Interior Priming

Prepping for painting the interior.

Off to the cage builder...finally

Final work before the car is off to Chris Howard to build the cage. No more holes in the floor.
Cut out the sunroof carrier to allow the main hoop to be closer to the roof which will allow for more headroom.

Aluminum Door Panels

Time to cover up the door guts. Had three options; use the stock door panels, buy pre-made panels from Valley Motorwerks at $99 each(ouch) or make them myself. Me being a cheap bastard chose to make them. The Valley panels only cover the recessed area in the middle leaving some other parts of the door exposed which I did not want so I designed my panels to extend to the outter edge of the door.
Cardboard is cheap, aluminum is not. This was an important step because I am mildly retarded I initally cut the cardboard 2 inches short, I would have been up shit creek if I had done that with the aluminum.
One other thing I have learned is to do the less important side first, that way when you screw up you don't have to deal with it everytime on the driver's side. So the passenger door got the first panel, which was a great idea as I put the hole for the door lock and the door release handle in the wrong spots. These are minor screwups and the panel came out looking pretty damn good for not having a sheet metal break or shear. Just need to add a handle to pull the door in with and a hole for the window switch.
The two 24"x48" sheets of 0.04" 5052 aluminum was $65 shipped from OnlineMetals.com and the construction probably took 6-7 hours including making the template. So it was well worth it to make the panels instead of purchasing them.

Interior Panels and Wiring Cleanup

Made some interior panels to cover up the large holes created when the stock panels were removed. Used 1/32" 5052 aluminum, they came out pretty nicely and will match the door panels once they are purchased from Valley Motorwerks.

After numerous electrical gremlins I decided to finally tackle cleaning up the wiring and removing any that is unnecessary (speaker wires, central locking system, power mirrors...).
During the clean-up a few straggler items were found hiding out behind body panels; rear speaker amp, central locking actuators, front door tweeters, central locking control unit.

Calabogie - Patroon BMWCCA

With the Bimmer not being completed safety wise I decided to take the Mazda to Calabogie. It performed well considering that I was running on 205 Bridgestone RE050 scrubs off a miata.

NE Divisionals

August 8-10th Northeast Divisionals at Seneca Army Depot. Approximately 100 entrants, I being the only FP car registered meant I automatically won my class assuming I made a run both days of competition.

First actual event with the car. The course was too short to get the tires up to temp but it was still a good shakedown. The rear end is still pretty loose, which is a good sign that the added weight of the cage will balance the car out nicely.

The latest toys to arrive. One of the key components left, Ground Control "Track/School" Coilover Kit. Discounting the 2 weeks they spent being shipped to and from California the turn around time was a little less than 2.5 weeks. Not great but at least they are here and look good. Spent the extra $180 to have GC modify the strut housings (weld around the base of the tube, gusset the knuckle to the tube, shorten them, weld on the new collar and powder coat them); it was well worth the cash as they look brand new. Running on 525 lb front springs and 700 lb rears (around 450 lb effective due to the trailing arm setup).
The fact that everything came already assembled and the shocks adjusted the install went pretty smoothly. Like normal the hardest part was ripping the old shit out.

Seneca Test & Tune

Really need the coilovers, wheels (so the Avons can be mounted) and the cage. The remaining parts will really help the dynamics of the car, as it is now it is a drift machine unless there is a full tank of gas in it.

Finishing Pieces

Now that the chassis is solid again I have to take care of all the minor details before it is ready to compete. Stuff like seats, mounting the sunroof, fixing the gauge cluster (again).

First up: seat mounts. 3/16" plate steel to adapt the "new" buckets to the original mounts. Will weld some pieces of steel between the two plates to add some more strength.

Did a quick paintjob on the interior, basic white. Easy to clean, easy to touch up.
Picked up a second set of front strut assemblies so that the car would be drivable while I send the strut housing to Ground Control to get rebuilt with some Koni goodness.
After about 3 hours of work they are completely disassmbled and luckily I had a 36mm socket to ge the hub nut off. Hubs will be replaced when I get the assembled struts back.