The Black Rat

The American · Postby **The American** » Fri Dec 27, 2019 7:56 am

NitroDann wrote:Yreckon you will keep up with Keith and Rons 10 grand shitbox this time around?

Howdy Dann - they were 6.16 seconds ahead of me on the Mountain Straight HC which is a lot of HP or a lot of driving (or probably both). If I make it back there, their times will be my reference, but I think they are pretty safe.

The American · Postby **The American** » Fri Dec 27, 2019 8:00 am

Both sides from above with a lick of paint

The American · Postby **The American** » Fri Dec 27, 2019 8:13 am

The brake lines and fuel lines run along the side of the rail that the factory floor rests on. With the new pan in place, the lines need to be rerouted and remounted.

Handy tip: If ever you have to do this, disconnect the clutch line at the master cylinder at the start. Getting the brake line out without moving the clutch line can be done, but not without bending up the brake line.

I reused the upper half of the brake line, and bent a new section with a union to join the two just in front of the new floor section.

This is the new rear section:

Handy tip: clamp the end of the brake line you are shaping so that it can't rotate away from you while you are trying to bend it. I used the brake flaring tool you can see in the background of the photo above to hold the end.

I flattened out and reversed the factory line holder brackets so that they could be mounted to the side of the new pan. I may use a spacer and reverse these at some point so that they are retained against the side of the tunnel (or lecky ties will be added).

Pathway of the new brake line at the rear of the pan:

The American · Postby **The American** » Mon Jan 13, 2020 10:17 pm

CrazyRacer wrote:I found these pics of cutting out and lowering the floor to get the seat lower on miataturbo.

This would probably do the trick, but surely taking a significant box section main chassis rail and turning it into essentially a flat strip of steel like that has to have a significant detrimental impact on the strength of the car?

Wish I’d found some of this info earlier! Having recently done the floor drop in my current project, I believe that the ‘rail’ is not much more than a stiffener for the floor - it is made of really light material. The new box section that is the new floor is MUCH stiffer than what was removed.

The American · Postby **The American** » Mon Mar 02, 2020 9:10 am

The driver and passenger seat mounts are sorted. I was able to get the driver's seat within 5mm of centered on the steering wheel and clearing the flat door panel with - i hope - enough room for the door bars to pass comfortably.

The American · Postby **The American** » Mon Mar 02, 2020 9:16 am

The dash is now out of the car, with the dash support bar stripped out of the dash and reinstalled for the cage builder to work with/around.

The bare dash skin and all the various bits are tucked away on the shelf for later.

The heater core, fan and the center of the HVAC system are removed, and the heater lines are looped

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The American · Postby **The American** » Mon Mar 02, 2020 9:22 am

The screws that hold the upper hard top latches to the hardtop shell, were super tight, and Google informed me that the factory installed these with a thread locking compound from new. Heat helps release this compound.

I quick nip to Bunnings for a micro blow torch, and the screws came out with ease. You could see where someone had used an impact driver or similar in the past and had failed.

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I am installing these fixed brackets, as the original latches will be in the way of and will not operate with the cage

Apart from re-positioning some wiring, I think the car is ready to hand over for the cage install.

greenMachine · Postby **greenMachine** » Mon Mar 02, 2020 10:55 am

An alternative to those HT brackets, you can have a couple of tabs welded to the windscreen bar, and bolt the HT to them.

:mrgreen:

The American · Postby **The American** » Mon Mar 02, 2020 5:25 pm

greenMachine wrote:An alternative to those HT brackets, you can have a couple of tabs welded to the windscreen bar, and bolt the HT to them.

I think that is what I will end up with in the end. Not sure if these brackets will get modded, used as the template or replaced completely

The American · Postby **The American** » Fri Mar 13, 2020 10:52 pm

A/c is out and both Velo seats are in, and it is off to the cage builder tomorrow.

A bit excited

The American · Postby **The American** » Wed Mar 18, 2020 7:59 am

The Black Rat is off to get a cage

The American · Postby **The American** » Sat Mar 28, 2020 7:12 pm

Dave called me during the week to ask me to pop over to look at the hoop positioning and discuss the location of the front legs. Putting the rest of the cage together will begin on Monday.

It looks quite spacious with the seatbelt towers gone. More of the unneeded steel around the back of the fuel tank hump will also go.

Zed · Postby **Zed** » Sun Mar 29, 2020 1:55 am

The American wrote:It looks quite spacious with the seatbelt towers gone. More of the unneeded steel around the back of the fuel tank hump will also go

thats something I've considered, was it hard to strip the towers ou

t (or did the guy making the cage remove them?)

Rich.

The American · Postby **The American** » Sun Mar 29, 2020 7:34 am

Zed wrote:thats something I've considered, was it hard to strip the towers ou t (or did the guy making the cage remove them?)

Rich.

The guy doing the cage took them out, but I don’t think it would take much. Once you have everything stripped off them, you can see just about all the cuts needed to take them out.