If its not fast its not fun

SCRacing LLC

Phase Four

A lot of sweat (and some blood) was used to remove the shocks and springs and allowed us to start preparing the underbody for the new components. Although we had already received the Spec Miata suspension kit from Import Motor sports  we had to re-use the upper control arms and dad insisted on labeling everything so we could get it back together again. (Early onset of Alzheimer’s!) We would get new bushings and have someone press them in so we could use the old control arms

 

Under each wheel arch we would have to prep and spray the sub frames so everything was clean and freshly painted. This meant hooking up our compressor and using a wire brush on the angle grinder. Lots of noise and dust but well worth it – just look at them now.

 

On inspection the lower control arms were seized and in one case the bracket for the tie rod end was broken so we ordered new lower arms all round.

 

Fitting the new bushings was a real task. A quick trip down to Warrenville

Hardware (you can get anything there) and we had what we thought was

going to do the trick – a length of threaded steel with some very big washers.

Dad’s plan was to use the thread to pull through the new bushings into the

control arms. Seemed like a good idea but the first one we tried got stuck

half way – back to the drawing board!

 

Plan B – a much better idea – was to use a lubricant – good job my Dad works for LifeStyles – as the strawberry flavored product worked a treat and we were able to get all the new bushings fitted. We would fit the new suspension later as we

needed to order some fasteners to finish the install.

 

Plan C is to buy the all in one tool from Harbor Freight – it works really well.

 

So next task was the roll-cage. We already had a major issue to overcome

before starting this job as the roll-cage flanges were pretty badly damaged

during shipping. So it was out with the big hammer and using the trailer

tongue as an anvil we beat out the metal and it was as good as new.

 

I was a little concerned about the fit of the cage but with a little help of the

saws-all to get rid of some unwanted sheet steel the cage went in well. The one we chose was a bolt in cage by Autopower – a six point fitting with a seat brace and door bars. Each of the six point fittings had to be drilled out and we had to be very careful not to drill into chassis members where it would have been impossible to attach the back plates and fasteners.

 

It was a bit of trial and error in getting everything to fit – starting with the rear

 roll bar and loop for the drivers seat we drilled out the top and bottom fittings

then fitted the other side. Once in place it was easy to locate the front roll-hoop

and windshield bar using the door bars as locators – once the remaining brackets were drilled we could tighten everything up again - only leaving the doors bars

to install.

 

It was at this stage of the rebuild that my life changed – Dad bought an  Evo VIII – must admit I could barely concentrate on matters at hand and could not wait to get to drive “Godzilla”