beatles4's Chrystal White Miata build

[Andy]

Well this is my official build thread for my car. Right now due to known miata primer problems i have paint falling off when i wash the car. However soon it will be repainted and look very nice.



Alright my dad got the car about at least six years ago and since day one i have been working on it. When we first got it it had mass amount of sand like the previous owner was smuggling south beach. So I had to replace the trunk carpet. I have been doing little things here and there until I turned 16. Then i started to buy the some bigger important things. Recently I took it to motion motorsport down behind lexus of west kendall. They are great people to work with. I had them check out my ac and get my soft top checked out due to leaks.

before the car was officially mine my dad and I installed the turn signal intake lights and we installed the radio in there a crude way. The car did not come with a radio to begin with and we had absolutely no idea on what we were doing. It was a mess. I did not do it right until a few months ago. For my 16th birth day I bought myself some upgrades for the car.
1. I purchased some floor mats. The ones that were in the car were weather tech that looked ugly.
2. I replaced the pedals with some better ones since the rubber ones were completely worn and almost off completely. Here is what I put in. 909-330-M_1.jpg
3. I replaced the visors with visor blanking plates.
4. I bought a very nice leather wrap for the steering wheel.

I had the clutch replaced about 3 years ago. I did some nice things to the interior to spruce it up.

The first real upgrade I did to my car was to buy a hardtop from someone local. I got one hell of a deal and liked it. Only problem is i want to drive with the roof down from time to time so i got him to throw in the cart for the hardtop.
DSC_0150 v2.jpg

After that came the nicer 95 M bbs rims from etikoner.
DSC_0020.jpg


well i have some photos of what i did recently



this is what my car looked like with the wiring before i started. Nothing wrong just wanted to make the wiring correct. It was wired straight to the fuse box under the steering wheel and did not give me confidence.



this is the factory pigtail that was in the car. Apparently the car came wired from the factory for a radio, even though mine did not have one.



wires going to the speakers.



found out that i had to poke these out to get the speaker wire to go through.



this is how the wire went to the door initially not really a pretty site.



this is my attempt at soldering the aftermarket stereo harness to a harness i bought online for the factory pig tail.



there it is finally found the factory speaker wiring. It only took me a few years to find it. Boy would it have made life easier if i would have found it years back when i first installed the radio.



car being taken apart. Not a pretty sight.



made a quick break for some green tea. Can not get enough Arizona green tea.



put the car back together.



here is my awesome power antenna that i got from a forum member. Thanks by the way works great.



here is more photos of the car taken apart



last here is my nice leather steering wheel skin that i got. It is perforated and is really nice. I highly recommend it.

[Andy]

Here are the door sills from clutch dust. Thanks

Here is how they look installed

[Andy]

Got this from a friend SFL Miata. Some nice fm swaybars and some racing beat endlinks. Thanks again.

[Andy]

I removed the factory metal bracing from the rear of the car near the differential and thought it looked hideous.



Then I sanded it and painted it up.

[Andy]

As for future things. I plan on doing small things here and there. Maybe replacing the speakers since there are kind of messed up from being in the car with some mold when it use to leak 4 years ago, but the big things are

1. Get a bossfrog double hoop rollbar like in this photo "Sorry who ever this photo belongs to I just found it on google"


2. Get a better shock and spring combo. I am running 143,000 miles on stock. I am thinking of either buying a package like the FM stage 1 or buying parts separately like the koni yellows on fm springs with fat cat bump stops and maybe some isc rear top hats.

3. replace all the suspension bushings. I have read that it is a good idea to do from quite a few different sources. I just dont know which ones to get yet. Ill probably do this the same time that I do the shocks for ease.

4. Get some new tires. Right now on my bbs rims I have some wanli chinese tires in the front that are not that great in the rain and are very noisy. In the meantime Ill be running my other rims until I can afford better tires. The tires of choice for me will probably be the 195-50-15 Yokahama s drives.

5. The last thing i would like to do would get the car painted. Not just taking it to mako or some other not so great place but getting a real quality paint job. Someone that actually takes pride in their work and that will actually take off the bumper and what not. Not just masking off areas. Only problem is that I know this will be expensive but I think well worth it.

That should be it, but I am sure there will be lots of other things ill do here and there.

[Andy]

Any input or advise from anyone would be nice. If you did something that you would recommend ...
hell I am interested in you recommendation for suspension or even bushings

[Andy]

Well today i went online to advanced auto parts and bought new ngk spark plugs and wires. if you look online there are all sorts of coupons for online. i think i used the one if you spend $50 Then take $25 off. The total came to $52 before the coupons so i ended up spending $30 total. Not bad for new plugs and wires.

Anyway the car feels much better now. It feels smoother through its revs. I like it and would recommend it if it has not been done in a long while.

[Andy]

On thursday I found out that my economics teacher is a miata enthusiast. We were talking for a while, and he ended up giving me his old shift knob that was a pistol type. It is pretty nice. Ill post up some pics tomorrow. I just have to drive with it and see how it is.

[Andy]

They other day my mom drove my car and destroyed my front lip. She parked to meet us for lunch and when we switch cars so I can go home I realize what my mom did. She parked a drive the front lip into a parking space and stayed parked there for an hour. The lip cracked and bent. I ha to get some super glue an glue it, then let it dry and then tried to sand it down. I also bolted up through more holes on the lip so it would maintain a batter shape. Here is a pic. The super glue and sand method made it look quite all right now.



Now it is fine and you have to look very hard to notice it.

[Andy]

Alright it is official I purchased a bossfrog double hoop rollbar. Now all I have to do is wait for it to get here and then install it. Ill make a great build thread.

[Andy]

Oh I almost forgot about the shift knob that my economics teacher gave me. Here are some pics of it. I weighed it compared to stock and it was just a few grams lighter. Not much at all. Feels great.

[Andy]

Install of pads was harder than anticipated but I got it done. I like my braking now.

[Andy]

I just signed up for my firstautocross this coming weekend on saturday march,25. I chose number 2112. So far I know I will see SFL_MIATA out there. hope to see some more people. Can not wait to try out my rollbar that is almost done and an autocross.

[Andy]

My rollbar is installed. Pics are to come. One of the best upgrades so far.

[morr]

Nice progress so far! How do you like the Axxis pads overall? That's pretty cool that your teacher's a roadster enthusiast too