Colors
Time for Color
Hood Mod
Fuel tank mod, again – and again
Coming Out!
HUGE DAY! Took her out in public for the first time. Photos here. It is absolutely amazing how these things will draw a crowd.
Three years, three months, three days. Sometimes it feels like it took forever, other times, it was just yesterday I was pulling her home from Lees Summit
Let the fun begin
Almost there
Finishing up all the little details. Car essentially done, appointment made for State Police inspection
Sill molding
Different designs offer different methods of placing a trim piece. The trick is how do you transition from painted metal(fiberglass) to carpet and cover the raw edge. I learned from some buddy’s of an aluminum extrusion, traditionally used for edging on tile counters. M-D Products part number A-813 gives a smooth aluminum extruded finish with a small lip to cover the edge of the carpet and screwholes to attach to the body. The molding is easily formed to the shape of the door opening.
Little details in the nose
The Hardest Part
Rear done, move to the interior
Sound and Heat Proofing
We road-trip in an air conditioned Miata – and the footbox on it gets warm. I am paranoid about footbox heat and I don’t think this puppy is going to play nice. To counter the heat, I have gone overboard. I am optimistic it will do the trick.
Firewall/Footbox
The exposed portion of the firewall is aluminum. Below it is a layer of Frost King Duct Insulation. (3/16″ dense adhesive foam with a few mil aluminum cover. Next is a layer of heat barrier film that came with the kit. Finally we get to the 3/16″ fiberglass foot tub. On the inside of the tub, I used a sheet of Second Skin Thermal Block. This is a 3/16″ mat covered with a textured aluminum. Claims it will block 1200 degrees. Further back on the transmission tunnel, I used Second Skin Heat Wave, a 3/8″ jute style insulation with an aluminum foil surface. Floors and rear wheel wells were covered in Frost King foam. All this was sealed with aluminum tape prior to mounting the carpet.
This photo shows the Thermal Block, installed inside the footbox. The pedal mounting plate goes over the top of this.
Rear wall covering
I really liked the finish of Jim Reiss’ rear wall on his rebuild of HM1006. He put aluminum sheet down and then covered with vinyl. Since I wasn’t as far along as he, I was able to finish the fiberglass surface of the cockpit tub with a little Bondo. It looks as smooth as the aluminum would have. To give it a little resilience, I then installed a 1/16″ thick vinyl drawer liner. Over that I glued the same vinly material as used on the dash and seats.
Carpeting
The carpeting is pretty straight forward. There are a few tricks – these are outlined on the carpet detail page. The choice of light tan carpet to compliment my leather seats sounded good. The light color is very unforgiving of any voids or mismatch. Black would have been easier. But I haven’t done “easy” on anything else.