I haven’t posted for a few days but I’ve been busy working in the garage nonetheless. I managed to finish the rear control arms and shock mounts this weekend, and set about finishing the front control arms. I started with the lower ones since they’re harder than the tops. I was a little dismayed to realize that the lower ball joint that the miata uses has an M12 (12 mm) bolt, and the closest drill size I have is 1/2″.. I could order a 12mm bolt, and also a metric step bit (what I use instead of a reamer), but I ended up deciding to go with the 1/2″ bit, as 12mm is 0.472″, so less than 0.015″ space on either side of the bolt. The hole in the stock control arms is roughly 0.485″ anyways, and also the ball joint is statically mounted, i.e. the bolts don’t move at all (as with a shock mount, for example), and I believe the main if not only force applied to the bolts will be tension, not shear stress. If I change my mind about it I could always drill out the ball joint to 1/2″ and use SAE bolts.. we’ll see.
Oh, and on a side note, I ordered a bunch of parts last night. I had to restrain myself from ordering more, but I need to pace myself in that regard.
