95neoner's intro

[95neoner]

'99 Miata build thread: http://mazdaroadster.net/showthread....-95neoner-s-99

Hi, I'm Justin, and I'm long winded. I had no idea this forum was here and just happened upon it from a facebook link from Miata Classifieds and your classifieds section here is really impressive, so you have my attention.

I've mostly been over on CR.net, I'm also signed up on a few of the other Miata forums, lurked on Miataturbo.net a bit but haven't went that route. There was a lot of good info on connectors there though I remember. I'm waiting for my BP to let go before I swap, so I haven't messed with power in the car a lot. I bought it at 77k almost 7 years ago from Savannah, GA, brought it to Charelston, SC and now we're at 128k. I drive it year round. It's been through the snow in CT and in OH now too. Amazing what these things are capable of with some good studded snows. I enjoy detailing quite a bit, have a background in auto body, tuning for the last decade now, and have a real love of learning how to better build and maintain. I'll spend hours researching before I ask, so that's good. I'm a maintenance nazi, keep a book and everything... so when it comes to the snow, I'm doing my best to keep the metal from disappearing. I'm an autocrosser, looking to start heading out to track days a bit, maybe build a SM, homebrewer, and business owner. Spent 6 years in the Navy, majority of it on a submarine, had no spare time whatsoever. Got out in December and now trying to make a living for myself.

I own 6 different cars and been trying to go pick up an ex-PTE '97 w/ 1.6 that was pretty much completely disassembled for the last month now, but the snow keeps falling every weekend and thwarting any attempts to tow. Besides those, I've sold 2 and... bought one on e-bay but the car was sold from under me after the sale on ebay. Wasn't happy about that, but it's why I still have the '99, so in retrospect, it was probably for the better. One of my things I've learned from said 9 cars is I have a lot of projects, and not near enough money to throw things together all at once, so some of these will just sit for a while so I can try to focus on one of the others. As a matter of fact, I'm still watching my savings dwindle, but that's just new start-up business marketing to a niche problems.

Anyway, the '99 I've been eluding to:

Those are the winter wheels. I need to get the summers back out and clean them up so I can get them on the car.


There ya go, dual purpose shot. Summer wheels and at autocross. They're definitely big. They're carry-overs from my 4-lug '95 Neon. They're one of my first part purchases, also a decade old. I do plan on making the car wider when I do that earlier mentioned swap, so I haven't bothered wasting money on replacements yet.


There's the rear. I'm supposed to have a rear window seal getting done soon... I've got to call that guy again.

I'll leave you with that little bit for now... I have to take off for a bit, when I get back I'll finish up my intro, show you the engine bay, interior, and probably inside the wheel wells too. Then there's the other cars I'd like to introduce you to as well.

[PioneerMX5]

Welcome, and thank you for your service!

[Demon I Am]

Hi and welcome.

[ScratchNSniff]

Welcome...99.9% sure you saw my post about the forum...glad to have you...

[95neoner]

Thanks for the welcomes guys. Scratch, it would have been one of your for sale listings I followed over. Thanks for the link. I guess you're to thank that I still feel really inadequate here in a Miata sort of sense despite how much of my money Maxime has... had?

So... I promised a continuation. I'll get as far along as I can. Continuing working on getting the '99's warm weather wheels and tires cleaned up again tomorrow. I'll make a project log so you get all of the details on it and you can see them there. As I mentioned... I think... I've had no spare time the last 6 years and these things need a lot of work to get them presentable again. Anyway... I've had a thought of next time I introduce myself to a forum, I'm making a youtube video, it'll be so much easier.

Next least flattering is the wheel well, couple things to be fixed there too. Let's go there next.





Interior, nothing flattering just yet. I've been so close to tossing more money at in here several times lately and caught myself with the one project at a time thing before I did. I guess that makes me a pro car part addict dodging relapses?:



Since this here, I've replaced that windshield... it was getting done a couple days after this pic, so that's why I didn't bother with the rear view, the wink was new in this pic. That leather e-brake boot was one of those relapses I didn't dodge. I do plan on switching to black interior, so that will all look a lot less out of place once it's done. Shift knob's a Maruha piece. You're looking at the only stock hard top latch in the car now. The rest are Garagestar. That one the red threadlock kicked my butt on, and I can't even get the impact screwdriver to move it anymore. I'm planning on swapping to a carbon fiber top at some point, and I'll finish removing those screws before I sell or this top goes to the '97 for SM prep, whatever happens. My eyeball vents have down syndrome... cleaned and steamed passenger side carpet, that's what's hanging over the passenger side door bar. Sitting in the parking lot for months while I was out to sea made a nice place for mildew to grow over there. Looks like new now. Completely deleted the center console because it's useless, started getting some pieces together so there wasn't just a big gaping hole at the bottom of the dash and to address a couple of the other holes left behind in the carpet and again got my tunnel vision going to stop playing with this thing and get back on my current project. Once I get those together though, might make a few if anyone's interested. Started solving the window switches too... deleted the radio and speakers, blocked off the hole in the dash with just a sheet of carbon fiber like so:



Ah, carbon fiber's awesome... anyway, got a couple Carling DPDT switches to put in the bottom left corner, will run gauges at the top, started to go for moving the window switches, and I want to move the wiring harness back behind the dash so I can just hide the parking brake wire under the carpet and not have all the extra unnecessary wiring doubling back, then realized it's going to be a lot easier to move those wires while I have the dash pulled to swap to black anyway, so that project stalled too. Since the radio's gone I need to call Roadstertech again and get a antenna delete on the way. Somehow that won't got to plan either, but at least I won't be left with a hole in the quarter. Just switched to their window bushings a month or so ago.

How about some engine bay then?



Replaced clutch and brake fluid again since. I stole... I think it was Yellowyata's idea for the washer fluid bottle under the cowl cover. Once I lose the BP and swap I'll just pick up a passenger side intake headlight and run the intake up there. I forgot who made those but I saw them on the Rev9 blog.

That should pretty well be the '99. If you have any further questions or want to see anything else, go ahead and ask, point out that I need different sized sway bar end links, whatever. I'm going to end this post here so I don't have to worry about losing what I've got and I'll introduce some of the other cars in a separate post.

[95neoner]

I keep forgetting I need to replace that hardware on the coolant overflow and air/oil separator and clean up my hood prop bracket.

[Winlowe]

Welcome to MR

[— Malibu Q —]

Welcome. I like your car a lot, but find the black steelies particularly intriguing. Never seen an Mx-5 on black steelies in the real. We don't have winter wheels where I live, so hot cars on black steelies look like they are ready for burnouts or the like.

[—atank—]

Welcome to MazdaRoadster.net!

[95neoner]

Thanks guys, and yeah, no burnouts for this thing yet. I mean wet roads are one story if you shock the drivetrain shifting into 2nd I've found out. The rear will walk out a little, about the same it does on ice, but those undercoated steelies and studded snows are about as utilitarian of a setup as it gets.

I haven't forgot I owe a few more introductions to the other cars. I've just been really busy. Not enough hours in the day. Looking at adding another one to the ranks today if I can get it bought right. On top of that I've been cleaning on my summer wheels putting probably 12+ hours a wheel in because they've been neglected for about the last 7 years. I'll show you those when I get a project log together.

[95neoner]

I just got another car to introduce you to that I don't have any pictures of yet, and it's not the '97 either, so in order to not fall any further behind thanks to the new purchase, here's another of my cars. I hope it doesn't require much of an introduction:





It's a '76. Still needs a bit... a lot of a bit of work. I apologize if this is a bit overboard for being a completely different make, but I love this car too...



See how the roof's brown? Had this slight issue thanks to a poorly maintained vinyl top, had to fill with bondo and brush because I had to be 12 hours away the next day. I'll fix it right now that I've got the time when I get around to restoring it:



Thought this sticker was cool to find under the top:



Current engine bay, 20R, Weber 32/36, MSD coil, K&N filter, header & exhaust, Flowmaster muffler, battery's gonna get relocated to the trunk, stock otherwise because I have other plans:



New motor is a 18R-GU, period correct Japanese market GT trim engine. Took me a year to find a decent one in pieces, and still a few parts to find. DOHC, dual sidedraft, 150hp. Still has stock Mikunis:









I'll talk a bit more about this in a few, I don't have pics of the goodies I've hoarded for it so far.

Underneath:




Don't mind the panhard rod, have a Whiteline one to install, diff cover gasket is sitting in the car too.


No more KYB

Someone's shaved some of the marker lights, you can see it from inside the trunk. I'm going to reinstall them.



Interior needs help too. I'm leaving the center out.



I've got a bunch of stuff waiting to be installed:


Have front & rear along with that panhard rod from them and a full round of poly bushings.




Obviously... these are kind of a staple.


I'd eat off that plate.



Not pictured: '71 tail lights, LBGP pace car front air dam, smiley bumpers, HKS turbo manifold and intake box for the 18RG, TRD gear drive, TRD shift knob (that Hurst T-handle kills me...), and... a lot of other stuff including decent paint.

Build thread here for any future changes: http://www.classic-celica.com/module...=33&highlight=

Alright, I'm done with this one, sorry. <3

[— Malibu Q —]

Celica looks like a great project.
Motor and steering wheel look perfect.
Glad to hear you've got some smiley bumpers for it.
Those big USA bumpers are gross.

[95neoner]

Thanks, yeah, definitely going to be a lot less work than my Z which I'll introduce later. It's a California car. It's seen the road twice in NJ, when PO test drove it and then when I did. I had it in CT for a summer and fall, then it went to southern Ohio and it's been staying in a building when I don't drive it.

It's crazy to think of how many good looking cars we had had here in the states during that era that were taken away from with some terrible looking set of bumpers. I think about every BMW falls into that group.

[95neoner]

Left the garage early tonight so I've got time for another car. Don't hate me too much for this one because there's another coming. This '95 Plymouth Neon sedan is my current car project... I'm still working on the enclosed Pace trailer more. No point in having race cars if you have nothing to transport them in. Did I mention my Checkmate yet? Anyway, toy ADD is setting in, here's that Neon:



I'm barely started on the build. I need to get myself the TIG welder I have in mind to make much more progress on the chassis. As was mentioned before, I've spent the last 6 years in the Navy and this thing's been about 12 hours away the entire time, so I got a little done here and there during the last 7 years, but it's mostly been collecting parts. I still need to finish fully pulling this thing apart so I can make sure I get a good look at everything and have a solid car. Intention for this one is FWDU time trials. Why this car? I figure if I can make a 4 door Neon fast, everything else should be fairly easy in comparison. I could give you a list of modifications to this car, but it's about 3 pages long. If anyone's really interested, I can PM it to you, but for the sake of attempting to make this post shorter than the Celica's I'm going to leave it out.

I do plan on swapping out those headlights for a set of black housing non-projector headlights. I'll be attaching the front bumper with Aerocatch 3s, and I've still yet to spend much time thinking about how I'm going to do it, but I would like to have some form of attachment in the center of the bumper as well. Those Erebuni mirrors from 10 years ago are going away as soon as I make deletes for the factory mirror location. I'll be replacing them with my universal APRs. Dash is sitting on top of the car in that pic. You can see the reflection on the cage. I'm starting off with an Autopower, welding it in and adding some of my own improvements to it.



That's the most recent rear pic I have. Car will get re-painted and those dents over in the quarter will go away. I've got to delete the gas door on the other side too.



That's the most recent shot I have of the front of the motor. It's out of an '04 SRT-4, and had 4k miles on it when I bought it. Since that pic was taken the SRT-4 thermostat housing hiding on the stand has been replaced by one from a '02 Sebring that points straight ahead to give me a bit more room to run a fitting into the -8AN port in the fuel rail. Will be run with an AEM V1 plug & play I bought new...



back of the motor with an appearance from the other Neon with the black headlights I'll put in this car. Equal length PT Cruiser GT axles will be used. Bet you never thought of PT cruiser parts as an upgrade. I'm using knuckles from the same car to assist in swapping to SRT-4 brakes. That oil filter's off a Ram. I'll swap to Royal Purple after the first oil change.



Don't poke too much fun at those Razo pedal covers, those are coming out. This thing was my first car, so I think you'll find a lot of things on here left over from what a high school age me thought was cool. Still a lot to go on in here. Racepak display, still have to get my seat yet. Gotta trim down the factory dash frame a bit too.





Some of the suspension bits... AMR coilovers, Hypercoils springs, Moorespeed Performance front control arms and rear lateral links.







Some of the brake system. Willwood SRT-4 big brake kit, will be running SRT-4 brakes in rear too. Proportioning valve, stainless steel lines & fittings. Still have to get a non-ABS master cylinder.

Steering's getting handled by a Dodge Shadow power rack, 2 1/4 turns lock-to lock, and powered by a '01 MR2 Spyder power steering pump.

Fuel system is pretty well figured out, just need to figure out what size cell I need. I have a walboro 255lph feeder pump that will be installed in a baffle box for a Edelbrock 80gph primary. Radium surge tank, -10AN lines, Aeromotive RRFPR and filters, Boomba rail.

Any questions for this one, I'll be here.

[— Agent☣Orange —]

Welcome to the forum 95neoner. You have some interesting projects and I love the Celica. Remember that this is just an introduction section so don't let it go too far because your other projects are worthy of their own separate threads.