Cooling and Lights

After mocking up the core support I had a realization and that was I could possibly use a brand new intercooler I had laying around from a previous aborted S14.5 project. So I grabbed it off the shelf and my hunch was correct, actually I was surprised how well it fit! So I welded a top  support and positioned it where I wanted it right behind the grill. 

I then started to tie the entire core support to the top fender supports I mocked up.

In order to finish off the front underbody I needed to finish off the sections where the headlights would be housed. I am not a fan of the stock old halogen type headlights that the Roadster initially uses. After searching the Internet for a suitable replacement with the desire of projectors and HIDs in mind, I came across these: 

Mercedes G class HID projector lamps. Yes they are DEPO headlights as I can't justify buying headlights that are more expensive than the entire car. I went with black housing as I intended the car to be black on black with the factory Roadster chrome trim highlights.

After some trimming of the inside of the fender, the underbody and headlight plate mount I had the headlight positioned and mounted where I wanted it.

As you can see I spray painted around the headlight black to get an idea of how it would look in black with the chrome trim and headlights. After looking at the car from every angle walking back and forth starring at the car. I quickly realized black housing headlights were a bad choice. So frustrated I shelved the black housing headlights and ordered the chrome housing that look like these:

I know this will be the better choice. I think the black just looked out of place and pulled away from the "era" and look of the car.

Replacing what I cut out

Going with the whole idea of stretching the body of the Roadster to fit the Miata, I decided to duplicate the Roadster core support to fit the Miata. I did not want to hack up the original grill in attempts to elongate it mostly because I don't think it would look right. I purchased a 2000 grill as I was not a fan of the original 1600 grill. I used newer and thicker angled steel since this car will be driven without the original crash bar of the Miata. After squaring up and measuring multiple times here are the results. 

I still have some more to add to the core support like hood latch and headlight supports as well as bracing to run along where the fender meets the hood but overall I am extremely happy with the results on the fitment.

Here is a shot with the grill loosely bolted in place and the hood laying on top about where it should be. (hood is sitting high in the back as it is resting on the windshield wipers, it will lay more flat once it is cut to fit) Metal bent and formed to the Roadster body lines will be added to fill in the gaps.

Lets get to cutting....

Ok so obviously to get started we need to remove the Miata front end. 

I'm not changing anything on the Miata in the center of the car. The doors will stay as they are. So what I need to do is make the Roadster fenders mate with the  Miata doors. So I am going to be combining Miata fenders with Roadster fenders. 

The Roadster fender test fit:

As you can see the core support of the Miata, as expected, will have to be cut for the Roadster fender to fit the Miata wheel well correctly. As you can also see the Roadster fender is more straight down at the bottom where as the Miata fender curves in. We will have to cut the Roadster fender right where the Miata fender starts to curve in.

So after removing the Miata core support and cutting to get the Roadster fender to sit back far enough, we can get a good idea of where we need to cut the fenders to mate to each other by laying the fenders over each other and using the wheel arches as reference. 

First I drew a rough line of the area we need to save on the Miata fender leaving more than enough room to trim as needed:

Cut it with a cut off wheel:

Then I overlaid the needed portion of the Miata fender on the Roadster fender using the wheel arch as reference:

Then I also cut the Roadster fender with a cut off wheel after I marked where I needed to cut making sure I leave enough metal for the fenders to overlap:

I then bolted the cut Miata fender to the Miata. As I did this I took the Roadster fender and overlaid it on the Miata fender. I positioned the Roadster fender where I wanted it on the car (again using the wheel arches as reference) I then laid the roadster hood on the Miata, centered it, used tape to temporarily hold it in place. Using the hood and wheel arches, I tack welded the Roadster portion of the fender in place while also using a level on the bottom lip of the fender to make sure everything was sitting straight. Once both fenders were positioned where I wanted them and overlaying each other I then used a cut of wheel and cut exactly where they met and stitch welded them together. The result was this:

(Passenger side shown)

Both sides tacked welded into position and leveled off. Double checked for symmetry and proper alignment:

Next is time for the core support mock up.

The Design

The idea of what I am about to attempt is simple or at least it sounds. Take the genuine body panels from a Roadster and stretch them to fit the Miata. Don't make any wild changes to the body, no reinventing of the wheel so to speak. The goal is to come out with a Miata that looks like a widened Roadster with Miata interior and a VQ30DET if you were to see it in pictures. Or simply like a Roadster passing you on the street. It's more like a remake of the Roadster like Dodge did the Challenger and Ford did the Mustang. Keeping old aesthetics in mind but with a newer interior, suspension and drivetrain. 

The inspiration of the project:

The idea is NOT to look like this abomination:

 

Change in plans...

Ok after hours of thinking and kicking around ideas on how I'm going to complete this project I decided to take a different more sensible approach. Enter the Miata.

Now hear me out before all you Roadster enthusiasts go crazy. After considering my goals for the Roadster and expenses to go along with it this was the most logical route to take. And here are my reasons why:

-Engine bay room: VQ30DET in a Roadster bay is cramped. SR20 swaps are boring, been done a million times, besides I have been messing with SRs since I was 16, I want something new. 

-Interior room: I'm 6ft 4" tall. Anyone who has owned a Roadster knows they are tiny and a person my size is pushing it in comfort.

The biggest reason of all EXPENSE!

This roadster was in rougher shape than I thought it was. The body panels are in great shape the underbody not so much. 

So let's take the time of welding and cutting, I'm doing the work myself but if I put a price on my own work... Wow. 

Lets take in consideration the expense of building a suspension that will handle the power of a VQ30DET. Sure I can go the whole RX-7 rear end route and have a pretty stout suspension setup on the Roadster after I go through refreshing the entire suspension with aftermarket and expensive NOS parts or I can build a superior suspension setup on the Miata that has far more aftermarket support than the Roadster and let's face it the Roadster will never handle as well as the Miata.

Going off my original interior idea of using a Miata dash I would have had to widen the entire car which wouldn't have been a big issue since the entire floor would have had to be cut out and replaced anyway, what's a few body panels to widen when your in that deep anyway? The kicker is not the widening of the car it's the windshield! Widen the car you have to widen the windshield. So that leaves 2 options. 1. split window. Buy another 67 windshield, cut them offset from center by how ever many inches you need to make up for and add a brace in the middle and combine them or 2. Custom windshield. I don't know if you have ever priced a custom windshield but to have one made I read its something ridiculous like $8k or something crazy like that. Split windshield doesn't sound appealing and custom windshield option is out.

Rubber seal kit. Just to replace all the seals in a Roadster is quite the expense almost the amount I paid for the Miata itself.

I get it, before I pulled the trigger the biggest thing I struggled with is the fact that in the end I won't have a actual Roadster I will have a Miata. Well what I wanted was a Roadster like no other, I will have just that and I will have a Miata like no other. If all goes to plan I will have the best of both worlds and hopefully a car enthusiasts of both worlds can appreciate.

On to engine fitment..

In order to fit the VQ30DET into the roadster a slight widening of the transmission tunnel needed to be had. So I busted out the plasma cutter and went to work.

Overall the engine is a tight fit not much room to be had in the Roadster's engine bay as it is.

Miata Interior

After the interior removal on a limb I decided to buy a NB Miata dash in hopes that since their wheel base is close enough to each other that it would fit with little modification. Well that was definitely not the case.

Ill have to do some thinking and come back to this as I would have to widen the entire car by 4" or more for this dash to fit...