anavrinIV builds an Exocet

[Chief_Wiggum]

Ever since I found the Exocet on FM's website I've thought of little else (automotively speaking, anyway). Good luck with the build -- I'm envious.

[anavrinIV]

Originally Posted by Chief_Wiggum Ever since I found the Exocet on FM's website I've thought of little else (automotively speaking, anyway). Good luck with the build -- I'm envious.

I felt the same way for about a week after I found out about them. Then I started looking for a donor. The kit car world is very interesting, and it's even better when you start looking at locost builds and off-the-wall designs that actually work. This should be about as easy as building a car gets and I'm excited to be working on it.

[mzr0818]

I have wanted to build a car on my own time and just never have found anything that I could see being strictly a toy at a reasonable cost. Then I bought a lightly wrecked 99 miata for my daughter to put back together for cheaps. Now this thread. I never knew these existed till this. Now I cannot keep my eyes off it.

[Chief_Wiggum]

It doesn't have to be strictly a toy...Exomotive has links on their website on how to register it with your respective state's DMV. I like to think of it as my alternative to a motorcycle.

[anavrinIV]

Just an fyi I plan to register this and drive it on the street. It will definitely be a toy but it will be multi use as well.

Originally Posted by mzr0818 I have wanted to build a car on my own time and just never have found anything that I could see being strictly a toy at a reasonable cost. Then I bought a lightly wrecked 99 miata for my daughter to put back together for cheaps. Now this thread. I never knew these existed till this. Now I cannot keep my eyes off it.

If you decide to build one let me know, I'll have tips and tools. A 99 is a good donor year

[mzr0818]

Originally Posted by anavrinIV Just an fyi I plan to register this and drive it on the street. It will definitely be a toy but it will be multi use as well. If you decide to build one let me know, I'll have tips and tools. A 99 is a good donor year

I'm kinda torn. Part of me wants to get a speed miata to doner in but I know the 99-00 are more simple and a good set up power wise. I can find them all day long in good working order @ or under 100k with some light body issues for < 1000.00.



This is me aswell. I would want it as a track toy and weekend fare weather car

[captain slow]

Originally Posted by mzr0818 I'm kinda torn. Part of me wants to get a speed miata to doner in but I know the 99-00 are more simple and a good set up power wise. I can find them all day long in good working order @ or under 100k with some light body issues for < 1000.00. This is me aswell. I would want it as a track toy and weekend fare weather car

The exomotive site has a whole page on pros and cons of each style. They don't recommend the msm.


This thread came at a good time a couple of months ago a buddy I work with bought a miata and said he wanted to build the exocet. Then I stumble on this thread. Hopefully ill be helping him out with his build. By the time his build and this thread is done, I'm gonna want to do this.

Sent from my ADR6425LVW using Tapatalk 2

[anavrinIV]

Originally Posted by mzr0818 I'm kinda torn. Part of me wants to get a speed miata to doner in but I know the 99-00 are more simple and a good set up power wise. I can find them all day long in good working order @ or under 100k with some light body issues for < 1000.00. This is me aswell. I would want it as a track toy and weekend fare weather car

Putting a turbo on the 99 will get you a better overall outcome at a lower cost.

[mzr0818]

Originally Posted by anavrinIV Putting a turbo on the 99 will get you a better overall outcome at a lower cost.

I know this, but speed miata could still be a speed miata. It's a mental block only

[Sploozel]

Originally Posted by anavrinIV It may not look like it in the pictures but the parts I need are filthy. I'm taking it down to individual components to clean, strip, and paint just about everything to get it looking and functioning as perfectly as possible before putting it in a brand new chassis. Yes, I could have left it whole but this way I can inspect every bit of it and replace what is necessary the first time around. This is a lot of work that isn't strictly necessary but it's rewarding and will lend to an overall better outcome. Also no, I haven't ordered the chassis yet. Given the price it's not lining up with my bank account quite yet. All in due time, all in due time.

Yeah that makes perfect sense. Have you thought of what you want it to look like cosmetically?


Sent from iBrick.

[Chief_Wiggum]

Just in case you haven't seen it and in case it might be helpful/interesting;

Flyin' Miata : Build diaries

[Rokusek]

Nice Chaz! Its coming along. Time to clean up all those much needed parts while you save for the big purchase.

[anavrinIV]

After another hour+ working on it with various hammers, cutters, drillers, and more hammers the second half of the one bolt is out and the second has been successfully made into 2 but is no closer to removal. 3 screw drivers have been ruined in the process and the life of half a drill index has been seriously reduced. I have a replacement ppf lined up if it comes to that but that's assuming the other guy can get it out in one piece as well.

[anavrinIV]

After 7ish hours of working on it, at 7:55 this morning the diff was finally completely free of the ppf.

Details to follow.

[anavrinIV]

Ok, details time.

TL;DR: New Jersey can suck my ass with your horribly rusty old cars.

So in 48.5 hours this car went from a running, registerable machine to a pile of parts, all (well, most) taken off with care, with ease, and in good condition given their age. There were a few problems, sure, but all generally went smoothly.

Until it was time to separate the diff and the power plant frame. Then it all went down hill

I mentioned before that these were problematic; so much so that my big bar only created problems. One bolt rounded, the other snapped an adapter and I was left in the cold. With a drill. And a hammer. And a dremel (this is really where a real grinder would have been nice actually).

So lets get to it.

For those uninitiated, here's a power plant frame (henceforth referred to as a "ppf") and diff. Simple setup, only 2 bolts.



Except they're huge. And these particular ones were quite rusty and stuck.

Step 1: The dremel. Cut those bishes shorter. Then the drill, make some holes in those cut up bishes. See the red lines and arrows. The original idea was to drill out the bolts and knock everything free without damaging the ppf.



Step 2: More dremel. Cut the rearmost bolt at the blue squiggles.



That worked pretty well.

Step 3: Use a pry bar to do...something. The expectation was that the bottom half of the bolt would slide out. Instead the top "nut" was removed. This piece is pressed in and supposed to be stationary. Oops. With that out of the way I used the appropriate (length) 3/8 extension as a punch (Disclaimer: don't do this) and smacked that other half out. Orange arrows show this. The white is what's no longer left.



Step 4: More dremel. Cut the other bolt. This is made difficult by the raised cast areas on the diff housing, but no matter. Casualties of war I guess, they didn't get maimed too badly. Greenish squiggles.



The piece just above that cut is an insert that I didn't want to destroy.

Step 5: More hacking at things. This time it was the bolt head. It wasn't completely removed, just chunked out. With the cut in the middle of the bolt I was hoping to free enough material to just get it all out cleanly. When this didn't happen I kept going anyway. Purple hatching.



At this point I'm at a loss...nothing was moving and I didn't want to tear up the ppf to get it all apart. I was trying not to spend any money on parts that I destroyed because I'm an oaf.

So come up Saturday 11/2 and what's my day hold? Well, it was a beautiful morning full of expensive cars at the Cary cars and coffee followed by hanging out with some friends. Friends who like cars, specifically their turbo miatas. And who like spare parts. Spare miata parts, taken from whole miatas. Often violently.



This was a whole car roughly 6 hours before this was taken. My newfound expertise came in handy to quickly and effectively remove just about everything from this car. I'm sure you're wondering why @Volcom8190; is taking a sawzall to it? Well, due to some unknown shenanigans and a prison stint this car can't be titled and must therefore die a horrible metallic death.

The upside? A free ppf for my troubles.

Lets get to cuttin'

Step 6: Go full destructo mode on the ppf. Yellow squiggles followed by removal (white scribbles)



Step 7: Drill some more. Bigger hole was drilled out of the second "nut" to eliminate the threads (pink arrow around the red one) and that whole top piece came free.



Step 8: Bolts. There is a cast iron block on the diff whose purpose is currently unknown except to use as a mount for the ppf. I don't know why it isn't just cast in, but whatever. Those bolts had been soaking in deep creep for over a week and decided that putting up a fight was futile. That whole block dropped out with the remnants of the bolt. Dark blue arrows above.

Step 9: Hammer time. Using a newly acquire punch the large insert was removed from the diff. Only a small amount of drama ensued.

Step 10: take it all to work, do some grinding, remove the remnants of the bottom spacer/insert, and press the last of the bolt out.

And with that, it's all free. 7.5 hours to do this. In fairness I dropped my new ppf from its donor in about 30 seconds using an impact on a clean car. I have all new hardware as well which is...convenient to say the least, given that half of mine was wholly destroyed.

In the end the stock ppf was cut a bit shorter



And there are some scraps from destruction



But this whole endeavor cost me nothing. Except for time. And quite a bit in tools. And 4 screw drivers that I broke trying to use them as chisels and pry bars (Note: don't do this either).

Oh, and I got those pesky bolts out of the rear LCAs as well. That was nice.

Free at last, free at last...



We'll just round this all to 56.5 hours and call it good. I'm exhausted.

[anavrinIV]

As of this evening my miata is officially a free car to me. Soft top sold, $0 spent.

[anavrinIV]

TL; DR: Bang, bop. Pics.

Semi-reinvigorated by getting the soft top sold (I say semi because I was never really out of it, but I felt good and wanted to work) I got back to it. The last parts that had really been stuck were the axles in the hubs, figured it was time to get them out. This meant I was finally able to use the hub pullers I bought about 6 months back.

Back story on the hub pullers, I was supposed to take a work trip to fix some lawn mowers back in may or June. I was to rent a car, load up parts and tools, and head out to fix a few problematic units in the field; this was all for a company I no longer work for (multiple reasons on that). I took a harbor freight trip and, with my own money, bought some tools I thought would be useful on this trip. This purchase included the wheel chocks and huge scissor jack seen earlier. I also bought the hub pullers thinking they might come in handy.

The problem came with the car rental. I had booked a car online, put in all my info including payment and age (23 at the time, here's the problem), and was good to go until I got to the rental place. Even with all my information and an approved purchase online I couldn't take the car. I don't know why you have to be 25. Stupid law.

A lot of back and forth conversation/arguing went on with my bosses over the next couple days and finally they sent someone else to do the job, 3 days behind schedule, and I had no use for my hub pullers.

So come last night and I break these things out for the first time. Having been let down by every single tool I've purchased at HF to date I was expecting complete and immediate failure. Especially when I had to do this.



One breaker bar to keep everything from turning, another to pull.

But surprised was I when nothing went horribly wrong and it all came free. Axle pushed right out of the hub with only minor drama.



Splines are in good shape but the hub is a bit rusty



So next we remove the hub I guess. I'm sure you're asking why? Well, why not? Usually hub pullers pull...hubs. But mine pushed axles so there had to be another method.

Turn it over and we see a very clean hub.



Lets hit it with something.

Given that my hammer wouldn't make that size I used another tool. This is a 3/4" to 1" socket adapter. I wasn't sure when I'd ever use this but I found my answer. Probably not what the manufacturers were intending but this is what they get for only selling these in a kit when I need 1; I beat on the other ones.



I must admit I'm impressed at how perfectly this is sized for the job



Yadda yadda smack smack clang it all came free, no drama



So we do both sides and call it a day



If you're wondering why I haven't removed the bearings, I have a simple answer. I don't have the tools. There is a huge snap ring in there that is rusted in and my weak little snap ring pliers aren't up to the task anyway. The rings are soaking in deep creep and I'll be picking up a better tool for this job as well. I'm making a shopping list.

I didn't feel like this post would have enough pictures so I figured I'd do an introduction. Everyone, meet Jeff. Jeff is my hammer. Whenever you see a hammer mentioned (and given my brutish tendancies that's quite often) I'm talking about Jeff. This is in no way related to @mzr0818; (even though we've all seen his "hammer") it just felt appropriate. Jeff has been good to me for many years, I hope to keep it that way.



Funny thought, just last night I was wondering what brand Jeff was. I have long since lost any lables and didn't see anything. But there it is, right on the handle, a craftsman. Go figure.

I would also like to take a minute to pay tribute to some fallen tools. These are my screwdrivers that are NOT pry bars. Or chisels. Even though I used them that way. These fell in the line of duty during the Battle of the Diff. Some will be honorably buried, others will be rehabilitated for a new use. Goodbye my faithful friends.



59.5 hours total. $0 spent.

[anavrinIV]

TL;DR: I F'ING HATE POWER STEERING FLUID

Now back to the story...

I let the huge C-clips soak for a couple of days in deep creep. I'm not sure if it did anything or not but I'll go ahead and say it did so as not to discourage others from using it. It really is fantastic stuff but when NJ strikes there's only so much you can do.

I bought a pair of nice snap ring pliers to make this job easier but they could only do so much. In the end I used my customer cotter pin tool and one of my broken screw drivers to do the job.

Already in progress. Use the cotter pin tool to pull a corner, insert screw driver, work it all around. Then do the other side. It will all come out pretty painlessly.



Next was a bit tougher, bearing removal. When I removed the hubs I used one of my socket adapters, and here will be no different. The one in this picture is a 3/4" male to 1" female. Very large adapter, I have no idea when else I'd use it so it's now a beating tool.

Top gear top tip: don't use your secondary hand to swing the hammer, you'll end up hurting fingers.



Smash smash do both sides and we end up with....bearings.



Races look good.



Good good that's done. Now lets get rid of those pesky dust shields. You may have seen that they're quite bent due to me not caring about their condition as I turn and pry and hammer. So off they must come. I had no idea how this was accomplished but that's no deterrent so onward with Jeff and a chisel.

This turned out to be the right way actually, quite pleased with myself. These are press fit on (no idea why) and must bee pressed off.





When it's all loose just pop a busted screw driver in there, twist, and it all comes out.



ONTO THE FRONTS!

Back up a second.

Early on I was all concerned about getting the rear axle nuts loose. Supposedly this would be hard to do with the car apart so I made a note to get a huge breaker bar and the correct socket and do this before I went too far.

No one said anything about the fronts, presumably they're okay to do. I think the real issue is that no one else has gone this far with the build and didn't think twice about it. And neither did I. Which was about to be trouble.

Dust caps came off easily with a small chisel, no bends even. I then looked into another 29mm nut. This is convenient given that's the only large socket I have but it is also quite tight and the upright is free of a car to hold it in place. Try as I might this was a futile effort.

But wait. What's that black case? Under my drill? Oh yeah, that's the electric impact.

Schweerrrrrrrrrrrp. Done. I wish I hadn't forgotten about that.

In all fairness it's a very recent acquisition, and a free one at that. It came with the tool box. I'll explain that one later too.

Schwas easy.



The hubs required no persuasion to just pop right off, the dust shields are bolted on instead of pressed, and the end result is a bunch of parts that I don't really have room for.



All together now. This is a miata drive system.



It's still sitting in the garage like that, I don't have anywhere to store it.

Anyway.....

Sway bar end links were removed from the bars and half of one was removed from the rear LCA where it remained when i cut it. These will be replaced. I used my newfound impact to remove some nuts.

I also found the fisheye effect on my camera (well, phone) and took a pic. I don't like this effect. I won't be using it again.



Sunday.

Goal for the day was to depower the steering rack. Flyin' Miata has instructions on how to do this and I did my best to follow them. I had a bit of success and a bit of failure. In the end success though. Whoops, spoiler alert

Some of you may ask, why depower the rack? Couple reasons.

1. (and most importantly) why not?

2. Since I can't use A/C and it's connected to the P/S I may as well get rid of it all, both pumps and the belt. And I already did this on the engine so time to complete the job.

3. No need for it in a Miata, let alone an exocet

4. The P/S rack is faster than the OEM manual one so this will provide a better ratio than replacing it.

5. It's free, I'm bored, and I learned a new skill

Since FM took all the guess work out of doing the job, NJ took all the fun out of it. Everything was nice and rusted together which meant a lot of stripped bolts...which meant deep creep, vice grips, and channel locks.

In the midst of doing all this power steering fluid came out of every orifice of this rack on a nonstop basis. I'm pretty sure this stuff is self-regenerating and that P/S flushes are a complete ripoff. I cannot express my distaste for power steering fluid or my relief at FINALLY being completely done with it.

There used to be some bits in this big hole, now there are none.



After some more fanagling and watching my Panthers beat the 49ers, this happened



Here's where it got interesting.

On the FM site their rack was just a rack, it didn't have any tie rods. And it was clean. In reality these things aren't clean and they have tie rods which is inconvenient. It would also be nice to know how to remove them since I've never done this before. In the interest of helping my fellow man, here are some pics.

Here's the tie rod connection. It's a square with some rounded bits. The metal piece folded over the end there is a large washer with some protruding parts that sit in grooves to keep it from spinning.





The proper way to do this requires a chisel. And a Jeff.

Use the chisel under the flattened edges to push them away from the squared off block. The flattened edges keep the tie rod from turning. Do this on all 4 sides. then clamp the other end in a vice and use a pair of channel locks (or an adjustable wrench, mine wasn't big enough) to unscrew the tie rod end. I didn't know these screwed in, that was the problem.

Here's what it looks like during disassembly:



Free:



Now the key here is to do this on the correct side to remove the rack from the housing. I didn't do this. So I removed the other side as well.

Pull the rack out



Remove the large cylinder



We're removing this



Cut a slot (but not too far). I used the dremel. Try not to damage the rack.



Turn it over, cut another slot. Remove the o-rings. Use your Jeff to open up the slot with a chisel, this should break the remaining material. You may need 3 slots, I did. Unless the cuts are a prefect 180* apart you'll need 3, no biggie.

All done.



Reassembly is the opposite of disassembly but I haven't gotten quite that far. No real rush at this point.

I mentioned earlier my tool box. This was a free acquisition from volcom8190. It was sitting in a storage unit unneeded, and he offered it up for the grand total of removing it. I'm glad to have it to do a bit of storage and to have some kind of work bench.



While getting the box we found the electric impact which he also threw in. He has air tools and this one was going unused. It's a harbor freight special but it did the job I needed. To date this is the only harbor freight tool I have that completely works, and I didn't buy it.

While I'm giving this guy a shout out I should also mention that I work with him because he got me a job, and got me out of one that I hated. He was also the first person to tell me about the exocet. I guess I owe the guy quite a bit.

Last bit, I've been using a lot of chisels. This wasn't a necessary item before I really got into the teardown. You can get through body removal easily without this particular tool, and even into the running gear if your donor isn't terrible. I needed chisels, and I've used them every day since I got them. This is a chisel and punch set I picked up at Lowe's, they're Bostitch brand and aren't exactly cheap but they've done every job I've asked without a hiccup. Highly recommended. The big one is optional but I've used it so I'm glad to have it.



That's it really, doesn't seem like a lot at this point but breaking down hubs just isn't as visually impressive as taking off a hood and fenders. I put in about 4 hours all told, I think. I'm not great at keeping up with the time. We'll just call it 4. Or 4.5 and round up the total. Yeah, lets do that.

64 hours spent.

[anavrinIV]

I'm sure you all think I've been hard at work, too hard to make a post. Well, you'd be wrong. I haven't really done anything in the past week, mostly because I've felt very lazy.

I did take a "shopping" trip where I only made a couple bad decisions. This could have been alleviated by some prior research but I didn't bother. Return policies are great. And I've made a list of parts I need to get. The more I plan the more it looks like I'll be spending. Oops. It will all be worth it in the end though, at least that's what I keep telling myself.

[CorkSport]

Originally Posted by anavrinIV I'm sure you all think I've been hard at work, too hard to make a post. Well, you'd be wrong. I haven't really done anything in the past week, mostly because I've felt very lazy. I did take a "shopping" trip where I only made a couple bad decisions. This could have been alleviated by some prior research but I didn't bother. Return policies are great. And I've made a list of parts I need to get. The more I plan the more it looks like I'll be spending. Oops. It will all be worth it in the end though, at least that's what I keep telling myself.

I love bad decision shopping trips.....

[bigx5murf]

As awesome as an exocet is... catfish looks sexier

[anavrinIV]

Originally Posted by bigx5murf As awesome as an exocet is... catfish looks sexier

Thanks kanye. Groaned for being a dick in my thread of awesomeness.

The catfish is cool, yes. But it's not twice the price better looking, it's heavier, it has more amenities than I want or need in this type of car, and it's twice the price. And it costs a lot more. And I didn't know about it until after I started this thread.

Truth be told I could build a catfish instead, but I don't really want to. I have some plans that I think will be cooler and easier to execute in an exocet.

Plus the full cage catfish looks like a complete bag of ass, the open top one is the only option. The full cage exocet just looks like a race car.

[darkcambria]

The catfish looks nice, but I also prefer the exocet. I'll be doing this down the line with one of my miata's so it's great to see your process. Keep up the good work!

[bigx5murf]

I'll just leave this here

[daafisch]

Not enough race car. Exocet > Catfish

[captain slow]

The catfish is cool looking but he's building a racecar. Function>form. And the exocet is still good looking too. Let the man build in peace.

Sent from my ADR6425LVW using Tapatalk

[bigx5murf]

Originally Posted by captain slow The catfish is cool looking but he's building a racecar. Function>form. And the exocet is still good looking too. Let the man build in peace. Sent from my ADR6425LVW using Tapatalk

Um, pretty sure the catfish is a functional race/track car as well. In fact, having a body probably means it'll handle highspeed tracks better than the exocet. Look at how many Ariel Atom owners are adding body panels to improve highspeed track performance. Underneath the catfish, it's a tube frame just like the exocet.

That said, the exocet definitely has the advantage in costs. On top of that Flyin' Miata has been in the miata game way longer than Bauer industries, and that does count for something.

[anavrinIV]

Originally Posted by bigx5murf Um, pretty sure the catfish is a functional race/track car as well. In fact, having a body probably means it'll handle highspeed tracks better than the exocet. Look at how many Ariel Atom owners are adding body panels to improve highspeed track performance. Underneath the catfish, it's a tube frame just like the exocet. That said, the exocet definitely has the advantage in costs. On top of that Flyin' Miata has been in the miata game way longer than Bauer industries, and that does count for something.

FM doesn't make the exocet they're just building their own and it looks like they'll be making some parts for it as well. Again, the catfish is very cool but not what I'm after. I have plenty of plans and when I'm done my exocet will absolutely lay cars to waste. Aero mods will be in the plan. And the plan is big.

[anavrinIV]

The more I look at the catfish the less I like it. The side view looks very reminiscent of a cobra, which I'd rather have. The front end looks like a smart roadster with a focus grill. Based on the pictures the cockpit looks more cramped than a miata where the exocet is actually slightly larger. The catfish has less structural tubing in the sides and front, I will speculate lower torsional rigidity front and rear especially with the roll hoop of the exocet sitting right over the rear suspension. As an everyday car the catfish is no better than the exocet but there are fewer possibilities with it.

Don't get me wrong here, I like what Bauer is doing. I would love to see more people in the US really building cars. The price is not in my range though. And I like the exposed exoskeleton look; this was never going to be a daily or a bad weather car, it's purely to dick around in. Lighter and cheaper is better as long as it doesn't come at the expense of safety, quality or performance.

With that I will ask that we leave the Catfish talk out of this thread from here on. I don't want the posts deleted but lets end it here. I think a new thread will be in order to discuss all the possibilities of the miata outside of the miata body. But this thread is about exocets, specifically mine that I will be building.

[anavrinIV]

Hey, triple post!

It seems pertinent at this point to put in an update, something I forgot to do last night.

I'm in the process of removing the suspension bushings. Some have come out okay, others have not. I've lodged one punch firmly in a crush tube and done slight damage to a couple of the control arms but nothing serious. The problem is that I've only completely removed 5 bushings with 2 hours of work. Since there are 20 bushings and I've gotten the easy one out we can see that this is looking like a 10 hour minimum job. So I'm changing tactics and hope to have this done by wednesday.

In the process I seem to have blown up the only outlet in the garage. The breaker didn't trip but it's not working...at all. Luckily the garage door outlet works and the light does too so I'm hoping it's an outlet problem and not something in the wiring. Problem here is that the garage is a disaster so I can't call maintenance yet. Bummer. I guess it's time to clean.

I took back the parts from my shopping trip that I shouldn't have bought and got a refund. The others should still be good. For the time being I won't be mentioning what they are but they cost me $150 almost exactly.

In other news though I sold the hood, headlight assemblies, and seat belts last night for $200. So even with my purchases I'm in the black! Okay so it was $199 but who cares, guy was short a buck.

66 hours in, $50 up. This is equating to less than a dollar an hour payment, not good.

[Easter Bunny]

I love the running tally of costs especially now that you are in the black. I'm sure it will help your conscience when you start having to buy new parts.

Are you using a press to get the bushings out? Harbor freight has some hand held presses that are pretty cheap. I have used their ball joint set with great success and iirc they are about thirty bucks.

You could also do it the redneck way and burn them out with a torch.

[anavrinIV]

Originally Posted by Easter Bunny I love the running tally of costs especially now that you are in the black. I'm sure it will help your conscience when you start having to buy new parts.

It will be great when my $100 in the black turns into $7k in the red for buying the chassis. But I'm not worried and that cost won't be unexpected. I'm doing some shopping around now to get the best prices out there but some of these parts are stupidly expensive for what they are.

For the bushings I was using the hub pullers. Worked great on the first couple but the pullers are crap and the larger bushings are just too tight. I don't want to buy any more hf tools. A torch is the last resort, I think I have a better option that I will be testing tonight. Cheaper and less messy but should be quite fast.

[smoogs12]

This is my new favorite thread.

Awesome project. Ive been researching doing one of my own. Cant wait to see your progress in the coming months.

Maybe you have said this already (havent read everything yet), but do you have any time frame for completion?

Also, I'm sure you have probably seen this build log, but I'll post it anyways. My Mev Exocet Build - Members Rides - MX5Nutz Forum

[anavrinIV]

Originally Posted by smoogs12 This is my new favorite thread. Awesome project. Ive been researching doing one of my own. Cant wait to see your progress in the coming months. Maybe you have said this already (havent read everything yet), but do you have any time frame for completion? Also, I'm sure you have probably seen this build log, but I'll post it anyways. My Mev Exocet Build - Members Rides - MX5Nutz Forum

My deadline to have this running and registered is 9/27/14, which, coincidentally, will be on my birthday. The deadline is 1 year from when I bought the donor car. It will be tough to hit since I don't yet have a chassis but I'm going to push for it. At the very least I want the car to be running and driveable, the registration and inspection process can often be long and tedious when you're doing this kind of build.

Once it's running and registered the build will start.

For the time being I'm focusing on getting everything in working order; this will mean replacing all the wear items in the suspension, derusting and painting the underside components, replacing maintenance items in the engine etc.

I haven't seen that build thread but I signed up at the MEV forums and have read through dozens of builds of exocets and other cars as well. I also signed up at the locost forums where those guys build insane things out of parts that shouldn't work together.

I'm very thankful for everyone that has shown interest in this thread. I've had a lot of bold ideas over the years but have never been able to fund them and eventually lost interest. When I saw this one I just jumped in and it's great to have support behind me.

[bigx5murf]

If you're still wasting too much time removing control arm bushings. Get a full poly bushing set, and burn the stock rubber out with a torch.

[anavrinIV]

bushings are being replaced anyway was just trying to avoid burning them out. Looks like the way to go though as all my plans have come up just a little too labor intensive so far.

[smoogs12]

So why an exocet? Tons of other kits out there. So why this?

Just picking your brain here. Not criticizing your choice.

[fredricktsang]

Originally Posted by anavrinIV bushings are being replaced anyway was just trying to avoid burning them out. Looks like the way to go though as all my plans have come up just a little too labor intensive so far.

Have you tried the threaded rod method? With a ratcheting wrench the come out pretty quick

[anavrinIV]

Bushings are out. I now own a hole saw and a propane torch, neither of which was any help. The garage is an absolute disaster. Good night.

70 hours.

[bigx5murf]

Originally Posted by smoogs12 So why an exocet? Tons of other kits out there. So why this? Just picking your brain here. Not criticizing your choice.

The beauty of the exocet is simplicity. You literally drop it onto a fully assembled miata drivetrain, bolt it onto the front and rear subframes, and bolt in the coilover top hat on each corner, then done.