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Post by JIDiesel on Dec 24, 2014 2:15:45 GMT
I'm dumb when it comes to seats like this, this doesn't effect the structural integrity? No it does not, just don't bend the seat on a weld joint. This is the nice thing about the aluminum seats it allows for a more perfect fit. Keep in mind that Aluminum seats are installed with a back brace also. This gives the seat more SI than just bolting to the floor.
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Post by BTD on Jan 10, 2015 4:53:49 GMT
Update time! So, first off...in an effort to get the one car garage I'm working in organized, I stopped by Harbor Freight for their tent sale today and picked up a tool box. Much needed, and as you'll find, the US General Pro quality is fantastic. Fits like it was made to be there: After that, I stopped by Hanksville Hot Rods who are fabricating the seat mounts to check out the work and test fit the seat, we notched the tunnel about 2" (mine has the old style tunnel) and I'll be running a 16" Ultrashield Road Race. I had them move the gusset on the driver's side and may eventually go to a custom cage, but for now the seat is nice and low. I'm 6'5" and about 3.5" under the top of the rollbar. The tunnel was notched to get me more centered in the car as I hated having the chassis bar in the way of my arm constantly. Outside: Inner clearance for belts and E-Brake: Final seat position, nice and low. I'm a really tall guy so getting it as far back as possible was priority #2 (behind getting it as low as possible): This week I'm finishing the teardown of the Miata and taking the chassis to the paint shop. I'll be having it painted because, should I ever choose to go to a custom cage in the future, it's much easier to strip/weld/repaint instead of stripping powdercoat.
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Post by JIDiesel on Jan 10, 2015 14:23:43 GMT
I see that you took the roll bar support off. I wish I could have done that with mine.
What do you plan on doing with the trans-tunnel by the gas pedal? Are you just going to bend it in for more clearance?
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Post by BTD on Jan 10, 2015 20:26:17 GMT
I see that you took the roll bar support off. I wish I could have done that with mine. What do you plan on doing with the trans-tunnel by the gas pedal? Are you just going to bend it in for more clearance? I'm having a shorter one welded back in, but this helped a lot with moving the seat back. As for the tunnel, no plans as of now. That may change once I get the pedals in, but holding mine up they cleared.
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Post by linuxd00d on Jan 10, 2015 21:56:38 GMT
I'm going through something very similar right now. Are you planning on running a cat? I have the Exomotive Enthuzacar exhaust with a cat. From the test fitting I did connected to a Jackson Racing header, with the tunnel config you have, the cat doesn't fit.
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Post by BTD on Jan 11, 2015 0:45:53 GMT
I'm going through something very similar right now. Are you planning on running a cat? I have the Exomotive Enthuzacar exhaust with a cat. From the test fitting I did connected to a Jackson Racing header, with the tunnel config you have, the cat doesn't fit. No cat needed in CO, as kit cars are exempt from emissions. The fab shop I'm using has oval pipe that's the same overall flow volume as a comparable round pipe, and we will likely use that next to the seat to give as much room as possible. I will likely add some head shielding material on the underside of the tunnel.
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Post by BTD on Jan 16, 2015 3:04:40 GMT
Shop finally finished up the seat mounting today. We ran into some intersting problems that might be of interest to other builders, namely in the spirit of safety. First, after getting the seat mounted, we noticed that the harness bar was too high on my car because of how low I have the seat mounted. You want a level or -20* angle as seen here: Our solution was to weld in a slightly lower harness bar immediately below the factory one. It should work out great! You'll also notice that we welded on a seat back brace. This is a fixed seat as I'll be the only driver, and I feel 100x more comfortable with a welded brace like this rather than an adjustable one. Every little bit counts. It was mounted in the center of the seat back to best support the seat in the event of a crash, as that's where a bunch of welds meet. We also added back in the driver's rollbar gusset. I pick the chassis up from the shop tomorrow and off it goes to get painted. I'm going with paint over powdercoat so that I can modify the chassis down the line if I need to. I'm considering adding a full cage or half cage in the future depending on how safe I feel in the car as-is. My main concern is a side impact as it's a VERY low car, so any modern car or SUV in a T-Bone collision would be quite a dangerous situation height wise.
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Post by BTD on Jan 26, 2015 4:48:44 GMT
Updates! Decided to go with powdercoat over paint because the cost was roughly half of a comparable paint job. If I do ever decide to add a cage in the future, I'll have to have it stripped, but the durability will be worth it in the meantime. I pick the powdercoated chassis up tomorrow and off it goes into storage until I can finish the disassembly. Speaking of disassembling...I'm now officially into uncharted territory for myself. I've been doing time trials and auto-x for years and have had tons of cars, but have never gone beyond the simple stuff (I've done nearly anything having to do with suspension, but nothing other than basic maint. engine wise), so this disassembly is a learning process for me, hence the slow progress. it was super nice today, and I had a few hours free, so I got the interior out: Working on getting the clutch pedal out as well as the wiring harness, which is proving difficult to remove on the passenger side because of the accident. I might have to sawzall part of the body off to get the ECU and such out. I also got about half (maybe more?) of the stuff around the engine out. Radiator and fans, emissions junk, most of the a/c system, etc. From here it's mostly disconnecting and labeling electrical connections and fuel stuff, so it should be fairly straight forward I hope.
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Post by BTD on Jan 30, 2015 2:55:30 GMT
A very fun box showed up today! Tein Street Flex. I bought them in a holiday sale that Fab9 was having, they were 25% off normal price. I guess Tein is discontinuing these and replacing them with a Chinese made shock (that isn't reabuildable) instead, so I wanted to nab a set that was still made in Japan and rebuildable. I also ordered them with 7kg/5kg rates instead of the factory 7kg/6kg. Two great things about these for my build: 1) They're going to match my color scheme (green body panels) 2) They have shock bodies that are independently adjustable of preload and can extend to stock shock lengths. That means I should be able to avoid running the shock tower spacers from Exocet and still have proper preload for the springs!
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Post by steadfast on Jan 30, 2015 5:25:04 GMT
Great pick up! Had now clue that these were able to be adjusted to different lengths. Interested to see how these work out.
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Post by greg on Jan 30, 2015 14:29:46 GMT
They are gong to be very very firm! Just a heads up.
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Post by BTD on Jan 30, 2015 14:49:02 GMT
They are gong to be very very firm! Just a heads up. Why do you say that? 7kgf/mm front and 5kgf/mm rear comes out to 392lbs/in front and 280lbs/in rear. For reference, Flyin Miata runs 392/258 on their V-Maxx coilovers, so the rates are close. Dampening is good enough on these to where ride quality shouldn't be an issue if they're set up properly (aka enough bump travel). Also, forgot to mention I picked up my chassis from the powdercoaters the other day! It's coated in Bengal Silver, and I'm eagerly awaiting my body panels from Exomotive to see how the dark green will look over it.
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Post by ashneyder on Jan 30, 2015 15:09:37 GMT
The color looks great.
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Post by badluck on Jan 30, 2015 15:12:07 GMT
The chassis looks great! I don't think the Teins are going to be too firm, I'm running 700/400 (F/R) rates on my Exocet with Xidas and while I wouldn't want to daily the car at these rates, it should be great on track and still ok for an occasional weekend cruise. I was planning on going down to 400/250, but after a local Exocet owner who has probably logged more track time than anyone in a US Exocet said the 700/400 felt great to him on track I decided to try the higher rates first. I do have the other springs just in case I want to switch. They are gong to be very very firm! Just a heads up. Why do you say that? 7kgf/mm front and 5kgf/mm rear comes out to 392lbs/in front and 280lbs/in rear. For reference, Flyin Miata runs 392/258 on their V-Maxx coilovers, so the rates are close. Dampening is good enough on these to where ride quality shouldn't be an issue if they're set up properly (aka enough bump travel).
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Post by greg on Jan 30, 2015 17:45:58 GMT
Didn't read the unit of measure correctly... Sorry about that.
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