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.

This is what a free Miata looks like

It's not very pretty, but it sure is easy on the wallet. I've put quite a bit of time into stripping the car and selling off parts in the last two months. In the process, I've learned quite a bit of how Mazda builds cars. I had some friends offer to help strip the whole car in an afternoon, but I wanted to go slow and learn as much as I could. I'm glad I did.

Aside from the advantage of labeling everything, stripping the car by myself has given me the opportunity to ponder how I'm going to address each of the hundreds of things a car needs to go down the road. This is especially true for the little things, like keeping the OBD-II and Mazda diagnostic connectors or ditching the switch for dimming the dash lights.

I've updated my project cost excel spreadsheet (see the "Donor Vehicle" tab) to reflect the parts sell off, in case you want more information.

So for all those that are tackling the same task, a few thoughts about my experience:

• Screw Ebay/PayPal - Their fees have gotten so high and their feedback system so crummy that it's not worth selling anything but the most desirable components online. For a $15 item, Ebay/PayPal took over $3. That's more than 20%, kids. And now that sellers can't post negative feedback on buyers I'm sure scammers will run the place into the ground. I guess I'm not the only one who thinks so.
  
• Tough it out and sell on CraigsList - Sure you'll have the occasional doofus, money-order scammer or time-sucking tire-kicker, but you won't pay any fees and you'll always get (mostly) scam-free cash. It's not all bad, as I've found that most Miata folks are pretty nice people. And I had a cool conversation with the guy who was going to use the roll hoops from my donor to trick out his vintage-racer MGA.
  
• Flat rate shipping is your friend - The USPS offers three sizes of flat rate boxes that allow you to ship stuff up to 70 lbs. to anywhere in the US. You can make a little more by boxing and shipping Ebay parts the traditional way, but it makes things so much simpler that I just couldn't justify the extra time. The postal service will also allow you to order the boxes online and will ship them to your door for free. Easy-peasy, Japanesey.
  
• Take good pictures - People will pay more for items when they're sure what they're getting. Pictures that are well-lit, clear and that focus on important details are worth the effort. Which would you rather buy?

• Be honest - It's easier to let it all out and just wait for a buyer than to go into used-car-salesman mode. Besides, I sold a lot of parts to "repeat" buyers who bought multiple items after inquiring about a single item for sale.
  
• Sell low - There's enough value in even a wrecked Miata to get back your investment in all but the most overpriced donor. It's taken me quite a while to get past the "I must get every last cent for every part" mentality. In the end, I decided this project was about building a car and not selling parts.

Even though I'm at the break-even point, I plan on selling off as much as I can. I'm really curious to see how much of the project Winky will fund. Still, I'm anxious to get the stripped hulk out of my garage so I can park my daily driver in a warmer spot for the winter. My goal is to start my build table project sometime in the Spring. I plan on spending the winter measuring parts, modeling in CAD and designing the suspension.

Keeping track of things

Being a nerd, I like to keep track of things. Excel and I are on a first-name basis. So it's natural that I'd want to accurately document my build.

Even though the Spartan won't be an absolutely low-cost locost, I still want to keep track. Some have suggested that this is a crazy idea, as it gives my wife real numbers to yell at me about. Fortunately for me my wife is really cool about this obsession of mine, so I feel comfortable keeping a budget spreadsheet with the actual figures for my build.

I'm going to count the full purchase cost of partial items. That means if I use 10% of a $4 tube of grease, it'll be $4. I don't want the pain of tracking how much welding filler wire I've used. The spreadsheet will also break out shipping and tool costs and list sources for each item. I figure that may help someone else understand how I got those figures.

While I've been waiting to start my build I've been reading like a banshee. I've also scoured the internet for anything I can learn about building a car. Along the way I've made lots of decisions about components and specs for my car. I've decided to keep a specification spreadsheet (xls) listing what I plan on incorporating into the Spartan.

Both documents are now on the sidebar, and they'll be constantly updated as I go along. You're free to copy and use them as you see fit.