Bryan (09-28-2020)
Nice work, I know the pain of removing Philips head hardtop bolts. Thankfully Mazda replaced those with torx ones at some point, so I got these now. They also changed the nub design, the late ones are a bit more "square", so check yours before ordering nubs.
kung fu jesus (09-28-2020)
Good job. Did your hoist come with the 2 pulleys? I am just using one big one. It may be slow to pull up but it is extremely easy to do by myself. When I am putting the hardtop back on, I can use one hand to slowly let it down while guiding into place with the other hand. Not bad for ~$20.
kung fu jesus (09-28-2020)
I bought an additional pulley to run the rope to wall and down to the cleat. I have to back the car in to drop the top, but not a big deal. I didn’t want to risk getting the hanging top too close to the garage door when opened.
tsingson (09-28-2020)
That makes sense. The NB always has to be backed in to park on that side of the garage for maximum space. Mine just goes to the cleat on the back wall.
kung fu jesus (09-28-2020)
Most of my gear is on the front and right side, allowed more room laterally to park the cars.
tsingson (09-28-2020)
Steve, did you wax it? It looks good!
No todo que es oro brilla.
Back around New Year...
Those pics above are the car unwashed with track grime still on it.
Minor addition. This one involves the delrin shift knob I picked up a few weeks back. I do love the color, size, and shape, but wanted to move ahead with what I was hoping it could be; customizable.
The knob has a large under cut beneath it to accommodate reverse lockouts on other cars. These are basically collars around the lever that you lift up with your fingers.
I used this to add some weight. Simply put, it now weighs the same as the stock knob.
Not finished, I found this through one of the companies that sponsored an HPDE we did earlier this year at Road Atlanta, Z1 Motorsports. They are a Nissan/Datsun/Infiniti performance shop. They sell these little trim collars for Nissans, but the size was perfect for mine.
I added a subtle detail in the relief and put it all together.
Using a nylon washer, everything snugs tight inside, no sound or rattles.
Agent☣Orange (10-06-2020),HarryB (10-07-2020),tsingson (10-06-2020)
No todo que es oro brilla.
MaRcOp01o (10-06-2020)
No one wants to see your family heirlooms.
Now that AO has shown us the Orange family buttplug his ancestors smuggled into America generations ago, I can move onto the next project. The sexy, ever fascinating NB1 intake manifold service! :/
I have been getting an uneven idle and a random EGR code when I push the car hard, it’s about time to crack this turd open and clean it out. This will be akin to an Orange family ceremonial “prima nocta” AO experienced as a wee lad.
I can tell someone has been in there before because I see grey RTV between the two halves of the IM. I can only guess the upper half was cleaned and lower half wasn’t. This is the typical shadetree half-measure taught on M.N. I will be removing the entire IM to do this.
I ordered the following: IM gasket (between the head and the IM), upper plenum gasket, the throttle body gasket, injector o-rings and isolators, EGR gasket, the secondary coolant hoses in this vicinity, a new valve cover gasket, cam end plug, PCV valve, new vacuum hoses (cut to length), and some cleaning products.
Fortunately most arrived today:
Unfortunately, Hurricane Zeta stung us pretty good and this happened:
So, yeah, near-miss having a tree stabbed through my face while sleeping, and a perfect 10 when the tree stuck the landing while somehow missing the house.
The other tree up front also somehow missed the neighbor’s house and landed cleanly in their front yard.
I have not had electricity nor internet since. I do, however, have a minty fresh hot water heater that was installed the day before so I have that going for me.
The storm likely delayed the other parts, but no worries. More updates soon!
Agent☣Orange (10-30-2020),Bryan (10-30-2020),HarryB (10-31-2020),MiataQuest (11-04-2020)
Damn. My curse just missed by that much...
CQAd9MmWcAAUe-F.jpg
No todo que es oro brilla.
kung fu jesus (10-31-2020)
The dogs woke us up just as the winds kicked up around 4am. The roof was just starting to get pelted with pine cones, debris, and branches. Feeling a bit nervous, we went downstairs to the basement where we have a nice additional family room set up.
30 minutes later, the tree lands right next to us on the other side of the wall. A few degrees one way, or the other tree hadn’t kicked it, it lands right on our bedroom we had just moved from.
Absolutely zero damage to the house. Not a cracked window or loose shingle. Friggen’ amazing.
If the tree up front fell the other way, it either drills the neighbor’s house directly or crushes the garage with our cars inside.
Agent☣Orange (10-30-2020),Bryan (10-30-2020),HarryB (10-31-2020),MiataQuest (11-01-2020)
Sooooo to occupy my mind away from the election rhetoric, I dove into the IM cleaning.
It’s bad. Like VSS are bad and the build up in the IM was pretty thick.
Even the TB was bad. Before...
After...
The upper plenum before:
And after:
I removed the lower too. Before...
After:
The throats on the head (1-4):
This was a LOT of cleaning and caustic chemicals. I’ll let the parts dry and finish it tomorrow.
Agent☣Orange (11-04-2020),Bryan (11-08-2020),MiataQuest (11-04-2020),oldgrayleather (11-10-2020),Slampen (11-05-2020),tsingson (11-04-2020)