Bracketry, Gauges and Exhaust

Because the hard top mounts I ordered were too thick to fit betwixt the roll cage and the body I had to make my own.  I soon found out how sub-par fabrication skills were.  I am not proud of the mounts you see below, but they should still get the job done.

I plumbed the water temp gauge and test fit the oil pressure gauge.  Looks pretty  good.  I still need to order a passenger side airbag cover and perhaps refine my radio panel cover.

Drove the car to Rivian to install the Springfield Dyno exhaust. Exciting!

One of the clay modelers decided I needed an Pterodactyl hood ornament.

Out with the old...

 In with the new...

 The exhaust clamp sent with the kit is a total p.o.s. so I wound up marking the two tubes once they were aligned on the car, then taking the whole exhaust off and welding it up.  While not quite a "stack-o-dimes" my welding is improving.

Up next will be installing new spark plugs, wires, air filter, fire bottle, SFI padding kill switch, brake lines, rotors, pads, springs, shocks, sway bars, wheel bearings, wheels and tires, but then it should be track ready.  KAAKAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!

Harn-Ace

The harness came in the mail along with some other goodies to be highlighted in subsequent posts. I had to do a little hacking to the cage in order to attach the belts in the stock seatbelt mounting locations.  I also used a small sledge hammer to clearance the transmission tunnel in order to get the seat just where I liked it.  All in all I think the harness set-up came out pretty nice.  Hopefully I will look as cool as the guy below when I am finally on track.

Paint Scheme

I had an idea for the paint scheme below as I was walking out of Lowes yesterday.  I think I could paint the car on the cheap if I taped it off myself and had someone else spray it.

More Stuff done and stuff

Hard top purchased!  Found Ol' Ned selling a hard top miata on craigslist and asked him if he would be willing to part with just the top.  He agreed and after an exciting 3-hour trek through swamp land Florida, the top was mine.  Side note, Ned's daughter was named Nedera.

The garage I have always wanted

I spent most of the day removing various A/C and power steering components. Then I went about installing my shiny new radiator.

 After I ran out of things to do on the engine side I went about making the seat mounts.  In an effort to do as little fabricating as possible I cut to length two pieces 1-1/4 X 3/16 steel strap and then bent them to align with the existing factory seat mounts.  After drilling holes and attaching the straps I placed the seat on top and firgured out where I wanted it.  Then it was just a matter of marking and drill the seat.  I should be able to shim the mounts in between the seat and the strap in order to fine tune the lay-back angle.

 I created a list of To-Do and To-Order, so now its just a matter of finishing the list. Should be easy...