The Stormtrooper

[★ revlimiter ★]

The Stormtrooper rolled onto the driveway at about 6:30 PM last night (January 20th, 2017), 11.5 hours after I left that morning. Snow was falling. Sharka was plugged into the charger. Bucky was scared. Blue car was curious.

There was a new Miata in the herd.

But let me back up.



I’ve been hunting an NC on craigslist off and on for about 3 months. I needed something to make parts for. The color, options, and details were kinda not-important. I just needed an NC that drove and I could afford. If it drove well, that was a bonus.

The affordable cars all dried up around October for whatever reason. Nothing south of $14k really existed within 10 hours of Albuquerque. I kept watching and waiting. Then this little white one showed up.

(Like an idiot, I didn’t save the CL listing for this blog post. Alas. Imagine there’s a nice screenshot above…)

I called the owner and chatted for a bit. I ran a carfax. The car looked good. I made an offer assuming the car looked and drove decently upon inspection.



The only thing was… the car was located in Las Cruces. That’s about 3.5 hours from me. But Barry, the owner, didn’t mind holding the car till I could see it the next weekend.

I called up my dad to see if he wanted to take the day off and drive down south. He was up for it. Even if the car sucked and I left empty handed, getting a to spend a day with my dad would be fantastic.

So we drove.



A little research revealed that the car was a Grand Touring package. I admit, I’m not much for NC Miata trivia… I had to do a lot of research.

In 2006, the GT was the “top of the line” with leather seats, Bose 7 speaker stereo, and other goodies. A 6 speed manual was an option. And there were two premium package options if you got that 6 speed manual. One of the packages had Xenon lights and a limited slip differential. The other package had those two pieces and a set of Bilstein shocks.

I think I got all that right. Forgive me if I managed to screw something up.

Anyways, the Stormtrooper came with the lights. That means there’s an LSD inside the pumpkin.

So… the car is fully optioned.





I took a quick test drive. The car was good. Not perfect, but quite good. As the online guys would say “quite dribable.”

I had my NC.

I went back, picked up Barry, the owner, and we drove over to his bank to sign a bill of sale and get it notarized. We signed the title and he deposited the cash.

Done. No drama.

It was seriously the best Craigslist car sale ever. There was zero drama. Barry was fantastic. Very easy going and forthcoming with information at all steps. I kept in communication and didn’t have any surprises for him or changes in the deal.

Fully drama free. The result was a happy seller and a happy buyer.



Thanks again for the excellent car, Barry!!! I’ll be giving it a great home.

But that’s not it, I still had to drive home.

Queue the photo montage.


First stop - lunch




Sunset over the left shoulder


Rainbow


Stuck in traffic

And that gets us home.

[★ revlimiter ★]

Hmm. Stormy still has Bucky's plates... That means I've not yet gotten the car registered. Doh.



I wasted no time tearing into The Stormtrooper. This was literally the 2nd day of ownership.

A few words about the NC1 tail lights – I hate them. I think they’re a horrible design. I’m appalled that the designers could go from the NA tail lights (which hang in MoMA for god sake!) to these late 90s trendy clear things. I mean, by 2006, automotive OEMs had moved on from the clear plastic Altezza look almost completely… except Mazda had to grace the ass of the NC with them.

Sorry to those who actually like these tail lights. I’m not trying to make enemies. I just dislike the design very very very much.

Something had to be done.


Stormtrooper Trunk


Back panel removed

The NC trunk is completely wrapped in hard plastic. All the walls have the stuff. Gone are the NA and NB days of lightweight fluffy stuff over the metal panels.

But at least it’s easy to remove.

There’s roughly 870 little plastic retainer pins to remove. My finger nails were up to the task.


Arrow pointing at the light keeper


Keeper carefully hammered out.

The tail lights are held in by only 3 bolts once the plastic is all removed – and you do have to remove all four walls worth of plastic to get this far. There’s also a plastic keeper thing on the far outside of each tail light. I put an arrow by it.

Gentle tapping with a hammer is all you need to get that keeper to pop free. A few gentle taps from the inside of the trunk. I removed my lights with no breakage.


Look at all that plastic.



There’s many ways to take care of the NC clear tail lights. A lot of folks use Lamin-X red film. I’m very very good at applying vinyl, but this seems like a job for paint. Plus, I wanted to leave the reverse light hole clear.

Paint lets you mask off stuff more easily than cutting a hole in some vinyl does.


75mm roundels applied


All black masked off

I measured the reverse light area by holding a caliper up to the lens and kinda guessing. I programmed my vinyl plotter to cut some 70mm roundels.

They weren’t big enough. They looked a bit strange. So I went back and cut some 75mm circles. PERFECT!

The lights are curved enough that you can’t just pop the vinyl in place. You’ll have a wrinkle. But putting a little bit of slightly soapy water on the lens to let you smooth out the wrinkles works great.

Once the circles were in the right spots and the wrinkles on the edges were smoothed, I cleaned them with 90% rubbing alcohol and masked off the edges.


1 coat of red


4 coats of red


3 coats of clear

Nothing to the painting really. The VHT stuff worked great. I just applied fairly thin layers until I couldn’t tell that the red reflectors were red anymore. That was 4 coats.

A few words about masking off the reverse light area – I thought it might look a bit off at first. A bit odd. But the inner red reflector around the outside of the reverse light takes all of that away. It gives the optical illusion that the reverse light is just right up at the surface of the light.

You’ll see in a second.


SO MUCH BETTER!!!


I can live with that

Seriously. The ass end now actually looks like a Miata! At least it does to me. It looks very familiar to me now. Like tail lights I’ve lived with for the past couple decades.

But that’s not all.


Tired old factory knobs.

This 6 speed knob is pretty yucky. Tons of cracks and scratches on the top. And the leather grip part below that is all worn away and suede feeling. Not good.

It kinda smells too.



Many moons ago, I restored a bunch of wood stuff. I did a Momo wheel and a handful (heh) of brake and shift knobs. And then I never used them. I didn’t really like them in either Sharka or Bucky.

But the Stormtrooper? That basketball interior just begs for some wood.

I gave that bitch some wood.

A few notes about these pieces – any shift knob from a Miata fits any other Miata. They’re all M10x1.25 threaded. That’s a common shift knob size. So any special edition shift knob (that ND baseball one is awesome) can fit on any Miata shifter.

But the brake grips are not compatible. The shaft on the NC is a lot thicker than the NA/NB, so an NA/NB brake grip will not fit. If you try to force it on, you’ll get stuck halfway or you’ll break your wood knob.

Unless you have a Dremel.

I dremeled a lot of wood out of the inside of my Nardi brake grip. And now it fits.



I’m not gonna lie – this is blatant product placement. But putting my little 6 speed shift plate in the Stormtrooper was SO satisfying.

When I was designing them, I really liked how the 6 speed pattern looked. The design is slightly smaller than the 5 speed. I wanted to use one so badly, but I didn’t own a car with a 6 speed.

Now I own a car with a 6 speed.



Yeah. This is a big improvement already.

Seriously, is there anything better than a blank canvas? A project with TONS of low hanging fruit ripe for the picking?

The Stormtrooper is ALL low hanging fruit at this point. So many ways I can go. So many mod possibilities.

It’s really refreshing.

I’ve owned the car for 3 days and I’ve blogged about it twice.

So refreshing!

More soon.

[— Agent☣Orange —]

Keep going!

[NCGreasemonkey]

I already see next year's calendar as a Bucky and Stormy mash! LOL

Nice work!

[RustRat]

Now I want an NC. To be honest, I'm not sure if I like wood in the NC interior, but I'm sure you'll make it work.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[HarryB]

Thank you! All the right mods done! It is amazing how much the red tint transforms the NC rear view.

[etikoner]

Wow, I had no idea where reverse placement was on the NC. Love the wood you gave Stormy! Can't wait for some lows and cool R32 (or other sweet 16" and wide wheels) lol

[HarryB]

R32 wheels look cool; so do RX7 FD ones if you want 16". I believe you will need spacers for "proper" fitment, but just look at THAT



Another popular conversion here are Mitsubishi EVO OEM wheels, but TBH if you are staying on 17" just keep your current ones, they really look great. Especially with 15-20mm spacers to get the fitment right.

[theothersawyer]

Nice improvements already! New Mexico looks really pretty, I'll have to make it out there one day!

[★ revlimiter ★]

Well... looks like wheels are sorted. I just sent money in exchange for 4 round things.

Huge thanks to Corey for finding them for me.

[—RotorNutFD3S—]

Heh, that took longer than expected. ;)

[Paul B]

Surprised no badges yet.

Looking forward to all things associated with this car.

[Hyper]

R32 wheels look cool; so do RX7 FD ones if you want 16". I believe you will need spacers for "proper" fitment, but just look at THAT



Another popular conversion here are Mitsubishi EVO OEM wheels, but TBH if you are staying on 17" just keep your current ones, they really look great. Especially with 15-20mm spacers to get the fitment right.

no need for spacers they work fine

[HarryB]

I think they are with spacers here. A friend of mine had these exact wheels on his NC and from memory were sitting an inch or so more inwards. Agreed though, they indeed look fine here!

[★ revlimiter ★]

When I bought the Stormtrooper, I noticed the little hood bra. Not bad, right? That’s what I told myself anyway. It wasn’t a full bra. Just the hood. And not that much dirt gets trapped on the hood right?

right?


The horror show.



Yuck.

Seriously, can we all just agree globally to abolish car bras? They’re the devil.

BRAS ARE THE DEVIL! Just say no!!!

Who knows how long this thing has been on the hood. Years? 9 years? The rich black soil underneath makes me think it must have been from the original Florida owner.

Yuck.



This is after washing the dirt off. Yes. THIS IS THE CLEAN VERSION!

Sand, dirt, rocks, and other contaminants were embedded in the paint. Just totally in there. No amount of washing was going to get it cleaner than this.

Enter the detailing stuff.



When I got Sharka painted, I learned a lot. Like. A LOT. So much. My knowledge of detailing and paint care increased exponentially.

I’m pretty good with a DA buffer now. I can even run a non-orbital polisher, though I prefer to leave that on the shelf unless really needed. But I can buff a whole car with decent skill. It’s all in the tools and being shown how to use them.

But this job required clay.



Clay is the opposite of buffing. Clay lifts contaminants from the paint. Buffing mows down and flattens paint. Clay cleans shit out of the paint.

Both were needed for Stormy’s poor hood, but clay needs to come before buffing.


Here it is after claying. Not perfect, but way way better.

A few words about clay. In my opinion, clay is clay. If you’ve got a fresh (non yucky) bar of clay, you’re good. No sense spending a lot on fancy clay. It all picks up contaminants the same. Spray on some quick detailer over clean paint (or even just soapy water) and clay the heck out of it.

Feel along on the surface with your empty hand while you clay with the other. You should feel clean, smooth paint.


Then I buffed. Sorry to have not taken a pic. I was fighting to stay ahead of the sunset.

I’ve got a Meguiar’s DA buffer and like Chemical Guys pads. I used a green one (sorta aggressive) on this at about 5000 rpm. I also used Meguiar’s Ultimate Compound. It’s not too aggressive and seemed like a good place to start.

I plan to give it a 2nd round of buffing when I have time to wash the whole car and then get some wax on the paint. But that’ll come a bit later. This was just an emergency fix of that horrible paint under the bra.

CAR BRAS ARE EVIL!!!





In the shade, you can see a bit of color difference between the bra-damaged paint and the rest. It’s a bit more of a cream color in the bra section. In direct sun you can’t see that at all.

Now to burn that awful piece of vinyl in a bonfire somewhere.

ugh.

bras.