Friday, February 20, 2009

What I kept from my donor

I've pretty well documented what I sold from Winky, but I haven't really laid out what I kept. Here's what I saved from my donor:

  • Engine (minus intake and exhaust plumbing before and after the manifolds, power steering and AC hardware)
  • Tranny, driveshaft, Torsen differential, propshafts
  • Shifter boot and shift knob
  • PPF (for reference)
  • Steering wheel, column, shaft, rack, tie rods (I have other plans, but I kept these as a backup)
  • Suspension uprights, lower ball joints, associated mounting bolts
  • Brake calipers and mounting brackets
  • E-brake lever, e-brake cables
  • ECU and mounting bracket
  • Complete wiring harness, relays, fuse boxes, horn, turn signal switches, etc.
  • Accelerator pedal assy, throttle cable, speedometer cable
  • Fuel pump/vent/sender assy
  • Fuel filter bracket, charcoal canister bracket, diagnostic plug bracket, fuse box brackets
  • 2 eyeball vents, in-dash HVAC plumbing (for my heater outputs)
  • Spare, jack, spare tools
  • VIN plate from dash and sticker from driver's door jamb
  • All of the rubber grommets, brake line clips and drain plugs
  • A huge box of all the nuts, bolts, screws and clips I could take off
Also noteworthy is what I didn't keep, but could have. Other Miata based builders have used more stock components to lower cost and complexity in their build. I've decided not to use:

  • Stock Miata seats
  • Instrument cluster
  • Brake and clutch pedals and master cylinders
  • Rear suspension and subframe
  • Wheels and tires (my donor came with heavy, ugly wheels, so I sold them; If it had the OEM 7-spoke "daisy" wheels I would have kept them)
It's easy to see why it's much cheaper to use a single donor than collect all of the parts separately. Even after keeping all these parts, I've made $500 off my donor.

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