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Post by lhintze on Aug 9, 2014 20:39:22 GMT
Bought my donor in July, 99 base model with 103k miles. Picked it up for $1800 from a friend who was going to do an Exocet but changed his mind. When I got it the interior was gutted, wire harness was removed, and the body panels were off. After a few hours I was ready to pull the body off. As of today I am dissembling the rear sub frame, should have it done this week. I placed my order for the Sport model with steel floors and a wiring tray. The frame will be powder coated New Tucker Orange and the body will be black. I will send all the sub frame pieces to get power coated gloss black once I get everything apart and the bushings out. I plan to update this thread as I make progress, I should have plenty of time since my kit won't arrive till early next year. How she looked when I brought it home after a few hours of working on it  Body ready to come off    |
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Post by lhintze on Aug 9, 2014 20:40:30 GMT
Body off the the scrap yard   |
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Post by lhintze on Aug 9, 2014 20:42:26 GMT
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Post by lhintze on Aug 9, 2014 20:43:19 GMT
Got plenty of room for the frame  |
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Post by ferraritechbrian on Aug 9, 2014 21:11:06 GMT
Welccome, exciting times. Glad you got your color choices figured out. My eta is early october, still undecided. I've ordered about 40 RAL color samples and about 20 Powder coating samples. Still unsure, need to make a decision soon. Looking forward to all your detail work.
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Post by lhintze on Aug 13, 2014 17:19:01 GMT
Small update, got the rear subframe all disassembled last night and started to pull bushings out. The all thread work for the smaller bushings, but ended up breaking in half on the bigger ones. I broke down and got a 12 ton press off eBay for $119 shipped. This should make quick work of the remaining bearings. I placed my order for my kit on 8/1 and still haven't received an invoice or paid my deposit. Has anyone had this happen as well? Once all the bushings are out I will send everything out to get powder coated gloss black.    |
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Post by ashneyder on Aug 13, 2014 21:54:31 GMT
Here is my experience. In order to powdercoat front upper wishbone, you either need to remove the ball joint, which is not intended to be removed, or take off the dust boot and completely degrees it. Even if there is a little grease in the joint, it can ruin the powdercoat.
For that reason, and the fact that my bushings we in a very good shape, I went with the painting option for the subframes and control arms. I still plan to get the frame powdercoated.
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Post by donboy1983 on Aug 13, 2014 22:13:36 GMT
Just be careful using this method as I done the same and got carried away with the tightening and bent the arm. It was a lot easier to just follow every one else and burn them out. I used 2 disposable BBQ's and all the bushes where out in 30 mins :-)  |
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Post by lhintze on Aug 14, 2014 1:38:26 GMT
Yes, I will degrease the upper ball joint very well before getting it powder coated. I think I'll install the energy suspension boots after getting it coated and grease them very well.
Tonight I got about half way thru with depowering the rack, started on that while I'm waiting on the press to arrive is I can finish with the bushings. I'll post some pics after I'm finished with the rack.
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Post by lhintze on Aug 16, 2014 1:29:02 GMT
Got the press today and I had the last 16 bushings out in about an hour  |
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Post by lhintze on Aug 16, 2014 1:30:30 GMT
I am getting the pinion welded this weekend and will install that Monday. Got the seal cut off and the rack reassembled.  |
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Post by lhintze on Aug 20, 2014 15:22:23 GMT
Got the pinion welded up and completed the reassembly of the rack. Next project will be to round up all the parts and drop them off to get blasted and powder coated. Supposedly I have a buyer coming this weekend to pick up the bumpers, hood, tail lights and pass head light, can't wait to get more room in the garage.   |
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Post by lhintze on Sept 1, 2014 17:28:04 GMT
Update, I sent all the suspension and subframes out to get powder coated last week, 19 parts total. The guy is going to do them all gloss black and for $500, I thought that was reasonable. Today I started doing the maintenance on the engine, it's got 103k on it so I did a timing belt, water pump, crank seals, camshaft seals, pulleys, spark plugs & wires, and valve cover gasket. I am going to order the coolant re route kit this week then I should be done with the engine. This being my first miata timing belt, I took my time and cleaned everything thoroughly and double checked everything. This week I also sand blasted the differential and hubs, decided to keep the OEM bearings in till they fail.     |
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Post by gwnwar on Sept 1, 2014 18:41:39 GMT
Looks good.. if you sand blast the cam cover make sure you clean the baffle plate out on the inside of the cover..
You could take the alt apart and blast the case also water in and out parts..
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Post by lhintze on Sept 1, 2014 19:13:55 GMT
I don't think I'm going to blast the valve cover, it would look brand new next to the old intake manifold. I'm going to clean them both good with a wire wheel and see how it turns out.
Good point about the alt too, I might have to try that.
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