Curing Winter Blues with Zip Ties

In the midwest, its seems all car and hot rod related activities shut down for the winter. Everyone locks themselves in their garages with a ‘winter project’ that won’t be seen until it warms up and all the salt is off the roads.

We decided to cure our winter time blues with a trip to the southwest to Roadkill’s Zip Tie Drags.

What is Roakill Zip Tie Drags?

Roadkill Zip Tie drags is like a big meet-up, camping, party, car show, and drag racing all rolled into a 2 day event.

Zip Tie drags is hosted by Roadkill’s David Freiburger and Mike Finnegan, along with many other MotorTrend show hosts.

Zip Tie Drags Main Event: The $3k Hooptie Challenge

The main event of Zip Tie Drags is the $3000 Hooptie Challenge. A few years back our 1971 Chevelle made it into the event and may have been the slowest car there.

At the Hooptie Challenge, you enter a car that is supposed to be worth less than $3000. The hosts entertain the crowd by making fun of all the entrants, and ultimately deciding if the are in or out by purely whimsical subjective criteria.

Our Zip Tie Drags Plan B

We scrambled to get our turbo Miata Kart ready for the event and then made the journey out west.

Unfortunately, we blew up our $3k hooptie challenge car in the desert the night before, so we really didn’t have anything to enter.

To make the best of the situation, we decided to race our tow vehicle, my wifes 2007 Yukon Denali, during test and tune.

Turns out it’s pretty quick for a 6,000 lb luxury SUV.

The post Roadkill Zip Tie Drags 2020 in Tucson, AZ appeared first on blvckflagd.

“Sending a rod through the side of the block is on my list of things I’ve always wanted to do…maybe not in this situation, but we can check that one off the bucket list.”

The Miata Kart’s Road Trip to Zip Tie Drags 2020

If you’re joining us for the first time, this is video 4 in our series about road-tripping our cheap turbo Miata kart across the country to Roadkill’s Zip Tie Drags.

We originally planned on making one or two videos, but so much happened that we’ve been able to make 5.

Check out the previous videos here:

1. Fabricating a roll cage in time for Zip Tie Drags
2. Installing a cheap Ebay turbo in the Miata Kart
3. 1000 mile road trip to Zip Tie Drags

Will the Turbo Miata Kart Make it to Tucson?

Our journey started early in the morning in Coachella, CA. with a trip to Irwindale Speedway. After that we started the trip through the desert back to Tucson, AZ.

We don’t want to give any spoilers without having you watch the full video above.

If you haven’t already, we’d love for you to subscribe to our Youtube channel, and don’t forget to get your free sticker.

The post STRANDED in the desert in the Miata Kart appeared first on blvckflagd.

Our Epic Roadtrip to Zip Tie Drags 2020

If you’re not familiar with Zip Tie Drags, it’s an event put on by Roadkill, the popular automotive themed internet show. Zip Tie Drags events usually attract unique, low buck, built-not-bought style hot rods.

The main event is the $3000 hoopty challenge, where contestants convince Roadkill hosts David Freiburger and Mike Finnegan that their car is worth less than $3k.

The cars that pass the $3000 test drag race head-to-head until the fastest car is left. The winner usually gets bragging rights and a trophy made from scrap car parts.

Miata Kart: Our 2020 Zip Tie Drags Build

We pulled an all nighter adding a cheap Ebay turbo and putting the finishing touches on the Miata Kart. Then we left St. Louis and drove straight through to Tucson.

Once we arrived, we finished putting the Miata together in an Autozone parking lot, parked the trailer at Tucson Dragway (where the Roadkill Zip Tie drags event was scheduled to begin the next day), and left in the rain.

Will we Make it to Irwindale Speedway for the Zip Tie Drags Cruise?

You’ll have to watch the video to find out.

If you haven’t already, subscribe to Blvckflagd on YouTube. You can even get a free Ratty Chevelle sticker by following the instructions here.

The post Roadkill Zip Tie Drags 2020: 1000 Mile Miata Kart Roadtrip appeared first on blvckflagd.

Are cheap Ebay turbos a good idea?

If you’ve been around the internet on any car related page, you’ve surely heard about someone installing cheap ebay turbos. But is it really a good idea?

We’re not saying you should put a cheap turbo on your high end, high dollar build — do what’s appropriate, but for our $200 Miata, we couldn’t justify spending any more than the minimum. What’s the worst that could happen? We blow it up?

Mostly what you’ll hear is that your cheap ebay turbo will blow up your engine, or will only last as many miles as the dollar amount you spent. Spoiler alert…ours did blow up, but it was 100% user error and not the turbo’s fault.

How to choose the right turbo kit

The Turbo we chose was a maXpeeding rods T04E kit. Prices fluctuate and multiple sellers carry it, but it’s available on both Ebay and Amazon.

To go along with our turbo, we also purchased a cheap universal 12 piece intercooler kit. Prices also fluctuate on these, and again, you can find them on Ebay and Amazon.

Other Factors in Cheap Turbo Selection

Turbo Sizing

You’ll hear and read a lot of people saying “that turbo will be too laggy” or “that won’t make boost until a really high rpm” and we don’t actually think that’s a bad thing.

The internet (especially the Miata forums we were reading) will say you want small turbos that build boost at low rpm so it’s still fun to drive. They also say stuff like “You’re not doing it right unless you spend at least $3500” without any real reason except they probably spent that much.

There’s a school of thought that says if you bring in the boost higher in the rpm range, the combustion events are shorter which means less time (and less chance) to bend rods and break something. Because of this, we’d rather go slightly too big and be laggy, than too small.

Turbo format

We chose a cheap T04E turbo, but to make our fab work as simple as possible and not have extra expenses, we wanted 2 things,

1. A turbo with an integrated wastegate – these are arguably worse for performance, but we didn’t want the extra cost and complication of fabbing up an external wastegate.
2. A turbo with a v-band exhaust outlet – this would allow us to fabricate a simple downpipe and not buy any extra plates, flanges, or adapters.

Turbo Accessories

There were definitely cheaper turbos on ebay, but we specifically chose one that came with an oil line kit. We didn’t want the extra expense and hassle of chasing down all the extra fittings hoses needed to install it.

Cheap Intercoolers

You need an intercooler…just get one. Without it, your cheap ebay turbo will make your intake temps higher, you won’t be able to run as much timing, you’ll risk pinging and detonation (which destroys pistons), and ultimately your combo will make less power.

There are numerous cheap intercooler kits on ebay and they all seem to be about the same. They all come with silicone connectors and aluminum piping. They’re super convenient for building your cold side and come with all the clamps you need too.

We searched ebay until we found the cheapest kit with the most pieces in the color we wanted.

Don’t forget everything else

Obviously, this article isn’t everything you need to install your cheap turbo. You can’t forget things like:

• Fuel management
• Timing control
• Wideband 02 for monitoring AFR’s
• Boost gauge and a means to control boost.

But those topics are for a future article. You can check out the Miata Kart build and subsequent road trip to Zip Tie Drag in Tucson, AZ on the Blvckflagd Youtube channel.

The post Cheap Ebay Turbos: How to Choose One for Your Project Car appeared first on blvckflagd.

In this episode, we prep to take the $200 Miata Kart to Roadkill’s Zip Tie Drags in Tuscon, Arizona. Our first task was to finish the roll cage.

In the video, we also demonstrate some of the basics of roll cage fabrication:

• planning
• tube bending
• notching and roll cage bar fitment
• roll cage welding
• fabricating cages on a budget with minimal tools

The Links

If you came here from Youtube, you were promised some links to resources:

1. Our Tech article on how to build a roll cage (only part 1) – We go in depth on how to plan your roll cage build
2. The cheap tubing bender we use: The Speedway Motors tubing bender. Make sure you get the proper sized die for your tubing.

Thanks for Watching!

The post Fabricating a Miata Kart Roll Cage in Time for Zip Tie Drags appeared first on blvckflagd.

Have you considered fabricating a roll cage on your own? Maybe you own a drag car that’s dipping into the low 11’s and now it needs a roll bar…or you’ve seen the exo-kart craze and want to build your own MiataKart or Vettekart.

Roll cage fabrication may seem like a daunting task, but when we found a wrecked Miata for only $200 we decided to give it a try. We had never attempted this level of fabrication before, but since the car was so cheap we had little to lose.

We’ll share everything we learned in the process so you can decide for yourself if roll cage fabrication is something you want to try.

We’re planning to apply everything we learn to build an NHRA 8.50 roll cage for the Chevelle too, so stay tuned for another article in the future.

Where will your car be raced?

The first question to ask is where you will race your car? The rules of that sanctioning body will determine how you build your roll cage. NHRA, SCCA, NASA, and Formula D all have different rules for fabrication, so you’ll want to study up and build to the highest spec possible. This is especially important when it comes to tubing material, size, and wall thickness.

Also, know that building a roll cage is a serious safety consideration. A cage can be less safe in a street car when you’re not wearing safety gear like helmets or safety harnesses. Using the wrong materials, poor design, and poor welding technique can result in a structure that’s fatal in an accident. Case in point, this Honda ‘death kart’ was involved in a simple traffic accident that ended up being fatal.

Does a Roll Cage Kit Already Exist for Your Car?

One more question to ask: are there roll cages or kits readily available for your car? If so, you can avoid a lot of time consuming fabrication.

As we’re planning out the future roll cage for the Chevelle, we’re finding that companies like Jegs offer pre-bent cage kits. The prices are nearly the same as just the raw materials to build our own. Being able to decide exactly where the bars lay will be the determining factor on whether we bend it up ourselves or buy a kit in the future.

Planning Your Roll Cage Build

Since this was our first roll cage, we decided to start with the NHRA rules. We’ve spent the most time drag racing, and the rules are reasonably simple and easy to understand. After studying, it’s easy to see the progression of building a safe structure when you look at an NHRA 6 point roll bar. Then you build upon that by adding bars for an 8 point roll cage, then progress to an 8.50 or 10 point roll cage.

The next thing we looked at was the 24 Hours of Lemons website. Their guide, “How not to fail Lemons tech inspection” gives an easy to understand overview of roll cages, and what it takes to fabricate a safe and effective cage.

Looking at the lemons rules, it’s fairly easy to expand upon the simple concept of NHRA 6 point roll bar. You can start by adding either a main hoop, halo, or left/right bars to fabricate the full roll cage.

We also found a thesis written by a mechanical engineering student named Justin White on fabricating a Miata roll cage. It’s incredibly thorough and detailed, and provides a lot more information if you’re looking to dig deeper.

Roll Cage Design: Form vs Function

Our next step was gathering as many pictures and examples of exo-cage style cars as we could find. Since the main lines of this car depend on the cage structure, an artistic approach to the cage was considered along with safety.

After that, we got out pen and paper and then opened photoshop. We grabbed a picture of a Miata and started laying lines over the top to see what looked pleasing to the eye. Once we had the general concept in our head, we figured up how much material to buy and started gathering what we needed to complete fabrication of our roll cage.

Our overall approach to planning this build was to have a general idea of the shape, with room for creativity as we built. This meant we re-bent some bars and had to throw out some materials in the process. Your personality and tastes may dictate that you plan every inch, angle, and step in the process…but that’s not generally how we operate.

Gathering Your Roll Cage Materials

Mild Steel vs Chromoly

When building an NHRA roll bar, you have a choice between mild steel (1 3/4″ O.D x .118 wall thickness) or chromoly (1 3/4″ O.D x .083 wall thickness). For a full cage you can use slightly smaller tube (1 5/8″). The advantage of chromoly is strength — the tubing has a thinner wall but still provides the same strength, which means you save weight overall — sometimes 50-60 lbs total.

We opted for the larger size tubing so we only had to buy 1 die for our tubing bender. This gives us a choice of bending up either a roll bar or a roll cage on future builds. We also went with mild steel, mainly to keep the build on a budget. Chromoly requires TIG welding, which we don’t have much experience with. Using mild steel means we can use our existing MIG welding setup.

Frame vs Unibody

The Miata is a unibody car, so any attachment point needs to be welded to a 6″ x 6″ piece of steel thats .125″ thick and fully welded to the chassis. This prevents the bars from poking through the thin sheet metal in an accident. On a frame-on-body car like the Chevelle, the bars are welded directly to the frame.

There are provisions in the NHRA rules for using plates and bolts for mounting the cage, but we suggest you consult the NHRA rule book, or better yet, an actual person who inspects and certifies roll cages. You don’t want to build a roll cage that fails tech, risks your safety, or waste money on materials.

Get the Right Roll Cage Fabrication Tools

Tubing Benders

Next was to make sure we had all the necessary tools to build our roll cage, with the main tool being a tubing bender. Note that you CANNOT use something like a Harbor Freight pipe bender to build a cage. Those benders kink the pipe which isn’t acceptable.

For this build, we chose the Speedway Motors tubing bender for 2 main reasons:

1. It’s the cheapest way to get a tubing bender, and
2. Because of it’s design, you don’t have to mount it to the floor to operate it.

This makes the tubing bender portable — you can take it anywhere, set it on a table or on the ground, and get to work. Just make sure to get the proper size die for the tubing you’re using (1 3/4″ for a roll bar, or 1 5/8 for a roll cage).

Overall, we’ve been very pleased with this tubing bender, especially for the price. If there are any disadvantages they are:

1. Bending the tube can be a slow process pumping the jack up so much, and
2. To get a full 90 degree bend we had to readjust the hydraulic jack part way through the process.

You could potentially fix both these issues by replacing the supplied jack (just a simple 8 ton hydraulic bottle jack) with an air operated jack of similar size.

Other Roll Cage Fabrication Tools

Having a good tubing bender isn’t enough. Just as important is a notcher. If the bars don’t fit tightly together, you’ll compromise strength, and your welds won’t be as effective. One important note: You’re not allowed to grind welds on any cage — you have to get them right or it will fail tech.

We picked up a tube notcher from Harbor Freight for $59. You could accomplish the job with an angle grinder as well, but it would take longer.

Other good tools to have are a magnetic angle gauge and an angle finder. Be sure you have plenty of grinding discs, cut off wheels, and brake cleaner for cleaning metal before welding — just make sure it’s fully dry before you weld to avoid toxic smoke.

Roll Cage Building in Action

You can see a preview of roll cage fabrication techniques as we scrambled to finish our Miata Kart in time for Zip Tie Drags.

Frequently Asked Roll Cage Questions

To sum up, here are some of the most popular questions that get asked about building a roll cage for the first time.

Conclusion

If you’ve done the research, planned out your cage design, and gathered the right fabrication tools, it’s time to actually start bending and welding up tube. Stay tuned for part 2 where we dive deeper and give tips and tricks on bending up the individual roll cage bars.

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