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Thread: The Slow Pursuit of Vintage.

  1. #91
    6,000 rpm - mere mortals would shift JamieH's Avatar
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    Been sunny today. So, time to grab a few pics.















    I spent most of yesterday shinning her up. Want her to look good come Sat. for Cars & Coffee in Raleigh. Unfortunately there is still deep scratches that can't be gotten out. Like a few on the rear bumper. Then there's more rock chips than I'd care for. I did take some touch up paint to the chips that I saw. But, it's part of the cost of daily driving a car. Finally, there's a few tiny spots that the clear coat, from a respray from whenever before I had her, is peeling, plus the one large area on the driver's fender behind the tire below the body line.

    A respray would be nice, it's just not in the cards for the foreseeable future.

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  3. #92
    4,000 rpm - entering the fun zone Ihatecars's Avatar
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    Your car makes me hurt. I want my GV tails now.

    Awesome stuff, Jamie!

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  5. #93
    6,000 rpm - mere mortals would shift JamieH's Avatar
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    Dude, your car is going to look so good with the GV tails.

    Honestly, the more I think about it, the more I really wish I had found a Miata that fit my requirements that wasn't black. I mostly have had black cars my whole driving life. And with all the awesome colors Miatas come in, I some times feel like I'm missing out. Merlot is so damn sweet and unique, Laguna Blue is the best blue for NAs, Starlight is such an understated but sexy color, and BRG is the perfect vintage color. In comparison, black just seems... average. And holy balls, keeping black clean is a hobby in itself.

    I mean, I like black, and at this point I wouldn't trade Betty for another. But I've got too many black cars. Maybe one day I'll have a 2nd Miata.

  6. #94
    6,000 rpm - mere mortals would shift JamieH's Avatar
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    Well, this has been a long time coming. I knew my radiator needed to be replaced since it's been brown in the 3 years I've had her. I was hoping to push it to 180k miles when the timing belt would be due. Well, after seeing some stress cracks in it near the cap and knowing I'm going to M@TG this coming weekend, it was time to change it out.

    So, being stressed for time and money, but still wanting a good replacement, I found that KOYO has an OEM replacement. Found it on amazon thanks to a fellow Miata guy. I have a friend who has Amazon Prime and he did me the favor of purchasing it and using his Prime to get it to me ASAP.

    Well, the rad came in Tues. and I drove around town picking up the hoses from the local auto parts chains. Once I had everything I got to work.

    Aight, so here's the pretty new rad.







    Here's the stress cracks that told me I really shouldn't chance things anymore.



    Drain the old coolant out.



    Then get the intake crossover tube and airbox out of the way. Much more access to the lower hose going to the engine.



    Then pull the old rad and fans out.



    I also replaced the T-stat, but no pics of that.

    Finally, install the new rad and re-install everything else and forget to get a picture of it untill the car is back in the garage.



    While I was at it I loosened the lower A-arm bolts for the front suspension while off the ground then tightened them back down once she was back on the ground. Was an idea I got from Zach that could explain why Betty sits slightly higher in the front than the rear. I'm not sure if it had an affect or not, but I did measure the pinch welds to the ground and they're at 6" front and rear on both sides.

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  8. #95
    6,000 rpm - mere mortals would shift JamieH's Avatar
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    The USPS attempted to deliver this last Friday at 2:22pm. I was home, but heard no door bell or knock at my door, nor was a note left. If it wasn't for the online tracking I wouldn't've known. Tried running to the post office later that day, but the truck hadn't returned. Anyways, picked it up today.





    MmmMmm, tasty. Straight from the land of the rising sun, Betty's birth nation, and origin of some of the best Roadster parts. Got lucky and found that Zoom Engineering has a shop on Rakuten Global. Buying directly from Zoom saved quite a bit of coin; the fuel lid was $157 shipped.

    Looks to have also came with some Japanese toothpaste! Japan is so weird! That's easily enough metal polish to keep the lid looking good and then some. I was completely surprised to find it was a full sized tube. From all the pictures I had seen of the polish I thought it was a small sample size.

    There's also a pair of some other shiny bits for Betty that I've ordered through Rod at Tetsuya Garage. I'm going to try to hold off installing the fuel lid untill I get them. To distract me, I'm going to buff, polish, and wax my girl today and tomorrow. Washed her yesterday, so after a quick check to see if she needs claying, I'll be getting to work.

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  10. #96
    6,000 rpm - mere mortals would shift JamieH's Avatar
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    It takes soo long to buff and polish a car with a DA buffer, even a Miata. But it is so worth it in the end. And it's the perfect first step to installing the new Zoom fuel lid.

    OK, so here's what Zoom includes with the fuel lid.



    Hinge
    Small roll of foam gasket material
    Some hardware and a small allen wrench
    Flat spring
    Lid
    Lid surround/base



    Instructions
    Zoom sticker
    Pikal Care metal polish (not shown)

    Instruction sheet is only in Japanese, but there's pictures. Which is plenty to figure out how it installs.

    First, buff and polish the old, stock lid to a near perfect shine. This is obviously an optional step. Now the before picture is about as good as a stock fuel lid is ever going to look.



    Two small bolts hold the lid in place. They're located as shown. A phillips or likely 8mm socket will remove them. Hold on to these, they get re-used.



    Also, the four bolts the hold the filler neck to the body, along with the latch will need to be removed. Again a phillips or likely 8mm on the four bolts. The nut hold the latch is a 14mm. Just need to reach in the trunk to wiggle the latch out.



    Using the two bolts that held the stock lid, install the hinge.



    Before installing the lid surround/base, apply the foam gasket material around the bottom of the lip of the surround/base.



    Now install the surround/base slipping the hinge through the square hole. Use the 4 new bolts and washers that came with the lid to secure the surround/base. Tighten them a little at a time, crossing back and forth to bring the surround/base all the way down, gentle compressing the foam gasket as it goes. Once the bolts are fully tight re-install the latch.



    Now for the center piece, the Zoom lid itself. Using the included allen head bolt, place the flat spring, with the Z bend angled down, between the lid and hinge. Tighten the bolt with the included allen wrench.



    Don't forget to put the cap back on. The Zoom lid relies on the cap for tension against the flat spring. If you close the lid without the cap, you'll either have to have long arms or wedge the fuel lid lever open if your top is up or your HT is on. I was pretty tired and made this mistake last night/this morning. For a brief moment I thought the flat spring needed to be adjusted.



    Now close the lid and enjoy the the new shiny.







    Optional, place sticker in desired location.



    Alright, so, thoughts on the zoom lid. It looks fan-frickin-tastic as is out of the box without any polishing. But, it doesn't match the chrome door handles or HT striker covers. I'll try polishing it a bit to see if it'll match them any better. The hinge has a bit of wobble to it, which I'm assuming is to allow the lid to more easily line up with the pin of the latch. There's zero wobble with the lid latched. I might try to see if the hinge can be tightened up somehow (maybe some e-clips?). When the lid is popped open, it bounces a bit and the sound it makes is a bit chincy. That's a bit annoying and I'm wondering if wrapping the spring in electrical tape or something will get rid of the noise. There's no audible noise or tactile feel when you close the lid. It closes softly but securely. Everything needed for install is included and the tube of metal polish is more than enough to probably last the lifetime of the car. The install is incredibly easy and only requires a phillips screwdriver/8mm socket & ratchet w/ 3" ext., 14mm wrench, and an allen wrench which is included.

    Overall, I'm plenty satisfied with it.

    Once I get the other shiny bits I've ordered the exterior of Betty will be nearly complete. I would also like to get some vintage style rocker stripes with "EUNOS" script in silver eventually. Beyond that there's nothing else I really want to add to or change about the exterior... except maybe a Clubman GT front bumper. But that's kind of a dream piece.

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  12. #97
    3,000 rpm - starting to feel the power mx54life's Avatar
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    Nice work....

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  14. #98
    3,000 rpm - starting to feel the power freedomgli's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by JamieH View Post
    Beyond that there's nothing else I really want to add to or change about the exterior... except maybe a Clubman GT front bumper. But that's kind of a dream piece.
    Just keep dreamin
    Keep on dreamin (gotta believe)
    And if you really believe in time you will make your dreams come true
    (uh just keep dreamin)
    Keep dreamin don't stop dreamin
    Cause no one else can live a dream but you

    It's taken me 10 years and I'm only about 1/2 way to achieving my dream Miata. Don't give up the dream!

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  16. #99
    2,000 rpm - light wheelspin, no bog here! Golden Stallion's Avatar
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    Can't wait to see the other shiny parts you got. Any word on that suspension you have been talking about since I first got my first miata. Anyways, beautiful car as always Jamie.

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  18. #100
    6,000 rpm - mere mortals would shift JamieH's Avatar
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    Well, considering the Tecnas have been put on indefinite hiatus because 949 was having issues with the supplier, my suspension plans kind of are as well. No big deal really, lots of other things to focus on.

  19. #101
    6,000 rpm - mere mortals would shift JamieH's Avatar
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    Another box from Japan came in today.



    I was pretty happy to see this box, hence the first pic of an opened box. Here's some more as I went through it.











    Aww yeah, Runabouts!



    For these to show up today was great. Today is the day I bought Betty 4 years ago, Feb. 13th 2011. Installing the Runabouts made for a nice way to spend the 4 year anniv. with Betty.

    Bye, stock power mirrors, you've served me well.



    That's right, power mirrors, so I had to pull the door panels to unplug them. The connection is towards the bottom of the door.





    Eww, dirty. The paint under the driver's side mirror cleaned up pretty well actually.

    But...



    Little Closer.



    Another angle.



    Paint build up from the mirror not being removed at the time of the partial respray that was done to Betty by a previous owner. Crap, the Runabout bases won't cover that either. Wasn't too much I could do about it either. At best, I used some 1,000, then 2,500 wet sand paper to knock the edge of the build up down then buffed and polished it back out with some M105 & M205. The paint under the mirror is the OEM single stage and I accidentally burned through to the primer in two small spots. Masked them as well as I could with some touch-up paint. Looks OK to the naked eye, but the flash of the camera shows the ugly.





    With flash:





    Oh well, just one more hash mark for flares plus 0 offset 15" Wats, heh. Maybe in a couple more years? Who knows.

    Anyways, here's the driver's side installed.







    Here's a shot showing the stock power mirror on the left and the new Runabout M2 on the right.



    Big difference.

    Now both installed.



    And one more shot of the whole car.



    Didn't get a chance to see them outside in the sun because of the paint issues I tried to address. I did drive with just the driver's side installed and no passenger mirror when I went to Autozone to grab the sandpaper I needed. So I got a small taste of driving with them. The field of view is smaller of course, I knew that going into them. The blue tint is different, might end up slipping in some normal convex mirrors like Adam did on Sharka.

    But, now I feel like Betty looks like the vintage Roadster I imagine her to be. I tell myself I've done so much so far, but there's still so much that I plan to do.

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  21. #102
    Ninja Messiah kung fu jesus's Avatar
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    Great work!

    You sure you want to do 15" wats at 0 offset? Are you going to add flares or do some pulling on your fenders?

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  23. #103
    6,000 rpm - mere mortals would shift JamieH's Avatar
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    If I ever get the balls to cut the quarters, flares + some 0 offset 15x8 Wats will happen.

    As is, my brain says Betty is too nice to cut up. But every time I find a new issue with her paint, I think about flares and Wats. The mileage is getting on up there too, 168,3xx currently. I don't see me getting rid of the car in the foreseeable future, but still, there's no going back after cutting those quarters. So, it's just one of those things that crosses my mind from time to time for now.

    But that's way off if I decided to go down that path. I need to stop putting off suspension. I keep joking with Zach (your old 10AE) that I ought to just get Xidas and be done with it. Overkill considering my intentions, but why not right? Xida all the Miatas!

  24. #104
    2,000 rpm - light wheelspin, no bog here! OBD1 kenobi's Avatar
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    Man, thats a great looking build. Its a weird feeling (in a good way) because I also have a black miata and these are the some of the mods I plan to do. Keep it going. Those pics give a great idea of how things look in a black miata. Congratulations on the great choice of parts.

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  26. #105
    3,000 rpm - starting to feel the power morr's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by JamieH View Post
    If I ever get the balls to cut the quarters, flares + some 0 offset 15x8 Wats will happen.

    As is, my brain says Betty is too nice to cut up. But every time I find a new issue with her paint, I think about flares and Wats...
    ^I like your thinking! I've got flares and the same spec wheels waiting to install on mine, but I cheaped out and got RKR's

    I remember your car from MATG, super clean. I'm really digging the new mirrors and fuel lid with your overall theme.
    RoadsterLife<3

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