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Made some progress this weekend. Welded a beam to the "floor" to mount the driver's seat, and the radiator mounts. Didn't take pictures because there's not much to see and the welds are ugly. Now I know what "they're not pretty but they'll hold" is all about. The beam welds were decent but the rad mounts were upside-down and weird angles so they weren't pretty. They just need to hold the radiator so it's not a big deal. This week I'll mount the seats and start getting exhaust parts.
I haven't been working on the exocet as much lately because I've been splitting my time helping my uncle. He's getting a C2 body ready to take to the SEMA show. We modified a C4 chassis to take the C2 body. The desire was to get it running to drive it into the parking lot, but that's moot because the parking lots are closed this year due to construction. He wants to find someone that can make (or has) a good chassis for it (kind of like the exocet frame) but he may do one himself. I'll be going up on Tuesday, he'll be there all week.
Not much has actually happened to the car, honestly. Bought some pipe to weld an exhaust (thanks T-Man for the free parts). Bought some good shocks on Suspension Saturday at Flyin' Miata that should arrive tomorrow. Bought some wire to finish the wire harness. Hopefully USPS didn't lose the package. Bought some steel for seat mounts. I'm hoping I can make some good progress in the next few weeks. The exhaust is going to be difficult so "good progress" will look not so good to outside observers. My time also competes with some landscaping I've resolved to finish by year's end.
A little progress this weekend. No pictures, though.
I mounted the radiator.
I did some wiring prep. I whittled it down to 7 relay circuits: Horn, Run/Crank, High beams, Low beams, Starter, Fan, and ACC. The Run/Crank is basically a "main" relay that has most of what needs to be on when the key is "ON". I don't have anything specifically for the ACC relay, but I figure I'll put a power source or two for things like USB or some other power source. I counted 13 fuse circuits plus whatever ACC fuses I want to add. I may be short a couple of fuses, I'll triple-check later.
Nice update. Me I'm waiting on **** to be delivered lol
Thanks. Waiting is the worst. Luckily I have so much to do that I can order stuff and work on other things while it arrives. Pretty much the only things I don't order are random bolts I get at Ace hardware.
Oh, I also assembled the coilovers. It sure is nice having threaded damper bodies that eliminate the need for spring compressors. They'll get installed after paint.
Thanks
To my knowledge, not much has happened since SEMA. The focus has shifted to getting a website up. I tried looking up the website yesterday and it looks like there's only a title page with nothing on it. I don't think much will happen with that mule we made. The purpose of it was to have a running example of how the body looks with wheels and an engine, but the desire is to have a custom chassis built for the body. He's just interested in selling fiberglass bodies rather than building cars. Who knows, that could change depending on the market. I told him that if I had more money, a chassis, and a time machine I'd be building his Corvette instead of the Exocet. I think it looks better than a Cobra and a little less cliche.
Well finish this one quickly so you could get into the next project!
Also, I hope you have a competent developer for the website. These things can turn into a nightmare very quickly.
Agreed, I'd like to have a bigger, more "mature" project in about ten years when the kids are old enough to care about cool cars. Maybe I can convince my wife to go back to work by then to get some more income for stuff like that
Agreed, I'd like to have a bigger, more "mature" project in about ten years when the kids are old enough to care about cool cars. Maybe I can convince my wife to go back to work by then to get some more income for stuff like that
Force the wife back to work. Nice plans
Should I start making the trek to visit your grave with some flowers now?
She doesn't work? (at a job that pays money that is, I know sahm is a full time job in itself) You must have a hell of a salary. We wouldn't survive if my fiancé didn't work.
I had started the exhaust, but I realized I don't need the exhaust finished to do paint (I will bolt on hangers to the frame rather than weld). I do need the passenger seat in to know where to weld the back brace, so that's what I did yesterday. Btw, harbor freight drill bits are worthless. I will be getting better bits.
There are two bars in the frame that are positioned where the Miata seat rails would bolt in. That won't work for me. I put two 1", 0.120" wall tubes in that bridge the frame tubes (the final assembly has washers):
Next, two 1/4" thick, 2"wide bars bridge those transversely:
The seats are side-mounted, and those mounts bolt to the 2" flat bar:
It's a tight fit, but it fits and I can stretch my legs without bending my knees. The driver side will be on sliders, so it will be slightly different. I'm welding in a transverse 1" tube, then the sliders will bridge the tubes and 1/4" flat bars will be the same as the passenger side. The anti-submarine belt mount is too far forward and not centered, so I will drill another hole in the flat bars to mount that, which should work perfectly.
I finished welding the seat tube for the driver's seat, two tubes to step on, and some cable tie holders. I started prepping the frame for paint by scrubbing with red scotch Brite, and realized I forgot to weld the provisions for the passenger seat back brace. I decided to buy an inexpensive welder on Amazon that had good reviews, rather than ask to borrow the friend's welder again. It will be convenient when it's time to weld the exhaust together, assuming I can make decent welds with it. So paint will not happen over the winter break, oh well. It was ambitious anyways, especially since I also needed to install 27 tons of gravel in the backyard.
09-29-2018, 09:32 AM
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