instalation and jammed the housing open. Everything is good now. I moved on to throttle linkage and got an explorer 65 mm TB. I welded a cable wheel from a bmw onto it and now I have a gas petal that works. I need to bleed the brakes, clutch , and fill the tranny & diff. For that the car is being moved to my shop. The lifts and power bleeder should help. Also i need to do alot of under body welding. So next weekend I'll have her towed.

rowen210

I have been in bondo hell for two weeks. I have some hood clearance issues. I thought a cowl hood would fix the fitment and lower under hood temps at the same time. Unfortunately I found no cowl hoods for sale that fit my needs so I set out to make one. The cowl on summit were designed for American cars and typically had sharp edges. I thought it would look weird for a curvy car to have a boxy El Camino style hood. So I started with an aluminum sheet and molded it. Then I attempted to weld it to the hood. I have never welded aluminum and it proved to be difficult. I just blew holes. It was bad.

So I fiber glassed the heck out of it. I threw in some stainless steel sheets to add strength.

It was lumpy and not perfectly level because I did not spend enough time perfecting the original aluminum sheet. So bondo and a ton of hand blocking was needed to make it straight.

It is not finished but is looking good. I think I will make a mold and in the future make a new fiberglass version of this hood.

5.0MX5

"It is not finished but is looking good"

Totally agree! Keep at it and good things will happen (eventually).

RR

577nitro

Outstanding! work Really. I am very impressed, I just hope I catch up to all of you, That price on the drive shaft is insane. I got a quote for $300 in Tampa. Great posting! This will be good inputs to this old guy!!

tbone heller

Nice job on the hood!

rowen210

The monster has been on the road for a while now. I ditched the miata power steering pump and am using a ford unit. I bought an a/c delete bracket and had a hybrid presure line made.
My home made axles are holding together. I dont know how. Every expert i talked to said welding on axles will destroy their integrity but they are still in one piece. I have always planed to get factory five axles but now i am interested to see how long my half *** axles will hold together.
My exhaust is hanging too low near the tranny. I used the stock mustang tranny mount and it was a mistake. It puts the exhaust too low on the left side. I have to take speed bumps very slow. I will be making a new tranny cross member and redoing the exhaust after the headers.

The home made hood looked nice. However, it was almost 2 gallons of bondo by the end. Not acceptable! I want back to the drawing board and cut up another hood.

I bought a cowl off of ebay that fit very nicely.

The hood is together but only primered. I would post pictures of the final product but the monster is at my shop.
I have been putting off final details of this project to move on to other projects. But even in its unfinished state i get tons of complements. The owner of the shop i work at loves to show my creation off to customers. I have been stopped by people from every car genre who want to see under the hood. It has been an overwhelming positive experience and people seem to love the car as much as i do.

rowen210

I had my beast on the lift today and decided to take some pictures.




Please excuse the leaking pinion seal. I also have not finished the exhaust hangers. I am saving my pennys to have a professional make a custom set up for me.

rowen210

Burnout!
http://s237.photobucket.com/user/dee...ypfd3.mp4.html

ToySnakePMC

Car came together really well. I think both of your cowl hoods have or had THE right look. Rather tasteful! Thx for photos of complete exhaust. Looking for new ideas for updating mine.

97miatam

what fans did you end up using on that radiator?

rowen210

I equipped a single 16" SPAL fan. I have it on a toggle switch with the intention of hooking up a relay and temp switch. Supprising enough the car stays cool in Texas heat with the occasional traffic jam where the fan is deployed. I will wire up the fan eventually but it is not necessary at this time.