NC Miata Stance work.

The NC Miata is a bit of a challenge to improve the stance because it has sort of built in fender flares and the bumpers make up a good portion of the flares.  I decided to improve the stance of my NC 2 years ago and just finished.  I had to come up with techniques for the bumper portions of the flares due to the challenges of working with polypropylene.  I built a portable paint booth in my basement that folds out of the ceiling for this project.  That turned out to be the hardest part of the build.  Here is the final result.

looks good! 

Could you share more of the process and what exactly has been done? I'm not really an NC expert, but can tell the dimensions here are different.  

There were a lot of separate process because the fender and bumper are both involved.  The front fenders were the easy part.  Simple pie cuts, then tie them together with 1/4 inch steel rod.  Finally I built a mounting flange for the bumper.  The hard part is figuring out the profile/arc you want the fender to take.

After making sure the shape was good I reinforced the bottom side of the pie cuts with 22 Gauge steel and welded it up followed by bodywork.

The rear fender was a little different that the front.  The fender lip is attached to the inner fender.  The inner fender was cut away, and the fender worked into shape, then a 1/4 inch steel rod was used to define the fender lip.

The rear bumper had to be widened to match the fenders, but a also decided to shorten it 3 inches.  I did a lot of experiments with an old bumper to figure out the best method.  I found the using Lord Fusor Bumper repair adhesive along with their cleaner and adhesion promoter created a good bond.  I used multiple 1/16 inch thick aluminum strips to get the shape I needed.  

This method requires a lot of bodywork.  Polyester fillers might crack in this situation.  I made my own filler out of epoxy resins, microsperes, (Also called glass bubbles), thickening agents and various lengths of fiberglass strands.  I started out at 1/2 inch strands, then as I got closer to the final shaping worked it down to 1/16 inch, then just microspheres.  

Comparison with a stock 2006 Miata - I tried to make it look as stock as possible with the wider stance.  Basically just making the stock flares wider so it would have a little bit of an OEM look.

Here is a picture of the widened front fender flange.

Initial shaping of the front bumper to match wider front fender using aluminum strips.  The bumper is fiberglass, so I used 3M panel adhesive because it is slower to harden.

Here is a picture inside the rear bumper and my portable paint booth folded down out of the ceiling.

That was a E36 M3load of work. Impressed by the paint also!

Pete

Thanks.  Im not the greatest painter but I'm pretty good at wet sanding and polishing so I guess that makes up for it.

It looks amazing

Holy crap - that is so swanky in an oem+ way.  Love that you just accentuated the lines that were there already.

Thanks.  The NC has pretty good lines - just needs some embellishment.  Not many aftermarket parts that work well for it like most cars.  Here is a picture of my booth folded up.  Building it to fold was a 3D puzzle but it worked out.  Also my next project.

I  like that!

It looks like what happens when an NC mates with an RX8.  

I did look at pictures of modified RX8's to figure out the flares.  There are lots of RX8 bodykit parts available.

To make the car more drivable I got rid of the side skirts and added splash guards.  It was difficult to jack the car up quickly with side skirts.  I like wide sticky tires but the sound of gravel hitting the side of the car is a little unnerving.  The splash guards seem to blend in with the tires pretty well.

The best looking NC I've ever seen, hands down.

Wow that looks clean.

At first I was not sure it was worth the effort but those final pictures are the bomb, nice work! Thanks for the details on what was done to make it happen. I also think that is the best looking NC ever!

I dig the car. I REALLY dig the folding paint booth. Great idea and it looks like you executed it well, too!

Yeah the car is great and all, I do agree one of the best looking NC's ever, but I'm gonna need a LOT more details on that folding paint booth!

The issues with building a folding paint booth are lighting, ventilation, strong enough structure but light enough to fold.  Also you need access to the lighting above the booth to change bulbs.  I used 120Watt equvallent LED bulbs above the booth for lighting.  The ceiling is made of wood and removable florescent light plastic panels.  The sides are made mostly of 1x2s with thick plastic sheeting attached.  I used cheap furnace filters for both intake and exhaust with 4 box fans to pull the air out.  there is a door on the right side for ease of entry and exit when paining. The is an air outlet pass thru and electrical outlet in the ceiling.  It really is a 3D puzzle to make this with an 8 foot ceiling.  A taller ceiling would make this much simpler. 

Damn, that is slick!