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Preface: Feel free to skip to the TL;DR. It's just a story, and I'm not a writer. In 2005, having recently totaled my Integra by picking a fight with a tree, I started searching for a new car. I was a single guy in the Army, just starting to see the end of my 6-year term of service over the horizon. I wanted a car that was affordable, but fun. I fancied myself something of a skilled driver, despite having just totaled a car by NOT being a skilled driver; and I wanted something I could tear-rear end around in. After taking a look at the reasonably-affordable, reasonably-new, reasonably-sporty cars available at the time, I was left with one conclusion. A conclusion a few of my friends at the time kept nudging me towards: Miata Is Always The Answer. Carmax beckoned, and so I paid $16,800 for a 2002 Miata LS, silver over tan. Six-speed, LSD, leather seats? A big step up. I started driving just for the joy of driving. Back roads or highway, a 30-minute back route to work or a 6-hour meandering journey into West Virginia, it was all good. Within a short period of time, some of those same friends that convinced me M.I.A.T.A., convinced me to start coming out to autocross. Not that it was too hard of a sale - I was single, no bills, and with this nimble little sportscar; I wanted to finally stop playing Gran Turismo and start driving for real. And so, my first introduction to real-life motorsport.  Lookit me there. Completely oblivious, loaner helmet and all. I got out of the Army shortly after buying this, and was making around 3x what I had been previously. What do you do with free income? Spend it. I was hooked and happy. Spirited drives on back roads were all well and good, but how do you measure you skill against others on a casual drive? I paid my $40, drove 40-some-odd minutes down to RFK stadium parking lot, worked in the sun for 4 hours, all for 12 minutes of seat time. I was out for every event and trying to improve my times (and finishes) in the ultra-competitive Washington DC Region SCCA. I slowly started going to more car-related events, and slowly started modifying it. My first "major" solo automotive project - swapping a cat-back exhaust from Flyin' Miata in the parking lot of my work. Got the stickiest allowable tires in the stock category. Started figuring out how go to the top of C Stock specification - the sport-hard suspension swap? Let's get serious. And then, at one late-summer, event, a new face among my fellow CS Miata drivers. Roll bar, a tire trailer to carry wheels and a toolbox - this guy knew what was up. I went over and struck up a conversation. One this he said intrigued me - "I used to autocross, but once I got out on a track? That was it. The amount of seat time you get is so much better, and it's so much fun - once you get out to a trackday, you won't want to waste your time in the heat and sun out at an autocross anymore. I'm here because one of my friends insisted!" I got a big raise. I bought and installed a Brembo BBK. A high-end stereo retrofitted into the stock Bose system. Screw C Stock, I was gonna be track day bro. Then life happened. I stopped autocrossing, except very rarely. After a while, I got bit by a bug of a different color. I wanted something actually fast, something rare, something COOL. And I started looking around. And after a year and a half, I ended up with a car that, in hindsight, I shouldn't have bought. And shouldn't have sold.  A 2002 BMW M Coupe. I bought it off a guy on Long Island and drove it home from NY. Within a week it was in the shop, having a $5000 suspension install done. I joined the BMWCCA. I ripped the rear subframe out and replaced all the bushings with metal ones. I took it to a dyno day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDUkMOLOoJ8 (not my account, but a car-friend's account). I went on the annual Philly Cheesesteak Run from MD to Philadelphia and back. (Which is where the above photo is from, thanks, Chris!) I got rare, Japanese 19" wheels. I removed the M badging and replaced the M-only chrome vents "vents" with much-less-flashy Z3 shark gills. I got Schrick cams, installed a new air intake and new management system to replace whatever software flash the PO had. I participated in drag races of questionable legality on questionably-closed status tracks. I had the most expensive RADAR/LASER detector on the market, that saved me again and again and again. I was $20K into the car.  Look how bad cell phone cameras were, back then. The Miata was getting very little road time at this point. I'd take it out when the weather was nice and I wanted the top down. Track days were expensive, so it was rare that I had the money to spend on one. The BMW took no prep, so I drove it, rather than the still-rollbar-less Miata. And I? I was driving with very little respect for the rule of law. I drove the 32 mile-trip from my apartment to a car-friend's apartment in 17 minutes. I once drove from 295, around DC, and back to 295 at about 2 in the morning in under 30 minutes. You don't need to look it up, I'll tell you - the DC beltway is 64 miles around. Sometimes, I got ticketed. I didn't get ticketed a LOT of the time I should have gotten ticketed. I was incredibly stupid and if I could go back and give myself a quick few punches to the gut, I would. My insurance was $1600 a month, more than both my car notes. I had had the BMW for 17 months. And then, one of the women I was dating, well... stuff got serious. We moved in together. Shortly thereafter, I got pulled over with her in the car, doing 151 in a 55 at 1 am driving back from a friend's house. I was slowing from the gear-limited 168 top speed when I got LASER'd. The BMW was impounded. I was lucky not to get taken to jail that night. I went to court, I paid huge fines. My license was suspended for a year.  Both the cars went away so I could save up for a house for us. I lost a shitload on the BMW, but at least I wasn't paying a huge car note for something I couldn't drive - and insurance was an even larger load off. Time went by. I switched jobs a couple times. We were both working near each other, so she would give me a ride to and from work. The relationship started going south. One of many sticky points was having to adjust our schedules to each other to deal with only having one car. I got my license back. I bought a highly-modified, stripped out VW GTi from a friend, around October of 2011 if I recall correctly. A drive-it-once-in-a-while-on-the-street trackday car. It had no interior, it had a straight-through exhaust, it had a cryo-treated transmission with aftermarket LSD, it had a far-too-stiff coilover setup; it had a turbo that had grown three sizes during one moving Christmas moment in Whoville. The mod list was longer than this post. Flooring it at 2K rpm produced only a whirring noise until the turbo finally kicked in 1400 RPM later, at which point the vehicle was suddenly bouncing off the rev limiter and you were going much faster, much more loudly, than you intended. It dynoed at 260wHP and 283ft/lb of torque. In a car with no interior but the front two seats and dash, and weighed around 2070 lbs. I only have a couple photos with it anymore. This is from when I was replacing and painting the front passenger fender, to repair some damage it was sold to me with:  Things went off the rails with the lady. We broke up. I needed safe, reliable, comfortable transportation to get to and from work. I took Friday off of work with the intention of buying a black-on-black 135i six-speed hardtop with cold weather and luxury packages from a dealer 40 miles from home. I called the dealer, told them I wanted it and I was on my way. It took me four hours to fight DC traffic and get to the dealership, by which time they'd sold it out from under me. There were no other 135i six-speed hardtops in the state, in any color or options combination. Rather than waste the time, I sat at a restaurant, eating lunch and using my phone to see if there were any other cars of interest around. There was a Carmax 20 minutes away - I didn't even look at their inventory, just finished my fries and started driving. I told the "sales assitant" what had happened at the BMW dealership. He got a glint in his eye. "What're you looking for? Something like that BMW?" "Yeah?" "How about a Corvette?" "I'm not a big fan of domestics." "How about a Porsche Boxster?" I thought back to my old Miata, top down, cruising down the highway with wind and the sun - maybe this was a better idea than any old BMW? And so I test drove that Boxster. It wasn't quite for me - not enough wind in my hair. But a $23K Porsche? It beat the snot out of the WRX and 350Z I also test drove. I got back home and started searching. And the next day, I ended up getting a ride in a friend's S2K down to a Porsche dealer in Northern VA. Lemmie tell you, guys, it was the softest sell I've ever encountered. I walked in, told the first salesman I saw I wanted to test-drive the black Cayman. He glanced up at me with a bored expression, and said "Black one's in the process of being sold, you OK with yellow? It's got the Xenon package and cold-weather package over the black one." "Sure." "Gimmie a minute." 30 seconds later he was back with the keys to a bright yellow sportscar and a dealer plate. "Take it for a spin, I suggest you go south first, have it back in an hour or so." And so, a test drive and short discussion with the salesman later, and I had my reliable, safe, comfortable transportation.  Within a couple weeks, I drove the VW down to Florida and sold it to a guy down there as a project car. I started easing back into driving for reasons other than just getting around. Cruising in the Porsche was sweet - long road trips were no problem. It was so composed, so competent, so comfortable. The gas mileage was decent (anything's decent compared to the 8 MPG I was averaging with the old M Coupe near the end), and there was plenty of space in the trunk for an overnight bag (and in the frunk for a toolbox and low-profile jack). I went back to trackdays.  The Porsche was so good. It's still the best stock car I've driven on track. The brakes held up without issue, the engine, the gearbox. At this point I was doing most work myself. The BMW taught me a lot. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRKDWL2UwBY I took a new job, in NC. I dated around a bit, got serious with one woman again. We moved in together. Went on trips together. And she started pointing out - she always drove. The Porsche was too small, it couldn't fit two people's bags. She couldn't bring anything to the track unless we both drove and her car was the mule. I started considering what I could buy - new. Something nimble, that could seat four and take some bags, but that would be really fun. Something that could do it all. And without what I was beginning to realize, was the worst feature of the Porsche - it was TOO good. Driving around in such a composed, capable, and fast car - even doing 90 it didn't feel like it was being pushed at all. I wanted something I could have fun with on the street without falling into old habits. Something I could beat the snot out of and still be doing the speed limit, something that I could thrash around corners without getting the evil eye from other drivers. And so I was "convinced" to buy a Fiesta ST. It seems like it was just right - light, like my old Miata. (Man that was a fun little car). Space in the truck for a couple bags. Seats four adults, as long as the ones in the back are under 5'5". Turbocharged 1.6L engine with all the torque you need and without so much of that obnoxious, get-you-tickets horsepower.  It was blue. It was "loaded" with Recaro package, Navigation package, and sunroof. LOADED, I tell you! It was a fun little car, for about a week. And then the issues started becoming clear. Like the fact that it had been delivered to me straight from the factory in Mexico with pieces missing from the body. The ridiculously uneven panel gaps. A "feature" you couldn't turn off that hung onto high RPM while shifting, so if you didn't shift 1-2-3-4-5-6 it'd burn your clutch. The Recaro package that I had to order it to get was so poorly designed that it forced my head forward, pinching a nerve in my neck and making me unable to drive it comfortable for more than 10 minutes. The brake rotors cracked and then collapsed from normal wear. And the Ford dealership treated me like poo poo when I went to them with any of the numerous problems it came with.  The calipers were sticky, too, so the brake pads wore unevenly. At one point the rear-swept half of my brake pads came off the backing plate and forcefully ejected themselves out the front of the caliper. Nevertheless I kept on. I replaced the brake system, bought intake from Mountune, intercooler and piping from Cobb, AccessPort'd it. I took it to the track. It was... not great. Even with the modifications to help with cooling, the "torque-vectoring brake eLSD"-thing make the front brakes overheat by the 2nd hard lap. It pushed out through most corners. The engine would cut power mid-corner if the eLSD couldn't keep up. I took it to the track 3 times; had it for 18 months. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASxnwiWcuQc Enough was enough. This car was obviously not working out. Tried, and failed. So I went searching again. And after a couple months?  A BMW 135is. Yes, i S. The limited-edition, more-power, more-features version of the 135i, the one that got away 8 years ago. I did it with... not as much planning as I should have done. It's a good car. Very nice; a good combination of comfort, sport, reliability, space - all of it. But it turns out that to make a 135i or is really perform on track, it's around $8000. You have to replace the front bodywork and suspension components with factory components from the 1M, you see - to even up the track and get a square stance, otherwise it just understeers and overheats, forever and ever off into the sunset. You know what costs less than $8000?  Yep. The car that had REALLY made me fall in love with driving, the car that had introduced me to car control and motorsports, the car that I had a tendency to think about when thinking about what car to get next - the NB Miata. ==========================TL;DR======================== I picked this one up for $3100 in Feb of 2018. It included some spare parts. It included a bunch of modifications and "fixes" that, perhaps, warrant punishment; either to the previous owners for loving it up so badly, or to me for buying one that'd been hosed up so badly. But it was a VVT engined Miata with little-to-no-rust for under $3500. After I drove down to FL and back for a rustbucket, and then checked out two other cars a couple hours away with major issues, some hacked-up HIDs and mismatched body panels didn't seem so bad. This was a track car. With a neighbor's help, I was able to mostly-strip the interior and replace the Deuce rollbar with a HDHCHT bar.  Things were going so fast at this point, I don't even have pictures of all the different stages the car was in. I bought Falken Azenis RT615K+s. I borrowed a hard top from that same neighbor and got my rear end to my first Miata trackday, in March. Yes, a month later.  At this point, I figured - why not more colors? We can be Patchwork Racing. It got Hawk brake pads - first HP+ pads for a couple trackdays, and then DTC30s. I found a red non-heater hardtop a few hours away for cheap. I bought a small-diameter wheel and quick-release hub. I started buying up cheap parts from the local Miata wrecker. I replaced the damaged door with a fresh one. I painted dumb poo poo on the car. Dragging the woman along to every trackday for the past several years, she even got interested herself. Here's a (bad) video of one of her first-ever runs at the autocross: https://photos.app.goo.gl/jGhDCWE12idgeyUq6 I had fun. I got faster. I got signed off to run the top trackday group with NASA (I used to drive with SCCA before I moved to NC). And all of it was for the plan. The plan I'd been failing to execute all those years ago, when that wise old man with the Miata told me trackdays were more fun. I got a Miata track car. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9vhHNW1kUc I went to Miatas Before the Gap with JZilla. I went to every trackday NASA hosted a Virginia International Raceway this year. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Hw3Ouv2wkc All, except the season-ender. And that was because of the reason that same neighbor absolutely insisted that I finally post a build thread. I sent the car off for the first step it in really becoming a race car. A month and a half ago, I drove from Raleigh NC, out to Statesville NC, with the Miata in tow, for its appointment at Long Road Racing. LRR is the sole, official builder of the Mazda MX5 Global Challenge Cup, a.k.a. the ND race series. They're the only US authorized distributor of SADEV race gearboxes, a factory-authorized reseller of Mazda Motorsports gear, and one hell of a good race support provider. I contacted them to give the '01 the "Spec Miata package". They strip the entire interior, remove all sound deadening and body filler, wire-wheel the paint, weld in a fully Spec Miata-compliant rollcage, paint the entire interior firewall to trunk, and re-assemble. I also had them install a dropped floor pan, a race seat, fill the holes from both old rollbars, install the mount for a window net and center net, and they even put in a removable petty bar. I may make a separate post just about the visits I had to their shop, but I can't resist posting a couple photos anyways.    You'll note my photo-taking skills haven't really improved in 10-plus years. And that brings us to today. Or yesterday, I guess; it hasn't moved since I got it home Wednesday afternoon.  We'll start at the back. Here's the freshly-painted trunk, with battery tender. Gotta keep that AGM battery full.  More trunk. It's really nice work, a really smooth paint job. Especially considering what it looked like before.  Excuse the tight nature of the garage. I'm overflowing with home improvement leftovers, and it's competing with Miata parts space.  Crossbracing with the LRR logo. Classy. And the rear bars go back BEHIND the rear upper shock mounts.  Here's the passenger side. I have a ballast box that mounts to the stock seat location. I'll also be getting a race seat mount that goes into the stock seat mount location, so I can either bring a rider with me, or a box of metal.  The removable petty bar upper mount. Solid.  And lower. Also solid. Note how the lower door bar has a bar heading off adjacent to it up behind the dash. There's another crash bar back behind there.  Passenger's view to the left. Even with a dropped floorpan, there's not much wiggle room between my big torso and the ceiling bar.  Door bar close-up. That's beefy work and check out that taco gusset.  The Spec Miata package also includes gutting the doors to accommodate the door bars, and fabbing up a little door latch release mechanism out of the stock parts.  It's a nifty little thing that lets you keep the stock door handle and key on the outside, and the stock door latch, but still allows for quick opening in the event of an emergency.  And finally, here it is:  The workspace. As the car sits, it's still pretty stock. The shocks and springs are the originals, with 170K miles on them. The engine is stock, aside from a not-class-legal intake. The brake pads are race-only pads, and the rotors are just plain Centric blanks. The plan over the winter is to replace the control arms with stock replacement units I have, with upgraded bushings. I'm also looking at trying to get the new-for-2019 Penske race shock Spec Miata suspension kit. I'll continue to do trackdays in 2019, the lady will dip her toes; and I'll shoot for a 2020 date for starting competition with a refreshed engine. But what's bugging me lately is how bad the outside looks compared to the inside. I may replace the beat-up front fenders and try for a Maaco paint job on the exterior, just to wipe away previous mistakes and have something clean to put sponsor decals on.
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Nov 16, 2018 04:01
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That's one hell of a first post. This is the best thread.
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Nov 16, 2018 12:22
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151mph in a 55 zone is .....................excessive. drat.
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Nov 16, 2018 16:12
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Olympic Mathlete posted:151mph in a 55 zone is .....................excessive. drat. I highly recommend keeping that kind of poo poo on the track. Younger me was prone to bouts of stupidity. I've been trying to compile a list of everything that needs doing so I can form some sort of order and plan for the next few months above "just get work done, stupid!". In no particular order: Mount pass. seat to removable seat base and test-fit. Install driver's side belts. Install passenger's side belts. Complete bleed + refill of brake system. Oil + filter change Investigate clunking noise from pass. side steering assy. Inspect battery integrity and either buy new battery, or build battery box to prevent further movement and damage. Remove current upper and lower control arms, front and rear, and replace with refurb units and high-durometer bushings. R&R engine mounts with high-durometer units. Replace driver's side front fender. R&R pass side front fender. Remove wiring and assy of aftermarket side markers. Obtain + install spoiler-less trunk lid. R&R aftermarket wheel hub assy (and get it lined up properly this time, bonehead!) Wire-brush and cover the paintless spots on the body to prevent further rust. The Prong Song fucked around with this message at 17:10 on Nov 16, 2018 |
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Nov 16, 2018 16:59
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Olympic Mathlete posted:151mph in a 55 zone is .....................excessive. drat. And that only checked the $530 fine box, imagine what it would take to check the $580 fine box! The Prong Song posted:I highly recommend keeping that kind of poo poo on the track. Younger me was prone to bouts of stupidity. Been there, just got lucky that I never got nailed for it. Valentine One saved my rear end numerous times, but that was back when radar was used instead of laser.
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Nov 16, 2018 17:25
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meatpimp posted:And that only checked the $530 fine box, imagine what it would take to check the $580 fine box! My sister holds the "family record" of 135 in a 65 in VT. She was pulled over by the registry too! (shows how old I am)
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Nov 16, 2018 17:33
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Jesus fuckin christ look at this beautiful thread. If you're ever up near Richmond hit me up amigo.
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Nov 16, 2018 17:37
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Hi fellow Mazda owner! Spec Miata is a great place to get started racing wheel to wheel. Can highly recommend.
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Nov 16, 2018 21:15
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Nice. I almost built a spec miata then chickened out and got old and married instead. I will live vicariously through you. The Prong Song posted:As the car sits, it's still pretty stock. The shocks and springs are the originals, with 170K miles on them. The engine is stock, aside from a not-class-legal intake. The brake pads are race-only pads, and the rotors are just plain Centric blanks. The plan over the winter is to replace the control arms with stock replacement units I have, with upgraded bushings. I'm also looking at trying to get the new-for-2019 Penske race shock Spec Miata suspension kit. I'll continue to do trackdays in 2019, the lady will dip her toes; and I'll shoot for a 2020 date for starting competition with a refreshed engine. FYI I don't know if poly ones are legal for SM, so keep it in mind if you intend to swap these out. It's been a few years since I've looked at the rules so maybe that changed, though.
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Nov 17, 2018 03:09
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I got popped for 83 a few weeks go and the trooper's attitude was not very nice. I can't imagine what the guy who pulled you over had to say.
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Nov 17, 2018 13:17
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And here I thought I was an outlaw because I did the 320 km door to door to my parents' place in 2 hours 40. Where can I find more info on the 135is?
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Nov 17, 2018 19:42
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Your driving was "inspired" when I first rode with you in the initial Miata. Hopefully the new one gives you the same joy the old car previously gave you.
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Nov 18, 2018 17:36
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bolind posted:And here I thought I was an outlaw because I did the 320 km door to door to my parents' place in 2 hours 40. Alright, having to work 5pm to 4am sucked, but I rested up and decided to get some work done this Saturday. Let me just go out to the garage with my new vac bleeder, and...  gently caress's sake. 2 hours later and one broken mirror later:  2 hours after that:  I obviously need to see about lighting. Working on this this with the door closed during the winter months is not going to leave much light to see by. I now have nearly enough space to work in, all the trash "spare parts" are out of the garage, all of the home improvement/woodworking/paint poo poo is on one side, all of the automotive tools and parts are on the other side. I'm try to sell the Deuce rollbar for a few spare bucks, but the trashed fender(s) and original seats are going to the dump next weekend.
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Nov 18, 2018 23:56
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What's wrong with the original seats?
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Nov 19, 2018 00:00
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Wrar posted:What's wrong with the original seats? They're really worn, bolsters folded over and whatnot...and the previous owner decided it'd be grand to have heated seats in his Miata, so he hacked apart the foam backing and put in sketchy heating pads. They're not trash-trash, but I wouldn't sell 'em to anyone. Give 'em, sure.
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Nov 19, 2018 00:06
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Suburban Dad posted:...FYI I don't know if poly ones are legal for SM, so keep it in mind if you intend to swap these out. It's been a few years since I've looked at the rules so maybe that changed, though. Hurrah, you are correct. Guess these Prothane bushings can go on the local Miata board and I can find some Mazda Motorsports competition parts replacements at literally 3x the cost. Didn't they say Spec Miata was designed to be cheap? I didn't get a whole lot done this weekend.  My new jackstands and floor jack came in. I'm determined to get this thing in the air high enough so that I can scoot under it on my crawler and solidly enough that I don't have to worry about having it fall down on me when I'm at home alone some winter day, breaking all my ribs and crushing the life out of me as I quickly suffocate in my own blood.  Jack'd  Passenger side jackstand pad, you can see that the pinch weld has been used as a jack point quite a few times. Eh, it's fine.  And now her skirt's up.I'm digging this new jack, cheap chinese junk that it is. The old craftsman I've been using for 10-odd years hasn't worked right since I came down to NC.  It was at this point, with the light shining through, that I realized I had one jackstand a notch lower than all the others. Like a dumbass. So I jacked the rear back up and re-set it.  Close enough for amateur work. The front fenders are both replacement parts that've been haphazardly painted and then cut to fit aftermarket (and not legally required) LED side markers, part of the other awful HID/LED retrofit that the PO's done. One of the items on my list this winter are to rip out both fenders and replace with used stock units. The car's also been run since I bought it without front or rear fender liners. You know what that leads to? Dirt. Dirt all over and in the front of the car. Dirt coming in the doors, dirt suck in the lower part of the fender, dirt all over the door sills, dirt.  A quick vac later, and...  Good enough for the moment. I will eventually replace the fender liners, front and rear. So, back to this light system...      It's all got to come out at some point. I removed the front bumper cover (which was damaged), and took off the aftermarket HID foglights you see in the photo above. I also removed the dual Hella Supertone horns from the front. I've left it off for now, since I'm sure I'll be up, under, and on this thing enough to otherwise justify it. And finally,   There's so much sediment in the resevoir. I ended up using a vac bleeder and a whole bottle of DOT3 to get the fluid clear and clean through the rear bleed nipples. What a goddamn mess; I'm just lucky that it didn't destroy braking performance at the track. No money shots, but it was really dark by the time I finished up today.
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Nov 26, 2018 03:55
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If it's not too nosy, how much does the Spec package cost at LRR?
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Nov 26, 2018 04:13
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GD_American posted:If it's not too nosy, how much does the Spec package cost at LRR? It's $6,800 plus tax. The dropped floorpan is $1,000 plus tax. There's an option and add-ons list that's fairly long you can pick through; LRR is a full-service shop so the effective list of things you can have done is infinite. The service and quality of the work was very high. The price is commensurate. \ 
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Nov 26, 2018 13:36
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Can I try the dropped floor plan? I miss my NB terribly and I've been wondering if I have a slim hope of fitting in one.
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Nov 26, 2018 13:52
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Wrar posted:Can I try the dropped floor plan? I miss my NB terribly and I've been wondering if I have a slim hope of fitting in one. Sure. It'll probably have to wait until the the weekend of the 8th/9th; I am on day one of a 12-day workweek today. I'm not sure if the seat will provide that great of a preview of the drop, though. It's hard-set for me, and I've got a 30" inseam and am 5'11" - in other words, an ape.
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Nov 26, 2018 15:32
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That would probably work! I'm almost the same torso height almost but another 5" of legs. It's worth a shot to see if my eyes are below the windshield.
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Nov 26, 2018 17:30
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The Prong Song posted:Didn't they say Spec Miata was designed to be cheap? God the price of racing almost anything else competitive though...
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Nov 27, 2018 01:01
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Just what I needed: I blew some PB Blaster in there and, we'll see if it comes off tomorrow morning-ish. Otherwise, this opens up the opportunity to... get some new calipers, rebuild them, and slot them on. Everyone loves added expense. Also, I did an actual inspection now that it's in the air and all four wheels are off. Both ball joints are shot. Both tie rod ends are shot. 6 out of 8 anti roll bar link ends are shot. The passenger's side steering rack cover is torn into pieces. Pretty much every rubber-covered piece of the car, other than the anti-roll bar mounts, are perished.
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Dec 1, 2018 21:41
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Keep posting. I'm throughly enjoying reading about your adventures. You're making me day dream about turning the second Miata in my driveway into a spec car.
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Dec 2, 2018 06:37
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I'm sorry if I'm blind, but what sort of paint is the grey trunk paint? It looks so drat nice. Just normal paint or some form of rustoleum-esque stuff?
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Dec 2, 2018 08:36
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MrOnBicycle posted:I'm sorry if I'm blind, but what sort of paint is the grey trunk paint? It looks so drat nice. Just normal paint or some form of rustoleum-esque stuff? The grey paint is a single-stage automotive paint. It's part of the Long Road Racing Spec Miata package. It just so happens to match perfectly the color of Rustoleum grey, very convenient for fixing up scratches.
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Dec 2, 2018 15:18
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A short update with I've been successful, screwing up pretty much everything that wasn't a short job requiring just musclepower on this so far. The calipers I was able to get replaced, but the new set has enough space in the threads that my power bleeder is just pulling air in - and my teflon tape is MIA. Easy fix. The driver's harness is Schroth's SFI 16.5 PROFI III-6 belt. Given that it has separate belts for the shoulder and for the HANS, it requires two $100/ea wield-in brackets per side on the harness bar. Which isn't really noted on any of the documentation I saw. I don't have a welder or any welding experience and I'd HATE to gently caress up the pretty work done by LRR; soooo the belts are going to be resold (or listed for resale) and I'm going to get some more traditional 2-inch single-belt 5 point harnesses. The bushing set I bought it disallowed by SMC rules [thanks Suburban Dad for saving me from changing bushings twice], so I need to reorder a Mazdaspeed set which is allowable at thrice the price. The hydraulic press I got from Harbor Freight will only work for half the bushings on the control arms due to clearance issues, so I'm going to need to get a bushing tool anyways. The driver's side seat bracket did NOT come with the side bracket adapter, so I'll need to buy that to mount the seat. It's hard not to get somewhat discouraged, especially watching something like Binky's latest episode. I was semi-successful in mounting the drivers' window SFI padding.  Working in the garage when it's 30 outside is pretty miserable. Maybe I should get a space heater... The list of todos at this point: Mount pass. seat to removable seat base and test-fit. Install driver's side belts. Install passenger's side belts. Teflon-wrap brake bleed screws on F D&P calipers. Finish bleed of brake system. Oil + filter change. Remove current upper and lower control arms, front and rear, and replace with refurb units and R&R engine mounts with Replace driver's side front fender. Obtain + install spoiler-less trunk lid. Wire-brush and cover the paintless spots on the body to prevent further rust. Get more aggressive alignment (excessive wear on outside shoulder of tires). Use remaining SFI padding in appropriate areas for safety (vs. for compliance). The Prong Song fucked around with this message at 17:53 on Jan 2, 2019 |
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Jan 2, 2019 17:51
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Can you not run those belts in wraparound style? My belts also came with eyelets for the shoulder belts, but I opted to wrap them rather than weld. Also, don't forget to pin your harness clips now, rather than having to hustle when tech points it out 
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Jan 2, 2019 17:56
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BlackMK4 posted:Can you not run those belts in wraparound style? My belts also came with eyelets for the shoulder belts, but I opted to wrap them rather than weld. Also, don't forget to pin your harness clips now, rather than having to hustle when tech points it out They come with the 3-bar slide clips. The problem is that each shoulder belt is actually two belts. You can't wrap them next to each other; they have to be wrapped either to two separate harness bars each 0-20 degrees below the shoulder belt pass-through, or you have to use the weld-in mounts. This is an illustration (taken from Schroth's site):  EDIT: vvvv Yes, this is what I get for buying the latest-and-greatest. Higher cost, higher difficulty to install, and a tiny increase in usability! The Prong Song fucked around with this message at 19:04 on Jan 2, 2019 |
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Jan 2, 2019 18:56
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That is interesting, I haven't seen that style before. Neat
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Jan 2, 2019 18:58
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How the hell have I missed this thread until now. Awesome progress so far, and I loved the OP with your car history. You're a better writer than you give yourself credit for.
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Jan 3, 2019 08:18
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The Prong Song posted:[thanks Suburban Dad for saving me from changing bushings twice], NP, read those rules closely. They're picky some some silly stuff like that. Not that anybody would probably ever notice but it would be dumb to get protested for it.
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Jan 3, 2019 15:17
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Finally (?), an update! Work's been hard, guys. In the past 10 weeks I've had three weekends to myself. A bunch of parts came in. Including my new-for-2019 Penske Spec Miata suspenion.  This weekend, I finally made the time to work on getting it on. I used a modified long-bolt method for the swap. With the wheels off and the car in the air, which is where it's been since the last update:  Front side with the rollbar uninstalled, upper control arm bolt coming out:  Bolt out, unit removed. The eagle-eyed reader may notice that I've already pulled the other side:  Not awful condition, for a nearly-20-year-old car:  Nearly all the way back in. So smooth, so sexy:  Front axle complete:  The passenger's side rear is also complete, which I didn't get any pictures of. Unfortunately, other duties called me away before I could complete the driver's side rear. I've missed the first event of this year and have been getting worried I wasn't going to be able to find the time to get the car ready before the April event. Saturday's work has helped me feel better, but at this point there's still plenty to do to get the car ready. After getting up under there a little more, the ball joints and tie rod ends are a MUST.
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Apr 1, 2019 17:10
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Welcome back, thread. I love seeing Miata work, they're so bloody simple.
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Apr 1, 2019 17:12
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Working on the race car, two weekends in a row? It's like I got off my rear end, or something. A little bit. I didn't get a lot of pictures for the work I did. My neighbor came over and helped, and I didn't want to waste his time by stopping every 5 min to snap a photo. The first thing I started working on was the passenger seat mount.  Sparco NA/NB seat mount, aluminum side mounts, and a Sparco Sprint. Unfortunately, even at the lowest mount point (above), the seat doesn't fit my neighbor (who is not a very tall guy) with a helmet on. Helmet is ON the fibeglass roof, so I have to get it lower. I figured, easy - I'll just bottom-mount the seat onto the seat mount, gain an extra inch and a half, and there'll be some wiggle room at the top. WRONG. The bottom mount bolt positions on a Sparco Sprint don't meet up with the bottom mount holes on a Sparco NA/NB seat mount. Brilliant. I'm going to have to buy or borrow some punches (because I wrecked the only one I had) so I can drill new front bolt holes on the base, 10.4 inches from the rear holes (as opposed to the 12-inch default distance). Some of you may have noticed I didn't show the rear suspension in in my post from last weekend. That's because I only got the passenger side in. Because of This  Mother  Fucker  Right here. Even with all the stuff stripped away, this is still a huge pain in the rear end to get to unless you drop the fuel filler neck. It took about 20 minutes of constant, millimeter-turns wrenching, to get the driver's side rear out. The passenger's side was easy:  The driver's side, what a pain in the rear end. But, with both of us slowly turning it, we finally got it in. Bolted everything back up, attached the new ARB and adjustable endlinks (we'll come back to that), and stepped back to admire our work when I noticed I MOUNTED THE GODDAMN THING BACKWARDS. So. On to fixing other stuff, I'll come back to the rear driver's suspension when I have regained patience. I finally got around to addressing the brakes. Teflon tape was obtained from Lowes; they had a Spring Black Friday sale this weekend and some pretty good deals. Not on teflon tape, though. Turns out, it wasn't the bleed screws. The new calipers came with new banjo bolt crush washers, and I torqued them to Mazda spec. Turns out, Mazda spec is not Generic Brake Caliper brand spec, and every time I was pumping the brakes from inside the car by myself, the banjo bolts were leaking at about 19 psi. With my neighbor in the car I was able to see the drat leak. After-retoruqeing them to "quite tight, like really very", the leak stopped and bleeding them was quick and easy. Now, back to the endlinks. The front endlinks didn't quite fit when matching them up to the install instructions. The instructions for the rear assumed you had two ears for the bolt to pass through on the lower control arm. I'm not sure what Miata it was that had two ARB endlink ears on each control arm, but mine sure does. Following the instructions (and figuring out what clearances I needed in the assembly) I got left with this slightly-scary contraption:  I am NOT comfortable with that. Having the mount point of the endlink so far down the shaft of the bolt makes me wonder how long it's going to be until that bolt shears. Anyone ever run a endlink attachment setup like this? That is Bolt, washer, ear, three washers, endlink, three washers, nut.
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Apr 8, 2019 14:37
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The Prong Song posted:
Woulda been faster to drive to harbor freight and buy some wobbles. I was able to use wobbles and extensions and get to those easy.
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Apr 8, 2019 14:39
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Don Lapre posted:Woulda been faster to drive to harbor freight and buy some wobbles. I was able to use wobbles and extensions and get to those easy. I actually have an assortment of wobbles and extensions, but they must be trash. The angle was too great for the wobble on the socket itself, it just kept binding up. I tried using it at an angle from the trunk hinge bracket and from the trunk open-assist spring end. Trying to get it from the front was just a 90 degree angle, definitely not working. And the lovely direct-drive extender thingy I bought (thanks, general chat thread from 3 or 4 months ago!) is slightly too large to fit ,even with any combo of extensions and angles I tried it with.
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Apr 8, 2019 14:48
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That, and/or a power ratchet. On the endlink, why is it spaced so far away from the tab on the arm? Does it foul with fewer washers on it?
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Apr 8, 2019 14:49
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IOwnCalculus posted:That, and/or a power ratchet. Yep. I used a jack to compress the suspension, see how far I was going to have to adjust the endlink and what the angle would be on it - less than three washers, the heim joint binds as soon as any weight comes off the suspension.
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Apr 8, 2019 14:55
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My Wrangler has a front sway bar with end links that mount to a post in single shear. Haven't broken a link but I have bent the mount.
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Apr 8, 2019 15:49
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