I want to see the driving video!
Pete
I want to see the driving video!
Pete
Ok, break's over!
In reply to NOHOME :
Yeah, about that... I didn't record my drive to the gas station because I thought it would be uneventful and I would take a real test drive the next day. So now I guess there is no test drive video, not until I fix the clearance problem.
I thought I had way more clearance than I did because I think the coil springs were artificially raising the car more than normal because they were at full droop for several months while the car was on jack stands.
Here's my options I think:
What do you guys think I should do? Unless somebody talks me out of it, I'll likely order the Paco lift kit. I really thought I would never want to lift it but I thin kit's the best choice for right now.
Three inches sounds like a lot (because it is) but I actually think it's the perfect amount. Last night I did some measuring and here's what it looks like with a 3" lift via the floor jack:
On the other hand, the front wheels seems almost too big. Here's the smaller Miata wheel and how it fits in the arch. Looks pretty good to me. Joe_Mama, are you seeing this?
Switching gears a little bit. Last night I installed the headlights. The sealed beam bulbs were actually salvaged from the Miata and they look nice and bright. The Miata also came with running lights and I'm thinking about adding some accessory lights to take advantage of the existing wiring.
I'm going to miss this garage. Even though my bike is now covered in metal and paint dust.
Like it much better on the small tires.
Pete
Trim away under the front bumper to allow air into the engine bay. No grill if possible.
And amazing work there. Combining old with "new" is great. And the smaller wheels are sort of "Empi-ish"
In reply to mannydantyla :
I like the survivor look you have going on with this ride (note I didn't say patina), so if was in your position, I would get the Eastwood fender roller and REALLY work it hard to not cut up the fenders. Also I like the lower stance as opposed to the lifted 3 inches look.
Love the CL200. I've had a few CL/CB350s and 360s over the years, and they were all a blast to ride.
I'd do the work on the fenders and run the smaller wheels. I think the smaller wheels suit the car better, and you can flare the arches without ruining anything. They don't have to be mega huge box flares. Just wide enough to clear the wheels.
The Miata wheels look good in the front but not at all in the rear, IMO.
I've ordered the 3" Paco lift kit. But it doesn't have to be perminant. And it doesn't have to be 3".
See if a friend has some 15s you can try on? I like the smaller Miata wheels, but agree the rear looks somewhat funky. 14s function, 16s are too big to fit, but 15 might be just right.
Really dig how this came together.
Do you think you could solve your clearance issue with some inexpensive adjustable Miata coilovers with the ride height cranked up? I bet you could find some cast-offs for cheap.
Hit it with the camber stick
Not sure why I kept this a secrete, but there's something you should know and it will help explain why the 3" lift is the right one. Last weekend, before putting the wheels on and driving it out of the garage, I put these spacers in the coil springs:
Had them on all 4 corners. In the front they were positioned to add 1.5" of lift (supposedly), and in the rear I had them positioned the other way to add 1" of lift (the coils were wound a lot tighter in the rear, had a hard time getting them in there). It did seem to level out the stance a little, because before I did that, the car was titled forward just slightly. The photo above is of the front, but I repositioned the spacers to be the tall way after taking the photo.
Of course, those things are trash and shouldn't be anywhere near my project, but I was just looking for a quick and easy temporary solution.
So these pics are with 1" to 1.5" lift, supposedly, already added, and before the coil springs settled down even further another 0.5 inch:
And the Paco 3" lift is just as easy to remove as it is to install. So one day I can do the body work to the fender arches that would allow it to go back to that original ground clearance. Or I can replace the stock coils with lowering ones to bring it back down just a little.
My weekends are already booked with domestic things, so I'll have to find time on week days, but I think it should only take few week nights of work to install the lift. Then again it's a 30 year old car from the midwest and I've worked on enough old rusty suspentions to know how berkeley that can be.
So I'm really looking forward to getting to be able to drive it! I'm also going to put on my wife's black steelies off her Yaris and see how I like that look instead. Dimensions are exactly the same, except the width of the rim (5" vs 5.5") but shouldn't matter much. She might just get a new shiny pair of rims for her car, I wonder if she would even notice if I did it without telling her first.
Did the absolute bare minimum to route the exhaust out from under the car. Previously it was just dumping the exhaust where the catalytic converter should be but some yahoo deleted it several years ago, and the exhaust fumes would quickly fill the cabin via the many many openings that I still need to close up back by the rear wheels and the trunk area.
Maybe that should be the nickname for this build: the Absolute Bare Minimum.
(the floor jack is there just for piece of mind, there's four floor jacks under the frame rails)
I put a bend in it just to make it more interesting than a perfectly straight pipe. But I have no excuse for not getting a full exhaust system, they're rediculously cheap! I priced out a cat back exhaust kit, new catalytic converter, and new oxygen sensor on RockAuto.com for only a little more than $300. So I will certainly buy and install a new exhaust system but maybe not right away.
Does it look kinda funny, sticking out of the back corner at an angle like that? I think it does. It may not last very long.
That whole rear "apron" looks funny to me, sticking below the bumper like that. I wonder if it was there to help direct air up into the engine for air cooling? If so then I may chop it.
Was just informed that a chassis/body swap like this is called a "hat car"
mannydantyla said:
Does it look kinda funny, sticking out of the back corner at an angle like that? I think it does. It may not last very long.
Aside from the non-mandel bend that you can see. I actually think it looks very Volkswagen.
yeah you're right, but it could look better. Just temporary though.
I got the two rear lift brackets installed yesterday. I had a devil of a time getting the outer lower-control-arm bolts (the long one that goes through the hub) out. They were rusted and seized to the metal sleeve. But I persisted. The key was to use a MAP torch, get the hub sleeves real hot, break it loose (breaker bar with a cheater pipe extension), pb-blaster, more heat, more breaker bar, more pb-blaster, impact wrench, more pb-blaster, get it spinning with the impact driver and while it's spinning hit it on the other side with a sledge hammer (with the nut on the end to protect the threads). It's a 30 year old car so I can't complain. I loaded them up with anti-sieze before reinstalling.
I should be able to reconnect the sway bars. The aftermarket links that someone installed are adjustable and if they don't adjust far enough then I can use some threaded rod or something.
How long do you think my CV shafts will last? The photo above is at full droop of course but, as the instructions that came with the kit says, this is pushing the limits of the vehicle has it was designed.
mannydantyla said:......
Maybe that should be the nickname for this build: the Absolute Bare Minimum.
..................
Yep. I approve. That's how I usually get my cars and projects: barely functional.
I have a plan for the dash to cover up the gap between the dash pad and the bottom of the windshield and the gap at the corners by the bolts. First I'll add some steel connecting the bottom of the windshield to the metal dash for strength. Then I'll seal it off with something that can be removable if I need to work on the windshield wipers, duct tape could do the trick but a piece of plastic or something glued down would probably be better. Then I'll make a custom dash cover out of carpet that wraps around. Maybe I'll even learn how to sew, lol
My "hat's" off to you. A lot of work went into this and it is coming out great.
Having trouble with the front suspension. The passenger side strut bolt is stuck to the metal sleeve inside the bushing. I can turn the bolt but the metal sleeve also turns inside the bushing. Hammering on the threaded end (with a nut on to protect the bolt) with a sledge hammer isn't working. Last night I drilled some holes in the exosed ends of the sleeve and filled the holes with PB Blaster before retiring for the night. Today or this weekend I'll try a ball joint press, air-hammer with a blunt end, or I'll just destroy the strut if I have to. There's really not enough access to cut the bolt away with either a sawzall or an angle grinder. The very last thing I need to do is destroy the lower control arm because
Oh, and I need new ball joints because all four have torn boots and I broke the bolt on one of the lowers. Thankfully I was able to remove the ball joint from the control arm with the broken bolt.
It's a 30 year old car so I expected this.
In reply to mannydantyla :
This is a slippery slope. Once you start going through the Miata wear items, it is hard to stop. Ball joints, bearings,bushings, brakes and pretty much everything that moves will scream for attention from your wallet.
And I thought you were taking a break from this?! 
Pete
In reply to NOHOME :
Yup, the fun has begun. Hopefully it stops at the ball joints. This is the first mechanical work on the car that I've done so far. Actually that's not true, I worked on the driveshaft and the brake fluid, but that was a lot easier.
Just ordered Mazda lower ball joints from FM. But for the uppers, it's a lot more work to replace I've read, and many people just replace the whole upper control arm at over $120 each. The UCAs are thin and easy to bend so pressing in new ones is problematic. However, the upper ball joints don't seem to wear as much as the lowers on the Miata, so what I did was I checked the uppers by hand and I feel no play in them. So I ordered some replacement rubber boots for them, also fom FM. Will still need to separate the uppers from the hub to get the new bots on there and make some tool to press the boots on, but I will feel a lot better about driving with old upper ball joints if they are at least protected from dirt getting into the joints. If this was a trailer queen show car I wouldn't worry about it but I'm building this to drive it every day. Or every other day. Or every other day that it's not raining and I don't feel like riding my motorcycle instead.
So another $175 going towards suspension, and the $240 price point of the 3" lift kit was supposed to be the selling point for me. The whole project so far has costed me about $7,000 including tools and services and consumables, oh and the two original cars. Not including the Super Beetle. And this is supposed to be the cheap phase, before the restoration!
And I still may need new shocks if I can't get the passanger side one out without ruining it.
Did I tell you guys that I sold the Super Beetle? I bought it for $1,700 and I sold it for $1,800 and I got to drive it to work about a dozen times so, win win! I'm happy I didn't cut it up like I intended. Now somebody is getting to enjoy it. I never even touched the engine except to check the oil.
Oh, and I also got rid of the junk Type 3 chassis that was sitting in my yard. I called a local air-cooled VW mechanic and asked if he would be interested in taking it for free and to my surprise he said yes and by the time I got home from work a tow truck had already hauled it away! Ploblem solved.
I battled this bolt for days. I lost.
You couldn't just cutoff disk the nut off? I had the same problem on my G35 rear shocks and that seemed to work.
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