I just purchased my first Miata at the beginning of August, then I found a nicer one and purchased that two weeks later! After pulling the fascia to inspect what was underneath (the corner was torn), I found all sorts of half-assed bodywork done by the community college. Since this is the one I decided to keep (1992, 64k miles, hardtop), I've pulled the metal back into place with the exception of a nice dent in the bottom of the frame horn directly above the swaybar mount (I'll get to that later when I build the project). I currently have it taped off and primed. I'll paint this weekend (first time) and then I'll be sure to post pictures, because this thread is useless without pictures, I know.

The plan is to drive it for the rest of the nice weather we have in Michigan, then put it away for the winter. Over the winter, I'll be gathering parts for an engine swap. I'm thinking 2 liter Ecoboost with the Ford Racing standalone controls pack, a T5 trans (quads4rods bellhousing), and a 8.8 rear.

My current daily is a Scion xB that needs a synchro in 2nd (the reason for driving this as-is for a while) and the weekend car is a late model 5 liter Mustang with a Roush Phase 3 supercharger.

Hopefully that's enough of an introduction...

 

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Welcome, cheeseclock!

 

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I hope to have it all back together by the weekend.

 

You are quicker than I am. Welcome to the forum!

 

Welcome, where you at in Michigan?

 

<p>Impressed with attention to detail. Impressed with mustang.</p><p>Also impressed with slippers.</p>

 

Thanks! Also, they're called Nosox. I wear them when I'm car washing and whatnot. They're a slip-on shoe that's supposed to be antimicrobial. I like them because they don't smell like **** after I take my sweaty feet out of them. I'm currently waiting on some little parts from the Mazda dealer. There's a plastic bumper support that goes in the side and two support rods. Those were wrecked. I put the fenders on today. Panel alignment looks like it might be a bit tricky. I've never done much of that either. The paint on the headlight doors didn't come out right, so I'll have to respray them over the winter or next spring (first time painting). The color is a bit off. I don't care under the hood because it actually looks right, but against the hood, bumper, and fender, it's definitely off. It looks like the hood might have a slight arch to it and I may have to slot the headlight assembly mounts about 1/8" to bring the driver side assembly into position. I'm actually moving pretty slowly. This is very new territory to me. I usually deal with wires and robots.

 

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The leading edge of the driver door will need some tweaking, but that will wait also until I understand how to do it. My initial thought is a slide hammer. The car didn't look too bad when I bought it, but the replacement fender, still in e-coat sort of masked the lead-in of the door. I'd like to get the bodywork mostly right before taking on the engine swap. I find that it makes things that much easier later.

As for the Mustang, Roush claims 675 at the crank for the Phase 3 kit (I installed it myself in April. It took around 10 hours.) It dyno'd just shy of 570 to the wheels, but the conservative Roush tune makes it a bit sluggish out of the hole. Above 5k RPM, it's an animal.

 

West side of the state... Grand Rapids area.

 

I'm going to throw up a few more photos here, then I should probably start a different thread. I hate panel alignment on this car!

 

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It lives!

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Nice work.