Anyone need to know how a Miata shell goes together?

Miata Porn!

I done skinned her out of her outer wear!

Some observations....

This thing is built like a tank. There are well over 100 spotwelds in the sills. Until you have done this, you wont believe where they hide them.

Now I know why the sills are painted in the rockguard finish...there are a lot of spotwelds in the actual curved lower section of the sills. Look at the two pontoons at the A and B post and find the the two rows that curve down to the pinch weld.

As to removing the windshield supports? forget it. The post goes halfway down the A post to the hole between the two door hinge mounts. You need to pull the a-panel apart this far, and you have not even started with the top bits! Just sawzall the bottom of the post and plate over.

The passenger side quarter was in good shape and desired as a donor for another car...so, it had to come off in one piece.

Not a trivial task. The Outer skin is connected to all of the structure under the outer skin. None of this is hard, but there are a lot of welds to drill out. The hardest was the lowest one at the rear of the arch. Well worth your effort to make sure you drill the arch spots dead center and use a 3/8 bit to drill out; hard to work a chisel in the area.

All told, there is 6-8 hours of time to get the fender off in one piece. I could have cut that in half if the one coming off did not have to be intact.

I'm curious about the bits and the tools that you are using to do this. Can you tell us what they are and how well they are holding up?

jimbob_racing wrote: I'm curious about the bits and the tools that you are using to do this. Can you tell us what they are and how well they are holding up?

1/8" drill bit and 5/16" drill bit. Hammer and chisel to get the stubborn bits apart. Two cases of Stella Artoi.

Figure I will have used four 1/8" bits and two 5/16" to take the whole car apart as far as I am going. Going to need more beer.

If I were removing the quarter to replace with a new one, I would use an angle grinder to take the big chunks off and an air chisel to deal with some spot-welds on the B-post structure. Would save lots of time.

MrJoshua wrote: Do you have any pictures of how the windshield frame attaches?

Here you go. But the truth is that there is no easy way to pull that whole panel off. It comprises the upper half of the A post.

What I would do is run a cutting wheel along the parting line in this picture.

Then from the back cut horizontal at about the same plane as the flat ledge in the middle of the picture to join the cuts you made on the front. This should give you a pretty clean windshield post removal.

The actual post panel goes to the top of the oval hole in the A-post. I need to remove it. Slow going.

In reply to NOHOME:

If it's not too much trouble, can we see details on the top drain tube that clogs & rots the rockers?

Dashpot wrote: In reply to NOHOME: If it's not too much trouble, can we see details on the top drain tube that clogs & rots the rockers?

Don't know if this will help or not, but I have shown the path where the hose runs with the red line..

That lot is further covered by another layer of tin, so when the rot sets in you have 3 layers to deal with. I have done about half a dozen MGB sill restorations and have to say, a proper restoration grade repair with full panels would be a bitch on a Miata.

Note the very botton of this sill where there is some light rust. Mazda did a great job of protecting this car, but the outer quarter panel sits pretty much up against the inner structure at the bottom, and any moisture that does get in is going to stay in this area. The good news is that it will eat out the outer skin before it gets past the thicker inner layers and can be repaired easy enough.

If you are showing early signs of the tin worm in this area. The good news is that is is not that hard to open up, and there is a repair panel available. I have indicated the spotwelds that need cutting out.

Note that the bottom of the quarter is NOT attached by the pinchweld. There are 4 or 5 spotwelds under the point where it rolls under as indicated by the arrows. You need to be lying on your back to get these.

Also there are a group of spots under the black rockguard. Very unusual to have spotwelds on exterior finished metal, but I guess that is why the rough rockguard from the factory. Miata uses a ton of spotwelds on the exterior of the sills hidden under this stuff.

That's interesting. I thought the hose dumped behind the pinchweld section at your 4 arrows in pic 4 (found when blowing them out w/compressed air). Pic #2 indicates it's more inboard and dumps into the front of the wheelwell cavity. Hmm, Thanks for the info!

NOHOME wrote:

jimbob_racing wrote: I'm curious about the bits and the tools that you are using to do this. Can you tell us what they are and how well they are holding up?

1/8" drill bit and 5/16" drill bit. Hammer and chisel to get the stubborn bits apart. Two cases of Stella Artoi. Figure I will have used four 1/8" bits and two 5/16" to take the whole car apart as far as I am going. Going to need more beer. If I were removing the quarter to replace with a new one, I would use an angle grinder to take the big chunks off and an air chisel to deal with some spot-welds on the B-post structure. Would save lots of time.

Wouldn't a die grinder with a good carbide bit go through the welds faster?

bmwbav wrote:

NOHOME wrote:

jimbob_racing wrote: I'm curious about the bits and the tools that you are using to do this. Can you tell us what they are and how well they are holding up?

1/8" drill bit and 5/16" drill bit. Hammer and chisel to get the stubborn bits apart. Two cases of Stella Artoi. Figure I will have used four 1/8" bits and two 5/16" to take the whole car apart as far as I am going. Going to need more beer. If I were removing the quarter to replace with a new one, I would use an angle grinder to take the big chunks off and an air chisel to deal with some spot-welds on the B-post structure. Would save lots of time.

Wouldn't a die grinder with a good carbide bit go through the welds faster?

Maybe if you had the right bit and could control it? I dunno, been doing it this way for many years and many thousand of welds.

If I ever have to do another one of these jobs, I am buying this tool: