Ruckkehr's 二回目 Second Lap: Clean Build

[—RuckkehrMiata—]

I have been quiet for a long time. This is because a few months shy of a year ago I moved 3000 miles away from Phatmiata's lap to the cradle of tech civilization. My new home is the San Francisco Bay Area, where I am making enough money to finally do what I really want to (evidenced by what I have already done before typing this book out). Unfortunately, my car could not come with me right away. I left mazdaroadster ( I didn't want to, but not having my car and being on a miata forum kinda really sucked. I really care about you guys, but not having Nikaime was painful haha ) and stuck to some Facebook groups in the area. I really have had a blast taking public transit everywhere (), but it was finally time to drop the dough to get her shipped out.

Tonight, she was unloaded from the truck with my tool bags and teins in the trunk (being installed someday, I can't work on her in my complex's parking lot). I raced to the gas station, dumped in a full tank of premium and put another 3 or 4 miles on her right away. Even my wife was practically pissing herself.



I was finally inside of her again...



I am sure some of you can understand the calm and content joy I felt right then. Then came denial, everything about her felt wrong. The clutch was off, the shifting too buttery, the steering wrong. But after a few miles during my reunion circuit I fell back into old habits. The downshifts were coming naturally, I completely forgot she was non-power steering, I didn't even mind that she was entirely coated with dust from the open-carrier trip.



Now, she does have some problems that need addressed. I moved right after installing my front lip, so one bolt is missing and one corner drags on the drivers side tire. Her oil is ancient and probably really bad, oil pressure hovering below 25 at idle. She misses slightly at low rpms under load/acceleration. All things that a little TLC and time this weekend will resolve.

Now, for what you really want to see. I had been stockpiling parts in my closet since I moved (never stopped buying!). I knew I couldn't let her sit her first night in CA without SOMETHING new on her... sooooo.....







I picked these autoblaze mirrors up from a clubroadster dude named Bo Gaut, who is seriously my favorite parts supplier.

I also have a Zoom fuel lid going on this weekend!



Nikaime lives again, and this thread will begin frequent updates once more. My love goes out to all you guys, Phat for the forums and welcoming me so warmly to the tampa crowd while I was there. This is the next chapter tho.

Wow guys, it's been 5 years. 3 years here on MR alone.

[— Phatmiata —]

welcome back!!!

[—RuckkehrMiata—]

welcome back!!!

Feels amazing to be!

[—RuckkehrMiata—]

I promised you some more so here it is.



A few months ago I bought a ZOOM Fuel lid from Bo Guat. I had to get her on!









I will be sure to get some actual installation pictures next time, this one happened to go so quick I forgot entirely until she was done.
It was a super easy install as long as you keep level headed and make sure you are gentle getting things to wiggle into place.

Now that I know how it all goes together I have to pull it back off in the future to finish cleaning out the cubby and put the weather stripping on.

Edit:

I also managed to put on the ebrake-button that Tetsuya sent me a year ago and got lost in the mail since then!

(potato picture)

[Demon I Am]

Key on paint *cringe*

[— fwdtamiya —]

I was wondering recently, how do you use those trunk racks?

[—RuckkehrMiata—]

I was wondering recently, how do you use those trunk racks?

I actually haven't tried to yet. I am planning on maybe having a friend design an actually usable one and fabricate it to use the same hard points. I don't really mind a trunk rack, and it would be pretty sweet on longer drives to have something strapped there if I could.

I have also always wondered how you were *supposed* to use them.



----

@Demon:

Key *VERY CAREFULLY* on paint ;)

[—RuckkehrMiata—]

I finally got my pole position key cut!



Around this time next month I am probably going to have one of my coolest updates since the beginning of it all.

[— Phatmiata —]

Sexy key.

In for next update !!!

[CarbonMiata]

OK now I understand why you want the window cranks! They will look great with the theme you have going on!!!

[—RuckkehrMiata—]

I always wanted to work on my valve cover, but my car is also my only DD so I couldn't spend a week or so with the cover off.

I managed to pick up a valve cover for $20 at a meet recently. Elbow grease, ACTIVATE!

When I just started cleaning, I was using 409 spray because it was the best thing I have right now.







After I got some of the initial grime eaten off, I broke out a small wire brush I had for just this purpose.



At first I thought I wouldn't have any effect at all, but I was pleasantly surprised

I pulled the baffle plates while I was at it



This week I am going to grab some Simple Green to soak the baffle plates and screws in, and maybe the cover itself (an old DIY writeup here I believe used simple green from the start to clean theirs up). I am also going to grab some sand paper. I have not decided if I will just scour it for prep or if I will go for a polished look yet.





Most likely I intend on getting it powder coated black, then I will red-letter the words myself. I also intend on taking a file to the old casting marks to clean her up.

I also need to grab a razor blade to remove the old gasket trimmings (the baffle gaskets are stuck on pretty well).

Felt good to put some elbow grease into this project as I scrubbed/scraped and brushed this thing for a few hours tonight.

[—RuckkehrMiata—]

Decided to install my LED's for my gauge cluster today.

It was evidently a bad day...



It starts out easy enough.



When you get these off, don't pat yourself on the back yet. You just opened access to the pandoras box (this is the second car I've done this too, and it never gets easier)



Upon removing my cluster hood, these ripped right the heck off. Like jerks.



not depicted is the left hand screw hole that ripped through also when I unscrewed it, meaning only one screw holds the whole thing on now.



You want to put your new LEDs in the caps that are green, they will also have the green bulb condoms on them if they are stock (the old ones)



I forgot this fact so I am fairly certain I blew two of my LEDs and now my fuel/temp don't light up.
Going to wait for dark to play around with them a bit and see if they are just seated poorly.

Thank you gauge cluster for making my saturday kind of suck.

ON the "bright" side, this is now on my purchase eventually list:

http://www.carbonmiata.com/index.php...product_id=180

[—RuckkehrMiata—]

Fixed the polarity on my gauge LEDs.
Still my favorite mod despite sacrificing my gauge hood to it (it crumbled when I removed it again to fix the LEDs)


Full dim


Full bright

Pictures don't really do the crisp color justice

[—tsingson—]

I love the subtleness of the green lighting.

[—RuckkehrMiata—]

Sneak peek to the next update: