Let me start of by giving you alittle information about myself. I am 38 years old Married with kids and I have alsway had a love for cars. more of a show car with loud systlem I did alot of competition car audio as I was growing up and have learned alot throughout the years.My last mazda was also more show then go . I build a complete fiberglass spare tire well false flor to house one 12 and three amps all in stealth mode and could haul all the groceries I wanted. Well I made the mistake of driving my 2003 Mazda Protege5 to Tail of the dragon with a bunch of other Mazda friends and allthough I took 3rd in EECMM car show my car was a nogo on the dragon I stayed in back and was not that much fun to drive. After that car hit 100,000 Miles I traded it in for an 08 G6 this was alittle quicker than the P5 and almost new at that time. I drove the G6 for a year and a half and was talking to a friend at work about Miatas and after two weeks of talking to him one day I said I am gonna ask my wife if I could buy a miata . I had to sweeten the deal to her so my deal I told her was hey why dont we get rid of your Kia I give you my G6 and let me by a cheap miata that I could play around with while saving a ton of money on gas. My wife is alittle rough on cars so her Kia wasnt the best looking thing in the world and my G6 looked like it was brand new so she was like hell yea lets do it. So I purchased my 1993 Miata at the end of September for 1500.00 on Craigslist. It worked out buying it then because my Birthday is August 3rd so my Bday gift from my waife was a new top to replace the worn out ripped up mess my car came with. since then every chance I get I do something to my car so I will Move on to pics to show progress.
This is a pic of my old P5 and the enclosure I made just to show.
Ok enough of the old Slow Protege 5
This is my 1993 Miata the day I brought it home . As you can tell its got a ripped top and a nasty right rear fender.
After I bought the Miata like I said the first thing I did was replace the soft top. I purchased a top with rear glass window that does not zip out and a new rain rail. along with installing that I did a foamectomy. Installed an alarm with auto door locks and removed the sunvisors. Im 6'2 and needed to be able to have extra headroom and see out the top of my window. I did not take any pics with new top on but as my progress pics go the top can be seen it in them.
Next I moved on the the body work. I went to school some years ago just to learn how to work on my own car. I would never do body work as a job but as a do it yourself and like said before I have a wife who is rough on cars its nice to know how to fix a dented pannel.
Here is a couple of pics of the repair I did in my drive way.
After Getting that all patched up I was on the hunt for a paint and body shop to start the process of getting my car painted. I found a local shop 3 miles from my house. When I starting talking to the shop owner his first quote to paint my car was 1000.00 . I said damn I gonna have to save up. So I asked him what if I did all the prep work like sand car down and remove lights and rearview mirrors. he came back and said 500.00. I was like damn thats good deal I will start saning my car when I am off work and bring it back when its ready. he then said hold on I have some red paint in my garage that was left over from another customer so he went and got it and put alittle bit on a stick and we held it up to my car and it was close enough for me if it was gonne be a good price. price on the paint was free( I could handle that ). I was like now how much would it cost if I did all the prep work and brought car back he says 200 bucks so it was 100 for paint and 100 for clear and hardner. I was like oh damn I can handle that so I told him give me a couple of weeks to get car sanded because I didnt have a garage and could only do it on the weekends. He then tells me that I could use his shop . His tools and I should be able to have it ready for paint by the end of the day using his tools ( cost of this was free as well ) I went back the next morning and got to work. He also helped me get out a few more dents one in the hood that was small and both front and rear bumper was cracked we repaired those as well.
Pics of this as it went.
It took him about a week to paint my car who was I to complain it was almost free. Plus I had purchase a DG front lip that I was having him paint match with the car.
Here it is the day I got it home.
The next morning I installed my Lip and painted my stock rims black untill I could afford some new rims.
Here is a Pic of the next day
I believe all this was done around November I cannot remember the exact time. I really didnt do anything else to the car for the rest of 2012.
Moving on the 2013. I wanted new rims and tires so bad I could not stand the OEM wheels so I had been saving up for what I wanted and was not settling for anything else. I purchased 4 15 inch Gloss black Konig Feathers and had them wrapped in Kumho AST 205/50/15 inch tires
Here is pick with new rims and tires. Sorry for the rusty rotors but that was next on my list
Like I just stated I wanted new rotors and with those I also bought new brakes. I picked up a set of OEM mudguards for 50.00 on craigslist that needed repairs so I Fixed them up like new and also Purchased a set of FM V-maxx coilovers. I installed everything last weekend and here is the only pic I have taken because I need to wash my car.
Next I am saving up to do a 1.8 swap so thats gonna be awhile with little to no updates of things done to car because I gotta save.
I am sure I have done other little things but I cannot remember at the moment.
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now the waiting game begins. And this is not even getting installed till I install a 1.8 engine I pick up next weekend
Originally Posted by atank
