What have you done to your Miata today?

No doubt, LEDs are so much better...no more ballasts humming, melting down and no more flicking lamps! Much more effective and efficient light!
 
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Turns out the concrete is basically the best part of the shop. The spec on the lift is 4" minimum thickness. Min thickness on my pad was 4.5" at the edges, 5.5 towards the middle, with steel wire reinforcement and hard pack underneath with no voids. We were very pleasantly surprised to find that. So instead of cutting and pouring, we just drilled holes for the feet, and for the full belt-and-suspenders, we epoxied the wedge anchors in. They are SOLID.

With that done, I could move on to making the last hydraulic connections and finally test the system out and bleed the air out. That was a mixed bag because I found a leak in 1 of the fittings (my fault), so I had to take that post apart and fix the fittings at the cylinder, which is a real pain but it appears to be fixed now. With everything bled, it was time for a proper test!



Ok, maybe not that proper. You'll note the hoses are all still along the ground. Next time I can get some helping hands, I'll be mounting and routing those along the ceiling so they're up and out of the way. Once THAT'S done, it'll get properly tested. I THINK I can get the Armada into the shop. I'm not sure I have enough head room to lift it any distance, but it's right at the top of the range for the lift, so if it can lift that (which I'm not really worried about) and the anchors hold (which I'm apprehensive about because...well, you don't know until you know), then it'll lift anything else we throw at it.

More coming in a few days :)
 
Turns out the concrete is basically the best part of the shop. The spec on the lift is 4" minimum thickness. Min thickness on my pad was 4.5" at the edges, 5.5 towards the middle, with steel wire reinforcement and hard pack underneath with no voids. We were very pleasantly surprised to find that. So instead of cutting and pouring, we just drilled holes for the feet, and for the full belt-and-suspenders, we epoxied the wedge anchors in. They are SOLID.

With that done, I could move on to making the last hydraulic connections and finally test the system out and bleed the air out. That was a mixed bag because I found a leak in 1 of the fittings (my fault), so I had to take that post apart and fix the fittings at the cylinder, which is a real pain but it appears to be fixed now. With everything bled, it was time for a proper test!



Ok, maybe not that proper. You'll note the hoses are all still along the ground. Next time I can get some helping hands, I'll be mounting and routing those along the ceiling so they're up and out of the way. Once THAT'S done, it'll get properly tested. I THINK I can get the Armada into the shop. I'm not sure I have enough head room to lift it any distance, but it's right at the top of the range for the lift, so if it can lift that (which I'm not really worried about) and the anchors hold (which I'm apprehensive about because...well, you don't know until you know), then it'll lift anything else we throw at it.

More coming in a few days :)

Great work! Youll wonder how you lived without it!!!
 
Great work! You*ll wonder how you lived without it!!!

If that's the case, it means the expense and effort (because it's been a LOT of work to get set up properly) was worth it. Sort of like a welder. That was much less of both effort and expense (not that it was cheap)... all I had to do there was learn how to install a 240v circuit and wire it in my panel haha.

Which reminds me:
I had a buddy come by this weekend because, while attempting to install bolt-in hard top brackets, sheared off 4 of the 6 bolts holding the front latches to the fiberglass top, pretty flush with the glass. For obvious reasons, we really didn't want to drill them out, but the red loctite was going to be an issue.
After a bit of hemming and hawing figuring out how we would go about it without harming the top, we decided to weld bolts to them and use a ratchet to remove them. I had to hold the sacrificial bolt with the ground clamp in order to make any kind of circuit (because you can't weld through fiberglass lol). A couple of tacks provided the heat necessary to break the loctite free, and we were able to remove all 4 bolts, with only a single bit of spatter boring a small hole through the 'headliner'.





We ran a tap through each of the holes just to clear out the rest of the loctite schmoo, but after that it was good to go :)
 
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Things I learned today:

1. The Armada will fit into the workshop. Just.
2. The lift will get the tires of the Armada off the ground and not collapse in on itself. It's rated to 6000 lbs, the Armada is just under 6000 lb curb weight, so if it'll do this with the arms just about fully extended, anything else should be no issue. SUPER stoked :D

 
Yeah. Not really usefully (unless I need to do some light suspension work, I suppose, which might happen actually), but this is a far more useful application. Still can't get full height because of the garage door w/ the Subie, but it's way up there :D

 
Turns out, baby bear fits JUUUSSST right :D




I need a shorter stool.



But it's at the full pull on the lift, sitting on the highest stop. I could put stands under the tires then put extensions on the pads to get it up 3 or 6" higher, but this'll be PLENTY useful :D
Lots of clearance to all the hard parts.

 
Turns out, baby bear fits JUUUSSST right :D




I need a shorter stool.



But it's at the full pull on the lift, sitting on the highest stop. I could put stands under the tires then put extensions on the pads to get it up 3 or 6" higher, but this'll be PLENTY useful :D
Lots of clearance to all the hard parts.


Looks great, very nice!
 
Been trying to figure out how to make a raid on Maff's garage. Lucky for him I'm back to work next week.

Been a while since my last post. Test drive went well. A few days later when I was driving to C&C on the freeway it started losing power. Pulled over to the side and she died. Sat for a minute than restarted her. The CEL was on steady but everything else was fine. Drove her back home and then began looking at anything to see if I could figure it out. Nothing presented to decided to do some datalogging. Got that all set up, on the way up my street the revs went to around 3500 and wouldn't come down. Back home it was. I was pretty disappointed in this development so she sat. I finally got my finger out a week ago and sent my log to Reverant to see if he could see anything, still waiting to hear back from him on that. I did try driving her the other day, the CEL was on but all else was fine. That is, right up until the power fell off and she died. Wouldn't restart, acted like the battery was dead so I had to get a jump and drove her home. She started right up a day or so later. At this point I am leaning towards something wrong with the battery or alternator, or maybe an iffy ground.

Today I received these pretty things:

31765367597_7f084fa732_b.jpg


I ordered them last week so shipping was very quick. Installation will have to wait now for a few months as I am headed to work. Same with troubleshooting the engine problem. Should be warmer then at least.
 
Today my Kuda car mount arrived in the mail and on the way home I'm stopping by the dealer to pick up another side panel. This is the second side panel where a tab has broken and it will pop off when I hit a bump. I bought the Kuda to replace my ProclipUSA car mount. While I liked the ProclipUSA this is the second one where the small tab on the backside has broken off. The first one I scrapped and the second one I modified by screwing a piece of sheet metal formed into a hook to mount it but it still works loose.

Hopefully I can install it over the weekend....if I get the car back. Had her towed to the mechanic last night at 11:45. Left work at 9:30 and she wouldn't start. I called my wife and asked her to bring the jumper cables over to the mall. Jump start was a no-go so I called roadside assistance just before 10:00. I have my thoughts as to why it took so long for a truck to show up but that's another story. Tow truck arrived and the driver tried to jump her as well but had no luck. All lights, radio and factory alarm work but when I turn the key there is nothing....just silence. Hoping the mechanic will at least have the time today to take a look at it and give me a call with the diagnosis. Starter, alternator, a solenoid? Battery isn't that old and the terminals had no corrosion.
 
Today my Kuda car mount arrived in the mail and on the way home I'm stopping by the dealer to pick up another side panel. This is the second side panel where a tab has broken and it will pop off when I hit a bump. I bought the Kuda to replace my ProclipUSA car mount. While I liked the ProclipUSA this is the second one where the small tab on the backside has broken off. The first one I scrapped and the second one I modified by screwing a piece of sheet metal formed into a hook to mount it but it still works loose.

Hopefully I can install it over the weekend....if I get the car back. Had her towed to the mechanic last night at 11:45. Left work at 9:30 and she wouldn't start. I called my wife and asked her to bring the jumper cables over to the mall. Jump start was a no-go so I called roadside assistance just before 10:00. I have my thoughts as to why it took so long for a truck to show up but that's another story. Tow truck arrived and the driver tried to jump her as well but had no luck. All lights, radio and factory alarm work but when I turn the key there is nothing....just silence. Hoping the mechanic will at least have the time today to take a look at it and give me a call with the diagnosis. Starter, alternator, a solenoid? Battery isn't that old and the terminals had no corrosion.

Ill guess starter....let us know how you make out...
 
Wheres aMaff? No new posts for a while? Hope all is well? [emoji848]
 
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You rang? Honestly I've not been doing a whole lot with my car this year. I'm planning on running 1, maybe 2 events in my car, helping a bunch of folks with their cars and driving, and spending a LOT of time learning how to run the boys' Kart.




The last event for the car as it currently sits will be the Chasing the Dragon Hill Climb in August. I'll actually have Eric Miller (foolish) co-driving with me, which'll be fun.

After that, however.... well, I did pull a very very big trigger yesterday.




So, that'll be fun later this year when I start turning wrenches :D
 
Ill guess starter....let us know how you make out...

Your guess would be right....kinda.

Mechanic tried to jump it, nothing. So then they tested the starter and found it was not getting power. Traced all the wires and everything looked good. Turns out the 20amp fuse for the starter blew rendering the solenoid useless.

In the almost 2hrs waiting for the tow truck, I never thought to check the fuse box. [emoji12] Wouldn't ya know, I have two mini 20amp fuses in my bag in the trunk. New fuse was a $1.77 and diagnosing the issue was $68.

Next time it she doesn't start, I am checking the fuse before grabbing the jumper cables. Lol

You rang? Honestly I've not been doing a whole lot with my car this year. I'm planning on running 1, maybe 2 events in my car, helping a bunch of folks with their cars and driving, and spending a LOT of time learning how to run the boys' Kart.

The last event for the car as it currently sits will be the Chasing the Dragon Hill Climb in August. I'll actually have Eric Miller (foolish) co-driving with me, which'll be fun.

After that, however.... well, I did pull a very very big trigger yesterday.

So, that'll be fun later this year when I start turning wrenches :D

The boys are getting big! Have fun learning with them!!!

Ooooo, Kswap! Looking forward to seeing the build!
 
You rang? Honestly I've not been doing a whole lot with my car this year. I'm planning on running 1, maybe 2 events in my car, helping a bunch of folks with their cars and driving, and spending a LOT of time learning how to run the boys' Kart.




The last event for the car as it currently sits will be the Chasing the Dragon Hill Climb in August. I'll actually have Eric Miller (foolish) co-driving with me, which'll be fun.

After that, however.... well, I did pull a very very big trigger yesterday.




So, that'll be fun later this year when I start turning wrenches :D

Oh boy!!! Cant wait to follow that thread!! Enjoy your time with the boys, it will go by fast! [emoji6]
 
Your guess would be right....kinda.

Mechanic tried to jump it, nothing. So then they tested the starter and found it was not getting power. Traced all the wires and everything looked good. Turns out the 20amp fuse for the starter blew rendering the solenoid useless.

In the almost 2hrs waiting for the tow truck, I never thought to check the fuse box. [emoji12] Wouldn't ya know, I have two mini 20amp fuses in my bag in the trunk. New fuse was a $1.77 and diagnosing the issue was $68.

Next time it she doesn't start, I am checking the fuse before grabbing the jumper cables. Lol



The boys are getting big! Have fun learning with them!!!

Ooooo, Kswap! Looking forward to seeing the build!

Yup, I learned a long time ago, check the little things (inexpensive) first! Glad to hear it wasnt to bad!
 
Yup, I learned a long time ago, check the little things (inexpensive) first! Glad to hear it wasnt to bad!

For sure! It just didn't dawn on me to check the fuse box. Wish I had as I could have popped a fuse in and been home 30 seconds later than normal. (hand)
 
Installed the Kuda car mount over my lunch break today. My old ProClipUSA phone mount works perfectly with it. :D

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