Scissor Scraper

[high.classhole]

Welcome to my (first ever) build thread!

I've never made one of these before and I'm new to forums and only a few days old on Stance|Works so I will start with introducing myself and my plans!

The start of 2016 saw the demise of my locally well-known HOLY COW Subaru Forester to move on to something smaller and better!
I've always wanted to build a NA MX5/Miata and finally I was in a position to do so good and proper, exactly the way I wanted it.
I've managed to pick up an early red (of course) NA6 with just the bare essentials; no power steering (or power in general), no air con, ridiculously slow power windows, and a filthy soft top barely holding on the faded, plastic rear window. With only 170,000kms on the clock, no leaks or unhealthy noises to be seen or heard of and near perfect paint from a quick inspection I figured it was perfect blank canvas to start work (I would later find out how wrong I was).

So here it is.
The beginning of a very, very long road to build the perfect mix between a weekend race car and a stanced show pony.









(the Bride Low Max wasn't in there when I picked it up, it was just laying around so I put it to use)

[high.classhole]

Wheels!

Selling the Rotiform's and WCI's helped me to fund another long awaited build - my first set of BBS RS's.

Unfortunately I panic-bought the first set of 15's I saw for sale, which were 5x114.3, not 4x100, but that's a future problem I'll solve when I get to it.

They are original flat backed 15x7 et25 with all bolts and original BBS valve caps (missing one ).
Other than one of the caps being cracked, I thought they were all in really good condition with just about perfect lips. Time to get to work!

[high.classhole]

RS Rebuild pt.1

As soon as I got my hands on the wheels I was back on my computer ordering parts for it!
I didn't want to know what did and didn't fit on my car, I just wanted to build them to look nice and I'd make them fit later!

The lips came from Whitehorse Industries (Melbourne) and the hex's, red caps, and the little hex tool thing came from a site called SpinFab.
The Hex's are a polished billet piece, while the tool and caps are genuine.
I also ordered new valves and genuine BBS valve caps from SpinFab but didn't get a photo.

[nishy]

I love me some beebs. What are your other plans for it? You gonna lower it more? Hardtop?

[high.classhole]

I love me some beebs. What are your other plans for it? You gonna lower it more? Hardtop?

Well, still sorting out the details but I co-own a composites business so the end goal is to actually end up with a full carbon car and yes, it will 100% include a hardtop!
And I will definitely be going lower, the current height is silly, I can lay under it without a jack ahahaha!

As for other plans? Just a few aesthetic things both interior and exterior, like flares, skirts, a wing, fix backs, roll cage, harnesses and a few other little bits and pieces. Once all that is done I'd love to start making it go as fast as it looks.
How I do that is something I've not yet worked out. I can't decide between building a real nice turbo 1.6L using the engine in it, or swapping it out for a rotary .
Either way my end goal is somewhere between 250-300hp at the wheels. It's overkill, I know but it'd be a lot of fun if not verging on scary.

[heef]

Hey man, that looks awesome! Too bad you don't like own a MK1 Golf that you could make carbon

[high.classhole]

RS Rebuild pt.2

With all the new stuff here to rebuild the wheels, it was time to take the wheels apart to drill the new lips and start the prep work for paint!



(I'd already primed one before I took the photo, whoops!)

I used a drill press to drill the lips, thought it was the safest option, plus having the perfect sized drill bit meant it cleaned off a lot of the silicone from the inside of the bolt holes in the centre.



Then I carefully scraped the remaining silicone off with a knife and sanded it to get rid of the scratches on both the centre and barrel (I am a little OCD and a hard core perfectionist, as you will learn).



Before & After



Finally, I wet sanded the entire centre and waffle with 320 grit paper, wax and grease removed it, then primed it!



After doing the first one I realised I may need a little help getting good coverage when it came time to painting them, so I ended up calling in a good friend of mine - Kate (IG: _h0peless) to give me a hand and teach me a few tricks of the trade!

A little sneak peek of what's to come!

[high.classhole]

hey man, that looks awesome! Too bad you don't like own a mk1 golf that you could make carbon

Shut up Heath. Don't you have a monstertruck to attend to?!

[high.classhole]

Delivery!

Been pretty exciting over the past few days with the arrival of a few things including my lip, short shifter and Likewise "Nad".

My Cube short shifter from the amazing Megan at Yaruki Road!



My Garage Vary front lip!



The Morgan Freeman Grey Nad from We Are Likewise



Super stoked on the gear nob from Likewise, I had their Thug Nuts on my Forester for a while and everything they produce is just amazing quality and their site is always a laugh, could not recommend them more.

[high.classhole]

RS Rebuild pt.3

Thought I'd give you guys a quick sneak peek at the wheels so far!
As they sit, all lips are drilled, and the wheels are painted. Kate suggested we wait a few days for all the solvents to come out of the paint before we give them a few coats of clear, but I am absolutely loving them!





(sorry for the shakey photo, it was dark and I was excited ahaha)

[high.classhole]

RS Rebuild pt.4

I guess I've kept you all waiting long enough!

Here they are!



And a quick before & after crop!



Also I may have left out the fact that before I started work on the RS's I actually started designing and building a mock up for a little something, something
I looked for a while for a set of turbo fans but couldn't find any, so I decided to make some myself, perfectly suited to my lips! This eventually evolved into making a full adjustable mould to reproduce turbo fans for ANY size RS or depth lip. But more on that will come later.. here's a quick sneak peek for now!

[PassionGarage]

this is beautiful, good work on the rebuild of the RS' looking so good

[high.classhole]

this is beautiful, good work on the rebuild of the RS' looking so good

Thanks man, appreciate it!

[high.classhole]

Unfortunate Discoveries

So I decided to finally have a look under the car and see what it was like and if anything had been broken, bent or stripped over the past 26 years..
Unfortunately, a lot of all of the above had occurred..

The top left A arm looked odd compared to the right, so I decided to pull it out and see what was going on.. A solid 4 and a half hours later, it was out, and yes, it was VERY bent. So I threw a quick post up on the local MX5 owners group on Facebook and the next day I was on my way to pick up a whole new front subframe with all the new arms. I figured spares couldn't hurt, if this arm was bent, maybe the rest were too?

A quick comparison of the new straight arm next to the bent one



Yes, that bolt is meant to be straight.. It was far from it and that was after a few hours of me trying to straighten it out with a bender and some heat. THAT is why it took me over 4 hours to get the stupid thing out.

With the arm back in, the assembly went back together and I continued to check over the rest of the front end!



All was pretty good everywhere else, so it looks like it's been in a very small front accident just in that corner and just wasn't repaired very well. Maybe the previous owner mounted a curb or round-about?
I marked out everything I wanted to revisit for the future and threw the car back together, redoing the repairs was a job for another weekend.

[high.classhole]

Something exciting came



SCALE bringing the goods, and trust me, they are absolutely next level gorgeous.
I opened the box and nearly had to order another set just so I could put these on the wall.
They agreed to come on board with my build and I am so glad they did, the level of quality on these coilovers is second to none. And the colour? Phhwooaah.

More photos to come