build diary

August 14, 2004:
My new, difficult to photograph coolant overflow tank.
It's a metal can that used to hold brake fluid. Light and cheap!
entry 577

August 16, 2004:
Much better.
The combination of the brazing and some epoxy (okay, JB Weld) with lots of curing time has fixed the radiator. The adjusted throttle has made the car far, far more drivable - it had a terrible light throttle snatch before that has gone away. With the new transmission with synchro on 2nd, it's now a well-mannered little car just like a Miata should be. The exhaust fit better when I reinstalled it (I have no idea why) so it's quieter now although it still makes highly entertaining noises. A less entertaining noise is the buzzing from where the #4 header tube hits the bodywork - a bit of trimming is required.

In terms of the instruments, some quick probing hasn't given me any clues. The speedo cable snapped about 10 miles after installation due to a nasty tight bend in the cable. That's going to be difficult to avoid given the packaging. The oil pressure gauge and tacho are the two that interest me more though. I'll try to work that out this week. I'm leaving the car at the Flyin' Miata shop because I won't have plates again until Wednesday night. Most of the work remaining is just fettling although it might be good to have a wind deflector of some sort - passengers seem to mention that a lot.

Eric has asked for more photos of the car. I'm constantly taking photos of it because I still can't believe it's out on the road - so if there's anything that you want to see in particular let me know either via email or the guestbook. One comment from Bill is that it's more orange in person than in the photos. I have a tendency to show the yellow highlight in the photos but most of the time it looks like the basic orange you see in photo 438.
entry 578

It looks like I'll have to do a little work on the exhaust tip - my rear fender is getting most of the heat and I'm sure the tire isn't appreciating it either.
entry 579
A shot of the car from further away with less distortion from a wide angle lens.
entry 580
If you were really tall, this is what the Seven would look like.

entry 581
I'm amazed at how different the colour looks in this photo when compared to the previous one.
It's also quite obvious how far back the seats are. The rear fender prevents me from leaning my elbow on the rear wheel!
entry 582

August 17, 2004:
The instruments are working now!
It turns out there was a badly corroded connection on the back of the instrument panel. Replacing the circuit board with a known good one solved the problem. Now I have a tach and an oil pressure gauge. Still no speedometer but that's not going to change any time soon and really isn't a great priority. I've packaged up the wiring in the engine bay to make everything look neater. I might even take advantage of the new giant 20,000+ CFM fan at Flyin' Miata to work out a decent little wind deflector. Am I just doing small things that will improve people's impressions of the car? Why, yes I am! There are a lot of folks who will be checking the Seven out this weekend at the Flyin' Miata Open House.

I also weighed the car last night. It's a little heavier than anticipated - I probably underestimated the exhaust system. Still, a full wet weight of 1257 lbs isn't bad at all. That's with a full tank of gas, water, all the body parts and even a fire extinguisher. The empty car is slightly tail heavy (52.7% on the rear) and almost perfectly balanced left to right. The cross weights are also very good. The moral? It'll handle best with a passenger. I don't think it will be a problem finding one this weekend.

Pulling into my garage last night, it looked odd. It was too big and too empty. It's the first time the Seven hasn't been there since January! All that's left is a bunch of debris.
entry 583

Bill does some investigation on the wiring.
It's quick and easy to remove the scuttle and it makes working on the car far, far easier.
entry 584
The circuit board looks better in this photo than it did in person.
The left two pins were all green and we weren't able to clean them up.
entry 585
Time to hit the scales!
entry 586
The final weight and balance.
Not too shabby, really!
entry 587

August 18, 2004:
Is it possible to accidentally work on a car? Last night I was finishing up at work and made the mistake of wandering back to look at the Seven in the shop.
An hour later, I was putting the final touches on a new exhaust tip. I'm not as happy with how it looks as the original but it should both be slightly quieter and will prevent the tire from overheating. Thanks, Ander, for confirming this in my guestbook. A bit of trimming on the side panel for the exhaust exit and the car is getting more and more civilized. Well, relatively civilized.

After some talks with my friends down at Scotty's Muffler, I've worked out a slip-on exhaust tip that should drop the sound level a bit. The track day is under some extreme noise restrictions due to small-town politics - a community across the interstate, underneath an airport approach path have decided that their ambient noise cannot go above 55 dB. The use of the track this Friday is a test to see if cars can use the kart track without causing noise problems. Only Miatas are allowed to take part but we're going to run the Seven. Obviously there is some concern about the side exhaust being loud although I believe it is now at the same level as the turbo Miatas.
entry 588

The brake bias adjuster has been labelled.
It's surprisingly common for people to get this backwards. Hopefully I didn't...
entry 589
Pedal cam! I don't think I've shown a photo of the final result before.
entry 590
The new exhaust tip.
It's a 90 degree bend and aimed slightly downwards. When I look at it now I realise I probably should have angled it back about 10 degrees to line up with the rear fender. Maybe later. It looks a little odd in this photo.
entry 591
Another view of the exhaust.
entry 592
The fan I'll use for designing a wind deflector.
Yes, it's taller than the Seven!
entry 593
In the parking lot at work.
The scary thing is that this Jeep is only average around here!
entry 594

August 19, 2004:
So I'm sitting at my desk at work and my boss Bill comes up and asks, "So, have you got the plate for your car yet? We need to do sound testing at the track at 6 tonight." You can imagine that I had the borrowed dealer plate on the car shortly after that!
So the Seven got an early workout. The track is actually a large-ish kart track so it's tight and well suited to small light cars. At least that's what I'd been told. I'd never driven it before.

How did it work? In short, I never expected the car to be this good, this early. Through a series of downhill S bends that involved some good berm hopping, the car swallowed up the bumps and the tail stayed faithfully on line despite my fairly ham-fisted driving. The suspension was obviously working well although it has a lot of lean. It was easy to break the rear end loose with power but the front was well planted. The brakes have a firm, firm pedal and I never really got on them too hard - I was a little tentative with such an unknown car of course! A couple of harder stops showed me that I had to add a little more front bias so I did that on the next straight :)

Noise? Well, the first session was a worst case scenario. The dB meter was set up halfway down the straight, right where I was reaching about 6500 rpm in 2nd. Yes, it's a slow track! The meter was on the left side of the track. Now think about where my exhaust points...Yes, I failed pretty badly. For a second session I popped on my diffuser tip. It's a bit low to the ground and scrapes on all right turns, but it dropped my sound level by 6 or 7 dB - that was enough to make me legal. A BIG thank you to Rodney at Scotty's for the help in setting that up.

There were a couple of problems with the car of course. My right rear brake caliper needs a rebuild as it's leaking slightly. A gasket on a water fitting started to drip a little and the car started to miss under load as time went on. The gasket was fixed this morning and I'll try a good set of coils to see if one of my junkyard units is bad. The most entertaining failure of the night was when my tachometer needle blew off! No, I don't have glass on the gauges yet. That was a bit of a problem but I have to laugh. Now if only I can find another set of needles! Oh, and I can also report that driving this car in the rain is not a terribly pleasant experience even with good wraparound glasses.
entry 595

The diffuser tip.
entry 596
The diffuser tip installed.
It looks goofy, yes. But I'd rather look goofy and be on the track than look cool and be confined to the pits! It pulls off easily.
entry 597
Going to play at the track in the company of the a 2.0 turbocharged Miata and one of the Ubercharger supercharger prototype cars.
Quite a convoy and certainly a quick bunch.
entry 598
Time for some fun - hitting the track for the first time.
I'm surprised you can't see the grin inside my helmet!
entry 599
Sure the exhaust is funny looking but who cares?
entry 600
Bill takes the Seven out for a few laps.
You can see the diffuser tip self-machining in this photo.
entry 601
Somehow the size difference doesn't seem as much as I expected!
entry 602
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