The Targa Miata moves to the next stage

Keith Tanner said:

 

But I was lying in bed this morning thinking, and an airgapped heatshield might be the solution. Just a piece of aluminum plate on some standoffs would do the trick. That's if I can find room in the tunnel, although it could also be mounted in the car for a particularly industrial (but less effective) look. Now, combine that with the fresh air injection between the plate and the tunnel wall and you'd have a fairly effective heat barrier. Okay, I may not duct air into it but I'm definitely going to look and see where I have room for a shield.

 

A little late to the party for this, but while you had the drive train out of the car you could have made the tunnel a bit wider and taller.

noddaz said:

Keith Tanner said:

 

But I was lying in bed this morning thinking, and an airgapped heatshield might be the solution. Just a piece of aluminum plate on some standoffs would do the trick. That's if I can find room in the tunnel, although it could also be mounted in the car for a particularly industrial (but less effective) look. Now, combine that with the fresh air injection between the plate and the tunnel wall and you'd have a fairly effective heat barrier. Okay, I may not duct air into it but I'm definitely going to look and see where I have room for a shield.

A little late to the party for this, but while you had the drive train out of the car you could have made the tunnel a bit wider and taller.

I use that space for things like seats and my feet. Making the tunnel bigger has some serious tradeoffs and would not really decrease the amount of heat.

Update!

First, I did another Facebook Live video on the status of the car. Hey, we needed something for me to blather on about.

Here's the silent version.

Spent some time building the brackets for the dash and steering column. Did the dash first, then once that was all in place I built and welded the column bracket.  The dash (which is just a plastic cap at this point) is remarkably solid feeling with just a few mounting points. The column is pretty firmly mounted but I'm still thinking about a brace running forward to the firewall. It's in the wrong plane, really.

I cut a hole in the dash and embedded the Coralba rally computer in it. My whole plan on this car is to pare it down to a minimalist interface, but I had to leave the Coralba. I'm building a bracket on the backside to hold it in place.

Overall view. The dash will have the eyeball vents at each end and a solid sweep of crash pad with the only interruption being the rally computer.

Dropped the seat and instruments in so I could get a look at how the cockpit feels. The previous steering wheel quick release was a spline welded to the old column, which was a pain to live with. The new one is an NRG that locks into the correct alignment but is thicker. So I'm playing with various components to get the wheel in the right place. Heck, I'm playing with different wheels. I'll show some pictures of that later.

So not a lot of progress, but I'm going the right direction. 

Also, the kickass sound system is here! Okay, the "louder than the earworm stuck in my head but basically hopeless due to the ambient noise in this car" sound system. The components were chosen primarily for their size and, umm, "value". The Clearwater speakers came out of the dashboard donor and will probably end up in another car.

Finally, the update noone's been waiting for!

Haven't got much work done on this of late, but decided this week it was time to get moving for reals.

I started with the dash. First, cut a hole to allow the rally computer to protrude. I also built a bracket to hold it to the dash shell. Also did some trimming to allow the new center piece to sit flat.

Then it was time to glue the pieces together using contact cement. I reinforced the joins with some metal rods - pieces of bicycle spoke.

And voila. There's still a slight gap between two sections but the cover for this will be padded and I think it will disappear. Or maybe I'll squirt some expanding foam in there and trim it. That's really the right answer.

To see what it would look like as a single color, I gave it a quick and dirty wrap in black vinyl and tossed it in the car. Not bad. Note that I also added an upper door pad as well, I figured I might as well make it wraparound.

The original plan was to do the dash pad in black suede. But then I got thinking, and this is going to get a try. Fabric on order, so we'll revisit this. 

Now to make the noise. I did find a fun thing whilst unpacking all the rally gear. I have a couple of Coralba rally computers and the last time I had them out, we were prepping an ND Miata for Targa Newfoundland. And I found this in the box - a new GPS unit. I'd completely forgotten. The one in the Targa Miata runs off a modified ABS sensor, but that was going to be a PITA to arrange for the ND so I guess we decided to go GPS. This makes for a unit that can install in just a few minutes, which opens up some interesting possibilities. Like an instant recce setup. Hmm.

Anyhow, the main Coralba is already installed and wired in, so that's just a potential toy for the future.

First, mount the amp. I added a couple of 1" straps running from the dash bar to the firewall so I could bolt it down. Even with the tack welds, it's one solidly mounted unit. Ideally I'd put it down low in the car to keep the CG as low as possible, but if we were going for pure function the car wouldn't have an amp! I mounted it horizontally like this mostly to keep it out of sight. Since I don't need access to it for anything, that's fine. It's just sitting on the mount, it's straight when done. Seriously.

Wired up the speakers which involved a lot of screwing around with the wire loom but is fundamentally just a matter of running a couple of wires.

I was worried about protecting the speakers until I realized that the stock speaker cover still fits. Just, but it counts. 

Then it was time for an inner door panel. I picked up a sheet of 0.025" aluminum and traced out one of my not-too-badly-damaged door cards. A bit of work with the cutting wheel and a hole saw and a stepped drill bit and this happened.

I'm pretty chuffed with that. The stock door panel attaches with plastic clips. I put rivnuts in a few of the holes in the door that the clips went into and used screws to hold this thing down. I'll probably put a bit of foam on the backside to avoid rattles - I hate rattles - and maybe give it a brushed finish. But it looks cool.

The toggle switch is for the electric window. The knob is the bluetooth receiver. I am going for maximum minimalism so I don't want switches etc on the central dash. This is very accessible but subtle, perfect.

Door closed. The red glow means it's powered on.

Falls readily to hand. 

Making some real progress here, at least mentally. Next step is to start cleaning up the metal tub - there are lots of holes and leftover things here, and it needs a fresh coat of paint.

Question - do I leave the door panel bare alloy? The crash pads will be blue, the tub will be white. Do I paint the door panel white to match?

Volume is the door is legit. I never would have thought of that. 

I like the raw aluminum door panel, it looks purposeful. You could always vinyl wrap it later if it clashes once the interior is more finished.

Big +1 on the volume in the door too, that's a cool detail.

I'm really happy with how the door turned out. I had a mental picture of what I wanted, but it exceeded that.

The knob is volume, next/previous track, play/pause and on/off. It'll also do an aux in, I should really run the wires for that before I button everything up too far. I've got a collection of knobs as well so I can make it as big or as small as I want - I did experiment with a blue aluminum one but you can see more of the controller. The rubber grommet in this picture is hidden behind the aluminum panel, but the rounded plastic bezel would be visible.

What about glare off the door panels? They seem shiny enough to cause much angst when the sunlight is at the wrong angle. Maybe a brushed finished would help, while still looking cool?

The knob in the door is such a cool idea.

I'm trying to figure out the angles for the glare, I can't see how it would be a problem unless the light was coming from the footwells :) But it sure will attract fingerprints. I'm thinking I might scotchbrite the panel to get rid of fabrication marks. If I screw up the other side and mark up the sheet, I may have to do that anyhow! I'm sure not going to polish it, I'm not a polishing kind of person.

Leave as-is for now and consider vinyl in the future is the most likely scenario.

I'd likely wrap it with some type of fabric, but that's just me.

The thing is that there's no fabric anywhere else. Just the crash pad on the dash and doortop, plus the seats. Everything else is painted metal or the plastic top to the dash. So just wrapping one panel would look weird to me. I did consider putting the stock door panels on but it just looked out of place.

The knob is volume, next/previous track, play/pause and on/off.

Where did you source that? I don’t see any buttons at all. Can you also toggle the knob up/down/left/right to access the other functions?  I’ve been looking for a nice one knob bluetooth receiver, but all the ones I’ve seen use separate up/down buttons. I prefer a knob to a mini-keypad any day. 

Also keep up the great work! I’m digging the aluminum doorcards too.  I think you should honor the material and treat it (scotch brute pads sound nice) rather than cover it up!  5 out of 5 Ichiban Moto stickers!

White vinyl, like marine grade seat cover material, might work for the door card and it should reduce noise and hot/cold transfer to the cabin.  Should be pretty easy to glue on. 

I like everything you did with the new door skins. Anxious to see the next stages.

Keith Tanner said:

The thing is that there's no fabric anywhere else. Just the crash pad on the dash and doortop, plus the seats. Everything else is painted metal or the plastic top to the dash. So just wrapping one panel would look weird to me. I did consider putting the stock door panels on but it just looked out of place.

Maybe a textured flat paint? The bare metal just doesn't do it for me. 

Of course, it's not my car, so my opinion is worth exactly what you paid for it. 

I did specifically ask for opinions, though :)

Just walked into the garage and looked at the car. White is looking more likely, but I'll wait until everything else is done first.

jerrysarcastic (Forum Supporter) said:

The knob is volume, next/previous track, play/pause and on/off.

Where did you source that? I don’t see any buttons at all. Can you also toggle the knob up/down/left/right to access the other functions?  I’ve been looking for a nice one knob bluetooth receiver, but all the ones I’ve seen use separate up/down buttons. I prefer a knob to a mini-keypad any day. 

Also keep up the great work! I’m digging the aluminum doorcards too.  I think you should honor the material and treat it (scotch brute pads sound nice) rather than cover it up!  5 out of 5 Ichiban Moto stickers!

The knob only rotates and presses, it does not jog up/down/left/right. It's got all the functions you usually expect out of a bluetooth controller, though. To make use of more, you'd need a display.

It's an NVX XUBT3, sourced off Amazon. The knob itself is from my collection of many, many knobs that I have accumulated.

Another vote for white... just have it match the rest of the interior.

Can you flock the door panel?   Although I have no idea how durable flocking is.  

Thanks for sharing everything. 

I would go with flat black fire place or grill paint on the door cards.

First choice, wet sanded aluminum-think satin.

Second choice white. 

Honestly, white hadn't occurred to me. The more I think about it, the more I like it.

RossD said:

Thanks for sharing everything. 

I would go with flat black fire place or grill paint on the door cards.

Funny you should mention that. Here's a racer I built back in 2002. Pretty much the entire interior and the hood were painted in BBQ paint because it dries so fast. Also, there are a few similarities to this car. I've considered building another tunnel-mounted switch panel, but I'm going to see if I can avoid it.

Right now, I'm leaning towards brushed aluminum. One reason is because making it white might be a little monolithic, and you won't be able to tell if it's plastic or metal. 

But it may also solve one of my other problems - the heat shielding on the tunnel. I don't think I can remove it even if I want to, and it's silver. I was thinking of painting it white, but what if I just clean it up and have it match the doors? The good news is that's the first step towards painting anyhow :)

So I scuffed the panels (both sides are cut now) and I've started working on cleaning up the tub. 

I was thinking perhaps machine turned.......old gasser look ......er might be a bit much.

Not my style, personally. I'll leave that to someone else.

Dealing with the tub is not the most fun part of this build. First, I have to deal with all the holes and grime and leftover adhesive from a car that has undergone constant modification for about a decade and a half. Holes are being filled with rubber plugs or covered with weatherproof tape (hey, they did it at the factory!), extra bracket rivets are being drilled out and I'm trying to clean up just plain grime. 

The polished bit you can see by the red square was done by the heel of my clutch foot.

I also have the whole wiring harness unwrapped so I can make all the various changes. Which means it's time to clean up the harness, make sure it's properly anchored and generally clean everything up. I still have to figure out the parking of the wipers after the combo switch change.

This picture is in progress, not complete!

I tend to use zip ties to make bundles and then join bundles together with wraps of Velcro "tape". Makes it easy to separate a functional bundle such as the wiring for the PCM or the rally computer without everything getting hairy. But sometimes it just means lots of zip ties. I was chasing out some redundant wires for the active wing, the defroster blower and some other switches so this all got opened up.

My goal of removing all switches and displays continues. The headlight motor switch has been removed, as I can always raise them manually if I need them up. Or raise them and turn off the kill switch. Anyhow, a separate switch is irrelevant. I've ordered a flush switch for the hazards that will be mounted on the column shroud if it fits. HVAC controls are gone as there is currently no HVAC in place.

So there's just one thing left: the oil pressure warning light. I don't NEED this as the car has a proper oil pressure gauge, but it's good to have. I haven't come up with a good place for this yet, but I did consider using one of the eyeball vent holes where the wideband used to live. Hmm. Not quite.

No, it does not look better in blue acrylic.

I'll spend some time sitting in the car and see if I can come up with a smart place for this. I used to have a small one in the top of the gauge cover, but it was too small to be much use. Now that LEDs are better, maybe one on the top of the dash where it will reflect in the windscreen like a HUD?