Volvo P1800ES...kinda

Looks fine just like that, especially if you go to a 16" wheel and same section tire.

The stance she is perfect!!

DeadSkunk said:

 

. The parallel thing may matter more with strut cars because you lose camber in roll, but the Miata may not because the upper arm will be going up, too. I'm getting confused.

I received a reply from FM today and they agree with you on this. The uphill a-arm is expected and not a concern.

Pete

Here ya go http://www.threepiece.us/crimson-sport-linea-mesh-4x100-114-3-15x6-5-45/

Those would look perfect on this thing now. 

 I might actually be more excited about this than I was when the engine fired or the ca an for the first time.WAAAaaaaaayyyyy too many hours went into this effort that should have. 

The principle of the system is that you have a spiral wound cable that goes back and forth inside of a metal conduit, and the cable drives a gear at each wiper spindle. Was able to figure out an elegant mounting for the system  that incorporated the Miata wiper motor mounting bracket and an additional mount welded on to the wiper system.

The tricky bit was to get the first piece of tube bend just right as it needed a three-dimensinal bend to transition from the motor to the first wiper box. You can  see the piece inside the folded over metal on the right side. Note that this piece is made of cupro-nicket brake line rather than the tube supplied by the wipre vendor. That would be because it took 4 tries to get this cut, bent and flared just right for the job. All that I need to do now is a bit of fancy fabrication to weld up the firewall and create the transition point where this tube goes from being in the scuttle to inside the car with the wiper boxes.

Too soon to give points for quality of this system, but it does make for efficient packaging. Bit if a panic moment when I wondered if the wiper boxes would clear the leading edge of the dash, but that looks like it will be fine.

I got lucky in that the wiper spindles from the kit were a perfect fit into the gutted Volvo spindles and that took care of all the finishing and sealing of wiper stalk to cowl concerns. Note the remains of the original Volvo wiper system bolted to the cowl.

Going to be a bit of berkeleyery to get the electrical coupled to the Miata stalk and at the moment it parks on the wrong side of the car, but pretty sure I can figure that out or live with it.

And apropos of nothing, putting a windshield in the hole really transforms the thing. I am so used to not having the glass in that when I sit in the car now it feels very different.

Pete

Sweet!  

Glad to hear that my reccomendations  works. 

I think the opposite side park is either a polarity problem with the wiring or the side of the wiper gears needs reversed.  Been a while since I installed one, but i had that issue too a few times.

In reply to Dusterbd13 :

I think both will work equally well.  In order to keep the electrical documentation consistent I will rotate the wheel 180 degrees. Glad you posted this.

To those looking at this kit, it was not without a few issues in that the drive wheel is a taper fit to the spines on the wiper motor, and the fit as delivered was far from right, It took an hour with files, and burrs on a die grinder to get to work with the risk of berkeleying it all up as I tried to make it work. There is this kit for $270 and an identical one for $99 on e-bay. I spent the money hoping to avoid the chinesium challenge, but alas, not to be. I am guessing they are the same with the mark-up being for the "Made in America" sticker on the more expensive one.

Pete

Why these things take so long to do. I swear that I feel like I am going in slow motion compared to some of y'all who spit out 9 second racecars in a few months.

Went out to the shop last night. Feeling pretty good because I had just picked up some new wiper blades to put on the newly working wiper system. Adjusted for a bit less sweep and it was perfect. The wipers worked, the dash was in and everything cleared everything. Big relief.

So I tore it all out. Cause the firewall needed to be built around the new wiper mechanisms. As you can see in the picture, the firewall is open to the cowl space.

So we rip the car apart for the Gazillionth time and start to fill in the gap. Started at 8 and called it a night at 11. Took that long to pull everything apart, size the part and whittle it down to fit the hole.  Still had to sneak out and do the welding early this morning before work.

The last bit on the RH side is kinda fun because the wiper tube circled in the first picture has to transition from the cowl space to the interior space at a very shallow angle. And it needs to be water-proof.

Looking forward to getting this thing sealed up so I can move on to wiring. I have pulled the carb fuel system off the car and next time it chooches it will be drinking from a Fitech EFI.

Pete

I think wipers are up next on my list. I need to work them out so I can finish cowl vents/drains. Not exactly looking forward to it. 

In reply to Crackers :

The firewall is the hardest part of the graft and one that you want to take your time, plan ou,t and get right the first time. It is pretty much where you are going to interface with the finished product.

I may or may not have made it harder on myself by insisting on OEM Miata HVAC stuff. Vintage Air really would not have added any cost all said and done and I could have kept the factory Volvo wiper mechanism.  The idea was that OEM was short-term pain for long term reliability and serviceability. As it is, I am having a really hard time not modifying the wiper kit to work with the Miata wiper motor just so that the wiring would be plug and play and I would know where to get a new motor 5 years from now.

If I can find the two pieces that join the blower to the evaporator and the evaporator to the ventilation controls, I should be able to button this up starting this week-end.

Pete

Milestone!

NOHOME said:

Why these things take so long to do. I swear that I feel like I am going in slow motion compared to some of y'all who spit out 9 second racecars in a few months.

 

Went out to the shop last night. Feeling pretty good because I had just picked up some new wiper blades to put on the newly working wiper system. Adjusted for a bit less sweep and it was perfect. The wipers worked, the dash was in and everything cleared everything. Big relief.

 

So I tore it all out. Cause the firewall needed to be built around the new wiper mechanisms. As you can see in the picture, the firewall is open to the cowl space.

So we rip the car apart for the Gazillionth time and start to fill in the gap. Started at 8 and called it a night at 11. Took that long to pull everything apart, size the part and whittle it down to fit the hole.  Still had to sneak out and do the welding early this morning before work.

The last bit on the RH side is kinda fun because the wiper tube circled in the first picture has to transition from the cowl space to the interior space at a very shallow angle. And it needs to be water-proof.

Looking forward to getting this thing sealed up so I can move on to wiring. I have pulled the carb fuel system off the car and next time it chooches it will be drinking from a Fitech EFI.

 

Pete

Very impressive!

Within inches of the finish line!

I think I might be hating on Crackers a bit cause he made this seem so simple while I seem to have to fight the whole wiper thing!

In order to close up the firewall/cowl area the  cable that drives the wipers had to transition from the engine compartment to the inside of the car by transiting the cowl. The cable travels through this piece of 3 dimensional artwork:
 

It was tempting to build the firewall around the tube under the heading of "It aint ever going to come out" but I know better.  A slit of the proper dimensions had to be created where the tube transitions from the cowl to the interior. And the tube has to be insertable from this slit.  It is a PITA to do, but I know it can be done because I did it three or four times, problem is you cant see the hole you are aiming for. The red line gives you an idea of what needs to happen. There is ONE twist/position/push that will work. But it will. By the way, see the piece of green tin that I used to close the firewall. It just so happens to come from a spare Miata firewall that I had kicking around and it is in the spot is is meant to be.

Next task is to scrub this are with a wire wheel and get some seam sealer and  paint on the whole area. Then I can cross a task off the list and will be down to the last ten items on the fabrication list

On another front. The though process for how to trim out the rear space is ongoing. The aux fuel tank has been removed and a flat template is in place. That seems easy enough with only the material being open for debate. The question is how to blend in the Miata seatbelt towers and the Volvo wheel-tubs.

Option 1 ( would be carpeted)

Option 2 ( where the tub would be covered a-la original P1800ES)

Edit...Just had a bad thought: I did not try to introduce the wiper tube with the windshield in place. What are the odds that is going to bite me if I ever need to mess with the thing?

Option #2!

"Edit...Just had a bad thought: I did not try to introduce the wiper tube with the windshield in place. What are the odds that is going to bite me if I ever need to mess with the thing?"

If that happens.....I see a long weekend and dash removal hopefully in the way distant future....

#2 here....

tuna55 said:

Option #2!

Agreed.  Vinyl or carpet directly on the arches and minimally box in the seat belt towers.

I like the looks of option 1 personally. 

You would even have a little space for small storage compartments, if you were so inclined. 

Having done a similar dance before, option 1 will also be easier to execute cleanly.

If you can upholster the panel off the car as one piece that will save time, yeild a better result, and require less mounting points. 

RE wipers: I really just got lucky everything fit. The real bitch is going to be making the assembly compact and/or modular enough to fit through an access panel (which I'll have to fabricate) on the engine side.

So while the packaging part worked out quickly, I'm still not out of the woods yet. 

If the Lexus HVAC hadn't been so low slung it would have been a very different story. There was tons of room under the original Lexus dash. 

I'm with option 1 as well.  Might have enough room left over to recess some speakers.

And with this one last panel welded in place to seal off the Miata scuttle and blend the Miata scuttle to the top of the volvo a-post, the firewall fabrication is done. The wiper mechanism can go in to stay and I can move on to wiring the car with a thinned out Miata harness.

Because of the location and contortions involved, I managed to procrastinate about two years before I finally got this little bit of upside down welding done. I am pretty happy with how it came out.

Of course, it takes every tool you own to do just about any job, sos this is what the war-zone looked like by the time it was in place. 

So, with no further ado...wire wheel all the weld seams, scuff the entire area, seam seal all the welds, degrease, mask and paint.

Just for perspective...that took ten minutes to post, but pretty much all of Saturday to do. Went into the shop at 1 pm and took the last picture at 11:00 pm

Now the wipers can go back in for good. Next on the agenda is to get some wires run and the front clip welded in permanently.

Huh, just realized today isn't Saturday. LOL

That patch looks tidy, did you make that panel? 

Crackers said:

Huh, just realized today isn't Saturday. LOL

That patch looks tidy, did you make that panel? 

This one? Yeah, it was a bit of fun but mostly due to the position.  I just slather masking tape over the area and then trim to what I need, Transfer masking tape to a piece of tin and cut, bend bash and weld.

If I could have been bothered to grind down the welds, the whole scutle/firewall would look like it was made that way. Instead  I seam-sealed over all the weld beads and used a white rocker-guard paint ( pebbly finish) to mask the scars.

In reply to NOHOME :

Option 1 looks more "high-end" which IMO this car should have.  you could attach some light-duty tie-downs / anchors for grocery bag net as found in Sube wagons etc, maybe get a couple of cheapish carry-on bags and have their exteriors covered to match the interior for weekend getaways a la Ferrari etc.

In reply to AngryCorvair :

I had to turn around on my way home last week to pick up what I think turned out to be an old portable phonograph case on the side of the road.

It's very dated, and will make a great prop to strap to the roof rack on my wagon.