On Wednesday evening after work I made my way over to the shop to finish lifting off the miata body from the donor. All the prep work had been done the night before so it should have been a straight forward operation; and it was for the most part. The lift can be accomplished with a simple engine hoist; there are a number of videos on the web that show this. In my case, since I have fork lifts at my disposal I just went a head and used one of them.
I found four points in the uni-body that would take the strap hooks in geometrically balance locations. Two on the B-pillars behind the seat locations and two just forward of the fire wall near the fenders. For lifting with an engine hoist I have seen a single point by the shifter… With a little tension on the straps I raised the forks up several inches. A quick inspection showed the battery cable to still be an issue, which was immediately corrected. Otherwise everything was in order and the body was ready for removal and so it was.
The only hang up was the fuel filler tube. I could not pull the filler tubes off the tank and seeing as there is a long rubber section I figured it would just flex its way out as the body lifted off. It did with little drama, maybe not the cleanest of methods but the tubes did not rip and I did not get any debris in the tank either; works for me.
It was exiting to see my PPF sitting there on the lift. Dirty and grimy but ready for action. I spent the remainder of the evening removing accessories from the engine, the fuel lines, and inspecting what has to be done next.
Looks like Cord is on track to get the kits rolling out the door by the end of summer. This will give me enough time to strip the PPF down to small parts, clean, blast, paint, and reassemble. Will have to decide on a color scheme soon.
Catfish? 