Son's firsts

[basscat]

Hey everybody, yeah I'm still kicking. Anyway, my son is 16 and has moved from karts to road course racing. I chose to get him into spec miatas because the competition is fierce, the cars are somewhat cheap, and a number of pros told me that if you can drive a slow car fast then you'll drive fast cars faster. So, he is building his first racecar and getting behind a paint gun for the first time. I make him do everything but help out along the way. Everything is getting a couple of coats of white epoxy primer. Turns out that it has good gloss so we will leave the cage and interior in white epoxy primer. With work and school, we're slow but I'll post updates when I have them. Take care!

 

[NYTrainer]

Love it!

 

[crashtech]

Miatas have a pretty dedicated following. I read a Motor Trend writeup where Randy Pobst was really nostalgic about those older Miatas.

 

[basscat]

We installed the AFR, Oil pressure and water temp gauges in the dash and then installed the dash. A little trimming here and there and it looks good (for a racecar).

 

[basscat]

Got the pedals and steering column in. We needed to add some switches in to control things like radio, cool suit pump, etc. He wanted to buy the moroso switch panel but his gauges are blue and the moroso stuff is expensive. Instead, I showed him how to make a mock-up panel using the computer and then make a template to help with getting the openings right. We did this for less than half the cost of the moroso which didn't have the circuit breakers or fit correctly:






Installed the seat and detachable hub. Threw on a karting steering wheel just to make moving it around easier. Scored a parts car for cheap so we moved the racecar into storage while we strip the parts car:

 

[crashtech]

Looks super clean, better than most race cars. Love the switch panel!

 

[basscat]

Thanks, I'm always preaching to him to do something like it really matters so that when it does, he'll know he can do it and what it takes.

 

[basscat]

Separated the driveline from the body. Took the body to the recycler. Got alot of great parts from the donor car and we've broken down the front half of the chassis to get the subframe ready to go in the racecar. The orginal subframe was bent and we felt like it would throw off the caster and camber settings.

 

[Barry]

Chris, that is just awesome what you are teaching the boy!

 

[basscat]

Thanks Barry. Patience seems to be the harder lesson but he's coming along.

Can't run a spoiler in SM so we welded up the spoiler holes:


Front subframe from parts car cleaned up and epoxy primered:


Old front subframe and suspension pieces removed (suspension pieces will be blasted and epoxy primed):

 

[basscat]

Black epoxy primer underneath and on the suspension pieces:

 

[crashtech]

Some would think this car is now too nice to race!

 

[basscat]

I hear ya but this car WILL get raced. He's chomping at the bit to run it!

 

[basscat]

Installed the engine, transmission, ppf and suspension:

 

[AutoRodGirl]

Looking great! Love that we can keep up the interest in this in the future generations.

 

[basscat]

I hope he continues doing his own stuff. He says he enjoys it and appreciates all that he us learning.

Since the weather was warm, he shot some white epoxy on panels outside and then brought them in to cure:












He sandblasted and powdercoated his calipers :




Misc pic:

 

[mitch_04]

These cars are ones that I've never had a desire to own, but for some reason I'm always intrigued by their builds...

Looking good, do you have the "at home" powdercoating system, like Eastwood?

 

[basscat]

Thank you for the compliment.

To be honest, I always thought of them as cars for men that preferred men. Now that we have a couple, it turns out they are almost neutral in weight distribution and handle really well. They're cheap and easy to work on. I got a '96 with about 85k miles, expensive coil-over and wheel/tire setup, hardtop and creature comforts like decent stereo, ac and power everything for $2500. Handles like a go-kart. Gets over 30 mpg and I don't care where I park it because every parking space is huge. Plus, parts are cheap and easy to come by. I'm too old to care what others think about me when they see me in it.

To answer your question, I have the el cheapo Eastwood system that I bought about 20 years ago. Paid for itself many times. I get my supplies from powder by the pound.

 

[Joe's Notchback]

I thought they were cool cars when they first came out, especially with a v8 transplant. I've seen a lot older gentlemen and ladies driving them.

 

[basscat]

More updates. Painting outside in 45 degree weather has been a challenge in moving the sheetmetal and paintgun quickly outside, shooting and then quickly back inside. We ran into some issues where we were getting craters from too much material and the air making little pockets that wouldn't flow out. We upped the pressure 7 pounds and everything is great. Painting outside in the cold, uneven lighting is the pits but it has moved building a paintbooth up on the to-do list!