Trying to keep many plates in the air all spinning at once!

Standing in the shop last night I was feeling a bit overwhelmed again. Literally every system and facet of the car is in process at the same time with not one thing complete. With so much happening it is difficult to keep track of it all and even more difficult to know what to do next. There is just so much to do!! Some days I feel so puny and inadequate and this project feels so unbelievably huge and impossible.

I know in the grand scheme of life a car project means little especially in light of this week. As Maundy Thursday approaches can you imagine how Christ must have felt in his time? Talk about overwhelming!!

So I’d like to share you with one of my all time favorite songs that I know will be helpful when (not if) you feel like I do today.

http://melissarodriguez.bandcamp.com/track/carry-me-single

I find it always helps to lean into the Lord. After all it is His car!!

Psalm 62: 5-6

Rest in God alone, my soul, for my hope comes from Him.
He alone is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold; I will not be shaken.

Thanks for listening, I feel better now. I'm taking a few nights off for Easter then back to work!

Hit the Apex - Time to Celebrate!

YAHOO!!  After 50 days taking cars apart I'm finally done! TIME TO HAPPY DANCE!!

Yes indeed I danced around the garage putting all my tools away and swept the floor. Truly a major turning point in the build! I'm done taking apart and starting to build!

Jenna is as naked as can be and ready for her mods to begin.

 

No suspension or drive train at all.

The front is so light I can pick it up off the jack stands with one hand!

Interior stripped and ready to widen the tunnel.

VERY HAPPY JIM!

Of course I could barely contain myself and I had to jump in and start converting. Real work to prep the car for the V8!!! I just can't tell you how wonderful to be done taking things apart and actually building the car now! So first up cutting the corners out of the engine bay. This is before:

 

And after: It's kind of hard to see on a black car but the inside corners of the frame are cut out along the firewall

 

Next up is to widen the tunnel. More fun with a sawsall!! But first the side braces have to come out. A friend in North Carolina who is at the same point in his build as I am showed me the trick for this. A $10 spot weld drill and they pop right out. Thanks Pat!!

 

Both braces out. Grinding out the seam sealer made a HUGE mess. That is the white stuff EVERYWHERE!

 

Next up I cut right along the corner of the tunnel to the floor and started beating the living crap out of it! Above is before and below is after

 

Here is a shot from the engine bay. I left a tab sticking out from where I started to see how far I moved it. Total for both sides is nearly 5 inches wider then when I started.

 

PS - UPDATE - After I got the engine in I found out I went way too far moving the tunnel. I should have gone about half as far as I did in this shot and nearly nothing at the bottom. I would suggest using the bell housing as a guide and go just as far as you need to and be sure and check the clearence for the gas pedal.

 

Look at all the hammer marks! A 2 1/2 lb hammer is a good friend for this!

 

This is what it looks like inside.

 

Happy Jim test fitting the bell housing! Note the instructions laying on the blanket. Yes I really DO read and follow the instructions!!

Plenty of room!

I wish I would have put the bell housing up there before I started to see what it looked like. I know it would not have fit in the hole that's for sure!! Next up is to weld it all back together. But that is for another day, this old man is mighty tired!

 

It was such a great weekend! Worship this morning on Palm Sunday was amazing, then I had a wonderful lunch date with Lori and home to beat on the car all afternoon. It just doesn't get any better than that so I say rejoice!!

Rejoice greatly O daughter of Zion!

Shout aloud O daugther of Jerusalem!

Lo your king comes to you

triumphant and victorious is He

Humble and riding on a donkey,

Zachriah 9:9

Have a GREAT holy week!

Look Mom pulling a Miata engine with no hands!

Looky here, Ziggy is hanging from the celing trying to hold an engine up! Go Ziggy!!

Well remember when I said I dreaded the thought of taking the Miata apart because I was so tired of taking apart the Camaro? Ha! When the time finally came I couldn't wait to get at it! I ended up working on it much later than planned because it felt so wonderful to finally work on the Miata!

I was disappointed at how much rust is on miss Jenna. Lots of bolts broke off and the rear spindles are one with the bolts that hold them to the control arms.

I have no idea how in the world I am going to get those free without ruining the rubber bushings next to them. Maybe I can just press the Thunderbird hubs into them where they are and not take them off the car. Suggestions anyone?

Well no time for bad news we have more happy photos!!

Yes that is a lap top on my tool box with lots of V8 Miata sites bookmarked...

I opted to drop the trans from the bottom. Can't believe how light it is! Notice all the wires with blue tags on them. Hopefully I can get it to run again!


And I managed NOT to drop the engine this time... It's a little hard to make out but in the corner under the bench is the LS1 keeping an eye on the progress of his new home.

In other news I spent quite a bit of time over the weekend cleaning, photographing and posting Camaro parts. I managed to stay out of trouble as I washed springs, struts and other parts in the kitchen sink. Hopefully it will go unnoticed that I actually do know how to wash things in the sink! Anyway I sold $2475 worth of parts in the last couple days which brings the total to $6154 in parts from the Camaro. I have about $1000 or so to go in odds and ends. I am very thankful that so far the Camaro is on track to support the build. Speaking of parts my oil pan came..:-)

I praise God for a safe and productive weekend and am looking forward to a good week!!

Psalm 37:3-5:

"Trust in the LORD and do good;

Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.
Delight yourself in the LORD;
And He will give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the LORD,
Trust also in Him, and He will do it."

2 months and 27 days till goal date.

Obituary of a good friend - one of GMs finest

Chevy Camaro SS, born in 2002, died in 2013, aged 49,856 miles, survived by a 1996 Miata.

Her life started well enough but a serious accident at age 3 that left her parked behind a body shop for 6 years unloved, and forgotten.

Later in life she had a good home…

But it was too late. With ailing health from years of mistreatment she registered as an organ donor and died peacefully in her garage.

As we commit her body to the crusher let us remember that as bad as it looks on Friday, Sunday IS coming.

 

It was Friday when this Camaro gave her all as a sacrifice just like it was Friday when Jesus hung on the cross.

 

But when all hope was gone Sunday came and Christ defeated the grave and God’s grace was given for all who would receive it.

 

Just like Christs trip to the cross todays trip in the hearse is not the end of the story.

Sunday is at hand for our dearly departed Camaro and a new resurrection Miata body is being prepared for her spirit to live on!

John 11:25-26
Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die."

Happy Easter!

Gods providence = ebay. Gods over the top blessing = Flyin Miata.

Yesterday was the best day yet in my build and I just have to tell you about it! I have been researching and analyzing to death the best way (read that cheapest) to build a V8 Miata for over 3 months and yesterday much of it fell into place. I am so excited I can barely write! 

OK there are 3 companies that make engine cradles to put V8s in Miatas and they all cost the same. However my top choice requires an $850 oil pan which is just impossible for me to do. The other 2 options need a $450 pan which is still a budget busting insane amount of money for an oil pan.

In my daily search for a solution I came across the racing version of the $850 oil pan on ebay. The guy bought it but never built the car so it is new. After a quick note to be sure it was the right pan I clicked buy it now for $363. YES SIR $363 FOR AN $850 PAN!!! What followed was a full blown end zone victory dance around my desk lasting a good 10 minutes. YAHOO!!!

With the oil pan issue solved I called FlyinMiata to order the engine cradle. Jeremy asked if I wanted to order headers too and I said no, I wasn't sure what I was going to do for exhaust but could not afford $550 just for headers. He said hold on a sec. He comes back on the phone and said they had a customer in last week that they put a full stainless exhaust in his car and would I be interested in a used ceramic coated system complete for 500 bucks.

Now wait a just a dog gone minute here. Are you telling me that out of the maaaaaybe 150 LS Miatas in the world someone just happened to want to swap out his entire exhaust system, and that just happened to happen a few days before I called, and it just happened to be the entire exhaust system for exact price that I had budgeted for exhaust?? Seriously how can anyone be an atheist???

So after recovering from the shock I verified it includes catalytic converters and did another happy dance around the desk.

Considering how rare these parts are there can be no doubt that a $850 pan for $363, and a $1200 exhaust system for 500 bucks did not just randomly happen in the same day.  I am indeed humbled, honored and blessed.

Eph 3:20-21 says:

"Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen."

Snuggling into a big pile of wire!

Well it was a cold, rainy, raw kind of weekend so I had to find a warm comfy indoor job. With wifey at work and the whole day to myself I had my opening to take over the living room with the good stuff... That is hot tea, Top Gear and enough wires, modules and connectors to fill a bathtub!

This is the complete wiring harness, head lights to tail lights from the Camaro. (and the Stigg in an Audi)

It took an entire episode of Top Gear (UK) just to un-tape and remove the covers from the engine bay wiring. Then another entire episode just to defeat the incredibly stubborn bulkhead connector. I left the covers and tape on the actual engine harness because I know I am going to use that in tact.

 

It took another TG to remove the antilock brake stuff and head lights. By the time episode 4 finished I had the steering column wiring and rear harness with the tail lights and such removed. But I did have to stop for a minute to watch the TG guys shoot a car out of a cannon... :-)

From there I got into the shop manual and started following wires between the body computer and other components to try and figure out what would and would not affect the engine computer. I had to pause the Top Gear for that...

I worked on that for about and hour and realized how out of date I am. There is a lot of stuff I know from my days in the Chevy dealer, but a ton of new stuff that I have no idea what it is!

 

So I've got about 9 hours (and 6 top gears) into it over the weekend and I'm not done yet. Did you know that after about 6 hours staring at wire all colors except orange look exactly the same? Don't take my word for it try it yourself! And why is everything taking twice as long as I thought it would anyway?? Oh well it was really fun to jump into it and do some serious prep work on the Miata. Finally!

In case you are keeping track I am now 3 months, 4 days and 12 hours to my turn key go vroom goal. And on that happy note it's off to bed to dream about drowning in wire!

Craig’s list debacle page 2…

Well I sort of did it again. I am nearly done with parting out the Camaro and it dawned on me that with so many Camaro parts lying around I have no place for Miata parts. So I thought I better get ahead of the game and posted an ad on Craigslist to sell the Miata drive train. I did not expect the Miata response to be near as strong as the Camaro but I was quite wrong. In less than 12 hours I sold the engine, driveshaft, rear end and the axles. Of course the Camaro is still in the garage and the Miata is still in storage so once again I have guys wanting parts I can’t give them right away. Opps…

I have to say after spending over a month taking apart the Camaro I am not looking forward to taking apart the Miata at all. It has been a great deal of work to pull parts, take photos, post ads and in many cases ship parts. And I still have quite a pile to go yet.

The good news is I am doing better than expected in parts sales. My low ball estimate of what I thought I would get out of the Camaro was $5200 and I will easily best that number by $1000.

The bad news is I am starting to feel the effects of the Marathon so many people warned me about. Partly because all this disassembly doesn’t feel like I am building anything, and partly because it is difficult to see my beloved Camaro in the final throes of life.

I know it is all part of the process and I have to pace myself and keep the end result in mind. I was good to take last weekend off for Loris birthday and get away from it. I think it would do me some good to spend some time working on the wiring harness or rebuilding the rear end this week. I am really looking forward to the day that I can actually assemble something for a change!

One final note to you the reader. Over the last month this blog has averaged 75 page views per day and I am completely blown away by that number. I am truly humbled and honored that so many feel my story is worth following. I hope I can maintain your trust by keeping this informative and entertaining as we go along. Thank you so much for your interest in this project. I am truly blessed by it.