"The Chimera" - Fitting an Rx7 front on the Mx5. (Patreon)

In the latest video I swapped out the original Miata front bumper and replaced it with one from an FD Rx7. The video itself was pretty self explanatory so there's not much for me to add with a post other than some fancy pictures and a little extra info on the swap.

So basically for the past 4 years I've been looking at the front of this Mx5 and to put it simply, I hate it. I just really don't like how round it is and no matter what I do to it it always just looks soft. 

The Rx7 bumper was actually something that I had planned right at the very start of my build as part of my first concept sketches, but I also wanted to make the widebody and since I was going to be selling those I had to make them work with the original Miata front bumper.Now that this kit has been on the car for years and there are plenty of photos of it on the internet as well as other people building their own cars with these kits all around the world, I finally felt like I was free to modify it and make this car what it was always meant to be.

Tearing the car down was a piece of cake and as you'd expect it exposed a lot of rust, but honestly that all just works with the look I'm going for anyway.

For the Rx7 swap I know it sounds strange, but I was actually searching for quite a while for a slightly beaten up old bumper that looks like it may have come from a junkyard or off a wrecked car. I found this unbranded replica bumper for a couple hundred bucks as well as an old fiberglasser selling his moulds and was able to get the bonnet mould with a free bonnet thrown in as well. 

The last pieces were some pretty banged up headlight covers that are really just there for mockups since I'm planning my own sort of headlights anyway but these will make a good starting point.

Install wise you have to remove the front bumper support and tie downs / tow hooks in order to get the bumper on, and the Rx7 headlight covers hit on the fenders but since I wont be having mine open and close I just trimmed them and taped them in place. The bonnet was a surprisingly close fit and the line around the windshield is off but not so bad that you'd notice. Or you could trim it back slightly. It does have the issue of the corners of the bonnet opening into the fender because it is wider than the mx5 bonnet.At this stage I'm debating trimming the bonnet down to keep it inside the OEM miata fender line, or just add an additional fender flare section on top of the original and line that up with the bonnet. But besides that fitment was pretty good.

Unlike my fastback roof that I made, that I wanted to look like it came with the car originally, for this stage of the build I want the front to look like it has been added on. And so from now until the end of the build I will not be painting anything to match and any new parts added will be made to look like they came off a different vehicle.

I've taken inspiration from a lot of artists over the years and this build has been influenced by a lot of different styles, but for this stage there are 2 major influences that I would like to credit. 

The first is Ash Thorp and Colorsponge both from Make Haste Corp. They specialize in ultra photorealistic renders of very aggressive but also quite clean at the same time cars with definite but subtle cyberpunk styling. 

Above is one of Ash's renderings, "The Patriot" and even though this wasn't actually one of the main cars I was taking inspiration from, you can definitely see some similarities with how I have redesigned the rear end.The other artist I want to credit is Fernando Correa, @FC_arts on Instagram. I've been following him since before I even thought about building the mx5 and his style has had a massive influence on my interests. 

I absolutely love his style and just how over the top cyberpunk his designs are. I'm also a massive fan of the super weathered look that he gives his cars, they really look like they have been used in getaways or street races. This is the direction that I'm going to be heading. I have some really rough sketches but they're nothing special and so I might have a go at refining them and posting them on here.For now though that is where I will be leaving this car. I've got people waiting for this Stagea kit to go on sale and so I really want to get that finished off before I go crazy on the Mx5 some more.