This ain't no build thread!

[HarryB]

Thanks for the review Mike, and very glad you are happy with these!

[—Bryan—]

Might have to check these out. Not been particularly pleased with my Delrin bushings.

[chiefmg]

Might have to check these out. Not been particularly pleased with my Delrin bushings.

If there's no rain in the forecast tomorrow, you can caress them in person.

[—Bryan—]

If there's no rain in the forecast tomorrow, you can caress them in person.

Oh yeah, duh!

[chiefmg]

Finally set about repacking my new rear wheel bearings. Followed basically the same procedure as I used for the fronts with some slight differences. There are two seals on the rears and I didn’t see any way of removing them without damage so they stayed in. I did end up removing the backing spring as they kept popping out and that was easier (don’t lose them). Same for the balls and retainers, everything was tight in there. I wedged pennies between the two inner races, drove out the first one then flipped the bearing over and drove out the second one. It seemed like there was a slight difference in the curvature of the two races so I made sure not to mix them up. I wiped out as much of the old grease as I could, it was white which I have never seen in a bearing grease. Then I soaked it in hot water and the same Oil Eater cleaner I used on the fronts. Took several washes/blowing out with air in order to remove the old grease since nothing could be taken apart. Then in with the new synthetic grease, install the seal springs and put the races back in. Note with this step you have to be careful that the lip of the seal doesn’t get folded under the race. Those are both done and ready for installation.

[Demon I Am]

Sounds like the hokey pokey

[Greasemonkey2000]

https://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread.php?t=737046

[chiefmg]

https://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread.php?t=737046

Thanks for looking out, but I already have one and it wasn't nearly that expensive. That's money for mods!

Washed her dirty butt two days ago. Also started the installation of my air line from the compressor location to the hose reel by the garage door (finally).

Had to order a couple of fittings to finish, those came in today. This means I won’t have to run the air hose from the compressor all the time when I need it in the driveway. I am a little concerned about others using it because of the proximity of the hose reel to the Miata, but I can fix that while I’m gone.

[chiefmg]

Today I finally got around to adding an electrical receptacle by the garage door. I did this mainly to make things easier when using the Miata’s battery charger while gone. Bonus is it means I won’t have to run an extension cord when vacuuming cars outside etc. No pictures as all I had to do was drill a hole through two 2X4s, go into the attic and run the wire, figure out which circuit breaker fed the receptacle I was tying into, then hook everything up and check for voltage. Just a simple little up-and-down job.

[chiefmg]

Gave her a bath, pulled into the garage and connected the battery charger for her nap.

[chiefmg]

I won't get to see it for a few months, and once installed no one will know it is there, but I purchased something from my friend Harry B. Y'all gonna have to wait until September or thereabouts to find out just what it is.

[Greasemonkey2000]

I'm pretty sure I know what it is but I won't spoil your surprise. I'm waiting on a few items from Harry as well and possibly a few to follow. Looking forward to see if I was right.

[chiefmg]

Finally back home. Opened my latest purchase:



Set of oil pan baffles. Not going to install them any time soon, but now I have them on hand for whenever I have to open the engine.

[chiefmg]

I decided to cut out the opening in the bumper cover to allow airflow through the mesh in the upper diffuser. Got started on that this morning. First thing was to put some tape around the opening for protection against the drill (note: this didn’t completely work but it mostly did):



Next was drilling some pilot holes around the periphery of the opening as so:



Here is how that turned out:



I connected the dots with a Sharpie (so to speak) to give me a line to follow. I tried cutting the bumper cover using my multitool but ended up using a cutoff wheel in my Dremel. Here is the end result before sanding:



As you can see, the bumper reinforcement is showing behind the cutout. In order to keep that from standing out I used some of this to coat the area behind the cutout:



This is sold for coating firearms, seems to work well for this application too. Once everything was done and back together, here is how it looked:



After that I just assembled everything again. Biggest PITA was removing all the double-sided tape from the upper diffuser and cleaning it all up. I installed the speed nuts I bought last time home, they worked a treat when putting the screws between the upper and lower diffusers:



Before I buttoned everything up, I ground off the extra muffler hanger I installed last time and relocated/welded it. Unfortunately after a short test drive the muffler ended up offset to the left as it was before. I guess I’m going to have to look at this closer to get it fixed right. No final pictures as you have seen it all before, and it’s hard to see the opening behind the mesh unless your face is right there. I am sure I gained a few MPH due to not having the bumper cover act as a parachute. 😉 I do need to do a little cleanup around things thanks to using acetone for cleaning the old double-sided tape off. I figured six hours of work today was enough.

[chiefmg]

I noticed the upper diffuser was pulling away from the bumper cover. I figured the double-sided tape I had used was just old so bought some new 3M black tape yesterday. Removed the upper diffuser, cleaned it up and installed again. No pictures because it was just the same as before.

Today I stopped by a friend’s house and picked up the horn button he got for me from MATG 25 (thanks Bryan). I couldn’t make it this year but I now have a memento.



I stopped by the dealer a few days ago and ordered the door weatherstripping because both of them had been damaged at the front from the windows going up too far. Picked up the passenger side today, the driver’s side doesn’t have a delivery date yet. I figure the restock is probably sitting on a ship off Long Beach so who knows when it will arrive?