Miata TR3? Doing wierd things with a scrap Miata

Rigante said:

What is it ?   Looks cool

nocones said:

In reply to Rigante :

That looks amazing.  I was struggling with a scoop shape but your 60' racecar is great

All the furthest I got so far was these two things so far.

That first one has real promise. Like a wide TR6. 

so an S2 or pit crew style nose 

s2

pit crew 

I have honestly never understood the love for the Pit Crew. I know what it's trying to evoke, but I think it's very clumsy. I suspect it benefits from the JDM effect. 

The TR6 puts the grille between the headlights. That's what I see here. 

In reply to Keith Tanner :

I agree, Pit Crew looks very long-snouted (if that's a thing).

I do not like those noses.  After taking mine apart they look like they tried to do things without requiring any modification of the Miata.   You can't get the 7" round light back to the stock headlight mount without removing some metal.  The metal you have to remove does very little in the way of structure and doesn't even seem to support the stock headlights.  

I spent an hour and a half building some builders board and Colorplast and hot gluing it.  Consider it a proof of concept proof of concept.  I know it looks not great but it's about all the effort I want to put in at this time.  If it were real and If i did the next step the sharp edges would be rounded somewhat particularly to transition from the hood to the vertical face.  Also I've not done anything with the bottom edge it is just the top projected.   The headlight bucket tappers to match the shape of the hood.  The hood is aluminum so I'd rather not extend it and if an acceptable look could be generated with the hood as is it would be better to leave it.  I thought briefly that you could put round indicator lights inboard of the headlights in the bezel but I think that would start looking very Jensen CV8 which is not necessarily a good thing.

After building it I realized that the outer lower edge of the headlight shroud is a little droopy.  I "fixed" it in the final mirror.  I'm not sure why I started with the drivers side.  That was kinda silly.  Tomorrow night I will do what I've done to the passenger side and then I will likely stop.  

I'm overall pleased with the look (With the understanding that it's "rough") and could see it being pretty good with a proper opening shape, a grill/painted edge, and fog lights.  A project like this would be pretty fun to take to completion.  I know the look it's for everyone but I think a late 50's early 60's racecar inspired look has promise for a Miata.  After I get the passenger side to the same point as the drivers and if a good grill shape can be suggested, I'll cut the grill in and wheel it outside again for some overall pictures.   

My $.02 in that last pic is that it needs a grille shaped more like the DB5.  The oval looks kinda "meh", like the afterthought of, "Oh, yeah, we gotta vent the radiator with a hole..."

That's one of the more successful restylings I've seen of the nose at this point, especially considering you've managed to keep the hood unmodified. Most headlight swaps look exactly like someone pulled out a designed headlight and jammed in a piece of fiberglass with a headlight stuck in it. I am looking forward to seeing where this goes.

Basically the NB grille.

With foglights

I was going for the ND grille but ended up looking a little more bugeyed. But very happy.

For me it's the back end that I find unresolved.

Here is a lighter image to play with grill shapes.  Looking at it again this morning I still like it.   

I do think it would be hard to avoid looking "like an Aston Martin".  Being styled reminiscent of a AM is fine but I want to avoid trying to "Look like" or replicate something.  Here I prepared one that is a little more Ferrari Monza.

I also quickly (20 min before work) tried just extending the hood to see if I could get a little closer to Rigante's shape.  The issue with that is the Miata fenders taper so much the lights end up very inboard on the car which kinda defeats the lights out at the edges look that makes that 60s racecar look work.  The other issue (or Non issue depending on state) is that the headlights get low.  I didn't measure but it's probably 2-4" bellow stock NB height.  That said the shape of just projecting the hood works and looks nice and smooth.  

Here I'm trying a TR3/XK120 type light bezel.  It's still early.  I will add more detail and make it removeable so I can just do a surface mount light below the projected hoodline as well.  Then I will duplicate whichever if the 3 options look the best for the "final" actually has 2 sides option.  

Glad to see people are interested and it's not turning into a hot mess.  I'm amazed what can be done with builders board and Colorplast.  Also it's good practice for when I get going on finishing off the LMP360.

all I can say is wow

In reply to Tom1200 :

Do you just mean how it's just a stock rear bumper?  

I will likely after "finishing" the front rip the rear bumper off and play with it a little. 

What is builders board? I mean I see how you are using it in the pictures, but what is it? 

In reply to Somebeach (Forum Supporter) :

Its ~1/8 thick pressed cardboard.  It's very similar to the back of a spiral notebook.  But you buy it by the roll and 3'x50' is like ~$20.  It's intended for use as a protective covering for floors while doing construction.  I use it because it's cheaper and thicker then poster board.  The fact that it is rolled is kinda annoying because it always wants to curl so you have to work with it or flatten it for a while.  

I actually built a small section of wing by laminating it with Wood glue to pink foam.  With varnish to seal it actually would work.  It's been in my garage exposed to all kinds of humidity and been stable.  

I also use a lot of the thinner version that is just basically paper bag material on a roll.  It's like 300' for $20.  It's great for making template and patterns with structure.  I used it for the sidepods on the LMP360 before recreation in Colorplast.  

In reply to nocones :

Thanks. Seems  like that stuff would come in handy. Do you buy it at home improvement type store? Like Lowe's or menards. 

In reply to Somebeach (Forum Supporter) :

I bought it at Menards.  It's $32 now.  Builders Board

nocones said:

In reply to Tom1200 :

Do you just mean how it's just a stock rear bumper?  

I will likely after "finishing" the front rip the rear bumper off and play with it a little. 

Yes that's most of it but it could also be (for me) the egg shaped rear is incongruous with the rear fender arches.

Regardless I'm enjoying watching your work.

This version reminds me of the original Fiat 124 Abarth rally cars.

In reply to DeadSkunk (Warren) :

Ironically, it's probably the closest to how the car looked originally in terms of foglight/turn signal placement and grille opening.

Looks great ,  the last picture with the grill and fog lights looks best to me 

And off the subject , what is the orange rack you have seats on top of and looks like a car stored under it ?

How wide is it ?

thanks

Love that Nocones is doing a better restyle of a Miata than any other I've seen because he was bored. Very impressive, great work. 

it's tricky to work on this without having the car right here.

I like how it's going.

I think one issue is the height of 60s stuff, dimension "h" here is not very deep

 

and the overhang, dimension "d" needs to be as short as possible. 

Looking at a 250 SWB the curve of the grill in plan view doesn't come out much further than the headlights

So trying to wrap what I sketched over your Board it's clear that the bonnet causes a lot of problems, and you end up with some mustang like stuff around the headlights. I tried a chrome bumper and chopped the depth out of the front valance, but that might not be possible>>

makes you realise why some of these rebody kits look a bit nose heavy, but it brings us close to a 240Z and those headlight covers could be interesting

Although the geometry might be nearer a TVR