Tucker left his most recent acquisition here. Glad ive got lots of bushes.
Tucker left his most recent acquisition here. Glad ive got lots of bushes.
Yowza...it does add up to 11 now. We could start up our GRM used car lot again!
Unfortunately, the one I just listed for sale won't reduce that number. 
dyintorace wrote: Pretty impressive that the Jetta became a Passat now.I don't recall.
Pretty impressive that that car tracks straight, too. With a right flat and the suspension mangled so the wheel sticks out the side like that. 
SVreX wrote:dyintorace wrote: Pretty impressive that the Jetta became a Passat now.Pretty impressive that that car tracks straight, too. With a right flat and the suspension mangled so the wheel sticks out the side like that.
Fortunately thats the before photo. I replaced the control arm, the axle, and the tie rod to get it to track straight. The guy I bought it from hit one of those tall divider "Curbs" hard enough to stop the car and trigger all of the safety features.
Tuesday August 12, 6:30-11pm
It rained almost all day here. I did alot of unproductive driving around and calling people about potential parts deals. I also spent a couple of hours ebay surfing and wearing out the search feature on Miata.net to help determine the build direction.
The work time started with a bit of oooh and ahhhh over my purchase of a used but survivable high performance pressure plate, lightweight flywheel, and random clutch disc. I hope my budget can survive the $240 total buy in price. If budget gets tight I will just use the clutch and pressure plate and keep the flywheel for the daily.
Jenna went to work removing the transmission, clutch, and flywheel.
The bellhousing was full of grime. So much that im pretty sure the front seal of the trans is leaking. Possibly the rear crankshaft seal as well. Since I didnt have those on hand we moved on to the next task.
We started by burning out a shock bushing in an attempt to use it for our top secret suspension project.. It turned out to be totally unnecessary, but the coating of burned rubber stench was almost worth it.
(BTW, wet concrete explodes when heated, sending little chunks of extremely hot concrete into the torch holders mouth. Just a FYI.)
Showing Jenna the joy of removing a front shock on a Miata with spring compressors that are entirely too long for the job.
Did I mention she is getting comfortable enough to use the air tools? Im so proud!
Decided that the next part of the suspension project would benefit from me cutting a stock shock in half. Im not sure if I should say this is part of the top secret project, or just admit that I wanted to see the insides of a shock absorber.
Heres a shot so you guys can see the insides as well.
There was less wrenching and more brainstorming tonight. There are a couple of small hold ups while waiting for parts, but progress is still pretty steady. Im still torn on the body. I can build a roll bar, but the tubing I have is 1.5" so it wouldnt meet NHRA regs without me building a full cage. I'm not sure I'm up for the effort of putting together a full cage in the time left on top of everything else. I'm also trying to decide if I just want to try to make the engine bay and interior yellow to match the rest of the car, or go for a full respray with the color of my choice. This would be my first spray gun paint job, so I cant be that great of a teacher in that scenario. The exterior would also clean up reasonably well as it sits. Ah well, full steam ahead, there are worse dilemmas to have.
Wednesday, August 13, 8:30-11:00pm
Due to more rain (everyone has rain tires for the challenge right?) we got a late start tonight. The goal for tonight was to replace more seals in the quest to have a leak free engine. This is contrary to my standard method of only replacing parts that break bad enough to stop a car from moving. Im going this route because I would hate to be denied to right to run the drags due to the heavy oil leaks, and it would be nice to maintain a clean engine bay for the concours.
Greasy greasy greasy!
Getting better. Transmission front seal arrives tomorrow.
Having owned our daily Miata for years and having had to do almost no repairs and very little maintenance, we needed a little guidance on pulling the rear crank seal.
Two by two....
Continuing the quest to be leak free, Jenna started removing parts to get to the oft leaky cam seals and front crank seal.
Making it pretty! (marking the timing belt position with fingernail polish-nice to have her do it instead of me needing to justify painting something greasy with her nail polish.
We had help from a well qualified support staff tonight. A special thanks goes to Mitchell and Charlie for their excellent work with lighting, camera work, and entertainment.
I like the cam holder you "fabbed" Also, I'm jealous of you challenge contenders. Maybe once I have a real job and a house and such I'll make it out there
...hands of blue. (sorry, I had to.)
I think I recognize those adjustable wrenches - I mean cam holders. I've got a set myself.
Simply awesome! :)
I will have to get my wife into a Miata project. I just recently got her hooked on Miatas. She even wants to learn manual now. I'm thinking a MSM though...so not Challenge friendly but a good solid platform to get her into the world of modding :)
P.S. I LOVE the camlock tool!
MrJoshua wrote: A special thanks goes to Mitchell and Charlie for their excellent work with lighting, camera work, and entertainment.
I've got my SAG card ready in case I make it into the big leagues.
Thanks to all of those that loved my creative camlock. Sadly I cant take credit for the brilliant idea, I owe that one to Miata.net along with much of my other Miata knowledge.
Thursday August 14, 7-10 pm
Tonight we continued the job of replacing cam seals and front crank seal. Lots of shiny pink nail polish to make sure we can put it back together right. Nice to see that big crank bolt!
Front cam caps off and new seals on the way in.
Cleaning up to put on a new crankshaft front oil seal.
Turns out the big nose crank I'm so thrilled about means my model year appropriate seal doesn't fit. Ah well, another trip to the parts shop is in order.
We pulled the front cover of the transmission to replace the seal.
This time the parts shop made the mistake. When I asked for the seals in the front of the transmission, after explaining that there were indeed seals there, I asked how many were shown on the parts diagram. I was given the answer of 1, the option to buy it, and the option to expedite shipping at an extra cost. I of course bought the 1 seal and paid for overnight shipping. Grrrrrrrr. Unless i'm going blind in my advanced years I think I count two seals and a gasket. I had given up on this dealership as a parts source 15years ago when they were a lousy parts supplier for my first gen 7. I think they are going back on the blacklist.
Besides sealing up the engine and trans, we made some progress on our top secret super trick low budget high tech suspension project. I also spent a little time wrenching with Tucker and Mitchell tonight on Tuckers "shocking" challenge entry.
47 days left-Have you worked on your challenger lately?
MrJoshua wrote: ............47 days left-Have you worked on your challenger lately?
Yes....and I HATE body work.
MrJoshua wrote: Tonight we continued the job of replacing cam seals and front crank seal. Lots of shiny pink nail polish to make sure we can put it back together right. ... I also spent a little time wrenching with Tucker and Mitchell tonight on Tuckers "shocking" challenge entry.
I've never torn a Miata engine apart to that level; is the nail polish really needed? On the Toyota and Honda engines I've worked on, everything's marked for TDC so it's dead simple to reassemble without marking parts. (Not criticizing, I'm actually curious.)
I'm tempted to guess about Tucker's entry but don't want to spoil it if I'm right.
dculberson wrote:MrJoshua wrote: Tonight we continued the job of replacing cam seals and front crank seal. Lots of shiny pink nail polish to make sure we can put it back together right. ... I also spent a little time wrenching with Tucker and Mitchell tonight on Tuckers "shocking" challenge entry.I've never torn a Miata engine apart to that level; is the nail polish really needed? On the Toyota and Honda engines I've worked on, everything's marked for TDC so it's dead simple to reassemble without marking parts. (Not criticizing, I'm actually curious.) I'm tempted to guess about Tucker's entry but don't want to spoil it if I'm right.
We didn't bother to TDC the engine so the polish made the process of putting everything back where it belongs really easy. Especially because we are reusing the timing belt. I'm pretty sure all the marks are there to do it without polish, but I think it adds some flair.
I'm guessing Tuckers entry isn't what you are guessing.
Nothing to see here....move along.
Tucker has a Challenge project?
I'm calling shenanigans on that BMW making it under Challenge budget...
Osterkraut wrote: Tucker has a Challenge project? I'm calling shenanigans on that BMW making it under Challenge budget...
Cant you see the picture? Its very very tiny.
Sunday August 17, 1-10pm (with a little break for dinner)
Big day today! A brief glimpse of dry sunny weather!
Jenna hard at work replacing the crank seal. We had the proper "Big Nose" seal on hand this time.
Fabbing up a brace so she could properly tighten the crank bolt.
Well it turned out our little brace broke and let everything move, making all of our pretty nail polish marks worthless. Sooo, I fabbed up a new brace and we went ahead and looked up how to properly install a timing belt from scratch.
Torque wrench only goes to 75ft/lbs. We needed 120. Hmmm, Jenna weighs about 115lbs, breaker bar is about 17 inches, we can make this work!
We replaced the seal in the front of the transmission and cleaned up the pressure plate and flywheel.
The 10lb flywheel/25lb total clutch, flywheel, and pressure plate combo installed.
That job turned out fairly nasty. The fancy flywheel included bolts that had very short thread engagement. Im not sure if they were wrong, but they caused problems. Two stripped their holes. The bad omen of the included heli-coils in the purchase turned out to be bizarre blessing. A trip to the depot to pick up some drill bits and a little amatuer machine work later the clutch assembly was nicely bolted down.
A welcome sight!
Next step-work on the sticky!
Good challenge build week ahead. 44 days, time to step it up.
So uuh, there's a hurricane coming...
We're boned!
Osterkraut wrote: So uuh, there's a hurricane coming... We're boned!
Perfect time for some wet sanding.
Perfect time to develop the hybrid system... Part gasoline motor, part wind power from flapping top!
Osterkraut wrote: So uuh, there's a hurricane coming... We're boned!
It didn't help that you went home for the weekend!
dyintorace wrote:Osterkraut wrote: So uuh, there's a hurricane coming... We're boned!It didn't help that you went home for the weekend!
Excuse me, Mr. Put your children before the Challenge!
MrJoshua wrote: Torque wrench only goes to 75ft/lbs. We needed 120. Hmmm, Jenna weighs about 115lbs, breaker bar is about 17 inches, we can make this work!
You going to tell us how old she is too?!
j/k
I'm sure it's not that big of a deal when you're young and thin! Thanks for the posts though, it's good to see a couple working together like this on a car, gives me hope someday for me and my wife! Maybe.... 
I think you are trying to influence the concours judges.
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