Dave Bivens Mirage Build

[davebivens]

Hello, first of all, this site's been a great resource for me in my build process, I've looked through a ton of posts to get ideas but haven't posted much of anything myself but now I figure I should share a bit so others can get ideas. Maybe my pics will spark ideas for someone else in their build. I'm a year and a half into this project, taking a lot longer than I ever imagined but oh well, they all do. I've taken a lot of pics along the way so the posts for a little while will be playing catch up to where I am now (bodywork, door hinges/latching mech, next is pop-up headlight mech.)

I got a lot of ideas from the yahoo group as well but now that yahoo pretty much shut it down this is the place I guess ( there's a facebook group but I'm not a big zuckerburg fan so I stay away).

Hopefully I'll have time to stay with posting as the project continues to roll along,

[davebivens]

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[davebivens]

Started with unpacking and cleaning,
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[davebivens]

After initial unpacking a blowing the dust and dirt off I dissembled to the bare frame, some parts I blasted and painted as I went, mostly suspension parts. Tryine to put away clean, ready to assemble parts rather than store a bunch of rusty pull-offs on the shelf. It had some nice stuff as bought, new rims/tires, new koni special D's, a bunch of brake parts, windshield, new radiator, a flipped gear trans... lots of good stuff.

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[davebivens]

Coil overs cleaned up nice,
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[davebivens]

Strip and metal prep the chassis, what a pain that was! Also, it had a roll bar added to the chassis and went up and around the fiberglass windshield frame, sort of molded to it with body filler, I wanted upper doors so had to remove all that.

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[davebivens]

I think I found the Chassis # under the rear passenger side suspension upright? Looks like "262___85"? There have been no other marking anywhere on this car, nothing on the frame or body anywhere else but here,
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[Bobby Evans]

Welcome Dave! I'm putting a roll bar around my windshield, metal firewall between cabin and engine bay, additional structure/crush zones to protect legs.

[Blueovalz]

Glad to see another project kicked off. It was kinda quite for a while there. So...what's your goal? What do you want to do with car (street, show, track, one, or all?), and what do you want to do with the car (enhancements, upgrades, fixes, etc)?

Ox

[davebivens]

Hey Bobby, I'd like to see some pics of that, I figure I sit so low down in the car between the frame rails and my head is pretty close to the rear bulkhead loop that I have some protection, but who am I kidding, it's a fiberglass kit car not a 2020 Camry. I did add a beefy structure to support the steering column.

If I find any pics of the windshield roll bar before I cut it out I'll post it for you.

[davebivens]

Hi Terry, I'm planning a street car, hope to get it titled. It's got a mustang 2 front suspension, rear suspension is some sort of trailing arm and tubular link setup that a previous builder designed that I plan to keep. Drivetrain, I have porsche 930 trans and I plan to mate it to a chevy LS motor, most likely a 2003-2007 5.3L. I have a KEP adapter kit but it's for a 350 so I'll have to get the LS version.

[davebivens]

Bobby, here's a couple of pics of the windshield roll bar that was on my build as arrived from previous owner. One pic of the roll bar and another of some notches in the rear bulkhead fiberglass where it looked like the plan was to tie that windshield hoop with the rear roll bar. Like I mentioned I removed it and filled in the rear bulkhead because it wasn't compatible with the upper doors,
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[Blueovalz]

Yeah, I found the 930 to be a pretty much optimal gearing for a high-torque motor, if you can get around the older generation synchros. Please post some rear suspension photos when you have time.

[davebivens]

Here you go Terry, it's modified corvair training arms (I think) and tubular links, all using heim style rod ends, pretty beefy,
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[davebivens]

"trailing" arms...

[Bobby Evans]

Thanks for the pics, Dave! I originally bought an LS1 for my build but I've since moved that into the corner of the shop and decided to dive into a sort of unconventional powertrain. I'm a big fan of the Lamborghini Miura and the look of it's transverse powertrain so I'm going with a LS4/4T80E or LS4/F40 6-Speed configuration and will be using Terry's idea for ITB induction using TBs from '95 - '97 Chrysler LHS.

[Blueovalz]

Dave: That rear suspension is unique. Can't tell much from the photo, but appears to have had some amount of thought put behind it. Are the angles and lengths all good (hard to tell with a photograph)? Interesting "upright" or hub boss (maybe a cut down Corvair arm?) and U-joint adapters. Assuming splined or sliding half-shafts are used?


Bobby: Good luck on the ITB project. This is probably the single most commented item on the car when folks look it over. "What kind of injection is that? I don't believe I've seen that one before". Let me know when you get it done. Would like to compare notes and discuss issues I had when I first set it up.

[davebivens]

Hey Terry, yea, the plan is to use spicer slip yokes with custom u-joint adapter at the trans,
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[davebivens]

Add more, like at said at the beginning, postign this stuff because everyone elses build threads have helped me, just the pictures alone have been a huge help.

I added a belly pan because the thought of the only thing between my butt and whatever I'm rolling over at highway speeds would be a fiberglass tub scares the you know what out of me, it's just sheet steel, but hey it's an extra layer and keeps everything else out of mechanical areas.

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[davebivens]

Also, my car only came with a passenger side sidepod box, so I added one on the driver side,

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[Manta22]

That panel across the underside of your chassis will improve its torsional stiffness, provided that it is securely riveted or welded in place.

[Blueovalz]

I agree. I added a .125" aluminum sheet under everything forward of the engine. I have another piece for under the engine, but with all the heat in the back, and wanting to gain full visuals of the mechanicals back there in time of need, I chose to leave it off. Yeah, it was about 45 lbs, which accounts for one of many little things that have made the car stretch well beyond 2100lbs. What helps offset that angst, is added peace of mind in protecting the underside of my britches, a smooth, raked underbelly for some downforce, added chassis rigidity, and a barrier to water (not that I drive around in any adverse weather).

I'm sure you've thought of this, but will say it anyway. Don't forget to drill and occasional small drain hole for any fluid that may find its way onto this panel (specifically coolant). I drilled mine immediately next to the framing corners so that normal forces of driving push the fluid toward the holes, and makes it detectable if it's a slow leak.

[davebivens]

Drain Holes, very good idea! thanks

[davebivens]

Adding more build details, wasn't happy with how the front frame that holds the radiator and from clip attaches to the main frame, so I added a bit of strength, triangulated the mount, the way the radiator is mounted is also visible, ignore that pipe coming out of the radiator, that will be changed of course.
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[davebivens]

Here's how the front body section gets secured to the front frame, I added a fibreglass framing piece, glued and glassed to the inner section,
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[davebivens]

and here the bolt thru the frame is visible, ignore the tape measure,
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[davebivens]

ok, it's freezing outside so time to add a few more pics on progress, more on the front body section mounting, here's what the frame section looks like, I added a piece of tubing to receive the bolt threaded through the lower front section of the body (pics above) and also boxed it in,

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[davebivens]

On to the rear hatch, this made me nervous, when it's open it really bounces on the lower attaching point and where the metal mount is glassed to the rear hatch just didn't seem strong enough so I added more glass, used a double biaxial weave with mat on one side, works well for complex shapes.
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[davebivens]

I also added reinforcement framing going from the pivot point to the top section. I added glass to the top section before adding the square tubing. Used construction adhesive to affix the tubing to the underside of the rear hatch and also the adhesive provided a good transition from the metal to the hatch for the fiberglass I added over the tubing, pics can explain better than typing, when the hatch is closed the added support tubing lines up pretty close with the frame members going down to the pivot point.
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[davebivens]

Also, for better body alignment, I had to move the rear hatch pivot point higher, can't even see the old hole, welded in nicely, (sorry the picsare rotated, not sure how to correct that, they correct orientation in the file folder)

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[davebivens]

On to what I call the rear bulkhead, I couldn't get good alignment/consistent panel gaps between the rear bulkhead and the rear hatch so I added another mounting point to help get the spacing right.

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[davebivens]

Moving on to working out a rear latch, my first thought was to use the VW style latch, I've seen them on other cars, but I just could never get satisfied with alignment, the engagement angle was just really rough, looked good thought...
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[davebivens]

So on the second try I went with the same latches that are used on the Ultima kit car, looking close you can see the application in these pics,
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[davebivens]

So on my build it went like this, handles the misalignment of the striker swinging down through an angle much better,
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[Blueovalz]

Looks like you're taking care of all those annoying issues with the bodywork for these cars. Unfortunately, there is a lot of them.

Yep. I found the Bear Claw latches work very well, and yes, if you don't consider the angle of the hinge point in positioning of the latch, you can set yourself up for some problems. I also use the small Bear Claw "Trunk" latch for the side (entrance) doors. Very small and with some creativity, can be released from outside the car.

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[Manta22]

Hey Bobby, I'd like to see some pics of that, I figure I sit so low down in the car between the frame rails and my head is pretty close to the rear bulkhead loop that I have some protection, but who am I kidding, it's a fiberglass kit car not a 2020 Camry. I did add a beefy structure to support the steering column.

If I find any pics of the windshield roll bar before I cut it out I'll post it for you.

Dave, here is a picture of my chassis. As you can see, it is much different but it may give you some ideas that are useful.

Regards, Neil

Also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFu8QfUVHlU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WryYoeIF70&t=2s

[davebivens]

Hey Terry, yea no kidding on all the body mechanical stuff, I way underestimated the time and effort for all that stuff! and I too used a set a small bearclaws for my lower doors, upper door latches have been the real pain trying to figure out, have thought through and mocked up about a half dozen ways but have settled on using some small spring pin latches.

[davebivens]

Neil, the Manta 2 pics are super helpful (since it's the road car), thanks for sharing.

[Jerry]

Welcome Dave, your fab work is very good and I like the way you solve issues and design and fab mechanisms in. Your additions look like they belong in the Manta Design.


You will have a great looking car.

Thank you to everyone for sharing here!

[Jerry]

I am tempted to make the rear hatch open forward, hinged up at the roof.
That idea will have to wait till later.

[Manta22]

Dave, I made my black Mirage doors into gull-wings so my larches are not exactly the same but you might get some ideas from these pictures. I installed an inside door handle from Southco.

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[davebivens]

I like that Neil, looks like it would work well

[davebivens]

Thanks Jerry, yea I'm really trying to do the Manta justice, I want it to show well and not be referred to as a "kit car" although I really like kit cars. This is actually not much of a kit, it's got a frame, glass, gas tank and body, and pretty much everything else is up to the builder. The goal is for it to be a real solid driver. I've gotten a ton more experience doing metal work, fiberglass and body work (and grinding) that's for sure!

[davebivens]

Ok, adding a few more pics, I struggled a little bit on how to route the coolant hoses/tubing. I finally settled on routing them just inside to front lower control arm and then down the lower frame rail. for that I actually had to add a dimple/blister/bullet (whatever you call it) to the inner passenger tub so the pipe would clear. Here's some pics, if you look close you can see them inside the frame rails,

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[davebivens]

and here's the work I had to do to the tub, adding the blisters for clearance, basically cut them out, flip them, and fiberglass in,

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[davebivens]

Then I had to rebuild the footbox, it didn't line up at all with the frame mount for the brake and clutch master cylinders,
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[davebivens]

Ok, still working on this car, something more fun to talk about....tail lights, here's a pic of the setup on the car from a previous builder, I think it's an old ford van tail light layed on it's side, just wasn't happy with this look.
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[davebivens]

What I really wanted was the round tail lights like the Factory 5 GTM or Ferrari 308 but their just didn't seem to be enough room for them to fit, so started looking around, saw the tail lights on a Brubaker and thought those would work, they come from a Datsun pickup, but they turned out to be a little too long.
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[davebivens]

So, looking for something like that, settled on believe it or not, El Camino tail lights, just had the look and sizing that seem to fit, these are actually also used on the Consulier sports car from the 80's or 90's,
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[davebivens]

So, back to a bunch of fiberglassing, had to make the tail light buckets as well,
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[davebivens]

Steering, got that figured out too, went with a Miata column, including the headlight and turn signal switch, along with an aftermarket detachable steering wheel,

Made some uprights and a cross bar to hang it on,
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[Blueovalz]

Yeah, much better configuration there on the tail lights. Looks like it was intended to be this way. I don't know that the circular ones would have looked right, but think you're more on the mark with these. I believe you should clock your U-joints by turning the outer one 90º if you haven't already done so or welded it up.

[davebivens]

Thanks for the tip on the u-joints, yea I can still clock them

[Blueovalz]

The only reason I mentioned it was there was because of a recent and lengthy string about this on the GT40s website, and though it would seem that this is much less critical for a steering shaft, than for half-shafts or drive-shafts, having it off by 90º appears to be the worst position, with 0º the best for removing any unnatural (and IMHO, significant) distortions from the normal expected steering feel.

Last thoughts while this is all exposed and being worked on...have you considered an EPAS for this car? I'm old enough and abused enough to have decided I needed to install one, which made driving the car a pleasure again (not that it wasn't, but it was difficult and painful to turn with the quick-ratio Porsche rack). You appear to have the where-with-all to be able to do that seeing what you've done already.

[davebivens]

Absolutely was considering EPAS, people are putting Saturn and Prius units in everything. Just got to the point where this project is taking a long time and figure it's a pretty light car and guessing for simplicity sake and time to complete the project I'd just skip it. I've driven a factory 5 cobra without power, it's a bit heavier in the front and it was fine so I figured I'd be fine...but I've never driven a mirage so not sure, maybe I re-think that.

Maybe I can hear from whoever's checking in on this, how much muscle does it really take to steer a Manta?

[Blueovalz]

With a different rack, that may be hard to compare. My Porsche rack was about 1.5 turns lock to lock, which was great with no need of for hand-over-hand steering, and very responsive on the track, but it also made for a heavy wheel at slow speed with the 245 stickies on the front, and a 13" steering wheel. I don't know what your new rack's ratio is, but pretty sure it's going to be easier to steer than mine was. I also had a very small (near zero) scrub radius, so that had some impact to that as well.

[Manta22]

With a different rack, that may be hard to compare. My Porsche rack was about 1.5 turns lock to lock, which was great with no need of for hand-over-hand steering, and very responsive on the track, but it also made for a heavy wheel at slow speed with the 245 stickies on the front, and a 13" steering wheel. I don't know what your new rack's ratio is, but pretty sure it's going to be easier to steer than mine was. I also had a very small (near zero) scrub radius, so that had some impact to that as well.

Dave,

The steering effort depends on how fast you're going, among other things. MANTA 2 had BFG T/A 245 tires on the front and its steering felt "normal" at highway speeds but much heavier when it was not moving. My black Mirage (The Werewolf) runs Hoosier 265 race slicks on the front, a Flaming River steering rack, and standing still on concrete, it requires all my strength to turn the wheel. At speed it is not a problem at all.

For a street application the need for power steering in marginal but not a bad idea.

[davebivens]

it's been a while but been busy, catching up with posting picks, wanted to share how I did the lower door hinge, I wasn't completely happy with the way it's normally done, wanted more room to get in and out so came up with this,

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[davebivens]

when you look at it from the front it kind of looks like its floating
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[davebivens]

Its got a frame that runs through the inside of the door and doubles as the latch striker mount
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[davebivens]

https://youtu.be/a-k_-t5l0xw

[davebivens]

here's the hinge itself,
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[Blueovalz]

Great work on the door. This is almost exactly what I originally intended for my car...until I started adding up a pound here, a few ounces there, and all of a sudden I had a couple of hundred pounds added to the car (for street use and safety) that I never wanted. So I went with the originally designed aluminum piano hinge along the bottom edge of the door. Your solution looks great!!

[Bobby Evans]

Progress is look good, David!

[davebivens]

Thanks guys, definitely took a bit of work, I'll be adding more pics today, yea that hinge, I did see one early year fiberglass car, maybe British, with a similar hinge so I figured well I'll keep going with it.

[davebivens]

The upper doors I had just did not fit the contour of the body so had to do some pretty drastic modifications, had to basically cut them up and re-shape to fit the contour, reinforced with internal bracing and metal rods, new fiberglass skin in spots, they look decent now and can't ever tell they have been re-worked so much.

[davebivens]

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[davebivens]

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[davebivens]

https://youtu.be/UohDgEAeAw0

[davebivens]

I post lots of pics to help others, that's what's helped me, pics I found off the internet and this forum, plus my imagination are all I have to work with on this build

[davebivens]

Upper door latches, seems like everyone has trouble with how to do these, I sure have, went through about 5 different ways to do the upper latches, back to the drawing board multiple times but settled in on a spring loaded latch pin kind of thing. Here's some pics,
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[davebivens]

and the front striker plate,
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[davebivens]

here's how I did the spring pin mount,
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and to be able to open from the outside I did have to make a little handle to twist the cable and actuate the pins, not the prettiest but oh well, the inside gets covered with a little handle,
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inside handle, fits over the round cam,
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[davebivens]

Pop-Up Headlights - catching up with posting, more body-mechanical stuff, I like the novelty of pop up head lights, the previous builder glassed them in and added cutouts for fixed lights but I converted it back to pop-ups. Mounted the hinges before cutting out the headlight doors, I don't think I would've got the alignment anywhere close if I didn't.

Using Mazda Miata headlight motors with Hella Vision-Plus 5x7 DOT lights, they seem nice. Getting a electric pop up mechanism packed inside that front fender area was a real pain, looks like I'm entering a "Rube Goldberg" competition but it works!

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[davebivens]

oops, got a couple pics formatted sideways,

[davebivens]

Here's the pop-up headlight in action, changed all the joints to double sheer to keep better alignment and avoid binding,

https://youtu.be/28RGDQnshUk

[davebivens]

final assembly will get the fine adjustments right and get rid of the bounce when the headlight doors land at the top and bottom

[Jerry]

Really great solutions and progress. I want to do my upper door latches your way and then to go to the next level on that make some covers. Did you have ideas for that allready? It might be easy to 3d print something ...

Great creativity Dave.

[davebivens]

Hey Jerry thanks, yea,would be nice to cover the little latch brackets that hold the spring loadedpins on the upper doors. I hadn't got that far yet, played a little bitwith cutting pvc in half and molding that in but looked too bulky, I may try athin gage sheet metal cover, 3d printed plastic would work, could maybe get amore professional looking cover that way. I wish I had a cleaner lookingway to latch the upper door but I tried everything I know of, even trying toembed neodymium magnets in the bodywork but felt like I needed a more positivelatching mechanism. A lot of the door latches I've seen on old 70's racecars look pretty crude, purposeful only, I was trying to come up with somethingthat looked decent with the door open.

I took that latch idea from here, a pic I think Igot off of ebay,

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[davebivens]

more headlight mech pics, took some work to come up with something that stayed out of the wheelwell,
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[Manta22]

That is a very fast-opening way to raise the headlights. Your video explains it very well. Nice looking assistant, too.

On MANTA 2, the manual pop-up mechanism had been removed because the Mustang II front suspension conversion interfered with their original raising handle. I replaced it with a small linear actuator that raised both headlights. It was a small 24V surplus item marked "TWA Airlines" !

[Manta22]

I got tired of replacing the gas struts on my Black Mirage and finally hit upon a very simple method of holding the upper doors in a raised position. These are coil springs intended for marine applications to hold open hatches and access doors. The principle is this: In compression, a long coil spring acts like a column when it is coil-bound but if it is pushed sideways just a little, it collapses. This works great in my application. I used a 9/16" dia stainless steel coil spring, 10 1/4 " long on my driver's side upper door and to open it, I use my left hand to push up the door past the point where the spring kicks in straight and then let go. The door stays raised until I push on the spring and it allows the door to be closed. This should work with your door latch approach, Dave.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B077QWB7TX/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

13361337 (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B077QWB7TX/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)

[davebivens]

Thanks for the idea, I like it

[davebivens]

Been a while since posting I just noticed, been doing a lot of body work, finally got everything close to paint, panel gaps looking good, etc. 134713481349

[davebivens]

Rear hatch latch, I setup the rear cover latches the same as a Ultima car but still wanted something as sort of a safety latch/verification that the rear is all the way closed so added something to do that. I setup a quick release pin, inserts from the cabin, through the bulkhead mounting bracket and into a plate mounted to the rear cover. Also when fully engaged it triggers a snap action switch that illuminates a small green lamp on the dash.135013511352

[davebivens]

Fuel Filler, wanted to get it out of the engine compartment,13531354135513561357

[davebivens]

Also made a gear position indicator, you can get these digital motorcycle gear displays from china for about $10, just buried it in epoxy using the horn button as the form1358135913601361

[davebivens]

Also made steering wheel mounted turn signal, high beam and horn buttons, probably about $35 in parts, 1362

[Ravinsomniac]

Dave, did you ever get your car finished ?
Photos ?