Heyitsryan
12-17-2012, 07:59 PM
Well, I've always wanted to make one of these things, and I guess here is my opportunity. I'll start with a bit of a background and then go on from there about what led to my purchase of a 1995 Mazda Miata.:mrgreen:
I LOVE to find good deals on cars, parts, and wheels. I spend the majority of my free time searching craigslist, junkyards, and forums to try and get a good deal on something. Some may call me a cheapskate, but I've scored some pretty sweet deals in the past. I've been a fan of the Mazda Miata since High school and after parting out my civic hatchback and selling my motorcycle, I decided to buy my first one whenever I was a freshman in college.
At the time, I was balling on a budget and decided to finally get myself the car I've always wanted. One night, after a few drinks, I came across a white 1990 for $3000 in Austin, TX. I checked my bank account and I just had enough to pay for gas there and bring the car home. At the time I was going to school in Nacogdoches, Tx ( On the other side of the state for you Non- Texans) and at 6pm I contacted the seller and agreed to meet up with him at midnight. After driving for 6+ hours, we finally made it and I met up with the buyer. Knowing practically nothing about miatas, I somehow managed to talk him down to $1700. He seemed eerily drunk and the battery was dead, so he agreed and I came home with a white 1990 base model miata. I don't have too many pictures, but here are some after I bought some Chaps for it.
http://i29.tinypic.com/5lqauu.jpg
http://i31.tinypic.com/vxysyb.jpg
http://i32.tinypic.com/14m575g.jpg
http://i27.tinypic.com/kei6wj.jpg
http://i30.tinypic.com/2eb8vup.jpg
Being the typical college kid, I had huge plans for the car but never ended up following through with them due to always being broke. After tracking the car a few times, buying a hard dog roll bar, and doing a few other cheap mods I ended up selling it to a friend of mine for $5000.
I even bought it back from a friend ( twice!) and but ended up giving the car to one of my best friends for free. He needed some help financially and after getting his car wrecked by a drunk driver, I felt bad and gave her to him.
Fast forward two years later, I had moved onto other cars but the itch for a miata came again. At the time I was living in Austin and going to the University of Texas, so a miata would have been an absolutely horrible decision for a daily driver. I needed something with a lot of space that got good gas mileage. Or so I thought... My roommate was a huge Porsche guy and finally convinced me to pick up a 914. I searched for three solid months and finally found one in Houston, TX. It was a pristine 1976 in a beautiful blue. Upon arriving at the shop where I found the car, my eye immediately caught a beautiful orange color. Sitting in the back of the lot in a pile of dust was a clean titled 2000 Evo Orange NB. I fell in love instantly and completely forgot about the Porsche. It turns out that the car had not ran for three years and was previously wrecked [ read minor fender bender] by the owner of the shop's daughter. After some assessment of the damage, I made some stuff up and took the car home for $1700. It was a 2000 NB with 70K original miles that needed a front bumper, headlight, and a driver's side fender. $600, some ghetto fab work and decent paint and I had a car that I enjoyed for the rest of college.
Here are a few pictures of her, I called her Mia:
http://i46.tinypic.com/140ah60.jpg
http://i46.tinypic.com/2cqo501.jpg
Eventually, Mia received the same fate as the first miata: modded, beaten, and then sold to some guy in Chicago for $5500.
Since Mia, ( and fast forward about 3 years) I went through about 10 cars/bikes and eventually settled on an AP1 s2000: It was awesome, what I imagined an miata would be like if it was actually fast and built well. Plus, my favorite color is blue and this car had an awesome blue interior and a gorgeous blue exterior. The car handled like a dream and I dumped a lot of money into her, but eventually she became too much to handle. At the time, I was trying to get my wife into doing track days with me but she hated driving the S2000, she found it to be too quirky and difficult to drive. I tried to do at least two autocrosses and two hpde/track days a month, which eventually started taking a toll on my bank account (You wouldn't believe how quickly RS3 and star Specs eat up your "fun" account) as well, so I made the decision to sell her off. After 20k miles and numerous beatings, I sold her off for $2000 more than I paid for her to a fellow service member!
I can't seem to find any recent pictures of her, but here is one that is saved on my computer: http://i45.tinypic.com/18kh9y.jpg
The day after selling my S, I decided that getting another iata would be the best decision: it's cheap, lightweight, and easily toss-able if I wrecked it. I had been looking into picking up a Miata for almost a year, but it seemed like all the prices had blown up since I last checked. I guess everyone finally caught onto how phenomenal these little cars can actually be. 250k 1990 Miatas with xxr002s were selling for $7500 ( or at least posted for that) and the owners seemed to not be wanting to budge on the price.
Luckily for me, I was able to find a smoking deal on my newest addition. After selling my S, I searched craigslist and found someone selling a 1995 Mazda Miata for $3500. I figured that with the 1.8L motor and it still being OBDI, that it was about as good as it gets. A two hour drive later and I went to check the car out. I was a bit nervous at first because the owner had no idea what the acronyms AC/PS meant and had absolutely no records for the car. I assumed it was a woman, but to my surprise it turned out the a very, VERY feminine man. I guess the stereotype is around for a reason right? Anyways, after some haggling I was the proud new owner of the piece of shit that you see before you for $1700. It seems like that is my lucky number! She's got 169k, was covered in cat shit, energy drinks, make up, and of course a barrage of white cat hair that loves to somehow find its way onto my clothing.
The top was torn, the interior seemed ruined, and she smelled of the wonderful scent of cat urine. However, even in the shit-tastic state that she was in, she put a huge smile on my face whenever I was inside her:toomuch:!
Here goes a couple of pictures from the day I bought her:
http://i48.tinypic.com/1zmggh2.jpg
http://i45.tinypic.com/35hof7m.jpg
As you can tell, the owner took meticulous care of the exterior as well; pay careful attention to the "JDM" rims, further raising my internet l337-ness and the car's overall dope-ness.
As soon as I got her home,I gave her a nice cleaning and bath. The interior alone took me almost 6 hours. I found a lot of interesting things during that clean up and possibly even contracted the human immunodeficiency virus, but, she cleaned up rather well and it was worth the hassle.
http://i47.tinypic.com/2dqkewi.jpg
The dash and all the panels were so dirty that one whole box of Meguirs' wipes did absolutely nothing besides waste my money. I had to "scrub" the dash with a bucket of soap and water to get all of the grime off!
http://i46.tinypic.com/2hg7ek4.jpg
I don't have any shots of the interior at it's worst, but here is a small sample of the devastation.
http://i49.tinypic.com/2mq1elk.jpg
http://i47.tinypic.com/f1e3nl.jpg
As mentioned before, she cleaned up rather nicely.
http://i49.tinypic.com/2edmk42.jpg
A soft brush, lots of soap, patience and a small detail later she was looking pretty damn good.
Now that the car was somewhat presentable and no longer smelling like an old hooker, I decided to try and score some parts to make her a bit less comfortable to beat around in.
It just so happens that a good friend of mine's gf bought a miata and she hooked me up on some ground control coilovers/kybs, a set of Toyo RA1s, and Kirkley seat.
http://i45.tinypic.com/6ghs9v.jpg
I've yet to put the seat in, but it fits me like a dream. Feels good man.
http://i48.tinypic.com/2m78dfs.jpg
The wheels/tires were super sticky and were an awesome shade of 10ae blue. The tires were also brand new! I picked these up for less than the price of one of these tires, so I felt like I got a good deal.
http://i48.tinypic.com/294i2px.jpg
The install went rather smoothly and after a bit of cleaning up the car looked significantly better lowered. The car they came off of was also used as a weekend car, so they had pretty low mileage on them. I barely paid anything for the seat/wheels/tires/suspension so I was pretty stoked.
I never took any pictures of the maintenance but during this time I flushed all of the fluid in the transmission, engine, and differential. I also changed the spark plugs, wires, brakes, and a few other items but failed to take pictures. I took 21 hours this semester and worked 40+ hours so I wasn't too thrilled about staying up until 2-3am when I had to get up at 4 to leave for work. However, I have included a picture of my dog for your viewing benefit.
http://i46.tinypic.com/2qkhz7k.jpg
He is one mischievous, yet cute little guy. My daughter can't get enough of him.
Moving on, I then took the car to my buddy, who hooked up with an alignment using the Flying Miata spec's.
http://i47.tinypic.com/98wwf5.jpg
After this point, the car drove phenomenally, albeit only driving it for 100 miles total. The tires and the suspension made the already fun car a VERY fun car to drive.
http://i48.tinypic.com/1ywxf7.jpg
I didn't want to waste the tires driving the car to the track/autox and back, so I decided to pick up a spare set of wheels to drive around. A buddy sold me these wheels for $150 and they came with Drag Radials so I hopped on it. I've never owned a set of DR's before...man are they stickier than an actress AFTER a bukkake session.
http://i49.tinypic.com/el886w.jpg
http://i45.tinypic.com/z53m.jpg
The car was on her way back to looking pretty good, here are a few shots I took in front of my house.
Finally it was time to do what I bought the car to do: DRIVE!
I had not come up on any deals for a roll bar yet, so for the time being I had to stick to Autocrosses.
This was actually my wife's First one and she did pretty awesome, she was able to drop almost 15 seconds off her time by the last run. I have a few videos, which I may upload later, but they're unedited and too freaking long for now.
On to the pictures:
http://i47.tinypic.com/2ltnjtc.jpg
I didn't feel like loading up all of this stuff into my daily, or my wife's daily, so I just pulled the passenger seat and loaded everything in. It actually fit in really well, whomever said that miata's are impractical obviously never pulled out their passenger seat.
http://i50.tinypic.com/1zxunms.jpg
We ran in STS, which was a ton of fun. I hate all the "work" for such little seat time, but my wife had a blast and became addicted so it all worked out!
http://i47.tinypic.com/2yytmdk.jpg
Here is an instagram picture of my sexy wife, again, not the best picture, but it gets the job done!
http://i47.tinypic.com/ih7evk.jpg
And another one of her reppin' the Roadster life!
http://i46.tinypic.com/104rjty.jpg
I LOVE to find good deals on cars, parts, and wheels. I spend the majority of my free time searching craigslist, junkyards, and forums to try and get a good deal on something. Some may call me a cheapskate, but I've scored some pretty sweet deals in the past. I've been a fan of the Mazda Miata since High school and after parting out my civic hatchback and selling my motorcycle, I decided to buy my first one whenever I was a freshman in college.
At the time, I was balling on a budget and decided to finally get myself the car I've always wanted. One night, after a few drinks, I came across a white 1990 for $3000 in Austin, TX. I checked my bank account and I just had enough to pay for gas there and bring the car home. At the time I was going to school in Nacogdoches, Tx ( On the other side of the state for you Non- Texans) and at 6pm I contacted the seller and agreed to meet up with him at midnight. After driving for 6+ hours, we finally made it and I met up with the buyer. Knowing practically nothing about miatas, I somehow managed to talk him down to $1700. He seemed eerily drunk and the battery was dead, so he agreed and I came home with a white 1990 base model miata. I don't have too many pictures, but here are some after I bought some Chaps for it.
http://i29.tinypic.com/5lqauu.jpg
http://i31.tinypic.com/vxysyb.jpg
http://i32.tinypic.com/14m575g.jpg
http://i27.tinypic.com/kei6wj.jpg
http://i30.tinypic.com/2eb8vup.jpg
Being the typical college kid, I had huge plans for the car but never ended up following through with them due to always being broke. After tracking the car a few times, buying a hard dog roll bar, and doing a few other cheap mods I ended up selling it to a friend of mine for $5000.
I even bought it back from a friend ( twice!) and but ended up giving the car to one of my best friends for free. He needed some help financially and after getting his car wrecked by a drunk driver, I felt bad and gave her to him.
Fast forward two years later, I had moved onto other cars but the itch for a miata came again. At the time I was living in Austin and going to the University of Texas, so a miata would have been an absolutely horrible decision for a daily driver. I needed something with a lot of space that got good gas mileage. Or so I thought... My roommate was a huge Porsche guy and finally convinced me to pick up a 914. I searched for three solid months and finally found one in Houston, TX. It was a pristine 1976 in a beautiful blue. Upon arriving at the shop where I found the car, my eye immediately caught a beautiful orange color. Sitting in the back of the lot in a pile of dust was a clean titled 2000 Evo Orange NB. I fell in love instantly and completely forgot about the Porsche. It turns out that the car had not ran for three years and was previously wrecked [ read minor fender bender] by the owner of the shop's daughter. After some assessment of the damage, I made some stuff up and took the car home for $1700. It was a 2000 NB with 70K original miles that needed a front bumper, headlight, and a driver's side fender. $600, some ghetto fab work and decent paint and I had a car that I enjoyed for the rest of college.
Here are a few pictures of her, I called her Mia:
http://i46.tinypic.com/140ah60.jpg
http://i46.tinypic.com/2cqo501.jpg
Eventually, Mia received the same fate as the first miata: modded, beaten, and then sold to some guy in Chicago for $5500.
Since Mia, ( and fast forward about 3 years) I went through about 10 cars/bikes and eventually settled on an AP1 s2000: It was awesome, what I imagined an miata would be like if it was actually fast and built well. Plus, my favorite color is blue and this car had an awesome blue interior and a gorgeous blue exterior. The car handled like a dream and I dumped a lot of money into her, but eventually she became too much to handle. At the time, I was trying to get my wife into doing track days with me but she hated driving the S2000, she found it to be too quirky and difficult to drive. I tried to do at least two autocrosses and two hpde/track days a month, which eventually started taking a toll on my bank account (You wouldn't believe how quickly RS3 and star Specs eat up your "fun" account) as well, so I made the decision to sell her off. After 20k miles and numerous beatings, I sold her off for $2000 more than I paid for her to a fellow service member!
I can't seem to find any recent pictures of her, but here is one that is saved on my computer: http://i45.tinypic.com/18kh9y.jpg
The day after selling my S, I decided that getting another iata would be the best decision: it's cheap, lightweight, and easily toss-able if I wrecked it. I had been looking into picking up a Miata for almost a year, but it seemed like all the prices had blown up since I last checked. I guess everyone finally caught onto how phenomenal these little cars can actually be. 250k 1990 Miatas with xxr002s were selling for $7500 ( or at least posted for that) and the owners seemed to not be wanting to budge on the price.
Luckily for me, I was able to find a smoking deal on my newest addition. After selling my S, I searched craigslist and found someone selling a 1995 Mazda Miata for $3500. I figured that with the 1.8L motor and it still being OBDI, that it was about as good as it gets. A two hour drive later and I went to check the car out. I was a bit nervous at first because the owner had no idea what the acronyms AC/PS meant and had absolutely no records for the car. I assumed it was a woman, but to my surprise it turned out the a very, VERY feminine man. I guess the stereotype is around for a reason right? Anyways, after some haggling I was the proud new owner of the piece of shit that you see before you for $1700. It seems like that is my lucky number! She's got 169k, was covered in cat shit, energy drinks, make up, and of course a barrage of white cat hair that loves to somehow find its way onto my clothing.
The top was torn, the interior seemed ruined, and she smelled of the wonderful scent of cat urine. However, even in the shit-tastic state that she was in, she put a huge smile on my face whenever I was inside her:toomuch:!
Here goes a couple of pictures from the day I bought her:
http://i48.tinypic.com/1zmggh2.jpg
http://i45.tinypic.com/35hof7m.jpg
As you can tell, the owner took meticulous care of the exterior as well; pay careful attention to the "JDM" rims, further raising my internet l337-ness and the car's overall dope-ness.
As soon as I got her home,I gave her a nice cleaning and bath. The interior alone took me almost 6 hours. I found a lot of interesting things during that clean up and possibly even contracted the human immunodeficiency virus, but, she cleaned up rather well and it was worth the hassle.
http://i47.tinypic.com/2dqkewi.jpg
The dash and all the panels were so dirty that one whole box of Meguirs' wipes did absolutely nothing besides waste my money. I had to "scrub" the dash with a bucket of soap and water to get all of the grime off!
http://i46.tinypic.com/2hg7ek4.jpg
I don't have any shots of the interior at it's worst, but here is a small sample of the devastation.
http://i49.tinypic.com/2mq1elk.jpg
http://i47.tinypic.com/f1e3nl.jpg
As mentioned before, she cleaned up rather nicely.
http://i49.tinypic.com/2edmk42.jpg
A soft brush, lots of soap, patience and a small detail later she was looking pretty damn good.
Now that the car was somewhat presentable and no longer smelling like an old hooker, I decided to try and score some parts to make her a bit less comfortable to beat around in.
It just so happens that a good friend of mine's gf bought a miata and she hooked me up on some ground control coilovers/kybs, a set of Toyo RA1s, and Kirkley seat.
http://i45.tinypic.com/6ghs9v.jpg
I've yet to put the seat in, but it fits me like a dream. Feels good man.
http://i48.tinypic.com/2m78dfs.jpg
The wheels/tires were super sticky and were an awesome shade of 10ae blue. The tires were also brand new! I picked these up for less than the price of one of these tires, so I felt like I got a good deal.
http://i48.tinypic.com/294i2px.jpg
The install went rather smoothly and after a bit of cleaning up the car looked significantly better lowered. The car they came off of was also used as a weekend car, so they had pretty low mileage on them. I barely paid anything for the seat/wheels/tires/suspension so I was pretty stoked.
I never took any pictures of the maintenance but during this time I flushed all of the fluid in the transmission, engine, and differential. I also changed the spark plugs, wires, brakes, and a few other items but failed to take pictures. I took 21 hours this semester and worked 40+ hours so I wasn't too thrilled about staying up until 2-3am when I had to get up at 4 to leave for work. However, I have included a picture of my dog for your viewing benefit.
http://i46.tinypic.com/2qkhz7k.jpg
He is one mischievous, yet cute little guy. My daughter can't get enough of him.
Moving on, I then took the car to my buddy, who hooked up with an alignment using the Flying Miata spec's.
http://i47.tinypic.com/98wwf5.jpg
After this point, the car drove phenomenally, albeit only driving it for 100 miles total. The tires and the suspension made the already fun car a VERY fun car to drive.
http://i48.tinypic.com/1ywxf7.jpg
I didn't want to waste the tires driving the car to the track/autox and back, so I decided to pick up a spare set of wheels to drive around. A buddy sold me these wheels for $150 and they came with Drag Radials so I hopped on it. I've never owned a set of DR's before...man are they stickier than an actress AFTER a bukkake session.
http://i49.tinypic.com/el886w.jpg
http://i45.tinypic.com/z53m.jpg
The car was on her way back to looking pretty good, here are a few shots I took in front of my house.
Finally it was time to do what I bought the car to do: DRIVE!
I had not come up on any deals for a roll bar yet, so for the time being I had to stick to Autocrosses.
This was actually my wife's First one and she did pretty awesome, she was able to drop almost 15 seconds off her time by the last run. I have a few videos, which I may upload later, but they're unedited and too freaking long for now.
On to the pictures:
http://i47.tinypic.com/2ltnjtc.jpg
I didn't feel like loading up all of this stuff into my daily, or my wife's daily, so I just pulled the passenger seat and loaded everything in. It actually fit in really well, whomever said that miata's are impractical obviously never pulled out their passenger seat.
http://i50.tinypic.com/1zxunms.jpg
We ran in STS, which was a ton of fun. I hate all the "work" for such little seat time, but my wife had a blast and became addicted so it all worked out!
http://i47.tinypic.com/2yytmdk.jpg
Here is an instagram picture of my sexy wife, again, not the best picture, but it gets the job done!
http://i47.tinypic.com/ih7evk.jpg
And another one of her reppin' the Roadster life!
http://i46.tinypic.com/104rjty.jpg