had band practice all day today, and blew up my amp so spent the evening rebuilding an old traynor tube amp....

BUT did come across this thread on TB...

http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=223939

it's settled, i'm yanking the engine back out and putting it at a slant. that'll make the eventual 16v conversion easier too.

I know I've said this before...but take a few hours and drive down to see Dale's car at some point. I'm not sure a 16V tilted works - that head is WIDE.

hmm, i've gotta pull the head off to drill and tap the head that's on there now for the alternate alternator mounting bracket (Up top where the recirc valve would normally mount)

I could throw on the 16v to see what it looks like i guess.... any idea what alternator he's using? It looks rather small, possibly one of the nippon-denso from a later 240?

The one that's going in the car is from a Mazda 323, I think. It was the smallest one we could find at PnP...

had an hour today to get things a little further along. Looking back now, this probably isn't the greatest way to get'er done, but it's good practise welding thin sheet.

what a PITA to get all this stuff to fit.

too many darn pieces of sheet.

i need to pick up a press and make my own pressbrake tooling for this small 14ga structural stuff.

Young grasshopper...you need an old tree stump and a few mallets (press brakes...you're not bending 1/4" plate or doing it daily). The rest is designed to teach you patience . I use to be very impatient. Looking good.

haha, you're probably right, the question becomes though, how do i make the 110 and 80 degree bends in that small of a piece with a mallet?

do i use a chisel or something into the corners?

The hardwood backing works GREAT for smoothing out the ripples in the parts i got from Olof.

sheet metal is really amazing stuff, i wish i had the time/effort/money/space to learn more about forming it.

Look up hammer forming...that's how I do it.

been looking up hammer forming, still having trouble figuring out how to make the tight bends...

but! i got a little more done too today!



welded on the lip around the sheet i cut out, now just have to punch some holes in said lip, grind down my welding underneath it (loosely held on with a magnet for the shot) and get it welded on.

I'm probably going to make a bridge across the top portion, as there's been too much metal removed to fill with weld and not warp everything.

so i've gotta punch a few holes there and get it all tacked up too.

not the best work ever done, but certainly will do for this. few more slices to finish up, then doing the inside in panel protector and the outside in primer

then.... the driver's side.

last one for the day!

i've put the 3m panel protector on it too, now just need to sand down the welds and hammer out the little bit of warpage.


EDIT:

Got a line on a pair of RX8 two tone black/beige leather seats, the dimensions taken from a friends car say they should be the darn near ideal seat for me in this car! keeping my fingers/toes crossed!

the tip panned out!

only catch is it's missing the actual buttons for the seat, but i'll figure that out somehow or another. it's still usable as is.
and i need to figure out how to remove the airbag.

THESE SEATS FIT SUPERBLY! and fit me and my large frame VERY WELL! AND they're narrow enough to give me the clearances i need too!

booyeah!

few more pics now that i've got the back torn apart on the other side (taking a slightly different approach here)

No pics today, but had a few minutes and started getting the RX8 seats mounted up. Made two pieces out of 2x2" 1/8" tube to bolt onto the front, next is getting the back part built. When I'm back from my latest trip, I'll try to get the drivers side all mounted.

What do we have for small steering wheel options on these cars?