The Spruce Moose Build

[WASABI]

Very nice!

[Andy]

This is something that has been on my list of things to do for an extremely long time. I finally found an oem tonneau cover for my car in black for a decent price. The only problem is that I have a double hoop roll bar, and I have no idea how it is going to work. I have plans to take my car sometime this week or next to my local upholstery shop and have them figure out a way to make it work. What makes the most sense is to have the tonneau go through the roll bar but I am going to leave the fine details up to the shop.



Here i am test fitting the tonneau with my dash snaps. I will be picking up the mirror snaps from a friend in the next few days.

Stay tuned. I have even more ideas that will be becoming a reality for my car in the next few months.

[Andy]

I purchased a steering wheel today. It is being hand made in England so it might take a little while.

I expect it to look like this.

[WASABI]

Oooooh very nice! More details please.

[Andy]

Motolita mark 3 riveted wheel 14 inch, flat, spoke design holes, motolita miata hub, 1 inch spacer, billet badged center cap.

It definitely hurt my wallet.

[— Dandy —]

That is a very fine piece. Classy retro styling FTW!

[Andy]

Well I went to sears and bought a hook and pick set so I can figure out why my windshield washer nozzles don't work. Today I found out why. ImageUploadedByTapatalk1399128495.047448.jpg

[— freedomgli —]

New paint looks great. I like what you're doing so far. All NA Miata eventually have that problem with the windshield washer plastic hose barbs falling apart. 20+ years under the hood blasted by heat will do that.

[Andy]

I had to add more wood to the Spruce Moose to spruce it up.
This just came in hand made from England. Only took slightly over a month to get the exact wheel I wanted. It is a non dished / flat wheel.

[— Grip Driver —]

wow that looks nice!!!

[jux]

This is a lovely moose thread! Subbing for more.
Where'd you source the gauges? The lighting looks perfect.

[Andy]

The gauges are rather interesting. They are smiths flight series of gauges. Rev9 received a shipment of some that we're prototype with the green lights to match the miata interior. They never followed up on the idea an the gauges were shelved for a few years.

I saw them mention them in a blog a while ago and contacted them further inquiring about them. I bought the only set of clock and voltmeter as the only inventory was the experimental/ evaluation set.

I think you can buy them now from other vendors by they probably won't be green backlit. I can't imagine it is that hard to change the bulb lighting.

[jux]

Hmmm
Nifty back story!

[etikoner]

Congrats on purchasing a steering wheel. I'm surprised you actually spent that much money on your car, and took out the airbag. What hub will you use to mount it?

[Andy]

I used the proprietary moto lita hub. Sadly I need to return the 1 inch spacer I bought and buy a 2 inch spacer since my wheel has 0 dish to it. It is completely flat. My logic was the wheel is the most touched / important thing on the car so you should make it the best you can given how much money you are willing to spend. It now really ties the interior together. I will get some nice photos here in a few days.

I did remove the airbag and when I took it out the airbag connector was all electrical taped up. I have a theory. About 8 years or so ago we took it to a miata mechanic one time to fix the throw out bearing, replace the clutch, and to fix the airbag light. The mechanic said something was wrong with the wiring on the airbag system and it would be hard to find the parts. We said fix it. I am convinced that he cut the airbag cables and spliced them together to complete the circuit. I have absolutely no faith in the old airbag and am actually scared I was driving with the old airbag for so long.