Bought a radiator fan

If you're paying attention to my Spartan 7 specification sheet, you'll notice that I had both the radiator and radiator fan on my design-phase purchase list. The reason is that I've seen several builders struggle to package the radiator into the nose of their builds, and I wanted to avoid this entirely by designing the front of the frame in advace around stock components.

Since I have an aftermarket Honda Civic radiator, it makes sense to use the stock fan, motor and shroud assembly. After all, they were designed to fit together, designed to work together and the stock radiator fan assembly provides enough cooling for engines as powerful (or more so) than my Miata donor's.

I purchased this unit off EBay for $35 or so. I was looking for a used unit, but all the local yards had been picked clean and I suspect this is a part that has a limited service life. It was only $20 more to get a new one, so I took the plunge.

The overall unit is a little bulky, but I like how clean and "factory spec" the final result looks. As I get deeper into the design phase we'll see if I can wrap a front end and nose cone around the assembly.

Next time I go to a junkyard I'm going to snip off a stock Honda connector for my wiring harness. That way I can put in a drop in replacement should the part ever fail.

Bit of a break, and a couple more wheels.

It's been a busy summer, and I'm starting to think that more work on the locost is going to get done in the cooler months of the year than during the summer for a multitude of reasons.

In other news, I picked up a couple more wheels in excellent shape from RSpeed, a Miata and Mini tuner shop here in Georgia. They're in pristine shape and will provide replacements for the damaged wheels in my set as well as give me an extra wheel for a full-size spare mounted to the rear.

My total wheel investment now comes to approx. $90. At $15 per wheel I'm not complaining!

A new (used) set of shoes

This week I picked up a set of wheels for the project! They don't look like much, but I have big plans!

I had originally planned to use a set of racing-spec wheels for the car, but with my change in philosophical direction they just aren't appropriate. They've also been discontinued. What I needed for my tribute was a wheel tire combo that's vintage-looking (185 width wheels with 14" rims), but that will fit my Miata suspension components.

I don't think there's a more appropriate wheel for my car than Minilites. Unfortunately they're hard to come by and astronomically expensive. Chaparral S15s are made specifically for Miatas and look like the real deal, but they're not 14" wheels and they weigh close to 16 lbs.

Enter the OEM 1990-1993 Miata wheel (AKA "daisy"). In keeping with the Miata's retro styling the wheels were made to look substantially similar to the classic British Minilite. The wheels weigh a paltry 12.3 lbs and are easy to come by in case I hit a curb. They're also super-cheap if you're patient. I scored the entire set including (badly) used tires, center caps and lug nuts for $40.

Speaking of tires, those crappers are more than good enough to roll the chassis around on and perhaps to make a quick jaunt to the tire store. I know that by the time I need them they'll be toast, but they'll do the job until the car is road-worthy.

As for the wheels themselves, I'm going to clean them up and paint the centers a medium grey. I also plan on polishing the rim. I think they're going to look sweet!

Keith Tanner uses a set of painted OEM Miata wheels on his 7. He has a good write-up on the process on his web site starting here.