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Its the plug for my body. Based on a MX5 MK2 NBFL. From the plug will be made a mould to produce the real body. Because of the regulations here in Germany its the only way to make a new body legal without going to fulfill all tests a new car has to have. So as long as no changes are done on the chassis, no cutting from original body it will be legal registered as a bodykit, like a spoiler, otherwise it has to fulfill a crashtest! So my biggest problem designing the new shape are the rear wings which are welded on the chassis from all MX5 If they are fixed with screws like BMW did with the Z3 or Z4 the rear fender could be removed and don't belong to the chassis. The reason i use the MX5 is because its the last car small enough to use a classic design with out looking strange, so from physical size its perfect. The handling is superb , which cant be told from most vintage cars compared to today cars. its reliable , easy to tune to 250-350 HP with a weight a little over 1000 kg, and at last they are cheap and lots of good ones available. So at the end i will have a perfect vintage car, with the right optic and feeling without breaking my bank, a handling i can only dream about and because the donor is trouble free i can drive without thinking even after long time store in the garage. I fully agree with the new tech under the classic style. Been playing with new and old sportscars my entire driving life and have come to the conclusion that I will never be happy with the performance and handling of old cars, but will always me enamored of the classic style. So this works for me. Shame about the German rules as they make the task harder and a bit less elegant in the end. In my case I was able to peel the Miata down to the base structure.  |
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wow! i even have to have the plastic absorber which is behind the front bumper, but i could remove the alu crash bar at the rear, don't have to understand everything.... Adding a hardtop or a coupe roof is no problem because they say its only a load, like a luggage , for a roll over bar i need a certificate and they test how its welded and mounted!  What are you doing with your Miata? |
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This looks great, i prefer this kind of styling where it evokes the classic look without trying to replicate any specific car.
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Feeling the same, don't like to explain all the time people that nice car is not the real one...
And by the way its much easier when you design the lines like you want it, and you are able to change things you are not happy with.
For me its the spirit , the feeling you have seeing it , that counts. Using a different chassis means normally you are limited so you have to make a compromise , so its better to have a nice original than a strange looking replica.
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Jul 10, 2021 12:47:53 GMT
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wow! i even have to have the plastic absorber which is behind the front bumper, but i could remove the alu crash bar at the rear, don't have to understand everything.... Adding a hardtop or a coupe roof is no problem because they say its only a load, like a luggage , for a roll over bar i need a certificate and they test how its welded and mounted! What are you doing with your Miata? I re bodied it with a Volvo 1800ES shell. From the outside, it is not detectable .   |
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Jul 10, 2021 18:33:13 GMT
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What a great idea! How long you worked on that car? Had 2 P1800 in my live, the lower rear end of my car is a panel from the P1800, on the Spider 1/3 of the trunk is from P1800 too.
Have still a roof from a old Jensen Coupe in my garage, maybe for a nice hardtop, love the shape of the P1800 coupe. One complete set of P1800ES side chrome around the windows are still here from an old project.
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What a great idea! How long you worked on that car? Had 2 P1800 in my live, the lower rear end of my car is a panel from the P1800, on the Spider 1/3 of the trunk is from P1800 too. Have still a roof from a old Jensen Coupe in my garage, maybe for a nice hardtop, love the shape of the P1800 coupe. One complete set of P1800ES side chrome around the windows are still here from an old project. Took a while. Like 5 years or so. Besides, project cars are never really done are they? There are 2 1800 ES wagons involved. 4 Miatae and one Mustang engine donor to make this all happen. Bumper to bumper it is all Miata underneath. As the OP can attest, this is all about trial and error and pure stubbornness to get the job done.  |
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Jul 11, 2021 16:52:46 GMT
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After my first 500 positiv feedbacks i was feeling like a hero.
Checking your Volvo/Miata thread now iam back on earth again.
Your skills and the passion to do it right are amazing, was a pleasure to read!
So iam going back to my project, doing a little sanding and reshaping to finish soon.
After working about half a year now i was thinking its a long time project, much longer already as estimated.
So when frustrated about my progress i will think about what other guys like you are doing and investing so much time to do it right. Think that will help do get again positive motivation, thanks for Theo+
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Be aware that the so called skills came along as they were needed on the project and I don't show the entire scrap pile either. The main point is to enjoy the challenge. At least for me.
Looking forward to where you end up with your project because it is not the end in itself; you have the added possibility of a commercial venture at the end if you decide to sell bodies. Starting a business is an altogether different adventure.
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Having no experience with painting and prep for, it painted the sideline to see how close or how far away i am. Tried different grades from 600-1200 grit to see how they perform. Some imperfections still there to see how bad they look and to check later how to repair. First time the lines are better to see on pictures.  First i had to learn, don't trust check Used black because should be the worst colour showing everything, so perfect to check.  Didnt realize how wavy my "straight" lines still are   So lessons learned, don't trust, check twice. Deep respect for everyone doing a perfect prep for painting. Its not my target to paint the car in my dusty workshop, but i would say for check where you are its the only way to apply a little paint to see, even when most of the paint will have to sanded away again when repairing the defects you see. Only positve from this tests , the lines will look great when nice finish is done. again something to learn and improve my skills. Any command on the bodylines? will be a nice coupe shape (with better prep) |
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Last Edit: Jul 12, 2021 9:59:21 GMT by theomk2
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Jul 12, 2021 10:12:44 GMT
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Wavy or not, this is a class act.
As good as many on here.
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Jul 12, 2021 14:40:50 GMT
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Until you are ready to start applying surface coatings that are going to show, you only need 40 and 80 grit sandpaper. I am a big fan of the kind that sticks on to the Durablock foam sanding blocks. It was pounded into my head that finger tips shall never touch the back of sandpaper; always have a backing block of some shape or form.
The rule of sanding is "Coarse makes flat, fine makes shine".
Imagine you are sanding down a mountain range. You don't want to waste time and you want it all to be cut down to match the meadows below. You would use the most aggressive cutting paper possible to cut the tops off of the mountains. If you use fine or dull paper, it just rounds the tops of the mountains off and you end up with rolling hills and meadows. Most of use want to use the paper well beyond its time to save $$$ but it works against the cause.
Eastwood has a series of videos on YouTube that go into what is required to prepare a surface for paint. They are well done and made just for people like me and you who might be doing this for the first time. Well worth watching.
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Jul 12, 2021 14:44:39 GMT
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Here its possible to estimate the shape of the Coupe even better, only missing is the curved rear glass which will finish the complete shape.  it was worth to fight about every centimeter less! Most questions have been about the rear overhang of the body. Thats normaly the most critical area with rebodys like this. Having to much destroys the complete side line.  more compact isnt possible without cutting the structure of the car |
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Until you are ready to start applying surface coatings that are going to show, you only need 40 and 80 grit sandpaper. I am a big fan of the kind that sticks on to the Durablock foam sanding blocks. It was pounded into my head that finger tips shall never touch the back of sandpaper; always have a backing block of some shape or form. The rule of sanding is "Coarse makes flat, fine makes shine". Imagine you are sanding down a mountain range. You don't want to waste time and you want it all to be cut down to match the meadows below. You would use the most aggressive cutting paper possible to cut the tops off of the mountains. If you use fine or dull paper, it just rounds the tops of the mountains off and you end up with rolling hills and meadows. Most of use want to use the paper well beyond its time to save $$$ but it works against the cause. Eastwood has a series of videos on YouTube that go into what is required to prepare a surface for paint. They are well done and made just for people like me and you who might be doing this for the first time. Well worth watching. |
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That makes sense to me, always used a block, but had the idea when coming closer to change to finer grit.
So the tops are only rounded, exact what i could see on my surface.
I will correct now my rolling hills
What grit should be used before any paint would be possible? Used the paint only to check if the surface would be good enough for moulding. Was impossible to see the wavy surface
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already watching, looks like i had a complete different thinking about .....
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Jul 13, 2021 11:47:46 GMT
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There are two stages to bodywork. The first is the contouring or shapping of the panel. You are not worried about smooth. You want the shape you are after and you want the surface to be fair and flat. I use 40 grit to carve out the general shape that I want. Once I am close ( cause who gets away with one coat of filler?) I go to 80 grit. I will be using that until I think the car is ready for paint. When I think the filler (contour) work is done, I go to a high fill spray on polyester primer. This is really sprayable bodyfill. I love the stuff. This will be the first time you see the car in one color and if you did a good job on the filler, it will make you feel great about what a great bodyman you areQ  But then you sand it with 80 grit and it will quickly destroy your illusions. Here you can see all the high spots that come out through the high fill. I thought it was perfect, but the 80 grit wont lie. All of the dark areas are high spots that got sanded down. At this point 85% of the expensive high fill has been sanded off by the time I think the high spots are gone. Then I do it all over again with another coat of high fill/  This is the other side after the second round of high fill ( cause I don't have a pic of the same side). It was similar to the RH side in quality and blotchiness. on the first go round Still sanding down with 80 grit and trying to take as much off as possible until I hit the layer below. Much less splotchy ( high spots) areas this time it's good enough for the poly high fill stage and the end of the 80 grit. After this we move on to making the surface smooth with finer grits of paper and different products.  |
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Jul 13, 2021 17:33:59 GMT
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Thanks for helping to all!
Looks like i will manage it now. Was already feeling like turning in a circle.
What ever i tried it was as bad as before, or lets say a never ending story.
Try to get that product for the wet look for easy checking so i don't have do paint always to see where iam now.
When i have it i will take pictures from, but can already see iam nearly there. Only pictures don't show, but thats more the problem of my old mobile.....
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Repaired the area around the side window. Surface is ok even not finished now, will wait for the "wet look spray" which is a cleaner as well. 2 days ago i found a small imperfection, today its 5 times bigger, looks like the filler starting to lift up and cracks. Never had a problem on the whole car like this  its not the end of the world but i would like to know what happend here to avoid a problem like this again. it happens in areas where filler is thin placed on metal as well on areas where i have a lot of filler. Will wait a couple of days , looks like it will be more and more. 3 things done at that area only first: i applied a new kind of spray filler (1K should be a better one i normaly use) had a issue this material made some already filled areas soft and uneven second:Wet sanding to get a perfect surface for painting third: Painting Could it be a chemical reaction? moisture from wet sanding , so now the filler shrinks? Looks like the affected area is lifting up slightly and cracks , How to repair? deep grinding and fill again? Do i have to remove everything in that areas? Any comment welcome |
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