Not another Miata build thread - BoxheadTim tries to build his '95 Miata for road and track use

Not much in the way of updates this weekend, need to get my UK tax return prepped instead of playing with cars so all that is happening is a quick peek into yet another box of parts that arrived last week:

Two sets of NB injectors that I'm planning to set off to RC Engineering to be cleaned and flow matched - the better set will end up on my NA, the other one gets sold. They only flow a little more but have better atomization and given that I'm not planning to up the boost on the supercharger, they should do fine. I doubt that the original injectors on the car have seen more attention that the odd bottle of injector cleaner so I think that after 132k miles it's probably not such a bad idea to put some refreshed ones on.

Yes, I've read an article in a certain magazine

No photos today, it's freezing cold in the garage and I didn't fancy taking pictures and working on the car at the same time.

Removed the ECUs so I don't damage them, then moved all the wiring that's stuck to the B-posts out of the way. Of course all the plastic holders for the wiring broke as I tried to remove them with the appropriate tool - I really need a heater in the garage. At leat I managed to trim the parcel shelf a little with my tin snips but really need to get my air metal saw going to cut out the remaining bit of the parcel shelf that needs removing. Didn't want to wake the neighbours, wife or cats though by doing that in the middle of the night so it's got to wait until Sunday.

With the ECU and the wiring out of the way it looks like the bar is going to be a decent fit, just need to buy a few more tools to mount it properly (like a angled drill).

BoxheadTim wrote: No photos today, it's freezing cold in the garage and I didn't fancy taking pictures and working on the car at the same time.

Great build, but I have to tease the pansy German. Freezing cold in the garage! I stripped the interior from the Saab outside in freezing rain on Sunday. Today we're up to a balmy 32F, the warmest it's been since last week.

I'm the first to admit that I don't like the cold that much, although I cope with it better here because it's not as damp as in the UK. Our nighttime temperatures are in the mid to low teens at the moment so it does get a little chilly in the insulated garage...

I forgot to mention that I also poked around the box with the supercharger and the kit does indeed look in good shape. It's not quite as complete as I would have liked (the tensioner backing plate has gone AWOL but the seller promised to have another look for it) and the Voodoo Box mutated into a powercard. Not too bothered about the piggyback as the plan is to go MSPNP anyway and if the tensioner doesn't put in an appearance I'll just get the TDR one. That's the fun of buying used...

Unfortunately the CRX ate up all the available car playtime so I have made zero progress on the roll bar install. Need to get cracking on it though as I'm planning to throw a big parts order in the direction of FM and I need to make some progress on this car if I want to hit my April 6 target date for the annual tech.

Despite the lack of progress, the parts stash grew again:

I finally found some time to try and make progress with the installation of the rollbar. Mind you, I had to decide between watching the superbowl and working on the car, but with the wife yelling at the TV, sorry, watching the Superbowl we had that part covered .

So, first I made a little cardboard template to figure out how much metal I needed to cut out:

Then I got my new bodywork saw out and started cutting. Turns out my small Harbor Freight compressor wasn't really up to driving so it took a long time and the compressor started to smell funny, but I got the job done:

I only needed to remove one of the studs that normally hold the ECU, and Mr Dremel made short work of that with a cutting disk and a grinding stone to grind down the remains of the stud:

Note to self, when trial fitting a powder coated bar, wrap the damn thing in something so the sharp edges don't cut into the powder coating:

Finally got the bar to sit right but with the foot plates where they are supposed to be, only the driver's side mounting hole on top of the B-pillar lines up. You can see that the correctly size bolt is still touching the plate on the bar, but at least it goes into the hole.

As you can see, the one on the passenger side is off by a noticeable amount. I'm not the first one to have that problem, either:

Of course I can enlarge the hole, but that means I'm back to messing up the powdercoating. It's also not the only part that needs attention. For starters, my car has the rare option of a remote trunk release and I need to notch the rear foot plate that's sitting on top of it:

What bugs me most however is that the two plates on top of the B-pillar don't seem to sit in the same position. Well, either that or my car is seriously bent. This is the driver's side, I can easily fit my pinky in between the plate and the top of the B-post:

This is the passenger side, the plate sits a lot closer to the top of the B-post. There is still a gap, but there is no chance I'll stick any finger in there:

Now, none of these issues are insurmountable but this isn't really the parts quality I want to have on my car. Especially not if I have to wait out a delay of around two months over and above the promised ETA for the bar.

I guess I'll try to call Blackbird Fabworx on Monday and see what the damage is for one of their six-point bars when fitted by them, and if he can fit me in either this month or next as the April 6th deadline is still looming.

I'm just a little too disappointed with the quality of this EGR bar, especially given that once the fitment issues from the group buy started surfacing, I told them I was happy to wait a little longer if that would mean they'd get he fitment issues worked out.

Bummer. Hard Dog can likely provide a bar within that timeframe as well. As long as you're not looking for a custom bar, I'll bet you'd have it within two weeks.

BTW, the tube from inside a roll of paper towels makes a great rollbar protector on installation. And, uh, the rare trunk release option was on all 1992 and later Miatas :) I think it was 1992. Maybe '93 or '94...

Sound like it's time for a chargeback on the card you paid for that bar with. What a piece of E36 M3.

If Moti is a little rich for your blood, then i second Keith's Hard Dog suggestion.

Keith Tanner wrote: Bummer. Hard Dog can likely provide a bar within that timeframe as well. As long as you're not looking for a custom bar, I'll bet you'd have it within two weeks.

I'd want a custom color, though. But I'll keep them in mind.

Keith Tanner wrote: BTW, the tube from inside a roll of paper towels makes a great rollbar protector on installation.

Now he tells me .

Keith Tanner wrote: And, uh, the rare trunk release option was on all 1992 and later Miatas :) I think it was 1992. Maybe '93 or '94...

Oh, I know that. I guess my intended sarcasm didn't make it across the Intertubes too well.

Swank Force One wrote: Sound like it's time for a chargeback on the card you paid for that bar with. What a piece of E36 M3.

I think I'm way out of the time frame for a charge back - I've had the bar since August, just didn't get around to installing it sooner, with the house purchase, house move and all that.

Swank Force One wrote: If Moti is a little rich for your blood, then i second Keith's Hard Dog suggestion.

I have a half-decent idea how much Moti charges for the bar I'd want - yes, it might be a little silly compared to the EGR bar or a Hard Dog, but if they're even half as good as people say they are, I'm OK with the price.

I'm happy to pay for quality, I just get really upset when I give people every opportunity to provide me with a quality product and then find out that I mostly wasted my breath and a few electrons. Plus, any sort of "sensible budget" for the Miata build seems to have left the building by now .

BoxheadTim wrote:

Swank Force One wrote: Sound like it's time for a chargeback on the card you paid for that bar with. What a piece of E36 M3.

I think I'm way out of the time frame for a charge back - I've had the bar since August, just didn't get around to installing it sooner, with the house purchase, house move and all that.

Swank Force One wrote: If Moti is a little rich for your blood, then i second Keith's Hard Dog suggestion.

I have a half-decent idea how much Moti charges for the bar I'd want - yes, it might be a little silly compared to the EGR bar or a Hard Dog, but if they're even half as good as people say they are, I'm OK with the price. I'm happy to pay for quality, I just get really upset when I give people every opportunity to provide me with a quality product and then find out that I mostly wasted my breath and a few electrons. Plus, any sort of "sensible budget" for the Miata build seems to have left the building by now .

Ehhh.... i bet if you call the credit card company and explain the situation, and let them know that the general quality control of this bar for everyone seemed to be extremely low, they'd be accomodating.

Long story short, almost nobody got what they paid for. Shops that do this sort of thing should not profit from it.

Alternatively, if there was an easy/cheap way to ship that bar out to me, i'd take it for the right price once i could scrounge up some coin. I've got another Miata i'm about to start work on, and i'm not going to be caring much about having perfect-fitting parts on it. If i can make it work, then it's good enough.

I doubt you're going to be able to get the cc company to play along with "I don't think the quality is good enough". They're more interested in out-and-out fraud. Poor quality is not fraud. You'll be better off selling it instead.

The Hard Dog bars are pretty solidly proven by this point, so it's a low-risk option. Moti at Blackbird certainly has some fab skills though. If you want a custom color, rattlecan it. Not necessarily with BBQ paint, you can get automotive paint custom-mixed for you. Hey, it's good enough for the rest of the car.

Keith Tanner wrote: I doubt you're going to be able to get the cc company to play along with "I don't think the quality is good enough". They're more interested in out-and-out fraud. Poor quality is not fraud. You'll be better off selling it instead.

That's basically the plan - I can't be bothered to faff about with the CC company now on the off chance they might feel generous about what is essentially buyers remorse after five months.

I'm sure someone will buy it, I'll try to hawk it on the local SCCA forum first with full disclosure of the issues.

Keith Tanner wrote: The Hard Dog bars are pretty solidly proven by this point, so it's a low-risk option. Moti at Blackbird certainly has some fab skills though. If you want a custom color, rattlecan it. Not necessarily with BBQ paint, you can get automotive paint custom-mixed for you. Hey, it's good enough for the rest of the car.

Well, I spoke to Moti earlier today and not unsurprisingly, he's a little busy so he can't build me a six-point bar and fit it to the car, but he can build me a four-point bolt in GT3-style bar that'll arrive in good time for me to fit it to the car and in the colour I want it in . So that's what I'm going with.

In the meantime I better get cracking with the suspension, guess it's time to call FM and order some parts to keep me entertained until the rollbar shows up.

Tim are you 100% sure that car is clean and straight?

Good point, but I'd say something like 90% of the EGR bars from that group buy have fitment issues.

Errrrr ...

No.

I haven't had much in the way of hints that the car isn't straight but I know it has been in an accident and I had to change out a couple of bent parts. However there isn't anything that indicates the shell itself has sustained enough damage to affect it. The doors still shut OK and the hardtop seems to fit pretty OK, too. Of course, the doors have reasonable adjustment.

I guess I better get the tape measure out.

If the car appears to be somewhat bent then I've got a real problem of the "how quickly can I build an Exocet" variety. Or find another good Miata quickly, because I've already paid for Miatas at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca...

BoxheadTim wrote: Errrrr ... No. I haven't had much in the way of hints that the car isn't straight but I know it has been in an accident and I had to change out a couple of bent parts. However there isn't anything that indicates the shell itself has sustained enough damage to affect it. The doors still shut OK and the hardtop seems to fit pretty OK, too. Of course, the doors have reasonable adjustment. I guess I better get the tape measure out. If the car appears to be somewhat bent then I've got a real problem of the "how quickly can I build an Exocet" variety. Or find another good Miata quickly, because I've already paid for Miatas at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca...

I would use the tape measure. It seems that most roll caged Miata's have at some point led a interesting life to say the least.

If 10% fit properly how far could the jigs have been off, 100% off totally.

I'll be doing some measuring after dinner. This car never had a roll bar or cage before, but the PO had a bit of an Oops on a dirt road and it needed new front fenders and a hood afterwards. No signs of structural damage though, and I've been pretty deep in that car.

I would blame the bar myself. It took Hard Dog years to get that particular area of the bar fitting properly - it must be a tough one to jig or something. It would take a pretty significant tweak to move them without causing all sorts of associated damage, and I would not expect a hardtop to fit afterwards. Add to that the fact that most of the bars in that build had problems, and it's unlikely to be the car.

Ok, I took some quick measurements on the car. Door openings check out, no measurable differences between either side when measuring distances between A and B posts or the top of the windshield frame when measured from several points both along and across the car.

However just measuring the bar against itself, the plates that are supposed to sit on top of the B post are about 1/4" out when measured against the front base plates, hence the different gap. Not really a surprise that the mounting holes don't line up between the sides when the plates are in different positions.

At least I don't have to go Miata shopping in a hurry, that's a huge relief.

Right, suspension and a few more bits ordered from Flyin' Miata. Keith, thanks for helping me make up my mind which suspension kit to order . Was great talking to you!

A little more progress over the last few days. I sold the EGR rollbar to a fellow local SCCA member and should hopefully get a roll bar from Moti in early March.

This evening I decided to work on the car a bit more during the "calm before the storm" as the FM suspension and assorted other goodies are supposed to show up in a few days.

Time to throw out the OEM radio, so I went from this:

To this:

As usual, things didn't quite go 100% smoothly, the holes for two of the gauges needed enlarging (for some odd reason the housings of the two JDM 52mm gauges have a bigger diameter that the Innovate 52mm gauge, go figure). I also needed to tweak the double-din hole in the tombstone a little - the work on this isn't quite finished as the fit isn't quite there yet. Fortunately I have a second tombstone (if I can find it after the move) so I can practise on this one to get the fit right. I think I also might want to get an AFR gauge that's a better match for the other two gauges...

Just got an email from my wife that UPS dropped off five boxes of goodies from FM . I'm excited even though I most likely don't get to unpack them until tomorrow.

Took a little roadtrip yesterday down to the wilds of Napa to pick up another piece of the puzzle that I had looking for for a while:

Not that easy to find over here but supposedly worth the hassle of finding one and the price...

Nice! Which suspension did you go with? I went the classic VMaxx and FM sways. Pretty good with R888s