I love nopro's kit but they only make it for the NB Miatas which are 97+. The flares for my car are nice but they introduce a slew of problems like scrub radius, additional leverage on steering/suspension components, turning radius, more expensive wheels+tires, lower drag coefficient... etc

 

Alex you better do better than this

 

very impressive cage i may add

 

You guys are putting in an impressive effort and I'm very excited to see the final results.

 

A Miata when done right could be sexy

 

Day 4 of work begins!

The aim was to paint the inside of the car, so we began to clean it up:



After, Jose was tasked with refurbishing the dash:











On to paint:

 

While all of that action was going on, I decided that I'd remove the steering rack and column and "De-Power" it. This car came with power steering which in a race car is a hinderance as it makes the steering feel numb, and the pump/fluid assemblies all add weight.

So why not just swap in a manual rack from another Miata you ask? Well, the steering ratio on the power rack is faster than the manual rack. I happen to like quicker steering so I decided to modify the power rack.

Basically what is done is you completely take apart the rack and pinion and modify the rack. There is a seal that keeps the fluid from moving from one side to the other which needs to be cut out. The result is that you don't have to loop the lines and push fluid around, instead there is no fluid and you just plug all the holes. This results in better steering feedback which I likey

Rack and column removal:









On the vice:









You can see the problem seal here, it's right in the center of the rack:



Here is the seal being cut out:



Because there isn't going to be any fluid to lubricate, everything must be packed heavily with grease:











Voila!:

 

We didn't quite get to start paint as the steering rack modifications were more involved than we thought. The next update will include the last of prep and the beginning of primer for the rest of the interior.

Till next time!

 

where did you get your Jose, and what did you pay?

BTW: Thread of the year. keep it up.

 

He's my best friend, I'm his best man....


Also I feed him Smirnoff Ice, his favorite...