If this interests anyone here. I vaugly remember somone also owning one, if not most people like something about the car anyways.

 

I will go through whats happened over the past few years quickly, I have a build thread but have just under 1k posts in it, pictures stopped working in the first half of it last year sometime.

 

I used to autocross a lot during summer, started with my first car, a 90' 318is and my golf after that. I ended up being vehicle-less and just borrowing one of my parents cars when needed. I went to an autocross in 2009 to take pictures with a friends turbo Volvo, I borrowed my parents PT Cruiser (thery were out of town) to carry our stuff there and in case the Volvo died to get home. I ended up entering with the PT Cruiser, finished 13th out of 25 after pax beating a whole slew of respectable street cars and giving my Volvo friend a hard time.

 

On the way home I saw this at a shady used car lot

 

 

 

I did need a car and had gotten over them as being a girls car not long after buying my old bmw. I think I ended up playing $4950 for it, or maybe $5940.

 

Brought it home, tons of room in a one car garage with it.

 

 

 

 

Cleaned it up a bit

 

 

Spray bombed the wheels black

 

 

Took a lot of pictures

 

 

 

Bought some cheap wheels off kijiji which ended up being somewhat rare Momo Arrows in 16x7

 

 

 

 

 

Picked up a roll bar from CSC racing

 

 

 

 

Went to I think my third autocross with it and had my battery break free in the trunk and attempt to escape 

 

 

I think this was the same autocross, also put a cheap grant wheel on it 

 

 

and it got packed away for its first winter in Canada

 

This past fall I was going to part it out

Pulled everything from the bottom this time





Put the car away for winter



The manifold is junk.



Picture of the rods from the 1.8 that blew, all were bent. At least I was thorough.



Ordered mirrors which are still in the box, should sell them.



Pulled it out of its winter tomb a few weeks ago







Messy garage



Old hot side set-up



Made new door cards, the old ones seen at the top, new ones at the bottom. $6 at home depot and a few hours, no more door speakers or arm rests.















My interior has always bugged me for being dirty, worn, full of burns. (previous owner in florida)

Decided on the weekend to just do it





I will have nightmares about this mess





Cut the dash bar down to the bare minimum



All hvac stuff gone as well as radio



Cut the bottom half of the dash away, the pad will be removable for easy access when its all done.



and the last picture I have from Monday night how it sits right now just cleaned up a bit with some wiring removed



Yesterday I decided to remove the tacky chinese ebay gauge faces I had got when I first bought the car



The original faces, wasn't sure what I was going to do when I took it all apart. They lit up an ugly green.



Started by sanding the white off the back of the needles





Realized I could also sand the layer of green off the gauges, I started to have hope for this.





They would now light up white (amber)



Of course I have tons of vinyl on hand, figured put a layer of red on the back to try.







The bulbs aren't near the vinyl, it uses clear plastic pieces to move the light up to the faces.

Did the tach how I thought might looks cool





Just the lines go from yellow to orange then red.

Painted the back of the needles orange and put it back together.





How the dash sits now.



What I have left to do with it is shave all of the heater vents, cover the top portion with the same cloth as the door panels and mold in 4 gauge pods to the padded area in the center.

I had sold my megasquirt last fall when I was going to part out the car. Megasquirt v.2 came yesterday which I will have to assemble, it also has a 4 bar map which will be nice as I should run 24-30psi. this year.

Today a pair of seats, 5 pt. harnesses and roll bar padding should be here.

Next week a new exhaust manifold should be here. I have to paint the engine still, make new mounts (managed to break both fairly quickly) and put it back in then make a new downpipe.

I have a hydraulic handbrake to mount and run lines for, seats to mount and dash to fit before taking the interior apart again and painting the tub the body color grey.

My awesome girlfriend has ordered this for my birthday as well which should make the interior a little classier (which is what im hoping for, barebones but clean)

http://griproyal.bigcartel.com/product/royal-macbeth-classic

I just need to figure out a shift knob, make a cover for the handle of the hydro brake (out of door and dash cloth) and the interior should look nice.

I saw a derby car painted like that once...

While Sports cars aren't my thing I have to say your post was really interesting.I found an answer to my interior door issues and I enjoyed the guage build up .All in all very interesting,thanks for posting.Also the bomber graffics are cool but don't tell the rest of the guys in the club I said so. Ed

Very interesting car and i must say like it because i appreciate a well thought out and engineered piece.
Im a muscle car type but the time and effort you put into the car speaks for itself and i bet that little thing flys.
Nice job keep at her.

my younger brother and i went to take one for a test drive many moons ago. lets say i'm the small one of my siblings. it was not a pretty sight of us two trying to get out. nice little car could handle, just not built for tall folks. i really like what you have done with the car. keep up the running dialog.

Nice job on the Miata, I have a 1999 it is a great little car, very fun to drive.

It just needs a LS motor in it, to be real fun

Sacotu wrote:

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my younger brother and i went to take one for a test drive many moons ago. lets say i'm the small one of my siblings. it was not a pretty sight of us two trying to get out. nice little car could handle, just not built for tall folks. i really like what you have done with the car. keep up the running dialog.

---

 

A friend of mine bought a Miata brand new several years ago (still has it).  His is around 6'2" or 6'3" (tall, not heavy).  He went into the Mazda dealership and sat in one ... he liked the car but he just didn't find it comfortable being that he was just too tall for such a small car.  The sales guy says "try sitting in that one over there with the leather seats".  My friend was thinking "is this guy nuts, how could that possibly make a difference".  To satisfy the salesman, and his own curiousity ... he sat in the one with leather seats, he fit just fine, and he bought the car.  For whatever reason, the leather seat equipped Miatas have more interior space ... strange but true.

I think this is the "Tribute" car you speak of. Want one of my trophy too? LOL

You know I'm only busting your balls over your Miata. Don't tell anyone but I think it's pretty cool.....for cheerleaders car. 

SKAR

wrote:

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Thanks for looking. I really need to get moving on finishing the interior within the next week or so and get the engine back in it too.

I once saw a tribute derby car for it too. I wonder if someone has a picture...

---

 

I have taught you many things grasshopper....the lugnut repair was the best. It worked great! I'm thinking about doing that to the rest of them. LOL

You can take me for a ride....there are many abandoned roads that we can travel so no one sees me in it.....it's like riding a moped, great fun until your friends see you.

Unpacked all of the stuff to build the new megasquirt tonight







This is going to be a very steep learning curve.

It would no doubt be stupid fun with a V8 but really, I do miss mine being bone stock, never having to worry about something letting go on some deserted back road and being able to just get in it and go anywhere.

 

I will build something with a big block though, hopefully the F47 resting in the backyard.

 

I got nostalgic looking through these pictures and seeing my Mustang under a cover in one of the first pictures.

 

A before and after of it, was getting a 460 but bought the Miata before finishing it.

 

 

-- Edited by SKAR on Monday 1st of April 2013 10:53:57 AM

To up content the previously mentioned Volvo that all who see it seem like like.

Started as a I think $230 car, automatic non-turbo 2.3 8v



Which became a boosted 2.3 8v



The Mustang can be seen lurking in the background





Which now has a 16v 2.3 with a Holset HX35, T5 swap, RX7 front brakes, and about everything else done to it











Stopped to ask for directions, a moment I will never forget and probably never see again.

Pvc pipe to hold them



I forgot how much this stuff smells, should of done it outside.



Shouldn't be too bad, I have bodywork files if thats what they're called and can use filler tomorrow.

I messed up the cloth on the top of the dash and am going to redo it, but this is about what it will look like.

before



5.5 hours later



Just have to do mods for fuel pump, boost control, fans

Hopefully its nice enough tomorrow to make the seat mounts

There are a lot of really good forums for megasquirt. I doubt id be much help as I have everything to learn myself.


My garage is a mess, it started bugging me today so I will probably clean before doing much more.





I did make mounts for the seats, going to a friends in a bit to weld them as I only have flux core here right now.



and the "new" manifold finally came today



You can also see in the first picture my block is now pink.

Put this back

The Miata Lives - 2013 - YouTube

Interior finally done

To be honest I'm not generally a fan of newer 4 cylinder cars, but you have done a lot of very nice work to this car. Keep up the great work, I look forward to more pics of your progress.

-- Edited by scott420p on Monday 17th of June 2013 10:07:06 PM

Thanks, its a bit different from the average 4 cylinder import owned by a younger person.

Hey Skar, I have a wee collection of badges. Thought you might fancy one of these? (free)

I also have Mazda and MX5 badges.