Cyberpunk Mx-5 Build

Carrying on from last update, I've started working on the rear flare. Same process as with the front, get the inner line good first, making sure there is enough space for the wheel to move with suspension travel this time.

Then with the inner line done, do the outer line and then smooth out all the curves.







The rears are a proving to be much easier than the fronts as there is less going on, lining it up with the door jam has also made it a bit quicker to figure out the lines.

I've got enough of the rear done now to start seeing how they will look together.



While waiting for the filler to dry on the rear I have been slowly finalizing the front, getting all the low spots with guide coat and filling them in. I finally reached a good stage with it to give it the first layer of primer.



The main purpose was to put it on thick and get a uniform surface to bring to the final shape. The layer separations in the filler were sanding differently and I was ending up with a wood grain texture, the primer will help get rid of that.

Now that it's all one colour I could start marking out hardware placement and the additional line across the front where there would be an imaginary separation between the front bumper and front guard.



This line I'm just planning on carving into the flare so that it has the appearance of two separate pieces, but it will all be a single piece. This seems to be the way it's done and I think the extra detail will help.

I'm also nearly done with the bolt placements. The spacing at first seemed a little close, but it matches what other companies like Rocket Bunny and RWB are using. I still might space them out a little more.

From here the plan is to go over the front with some guide coat and try to finish the top surface. I'd also like to finish and prime the rear by the end of the week. Once they are done I'll lift the car all the way up and finish the underside of each of the guards and figure out how they will be mounted.

 

Thanks man. The idea of selling them is really making me put that extra level of effort into the plugs. I've always been a bit of a perfectionist but this is like a new level to me.

That means a lot bro, I appreciate the support.

I'm also realizing that I've done nothing but put on and take off filler for weeks, which is getting a bit boring. Luckily the other day I came up with an idea for the paint scheme and overall final look of the car that should look pretty badass. As soon as I can figure out how to render it I'll throw it up here just to give you all a break from the sanding haha

 

Another quick update.

Started carving in the line on the front flare for a separation between the guard and the front bumper. Once again the laser level came in clutch and marking out the line was a piece of piss.



I created a little metal scraper so that the groove would have a uniform profile the entire way along, and so that I could match it to the rear.



The final line looks a little rough but there will be plenty of primer to sand away and make it nice and smooth.



Went ahead and finished up the rear, giving it a matching line coming off the rear bumper



And that was both the front and rear flares "finished" for the first time. Time to throw some primer on and see how they look all one colour.





It's almost there, but not quite. I started wet sanding them to see how the reflections played off them and found quite a few low spots or areas where the curves aren't smooth enough for me so I blocked and sanded them both, got them looking much closer and then hit it with another thicker layer of primer.



At this stage I'm just waiting for it to dry so that I can come in and do the process again, maybe a few more coats and then I'll finally have it where I want it. Then I can work on the underside just tidying things up a little bit, hopefully by the end of next week I should have started work on the moulds.

 

So it's the end of the week, time for an update on what I've been struggling with all week.

It would be so easy to just settle for "good enough" but I also know that anything that isn't 100% perfect on the plug is just going to transfer into every single pull I get from the mould, so It's been a long week of sanding and getting these lines all perfect.

Before I get into pics of the body work though, some updates on other parts of the build.

I recently sold my Evo 4 coupe project, and with the money that I got back from it I have started ordering parts for the mx5. The first two pieces I knew I needed were a fiberglass roof spoiler and duck tail lip spoiler.




I've known that the car was going to need something to balance out the rear end, and make the car a little more aggressive looking now that it's much wider. I plan on modifying the roof spoiler by making a housing for the rear view camera and maybe tweaking the shape a little.

The duck tail is getting some work as well. I know that I want to make some extra caps for the ends that come off the boot lid and wrap around the car a tiny bit to blend in better with the body lines. But one thing that should really add something to the rear is that I plan to add an upper wing on top of the duck tail.

To do this I am going to add metal plates to the ends of the original duck tail that extend up over the top, and then have holes and mounting points for an adjustable wing on top. I plan on making a pair of brackets similar to this:



I reckon with both a ducktail and a wing on top of it, this car should start looking really aggressive. I'm looking into what sort of wing I should put on at the moment, but that will all come after the kit is finished.

Lastly I have started talking with a NZ company called Astara Technologies who are the NZ distributor of HPEV electric motors. I have done some research and decided that I will go with an HPEV AC-50 Electric motor. It's fast becoming one of the more popular electric motor conversions, and it's spec sheet says it can have around 80 HP and 120 ft-lbs of torque, which doesn't sound like much, but I have seen one swapped into an mr2 that was capable of ripping skids, so I'm hoping with a beefy controller and some tweaks it should be more than enough for a lightweight mx5



I'm not even the only one talking to this company about converting an mx5 to electric, I genuinely see electric conversions being something for us car people to look at in the future, it's definitely something that I am going to look into further.


Now time for updates on the flares.



In the photo above, you can see some ripples in the reflection where the flares feel perfectly smooth to the hand, but you can see there is a high/low spot right in the middle. This is what I have been working with all week. There were 3 spots on the flares that had this issue and after 5 days of body filler, sanding and priming and then sanding again, I was able to get all of them smooth.





These are details that 9/10 people probably wont even notice, as you can only see them from the exact right angle, usually underneath the car and with very specific lighting. But all I can imagine is someone putting this on their car, giving it a mint gloss black paint job and then seeing all the spots where I just couldn't be bothered. Yeah nah, I don't roll like that.

But with all the flares fully smoothed out and perfect, I could start marking out placement for the bolts, I spent about 2 days measuring and testing placements that looked right and finally pre-drilled a bunch of markers.





With the holes marked out and the undersides finished as well, that meant the flares were done. Time to make some flanges and get this mould started.





I chose to put the rear flare on hold, as the mould making requires relatively precise timing to make sure each layer goes on at exactly the right level of cure, but that meant that now the flanges for the front are finished. I gave the car one last layer of primer and a final block sand to ensure everything was perfect and then tomorrow I start waxing the mould ready for the tooling gelcoat which should arrive some time next week



And that's where I'm up to.

Again a massive thanks to the support for this, I'm glad to see people are interested in some guy in a shed in rural New Zealand putting on and taking off about $200 worth of body filler but it'll pay off soon I promise. I've found a place in Auckland that does 3D scanning and another place that does CNC machining for mould making. So once I've got my first pulls from the moulds, I'll take them down and get them scanned, flipped and machined for the other side.

 

The Monster Truck spoiler? https://www.topmiata.com/product/carbonmiata-monster-trunk-spoiler-na/ I had seen it while I was looking around on Yahoo Japan but not sure about it. It feels a little bit too big. The idea I had was to start tapering it off from the boot section rather than continuing the upper line straight across.

Here's a quick shop of what I mean:


But what I am on the lookout for is a vented front bonnet for the na mx5. Something with just a big single central vent.

I'm really noticing that there is way less range of aftermarket kits for the mx5 than the s13, I would have thought now that prices of the s13 are making it pretty unreasonable as a first drift car, the market would have shifted to the more affordable mx5.

Open to suggestions for bonnet ideas, atm I'm thinking of buying one of those universal Origin Lab hood vents and just moulding them into the factory bonnet.

 

The first mould is finished,

Started off with about 7 coats of wax and then a layer of PVA over the plug





Then moved on to tooling gelcoat and fiberglass, about 3-4 layers of CSM.



The demoulding looked like it was going alright, but then unfortunately there were a few spots where the gelcoat broke off, mostly around the hard edges but it should still be a usable mould.



Looking at it closer I noticed quite a few issues that are going to need more attention.

Either the PVA release film or the styrene in the gelcoat reacted with the plug and damaged the surface in a few places, unfortunately this translated to the moulds and I ended up with a few defects.





My plan with this mould now is to use it to make a single pull, that I will fit to the car to check clearances with some test drives, and double check that it all sits the way I imagined. After I have made any changes and am ready to start making copies to sell, I will make a new mould with better flanges and no defects.

But at the moment I am going to do the same for the rear. I have made up all the flanges and was just waiting for the front to be finished before starting on it. I'll be priming it again this afternoon and then sanding and starting prep for mould making tomorrow.

In other news, the boot spoiler arrived and I am liking how it looks. It's difficult to see as I cant roll the car outside until the flares are finished but,



I wanted to start mocking up the end caps so I bolted the whole thing down, I personally don't like the idea of glue or rivets because I like everything to be removable, but at the same time I kind of hate large bolt heads all over the outside of the car, so I've ordered some smaller button head socket screws for the whole kit that should tidy things up nicely, but for now we have this:



So that's where I'm at.

This update feels tiny but holy shitballs that was a lot of work. Laying fiberglass upside down under a car sucks btw.

Next update should have the rear mould finished and then both plugs broken down off the car so I can start fitting some fiberglass flares and get it outside. A little disappointed with the first mould not gonna lie, but you can't expect everything to go perfect first try.

 

Cheers man. I'll have some updates coming up soon on that S13 as well actually.

 

Made some good progress on this over the past few days, starting with getting a successful first pull from the front mould.



Once I had the fiberglass guard finished it was time to finally remove the plug from the car,



With the plug off I could trim the rest of the guard back to match the other side so now I will actually have proper wheel clearance.



This is the best part of the whole build by far,



The first fitting of the brand new fiberglass flares.





I wanted to just chuck the wheels back on and slam it to the ground but the rear mould was still in progress.

For the rear I had gone ahead and finished up the plug, waxed and everything ready for the mould



And then a quick and dirty mould because I plan to remake it anyway



That was 2 days ago. Gave it a full 24 hours to cure on the car, then popped it off this morning. Here it is getting waxed ready for gelcoat and fiberglass tomorrow.



In a few days time I will have both the front and rear flares fitted to the car and I can start the test drives to make sure the wheels dont rub anywhere.

Finally getting somewhere with this. I'm going to start talking to the 3d scanning and cnc machining places after confirming everything is ok, then the other side should be finished in no time.