Frankie Stein Build

[cbaylis77]

Hi everyone,
I've been meaning to make a build thread for the past year so here goes.
My name is Chris and I own a '99 turbo Miata I call Frankie.



I stupidly bought a "built" car on ebay because it looked like a good deal and like I said, I'm lazy. Plus my previous 95 Miata was too rusty to use for a proper build. Here's what it looked like when I got it.





When the car arrived the new motor had low oil pressure and made terrible noises! So the rebuild began and it soon looked like this.



Time for a complete tear down and personality change.

[cbaylis77]

More pictures from the beginning. My only camera is my cell phone so I apologize for the quality.









With the engine out we also found this!



Good thing one of our mechanics is a good welder.





Better than new!

[— fwdtamiya —]

Monster High, huh?

[cbaylis77]

I can't find the engine build pics so I'll add those here later.

The engine came with CP pistons and Eagle rods. We think the oil pump relief jammed and cylinder 3 bearing spun.

I'm going to build a VVT motor so in the mean time the current engine is internally stock.

It has a Turbonetics t3/t4 hybrid that should have a AR.50 compressor but I haven't actually measured it. A Tial 38mm wastegate and Greddy blow off valve. It had 460 rx7 injectors which I upgraded to 700cc DWs when I upgraded the hydra.

[cbaylis77]

Now that I bought a car that doesn't run I decided to personalize it during the down time. I bought a second 99 Miata with a good motor as a parts car which led to the Frankenstein name. I'm not a fan of chrome or bling on a sports car so everything will be black and white like an old horror movie and all the lights will be green. kind of cheesy and dated but hey, why not?

The finish on the XXRs was chipped and spider cracked so those were the first to get painted. I also made custom Mazda caps to ditch the XXR logos.







The Momo wheel in the car was in tough shape so I swapped it with one I had in another car. I painted the faux carbon fiber white to start the theme. The gauges are now white as well as the center of the dash and shifters.

[cbaylis77]

Just an FYI. I don't recommend trying to paint a rollbar in the car!









I've added Hard Dog door bars since these pics which I had powder coated white before I installed them. The difference in stiffness is amazing!

[cbaylis77]

Another contributor to the Frankenstein name were the bolts on the deck lid so I made some.





I'll probably never use the hard top but if I do they just unscrew.

[cbaylis77]

While researching my build I've spent a lot of time on these forums. Reading and asking stupid questions! I even found old pictures of my car from it's original builder. A great guy named Ken who went by airbrush1 on the forums.

[cbaylis77]

The car came with a Hydra 2.5 which I updated to 2.7. This is my first stand alone ECU so it's a learning process. Most people would tell me to go with Mega squirt but Jeremy at FM has been a huge help and their base map seems to be worked great. When the new unit came in I relocated it from the air bag spot to behind the glove compartment.





I then made a custom gauge pod in the airbag cubby. I posted that build somewhere in the interior section.

[cbaylis77]

I got a good deal on a knock off Bomex bumper so I picked it up. It's my favorite NB bumper so I couldn't pass it up. Of course this meant I would have to paint it! I was going to just Plasti-dip it but the flairs and one of the mirrors had some cracks and the car had plenty of scratches. So off to the body shop it went.









Along with the Satin paint we shaved the emblems and reflectors. I added the front markers into the headlights and had them clear coated. A blacked out Mazdaspeed emblem is all that's on the car.
The green markers and under car lights complete the monster look.

[cbaylis77]

The a/c, power steering, cruise control, power windows, mirrors and radio have all been removed. I pretty much started with a loaded car and removed it all.
Next I'm working on stripping out all the unused wiring.
Next winter I'll hopefully redo the harnesses.

[cbaylis77]

The current wheels are still the XXR 002s 16x8 et 0. Very common but I like the look. Driver side now has black centers.
uploadfromtaptalk1403148872125.jpg
uploadfromtaptalk1403148901817.jpg
I really want 17s but that will be down the road. Probably 17x8 with street tires for show and some 15x9s for autocross.
uploadfromtaptalk1403148927239.jpg

[cbaylis77]

It's alive!
uploadfromtaptalk1409980212293.jpg

[cbaylis77]

No new updates so in the mean time here's a picture of the DD with it's new snows.

[—atank—]

Good looking DD^^