Final Assembly Begins

Floors are done and I'm ready to move on to final assembly. First to go in will be the engine and diff so I can get measurements for the driveshaft.

There are still a few things I'll need to fabricate along the way, but the majority of the work going forward will be bolting parts together.

Here's the finished floor:

Flooring

Good progress over the holiday weekend. The weather was good enough that I could finish painting the chassis. I'm glad to have that out of the way, dust from the over spray got everywhere...

I cut the aluminum for the floor and drilled holes for rivets. Galvanic corrosion has been at the back of my mind as I've been thinking about how to attach the aluminum floors to the steel chassis (with stainless rivets). I've heard a range of range of opinions from don't even worry about it, to your car will fall apart unless you do XYZ elaborate procedure...

In the end I decided to error on the side of caution, and minimize the potential of contact between aluminum and steel. Since the chassis is painted, the biggest area of concern is the contact between the stainless steel rivet, and the aluminum floor. I'll spray the aluminum in this area with a self etching primer, an may dab some silicone in the hole as I install the rivets.

Floor with holes marked and drilled:


Using a drill with a rivet to clear the area around each hole for self etching primer.

...sanding

I had some free time to work on the car today. The weather wasn't bad, so I decided to wet sand the chassis before final painting...rolling on the primer left a pretty rough finish...
I sanded the entire chassis, but focused mostly on the tubes that will be exposed.



I also spray painted a few brackets grey, the color I was planning to use for the chassis. I think I'll go with white after seeing the white primer. The lighter color will make it easier to inspect the chassis for cracks, and the other components (brackets etc.) will stand out a bit.

One more nice day and the chassis painting will be done...

Primed and ready to go

I cleaned the frame up last night and applied a coat of primer today using a small roller and brush. It's a tedious process getting into all the corners and hidden surfaces. Looking back, spraying might have been quicker, but I wanted to avoid a lot of overspray dust. I may give spraying a try for the top coat.

I was planning to use gray for the topcoat, but the white primer looks pretty good...

Weights

Just weighed the chassis, 148 lbs...33lbs more than the last time I checked http://home.comcast.net/~fesk98/2006.05.htm

This brings the total to 888 lbs, not including: Rear fenders, Driveshaft, Halfshafts, Lights, Battery, Fluids

If I had to guess, these components will add up to more than 112 lbs and put me slightly over the 1000lb mark.

Frame is done...

Almost 3yrs after starting on the frame and it's finally complete.
Today I added brackets for the front brake lines and finished up welding the frame. I'm sure I missed a bracket or two, but in order to keep things moving I'm calling it done.

Next weekend, weather permitting, I'll prep/paint the frame and move on to final assembly. Goal is to have the car done by the end of this year...

Steering Rack Assembled

I cleaned up, greased and assembled the steering rack today. This is the last of the components that need "refreshing".

Here's what it looked like before:
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcnTAAeWq2-eelTFjkb68JLJYYIXmORSkY-ubL0AtK6m3Cqp81irXvubdbsRmWF3Rqjcj0vrM7sC_Ap6e-l_e1SrnNkCVkWM0mWaKRG0e_J0yEzMDyeHZwQvR5bzZFqnR4FQ9NcVsZ0e1i/s1600-h/143_4334.JPG

I still need to add extensions to the tie rods, about 4" if I remember correctly. Plan is to thread a section of heavy wall 4130 tube, half 1/2"-20 for the tie rods, and half M12x1.25, with a small piece of high strength metric threaded rod for the Miata tie rod ends.

Uprights are done...

I replaced the wheel bearings front and rear and replaced the rubber bushing in the rear uprights with urethane bushings from Keith at Flyin' Miata.

Swapping out the bushings was an easy job, but the bearings were more work than expected. I found out after pulling apart the fronts that the bearings aren't serviceable, you need to buy a new hub assembly. Probably would have used the old ones had I known that from the start...

The rear bearings are serviceable and it wasn't too difficult of a job, except that I took everything apart two weeks ago and forgot how things went together. A quick search turned up http://www.mazdamotorsports.com/pdfs/collgd/mx5_9097_cg.pdf and saved the day...

Here are the assembled hubs:


I also painted the calipers today. Original plan was to use dark gray, but the only colors of caliper paint I could find were silver, red and black. After trying silver on the diff, I realized this would stand out too much so went with black.