Husband and Wife $08 Challenge 1991 Miata Build

Been following this thread for a while... great job you two! Well deserved prize!

Well speaking for myself I had a blast with the week long build frenzy, personally I'm amazed we did as well as we did. I never doubted it would run, but DAMN that thing was flat in the corners, and I'm betting with 2 or 3 more runs I could have gotten into the 15's in the drags.

Physically I think I'm pretty much recovered from the sleep depravation, mentally, well I keep wanting to randomly spout "more chips please", "oh look, it's a hole", or "why won't this bezerklying bolt thread in". Or the one I think that bothers me the most is wondering if OMGWTFBBQ is some obscure Red vs Blue refrence that I'm missing.

Seriously Josh, I had a blast, I'll be there next year if we have to do it again, and I'm looking forward to watching u blow up the spare rear end .

another Spirit example: at a fuel stop while towing from detroit to gainesville, i realized that i would need some welding done on the dolly while at the challenge, if i made it that far. josh volunteered his welder, and we used the time between drags and banquet to pull the dolly to his house a few miles away, get the welding done, and get back to the hotel in time to clean up for the banquet.

so thanks again, Josh, and congratulations on the successful adoption, the completion of the car, etc.

Anyone have some pictures of the beast running? I need to show some friends that it spent some time alive.

LMAO! I think there might be a few, I just wonder if we got any of the monsterous cloud of smoke off our first auto-x run that resulted in the pro franticly looking around the car for the fire he just knew was there.

Diff was bone dry! Pulled the finger tight drain plug an nothing came out! I guess there are some dangers to an all night build.

AMAZING that it made it through 5 auto x runs + 3 drag runs, not to mention that last burn out.

next time we need to add blue tape to all fill and drain plugs plus the dipstick. just a thought

That being said, they say hindsight is 20/20

I absolutely loved the build-up. Between this car, and the Rabbit build on the old board, all of my old excuses have been trashed - especially considering the fact you all finished up the car after adopting some kids. It's time to get in the garage.

I do have a couple questions about the paint - 1) Did you use "rattle-can" paint, or a spray-gun with thinned rust-oleum? 2) Did you do anything special to get the paint to stick to the flexible plastic bumpers, and how is it holding up? I have a neighbor with a pick-up truck that is in need of a paint job. We have talked about the "rolled" method of painting with rust-oleum, but I think this approach would work better for him.

Thanks agiain for sharing your experiences. Congrats on the award.

Mark

I don't think you should ask paint questions about this car.

Is the car too bright to look at? I noticed the blacked out hood, and figured that was probably done to keep from blinding thedriver.

Trust me. The question about the paint is not meant to detract from the other aspect of the build. I wish I had the ability to put together something like this car in the time that it was done.

The paint job looks pretty good in the pictures - reminds me a little of the unpainted hot rod truck that Jimmy Shine built years ago. Might be a cool look for a modern, budget built truck. Definitely makes the Miata stand out.

I remeber there was quite a thread on the use of rust-oleum or tremclad on the old board. What I didn't remember what process folks used to make the stuff stick to plastics, and how well the rust-oleum worked when sprayed vs rolled.

Thanks

Mark

The "Dont ask about paint" comment was in reference to the quality of my work. For some reason the rustoleum aluminum applied in the ways I applied it tended to come off rather easily. I rolled a acetone thinned batch of rustoleum on a test fender and after drying it left massive silver dust on everything it touched. I didn't try wetsanding or the 50 coat method so I dont know how that would have gone. The finish was also matte aluminum immediately after drying and remained that way.

For the spray method I thinned the rustoleum 10% and used tractor supply enamel hardener according to label instructions. I used a $40 Ingersol HVLP with a 1.3 tip. I layed the paint on with moderate thickness and laid on about 3 coats over about 3 1/2 hours. The paint dried to a aluminum foil look that was beautiful. Problem was that it dried very dusty. If you touched it you came back silver. During the all night build the car got really dirty and all attempts to clean it seemed to take off paint to the point of almost showing the yellow. I ended up using a tire wet formula to get some sort of shine for the concourse. The finish is now matte and im not sure what will happen when I wash it the first time. If I could duplicate the foil look it had immediately after drying and get it tough enough to use I would paint everything I own that color. Im tempted to use it on my next challenger and to just lay it down the day before because it looks so damn good fresh.
Clear enough?

Now we know how NOT to paint.

Luv 'ya, Josh.

Anyone have pictures of the hands of anyone who worked on this car at the event?

SVreX wrote: Now we know how NOT to paint. Luv 'ya, Josh. Anyone have pictures of the hands of anyone who worked on this car at the event?

Well maybe someone Wants a dusty silver finish on his/her car. What do you think of that mr smarty pants.

As for the silver hands-no pictures so just imagine victims of a James Bond style supervillan with slightly lower aspirations.

I just read this, and take great inspiration from it. Sure, 10 hour shifts at work followed by another 4 or 5 refurbing the new house(shop to come) are tough to most I know, but trust a GRM'er to show what true grit's all about. Righteous build.

Thanks for the kind words. The local crew coming together at the last minute is what made it possible.
Thinking about the car again inspired me to dig it out of the garage today. 2 hours of rearranging let it see daylight for the first time in about a year.

Took it for a spin and ended up spitting a broken bolt out of (and by out of, I mean through) the timing belt cover. I wonder what destruction I will find under there. Despite the possible engine destruction, I had fun. I am amazed it was so slow in the 1/4. It feels damn quick zipping around the neighborhood. It does look like I really need to hunt down a replacement limited slip, the open diff isn't doing me any favors.

MrJoshua wrote: Took it for a spin and ended up spitting a broken bolt out of (and by out of, I mean through) the timing belt cover. I wonder what destruction I will find under there.

Wow. Between the locked up diff on the last drag pass and now this, it's been rough for the silver car.

dyintorace wrote:

MrJoshua wrote: Took it for a spin and ended up spitting a broken bolt out of (and by out of, I mean through) the timing belt cover. I wonder what destruction I will find under there.

Wow. Between the locked up diff on the last drag pass and now this, it's been rough for the silver car.

Apparently an all night build gets you a car that can Barely make it through the challenge.

MrJoshua wrote:

dyintorace wrote:

MrJoshua wrote: Took it for a spin and ended up spitting a broken bolt out of (and by out of, I mean through) the timing belt cover. I wonder what destruction I will find under there.

Wow. Between the locked up diff on the last drag pass and now this, it's been rough for the silver car.

Apparently an all night build gets you a car that can *Barely* make it through the challenge.

Look at the bright side...it failed only after completing the Challenge! Plus, like Colin Chapman said, any car that holds together for longer than the race is too heavy.

dyintorace wrote:

MrJoshua wrote: Took it for a spin and ended up spitting a broken bolt out of (and by out of, I mean through) the timing belt cover. I wonder what destruction I will find under there.

Wow. Between the locked up diff on the last drag pass and now this, it's been rough for the silver car.

I'm not that worried-it was just a little bolt.

MrJoshua wrote:

dyintorace wrote:

MrJoshua wrote: Took it for a spin and ended up spitting a broken bolt out of (and by out of, I mean through) the timing belt cover. I wonder what destruction I will find under there.

Wow. Between the locked up diff on the last drag pass and now this, it's been rough for the silver car.

I'm not that worried-it was just a little bolt.

little bolts and mazda's.....that's all you use to hold them together!

bumpity for the build thread forum. Dyinto-can you find the continuation thread for me?

TWO in a WEEK?!?!??!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!

YOU'RE KILLING ME!

Something about those wheels...

One of my all time favourite threads is back. Where is this going this time? How is that new pit crew doing?