I have been asked by a few people if I had a build thread... well no. So now after 21 years I guess its time.
First I need to say that I am a rare bird... I am the original owner of this old car.
As a kid I drove and loved MG's
But when Miata's came out I really thought I needed something more practical like a Civic. My wife the girl in the first pic actually drove a Miata first. She got to drive one up in the mountains of West Virginia. When she came home "She" told me we needed to get one. Sorry no pic's of the car when it was brand new.
Many things have been tried and have been removed in the years past, but I will give you a list of the major items.
To start off the car is a late 1991 Mariner Blue with the AB option package. Power Steering, Power Windows, cruise control and AC.
There were a few things we got right off the bat.
Low profile Luggage rack... OK don't laugh this was 21 years ago and it helped us take several long trips
A Great Water resistant duffle bag by a company called Atlantic Designs. They were one of the first companies to make accessory products in the US for Miata's
we still use this today. It fit very well on the Luggage rack. Leaving a lot of room for my wife and I.
The first added option after that was an item to make the shift shorter... no not a short shifter, Miata Magazine had a special knob they developed that would drop the shifting point down by about 1/2" over original. This came in looking like a knob off of a Farberware frying pan. The first shift up to 3rd gear bruised my palm...
the knob disappeared, (FAIL)
Next was a power remote trunk release. This worked great we still use it today.
Then a swing out cup holder... another great little item, we still use it today.
When the car was only two years old someone hit me in a parking lot... not much damage but it needed to get fixed. When I went to the body shop I asked the owner what could be done about the small little blemishes the car had. He told me that it was Acid Rain damage and that Mazda was repainting cars that had it... I took the car in to see the Mazda rep. Sure enough they gave me a new paint job. Its the paint I still have on the car today. The paint was a German paint called Glykin Plast. It has held up remarkably well.
Shortly after that the BMW Z3 came out... I really wanted one... so instead I got Leather seats, these were from that same company Atlantic Design. These were all black leather and felt like a soft leather coat.
To add to that I got a short ~16" power antenna.. I loved this but someone broke it off of the car.
I also got a Hard Dog Hard Bar. This was the best thing for stiffening up the chassis I have ever put on the car.
When the car celebrated its 100K mile birthday I gave it new Tokiko HP Shocks and High Performance Springs from (if I remember ) HKX..
Along with the springs I gave it a set of MSW type 45 16" wheels and Dunlop SP Sport 2000's. The wheels looked great but weighed a ton.
Then Disaster struck I hit a Pneumatic Actuator that dropped off of a truck at 80 mph. I just grazed the actuator with the front tire... it spun around and it caught it squarely on my back passenger tire. The actuator punctured the tire passed through the tire and pushed right up through the rim of the wheel.. The car was lifted up in the air and I was facing the asphalt. fortunately my girl remained more composed than I and came done flat on the ground... I was able to get her off of the road safely. The wheel as ruined and I had bent both control arms on the back passenger side. MSW no longer made the type 45's so I was forced to buy another set of wheels.
I got a set of ATS Planets. These are the wheels I have on the car today. They are not too heavy and have held up well.
You can also see the Hard Dog Hard Bar here.
At 200K miles I got a wood steering wheel, Brake handle and Gear shift knob from Moss Motors. They are on the car today.
I also added Fog Lights, and Daytime running lights. I copied a write up from Miata.net. on the running lights... H2 halogens went into the main portion of the turn signal lenses... I then put the turn signal lights in that little unused space. To top this off, I tied them into the lighting circuit so that they would turn on with the parking lights and off with the regular lights... they were cool but also hot the turn lights melted the plastic of the lenses... (FAIL)
To add to this I replaced the Exhaust System with a custom one to allow me to place the spare tire under the car... I will get a picture of this later.. The first rendition of this exhaust used a small turbo muffler. The thing set off car alarms in my complex. So I went back and got a regular muffler off of an Isuzu if I remember. That was a little bit better but was still loud. This arrangement does not have any 90 degree bends so the gas is really flowing when it hits the muffler. I blew the baffles out of two more mufflers even after adding a resonator into the mid pipe. I finally had Midas Muffler make me a new setup with a resonator and canister muffler.. Sounds nice and has held up well.
The car drove like this for years... The biggest thing I had to do was replace Soft Tops. I have gone through 7 in the 21 years I have owned the car. The first two replacements were done under warranty. The vinyl strip that holds the top to the frame kept tearing off. I replaced 4 of the next 5 tops myself.. I have done frame on and frame off... I like frame off the best. The last two tops were knifed! I did the replacement on the first knifed top... a year later when the second one was knifed I had it done.
Then 5 years ago the rear dif blew out and the car sat in the parking lot of my office for 3 years... and rotted!
The next post is my recent rebuild. over the last two years.