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...