And All the People Said "ARRGH!"

Frustrations! 

When I was a kid, Pops Racer's 3/8" drive Snap-On ratchet handle was the one tool I identifed most with being a cool grown up racing car superhero. So of course when I got my first toolbox at age 12 I had to have a ratchet just like Dad's. After 45 years of use (some of it admittedly mis-use) I finally broke it.

The good thing about Snap-On, though, is that their stuff is made to be rebuildable. I got a rebuild kit (albeit for the same price I could have just bought a decent quality 3/8" drive ratchet from some other brand) and after a 15 minute desktop project it's as good as new; ready for the next 45 years of use and abuse. I only have a few Snap-On tools but they are all the best of their kind in my tool box.

Then I spent about an hour trying to install the pedal boxes and steering column. This did not go well: the things just would not fit. I had halfway convinced myself I was totally mechanically inept, and halfway convinced myself that ANC had installed my firewall backwards, upside down, and inside out... then posted on the Replicar builders group to compare some pictures and realized that the right and left hand drive versions of the pedal brackets and steering column are just subtly different enough to be incompatible. But not enough so to be immediately obvious that they're incompatible. 

Fortunately Sir John of the Imperial Order of British Kit Car Templars is really well connected in the UK used car parts market and Sir John has gallantly taken up this Holy Quest to find me the right hand drive parts I need. 

But for now the brake, clutch, throttle, and steering projects are all on hold. Which would leave me at a loss for jobs except that I have some revision/additions to the exhaust hangers that need to be done. Oh, and figuring out how to mount the radiator. And hooking it up, I guess. And I do want a heater for the feet on cool days, so I could get a mini heater core and plumb that in. And then there's the wiring schematic job, which is probably the one that makes the most sense to work on right now, but isn't very exciting. 

Styling Musings

So of course I am going to prioritize styling questions over functional problems. The reader may remember I was re-doing the gauge faces so they look a little more period correct, and also wanted to move the temp, fuel, and oil pressure gauges into their own housing. This job is mostly done except for figuring out how to light the gauges. The original Miata gauges are backlit and this would be easiest, except I have not been able to find a material which is translucent for the graphics and still sufficiently opaque for the black areas. 

I tried some options for lighting the gauges with LEDs but it was going to be very difficult to make the lighting even.

Pops Racer has a bunch of old auto racing gauges laying around and graciously offered to donate them to this project. There was even a rumor that there might be a real Smiths chronometric tachometer - which would have been worth any amount of hassle to make it work. But the Smiths tach couldn't be found. I do like the look of the Stuart-Warner and Faria gagues, but a) they would require some fairly serious contraptioneering to make them work with Miata sensors and b) they're more 65-75 looking than 1950s. 

Brother Ray suggested I look in to two ply laser etching - the original material being black on top and translucent underneath, which would allow me to use the original Miata gauge lighting scheme. I contacted a bunch of laser etching outfits and several said it was impractical for one reason or another, until I heard back from Laser Etching Amy here in Indianapolis, who says this could be feasible and affordable. As of now we are emailing back and forth trying to specify exactly how feasible and exactly how affordable. If this does work it will be far and away the most satisfactory and low-hassle way to proceed.

Then there's the question of how to mount the gauges (plus the switches, indicator lights, and rally stopwatch set) on the dash.

I am a huge fan of machine turned aluminum, and have used this technique for some of my tube amplifier projects in the past.

However, this is a huge amount of real estate to do the whole dash in engine turned aluminum. For one thing, it's a tedious process and would take all day plus to do a sheet this large. Also I'm not sure its a great idea to have a vast expanse of glare-prone material on my dash. One purpose of engine turning is to reduce glare compared to polished aluminum, but still, that's an awful lot of shiny to have in the driver's field of view.

Meanwhile, Pops Racer has been making moves to get re-started on his project car; a 1958 Jaguar Mk II that originally belonged to his grandmother. This isn't his - this is what his will look like when fully restored. But it got me thinking about wood.

Cherry is my favorite wood and I already have some curly cherry to make my shift knob and e-brake handle. So my current idea is to get a big piece of curly cherry veneer to put all the way across the dash, and then just have smaller aluminum panels around the gauges, switches, and stopwatches.

Curly cherry. Did I mention cherry is my favorite wood? I sent an email to Interesting Lumber Amber from the local exotic wood place to look in to this. Fortunately she is accustomed to me contacting her about a very eclectic mix of projects and will not be the least bit surprised that it's a car this time.

Summer Vacation

Per family tradition, we spent the first week of July in Leland, a little fishing village on Lake Michigan with the Extended Family Eccentricity Clan. It's wonderful scenery, weather, beach play, company, fresh seafood, and cycling.

Interestingly in this remote little town there is a world-class vintage car mechanic, to whom people bring their interesting cars from all over the place. So it makes for really great automotive sightseeing.

Jaguar, Land Rover, Fiat. Just an ordinary day at Van's Garage.

Unfortunately poor lighting for vintage British style.

Vintage American Muscle in full daylight.

Studebaker Avanti - Italian styling, British suspension and brakes, and American Muscle - Made right here in Indiana. Unfortunately not a market success, but a wonderful car.

I do believe this is a real honest-to-gosh 1930's Auburn Speedster. I didn't get much time for a detailed inspection, but on once-over I didn't see anything that made me think this is a replica.

On our way to Leland we made a Westward loop to visit Grams, Julie, and Kansas City Ed - which afforded an opportunity for a visit at Scarab Motor Cars and a lot of open-mouth astonished gawking. Yes, that body work is formed aluminum. Dick Kitzmiller and his crew have also made a small number of extremely faithful Aston-Martin DBR1 replicas which can be seen here

Random Flashback

Miata John's day job is wildlife-proofing buildings. For example, a pack of raccoons decides your attic is a perfect raccoon latrine. John's job is to fix the damage and keep the raccoons out, which is challenging, because they're full time professional raccoons and they're good at it.

When Miata John and I were removing the powerplant frame from the donor car, we found this lovely little mice nest. Abandoned, thankfully. But, still.

And... Next

So, enough musing and reminiscing and styling. Time to get cracking on the wiring schematics. I'll be using the 1600-page 1992 Mazda service manual and the thankfully shorter manual for the Minisquirt ECU, and trying to come up with a wiring scheme that will make them both happy.