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Thread: Vesper the 96 Roadster

  1. #1
    Supporting Member Willywongka's Avatar
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    Vesper the 96 Roadster

    Upon starting this 'build' thread I wished I documented my progress with more pictures, so I will do my best with what I can scrounge up, so lets begin.

    In the beginning of 2006 while I was still living in San Diego the clutch in my 88 Civic hatch decided to go out on me so I was in need of a car quick! I searched for all types of cars Civic EG hatches, 240sx's, MR2's, then my friend suggested I should take a look at some Miatas... I thought sure why not, since I wasn't in the position to be picky since I needed a car to get to work.

    So I ended up buying the first Miata I saw, which was a 97 montego blue. It was in rough condition but it was just a car to get from point a to point b. I kept this car for about two years, in those two years all I really did to it was get a supercharger MP45 installed in it, hardtop, and some Enkei JS+M wheels for it.

    Unfortunately I don't have pictures of the different stages my car went through. This is how my 97 looked before I sold it.








    Then in Sept 2008 I was looking on craigslist just for fun and found this:










    Keep in mind this is when I thought Miata.net was the ONLY Miata forum out there =). So I when I saw this car with the GV nostalgic rear panel I was blown away, I never seen anything like that in my life and I knew I had to have it. So I quickly called the owner up and made an appointment see the car the next day up in Los Angeles to check it out.

    So the next day I drove up to LA to check it out and test drive it. It felt better than my current 97 that's for sure, so I bought it right after and brought it home. Then I quickly put my 97 on craigslist and after about 2 months finally sold it.

    This is how it sat for a few months after I bought it.


    Then I wanted to meet other people that were into Miata's as much as I was so I searched for other Miata forums and stumbled upon CR.net. It was ALLL over for me after finding that site. I got so much inspiration from seeing so many nicely built cars, especially our very own Phatmiata's 96 in LE interior and red Nakamae seats (my dream seats).

    The first item I bought for my car was a set of M2-1028 door mirrors.

    Although I loved the look of the mirrors, it took a while for me to get used to the limited visibility compared to the OEM mirrors.

    Not long after that I picked up the Jetstream hardtop spoiler through Tetsuya Garage.




    more to come...
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    Last edited by Willywongka; 09-11-2012 at 04:21 AM.

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    oldgrayleather (11-18-2019)

  3. #2
    Supporting Member Willywongka's Avatar
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    So towards the end of 2008 I was laid off from my job and with my unemployment ending soon it was time for me to move out of San Diego and moved back up north to Berkeley.

    2009-2010
    The first two items I purchased after moving up to the bay was a set of Jetstream TSI's with carbonfiber overlay through REV9 and Garagestar's license plate relocation kit. I just want to say that I love these TSI's! I think these are the best looking TSI's on the market IMHO, but to each their own.



    Picture at a parking lot in San Francisco.


    After having the M2 door mirrors for a while I began to look for more M2-1028 pieces to put onto my car. I was getting a bit tired of the R-package spoiler on my trunk lid so I decided to look for a different trunk lid. I looked at the KG works spoiler, a few duckbills, Autokenexion lids, but I was looking for something a little more subtle so I scoured the net for more options and stumbled upon a Murakami M2-1028 inspired trunk lid on Randy's cardomain. I figured I was never going to be able to get an actual M2 trunk lid so decided to get the Murakami trunk lid and M2-1028 inspired pedals (which I don't have pictures of unfortunately).





    This is pretty much how it looked for few months.

    I've been itching for a new set of wheels for my car and wasn't sure what to get. I looked at some Equips 01's, Equip 03's, but wasn't really sold on them. It was around that time I heard that Maxime of REV9 put his 14" RS Watanabe's type B on the market. So I contacted him and got them a month or so later. After receiving them from Maxime, they sat in my room for a few months. I wanted to get more use out of the current tires on my Enkei's before purchasing new tires. After about a few months of driving, I realized it was probably gonna be a while before the tires would go bald so I got impatient and decided to just slap those Wats on my car with some new tires.





    2011
    The next big purchase I made might be one of my best pieces I've bought for my car. The KG works gauge cluster with RS-products type-MG gauge faces.


    I love green backlit gauges, I wonder why the new cars don't use green anymore, its always some kind of orange or red.

    The gauges during the the day.


    The gauges at night.


    I also picked up some cool S-special door cards (thanks for the correction Roadsternut, previously thought they were V-Special door cards) from Phatmiata a little while ago that I finally got around to installing after removing all that black silicone goop from the old ratty plastic weather sheets and replacing it with thicker mill sheets and using Tyvek tape instead of that gorilla snot. It was such a pain in the ass, either way the rain shouldn't damage these cool door cards now! (I hope).


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    Last edited by Willywongka; 11-07-2012 at 08:17 PM.

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  5. #3
    4,000 rpm - entering the fun zone etikoner's Avatar
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    YES!

    This car is so sweet, seriously one of the cleanest nicely modded Miatas i've seen. Love the Watanabe's on there as well.

    Try looking for the zoom blue mirror for your M2 Mirrors, you'll have a much better view with them on!

    And that trunk is pretty sweet. Ugh haha. Can't wait for you to post up moar!!!11oneone

  6. #4
    Supporting Member Willywongka's Avatar
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    2012
    I got in on a FM frame rail GB and brought them to Retromodern to have them installed as well as some RangeRover fender sidemarkers


    This is how it stayed for a few months.




    I think it was back in 2010, Phatmiata was selling a rare carbon fiber Monsterflow intake that I missed out on buying. I was a bit sad that I couldn't get that piece and told myself that if I ever saw it again I would not let it go next time. So in 2012 a little after MazdaRoadster started, it popped up again in the FS section and it just so happens Phatmiata was selling it again! I wasted no time this time and quickly contacted him and made a quick payment for the piece I missed out on 2 years prior.

    Monsterflow CAI installed with heatshield.


    I'm sure many of you have grown attached to your car over the years or even months of owning it and you'd hope that nothing will EVER happen to it. Well that dreaded day came at the end of July 2012 like the grim reaper. I parked in front of my girlfriends house and was just hanging out and watching tv when we heard knocking on the door. My GF answered it and she yelled for me to come down saying its about your car... I was like what could it be? Once I got down there, her neighbor was standing there and told me that she backed into my car and she was admitting fault.

    I calmly walked out to assess the damage to my car. Some how I kept my calm and didn't go buck wild on her neighbor. Even my girlfriend said 'Oh no! He loves that car!' The whole time I was just telling myself to calm down.

    So I walked out to this.






    So I got all her info and stuff. So I guess I was lucky that someone honest damaged my car, it could have been worse. So I called my insurance the next day and started the process of looking for a reliable body/paint shop. I don't know about you guys but I don't trust just any old body/paint shop with my car. So after a bunch of research and asking around, Kenjo at Garagestar referred me to a shop not far from me called Car N Bike Moto in Vallejo. So I ended up bringing it there, where it stayed for 3 weeks.

    The process:






    When I brought it in, I talked to the guys there and told them about some fitment issues I had with my trunk lid and GV rear panel and asked them to see what they could do about it. Before bringing my car in, I thought my car was perfectly straight and it was the trunk lid and GV panel that was the problem. So In the middle of fixing my car they found that the right side of my car was tweaked a little bit which was causing the ill fitment of my parts.

    After straightening out the right side and welding on the rear quarter panel they had to shave off some areas of the GV panel for it to fit flush with the car.


    After countless hours of shaving and test fitting the trunk we end up with this. It seems the Murakami trunk lid was made perfectly and it sits on my car perfectly even with two trunk springs - amazing! And this WHOLE time I was cursing them for claiming their trunk fits perfectly when it didn't on my car, guess it was my car's fault! =).


    Car all painted and ready be pieced together within the next few days.


    Car assembled and ready for me to pick up... and better than EVER!




    Who would have thought my car getting hit would be a blessing in disguise!? Now everyone don't go and purposely get into accidents all at once =). I was more than happy with the results than I thought I would. If you guys live in the bay and need a shop for your car, look no further!

    This is the first picture I took of my car after getting it out of the shop. I normally hate the pictures I take of my car, but I thought this one was decent.


    This is how my car looks as of 9/3/2012. These pictures were taken at 'The Function' this past weekend with some local Miata owners including Kenjo of GarageStar.

    Thank you for these cool pictures of my car Justin.






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    Last edited by Willywongka; 09-03-2012 at 09:41 PM.

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  8. #5
    3,000 rpm - starting to feel the power The Platypus's Avatar
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    Damn, I'm impressed. Especially with the rear quarter repair.
    Brandon
    My Build | flikr | BC Garage Blog | Instagram - @bcgarage

  9. #6
    4,000 rpm - entering the fun zone etikoner's Avatar
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    Wow, that body shop was really thorough, Good thing Kenjo recommended them!
    Getting your baby hurt sucks, but that shop really did a good job lol. Good thing the lady was honest

    A 1.6 dash would be icing on the cake interior wise..

  10. #7
    Supporting Member Willywongka's Avatar
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    Yeah man! I would love to install a 1.6 dash in my car... Ahhh. We'll see what the future holds for my car. Thanks for the compliments Etikoner btw!

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  12. #8
    4,000 rpm - entering the fun zone wannafbody's Avatar
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    Good move losing the grapes

  13. #9
    4,000 rpm - entering the fun zone Gene Rodriguez's Avatar
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    wow so lucky on the gv tail coming with your buy...

  14. #10
    Super Moderator atank's Avatar
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    Man that repair job is one of the best that I have seen, and your Roadster looks wonderful!!

  15. #11
    2,000 rpm - light wheelspin, no bog here! ctrench's Avatar
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    oh ma gawsh!! it looked pretty cool without the rear quarter skin!! and i want GV tails SOOO bad!!

  16. #12
    3,000 rpm - starting to feel the power iRoadster's Avatar
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    One of my muse cars.
    I had no idea you had picked this thing up way back in '06 with the GV rear end already on the car.

  17. #13
    Supporting Member artcentermiata's Avatar
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    This car is very classically sexy! me like!

  18. #14
    Idling - Listen to it purr... Justin's Avatar
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    Your car is one of my inspirations, I felt refreshed reading this thread and finally reading up on its progress since Day 1

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  20. #15
    3,000 rpm - starting to feel the power maharaj's Avatar
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    Awesome! Awesome! Awesome car! All of the attention to detail. Good work.

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