slngsht Posted May 28, 2007 Author Share Posted May 28, 2007 My goal was to test drive this weekend, AND I DID! Finally rolled the car out of the garage at 9PM tonight, sat in the driver's seat, turnd ignition on, and NOTHING :banghead: Fortunately it was a loose battery terminal. Got in, fired up, and went for a 2 mile roundtrip test drive. Nothing crazy, just 30-40 MPH, some bumps, a couple of zig zags to see how the car feels. The brakes are still soft (waiting for more fluid). Steering is fine. My earlier problem must've been due to poor toe adjustment. At least on this short drive it seems fine. Steering effort is good. Front springs are a little softer than they need to be, although my shocks are set at their softest settings, so I'll stiffen those up a bit before going to heavier springs. I'm far from done. I'm stripping the paint off the cowl (all the layers - this car was red, then brown, then green, with some primer in between). When that's done, I'm going to make a new sheet for the vertical section of the cowl. then mount. After that, I'll have to finish the interior. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slngsht Posted May 29, 2007 Author Share Posted May 29, 2007 Moving right along... next on the list is the cowl. Through various stages of this car's life, it had many big holes punched into it, so I decided to replace the sheet metal there. Stripping is still not totally done - it took for ever to get it here. http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/2113958967_CIMG1559 (Small).JPG http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/1653384548_CIMG1561 (Small).JPG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BusaLoco Posted May 30, 2007 Share Posted May 30, 2007 Mazda, You are absolutely amazing! ... Have you ever considered that by the end of your re"build", you will have successfully reverse engineered a (not so) "LOCOST"? ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slngsht Posted May 30, 2007 Author Share Posted May 30, 2007 Mazda, You are absolutely amazing! ... Have you ever considered that by the end of your re"build", you will have successfully reverse engineered a (not so) "LOCOST"? ... :lol: Don't remind me... I think somebody (maybe it was solder guy) asked me if there is anything left of the car I bought. I have thought about that, and here is the list of what's left: Frame, radiator, rear skin, top part of the cowl, floor pan, vertical sheetmetal behind the seats (I'll replace that at some point). I think that's it. Definitely not the low cost way of getting to where I am. On the positive side, I'm alot more confident now that I could actually design and fabricate one of these cars on my own, witha few exceptions, such as using an english wheel. So, maybe the enjoyment has been worth it. I can definitely call it MINE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slngsht Posted May 30, 2007 Author Share Posted May 30, 2007 Got all the fitment issues are resolved, and she is sitting in. Just need to file, and rivet. I need to find out how to get the brushed finish on the cowl. The gap on the passenger side of the hood should go away once I put the weather striping in. http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/1729889162_CIMG1562 (Small).JPG http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/1134280977_CIMG1563 (Small).JPG http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/1496472474_CIMG1564 (Small).JPG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MHKflyer52 Posted May 31, 2007 Share Posted May 31, 2007 Hi Mazda, I use a pice of fine sand paper to get the majority of the large scratches out then I use a green scotch brite pad and then a rust red scotch brite pad to finish it. If you want the little circle pattern then you will need an electric drill motor that you can make turn at very slow speed and a small sanding disk that will fit into the drill with some fine sand paper and a lot of time as it is very time consuming. I painted my cowl after the second time and now the only things that is not painted are the hood and the rear skin and the side pannels. When doing the hood and side pannels use long straight strokes with the sand paper and scotch brite to get the best results. Have fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slngsht Posted June 2, 2007 Author Share Posted June 2, 2007 Tomorrow is the big day for the first main test drive. Plan to drive her for about 30-45 minutes through backroads... sort of a shakedown run. Hopefully it won't involve a tow truck :blueangel: I'm also going to test the effectiveness of Reflectix. If it keeps the heat out, i'll be covering the tunnel with it before the black vinyl goes in. Right now it's just held on there with blue painter's tape, but it will get metal ducting tape for the real job. http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/894129987_CIMG1565 (Small).JPG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slngsht Posted June 3, 2007 Author Share Posted June 3, 2007 so much for a test drive today :nonod: http://images.allbrittontv.com/wjla/dlarge.gif Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R1 Seven Posted June 3, 2007 Share Posted June 3, 2007 Wus! :jester: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slngsht Posted June 3, 2007 Author Share Posted June 3, 2007 None of my Aarms are powder coated yet... there'll be some quick rust. Not only that, I almost put my vette in the wall after it hydroplaned on these tires at 50 MPH. I think I'll wait Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
solder_guy Posted June 3, 2007 Share Posted June 3, 2007 so much for a test drive today :nonod: consider yourself blessed! We've had no rain in 6 weeks!! The drought is hitting the southeast really really hard! Some municipalities are reporting that their source for water has dried up. No water at the intake at all! Neighbors are asked to police eachother about illegal outdoor watering of plants. :nonod: Rob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slngsht Posted June 3, 2007 Author Share Posted June 3, 2007 Well, since I couldn't drive today, I decided to move right along on the interior. Only had a few hours, but made decent progress... http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/770944383_CIMG1568 (Small).JPG The center console cover is over Reflectix insulation, and is snapped into place on the bottom of each side. It still needs to be fastened near the back to get rid of the ripples. Redid the driver side inside skin. Still need to do the passenger side. For whatever reason, the contrast in materials between the seat and the covering looks amplified in the pictures. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slomove Posted June 3, 2007 Share Posted June 3, 2007 consider yourself blessed! We've had no rain in 6 weeks!! The drought is hitting the southeast really really hard! Some municipalities are reporting that their source for water has dried up. No water at the intake at all! Neighbors are asked to police eachother about illegal outdoor watering of plants. :nonod: Rob Oh dear, talk about drought: only 4" of rain in Los Angeles....since last June. Compared to 15-30 inches normally which is not that much anyway. Makes for good blatting, though Gert Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slngsht Posted June 5, 2007 Author Share Posted June 5, 2007 I'm almost there... Both side skins are covered... the tunnel is cut, but ran out of rivets :nonod: The back cover is just laying there at this point. http://www.usa7s.com/aspnetforum/upload/17537045_CIMG1573 (Small).JPG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderbrake Posted June 5, 2007 Share Posted June 5, 2007 I believe you will find the heat insulation to be a good investment. I covered the passenger footwell with the aluminized mylar with fiberglass backing, as well as the whole passenger side ( my exhaust is on the pass side), and it remains as cool or cooler than the drivers side. The stuff really works. Your car is really coming together, and just in time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slngsht Posted June 6, 2007 Author Share Posted June 6, 2007 Well, took it for a 20 mile drive... AND CAME BACK IN ONE PIECE!!! Actually the car behaved very well. I didn't push it very hard. A few loose ends prevented that. First, I forgot to change the PCM parameters for rear end ratio and rear tire size, so the speedo was slow and I didn't really know my speed. I need to adjust the position of the brake pedal. For some reason it seems slightly higher than before and makes it hard to heel and toe. I also forgot to turn up the shock settings... they were both at the lowest setting. Car tracked straight and seemed responsive to quick steering inputs. I didn't get a chance to push her to the limit to see if she understeers or not. I did pull away hard from a stop sign and got her about 30 degrees sideways :thumbs: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slngsht Posted June 7, 2007 Author Share Posted June 7, 2007 little nugget from today's drive. My friend was nice enough to follow me, since I was missing a tail light and had no rear view mirror. He recorded a little bit of the drive... this is probably the best part - just for the sound at least: http://www.usa7s.com/forum/uploads/slngsht/stopsign.wmv Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soareyes Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 You seemed to get very small very quick there! :lol: Sounded great too! :hurray: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
locost7018 Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 Excuse me but that did not look like you were going 30mph!!!!! Looked good. And sounded better. Your almost there. Russ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WestTexasS2K Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 Looking good. Just a month 7/7/07 are you going to make it? I really wish I could go. I saw Brian and Jerry had to give up thier spot. But I have a house that I am suppose to landscape for a parade of homes it has to be done by 7/15/07. I just don't see how I can make it work it would be alot of fun hanging with all the folks on the site putting names to faces. We will see what happens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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