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Moving Car without Subframes??

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Old Mar 21, 2022 | 10:59 PM
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Moving Car without Subframes??

I am doing a restore of my RX-7 and need to remove everything Subframes, tank etc so I can have it towed over to a body shop for under coating and such.

Trying to think of a safe cost efficient way of being able to make the chassis mobile. Car has to be able to make it on to a flat bed and not just move in the garage.

I don’t want to cause any damage to the under carriage either. I am probably just over thinking it but would love to hear from those that have experience or some ideas.

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Old Mar 21, 2022 | 11:10 PM
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Yeah. You need subframes. Then have the shop put it on a rotisserie and remove them.

Any experienced body shop can handle that.
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Old Mar 22, 2022 | 10:51 AM
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From: https://www2.mazda.com/en/100th/
Mazda restores the Miatas on like a big cart. i think it either attaches where the subframes went, or you could use the shock mount holes
if you're trying to put the thing on a trailer or whatever, i think you'd want a bar between the front and the rear.

if i was going to do it, i would start with 4 transmission jacks, just because i'd like to be able to do an FC, FD and Miata on the same jig. the trans jack is just a big threaded rod, so you'd be able to change the height of the thing

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Old Mar 22, 2022 | 12:51 PM
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This is the way I did it.

First I cut 4 plates and made holes in them to match up where the front and rear subframes mount. The thin plates in the first images were just mock ups to make sure the holes aligned properly. In the other photos you can see I actually used much thicker steel for the actual plates. Then I made a frame which connects everything from side to side and even front to back. This whole frame is then attached to a rotisserie. This approach make it easy to tilt the car on its side. However it makes it difficult to work on the front and rear bumpers. For the front and rear bumpers I plan to take the FD and frame off the rotisserie and weld on some wheel mounts on the frame, out some wheels one or use the existing wheels from the rotisserie, then it can roll around easily and have easy access to the front and rear bumpers. The FD was easily loaded onto a tow truck while on the rotisserie. Hope this helps.













Last edited by Spalato; Mar 22, 2022 at 12:54 PM.
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Old Mar 22, 2022 | 12:58 PM
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From: https://www2.mazda.com/en/100th/
there is also this, https://www.youtube.com/c/TBRmove/videos
but it seems like it could be easier
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Old Mar 22, 2022 | 01:24 PM
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Originally Posted by j9fd3s
there is also this, https://www.youtube.com/c/TBRmove/videos
but it seems like it could be easier
Very cool channel! Thanks for sharing
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