My adventure starts in California, October 2011. I spent some time with an old and close highschool friend of mine, who happens to be ArtcenterMiata.
When we were in highschool, he made a comment about wanting a Miata. I actually made fun of him for it.
Years later, experiencing his car and meeting the people from Project-G and KINOD, I found a new love.
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That's me leaning on Kimochi before all the work that has made his car what it is now.
So, my post-college-graduation trip complete I returned to florida and began hunting. I eventually found a beat up, abused, and quite stunning miata a coworker was selling.
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We got the battery charged up, topped off the oil and I backed her out from under the tree she sat under for over a year.
She came with a pair of Tein Basics, which are beginning to show their age. She was also properly lowered by the previous owner, no cut springs here.
First things first, did a full liquids swap.
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The previous owner also assisted me in my first wrench job: replacing the heater core.
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I also spent some time re-stitching the garbage steering wheel by hand so I could get some more life out of it (still using it to this day, steering wheels are expensive)
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And spent some time with the Orlando Roadsters (photo courtesy Kabel):
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And showing off a tiny bit, people actually love this car. I had a guy from a local garage tell me his kids look for my car around town and get excited when they see it.
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ArtCenter miata even sent me some presents
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This was by far one of the coolest birthday presents I ever got. I even wore my Project-G shirt to miatapalooza, where I got to show my car:
(Another photo courtesy Kabel)
(The spray paint spots are where the old eggshel paint is chipping, or the giant S on the side is where someone hit my parked car in a lot)
Unfortunately, due to being a recent college grad who already works full time to pay his student loans, I haven't been able to do much else other than maintain its state of decay.
ArtcenterMiata has been pestering me to start a build thread, and since I have actually budgeted some money to do work on the car this year, I figured it was finally time to do just that.
So I present to you, Ruckkehr (german for Return), which was named thusly because it represented a step towards one day returning to California.
I have had her a year now, and I don't know what I would do without my Miata.
I hope I won't disappoint, and keep enough work going on to update occasionally
In essence: Broke guy buys car that needs a lot of money put into it.
Coming soon: New poly differential bushings coming in the mail. The current ones are so toast its metal on metal.