Gregory the NA8

[smy0003]

The further I got through covering the dash the more worried I was about that.
I'm about two or three weeks ahead of this thread, I'm trying to make my posts concise and logical so I'm taking my time writing it up.
I've driven about 100km with the new dash in 34degC sunshine, night time and overcast conditions and it's been fine. What wasn't fine was that I broke the clips of the instrument cover/binnacle during the interior tear down, and I drove around for a day without it (like you see in the last pic). The glare coming off the back of those instruments was unbelievable; it was pretty dangerous, so I've reinstalled the broken binnacle whilst waiting for a new one to arrive.

I might hold off putting the new binnacle on until I install a special package that is soon to be on the way from Mr. RevLimiter

[RustRat]

I know what you mean. I also drive temporarily without the instrument cover, and the glare is just in front of my eyes, it's very distracting.

Good to know thay the rest of the dash s fine, though. Can't wait to see what's coming.

[mx54life]

You should contact Khalid and ask him what he can about those seat covers. They need to fit better at least for the money and time you are spending on this project. That nice interior requires good looking seats. Tell him he can't continue getting business with the miata community with that poor fitting covers. If you may send the original seatcovers to him so he can have better pattern if indeed the austrialian miata seats are different then do it. I am convince that he will help you as he has been around for awhile now.

[— Dandy —]

Oh my! I love the front fascia and am really impressed by the interior work, especially the dash. Great progress.

[Sharpie]

Looking very nice! Congrats!

[smy0003]

Cheers everyone It's awesome to get feedback from the people who inspired the project in the first place.

MX54life, you're right. If I leave it I'll never be 100% happy. I'll take some pics and shoot him an email. From what I can tell our seats are the same, the US driver being the AU passenger and vice-versa.

[mx54life]

Tell him I will order another set if he gets it right. I have another set here waiting to be reupholstered and I also want the seats with speakers.

His seats pattern needs to be updated then.

[Demon I Am]

Fantastic work!

[smy0003]

So it's a lovely Saturday morning here in Melbourne, but because of my choice of dinner last night (curry) and drink (beer) I'm now sitting in a chair contemplating my bad decisions. So, I may as well write up a bit more.

Last post everything was coming together, but the doors were still stock black vinyl.

Boooooooooo! Hisssssssss!

So it was time for some upholstery work, first I had to pull then separate the door panels:


The drivers side was pretty warped, unfortunately.

Found the remote for my stereo! Hello 2002!:


The door bottoms were pretty straight forward:




The bottom one is the drivers side which was warped, the passenger side came out well:


Got some door pulls from the local Japanese parts guy, the one of the right I polished and the one on the left is awaiting polish:


Peeled the vinyl off the top halves:


Rough traced them:


Here's one I prepared earlier:


Bit of wrinkling but I'm pretty happy with these:


The door pulls were flat so I used some seat belt tower spacers I had in my parts bin to space them out from the door:


One door down:




EDIT:
Oh!
You may be wondering how the glovebox magically painted itself. I took some pics to show what I did:


I painted all the textured plastic surfaces, I really liked how it turned out:


I didn't paint the handle or inside since they cop a lot of abuse and I didn't want flaking paint.

[mx54life]

Somebody's getting busy down under! Nice........

[— Agent☣Orange —]

*Admin edit:

Deleted most of the original post since the photos weren't showing and taking up several inches of scroll. Nothing personal, just mechanics.

[smy0003]

Thanks agentorange, have been meaning to email an admin about that for a while

[— Agent☣Orange —]

My pleasure. You owe me a kangaroo by the way.

[smy0003]

In a sausage or as a steak?

Took some pics tonight, first lot of nice pics I've taken. Well, I'm an awful photographer and I don't have a DSLR but here we go:

[Demon I Am]

Your car is looking great