Kimochi Cruiser: NB Build

[— artcentermiata —]

Welcome to my build page.

-Kimochi Cruiser-

This will be the ever so lightly paced documentation of my attempts to explore exaggerated styling and proper maintainence of my NB

If you're wondering, "why kimochi?"

Very roughly translated from Japanese, meaning "good feelings", or "feel good" (and i hope my translation is somewhat accurate); it describes the emotion i feel when I'm around or inside of my car (or any transportation for that matter).

I live a somewhat boring life, currently, i spend about 18 hours of my day, 7 days a week, in studios developing my young designers skill-set, leaving me with very little time to enjoy having a real life.

To subside the affects of school, i thoroughly enjoy my drive back and forth from my apartment or trips to retrieve nourishment.

Thus i have always held the philosophy that my vehicle should make me chuckle when i observe or operate it. I believe this to be true for all forms of transportation; it seems people are more concerned with fitting into a clique, being jdm/euro/vip, or arguing about other peoples modification choices to enjoy the fun of it these days.

I want my car to have that feeling of fun. I enjoy a "Hot Wheels" aesthetic; that toy shop "is he serious?" mentality.

Ive found inspiration in many of the Miatas that have appeared in the community; from super functional track purpose cars, overseas built wonders from carlife japan, extravagant bosozukus/itashas, to some very awesome builds from members on this site (very respectively i mention: coupeloop's wind chariot, slevin's na, scrat, woolery's pitcrew, sharka).

I will be pulling little bits from each Ive found to make me drool, to build a miata that i can be proud of and make me and others who see it smile, while keeping within a nominal broke artist budget.

Lets start

Since this is a transfer over from my old Cr.net build, I will make a brief intro to the previous to current stages to save time and posts.

From the beginning

2 years ago, i moved to California, And promptly bought this mint 1999 NB with 26,000miles. It was completely stock, and in perfect condition.
I drove it for about 3,000 miles before i discovered clubroadster and started modifying it.



A few weeks of work, and i had rolled the fenders, polished the hood, and installed a harddog bar/GV lip/raceland coils/corksport dual exhaust/and xxr 002s (later replaced with 522s. standard 15x8 0et 195/50 s-drives)



This was cool for a short time, before i realized there was no thought put behind my additions, just cheap fad parts that i slapped on to get a "look at me, im low like the other members" appeal


Later i found a good deal on some corbeau clubmans, so i bought them. i also used some horrible purple carpet cleaner to rinse my floor mats (the purple stayed behind... if you cant tell). Vent rings, and sun visor eliminators cleaned up the rest of the interior; while i lathed a shift knob out of 6061 to compliment the vent ring bevels.



This stayed for a while, until i grew sick of being cheap and uninspired. So began the revision process. A quick part-out later, i had a relatively clean slate to restart the process.

Though, some stains of my carelessness remained, and had to be attended to. Which will be pieces of my next post.

[— artcentermiata —]

Package Tray Clean-up

Back when i first selected modifications, i did not have the proper tools or patience to install them in a quality manner.

My first venture into wrenching, cutting away the package tray to install the hard dog bar. Unfortunately, i was very meat fisted with my approach... using a jigsaw, i dug in and just cut random holes to size until the bar fit nicely. the jig saw left jagged edges and uneven cut lines. which to this day bothered me.

So- with a free day, i completely removed the soft top and frame, plastic shrouding, and roll bar. I masked off all the surrounding areas, and re-cut my package trays slots cleanly with a dremel equipped with a straight edge cutter. After, i soft wire brushed the whole tray, masked the wiring, and repainted the deck in black for a clean look and rust protection; also gave the tray covers a nice brushing.

I ended up putting the carpet back over the nice tray, road noise and fuel pump got annoying quick. but i feel better that its now done right.



Some bad choices still remain, the racelands ive owned for 9000 miles have started to give out, and i am running exhaust-less with a dirty looking second hole cut from the corksport dual

Parts Arrival!

New front bumper and GV lip to replace a set broken on horrible school parking lot drives
Project-G: g-string in saddle tan
And a set of wheels that i have yearned for since i first bought my car: Work Equip 03's

Rear-Bumper Cutout

So, before moving on to the WORKs and G-string; id like to show you the first brave move i took towards the projects initiation: The rear bumper cutout

The rear end of the Nb is very nice~ it is full of beautiful surfacing and nice highlights; but for me, the butt always felt a little over stretched. Cutting down the rear section would give the miata a dynamic and pronounced stance; something i wanted to achieve without ruining the styling language.

I had to be very careful to follow the more fluid lines of the Nb.

I got down to it, using clay docking tape (a thin flexible black tape with a small tin wire embedded inside, used for automotive clay modeling) i threw down a few lines to determine my cut line. After a few tries, i found a nice balance point that wasn't overkill, but looked very aggressive.

Once i had one side masked out, i placed a sheet of butcher paper over top of the tape, traced the contour, cut the paper sheet, and flipped the sheet to mirror the other side.

The cutting was done with 3 tools. I used a jigsaw to follow the lead in edges and then took a box cutter with a heated blade/T-square to deal with the long straight portion.
Finishing was done with a light sanding of the edges, rounding off the burs and leaving an OEM appearance.

Overall, i love the way it turned out. Its very pronounced, yet still flows with the bulging contours that pick up from the rocker panel into the rear bumper.
I feel i might of maybe cut about a 1/2 inch to much on the long straight depth wise; as the crash support just sneaks a peek out from underneath...

After i installed the cut bumper, i realized how ugly the under-structure of the miata was... gooey paste welds showing and dull paint were making me tick. So as a solution, i prepped and painted the rear end under-structure in black to stealth out the weirdness.

The bumper covers most of this, but again, i just wanted to be thorough.

[— artcentermiata —]

Works

Ive wanted a set of these wheels ever since i came into the car scene. They are an amazing balance of form and functional appearance (i say "appearance" for the fact of recognizing that my offset and tire choice is less than functional). the main disk's star cut is very outspoken without being overcomplicated and the machined face gives it an extra hint of contrast tucked back in those polished dishes. I guess i can also mention the amazing build and material quality of these wheels... they are feather-light and the finish is amazing!



I secured them with 2 separate sets of lug-locks for added security, 2 brands, two styles and keys. plus heptagon lugs where the locks aren't. OCD...



You'll notice my tails are now tinted red, i simply wanted to clean up the rear graphics by eliminating the orange and white sections.

Project-G - G-string

After sitting on my floor for 2 months, i finally came across a nice enough bow to mate to this amazing piece!. When mounted, it completely changes the look of my NB; dropping the roof-line, pulling out the aggressive cues missing with the soft-top (closed or dropped), and i love it!

Installation was incredibly simple. I quickly cut the bow and side seals and cleaned up the latches and plastic bits with some flat black. After that, mounting was as easy as laying down some contact cement into the front edge of the bow, and matching up the screw points to the punches in the material. final touch was using some black metal-to-polymer epoxy to install the clean up caps on the cut edge of the bow.

The cutting of the center support was a pain... my only complaint. shaping the front to sit flush in the hand pocket of the bow was easy enough; but it took more than a few times back to the circular cutter to measure up the pvc pole to fit snug front the bow to the roll bar.

That aside, the fit and finish is incredible! the stitching is cleanly done and looks incredibly strong! proper material cuts and reinforcements on stress points to prevent the piece from deteriorating. Im amazed by the thought that has been put into adding finishing patches around the garters and tethers points, as well as the center support cover flap.

Great work Project-G!




In addition to mounting pieces, i lathed up these inner strap-loop posts, and frankenstein posts (i didnt want to waste money on the real pieces that had an ugly phillips cut in the top surface, when i never intend to go hard-top).

New Additions

I began to focus on the smaller details of the build, as i currently shifted low on the income this month for some freelance projects.

Thanks to Tetsuya Garage, i finally found my dream Nardi! i fell in love with wood wheels after seeing amazing examples of craftsmanship during our schools Car Classic show and i wanted something that emulated those older side spoke designs. Tets found me this awesome side spoke woody with a black pin-line, and its beautiful! exactly what i had in mind! I'm bolting it up using the standard works bell hub



Along with the Nardi, i decided to pick up this Corns exhaust system.
I was captivated by the build quality, the welds are so uniform and clean, and the modular construction is really cool! The sound it produces is heavenly! Its smooth as silk and very mellow, its only slightly louder than stock, but has an amazing bass tone under acceleration.

Splitter Experiment

In hopes of filling out the profile view of the Kimochi, i constructed a set of splitters to bring the front lip around to the rocker panels. They were constructed from aircraft grade ABS and waterjet cut and machine beveled. I machined the mount flanges from 6061 and used steel studs centered in the edge to mount directly to the pinch rail.




I ran these for a good month, and got many compliments from miata and s2000 enthusiasts alike. but for me, the thinner ABS was not continuing the flow of the gv lip properly. The gv has volume and is smooth, while my piece is textured and planar; i thought they would be much more at home on a miata with a TDR front splitter in place.

It was later sold to FreshNB, and he still rocks it!

[— artcentermiata —]

The Bad

Of course with every step forward, there are three steps back... Ive hit those three steps...

First... Someone rear ended my car while they were parking at my school... the despicable horrible driver left no info... or even an apology... just destroyed my rear bumper, right after i spent so much time working on my cutout...



The crash bar punctured through the plastic, and the paint was destroyed...
i dont have enough funding to purchase a new piece and paint, so i did what i could, and re-cut the bumper, shaving the damaged portion off.

the cutout is more aggressive now, but im happy with it, its clean, and still hints of exaggerated concept technique.



Also, decided to paint the markers to match the bumper, again, just cleaning up graphics

Second... On the way home from dinner with a friend, a piece of road debris from construction on highway 210 decided to find my front right tire... instantly puncturing it and send my front end diving into the concrete, subsequently ripping my GV lip in half and shaving down the chin on my front bumper by 6 inches. Everything is destroyed, and im forced to buy a new bumper and lip. Bright side: my wheel is unscathed, chassis is fine.

Third... Im getting an odd "clunk clunk clunk" sound when i push on the clutch pedal while decelerating, i think its drive-shaft play, and its getting worse, i might need to replace the piece soon, its making low-speed movement very jerky.

But now that my three steps are taken, i can get back on track and make another step forward! stay tuned!

[— artcentermiata —]

HIN Roll-In/ Change Up

A quick shot of the awesome line-up after roll-in to Hot Import Nights; between me, risingsun, bluemiata, kfed, and tig, we were looking good.



Unfortunately, im not so happy with the outcome of my two-toned flare and boso lip that were added in an attempt to explore more extreme styling

The flares, i like. The lip... was cool in theory, and the two tone was something i had wanted to try for a while; in fact, i feel the contrast between the body and pieces created a cool character aesthetic that helped the g-fusers become more bold~ But, the combination hinted on the verge of kitsch... and i grew uneasy staring at what i had done.

So, back to the drawing board, i want to tone it down a little, and let the overall theme become a bit more clean again.

-New flares shall be color matched to the body

-Going to try out an OEM style lip from rev9, Black. Or return to a GV lip

-A search for new super wide and aggressive wheels

JK composite seats from overseas

Seats... ive been searching and searching, researching, and contacting numerous people to try and find a bare fiberglass bucket seat. Again, i fell in love with this aesthetic while viewing a vintage Ferrari 250 GTO at our Car Classic event the previous year; The bucket was amazing! no gel coat, no padding, just bare fiberglass and cut-outs for mounting and harnesses! kart status!

Spoke with Tillet seats on a number of occasions, and they had nothing to offer me except ungodly expensive carbon fiber pieces with padding (to flashy for me, and the wooden Nardi).

Spoke with Triton race seats for a short bit, and almost tagged a set of their "low-side" seats in a clear gel coat... but shortly there-after, they failed to return contact to me.

Recently i got in contact with JK Composites about a pair of their "sevens" series seats, and lucky me, managed to have him oblige to ship a set of cleared buckets to me from across the pond, shipping is immense... but i dont care one bit! waiting time is estimated in 5-6 weeks.

Boso Stage

My car remained like this for a few weeks, until i couldnt stand it anymore, i ripped off the flares and lip, and restarted my progress.






-Restart!

[— artcentermiata —]

Major Set-back

Well, i got a nasty surprise the other day... After i had painted my flares a week or so ago; i had taken my miata to a local body shop to cut the fenders in time for Hot Import Nights, and install the flares...

upon unbolting the pieces, i found this magical parade...





I shouldve done the work myself, or had someone trusted carry it out...

It looks as if the just cut the two outer and inner fenders in the rear, and just filled the gap with foam... not joining the two.

With the inner lip still not joined to the upper, i still get rubbing, which is one of the reasons leading to why i unbolted the flares to check up on the issue.

According to Moti at Blackbird, that section is very structural... which makes me worried; as they might have chopped to much inner lip off to join to the top lip. Im hoping Moti can help me out.

The fronts arent really that bad; just cut a little wonky, and there needs to be some trimming of the front fender/bumper joining tab.

Atleast they coated the cut pieces.

We'll see what happens

[— artcentermiata —]

New direction

Im back in Pennsylvania for the holidays, being away from the car has given me time to calm things down; ive been toying with getting that rear end fat and juicy while cleaning up the front end

In order to do this, the 949 lip needs to go... it was fun for a while, but its just to much for me. I will be returning the my good ole' GV. Im contemplating color matching it to the body and flares as well, and running a small black ABS splitter underneath to protect from damage (which should keep the black trim theme running from the front to the side g-fusers, since the lip will no longer be black)

For now, ive thrown out the crazy aero to focus the theme on being stout and broad. Id be lying if i said i wasnt taking a different direction from my original concept... but i like where this is going.

Ive been talking with Image wheels to get me a set of their LS classic build wheels over here. They mimic the beautiful Lancia Stratos coffin spoke wheels; looks like im going for 15x10 fronts and massive 15x12 rears, other specs are in the works.

Planning something with tail lights...



And a pic demonstrating the clean up of my current stage to be carried out, and my GV inspired tail

Fender Fix

Took my shoddy fender work to the master of metal, Moti (Blackbird Fabworx) to reconstruct what the previous body shop had destroyed. Turn around was super quick, and he did an amazing job of joining what little metal was left; we were literally working with a hairline of trim to weld, but he pulled it off, and cleaned it up very well considering the circumstances. I also gained alot of clearance and scrub room.

[— artcentermiata —]

Current Stage: Post Cleanup

Lets take a look at where my NB sits now









Things have changed massively over the course of my ownership. and now all my boso and cheapness have been expunged, leaving a a car that i can call clean and functional.

Stay tuned, there is much more to come: suspension, seats, brakes, engine, meatballs... more love

[snake520]

Loved reading it. Your old GV lip was repaired but I cracked it again :/ lol

[— artcentermiata —]

New Bits

So, working on the functionality of my car, i replaced the horrible Race-lands with a set of Tein Flex coilovers. In addition to the previous, i also installed new rotors/fluids/and EBC green pads. I raised the car back up to a functional height (as seen in the previous posts pictures); Ive noticed a huge difference in performance from both, its brought the fun and dynamics back to my car.



Finally got a confirmation back from JK Composites, after 2 months, my seats are close to being sent home. Here is a teaser they sent me today



More to come!

[Charlie]

Yes yes yes !!!!!!

[— Agent☣Orange —]

Very very impressive. Every inch of it.

[morr]

Everything about this build is awesome! The rendering looks sick, I can't wait to see it come to life. Seats look great so far too

[friday]

That seat looks very organic. I dig it. I like the direction things are going.

[— artcentermiata —]

Garage Woolery tech day

Stopped by Woolery's garage today after class for some Emmi alignment love, and some great hospitality from David and the rest of the gang.

Ryan (Slidder) happen to have this amazing garage vary wing with him... i NEED it... it completes the rear end so well