Fiona : NB Build

[Demon I Am]

2 questions:
Did you ever get your upper doorcards finished?
Did you ever sell that transmission tunnel cover?

[pacman 99]

2 questions:
Did you ever get your upper doorcards finished?
Did you ever sell that transmission tunnel cover?

No, thinking its time to send those to get wrapped in leather.


I did sell it already.

[pacman 99]

I purchased Retro Modern's new trip-reset shaft to go with my gauge setup. It replaces my old Sazaire piece which was short and thicker. Such an upgrade!





As you can see ... I need to buy Revlimiter's anti-glare glass for my independent gauges.

Here's some random pics....

[pacman 99]

I received my RS Factory Stage GT Sunshade from REV9. I purchased this since I no longer have visors on my car.


I was surprised to see how thick this piece of acrylic was. Somewhere close to 3-4 mm in thickness.



Instructions were available and it was obvious it wasn't going to be a easy slap on 5 minute install. As you can see the acrylic sheet gets sandwiched between the glass and the metal windshield frame and all the interior pieces would need to be removed.




After removal of the interior pieces I mocked up the sunshade piece on the windshield. After pressing each end of the acrylic sheet inside the small gap between the glass and the metal frame the tight fit makes the acrylic sheet form to the shape of the windshield. That's all thats holding the sunshade piece in place. Pressure fitted.



I had one problem though. I had replaced my windshield in the past and the new windshield had excess amounts of urethane sealant coming out from the gaps.



A sharp box cutter knive was used to remove all the excess urethane sealant.



I had to remove a good amount of this stuff.



After removing as much sealant as I could I still couldn't get the sunshade perfectly center on the rear view mirror mount. It's pretty darn close though.



Here's a interior view once I finished the install.




On my first drive it was quite hot. After I parked the car I noticed these weird blotches on the sunshade. I think I might of screwed up when I used Windex to clean my windshield and left some kind of residue. Or perhaps it was just simply hot air/vapor trapped between the acrylic sheet and glass?. Or maybe I installed the wrong side against the glass?

Once it cools down these blotches go away. These blotches are only visible from the outside.....not the inside. Oh well hoping they go away with time.


I also decided this was a good time to purchase a new rear view mirror. I always wanted a Zoom-Engineering one but they are so pricey (even for me). I lurked on YAJ and found one on that was in my price range. This is the oval model made out of ABS with fake CF finish. I don't really mind the fake CF since the sunshade would make it hard to see it from the outside. This is probably the cheapest model you can get from Zoom Eng. but this particular model is no longer sold new. I won the auction and then realized the arm it came with is not compatible with the US Spec miata cars. Seem's the J Spec cars used a different mounting method. Oh well, there goes my savings. I purchased a G03 arm that fits the NB and I'm waiting on that to arrive.

[Ihatecars]

I was very curious about that sunshade. Next time I see your car in person I'd like to lay my eyes on it.

That Zoom mirror is rad. It'll look wonderful inside your car.

[Demon I Am]

i wish my car to be this cool, one day

[pacman 99]

Got these Ken Auto rigid door spacers. They are suppose to stiffen the door area chassis up a bit when the door is closed shut.

Maxime from Rev9 Autosport got me these from the Karuizawa Meet this year. Came with my favorite Japanese snack!



These are meant to be a super tight fit on the "door cup" so they are larger than the OEM rubber piece.



Made of derlin these spacers are more sturdy.



I installed them and attempted to close the doors so I can see how much sanding I needed to do. As you can see almost each side needed a bit of work to make the door closing a bit easier.



Once sanded the spacer don't look as great. I decided to apply some lithium grease to both the spacer and the metal "door cup" to make the opening and closing of the doors alot smoother and help them look better.

Sanded



Lithium grease applied.



"Door cup" with lithium grease too.




Overall I do feel a slight difference in the way the suspension sounds/reacts over pot holes and imperfections on the road . Audio from the door speakers seem to have improved slightly as well.

These lil guys do make a difference and are worth the $50-$60 price tag.

I plan on adding door bars to my Blackbird Fabworx roll bar to further strengthen the chassis in this weak area of the car.

I have a new exterior part coming in on a few days. Can't wait to get it !

[pacman 99]

This arrived last week!



These popped up on YAJ and I had to have them. I love my M-Sky headlights but the light output wasn't the greatest. These Bi-Xenon projector retrofitted headlights will look good and work better. All of the wiring is included and looks nicely built/prepared. I think the only wiring I have to do is find a 12v source for the halo's to turn on with when the ignition is turned on.





Halo's/Angel eyes pic taken by the seller.



Special thanks to Rod at Tetsuya Garage ! I've haven't used him in a while and forgot how fast he was at shipping !

[pacman 99]

Finally got around to installing the new headlights. It was a major pain in the ass since it require slight removal of the front bumper.

I tiny screws on each corner where the bumper and fender meet near the headlight and that was hard to get to. Jack stands was the only way to access it.



The rest was pretty easy....just a whole bunch of wiring.

I decide to use the M6 screw inside the fuse box as my constant 12v source under the hood. The wiring harness had a inline fuse for this 12v wire so it should be good.



The halo's required custom wiring. I decided against parking lights and wanted them to turn on automatically when the iginition was turned on. The power wire for the diagnosis box on top of the driver fender well was perfect for that. I believe the wire you need to tap into was a black and white wire.

A 3M quick connect(blue) was used and then all of it wrapped in electrical tape to protect it from water. I spliced another wire to this main one so I can run it across the engine bay to the passenger side. Negative was provided by using a negative spot under each headlight in the chassis. I used a ring terminal with 8" of wire and put it under this OEM ground bolt. Bullet connectors were used on each end of all the halo wiring to make it easy to disconnect.



Overall I think the headlights look great. I wasn't too happy about the cloudiness in the plastic lens. Its not too bad though. I've seen worst. I purchased Lamin-x tint covers to see if that would help make them look any better.


Just Halo's turned on here.





While I was doing testing on the headlights I realized the OEM turn signal bulbs looked horrible. The orange plastic piece inside the headlight was completely removed on these and the halogen amber bulbs looked tacky.

I went ahead and made a order of LED amber bulbs from Superbrightleds. I purchased the 1157-A3X1W bulbs which consist of 3 high power LEDs.



As you might know any LED in the turn signal would create hyper blink. I purchased load resistors with my order and I really didn't like the idea behind them. I googled some more and found a better alternative. Replace the OEM flasher relay with one with no minimum load.

Superbrightleds had this as well and they have one especially for Japanese models. CF13JL-02 LED Bulb Electronic Flasher



Its a 3 pin relay like the one found on NB1's only.



Unfortunately its not a direct fit. The OEM relay has the 3 pins alot closer and the connector doesn't fit this relay. I made myself a lil adapter using 18 gauge wiring and some spade connectors.



Under the dash locate the OEM flasher relay. It's found directly above the accelerator. Here, its picture with its harness connector already disconnected(faded yellow box). I decided not to remove the OEM flasher relay and just left it there.



Lastly just insert your connectors in the same orientation as the OEM harness |= I made my wires a little long so I can find a good spot to zip tie the new relay.



Viola! Almost OEM tick tock noise and regular blinking speed.

[Samer]

Hi Pacman!

I recently purchased an Autoexe Carbon Intake like yours from TetsuyaGarage and while looking at images of it installed, I came across this photo which I think belongs to your car:



Is it the case?

If so, I see that you switched the side the expansion tank is, but kept the OEM. I've seen more recent shots of your engine bay and I know that you're not using it anymore, but I would like to use the OEM one for the time being until I find another one that I like. My question is: did you have to do some modifications or DIY brackets to fix it in the other side of the bay, or the holes were the same at the other side? I'd love to have a simple plug and play solution for this...

And my other question: I bought this exact item from yahoo auctions:



While I'm still waiting for it to arrive, I believe there's mounting hardware missing (the silicone elbow which connects it to the engine, for example). I've been trying to find some info on how to put it in my bay, but I haven't find any instructions. Could you please explain me a bit how is it mounted and perhaps take some photos? It would be awesome, as I'm not really skilled in these kind of things... I already know I'll have to cut some metal (I asked you about it the other day in Instagram) but the mounting brackets and how they are supposed to go is driving me crazy.

Thanks in advance!!

[pacman 99]

Hi Pacman!

I recently purchased an Autoexe Carbon Intake like yours from TetsuyaGarage and while looking at images of it installed, I came across this photo which I think belongs to your car:



Is it the case?

If so, I see that you switched the side the expansion tank is, but kept the OEM. I've seen more recent shots of your engine bay and I know that you're not using it anymore, but I would like to use the OEM one for the time being until I find another one that I like. My question is: did you have to do some modifications or DIY brackets to fix it in the other side of the bay, or the holes were the same at the other side? I'd love to have a simple plug and play solution for this...

And my other question: I bought this exact item from yahoo auctions:



While I'm still waiting for it to arrive, I believe there's mounting hardware missing (the silicone elbow which connects it to the engine, for example). I've been trying to find some info on how to put it in my bay, but I haven't find any instructions. Could you please explain me a bit how is it mounted and perhaps take some photos? It would be awesome, as I'm not really skilled in these kind of things... I already know I'll have to cut some metal (I asked you about it the other day in Instagram) but the mounting brackets and how they are supposed to go is driving me crazy.

Thanks in advance!!

Hey man,

Glad you found my build thread!

From your picture you're just missing the 90 degree elbow. My intake didn't come with a elbow either. I purchase a generic ID 2.75" 90 degree silicone elbow and cut it to fit(usually they are longer than what you need). I'm guessing on the 2.75" part. I would measure your throttle body and your MAF to make sure its 2.75".

Good news is ...those two little brackets you see there are the ones for the OEM overflow tank. So you should be all set to go.

[Samer]

Really?

So from what you're telling me, I understand that the intake is not fixed with bolts anywhere, just held by the elbow to the throttle body?

When the parcel arrives I'll check how the mounting brackets go, but it is great news indeed

Thanks a lot!!

EDIT:

Hmm, I've been reading but I can't seem to find the correct pipe sizing. Some people say that it's just 2.75" from the throttle body to 2.75" in the MAF, but Adam says that it's 2.5 to 2.75:
http://revlimiter.net/blog/2014/09/d...ldside-intake/

I'll have to measure it myself :/

[pacman 99]

Really?

So from what you're telling me, I understand that the intake is not fixed with bolts anywhere, just held by the elbow to the throttle body?

When the parcel arrives I'll check how the mounting brackets go, but it is great news indeed

Thanks a lot!!

EDIT:

Hmm, I've been reading but I can't seem to find the correct pipe sizing. Some people say that it's just 2.75" from the throttle body to 2.75" in the MAF, but Adam says that it's 2.5 to 2.75:
http://revlimiter.net/blog/2014/09/d...ldside-intake/

I'll have to measure it myself :/

Yup, the intake just sits there. It fits very snug so it doesn't really need to be bolted down.

[Greasemonkey2000]

Such a beautiful car! Just read thru the whole thread and all i can say is.... ...Miata's like this make me realize how far i have to go to be anywhere near 'finished' but the fact you have had it 12 years certainly makes getting it to this point much more feasible. I'd like to check out your miata next time I'm down that way.

Also how did you do about achieving the brushed finish on the s2000 starter button? I'd like to borrow the idea.

Thanks for posting the size(3mm instrument panel bulb) of the bulb for the s2000 starter button since i want to change mine to red.

[pacman 99]

Such a beautiful car! Just read thru the whole thread and all i can say is.... ...Miata's like this make me realize how far i have to go to be anywhere near 'finished' but the fact you have had it 12 years certainly makes getting it to this point much more feasible. I'd like to check out your miata next time I'm down that way.

Also how did you do about achieving the brushed finish on the s2000 starter button? I'd like to borrow the idea.

Thanks for posting the size(3mm instrument panel bulb) of the bulb for the s2000 starter button since i want to change mine to red.

I used a tiny 1" square piece of sand paper (forgot what grit) and placed it under my thumb while on my other hand I rotated the whole starter button very slowly. 8-10 complete turns would be enough depending on how much pressure your putting with your thumb.