Ring in the New

Tracking the shipment of my kit from Devon to Indiana.

I had debated whether to hunt down an Aston Martin hood badge for my project. By way of comparison, when I have built Fender style electric guitars, I never put "Fender" on the headstock. They obviously owe a lot to Leo Fender, but not making any claim to being Fender guitars:

I had an idea about modeling the wing shape on Solidworks and using the CNC mill to cut it out - probably filling the recesses with enamel paint - and putting my name in the box instead of Aston Martin. This was not just sheer virtuousness on my part: the Aston Martin badges are incredibly expensive. The metal is silver and all the green and white blocks are bits of ceramic molded in to the metal. No wonder the cars cost so much; I've had entire cars less painstakingly made than these badges.

But then I found a very reasonably priced used Aston Martin badge in great condition and temptation overcame virtue.

Santa must have gotten hold of my parts list somehow, and sent me a lot of the fun parts. "Fun Parts," as opposed to utilitarian parts like front and rear main seals. Sure, seals are great, not leaking oil everywhere is great, but it's just not as fun as this kind of stuff:

Shiny!

Santa also apparently got wind that my tool box badly needed reorganization so he brought me some of this kind of thing:

Somewhat delayed by a bout of covid infection (mild, vaccinated) I have been working on the engine and drivetrain stuff. Got the engine separated from the transmission and front subframe, and up on the engine stand. 

Immediate next jobs are all cleanup/reorganizing related. Take apart the donor front subframe, get rid of the parts that aren't being saved - same with the rear subframe. Second stage cleaning of the engine block and tranny. 

The only engine work I am planning to do basically amounts to stopping leaks: replace front and rear main seals, new water pump, timing belt and idlers etc., cam seals, oil pan gasket, valve cover gasket, intake and exhaust manifold gaskets. Also clutch, pressure plate, throwout bearing, pilot bearing. Clean up and beautify along the way. 

The observant reader will note no mention of a complete engine rebuild. No crank bearings, rings, pistons. This is obviously based on the rose-tinted assumption that none of that stuff needs to be done. I have no reason to believe otherwise, but it is a bit of a faith based exercise for a donor car with 192,000 miles on it. Miatas are reputed to be quite durable in these respects, so here's fingers crossed.

Also not planning any work on the head - but that's less of a gamble because taking the head back out of a built Replicar is not prohibitive. I have heard rumors there is a way to check the lifters, which I will look in to.

Then the next step will be to start re-assembling the power plant frame in preparation for the new chassis (currently en route across the pond - albeit in the middle of a global shipping crisis).