A quater of the way through the rebody of my miata

So, I'm giving my ninety two Miata a ninety four body. Changing the drivetrain, engine, inerior, and suspension over. I have all the suspension out, all the engine/drivetrain components out, the dash, wiring harness and seats/carpet are out too. I'm starting to get nervous about reassembly. As in not being sure I will know where everything goes when it's time for reassembly. Any words of wisdom from someone who's done similar projects? I'm not overwhelmed yet, but certainley feeling "whelmed", at least... I've had some good ideas from Keith, and John Brown has been lots of help.

Thanks for any ideas.

Joey

when i swapped the engine out of the geo, i quickly learned that you might want to label everything.

Did you take photos?

Most of this stuff will be obvious, really.

The things you might run into troube with are the wiring and plumbing (and I don't think plumbing should be too bad, really). I'll eventually partake in the same sort of activity. If you get stuck, just post up and ask what you're looking for. There's enough folk here with miatae to help you along. I know I don't mind. It would be easier if my car was still at my place, but I'm still willign to run out and take a photo if need be.

I think you'll be fine...just take it slow and don't expect it to be perfect on the shakedown run ;).

Clem

You know, I didn't even think of it, but we always have my wifes 1990 to compare to if things get bad. Mostly what I'm nervous about is the under dash stuff. Thanks for the help.

Joey

Anyone close to you own a stock Miata? Just having one that you can open the hood on, look under, etc can be a godsend. Once you look at it, you'll likely slap your forehead and say "boy, that's rather obvious." Hopefully, your hand won't be dirty like mine tends to be, and the ngo out and run errands with a large smear of dirt/grease/oil/etc on your face.

joey48442 wrote: You know, I didn't even think of it, but we always have my wifes 1990 to compare to if things get bad. Mostly what I'm nervous about is the under dash stuff. Thanks for the help. Joey

Its not that bad taking out a miata dash. Stuff under there is pretty straight forward as well.

Heck, we went from a full interior to this in about 3 hours.

This:

To this in another hour or so:

Yeah, after I had the dash itself out, the rest of the underdash stuff went pretty well. The harness was kind of involved, bit not difficult. Ok just worried about the stuff around and above the pedals, for the most part.

Joey

Girls with wrenches = sexy.

Get the wiring harness in, and the connectors will tell you where all of those little boxes and doodads are supposed to sit. It won't really be all that bad.

If you were able the get the harness out with all the clip intact (I'd be surprised if you did) you should be able to just line up the clips with the holes in the body.

jwdmotorsports wrote: If you were able the get the harness out with all the clip intact (I'd be surprised if you did) you should be able to just line up the clips with the holes in the body.

I did, actually. I only had two clips give trouble, and one was ac stuff under the dash, and since the ac is long gone, that's no big deal. The other was a clip somewhere near the coilpack, but that just fell apart when I tried to remove it.

Joey

Luke wrote: Did you take photos?

Amen!! A digital camera is your best friend when doing that kind of job.

I just found this old thread...
As an update, the car is still running! It's been about 20k miles since the rebody. I still love the car, and I have a 1.8 about to replace the 213,000 mile 1.6...

Joey

MrJoshua wrote: This:

He just wanted to brag...

If you need a hand, give me a call.