Bumblebee was posted once before, but we had some safety concerns and hubby wanted his photos off of the internet. Having dealt with those, now he can be posted again.
He has a 1098 engine, oversized pistons, custom cam, Cooper S brakes, upgraded suspension, and he now features a completely home done paint job (really just colorful primer :D) in Rustoleum yellow, black, and white. He's a right hand drive, with Miata seats, but is rather short on creature comfort at this point. Now that the exterior is at least colorful and protected from rust, it's time to do the interior.
I'm going to take an auto body course at the local community college, to learn how to properly knock out the dings, fill, sand, etc. But for now, he's a lot of fun to drive, and gets waves where ever he goes.
Here is what he looked like the day we brought him home, in October. We were given many of the new parts, such as the driving lights, and also a new set of Cosmics that are polished, by the previous owner, who had too many projects and never had enough time to finish him. In three months, we really changed his looks. We haven't done anything to the engine yet, which is in good working order.
Yeah I saw the photos in the gallery and figured you had things resolved.
Welcome back and looking good.
Welcome back. Glad you are both feeling better about posting the photos. Great to see another back on the road again. Thanks for sharing.
You took the roll cage out? Was that for more room to move the seats back?
I put a Miata driver's seat in Buzz too, and by positioning it a little differently that the stock seat I can move it back considerably further, giving me more room for my big belly! The stock seat used to hit the bin behind it when it was all the way back on those seat extensions.
Bumblebee is looking pretty good!
What's your plan for the interior?
Thank you, glad to be able to post progress again. Apparently a manual choke and manual transmission can be its own deterrent for joyriders. 4.gif may have been neighborhood kids, at any rate, he's now secure.
We did remove the rollbar. When we first bought him, we wanted to take him back to a stock look. We had not actually been seriously looking for a Classic, so we didn't know what that would mean on a car already as modified as he is! It was only after we owned him, and did a lot of research and asked a lot of questions, that we began to understand that he's too far changed to be stock, at least it would be beyond our budget and abilities! We've decided that if we want a Mk I stock car, we need to start out with one that is close to that, and not an ex-track car. We've relaxed and decided that Bumblebee is an old man with a history, and rather than strip that history from him, we will enjoy his uniqueness. By the time we decided that, however, we'd removed the racing fuel cell, aux battery cage, rollbar, and uncomfortable racing seats, and given them to someone else in trade for the Miata seats and some stock items. We don't plan to race him so the rollbar wasn't needed anyway. The only thing going in the back seats will be our two dogs.
As to the interior, we've had a friend weld a bunch of holes... Particularly the big ones that held the rollbar into the seat pockets! Now they need to be hit with self etching primer, and painted. Everything in the interior needs to be painted yellow if it won't be covered by carpet. We were given some demister vents and hoses last weekend, that need to be sanded and painted and mounted, and we have some hokey foam core pieces covered with vinyl that can be used as templates to make new dash pieces. He has a center binnacle. What do you usually do to recreate the stock dash bottom and vinyl inserts?
We're also going to put in a LOT of Dynamat, because he's really loud inside! He current has nothing inside except for two seats and floor mats. No headliner, no sound deadening at all. Anyone have some hints about putting in Dynamat?
I'm not convinced Dynamat is all it's cracked up to be - Buzz has it all over the whole interior and it's still noisy as all get out. On top of that, once it's down it's almost impossible to remove.
I'd look around a bit and see what else is out there......
As someone who has removed it....not a fan. You'll notice the factory uses a sheet on the roof, and both rear panels above the pockets, as well as later years having a cheaper easier layer of something on the floors. Cuts down the resonance hollow drumming sound, but basically minis are loud. Firewall deadening from my experience is where you cut down on noise the easiest.
I am interested in hearing how the Lizard Skin worked on Mty's car.
That's interesting that you don't necessarily recommend installing Dynamat. Hmmmm. I've read about using cheaper stuff, and people say that it helps. Now I need to rethink it. 50.gif
Hubby and I have to yell at each other to be heard! Even if it helps a little, it would be tempting. If the rust has been dealt with, the holes filled, and the car is only a good weather/garaged car, what is the likelihood that we would need to pull up the carpet and soundproofing? Is it common to need to do that?
Every thing seems to be a bigger obstacle than expected :-[ :-[ :-[ I'm trying to install the dash cards (we were given two sets) and the dash shelf liner, and the dash cards seem to be too large. Maybe they are the wrong ones. Is there an installation article on here? Search didn't turn up anything. Any hints, please?
I did dash cards in the 79 I'm building and they fit snug and then some. The issue I ran into is they bend a little distorted around the vents for the windscreen.
The dash cards go from the edge of the gauges all the way over to the door opening. Could it be that you have dash cards that fit the early single gauge cluster?
We have two sets. One set is probably wrong, the cut out binnacle area is more round and our binnacle is more oblong. The second set seems like it would fit, but does the long edge with the flap go on the bottom? Dies the scored flap bend inward? Does the binnacle have to be unscrewed?
The binnacle seems even more pointy on the oval sides than the card will fit around, if that makes sense. If I can fit the left side, then I can figure out what to do to make the right side fit around the tach.
The card does not fit totally flat/level to the side of the binnacle. It bows top to bottom with the center being a little bit further back I think. Can you make a template from regular cardboard to trial fit? At least that way you won't crease the nice new ones.
You will have to screw through the panel. I did on mine at least.
As was mentioned, they should curve (bow away from you toward the engine). If I remember correctly, the part with the long edge is to the top, and hooks into the upper dash rail.
Make a template of what you have and trial that first. I'll see if I can dig up more info to help you out.
I've never seen one screwed in before though. With the curve and the binnacle in there, it's usually a tight fit. The demister vents sure get in the way though. They also usually have an extra piece of vinyl that wraps around the door flange at either side - held on with the door rubber seal pushing on over it. Maybe checking the angle where it hits the door frame will solve the question to which way is up...
Hmmm... 8.gif
Tim
Great, thank you! I'll try again tomorrow. I cut and fit some black rubber for the parcel shelf behind the back seat. I used the thick rubber meant for the bottom of tool boxes and drawers. It fits beautifully, right up to the edges of the shelf. Now, to decide whether to glue it down, or only glue it to the fiber board and clip it to the rim of the parcel shelf. These little details are so hard to see in pictures!