My Car

[flooglemop]

I'm not one to feel the need to share pics of my car to others since it's nothing special. However, I've realized the value of having a build thread is simply for one's own record.

Unfortunately, a year has passed since I've started fixing up my car and I took little to no photos of the process. Still, I figured I'd chronicle what little documentation I have. If anyone else is interested, great. If not, I have this for myself.

A little background:
I'm the second owner of this 1992 black and tan with the, what is it, the C package(?), the one with the leather, Nardi goodies, cruise-control, lightweight BBS rims, rocket-launcher, and so on. I purchased the vehicle in 1996 and it was pretty immaculate at the time, despite its 60,000 miles on the odometer. It was my daily driver for several years, so it accumulated quite a few door and fender dings in the parking lot at work (dings which still remain to this day until I can acquire the funds to repair). It also acquired a fender dent. The internet and forums such as this still being fairly new at the time, I had no clue about issues that were common to Miatas, like the windows that moved at glacial speed. I ruined the center console with a screwdriver trying to remove the window switches. The top also saw its day and needed replacing, The seats (mostly the driver's) needed upholstering.

In 1997 I married my lovely bride and when we had our first child in 2001, the Miata went in the garage and sat there collecting dust for the next 14 years, barely being driven at all.

Fast-forward to 2015 when a new friend finds out I have a Miata. I tell him it needs a new top and the fender needs repair, and he says his friend can fix everything for, like, $500... Yeah, whatever. $9000 or so later (and I still don't have a new top on it)...

Anyway, my friend and his neighbor did the fender repair and the timing-belt/water-pump change. I did most of the rest, except when it came to replacing the clutch.

So here's are a couple of phone pics of the exterior and interior before getting started on this journey of restoring this car. Not great pics, but then the car wasn't looking too good anyway. I'll be adding to this as I have time. I'm very busy, so additions to this thread may arrive slower than my old electric windows.




Here is the engine bay when the WP/TB was changed. My only regret was not polishing the valve covers at this point while they were off.

[— Agent☣Orange —]

It doesn't have to be a showstopper or high-dollar investment to be shown here so thanks for sharing!

[NCGreasemonkey]

Hey, once you take the red pill it is all over!

But do it at your own pace. You have responsibilities. So do we. No worries. Post when you can and slowly bring her (?) back to mainstream road running!

Another closet Miata saved!

[flooglemop]

So the guy who "fixed" the dent in my fender basically drilled holes in it, yanked out the dent...sort of...and slapped some kind of bondo-tape stuff on it. Here's what it looked like when the tape gunk came off:


I managed to locate a used fender in San Diego that needed some painting but was otherwise straight.


Here it is mounted before painting (and by the way, I want to thank my buddy, Steven, for taking these pics when doing this work):


And here it is after spraying:


The finished job:

[Greasemonkey2000]

Everyone should have a build thread in my humble opinion, look forward to the progress!

[flooglemop]

Yeah, like I said, $9000 and change later...

[NCGreasemonkey]

Hey. crappie to hubba hubba! Nice first post on a fix. Wish I had done as well. Keep us posted!

[NCGreasemonkey]

Yeah, like I said, $9000 and change later...

You buy them for $2800 and sink 10K into them because you want to. There is no escape from the curse of driving a Miata on back roads. You just need more.

[flooglemop]

Frankly, they're really the best bang-for-the-buck for fun, so in the end, ten-grand is a deal. I'll NEVER buy a new car. There are too many great old cars out there that are way more fun than new cars for a lot less money.

[flooglemop]

I actually have no pictures of the back of the car with the factory "wing" on it. This is the only pic that shows any part of it:


Well, I really wanted to do something more retro, like having a luggage rack, so my friend also removed the wing. Here's a shot of the trunk with the hole left from the center screw (there were three screws holding the wing on).


After some sanding:



Some final prepping before spraying:


And after the spray:


The finished job:

[— Agent☣Orange —]

New cars offer more tech, maybe even more performance but at the cost of your working life. It's actually smarter to have as much fun with an older car while you give yourself some room to buy a house or something else important. There's only so much time you can spend behind the wheel.

[flooglemop]

As anyone who has these early year models with tan interiors knows, the dash was molded in tan and painted black. After a couple of decades, that black paint turns into a goopy mess. I didn't want to try to cover the dash myself, so I got a quote from an upholstery shop. Besides being more than I could afford, they would have needed to pull the dash, and I really didn't want to risk any damage from that nor did I want the car tied up for days in a shop. The shop owner then gave me a name of a guy who refinishes interiors. This guy came to my home, stripped the dash top, and stained it black, all for around $100, and I'll tell you it looks like new. No pulling the dash, no upholstering, no nothing crazy. It was the best band-for-the-buck money spent in this entire restoration. The pics here are not great, but the dash really looks great.


You can see the texture in this pic:

[NCGreasemonkey]

How far are you away from North Carolina, USA? I want your dash guy to do mine matte!

[flooglemop]

In the past several years, before I even got around to starting this restoration, my airbag light came on and stayed on. I'm not sure why, but I figured it was something I'd better address if I was to start driving this car again. The first thing I did was buy this used module, hoping that would eliminate the cause of the dummy light staying on.


Before getting around to installing it, I decided to ditch the airbag altogether and get a new wood Nardi steering wheel, which would be in keeping with my desire to go more retro. This of course required an adapter, which piled on the costs. At first I went for this Nardi hub, thinking that it should be the best fit for the steering wheel.


Unfortunately, when I went to install it, I realized this hub would require some surgery to the clock spring area which I wasn't too keen on performing. I returned it and went for this Daikei, which was more expensive but was far more easy to install.


You can see from the back of the Daikei unit that there's a lot more room for the wiring and such. This is a much better design than the Nardi hub.


And here's the steering wheel mounted. I went with the deep corn, which I like, except when the sun happens to be in just the right place in the sky and reflects into my eyes.

While I really dig this steering wheel, I may try another one at a later date when money starts growing on trees.

[flooglemop]

How far are you away from North Carolina, USA? I want your dash guy to do mine matte!

I'm just east of Los Angeles, So Cal. You may want to go to your local dealer and ask who they use when they have upholstery or interior repair. I'm sure others around the country are doing this same kind of work.