After all that talk, nothing happened this weekend. The Miata still has power steering and still has A/C. My brother drove it around a bit and had fun in the sun, but c'mon, we're not about having fun ;)
Hopefully all of this pent up constructive energy will unleash itself next weekend upon the little smurf and we'll start moving forward again.
Talk soon,
Peter
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Sunday, March 23, 2008
The Greddy Turbo
Tim (my brother) found a good manual for the Greddy Turbo online. Reading through it was quite instructive. Some highlights are that it was designed to run with a completely stock Miata, no drilling or bending or breaking of existing parts. It runs at 5psi and the kit includes an interesting fuel regulator just past the injectors to maintain fuel pressure at boost (I think). Last, it is CARB exempt and is legal in CA to run on the street!
Yesterday we also went through what is necessary to take out and plug the power steering. This is not a huge deal, though some people go all out and hollow out the whole thing. I think for our purposes, just removing the pump/reservoir and re-routing the lines should be enough. We also removed the airbag (don't forget to disconnect the battery) and are looking forward to finding a nice cheap steering wheel.
We also took a quick glance at the A/C. I've been reading up on how to remove the condenser as well as the heat-pump itself. The biggest challenge looks to be just removing the lines cleanly.
More to come soon I hope!
Ps
Yesterday we also went through what is necessary to take out and plug the power steering. This is not a huge deal, though some people go all out and hollow out the whole thing. I think for our purposes, just removing the pump/reservoir and re-routing the lines should be enough. We also removed the airbag (don't forget to disconnect the battery) and are looking forward to finding a nice cheap steering wheel.
We also took a quick glance at the A/C. I've been reading up on how to remove the condenser as well as the heat-pump itself. The biggest challenge looks to be just removing the lines cleanly.
More to come soon I hope!
Ps
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Wheels for sale - $100 OBO
If anybody wants some ultra-medium performance all-original Daisy (14x5.5) wheels, let us know.
Friday, March 14, 2008
Sold the seats!
Our all-original, black cloth, beautifully worn-in seats were sold today for the low low price of $125!. That still leaves us with a ways to go to get back to $500 (assuming we install the turbo), but it's definitely a step in the right direction.
If it doesn't rain this weekend in our garage with no roof (sometimes called the driveway), we hope to do a bit more carpet removal and possibly, just possibly installation of the race seats. However, it might make sense to wait on those while we explore the possibility of spraying the interior with truck-bed liner.
By the way, the seats were sold to our good friend Rob who has decided to retire the only-slightly moldy seats that cushioned his journey through the streets of SF. If we're lucky, we will be able to foist a few more parts off on him too. His Miata is also in need of doors without dents (while ours could use some dents) and possibly a fender or two.
If it doesn't rain this weekend in our garage with no roof (sometimes called the driveway), we hope to do a bit more carpet removal and possibly, just possibly installation of the race seats. However, it might make sense to wait on those while we explore the possibility of spraying the interior with truck-bed liner.
By the way, the seats were sold to our good friend Rob who has decided to retire the only-slightly moldy seats that cushioned his journey through the streets of SF. If we're lucky, we will be able to foist a few more parts off on him too. His Miata is also in need of doors without dents (while ours could use some dents) and possibly a fender or two.
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Sunday (March 09th, 2008) carpet madness
The other seat came out of the car today along with a bit of the carpet. It's in remarkably good shape and now ready for a bit of cleaning and slicing for our new funds generation idea :)
Also, I was checking out the suspension and it looks like it was reasonably well set up for the track once before. I think it might behoove us to get a couple new sway-bars and maybe a strut-tower brace, but overall it handles quite well as-is. We probably should get it out to the track for a day just to dial it in.
Next up - reading about how to take out an airbag (safely) and then pulling the rest of the carpet out, hopefully in one piece.
Oh yeah - I almost forgot, we found another $0.60 in change (2 quarters, 1 dime) under the driver's seat, so we're slowly but surely getting back to our $500 limit :)
Next up - reading about how to take out an airbag (safely) and then pulling the rest of the carpet out, hopefully in one piece.
Oh yeah - I almost forgot, we found another $0.60 in change (2 quarters, 1 dime) under the driver's seat, so we're slowly but surely getting back to our $500 limit :)
Idea for funds generation
So, we're thinking of a novel way to generate funds for our operation. We're thinking of selling small squares of carpet for $5 each (100 or so squares) with going to UNICEF (who provided our video inspiration. In fact, we'll probably do something cool and put a picture of it up on the website with pointers to each piece so that you can see which one you bought!
Thoughts or comments on this appreciated. We hope to induce a rule change for next year :)
Thoughts or comments on this appreciated. We hope to induce a rule change for next year :)
Saturday (March 08th, 2008) update
Well, the Miata drives pretty well around town. I've been using it to do local errands and the odd Berkeley Hills banzai run with no big problems. The only funny thing is that since we removed the shift boot there is very hot air that comes blowing up through the hole around the shift linkage.
This weekend my brother and I removed the passenger seat in preparation for installing the cheaper and more useful beat-up old race seats. We also repaired a bit of the vinyl on the passenger seat so that now we can sell the pair. If anybody is interested, they are actually in quite good shape. Maybe I'll buy them and install them in my Ghia, it hasn't had seats with padding for quite awhile ...
I also insured the car and will probably register and smog it sometime this week. Though at first we thought the tires weren't holding air, they seem to be fine now. Next up is selling all of the various pieces and parts. You can see them in the For Sale section of our spreadsheet. Next weekend we will probably take out a few more things and maybe dig out the power steering and A/C.
Talk soon,
Peter
This weekend my brother and I removed the passenger seat in preparation for installing the cheaper and more useful beat-up old race seats. We also repaired a bit of the vinyl on the passenger seat so that now we can sell the pair. If anybody is interested, they are actually in quite good shape. Maybe I'll buy them and install them in my Ghia, it hasn't had seats with padding for quite awhile ...
I also insured the car and will probably register and smog it sometime this week. Though at first we thought the tires weren't holding air, they seem to be fine now. Next up is selling all of the various pieces and parts. You can see them in the For Sale section of our spreadsheet. Next weekend we will probably take out a few more things and maybe dig out the power steering and A/C.
Talk soon,
Peter
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Saturday wrenching session
Zandr and I got together today (Sat) and decided to futz with the Miata a little to see what we were getting into. My brother Tim came by too to add to the confusion and help break the other cars that were in the vicinity.
Below are my notes from the day:
* checking out turbo, verifying that the waste gate works
* looking at the header, is it a European model? looks stock, lower exhaust welded together
* removed Hella H4 headlights and sold, replaced with old crappy ones that were laying around
* water pump looks fairly new
* stock swaybars, has aftermarket rear subframe brace, Koni yellow shocks
* front is lower, cut springs perhaps?
* extra foglight wiring (now removed), alarm (not yet removed)
* it has headrest speakers, maybe we can sell those too
* not a limited slip differential, smooth housing
* the Jackson intake should be street legal, as is new exhaust because it has a catalytic converter
* need to replace shift boots
* found $0.25 in change!
* timing was severely retarded, we adjusted and it runs much better, set idle to 850rpm
* still runs rough when cold
* pulled out foglight wiring and extra speaker wiring
Below are my notes from the day:
* checking out turbo, verifying that the waste gate works
* looking at the header, is it a European model? looks stock, lower exhaust welded together
* removed Hella H4 headlights and sold, replaced with old crappy ones that were laying around
* water pump looks fairly new
* stock swaybars, has aftermarket rear subframe brace, Koni yellow shocks
* front is lower, cut springs perhaps?
* extra foglight wiring (now removed), alarm (not yet removed)
* it has headrest speakers, maybe we can sell those too
* not a limited slip differential, smooth housing
* the Jackson intake should be street legal, as is new exhaust because it has a catalytic converter
* need to replace shift boots
* found $0.25 in change!
* timing was severely retarded, we adjusted and it runs much better, set idle to 850rpm
* still runs rough when cold
* pulled out foglight wiring and extra speaker wiring
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