DEL SLO (technically DEL NO GO) never driven it!

[LowPokes]

I love Miatas, well any small car. I've never looked into Del Sols but going through your thread makes me want to. Good work, I'll be following to see what happens.

[los02]

I love Miatas, well any small car. I've never looked into Del Sols but going through your thread makes me want to. Good work, I'll be following to see what happens.

Come over to the dark side!
And thank you.

SO! Since my front coilovers are blown and I'm in the middle of cleaning my garage out I decided to use what I have laying around. I've been parting my last daily out for a little bit and this is what is left.


I still had the stock suspension for it with good struts. So I took them off a few weeks ago and they have been laying on the floor since then. I remembered that I had a set of Skunk2 sleeves and coils just collecting dust on my workbench. And then I also remembered that I had picked up some spring compressors in a trade a few years ago. I was able to locate those. So I started doing this.


Oddly enough it's my first time putting sleeves on. Any time in the past it has been a fully assemble coilover. First one done. No problem.

Get the second spring off the strut. No problem.

Go to remove the spring compressors and one of them seizes halfway. SON OF A BITCH!

Fortunately for me whoever I got them from had given me two different sets together. So I used one from the other set to try to even the spring out. B/C it was looking like a U. NO BUENO! So I as soon as I feel I'm starting to make some progress using the 3rd spring compressor to remove the seized one. Which I did. The matching compressor of the siezed one SEIZED!!! WTF!!!

So what was on track to take me about 20 minutes ended up taking me 1.5 hours!

FUCK YOU CHINESE SHIT!!!


So after all those shenanigans I finally came to this point.


Front struts now done. This setup is only temporary. It's a means to an end so that I can comfortably drive the Del Sol around. I would have installed them tonight. But after that frustrating fight I'm hopping in the shower, eating some food and relaxing. Hopefully tomorrow I will get a chance to bolt them up.

[los02]

So last month I decided to take a closer look at why my there was such a big gap between the exhaust and exhaust manifold. Come to find out the exhaust manifold had been cut and rewelded shorter. In doing so the O2 sensor bung was removed for that section too. So I decided to install an aftermarket header I had laying around.

I go to take the exhaust manifold off and get to the last stud and it breaks off. So now I have to drill that out. I test fit the header I have and the flange is too big. The lower part of the flange hits the block. I will have to machine some metal off of the bottom of the flange or just use a different header. Either way it's going to cost money.

I did find a drivers side fender at the junkyard and installed that. It's some brand I don't recognize and fits like ass. But it's white and will do for now.

OH... and I did this to my daily driver.


Was driving on a road one night the week after Christmas that was basically completely iced over. Felt the car loose traction. Pushed the clutch in and it never regained any traction. No point of hitting the brakes since I could feel that all tires where sliding. Since the road was higher in the middle the car started to drift over to the right. Right off the edge of the road which was a big hill. Swiped a telephone pole (hit it hard too as I was probably doing 50 when I hit the ice. Popped my speaker grill and speaker out of the door.) saw my windshield crack and my mirror get ripped off and landed at the bottom of the hill that was covered in about 6 inches of show facing a fence. Scared i broke a suspension component. Started the car and tried to move but the fender was rubbing the tire. Got out and grabbed a pipe I had in the trunk and bent the fender away from the tire.

Since the hill was a good 6 feet lower than the road the civic just couldn't make it up on it's own. So I just waited there with my lights and flashers on. It has started snowing and a few people tried to help me out. It took about 10 different people stopping and helping at different times and at least an hour before my car was even close to the road again. But since there was ice and snow I couldn't get enough traction to get more than one tire on the road. Luckily once the the guys that stopped that last time had a tow strap that he never used. We hooked the cars up and he pulled me out with his Subaru Outback. It took a little bit as a was sliding along the side of the road until it evened out enough where I could get completely on the road.

So then I drove the car 60 miles home in blizzard like conditions pulling hard as crap to the left. (Gotta love Honda). The only suspension damage was a bent spindle. Since the hill has such a slope most of the impact went above the fender instead of the wheel. I finally pulled it off the road two weeks ago after driving it 3000 more miles and picking up an EK hatch.

So back to the Del Sol. I'm going to take the rear control arms off of the Civic and put them on the Del Sol since one of the ones on the Del Sol has a messed up bushing. Then I'm going to either sell the Civic whole or part it out.

Anyone want a running and driving Civic with body damage?

[MGW]

Frankensol?

[los02]

It been a while. I had a fitment issue with a header that I wanted to run. So I dropped it off to the machine shop so that I can have it milled down to fit. I should get that back in the next week or two.

A while back, I also sold a Civic for cash plus this little guy was thrown in to sweeten the deal. So at some point in the future when I collect enough parts it will get put on the Del Sol.

[Spectra Phantom]

Just read the whole thread and all I can say is: You my friend have some balls of steel to take this on. I'm a very impatient person and to think of taking this challenge you have is just giving me a headache. Keep up the good work man. Sub'd

[wwwdotwhip17]

this is too rad dude! you handle business and are handy with alota different cars. Thats pretty tight. I have a soft spot for del sols, there like the odd one out of the bunch. Atleast where i live not to many people drive them around. But i love them, theyre just cool little machines. Do what you gotta do to get this baby the way you want it! im in for this and want to see dat merchandise!

[los02]

Just read the whole thread and all I can say is: You my friend have some balls of steel to take this on. I'm a very impatient person and to think of taking this challenge you have is just giving me a headache. Keep up the good work man. Sub'd

Thank you. I'm highly impatient myself and I have too many projects going on. But that's probably what make me able to deal with this car. Because if I get frustrated I can walk away and mess with something else.

this is too rad dude! you handle business and are handy with alota different cars. Thats pretty tight. I have a soft spot for del sols, there like the odd one out of the bunch. Atleast where i live not to many people drive them around. But i love them, theyre just cool little machines. Do what you gotta do to get this baby the way you want it! im in for this and want to see dat merchandise!

I agree with you that they are the odd one out of the bunch. That might be why I'm drawn to them. I stopped by someones house the other day and they had one that was lowered with wheels in the driveway. It just motivated me to wrap this up. I need to do a couple things to it and once I get my exhaust manifold back and install the exhaust I should be able to take it out and put some real miles on it.

[loekaaz]

I never look at honda threads, but somehow I feel attracted to your odd way of buying and repairing stuff. lol

[los02]

I know it's been a while. I have had my header back from the machine shop for about a month but haven't been able to install it since I had the Del Sol blocked in with other projects. I locked myself in the garage on Saturday to clean up to make space for this


But since I had to move the Del Sol anyway I went ahead and installed the header while I was in there


I did forget that I broke a stud. So I have to take one off another motor when I get a chance.


I then attempted to install the rest of the exhaust


But it's too long with the header. I need to get the midpipe shortened by 1.75 inches and rotate the flange to align with the header bolt holes. The plan was to get it done today but that didn't happen. So hopefully, I'll drop it off tomorrow.

I was able to eliminate one of the two CEL's by finally having an oxygen sensor. The second one will require a new distributor or a rebuild. I might just take one of my other distributors apart.

We'll see! Currently finishing putting together an EG hatch I picked up Sunday so that I can sell it.

[anti.engineered]

just read the lot. you have prolific ADHD. so do I. so that's alright I think

[los02]

Car has been sitting in the garage for a while, I have noticed today a damp spot under the rear. It looks like it might be where the rear tow hook is. I can't imagine what it could be since the car has not been out in the rain for over a year. The gas tank sits further forward. I'll take a look into that later this week. WEIRD

[ccnomad]

good work so far man,any update?

[los02]

A small update. I found out that the wet spot under the tow hook was due to a coolant bottle that tipped over in the trunk.

I also had the exhaust modified to fit. I went to install it and found out that the z bend part must have been bent during storage. So when I bolted it up to the muffler, the z bend part hung too low.

I took it off and haven't touched it since out of frustration. I might see if I can just take it to a muffler shop and get then to make that piece for me.

[rice4life]

One of the first threads I ever read on S/W, and I still can't get enough.

Can't believe it's not on the road yet though.