My neglected roadster

[GripFTW]

I'll confess up front that I ignored every rule of buying a used car when I bought my Miata. I wanted a white NA as a fun project and missed out on an exceptional car at a great price and determined that I wouldn't let that happen again. I ignored all of the shortcomings of this car and payed more than I should have when picked this Miata up. She looked OK, but not great. Has some issues, but nothing I couldn't fix, right?

Over the past couple years and I've established baseline for maintenance. Unfortunately, while doing the timing belt I found a worn keyway. Did the Loctite fix - no big deal. After going through and replace the coolant hoses I start to overheat! Just that pain in the neck water plug on the back of the motor. Despite each setback I seem to manage to get back running every time. Another fun part of each project I have undertaken uncovering a new shortcut taken by a creative PO. Someone who did just enough to get her back on the road or pawned off on the next sucker who had to have a Miata.

I've got a few more projects to undertake over the next few weeks. Knowing that I turn weeks into months and months into years I am hopeful that starting this thread will keep me on track.

You can't start a build thread without some pics so here are a few of mine.

June 2010 - worn keyway closeup


March 2011 replacing hoses in the tiny old garage. Thank goodness for mobile task lighting.


May 2012 - new garage and ready to start some more projects


This week out for a parts run parked next to another sweet white roadster


Comments, questions, constructive criticism are all welcome. I've learned a lot from lurking in the background of many of the Miata forums. Hopefully my adventures in frustration will help someone else down the road.

Thanks for reading,
Greg

[eaeaerick]

The NB wheels actually look nice.

[GripFTW]

Thanks. I hated the wheels the PO had on the car with some off brand tires so this was probably my first upgrade to the car. I'd seen pictures of the NB wheels on a few NAs and thought they looked good.

Update for today - I have a small stash of parts accumulating in the garage and finally received a replacement filter for the Racing Beat intake I have. Got it installed and man does it sound different. I never remember to take pics when I am working so I'll have to grab some later.

[GripFTW]

I received an email from Planet Miata a month or more ago with an ad for their repro Beltline Moldings. At $99 I thought they looked like a pretty good deal. Fast forward to yesterday and my thoughtful wife bought them for me for my Birthday and my oldest son insisted we install them together.

Nicely packaged for shipping


Old and crusty


Really filthy underneath


New molding installed.


All in all it only took 30 minutes or so to do both sides. Really happy with the outcome and a huge improvement in the appearance.

[— Agent☣Orange —]

Wow, instant improvement!

[wannafbody]

Do the old ones just pry off?

[GripFTW]

Pretty much. There might be a better way if you wanted to save the clips. The moldings come with new ones so I didn't need to worry about it.

[etikoner]

I love those side door moldings.

[I<3flippyheadlights]

Do the old ones just pry off?

There are also two pins, one in the front of the door and the other is in the back of the door jam. You pop those out and pry it off the top without breaking the clips.

[itsMikey]

definitely on my list now looks good!

[GripFTW]

I recently replaced my cracked exhaust manifold for a lightly used header I bought a while back but hadn't taken the time to install. While the exhaust was out I took the opportunity to check out the motor mounts.

Hmm, they're not supposed to look like that are they?


After the exhaust swap the weather here has been chilly by FL standards and the car has never really run great when it is cold. Now, however it has been running like crap. I suspected that the extension I added to the o2 sensor was the culprit so today I unplugged it completely and went for a quick drive to warm it up. Had the typical "open loop" crappy even when warm. Stopped and plugged in the o2 sensor and back to the real craptacular stuttering and bogging I've had recently. So wouldn't that mean that there is a signal from the o2 sensor?

Back in the garage I start looking at the wiring and looking just upstream from the o2 connector I noticed a shared ground at the back of the intake manifold.


It's pretty crusty down there so I pulled the whole mess apart. Sanded the contacts and the brackets at the contact points. I also moved the ground connectors to directly contact the bracket rather than above the loom holder. Not sure if that is important but it made sense to me.

Fired her up and she runs great. Pulls smoothly through the rev range. Now I am wondering if that will improve the cold startup running too. Will try to sneak out for a quick drive tomorrow to see.

On to the bad news. One/some of the POs of the car have done some odd electrical "fixes" and questionable style choices in the history of the car. I was toying with swapping the original gauge cluster back into the car and so I did some exploring today to see how it looks. Well, I should have left it alone. There was already a crack in the gauge hood that had been repaired at one point. The stupid thing practically crumbled in my hands.

It broke into a few more pieces as I picked it up from here thinking I still might try to fix it.


That's it for now and for the next few days. Hope you all have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

[maharaj]

Good luck with that repair, but might be a little easier and save time to get a new one.

[GripFTW]

I completely agree. When it was "only" in three pieces I considered trying to glue it. Now that it is shattered I am just going to get a new one. How frustrating would it be to put in all that effort only to break it again trying to reinstall it?

[Heyitsryan]

I bought my miata in bad condition as well, I was in the same boat. I just wanted to get in another one, luckily mine cleaned up real nice!

I've got a set of nb wheels as race wheels, they look absolutely phenomenal on na's!

nice build thread!

[GripFTW]

Thanks Ryan. I've been slowly working away on it and picked up some motivation lately.

I think I can safely say that cleaning up the ground previously has taken care of my cold start issue too. The car sat for a week while I was on vacation and the first thing I did on New Years morning was to go out to grab a coffee. It ran perfectly!


Mini update:
I received my minty fresh new gauge hood.


And put it in.


Oh, so much better