The thrilling days of watching paint dry!

This was a very sloooow week in the build and rather unorganized. With the seam welding done the next step is to clean and seal the seams. Unfortunately the temps in Minnesota are still running 25 degrees below normal so the polyurethane sealer I used took FOREVER to set up. Once it did I hit it with primer and waited for it to dry followed by 2 coats of black paint and waited AND WAITED for it to dry!
So basically for the week I could not touch anything inside the car or engine bay.

Note to you kids trying this at home.  If your car is black use matt or semi gloss paint because gloss dosn't match old dirty paint at all! 

Now I could have worked on the rear end, rebuilt the steering gear, put the new bearings in, put the new CV joints on the axles, or 30 other things while stuff dried.  But none of them seemed like the right thing to do next and I was foiled again with option overload. As the panicky realization set in that there is so much to do I’ll never finish I did the only thing I could do, I read the instructions!  

It’s been quite a while since I opened them and come to find out I was supposed to fit the radiator while I had the engine in the car. Opps. So my options are to wait till the engine is back or make some educated assumptions and go for it. Since fabrication is a million times more fun then rebuilding a steering gear I did the latter…

First up was looking at the factory radiator and how it was mounted. The short answer is its tiny and way too far rear ward so out came the sawsall and off went the factory mounts. This is the new radiator compared to the factory one.

The factory one is sitting at an odd angle in the shot they really are about the same height. The new one is 3 times thicker though!

I should mention here that the radiator I am using is not a proper V8 swap radiator. The Flyin Miata radiator made for this is a custom built Griffin that bolts in but costs 650 bucks. That ranks right up there with the $850 oil pan for causing builder heart attacks and budget explosions!

I picked up a Griffin Scirocco race radiator that is a bit smaller than I would like but was only $239 and is rated for 600 HP. I’m pretty sure 600 HP is enough and I can drill and tap a fitting into it and make mounting brackets for less than 400 bucks!

 

I came up with a simple but effective little foot to bolt the radiator to.

Then fabbed up little brackets to mount it to the core support. I even welding nuts underneath so it bolts right in!

I don’t have any photos but I modified the hood latch and fit the AC condenser too. I did not make mounts for the condenser yet because I need to figure out which side of things the fans are going to go on first. I really can’t do that till I have the engine and sway bar in place.

While I had the welder out I whipped up a couple of little braces to go on the fire wall to add support for the strut tower brace I made last week.  More fabrication I love it!

But more painting to do!  Blah!!

The last bit of excitement for the week involves an ad that was posted on the car club forum for some Miata wheels wanted.  I was planning on swapping wheels next year and either having a set of track wheels and using what I have now for the street or selling them and getting smaller / wider ones to run all the time. 

Well hit reply to the add and last night a nice young Marine shows up with 650 bucks and carts off my wheels and tires.  So my timetable moved up a year and I won't be running 2 sets of tires!

Another change in the plans that reveals Gods plan for this project is not quite the same as mine.  Jeremiah 29:11 says I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  It will be interesting to see what He comes up with for wheels now!!