Let's get a build thread going for my second Miata! In the interest of getting back up to speed, some of this is chronological, and some is more based on the theme of the work.
My first was a beautiful '90 with manual steering, AC, and a limited slip. I called her Roxanne. We drove all the way across the US and back across Canada, it was a hell of a trip.
But then in Oct. 2015 I killed Roxanne. Seeing her like this broke my heart.
I planned to rebuild Roxanne, got a donor shell and everything.
But then I had a mess with my employment status, and I didn't feel like moving two junk cars across state lines to get one old 1.6 that needed a paint job. So, with a new job secure, I bought this grandma owned 2001 Miata LS for the princely sum of $3500 and left three Miatas to rot in my parents driveway while I moved to Detroit to work for Fiat Chrysler. Here she sat for months before I had a place to keep her.
It's cleaaaann. There's some surface rust on zinc plated surfaces such as bolts and nuts which I blame on the fact that it spent a lot of time in Myrtle Beach, but the underbody is minty fresh. Being an LS, it's got the Sport package brakes and bracing, Torsen diff and that fugly tan interior. The only thing it's missing is a 6 speed and ABS. Unfortunately, signs of bad taste were everywhere - tan pinstripes, fake wood appliques, a cheap tint job, those awful wheels, a style bar and a cheap grille were my big complaints. The top was in pretty bad shape too, which cut a bit off the asking price.
I got to drive these in the meantime, so I wasn't totally bereft of fun cars.
Over the Easter holiday I went home and swapped the tops, replaced a leaky radiator hose, and did other light maintenance such as spark plugs and an oil change. Then in May I bought a one way ticket to Virginia and drove back. Insurance up here is ridiculous, the roads are flat and poorly maintained, and the only good thing about it is the summer weather. This car is basically an excuse to drink some wobble sodas and play with dangerous tools on the weekend.
I like to think we've done a pretty good job of getting it back up to snuff. In about a weekend we did....
New water pump, timing belt, OEM coolant hoses, TYC/Amazon radiator, cam and crank seals.
Fresh plugs, wires, air filter, PCV valve and gasket
All fluids changed out - Rotella T6, Motorcraft Tranny Magic, Mobil1 diff oil, new coolant, and other skookum stuff
Valve cover painted crinkle red
Polished the headlights, but the left one is still foggy, there must be something inside the lens.
The slow/ broken windows were fixed with silicone grease and a paperclip.
The signs of poor taste were removed - the pinstripes, grille, style bar, and tint met the dumpster.
Washer nozzles and cabin light replaced with better OEM parts from Mitsubishi and Ford
DEI heat insulation on the drivers side of the trans tunnel.
eBay Delrin door bushings
Later we had fun making our own master cylinder brace out of the factory shock tower brace. That really made a big difference in brake feel, so I installed some SS lines to match.
With the big service out of the way, other things have gotten done.
The engine bay needed some cleanup - it's gotten 1.6L chrome VC bolts and some stainless bolts to replace crusty OEM bolts on the radiator shroud and tower brace.
The middle pedal was pretty firm by this point, but the brakes needed a bit more work. I started to get some squealing, which disappeared when I hit the brakes. Time to change out the pads! I got some StopTech Sport pads and decided to get the brakes rebuilt just this past weekend before the season's last autocross. The rears were easy, the fronts... a bit more complicated. This was the first time I took the wheels off of it in 8 months of ownership... not proud of that. Two wheel studs broke off, and one caliper slider pin was seized.
The pins in question doesn't really look that bad, but it was tight in there like a tick. The rest of the brakes were in great shape. With no reman'd Sport calipers in town, I used valve grinding compound and the old pin to clean up the slider bore before throwing a new pin in there.
The usual shifter boots were torn. I cut a Ziploc to keep out dirt and made due for a while...
Until a MiataRoadster short shifter turned up on Craigslist. Not sure how I feel about this one... It partially blocks the AC controls, and IMO it didn't really improve the shift quality. Possibly because it was beat to shit by the previous owners - the pivot ball has clearly been damaged by dirt getting in and wearing away at it.
But it does look fantastic. It's got that classic long stick look you see in older cars, which I love.
Speaking of Craigslist, I've been watching it like a hawk for deals. This barely used RoadsterSport3 exhaust was listed for half price, and the heat insulation came already installed. Again, not sure how much I like this. The tone is great at low speed, but it can be annoying on long highway drives even with the muffling tip installed.
The cataract headlight look really annoys me. Fortunately, this NB2 headlight was only $20 because of some broken mounting tabs, but that's nothing a little JB Weld can't fix.
I really like being able to see at night, so I installed a Morimoto 55W 4500K HID kit from The Retrofit Source - you can see it hanging out in the engine bay shot if you look close. Over the winter I'm going to pull the headlights apart and paint the insides. The projectors have a great cut off, but there's clearly some reflection from the plastichrome.
Free wind blocker! I also scored some engine mounts and a soft top frame with latches for the same price. You can see my extra 12V outlet next to the console - by far my best Miata mod in terms of effort/cost to benefit.
We're pretty much up to speed at that point. If I remember anything else, or deem it worth posting about, you'll see it later.