This may be a little ridiculous - a $2018 challenge oddessey

Loving all the updates! 

sealer and color coat one done 

painted and approved 

I'm REALLY looking forward to seeing the miata at this point....

turned out nice for a driveway paint job!

That looks amazing.

Yet somehow I yearn for more of the Frankenstein Miata's transformation into a real boy :)

In reply to Piguin :

Soon. Like, hoping to pick up the welder again tomorrow after church soon. Next is finishing the frame rail, and reinforcement to the Swiss cheese that holds the roll bar mounts. Then, a LOT of cleanup, sanding, and painting. 

this is close. If you zoom in, you can see the spots that need just a bit more attention. However, it'll clear the turbo and downpipe way better than it would have, allowing for easier service and hopefully a simple 3 inch downpipe in the future. 

Today, I walked outside and had an odd feeling. For the forst time in well over two years, my property only has MY cars on it. No flippers, customer cars, friends projects, good Samaritan jobs. Nothing but my junk. Nothing coming in either.

I'll admit, I'm seriously burned out. I've been averaging 10 hour days at my day job since Sept 22, and many hours on others stuff to make up my salary cut. I've rebuilt the territory to where it's supporting us again, and I can go back to JUST 50ish hour weeks. I don't quite know how to mentally or emotionally handle this change. Feels like I should still be hammer down no matter what. 

Dunno if that made sense, but I needed to get it out there. Hopefully somebody understands. 

On the challenge car front, we need to add 150 to the budget for the na widebody kit I bought at the challenge last year. I traded it for a k frame, damaged 2002 front bumper and headlights, kenwood stereo, strut tower bar, firewall insulation pad, and drivers taillight from a 99 to dave wolf in rock hill. He's currently got it listed on Facebook for 400.....

I didn't take pictures, unfortunately. I'm an idiot, and did it while working and in a rush. 

I also picked up 2 sets of 225/45/15 200tw tires. A 2024 production date set of rs4 that are quite soft to the thumbnail, and a 2020 set of v710 that are harder. Thoughts about doping and using either set at the challenge? I've never really had fresh rs4, and haven't loved the used ones robs been giving me, but haven't doped them. Again, no pics but they were $100 a set. 

Lastly, I started cleaning up the parts car a lot more before pulling it back in for further testing and teardown. It's cleaning up really nice, but the k1s may not....

Blasting purple power and water underneath a rusty miata on the gravel sucks by the way.

I understand. Total burnout over here, but waddayougonnadoaboutit? Lay down and die? Not you. Looking forward to the next chapter.

In reply to wheelsmithy (Joe-with-an-L) :

Nope not going to lay down and die. But I may slow down briefly. Maybe even participate in another hobby or do something different for a little while. Like finish my fence and carport. A brief change of busy may be good for my soul

Dusterbd13-michael said:

In reply to wheelsmithy (Joe-with-an-L) :

A brief change of busy may be good for my soul

I find this very relatable. Hope it works well for you, and we can't wait to see what progress is made on the car when it is time for that again. 

P.S.

I am still interested in those shocks and the quick release. If you're willing to price out shipping for all of it, let me know how much that is. If it's going to be a pain, I'd be ok with just getting the quick release shipped. 

I need to get a real update together this weekend 

Dusterbd13-michael said:

In reply to wheelsmithy (Joe-with-an-L) :

 Maybe even participate in another hobby or do something different for a little while.

There are other hobbies?? 

maschinenbau said:

Dusterbd13-michael said:

In reply to wheelsmithy (Joe-with-an-L) :

 Maybe even participate in another hobby or do something different for a little while.

There are other hobbies?? 

Apparently not, as I haven't quit on this for anything longer than a week.

Budget update first

Previous total:1220.87 with 1625 recoup

New money:

150: Na fiberglass widebody kit that I traded for damaged nb2 bumper and headlights, front k frame, ppf, old Kenwood head unit, and a strut tower bar.

 100: (rough estimates) ½ gallon epoxy primer, ½ gallon clear, ½ gallon 2k primer, ¼ gallon Bondo, 1/3 can reducer

100: nb2 surfboard seats I had bought at the challenge last year

10: heavy and ugly ICW 15x6.5 wheels from wheelsmithy with tires old enough to drink

Sold woodgrain ebrake for 30

Sold spindles and suspension arms to wheelsmithy for 75

New totals: 1325.87 with 1880 recoup

Since we left off, I’ve been a bit busy. Like a cat scratching for a place to crap on concrete.

First and foremost, I did a paintjob on a 1959 tr3a while rehabbing an 87 suburban. These were the last two OPC’s I had agreed to, and I’m glad they’re done.

 20240630_163452 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20240817_094707 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20240817_130355 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20240823_193646 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

I bought the leftover materials from him to use on the challenge car for $100. He tried to give them to me, but that violates the rules. I couldn’t make him take more. Believe me, I tried.

While talking about procurement, I bought a set of wheels, as I no longer had any in the budget. Don’t like them cosmetically, they’re heavy and narrow, but they were CHEAP. Wheelsmithy from GRM sold them to me. They came on his Miata, and he couldn’t find anyone to take them for free for the last few years despite his best efforts. So, I paid him! They’re bound to get way cooler with some effort and paint, but I don’t know how yet. Feel free to give me ideas.

20240629_205344 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

After the triumph and suburban were done, I moved onto the welding that needed to be done at dad’s place where I had the good welder. The turbo car has some hacked up sections of frame rail to provide a minimum of clearance to the turbo and downpipe, so I needed to do something similar in the green car. My solution needed to be more elegant, because I’m making a nice car this time.

20240805_171216 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

My solution was to cut he pinch weld off the driver’s side, and notch the wing some more. This should give me all the clearance I should need, and even allow for a fairly simple 3-inch downpipe should I desire in the future.

20240804_143944 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20240810_160333 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

Then moved onto the trans tunnel. It had been butchered by yours truly to make the t5 shifter fit, and I wanted to be able to make the stock rubber boot bolt in again. Cut a chunk of trans tunnel from a rusty Miata headed to the scrapper, and fiddlefarted around enough to make a patch that fit well enough to get welded in.

20240810_140629 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20240810_160259 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

We then got the car outside for a little cleaning. See, it was filthy from being used as a race car, and from being a Miata before that. So, Castrol super clean and the pressure washer came into play.

Before:

20240907_121555 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20240907_144043 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

During:

20240907_144012 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

After:

20240910_195503 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

The white has aged like milk, and is flaking off. Its going black. I also think I’m cutting the angle welded to the subframe connectors off, as it no longer as a butterfly brace to mount there. Get the out of the way for something better.

I’ve been working on cleaning up the engine bay in preparation for blasting and painting it. that means grinding down all the seam welds, removing sloppy seam sealer, stc. Again, the white aged poorly, and previous me left a lot of work for current me.

20240913_185338 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

Once I think its ground well enough,  I’m spraying some gloss bright paint on it. best way I’ve found to see what it will actually look like when its painted, as ground and wire brushed is perfectly camaflouged. The spray paint highlights it very nicely so I can see what I need to keep working.

20240913_185326 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20240913_185315 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

I’m also working on repairing the hardtop, even though that’s not challenge work. It is work that needs done, and while my shop is trashed it’s a good time.

I started by getting the rear latched epoxied back in after cleaning all the jagged and fibrous wreckage out, and managed to nail the placement dead on.

20240910_193241 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20240910_194528 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20240910_194543 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20240910_194935 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

Moved onto the sides, where I opened the cracks with my Dremel and carbide burr, followed by digging deep with a 40-grit flap wheel, feathering with an 89 grit DA, then five layers of woven feverless cloth and epoxy resin. Once this is all done, I can flip it over, reinforce the rear latches, and chase all the cracks on the internal structure. Then ill feel OK about hanging It on the wall out of the way for a while.

20240911_065024 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20240912_070954 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20240912_071235 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20240913_185250 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

Last but not least, I’m arguing color with myself. I’ve gotten it narrowed down to 1981 corvette charcoal grey, Volvo fjord blue, 2000 corvette dark bowling green metallic, and 2001 Miata BRG. If anyone is willing, could you photoshop the colors onto the red car below? Same body kit, bumpers, wheels, etc. as my car.

1593803114_img_8299_mmthumb by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

Fjord Blue Metallic-734-40,92,120-640-en_US by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

JULY-4TH-2013-013 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

P1310463 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

Thanks for reading y’all, and remember to make the world suck a little less for those around you.

Looking good!

Can't help with photoshoping the colors, maybe someone could provide a render from assetto or FH5?

Metalic colors are notoriously difficult to depict right when trying to overlay them.

P.S. Don't forget to take the angle out of the budget once it gets out of the car!

In reply to Piguin :

Good call on angle!!!

And I'm not familiar with those other two things you talked about so I don't know how well that would work but I'll take your word for it being a pretty good alternative

Assetto Corsa and Forza Horizon 5.

Basically, car games, one more simulation and one more arcade but both with very good graphics that makes it easier to check color combinations and ideas.

Zero help with photoshop.

Dude! I keep telling you, it was $5 for the wheels (right? Gotta look back now, but I swear that's right).

Of your three choices, I like the Volvo Blue best, but I'm a fan boy of the new school flat-but-not-flat colors. The previous was an opinion. 

Always love the updates.

wheelsmithy (Joe-with-an-L) said:

Dusterbd13-michael said:

wheelsmithy (Joe-with-an-L) said:

Michael knows why I posted this (it is the wheels)

Fir the $10 you offered them to me for, i love em!!

Umm, Dude...I said $5. We'll talk soon.

Not to be a prick about it.....

EDIT: Pretty sure you overpaid.

You are correct sir. And I keep trying to overpay by more apparently!

scuffed and painted before it got to make more contaminated by Body working dust

razor blue metallic. Low production 05 color. I really like it in pictures!!!