Removing the rear of the donor.

Today I cut the rear body panels out of the roadster. In doing this I am glad I decided to go the Miata/roadster mash up route as I found more hidden rust and rot during the cutting out of the body panels. Luckily the sections I need are rust and rot free, but it appears this car had a lot of short cuts made on the body work by using alot of bondo and newspaper as fillers. Needless to say to all of you out there not to thrilled with the idea of cutting up a roadster for a project such as this, I believe that if a roadster had to be donated this was as good of candidate as any. After some strategic cuts with the cut off wheel here is what I was left with:

It will be awhile before I start the process of fitting this to the Miata. I just wanted the roadster out of my 1 car garage at my house and I didnt want it to be in the way at the shop. So storing the car out back of the shop was the best option. I wanted to avoid the body sitting out in the weather so I went ahead and cut the last of the body panels I needed off the roadster before I set the car outback and let Mother Nature have her way with it.

According to my measurements the Miata in the rear is roughly 7" wider than the roadster. No worries, the same method applied to the front will be utilized in the rear, cut and add metal.

In the shop awaiting fitment:

Transmission in!

I finally got the transmission in place it was a tight fit but everything landed where I intended. 

As you can see the oil pan sits pretty low past the k member I was thinking of modding the oil pan or perhaps elongating the k member, but now I'm leaning more towards a skid plate rather than throwing off the geometry of the suspension by doing essentially the same thing, protecting the oil pan. Ill have to see how low the car squats with the weight of the engine and trans on it.

In the car I had to trim the shifter hole slightly to clear for my mock up shifter bracket. This shifter bracket is temporary as I plan to fabricate a better one. 

Test fitted with the NB center console I have with it fitted with a embroidered Nismo shift boot.

Yeah I need to get a better shift knob.

Next I need to fabricate the transmission mount.