I am not quite sure of what you are trying to replace. Is it the core support, apron, or frame rail? It might be worth you time to have the damaged section heated & pulled before it is removed. I found out about this the hard way during a quarter panel replacement on my old 70 Chevelle that had been rear-ended. When I removed the old damaged sections, the whole body of the car went "crazy".

At some point, this car has had a collision. The impact appears to have happened on the front driver side. It distorted the driver side frame rail and the core support across the front was trashed. Then some idiot tried to cover it up by welding in partial inner fender wells but didn't fix the rail or core support. When I bought it, the hood didn't shut right and I didn't figure out what was wrong until I took all the body panels off during deconstruction. It is hard to see in the pictures. But the frame rail is crumpled or dented from a front impact everywhere my finger is pointing.

http://www.wolfgt.com/images/photobu...ps5300af00.jpg

http://www.wolfgt.com/images/photobu...psb342ab1c.jpg

http://www.wolfgt.com/images/photobu...ps0f145d24.jpg

http://www.wolfgt.com/images/photobu...ps3dea82bb.jpg

And here you can see the boogered up welding that someone did trying to cover up the damage (this is on the passenger side).

http://www.wolfgt.com/images/photobu...psfd67a139.jpg

So I carefully marked the car and the replacement pieces to be cut.

Driver side
http://www.wolfgt.com/images/photobu...psf09df6ce.jpg

Passenger Side
http://www.wolfgt.com/images/photobu...ps16330f32.jpg

Found a little critter nest inside the passenger frame rail after I cut it.
http://www.wolfgt.com/images/photobu...psf72733c7.jpg

Here is the driver side cut but still held firmly in place by the K Member
http://www.wolfgt.com/images/photobu...ps07338e66.jpg

Here is the car and the new piece cut and ready to go in place
http://www.wolfgt.com/images/photobu...ps91561e19.jpg

http://www.wolfgt.com/images/photobu...ps64b0b4ce.jpg

And finally tacked into place.
http://www.wolfgt.com/images/photobu...ps209dba73.jpg

It went really well. It came out level and square. So hopefully everything should bolt right on when I get the new body in. Now I just need to finish weld it and clean it all up. I plan to remove all the seam sealer and weld all the joints next. Then seal it all back up and start to make it pretty.

Add another 5 hours of my time to the clock.

My Time: 44.5 hours
Friends & Family: 6 hours
Paid labor: $0 (this number does not include the mods made by Monster Miata)

Another great day at the shop. My goal this weekend is to get the front clip welded on solid and ground smooth. Also, strip down the old doors of all extra parts I want to keep and scrap the remains. Today was a great start. First, I needed to get to the shop and pull the trans off the old miata engine because someone was coming to pick it up the engine. Sold ($150.00). Then I got to work welding up the newly spliced front clip. After hours of jumping around to try to keep from overheating any specific spot, I finally finished up.

Here is the driver side all welded up. And for extra strength, I sleeved the frame rail on the driver side. It allowed me to get a really good connection. (yes, I am a horrible welder)
http://www.wolfgt.com/images/photobu...psa4c33ac9.jpg

http://www.wolfgt.com/images/photobu...ps0a90fa8a.jpg

This is a shot of the passenger side with some of the grinding done.

http://www.wolfgt.com/images/photobu...ps6e0dcdd8.jpg

Tomorrow I will get all the grinding done and shoot the seam with some primer to keep it clean. Then I will work on the doors. That shouldn't take long. I might have enough time left to start cleaning out all the seam sealer so I can weld all the seams up front. I also have someone coming by tomorrow to buy the wheels and tires and maybe some other stuff.

Add another 6 hours of my time to the clock.

My Time: 50.5 hours
Friends & Family: 6 hours
Paid labor: $0 (this number does not include the mods made by Monster Miata)

Actually it's not just you, lots of folks have trouble welding on these cars. Whatever the anti-corrosion dip or electroplate process that Mazda does to these cars seems to inhibit welding no matter how good you clean it or how good a welder you are. Your build looks great!

Spent part of the day in the shop. First went over to sell the wheels and tires. Sold $175.00. Then I was going to start grinding the welds I already did, but figured I better do some more welding and then do all the grinding at once. So I attacked the engine bay mods that needed done. I used the templates provided in the Monster kit to mark the cuts.

http://www.wolfgt.com/images/photobu...ps0912df8c.jpg

http://www.wolfgt.com/images/photobu...psa2659451.jpg

Then I made the cuts. Wasn't very easy. I needed to use a cut-off wheel, sawzall and a hacksaw to get this accomplished because of the location.

http://www.wolfgt.com/images/photobu...psd3652d57.jpg

What you see above is how the kits instructions say to leave it and to weld the patches in. But I didn't like the leftover pieces spot welded to the firewall so I used the impact chisel to remove them and then mocked up the patches provided in the kit.

http://www.wolfgt.com/images/photobu...psd143257c.jpg

http://www.wolfgt.com/images/photobu...ps5efd207c.jpg

The instructions say that these patches are purely cosmetic and do not need to be welded completely and it says specifically not to weld it to the firewall due to the heat it creates. I assume that part of the instructions are there because it is assuming there is still an interior in the car. So I welded them on good. After a few small seam sealer fires, inside and out, they came out well. I'll grind these after I get all the other welding done.

http://www.wolfgt.com/images/photobu...ps8a8ce16a.jpg

http://www.wolfgt.com/images/photobu...psb1c0c890.jpg

I then took the doors apart and kept the inside and outside door handles. The rest went in the back of the truck to go to the scrap yard.

It was a fun day. There were instructions and pieces in the kit, but as always, nothing goes as smooth as the instructions say, which I really enjoyed. I liked the challenge. Massaging the metal to make the patches fit just right and cutting smaller patches to fill in the bigger holes. I think it will end up looking pretty good.

Add another 5 hours of my time to the clock.

My Time: 55.5 hours
Friends & Family: 6 hours
Paid labor: $0 (this number does not include the mods made by Monster Miata)

Time to get back to it. Saturday, I had two items in mind. First to get the welding and grinding done on the front clip and to get the car mobile so I can clean it.

So first I spent a couple hours welding and grinding on the front end fixes/modifications to get it ready for some primer and paint.

Here is a look at one of the seams
http://www.wolfgt.com/images/photobu...pse3494981.jpg

And here is a shot of the mods with a little primer on them.
http://www.wolfgt.com/images/photobu...psb95292a8.jpg

My next step is to prep and prime the entire engine bay but before I can do that, I need to clean it. I pressure washed it once before, but that was just a preliminary wash and the firewall and engine bay was not completely empty so there is still a bunch of crud in there. But to be able to pressure wash it, it needs to be mobile. So, I commenced to build a cart for the car so I could roll it outside. I looked around and found a bunch of scrap. I built this cart totally from stuff I had laying around the shop. I thought it through and figured it would be nice to have the car high in the air to work comfortably on the body and also underneath. So I built a cart 2 feet high. But I forgot to take into account the height of the casters. Woops. So the cart is about 6" taller than I was planning, but it works.

Now, I hate to document my stupidity, but oh well. The two pictures below are classified as "DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!".

I now needed to get the car up in the air high enough to get it on the cart. It was just me and all I had was two floor jacks. Let the stupidity begin.

http://www.wolfgt.com/images/photobu...ps3b1b7eeb.jpg

http://www.wolfgt.com/images/photobu...psa7ac66b5.jpg

Believe it or not, it was actually pretty stable. I was rather surprised how sturdy it sat while going through that process. But even saying that, I will come up with a better way to get it up and down from now on.

Here it is on the cart ready to go outside.
http://www.wolfgt.com/images/photobu...pse54721d8.jpg

I was planning on doing all the cleaning yesterday, but it was in the 30's. It will be up in the 50's tomorrow. I plan on continuing then.

I have been in limbo for a bit but it's now time to get rolling. There will be some significant progress over the next two months.

Add another 5 hours of my time to the clock.

My Time: 60.5 hours
Friends & Family: 6 hours
Paid labor: $0 (this number does not include the mods made by Monster Miata)

I love it! Insane yes and you are quite lucky but you got it up there!

I'm loving your build and really appreciate the posts. It was very inspiring the way you didn't break stride when you found the frame damage. I think I would have thrown in the towel with that...

You are a fine fabricator Greg and you are going to have a great car when you are done! :appl:

Another day at it. It was in the mid 50's today, so I figured I better go and do all the pressure washing while it was somewhat warm. I don't think it will be that way much more. So I went and cleaned every inch of the miata. The cart made it really easy to roll it around. I used the pressure washer, a bunch of Greased Lightning, a small stiff brush and 3 green pads. It's just amazing how much better the car feels now that all that grime is gone. This car had serious power steering and oil leaks. So it was really bad.

I then moved on to some body work while the car dries. The passenger side rocker needed put back together. Earlier in this thread you will remember I cut out a good piece of the rocker because it was badly dented. I cut the piece out, massaged it back into shape and today I welded it back in.

Here is a pic of the first set of tacks.
http://www.wolfgt.com/images/photobu...ps7483f7c9.jpg

And here it is all welded in.
http://www.wolfgt.com/images/photobu...ps6a303b81.jpg

Next time I'm in the shop, I'll grind that all down and remove the rest of the stone chip from the rockers. Then I will move to the passenger rear corner and get that repair out of the way. Once that is done, it's time to start sanding, priming and painting (engine bay, wheel wells, interior and trunk). I want to get all the body work done before I take it back off the cart. It is really nice being able to sit on the stool and work. I plan on hitting the shop every other day from now on. Should kick this project into gear.

Add another 5 hours of my time to the clock.

My Time: 65.5 hours
Friends & Family: 6 hours
Paid labor: $0 (this number does not include the mods made by Monster Miata)

This is a big help for those of us that are about to get started on our Miata's. With Martins conversion manual and all of your pictures it adds a lot of confidence to the cuts.
Thanks for the help

Dick

Dick, Glad to be of assistance and look forward to seeing your build. I'm no mechanic either, I actually work on computers for a living. So don't be intimidated. As with anything in life, just approach it with the attitude to learn and you'll make it through sooner or later.

This week was a total pain in my butt and work ruined my plan to work on the car every other day. I was at the office until after 9pm every night except last night. So, today I took a half day and went to the shop.

First, I needed to take some pictures of the trans, diff and springs for a potential buyer that has been asking for pics for weeks.

Then I pulled the bellhousing out of the mustang to see if it was going to work with the new trans. I didn't think it would, but needed to check. It didn't. So, I got on the phone with Summit Racing and we worked to find one that would work. I needed one that would accept the T-5 that I bought that was the right depth, accept the hydraulic slave cylinder for the clutch, fit around my centerforce flywheel (157 tooth) and clutch assembly and mount to the 302. Well, after the tech did the research, we only found one that met all those requirements and it was $566! Wasn't expecting that, but it is a really nice race quality bellhousing. So at least I won't have to change it later. Ordered it so I can test fit the engine and trans. I need to "massage" the transmission tunnel but don't want to over do it. So I'm going to slide the assembly in and then make the mods.

Then I began to grind my welds from the rocker repair. (I just got it looking decent, when it comes time to do the body kit I will come back to this and clean it up since it will require a bit of filler) Once they were mostly ground down, I stripped all the stone chip from the passenger side. Cleaned and primed the entire area.

http://www.wolfgt.com/images/photobu...ps0f97b510.jpg

That took longer then I expected, so I didn't do the other side yet. I jumped to another job, the rear quarter damage on the passenger side. Besides the obvious damage, there were some spots that were spider cracking through the paint. So I figured since I had the stripping wheel out, I'll see what is under there. Oh my. I guess with the shape of the front, I should have expected it. There was a butt load of bondo under the paint. It just kept going. So, after coating the shop with a nice generous layer of filler dust, I stopped to think this one through. I may just leave this corner for the body shop. We'll see. Here is the corner.

http://www.wolfgt.com/images/photobu...ps4e35ab2f.jpg

Then I decided it was time to start cleaning up the random rust on the interior. I started with the driver side. There wasn't anything really bad. But it is pretty weird how this car rusts. It's not like just plain surface rust. It's like the rust starts from inside the metal and blistered out until it came out. I chipped away the blisters and used a wire brush to clean the loose pieces. Then vacuumed up all the crap and wiped the area with mineral spirits. Once I was satisfied, I hit all the rusty areas with a rust treatment (the black colored areas).

before
http://www.wolfgt.com/images/photobu...ps94ef8c22.jpg

after
http://www.wolfgt.com/images/photobu...psc4d60f92.jpg

Then to the passenger side. Overall, this side was better. But in the footwell, there is a bracket that the panel bolts to for the computer. That thing was total rust.

http://www.wolfgt.com/images/photobu...ps9ba46592.jpg

Amazingly, with the wire brush and some strong penetrate, I was able to get the nuts off without breaking anything. I was very surprised. I took it to the blasting cabinet and cleaned it up. Hit it with the rust treatment and then primer.

http://www.wolfgt.com/images/photobu...ps0fd6df9e.jpg

Then took care of the rest of the floor.

http://www.wolfgt.com/images/photobu...psafff3f30.jpg

I then went to work on the engine bay. I took the time to completely remove all clips and brackets. This took a while. Then I used the wire wheel and wire brush to clean any area that had loose paint or rust and hit all the welds again. There were some major leaks in this engine bay and it looks like the brake booster was one of them. The area up in the corner by the firewall right under where the brake booster sits was rusty and the paint was half eaten away. I stripped that area bare. Then vacuum and cleaned these areas. I hit the rusty areas with rust treatment and the welds with primer. Now the engine bay is 4 colors .... nice.

http://www.wolfgt.com/images/photobu...ps4df20cdb.jpg

Tomorrow I will take care of the stone chip on the driver side and finish cleaning and priming the engine bay to start. I may move to the trunk but we will see.

Add another 5.5 hours of my time to the clock.

My Time: 71 hours
Friends & Family: 6 hours
Paid labor: $0 (this number does not include the mods made by Monster Miata)

Great progress!!
What was so unique about the bellhousing? The input shaft on a t-5 can be easily changed to one of a different spline count or length to meet your goals. These shafts are very inexpensive. The t-5 was used in many applications from the "big 3". If you plan on using a scatter shield, you may have to cut the bottom lip off of it because it will be much lower than the oil pan.

Just an fyi, I'm running (as do all I'm aware of) the stock 90 Mustang 5.0 bellhousing. No problems.

Also just as tbone said, lot's of possibilities with the T5 input shaft. I'm in the middle of doing a light weight freshen up on a Non WorldClass (NWC) T5 that's going into my soon to be daily driven 1951 3/4 ton Chevy truck. I didn't know much about these before diving into fixing a tranny that had been junked out. Lots of good info out there Mr. Google can find including some good youtube how to videos. If you consider changing input shafts, be sure it's for the same gear ratio or you can have lots of gear noise from mismatched gears leading to serious damage.

There should be a tag on your transmission that's the key to ratios 1st through 5th.

Good luck. Ron

I started looking for one myself and had a really hard time. I think the issue is that this engine, flywheel and clutch was built years ago for my 68 mustang to mate up to the origninal 3 speed. I bought this T-5 so the input shaft would mate with the original 10 spline crank. The flywheel is a centerforce 157 tooth and the clutch to go with it 10.5". Could I have changed the shaft? Probably, but I just bought that trans, I really don't want to tear into it right out of the box. I called Summit and they looked for something to fit my specs and this is what they came up with.

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/qti-rm-6060/overview/

It's a pretty impressive piece. I don't think I'll be dissappointed.

I was at the shop most of the day today (9 hours), but got seriously side tracked. I spent most of the day putting up a new light (because the one that was there never worked) and putting in a couple new outlets (because I kept popping the breaker). Now I can actually see what I'm doing and will no longer have power issues. Yay! It was time well spent. Then I spent the last two hours removing the stone chip from the driver side and priming it. I forgot what a mess that process produced, I should have done it along with the other side. But here is the final product for now.

http://www.wolfgt.com/images/photobu...psa4ce7a52.jpg

Tomorrow I plan on prepping and priming the engine bay so it will be one color finally. And then move to on to the rear end. I figure that would be a good place to work while the car is so far in the air. I need to disassemble the rear subframe and get the new diff mounted up so I can weld in the new brace. Then take it all out, clean and paint it.

Add another 2 hours of my time to the clock.

My Time: 73 hours
Friends & Family: 6 hours
Paid labor: $0 (this number does not include the mods made by Monster Miata)

It rained all day today. I figured that would be a good time to be in the shop. But it was so humid the entire shop was just wet. The floor was wet and the ceiling was dripping just from the moisture in the air. At least is wasn't cold. I started by prepping the engine bay and cowl for paint. I used a prep disk on my little air powered sander (3" disks) and a hand full of green scouring pads. Hit any rusty spots with the rust treatment as I went. Then vacuumed up the mess and hit the area with compressed air to get rid of any dust. Then wiped the area with mineral spirits. Masked off the windshield and surrounding areas. Here it is before primer.

http://www.wolfgt.com/images/photobu...ps5b99bd6b.jpg

http://www.wolfgt.com/images/photobu...ps56badd58.jpg

And after the first coat

http://www.wolfgt.com/images/photobu...ps26575052.jpg

http://www.wolfgt.com/images/photobu...psfd81dfe8.jpg

It looked even better after the second coat, but I didn't take any pictures. I don't think it would have looked any different in pictures. I then pulled the rear subframe into the shop so I could pull it apart. I took a ton of pictures to help me remember how everything goes. Here is a pic of what it looks like right out of the car.

http://www.wolfgt.com/images/photobu...psdd2e5b1d.jpg

And then after some work .... an exploded view, lol.

http://www.wolfgt.com/images/photobu...ps7cc68945.jpg

After a couple days in the shop, I was ready to call it a day. But I figured I might as well end the weekend on a high note with a nice shiny new part. So I pulled the new diff into the shop.

http://www.wolfgt.com/images/photobu...psda157e96.jpg

And then the new mounting brackets mocked into the subframe (The subframe is upside-down in these pics)

http://www.wolfgt.com/images/photobu...ps37ffaa01.jpg

http://www.wolfgt.com/images/photobu...ps19944ebb.jpg

http://www.wolfgt.com/images/photobu...ps86220b95.jpg

It was nice seeing one of the new pieces finally in the picture. I will burn in the bracket next time. I spent a lot of time thinking about the whole picture today. My issue is the body work and when to get it done. Since I sold the wheels and tires, the only way to get it to the body shop is my little cart. Because I can't buy new wheels and tires until the body work is done because I won't be able to know what will fit until the new wheel wells are done. So, I do believe the next time I'm in the shop (tuesday), I will modify the cart to sit lower and reinforce it so it can travel without failing. While I have the car off the cart, I will fit the engine and trans so I can modify the tunnel. The new bellhousing is supposed to be here on Tuesday (SummitRacing is awesome). I will be ordering all the body stuff in the first week of January. I will fill my time with other tasks until then. There is plenty to do.

Add another 5 hours of my time to the clock.

My Time: 78 hours
Friends & Family: 6 hours
Paid labor: $0 (this number does not include the mods made by Monster Miata)

Get a set of the poly rear differential mount bushings while they are easy to install. They helped the wheel-hop issue I had. Be sure to remove the plastic clips that hold the brake line to the rear sub-frame before you weld on the front support. They will melt.

Awesome, thanks for the tips. For the bushings, are these what you are talking about?

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/en...FcZZ7Aod8X4ARg

Or, just get the entire set since I was planning on replacing them all anyway.

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/en...102g/overview/

I thought about it for a bit and I am going to get the full set of tubular control arms from v8roadsters which come with their own bushings. So there is no need for me to get that kit. I ordered a set of poly diff mount bushings from Flyinmiata.

Flyin' Miata : Chassis : Bushings : Polyurethane differential bushings

The bushings will have to be "machined" to fit. That is the fun part. I will see if I can locate some info. for you.

Oh, great.

Opinions please.

I'm sure you have noticed that I didn't go through all the trouble of removing all the seam sealer on the shock towers and weld up all the seams. After doing a bunch of reading I felt at the time that adding a support to the outside (like frog legs or v8roadsters version) and then a strut tower brace between the two would be sufficient. But I am second guessing myself. At the moment, I could easily mask off the rest of the engine bay and take care of this, but is it worth it? or are the braces good enough?

Oh, and while I'm worried about this, I am also really excited about a new part I'm in the process of procuring. I'll keep it a secret until it shows up. May be a month or so, but man I can't wait.

Currently sitting at the office on Christmas Eve, waiting for my bellhousing to show up on the Fedex truck. I guess this is one package I should have sent to the house.

Geez, after sitting here half the day waiting on UPS, it finally showed up. I thought they were going to be here early, so I got here at 9am, they showed at 1pm. I guess I was a little off. Now with half the day gone, I doubt I will even get to it today. GRRRRR

http://www.wolfgt.com/images/photobu...psb9537ef4.jpg

No question at all you absolutely should stitch weld the chassis. Even with the bracing seam welding makes a big difference and there is never going to be a time when you would take it apart and do it again. Yes it is a PTA and takes a lot of time but you will regret it if you don't do it now.

You don't have to 100% weld it like I did but just do it like the builds on Flyin Miatas site where they put a 1 1/2" bead followed by a gap. I would put the corner braces in like Curt (573) and I did too. The braces I'm talking about are the 3/4 tube at yellow arrows in the pic.
Attachment 7529

I think they made a big difference and with you piecing together the front it would add support to it. I have zero cowl movement and I can jack up any corner and the other end of the car goes with it. Don't forget to stitch the gussets under the dash too. Most guides don't include them but the should be welded as well.

Greg you are doing outstanding work and you are going to have one sweet ride when you are done so don't start cutting corners now. Remember this build is a marathon not a sprint. Take the time now to do it right the first time and you will have no regrets later.

Be sure to get a set of these bushings for the front of the differential: https://www.supercoupeperformance.co...spx?PartID=189.

Unless you can remove ALL of the seam sealer, paint, & e-coat from the areas that you are going to seam weld (which cannot be done unless you take them apart), the heat generated from the contaminated welds will actually weaken the areas around the factory spot welds causing more harm than good.

Energy Suspension 4-1126G works also.

looks like I can get the same thing at summitracing for a fraction of the price.

http://m.summitracing.com/parts/ens-4-1126g/media

Tom I have never heard you say anything that didn't enlighten me or that I didn’t think was a mighty fine idea. This however I am not following you on this one and beg to disagree. Yes heating the metal tempers it but we are talking about sheet metal here that has to be welded on the lowest setting for most welders and pulse welded to not burn through. There is very little tempering going on and even a crappy weld full of porosity is stronger than no weld. I have never heard of anyone stitch welding any car that did not feel it benefited the chassis and in a situation where we are putting 3 times the stress and load on the chassis than it was designed for I can’t imagine why you wouldn’t want to do it.

But we should probably take this conversation to a new thread rather than messing up this fine build thread. https://www.v8miata.net/general-miat...g-yes-no-1434/

.

Ordered the wide body kit from Martin today...and started talking to the body shop today. I am going to leave the rear corner for them to do. I will just mess it up anyway. So I now have 3-4 weeks to wait for the hood and body kit. I will spend this weekend seam welding and then mocking up the engine/trans so I can modify the tunnel. After that I will clean it up and modify the cart so it is ready to take to the body shop. Once that is done, over the next month or so, I will distract myself with the rear end, wiring harness and engine while the car gets pretty'd up at the body shop. And of course, accumulate parts.

I'm bouncing back and forth between dark green and black for the car. I'm probably going to go black and tint the windows. There will be no chrome on this car. Not even the door handles or hard top brackets. This baby will be blacked out.

Before doing dynomat for the interior/trunk I would suggest looking at Lizard Skin. Works well for me AND it doesn't trap water. Build is looking great!

I have always thought I would do lizard skin. I have seen it on a lot of the car shows and it looked pretty cool. But when I went to look into it and found that the gun/kit to do it is an additional $80 and the product itself is about the same cost as Dynamat, I started rethinking the situation. I'm still not decided. I won't be doing it until the car gets back from the body shop, probably a month and a half or so from now. So I have some time to think about it.

I have also seen quite a few builds do both. My last thought was to do LizardSkin and then go over the top of it with some of the cheap stuff from Lowes. That should be a pretty good combo.

Very nice thread.... great work! Keep the fire burning and lets see her on the road soon!

Thanks for the compliment and encouragement. My birthday is June 27th. My goal is to be driving it by then. Shouldn't be a problem. I'm currently at the shop driving myself nuts removing seam sealer. It started out easy and kind of fun, but has now gotten old since moving to the wheel wells. Oh well, onward.

Oh, and the guys that use the shop a few doors down decided to take a couple of their little honda/dirt bike sounding POS's onto the street in front of the shop and drag race. HM, I see some butt woopin' in the future.

OK, I have to say that was just no fun. I started with the driver side shock tower. Remember, the drivers side shock tower is not originally from this car. The driver side was easy. I was able to get the seam sealer out pretty easy. I will post pictures of the tools I used tomorrow. But things got harder and harder. The passenger side wasn't as cooperative and when I moved to the wheel wells, that just sucked. I have a few bloody knuckles (I didn't put gloves on because I was working on clean surfaces, I didn't think about banging my knuckles) and my hands just hurt.

Here is the driver side tower just getting started.
http://www.wolfgt.com/images/photobu...psb983dbce.jpg

And before and after of the passenger wheel well.
http://www.wolfgt.com/images/photobu...ps9c12e95e.jpg

http://www.wolfgt.com/images/photobu...psf4cdde80.jpg

I need to go over all the cleaned areas and make sure I get rid of the rust coating and then I'll get to welding. But I still need to prep the doors, interior and rear shock towers. I don't think I will even get this all done tomorrow.

Add another 6 hours of my time to the clock.

My Time: 84 hours
Friends & Family: 6 hours
Paid labor: $0 (this number does not include the mods made by Monster Miata)

I'm sure the people on this forum feel the same ..... Even days spent like this is better than sitting in an office.

http://www.wolfgt.com/images/photobu...psb82b999c.jpg

Well, the day started out oddly. I managed to burn a bunch of hair off of my right arm and hand while trying to get the heater running in the shop. Oh well, at least I didn't get burnt.

I then spent the day removing the seam sealer from all the areas needed. Then once I thought I had it all, I started welding. I got the wheel wells, inner and outer, on the front done and started on the supports on the outer edges of the cowl when I realized I missed the seam sealer on the back part of those. That is when I called it a day. It is really odd welding on this car. Every spot behaves differently. One second I get a good weld and the next spot a couple inches away behaves totally different. So the next time in the shop, I will finish welding and do the new seam sealer. I am just not sure when that will be. May be two weeks from now if I wait for a weekend. I may do some work during the week, not sure yet.

I have to tell you I laughed right out loud at this. I set and frustratingly missed 2 on the road goals before I realized I just need to chill out, enjoy the process and focus on quality rather than time. Don’t get me wrong I have I have no doubt you will make 6/27 but by putting that in writing you could be setting yourself up for doom too!

I think you may have hit the first stage of builders’ fatigue. It will ease a bit when you set the engine and see some real progress but set in with a vengeance when you start wiring and plumbing.

When you get tired and down just remember this process is a marathon not a sprint. You have to look at the big picture when you plan but when you head out to the shop if you can focus on one process or system at a time it will feel more manageable and less draining.

You are doing a fantastic job on your build and I just want to encourage you to take your time and enjoy the process as much as you can. It may seem like you are in the pit now with a mountain to move before it ever runs but believe it or not 6 months after it is on the road you will miss these days when you were up to your armpits in Miata parts. No really you will!

My original plan was 3 months. But at the time, I wasn't planning on tearing it down to the bare chassis. But being a perfectionist, I have a hard time ignoring issues. So, I couldn't stop. But the way I see it, once this welding and seam sealing is done, everything else is assembly. I know it won't be easy, but unlike what I have been doing, it will show progress. I'm excited.

Forgot to log my time.

Add another 5 hours of my time to the clock.

My Time: 89 hours
Friends & Family: 6 hours
Paid labor: $0 (this number does not include the mods made by Monster Miata)

Well my mini vacation is over. Me, my dad and my bro went to Miami to see the Orange Bowl (me rooting for Clemson and them for Ohio State). It was a really good time.

Now I'm back and have some goodies waiting for me. The best of all is the new trunk lid.

Very nicely wrapped. I couldn't wait to get it open and take a look.
http://www.wolfgt.com/images/photobu...psf00f9565.jpg

These pictures kind of make it look like it's wavy, but trust me, it's smooth as silk. And OMG, super light.

http://www.wolfgt.com/images/photobu...ps484b1de8.jpg

http://www.wolfgt.com/images/photobu...ps33f3f3be.jpg

http://www.wolfgt.com/images/photobu...psa67cab34.jpg

And the underside

http://www.wolfgt.com/images/photobu...ps9aa811bc.jpg

Took a trip over to talk to one of the body shops that I might use. I was going to use one specific one but I have not been able to get him to call me back, so screw them. So I went to talk to another one that I know and they may be too busy, but we'll see. I will begin to look for others later this week. I won't have everything ready for them until the first or second week of February, but I want to be ready.

Also received the bushings for the rear diff and a couple other goodies that will sit on the shelf for a few months.

Since you're looking at some sounproofing, while you have the car apart you can get at areas much more easily and cleanly.

I've just done a bunch of soundproofing on my car. The three biggest areas I found were:

1. Trunk bottom.
2. 'Hips'; inside the rear fenders. Just pack with fiberfill; it makes a huge difference.
3. Trunk tunnels on either side of the fuel cell.

Adding mass to the muffler heat shield is a huge help, and the parcel tray, rear decklid, and rear firewall.

I also did the floors and up the sides, but not top, of the trans tunnel.

^^ I did inside the doors too and it made a big difference.

But that v8 sound will be my only radio. Don't want it too quite.

It won't be. I was extremely picky about not making my car too quiet. What you'll discover is that the Miata body is, in addition to being very pretty, is also an amazing collection of hollow body amplifiers that resonate at weird frequencies.

Much like dropping more power into a Miata and improving it, sound deadening is also a vast improvement. It makes the car feel so much more refined and solid. And when you sound deaden the car, you actually hear the engine and exhaust much more clearly; the body stops being a contributor of random, odd noises and lets the lovely, and proper, sounds of a roadster shine through in their correct notes.

I absolutely promise you that you'll love the difference.

I had 2 1/2" muffler outlets and added resonated tips with 4"shells. The difference was remarkable. The tips took the rasp out of the pipes, most noticeable off throttle decelerating. It literally transformed the sound of the car. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't heard it myself.

That couldn't have been written any better - I think I just learned something new about my V8Miata before I even put it on the road. Thanks!!

Carry On...