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.

Ready for storage

After a very satisfying session of wrenching and hoisting, my engine is now affixed to its temporary home. I'm still debating whether to rebuild it now or not. I'm starting to lean pro-rebuild.

Winky (1993-2009)

After removing Winky's drivetrain, I found myself sizing up the remaining components to be removed. I realized that I was one good weekend away from being finished with the tear-down.

And so it was that I found myself working feverishly to take apart the front and rear suspensions and remove the differential and fuel tank. It took me the better part of a day, but here's the result:

That's a lot more work than it looks!

3 of the 4 lower control arms were stuck to the suspension uprights, their fasteners completely locked up. By the point of that discovery I was making a lot of progress, so I decided to wait until a later date to tackle the rusty bolt removal.

For some bizzare reason, it took me three months to purchase an air-powered impact gun. Up until this point I'd gotten by with just a breaker bar. I wish now that I'd have acquired one much earlier! The gun made removing the suspension a breeze (aside from the completely frozen bolts).

With the car apart and parts scattered all over my wife's side of the garage, I called a repeat parts buyer to pick up the shell. I traded him the body in exchange that he come pick it up. That's a better deal than it sounds, since many builders spend a weekend or two painfully chopping the shell to bits with a sawzall!

Here's the automotive corpse mid-load. I'd removed every conceivable bolt, bracket, and random part from the shell, so three of us managed to lift the shell into the truck without breaking out the hoist.

I remember when I first got the car, I had a panic attack at the huge disassembly task ahead of me. Three months later, I've got a nice dose of confidence and a strong motivation to get started on the build. I'm pretty proud to say that my once pristine pair of mechanic's gloves now looks like this:

It may sound silly, but I'm going to miss that car. I've spent dozens (hundreds?) of hours taking him apart, and now he's off to be cut up to provide new body panels for a smashed Miata. Of course, that's one of my original goals with the project - to resurrect a trashed classic and to help keep many more on the road. So long Winky!

Required picture

Somewhere in the laws governing the automotive world there's a rule that whenever an engine is pulled, a picture of someone sitting in the engine bay is required.

Hey, I don't make the rules...

Ripping Winky's guts out

Up to this point, I've been disassembling Winky all by myself. After several months in the garage I had come to the point where the engine had to come out. This time I called in reinforcements in the form of my LeMons teammates.

Here's my buddy Bob working on removing the coil packs so we could mount the lifting chains. I had spent the last two weeks carefully disconnecting every hose and wire attached to the engine. I abhor the "disconnect now, ask questions later" approach, so I took the time to label everything and to try and understand what exactly I was taking apart.

I have to say that the hoist (and load-leveler that came with it) worked like a dream. I think I probably could have removed the whole thing myself without too much trouble. I'm going to add the load-leveler to my list of favorite tools (along with my 1/2" breaker bar and my deep metric sockets). That gizmo made manuvering a 400+ lb. chunk of cast iron, aluminum and steel a piece of cake. Besides, pumping the hydraulics and turning the leveler handle made me feel like a 4 year old with a shiny new Tonka truck. Good stuff.

Speaking of which, here's me angling the assembly down to maneuver it out of the bay. Yep, it came out pretty easy. I was just starting to think I was the engine removal master, until I saw this under the car:

That would be the entire contents of my transmission spilled all over the floor. I had a catch pan ready to go, but in my excitement to use the hoist I neglected to put it under the tranny. Note to self - next time, drain the transmission oil first.

It took 20 lbs. of cheap cat litter to soak that mess up. Now my garage smells like an oil tanker hitting a herd of pooping cats. Not pleasant.

With the engine and transmission removed, it was on to separating my Siamese twins into two separate parts. The engine was destined for a stand that I'd just picked up from CraigsList, but I didn't have the necessary hardware to mount it so it'd have to sit on the floor for now.

This is the "catch of the day" shot. It felt pretty good to see the drivetrain swinging (gently) from the hoist. Craig (in the background) is doing his best to be supportive by drinking a cup of coffee.

After a few minutes of grunting, here's what we had:

I'm happy to say we managed to separate the tranny with only one stripped transmission bolt thread (doh!). Actually, I'm a little upset, but I'll get over it because:

1. This is the first buggered thread since I started disassembling the car. One out of 3,238 ain't bad.
2. It's on the oil pan, not the block, so it should be easy to replace (for $65 or so).
3. It's an aluminum part, so what did I expect?
4. I've always wondered how well heli-coils work.
5. If this is the worst thing that happens during the build, I'll be a happy man.

I found a few other issues while I was giving the drivetrain a once over, but nothing that a few random parts won't fix.

At the end of the work day, I found this in the corner of my garage:

I can't say why that sight gives me so much joy, but now every time I see it I smile. Maybe because now it isn't a Miata engine...it's a Locost engine.

What lies ahead for my greasy new mill? First, mounting on a stand. Next is absolutely going to be a quick bath. After that, I may tear it apart a bit to see what I've got. I'm also mulling over doing a full tear-down and rebuild. It's a lot of work, but it'll need to be done anyway and it's a lot nicer to start the build with a good engine than know that as soon as I'm ready to drive it I'll have to pull it apart again.

Shedding excess baggage

This makes me want to never buy a car with AC and power steering ever again.

Just look at this pile! The components I've removed from the engine probably weigh 40 lbs. This stuff is completely unnecessary for the Spartan, and I'm thrilled to be tossing them into the "sell" pile. The bracket for the AC compressor (foreground) is a huge block of iron that must weigh 10 lbs on its own!

In any case, it makes me happy to be able to see the engine without all that excess baggage. It's starting to look more like a lean, killer sports car mill. Meanwhile, the engine compartment is getting more and more bare. Good stuff!

The interior is much better. I've completely gutted it with the exception of the pedals and all of the wiring. Speaking of excess baggage, I think I'll really enjoy removing the estimated 40 lbs. of excess wiring from the harness before it goes into the Spartan.

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.

Winky's Last Ride

Here's a quick video of Winky's last drive before he gets stripped and reassembled. Hopefully, he'll emerge from the cocoon running better than when he came in!

The trip around the block wasn't just to hoon around my neighborhood. I've never actually driven the car, so I wanted to see how (if) it runs under its own power.

The good: The clutch seems very good. The shifter was very very fluid on the upshift, but the synchros seem a little balky downshifting into 1st and 2nd (I only got up to 3rd). That may be because the transmission was cold.

The bad: There seems to be pretty bad HLA knocking. I'll have to have those replaced or cleaned.

The ugly: White smoke coming out of the tailpipe! The 3 mile drive after the collision (with a busted radiator) must have toasted the head gasket. Hopefully it's just a gasket and didn't warp the head. There doesn't seem to be antifreeze in the oil, so maybe it's not that bad.

Now I'll have to decided whether to delay the build and rebuild the engine, or whether to press on ahead and just get the Spartan built and running. I'm leaning toward the latter, but I know having a basket case for a motor is going to drive me a little nuts.

Going a little faster than I thought

In all this planning I've been doing in the last few years, I always assumed the tear down and disposal of the donor was going to take six months. Now I'm thinking it'll only take a fraction of the time. I will say that I've probably spent 15 hours plus tearing the car apart in the last week. What can I say? I'm still riding the buzz of having my donor car in my garage.

Speaking of garage, I decided to upgrade the lighting. The new fixtures make a world of difference, and already I'm thinking of getting two more.

I'd mentioned before that I'm taking my time taking the car apart and trying to get organized. I'm especially concerned about the wiring harness. I get the willies thinking of having a giant unlabled box of spaghetti, so I've been pretty militant about labeling connections as I take them apart.

This may seem a bit anal, but I know I'll be thankful that I took the time later when I'm trying to condense the wiring harness into something simpler. Same goes for bagging and tagging hardware for removed components. I've read enough stories about doing a car restoration to know that's a must.

A week into the teardown, and all I have to say is it's shocking how simple of a car the Miata is. There really aren't as many parts as I thought there'd be. I knew there is a reason I love these cars so!

Surveying the damage

The first task after welcoming Winky home was to peel away the damage and to see what the accident did to him.

I had the front body panels off within a few hours. I'm trying to be careful and take my time so I don't damage anything worth selling. I'm also trying to label the ends of every electrical connection so that it'll be easier to decipher when the wiring harness is out of the car.

You can see pretty clearly where the accident took out the front end. The funny thing is that the bumper is in perfect shape. Go figure.

Unfortunately, the frame is bent. That means I won't be able to sell it to a Spec Miata racer or someone who wants a project track car. I'm keeping the VIN anyway for registration purposes, so it would never be worth much anyway. This way too I don't have to be too careful taking stuff off of it.

This also means I'll eventually have to get rid of the stripped unibody myself. A quick call to the metal recycler confirmed that it was worth about $10 as scrap (I'm not kidding). I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

Here's a good view of that leaky valve cover. I don't plan on working on the engine until it's removed from the car, so I know it'll drive me crazy. The plan here (other than replacing the gasket) is to powder coat the valve cover and brake rotors Ferrari red and paint the raised lettering white. It's going to look awesome!

The previous owner said it was driven a few miles after the accident. This is a little worrisome given that the coolant spilled out after the accident. At this point I figured it was worth the risk that the heat damaged something. I know that 1.8L Miata engines are tough little buggers, so I'm banking on their legendary reliability.

So after several hours of digging, grunting and cursing, here's what I've got:

It looks like everything forward of the radiator is toast, but everything behind is as good as it was before the accident. All in all I'm pretty happy, and I think that this will be a good base for an awesome build donor. Not having all the forward parts to sell stings the budget a bit (I'm guessing the parts are worth $500), but I'm confident that I'll still end up at $0 total cost before the stripping is done.

Meet Winky!

A lot has happened in the last few months.

I've moved into a home with a nice large 2-car garage. This was the missing element that has been keeping me from starting the build. It will be a little tight with my wife's Accord on the other side, but I'm sure I'll have more than enough space if I'm organized.

With the facilities in place, I made the single most important step in my build, which is buying the donor! Meet Winky!

Winky is a 1994 Mazda Miata B-package. For non-Miata folks, it's got the larger 1.8L engine, larger brakes and a Torsen LSD. I was going to use a 1990-1993 1.6L car, but the later version has a bit more power, a much better differential and more valuable (sellable) components. Mazda changed over to OBD-II engine management in 1996, so the 1994-1995 cars are a little easier to work on and should make for a simpler implementation in a Locost.

I got pretty lucky as beat-up Miatas in Atlanta seem to get snatched up off Craiglist before I usually have a chance to send the seller an e-mail. In my case, the seller had a dozen people lined up to see it. I was just the only person willing to come out that night in the rain to do the inspection. I guess the early bird gets the worm.

Winky's previous owner rear-ended a truck and took out most of the front end (front bumper cover, front fenders, headlights, hood, radiator). Fortunately the bent frame only lightly kissed the mechanicals and there doesn't appear to be any major issues aside from a leaky valve cover gasket. I did manage to get the car started during the inspection, so I at least know it turns over and runs. I haven't actually driven it yet, so I'm hoping I didn't buy a total basket case.

It was important to me to get a totaled car for the build. I love Miatas so much that I was actually a little ill thinking of taking a good running car off the road. I know there are several hundred thousand out there, but my conscience wouldn't stand for it. It makes me happy to think I'm taking a car that might go to the crusher and resurrecting it into something more.

I've spent many many hours over the last few days standing over the car just taking it all in. Standing there that first night it really dawned on me what I'm about to undertake. It's really daunting and exciting at the same time. I had to wait overnight to get the car, and I could hardly sleep for the excitement of it all. I've been planning this build for over two years now, and I'm really amped to get going!

Why?

I've been talking about building this car for months now, and the first question everyone seems to ask is "Why?"

This question really should be 3 questions:

1. Why build a car?

I spend most of my life hacking away at a computer. Building a locost caters to my intense desire to make something with my hands (an obsession that drove my previous blog for 2 years). I want to learn to weld, to shape sheet metal, and to work on cars. I've been tooling around with my daily drivers for several years now, and I'd love to have another project to work on.

I've spent the entirety of my engineering career working under the burdens of schedule and budget. By necessity, I've had to stop work on several projects before I felt the work was as good as it could have been. With this project, I run the schedule and budget. Here's a chance to do engineering on my own terms. That's why we have hobbies, isn't it?

I don't have a budget for this car. I'm a natural cheapskate, so I think the car will cost somewhere between $5000 and $10,000. But if it costs more, then so be it.

One of the best chunks of wisdom I've read so far came from the book Kimini, Kurt Bilinski's build guide. He said this was a hobby, and as a result he didn't feel the need to create artificial deadlines for his hobby. Sage advice!

2. Why build a Lotus Seven clone?

This question starts when I was 12. I started getting into cars and reading Road&Track regularly. The articles on various new cars came and went, but the "Side Glances" columns written by Peter Egan stuck with me. He's been my biggest automotive influence, and his love for British cars wore off on me in a big, big way.

I owned a black 1977 MGB in high school, but what I always wanted was a Lotus Seven. This was a real sports car - light, agile and dripping with British charm. I didn't care that their tops were a joke or that it was based on an ancient car. It was elemental and pure. A racer for the road.

Fast forward to now. Original Sevens are far too rare, and Caterhams are WAY too expensive for someone of my means. I don't know how, but I found Kieth Tanner's web site about a year ago and I was hooked instantly! I read his entire build diary that day which is not easy when there are over 1400 entries.

Project started out as a cheap way to get a Seven, is now a way to get my dream car. It won't be perfect, but it will be uniquely mine.

3. Why use a Miata as a donor?

There's a saying in cooking - a meal is only as good as the quality of the ingredients that go into it. This project is exactly the same.

Despite its reputation as a hairdresser's car, the Miata is a true sports car. I drive one daily, and I think it's the most wonderful car I've ever owned.

As a donor, it's nearly a one-stop shop. It's got a great engine and all the requisite rear wheel drive bits. I can pick up a beaten and abused Miata and have nearly everything I need to build the car. The parts I won't use are also still pretty valuable, so hopefully I can recoup most of the cost of the donor by selling the bodywork and interior on Ebay.

There's also a huge aftermarket community providing performance parts for the brakes, engine and transmission. That means I'll be able to increase performance as much as I'd like down the road by bolting on parts. There's also an awesome community supporting the Miata that I can go to for help.

Here's another reason to build a Seven. Few cars are awesome enough to require sub-titles during their test drive.