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Yeah I haven't had a huge amount of experience in the past 20 years of fibreglassing. Will try and do a decent job, flat bar should help pull the front straight too which will help with alignment. Good thing Kings Birthday is coming up!

That looks pretty rotten. I'd cut it out and put some flat bar, epoxied to the structure in place of that rotten area. Then depending on motivation levels, chuck some fibreglass / boat repair kit at it to bring it back up level. Then redrill it and chuck some nice long rivets back in. Would maybe predrill the flatbar and chuck nails in the holes while doing repairs so you don't risk dislodging the flatbar after all finished. Epoxy should hold it ok though if underside of that area is clean. There will be cheaper / easier ways to sort if not wanting to invest much in it though.

Bit the bullet and drilled the rivets out, this was the treat underneath. Will try repair the damaged material, then find some of those!

Didn't help..... That gross big blue elbow on intake has given me the yucks since it went on so I remade it in one piece of stainless so one less clamp to leak. Cleaned the Maf was a bit grubby was expecting worse tbh. Fitted a new Air temp sensor just after the MAF. AND....... its still the same. But now the MAF doesn't rub on the ABS unit and the intercooler pipework is further away from battery, so I'll take that as net positive for work done. I think I've got a tuning issue will bung stock ecu in and see if it makes high idle and stalling issue go away.

Have a look at plus nuts, like a rivnut but when they pull up like a wall anchor. use to fitt to fiberglass stuff to tucks and hold a bit of weight. Top ones a plus nut bottom riv nut

Went on a leak hunting mission today pulled top of manifold looking for potential sealing issues lots of junk in the sealing face for some reason must have been stuck in rubber seal. Clean all that up and very carefully filed down any high spots. And then polished the lid cos it was looking a bit shit.

I had the original clutch MC ready to install until I realized it took 1/4" tube and not 3/16" which the Toyota slave cyl fitting was. So off into town and BNT found a replacement with a 3/16 fitting. I did have to enlarge the hole in the firewall a few mm and drill a new hole in the push rod end so it was the correct length. Also fitted the brake MC and fitted the pedals back in. I made up a new line for the Clutch MC to the slave. I bent up some #8 wire to shape first to give me a pattern as it had a few bends in it. Certainly helped. Then I dropped the engine and gear box back out. Now I need to bolt the intake and all the accessories back on and reconnect the wiring loom so next time it goes back in it's in hopefully.

Painted some more engine bits. Big woop. Also made a round object to put in a round hole.

Good out of the box thinking. Will have a Bunnings peruse....

You definitely want the ULN makes things easier for the fuel pump, and I guess you're pretty happy re-wiring stuff to make it 'work' I'm no expert but used the same stuff in the same car and was happy with the results. The resources I used the most were: https://www.miata.net/garage/ECU Pin-Out 90-93 MT.pdf https://www.pcbway.com/project/shareproject/Mazda_Miata_48_pin_rev_C_Speeduino_connector_adaptor_ecu_ems.html (This isn't the link I used before, the board deign used to be on Github with the PCB schematic, I opened it in the easy to use Fritzing PCB software to check each pinout directly. I'd just print them on some A3 paper and multimeter out each connection and make a copy that way if I couldn't find the files online now) There are lots of versions of the adaptor board with small differences, it's probably quicker to multimeter out what you have and do that rather than trust it has been built to some random spec anyway tbh. A long time staring at the IDC 40 Pin table here https://wiki.speeduino.com/en/boards/V04 I then added jumpers from the IDC 40pin on the breakout board to unused pins in the Mx5 ECU connectors and added connections for Sequential Injection + Sequential Ignition (so 2 extra for each) 1 for the fuel pump (coming from the ULN, into the MX5 ECU connector then ran a new wire from the ECU out to the fuel pump relay using an unused precrimped ECU pin from elsewhere) Some TPS stuff as you said, one for the Wideband, maybe some others, rev counter? Long story short the back of the plug and play adaptor only looked slightly modified after that I then used the Miata ECU PDF to strip away all the unused wires from the loom because lightweight racecar of course. I guess it goes without saying, but I approached it with the mentality of making it do what I wanted it to do, not trying to make it work how Mazda intended, so adding moving deleting wires? No worries, just documented to myself what I did

Id be tempted to look at wall anchors used in the likes of gib. Lack of access behind makes it a pain. Rivnut won't have much grip I wouldn't think. If there is space for wall anchors they open up nicely behind so should be pretty solid. Might get away with just two instead of needing all three holes as some have pretty large anchors behind wall.

Nah not at the moment, i could be keen on the 14x7 ones you have if you want to let them go?

Unfortunately can't get to the back side. Also now not sure how much is bodge, and how much is NZ made 'bespoke'...

If you can get to the back side, put a washer on for the rivet to grip onto

Next random spam tech question, currently trying to unbodge my caravan. What do I replace rivets with going into fibreglass? Some are starting to pull through, just go up a size? Or rivnuts or...

I havent had any time or space to get any welding done on the exhaust, but I've nearly finished putting the rest of the motor all together. But once thats finished I can push the car back outside for a few days and have some space for doing stuff again. Having a V6 with 3x timing chains really makes me appreciate how much simpler life is when you use a belt, and can just take the timing covers off without 3 litres of RTV to deal with. Exhaust collector side quest I've been doing some more reading and mulling over collector shapes/options, drew up shape that I'm happy with and have put through an order. Just one for now, in case it's crap. Estimated 7-10 days arrival, $263 delivered. Seems insane! Hopefully it works out good. I've opted for having quite a tight choke point and quite a short merge. Which makes for a fairly steep angle. But when you arent fabricating it out of just straight sections of pipe, I think the shape should still flow pretty good. I think some of the general rules around collector design are based around 4-1 construction and only having straight pipes to fabricate things with. When you have a 3-1 without the symmetry of a 4-1 or 2-1, it seems like making the merge section longer doesnt affect the shape of the center part by much. So I'd rather just get the change in cross sectional area over and done with, then start tapering back out which I think is probably the more important bit. This is using 3x 38mm OD pipes for the runners, 1.75" choke point and is a 2.5" exit. So can taper this out further to 3" or maybe keep the 2-1 section as 2.5". Not sure yet. While looking at different cars collector designs it was really interesting to see that F1 cars seem to have some fairly gross looking merge designs, like this weird 3:1 Or the crazily steep merge angle on half of a V8 Some of it looks like packaging determines the shape more than anything, so I'm not too concerned about the (hand waving gestures) manner in which I've made the shape of these ones. While I'm drunk on the idea of metal 3d printing Aluminium is even cheaper than stainless to 3d print, so decided to price up making some better throttle pulleys. As they ended up being surprisingly heavy with the stacks of 2.5mm stainless, and they look a bit shoddy. It would also be nice to have more of an internal radius for how the cable sits. So now the design is much, much lighter. To print from aluminium the single row pulley cost $32 NZD, and the double row pulley cost $40 NZD. But then shipping was $50, this seemed to be the same price regardless of whether it was 1 or 2 pulleys. So next time if I've got a bunch of small brackets etc to do I'll make sure to put all the files together at once. Hopefully they turn out good. I dont know how much detail the metal printing is actually capable of. A week or 3 ago I also ordered 2x 500mm lengths of 10mm OD carbon fibre rod, which is something else that is surprisingly cheap. So I'll use this instead of the stainless steel rods to link the throttles, as these are also surprisingly heavy. The weight difference is pretty incredible, will be going from ~1.1kg down to ~140 grams.

I removed my doors as the plan is to paint the door jambs as well as inside the doors. This will make for a decent paint job rather than a rough and ready closed door job. The doors will be stripped of everything but the glass/window winder mechanism, this means that I’ll be able to cover all the panel that’ll be visible once the door cards are on. Removing the doors is a manageable one man job if they are light/small enough. Don’t do this if you have a ute/luxobarge/van. First the harness is removed/made manageable enough so that when the door is removed it won’t get in the way. Interestingly enough my rear doors have two wires but use an eight pin connector. then the catch, it’s been a while since I’ve stripped doors so apologies if I get the wrong terminology. My brains full of other Barry info. These ones have a bolt which I believe is better, but yours may have a pin which requires a gentle hammer. I have a few stashed away for when I do my SW20 door catch conversion in 2028. Then with the door closed, remove all but one bolt from the hinges. The last one can be removed carefully but for the last few threads do it by hand while supporting the door with the other hand+a leg. It should come out easily enough without too much drama. take lots of pics of where things go before removing, label containers of fasteners etc, Here’s all my hinges that’ll be painted. I scraped off all the old Seam sealer. found some rust too on some brackets that’ll be dealt with shortly Got distracted by my strikers, After some time with a mini wire wheel and metal polish: Once the doors are stripped the last two I primed can be prepped, the other two can be checked, then the insides can be scuffed/cleaned then they’re done-ish.

Got the roof and bonnet fully prepped. It’s dusty dirty work. The vac I have came with a really short hose, unsuitable for body work, so sent dust all over. made it sludgy with some wet sanding It’s important to smooth out the edges too, any ugliness will show through in the final finish: Had a bit of fry up on the bonnet which is always a bit of a head scratcher. it’s commonly a reaction between the solvents and the old paint below it. I used to get a lot of it on sun-fucked ABS parts and fibreglass bumpers. The solution in the old paint shop was a) don’t cut through to the old shit, b) remove it all, or wipe with thinners and try again. But I found this funny video from the Gunman that’ll help. Worth a watch for the epic rage Removed both front guards, prepped and stripped all plastic fasteners. In this pic I’m cleaning the inside, as you don’t want loose dust/dirt getting in your paint and it only takes a min or two as an extra step all done, note it’s important to make sure the edges are smoothed out whether primed or not. Just to make sure it’s all nice. Priming guards off the car is definitely better, as you can cover all areas a bit better. uh oh more rust This area is a bit of a trap for rust as water must get trapped in those bits. The other side was worse: Admittedly I’ve seen worse on mid-00s cars, cut and shut jobs. I took a wire wheel to it, rust treated and painted black, looks funky. But once guards are on won’t be seen.

I needed studs for the turbo and the manifold flange for the turbo. I thought about some all thread but figured it'd probably fail or be shit. Saw some cheap stud kits but they were probably cheese too. The Nissan genuine turbo /exhaust studs caught my eye but at $7 per stud that's was a bit rich as I'm cheap. The Nissan studs are meant to be M8x40mm. Figured I'd look up the honda exhaust manifold studs. They are M8x38mm and only $2 each I figured 2mm wouldn't be the end of the world so ordered a bunch along with a new gasket Just finger tight for now but they fit pretty well The AliExpress cast v band adaptor needs some holes enlarged as they don't perfectly line up but a bit of careful drilling should sort that

Me and the wee man got the last couple engine bits, carbs and airbox done on Thursday, up and running again. I had forgotten how absolutely wonderful these twins sound Little bits and bobs to tidy up and a new rear tyre (has a horrible front tyre on the back) before I can take it for a ride and put it back in the shed for another 4 years

Thanks guys, I'll pass that on in case he doesn't check back here.

Back again with more worrys. When it went for the WOF he was struggling to read part if the VIN plate, i had a look and there was stain on it. Fuck, the battery has been overcharging and spraying acid about the front corner of the engine bay. Grand! More electrical gremlins. Got home and put the multimeter on it and was a bit shocked at what it was pumping out.. Our mate from american auto lent me a good alternator to test, went from all the charge to none of the charge. Waiting on a new Voltage Reg from Rockauto to see if that helps. Hopefully the battery isnt fisted cause its pretty new. Have cleaned up the acid burns and repainted things, added a battery breather. All cosmetic and nothing reached the outer bodywork thankfully. Not so long ago i discovered both field wires had broken off, this time my old solder repair had ejected entirely. I made a wee jumper wire and shit but its just too fragile, the brush holder started to crumble on install so ive binned this Alt. Onto positive news, i ordered a starter bendix and a set of rear shoe springs & hardware for bugger all. The starter used to rattle and sound like a belt sander winding down after use, now it sounds crisp! The one-way bearing was chooched and the outer sleeve had come loose. Theres lots of slop in these things.. if it gets noisey again ill add some more fibre washers and take up some slack

If the running in process wasn’t quite finished before, it is now! Fiat club track day! Thrashed mercilessly and made the brakes stink a lot! And realised my son is not a naturally gifted photographer… Nothing broke and many people told me my car sounds good. There were a couple of Ferraris, 3 Alfa 4C, and a Lotus Evora which was very nice. My car was one of the slowest but the only comparable OS cars out today were a V8 Fairlane, a MK2 Jaaaaag and briefly an Alfa spider. The Jag couldn’t catch me but I spent a fair bit of time being passed by modern turbo hatches. I’m very pleased with the way the Fiat handles for a fairly stock road car on chinesium tyres. Juuuust squeezed 100mph at the end of the pit straight which coincides with the red line on the tacho. If there’s a next time, I need better brake pads and I need to get the twin sideys on, she runs out of breath at 5k rpm. Son was fizzing as he got to go for a hoon in a Lancia Montecarlo race car (with added volumex).

Best to do nothing with the rust before inspection, it I’ll pro badly get referred to a repair certifier regardless. https://vehicleinspection.nzta.govt.nz/virms/entry-certification/i-and-c/vehicle-structure/threshold-for-requiring-repair-certification

I'll just jump in here for him - Currently needs some rust dealt to and brakes to be made operational. He's a competent welder/fabricator, so dealing to that shouldn't be an issue. I've suggested that if he tackles the rust in the rockers/sills, he document the process with photos for every little step - Correct?