Another P1800 build - All NB Miata from radiator to rear axle

Headed South again, but this time with Indy-kid #3

Hit up the exact same Jack's for amazing breakfast biscuits:

Safe trip!

Did not receive any bites from the 1800list group.  But if you can get the body/chassis numbers from the two parts cars, that may help the community a bit.

My only comment is if the nose sheet metal of the blue car doesn't look too rusty (assuming the car will likely go to scrap and you have room), it may be worth cutting off and saving.  It's a common rust area on 1800s and while there are patch panels available to rebuild the headlight area, there are 4 of them (not including the inside shroud metal) at around $400 ea, so a solid nose piece is worth a few bucks.   The nose metal I bought for my car was $350 from a vendor at Carlisle some years ago. 

In reply to Ian F (Forum Supporter) :

Thanks for the tip on the nose sheet metal.  There are plans in the works to keep most of it from going to the scrap yard. 

We packed the Town and Country to the gills with goodies.

Grabbed all the relevant bits for the P1800 and the Left over Miata parts for recoup $$.  Then hit the road heading North again:

Buckees again. Then a pit stop in Kentucky:

 And here's another team shot with the next generation joining in: (definitely a Father-Son effort here)

Home safely now.  It's amazing how exhausting just sitting around driving for 16 hours can be.  Gonna sleep well tonight 

$50 recoup.  Sold the Driver's side Miata Door.

In reply to Indy - Guy :

Please message me- I have a p1800 and could use some parts.

Thank you

In reply to 67mustangguy :

Message sent.

Also, we have a new teammate, but I'll let Gariation chime in on that.

Come check it out in person this Saturday for a Build Party Get Together <==== Click Link

So glad to see this come to the top. 

Are you shooting for the next Challenge or is it a longer term project?

Pete

In reply to NOHOME :

We are trying to get it to this year's Challenge.  It's an aggressive time frame, for sure.  Then refine it after that.

We got a lot accomplished yesterday.  As we arrived, (note there are 4 Volvos in this picture):

Then we just got after it: reassembling/ test fitting everything:

Here's a partial list of items we got done 

• Struts installed & tightened properly 
• Brakes verified right
• Parking brake cables and handle reinstalled 
• Fuel and brake lines run under car
• Seats and pedal assemblies in
• Proper engine mounts installed 
• Couple wiring harnesses installed.

Awesome!

Same but different

It's the new year, so we started it off with a build day and we finally had most of the Barely Functional Team present:

Definitely gonna use the Toyota H4 headlight kit for the build:

More dash wiring installation:

A case of big and little:

And we can't hang with Angry and his fancy white boards, so we employed our inner Roadkill and went with the cardboard:

We'll get in a few Monday night work sessions before the build party on January 18th.

Thanks for the tip of the hat guys:

Build party is this Saturday.  Come hang out with your fellow GRMer's and see the car in person. Link to invite 

Scored these last night:

15" x 9"

Tires are OLD and rock hard, but will work test fitment this weekend.

They look good from a distance, but are pretty beat up:

That's okay.  The rims are pretty light and we got all three wheels (plus two scrap tires) for $60.

That is a lot more tire than I can get under the Molvo since I was determined to keep the Volvo envelope original looking.

Looking forward to the flared stance with those tires. I am kind of jealous of the "rubber-on-the-road" especially since I am now bolting in the LS and asking the 195mm tires to deal with it.

Pretty sure that I asked already, but remind me, is this going to be a challenge car or a cruiser?

Pete

NOHOME said:.

.....

Pretty sure that I asked already, but remind me, is this going to be a challenge car or a cruiser?

 

Pete

Pete, Thanks for following along with our continued progress with the car.  Build party scheduled for tomorrow, so you'll see another update soon.

As with any custom car, the plan evolves with time.  But here's the current thoughts:

• Version 1: Get the car assembled and up and running for a run at the $2000 Challenge. (this first attempt will be mostly for exhibition)
• Version 2: Make a second appearance at the challenge with several things further developed.  Probably forced induction or a heavy blast of laughing gas.  Maybe (not likely) engine swap
• Version 3:  Refine for street-ability and enjoy in more of a cruiser mode.

GRM build party was this Saturday and it was a HUGE success!

First order of business was to see if the new wheels bolt up.

Yes, with special (17mm hex) lug nuts they fit the hub.

With the verification that they fit the hubs, we proceeded to remove the struts (front and rear) and see if the will clear through the entire bump, droop, and both steering end stops. The fronts are going to need about a 5-6mm spacer, but the rears work perfectly (with a slight 5lb hammer alteration on the passenger side) here’s full compression:

(tucks beautifully !)

Lots of wiring installation, connectors found and double checked:

Passenger door hardware installation (note, that’s Indy-kid #5 her hands were perfectly sized for the intricate inner workings)

Steering column and dash had the final installation completed:

The astute observer will notice ALL members of the Bad Decision Triangle are in the above pic!

Wae and his daughter buttoned up the rear harness/ trunk area  including ground wires (thanks !)

NoCones found the fuel pressure regulator and got that installed properly (it’s a single pressure line up to the engine compartment) With all the wires and fuel lines triple checked we added a couple gallons of fuel connected the battery and gave it several cranks.

And a couple shots of Ether:

And we got it to cough a bit.  Then we discovered the fuel pump wasn’t coming on, so we chased that for a while and finally jumpered it in the diagnostics port. And we go it to start and run for a few seconds.  Hurray !  But just couldn’t get it to start again.  So we pulled all the plugs (while removing a large portion of threads from cylinder #3) they were wet-ish.  Checked compression and #2 was a bit low.  With all the cranking the battery just wasn’t holding up, so maybe the ECU just wasn’t getting enough voltage to send the fuel pump signal, or maybe the fuel relay is bad.  No worries.  We all had a great time hanging out.

Thanks again to everyone who came to help out:

Robbie (and his two kids), NoCones, Bobzilla, Gumby, 84FSP, Cooper-Tired, Wae and his daughter, So_Slow, Gariathon and Indy-kids #2, #3, & #5.

In reply to Indy - Guy :

I was just thinkin about this car and the wheels.  Was wonderin if I needed to check in.

In reply to Indy - Guy :

I am going to advocate for NOT doing an engine swap.

There are a few reasons I say this, but the #1 is that you and the team will never be as good of a drivetrain engineering team as the engineers at Mazda. You will probably never reach that "No thoughts given to the drivetrain integrity" as you would from a stock Miata.

The body/chassis swap on the Molvo has been a home-run right out of the gate. The engine swap on the other hand, has been a never ending stage of expensive development going on 4 years. Not a huge problem because it is what I signed on for.

Having said that, I would love to see a picture of the space created in front of the engine by extending the chassis 7" in the engine bay. Miata swaps start with buying a very expensive front K member from V8 Roadsters or Flying Miata and I wonder if the setback would solve this issue?

Looking forward to seeing this at the Challenge.