This may be a little ridiculous - a $2018 challenge oddessey

In reply to Indy - Guy :

Thank you sir! And to you as well. 

the hood buffed out pretty nice. 

You're doing a ton of work on this thing! 

Also, I need to hire you as my detail person.

Well,  ocd level attention to detail is what gets my ricks off Kendall. So, I may be hirable!

I can see some paint imperfections in the wall that is visible in the reflection. Looks amazing! 

In reply to GoLucky :

Thanks!! I'm glad it's spent so much time blocking this car. It's paying off immensely. 

That door....

So, im experimenting woth new polishing stuff on this car. Mostly because I ran out of the old stuff, and figure new stuff is probably better and or easier. 

So im using chemical guys p4 and my final polishing on an orange pad. More aggressive pad, finer polish than the cutting compound and black pad I was using for this step. 

I must say, I'm impressed. Drivers side is done, passengers is not. Look at clarity and depth of reflection. It's more dramatic in person. 

Remind me, this is rust oleum?

In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :

No. This is some off brand base coat from colors edge, and matrix 4:1 clear that we've wetsanded and buffed the everloving berkeley out of.

Rustoleum windshield frame and hardtop though.

Polished the entire car yesterday. 

not gonna lie, I'm looking forward to getting hone from work and pushing it into the sun to see how it turned out. Daylight is VERY different from led shop light 

girls are camping with the scouts, so it's just me and the cat for the weekend. So crank the berkeley out of some alt country, and ceramicoat. 

I love how this is working out. Holy crap. 

The concourse? Y'all just take the 12....

Wow! I like that I can read the ladder safety warning in your paint reflection. It looks too good. 

Everything thats painted has at least one coat of ceramicoat on it. Tub, back bumper, side skirts, drivers door has two coats, and a double coat of topper (turtle wax graphene) 

Back bumper is permanently installed, complete with emblems. 

time to go play fallout. Im tired. 

In reply to Dusterbd13 :

Wow 😲 

Stunning clarity in the shine !

Indy - Guy said:

In reply to Dusterbd13 :

Wow 😲 

 

Stunning clarity in the shine !

I'm quite pleased. 

I've been working on bits and pieces and this and that on all sorts of projects around here. The shop, the duster, the miata, normal house stuff, enclosing the carport, etc. I need to do a big reset soon. And part of that will be a good, comprehensive update of this thread instead of the real-time stuff y'all normally get. Hopefully the time I take to type those updates up makes things better for everyone. I know I enjoy making them. 

I'm really looking forward to a cleaner shop though, amd dismembering death trap. I want the parking spot back.

I'll chip away at a full update this week.

Budget update first

Previous total: 1796.63 with 2000 recoup

New money:

Remove wilwood prop valve, plug wires, chassis bracing and boost controller from budget to get us 250

Boght 2003miata roller for 150 off facebook

Sold depowered rack, front suspension, brakes, ocilovers, 14 inch wheels, steering column, pedals, and other little bits from the 2003 roller to Adrian on grm for 250

Neoprene foam 9.99 roll, used uder 1/3 3.33

New totals: 1699.96 with 2000 recoup

At this stage of a restoration, im always jumping around like an ADHD first grader jacked up on sugar cookies, red bull and meth. So, please, don’t expect a logical order for a while.

Last update saw me with a fully finished undercarriage, up to the firewall. So, I guess we’ll start there.

I pulled the crossmember, taped up the wheelwells and engine bay, and blacked out the wheelwells.

20250517_141942 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

Get done with that, and then topcoat the ceramicoat with a few coats of wax. I scored this bottle on closeout at the parts store for like 3 bucks, and am SERIOUSLY impressed with it so far. Topcoated the hood on the daily for a longer term test, and even if it doesn’t hold up too terribly long, I love its performance.

 20250520_203542 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

Then, went ahead and started assembling things in the engine bay ahead of the front suspension. Like brake lines, grommets, etc.

20250520_203110 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

Around this time, I bought another parts car. It popped up on Facebook for 150 a few miles away, the young dudes selling it part out Miata’s to make a living, and it had “nice” carpet and top. And I nice looking power steering rack, and coilovers, and wheels, and a scruffy top, and….

Screenshot_20250514_211303_Facebook by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20250517_074617 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20250517_081358 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20250531_065448 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

I proceeded to get all the good out of it. one of the main reasons I bought it was that I knew a local GRMer is building a locost and needed suspension, brake, steering, and wheels. All of which this car had. I told him to give me what he felt was reasonable, which was 250. I kept what I needed from the rest of the car to use, such as brake lines, carpet, tops, ac parts, heat parts, dash parts, nb2 chassis bracing, emissions bits, bumper bars, latches, strikers, grommets, brackets, nits, bolts, weatherstripping, pretty much everything I could get off the thing to make sure I got my negative hundred bucks worth. I took the top and windshield trim after these pictures.

20250601_181633 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20250601_181645 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20250601_181647 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

So back to the front suspension, now that I have a power rack to work with. I took it and my k frame and carpet over to work where we have an industrial hot water pressure washer and pit. And sandblaster. That my salesman self can occasionally use on the weekends.

20250524_120741 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

Carpet before

20250524_110041 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

During. Did the seatbelts while I was there too. Seemed like a good idea. Super clean, concrete brush, and then pressure washer.

20250524_110234 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20250524_111005 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

Same process on the other parts I took/take there.

Brought it all back, painted the steel parts black, refinished the hardware, and assembled on a set of $15 no name coilovers I got off Facebook for exactly this reason.

20250607_175857 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20250608_093128 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

I also started looking at the emissions and fuel system parts. Pulling the nice gold cad plated stuff, cleaning it up, using nice gold cad plated hardware to match….

20250519_170406 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

Cleaned up and painted the bigger master and booster setup from the 03, but wanted to retain the 99 brake lines and prop valve setup. So, I cut up some of the lines from the parts car, used the 10mm fittings, a little flare action, and done. Doesn’t look factory, but doesn’t look out of place either.

20250528_174828 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20250730_183621 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20250730_183626 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

I then moved on to the pedals so I could hang the booster. Took apart the setups from both cars, added cruise control lever, cleaned, painted, lubed, etc.

20250526_091815 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20250526_190826 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

Somewhere in here, I started rebuilding the HVAC boxes. I have a bad heater core in the original to the car, the parts car had some broken bits but a good heater core, and there was another couple of boxes in the trunk of it. took all the best parts and built one box, and in the process put new foam and grease in it throughout. Used a self-adhesive neoprene 1/8 thick foam I found on amazon. Seems like the right product for the job. I hope.

20250602_070556 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20250602_070552 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

We also finally got the windshield frame painted. I used my laser level to make even lines at exactly the same height in both door jambs, taped off the shop and car, and we shot it with acetone thinned semigloss black Valspar. Came out glossier than I expected, but I’m not mad. However, I really should have done another round of high build primer and sealer on the hardtop. Theres some printing through the paint that’s pretty obvious. I may have to repaint it. don’t know yet, as I’m not there yet. That’s a decision for after I paint the passenger’s door/mudflaps/mirrors, and reshoot the driver’s fender I damaged.

20250614_075540 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20250615_063044 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20250615_063035 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20250615_091953 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

After that cured, I proceeded to call in my friend art, and we began to wet sand, buff, and ceramicoat the car.

20250531_141355 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20250604_193617 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20250617_185521 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20250705_162347 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20250705_071725 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

Then, we can final install some parts.

Manual antenna assembly

20250713_160508 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

Super nice trunk latch

20250713_160502 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

Refinished rear emblems, and all the bumper fasteners (not pictured are the polished taillights and trunk emblem installed with all hardware)

20250713_160513 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

Side skirts with all the correct hardware for the first time since I’ve owned the car, as well as Sandblasted and painted black door strikers

20250629_173027 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20250726_114341 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

Worked the top a bit. Still funky after pressure washing, but way less bad. That’s something embedded in the canvas over the bow. It was over every bow, but most of it came out. Except this one.

20250617_190310 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

There was a seam at the back coming undone. A negligible amount of shoe goo from my wife, and a bunch of clamps later, we also reinforced some questionable seams spots around the rear glass.

20250718_201113 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

20250724_202103 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

I then robbed the best weatherstripping from this top and the junk one, the good rain rail from the junk top, and put it all together. And in the car.

20250727_150145 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

FB_IMG_1753652187457 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

Prior to putting the top in, I pulled the rain drain tubes from deathtrap and cleaned them up as they were in FAR better shape than the ones in this car.

20250727_073833 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

Then proceeded to install the refinished rollbar. After waxing it, because I could. I think I covered refinishing it in an earlier update, as well as sandblasting the really rusty reinforcement plates. If I didn’t, use your imagination….

20250729_180712 by Michael Crawford, on Flickr

I THINK that gets us current. Maybe. Theres probably stuff I’m forgetting, as I get 20 minutes here and an hour there to work on the car. It wont be done for the September shindig in Pittsburg, but I really hope to get some shakedown in this season. It doesn’t look good though…

Looking really nice. Wish I was 1/10th as productive as you on my car projects!

In reply to sevenracer :

I subscribe to Andrew Nelson's newsletter of "if you have 5 minutes, do a 5 minute job"

Like this morning.  Paint a wheel before work. 

It may not look like a major milestone, but it is to me. 

Sound deadener, insulation, paint, seam sealer, rust prevention, roll bar, top, firewall pad and pedal boxes are all on. Chassis is all cleaned, painted, and reassembled. Paint is cut, buffed, ceramicoated, and waxed. 

I can actually start to make it a freaking CAR again. 

I love the black and tan color combo for the interior.

Did you recommend a spray-on rubber coating for fender-wells?  It was a long time ago, and can't remember now.  And my phone went swimming, so I lost your number.

And duplicolor bed armor. It's a little grey, but its awesome and rolls on. Kinda chunky, holds up good, sticks good, and inexpensive