Bucky, Sharka's little brother

[★ revlimiter ★]

I requested that mods clean out the last few replies to this thread. No hard feelings, but my reasons for installing what parts I install are my own. Doesn't need debate or talk of legality.

And, for what it's worth, an owner removing an airbag is legal in my own state. I'm pretty sure it's legal in every state, but I'd need to read each state's laws.

[trialrun]

subscribed, very nice build and verbage to capture such!

[Oldekamp]

I always felt like Bucky deserved a bit more attention, Sharka is always stealing the spotlights. You really should write more about Bucky, easy car to appreciate. Looking great!

[★ revlimiter ★]

Dang. Been a minute since I updated this thread.

In March, Bucky got a retro window switch. That one was a long time coming.









After most of a year, they've been working great. They get daily use and have had no problems.

Bucky also got a set of Garage Star door bushings. I did a blog post. I think everyone in the Miata world has read it.





Door bushings: after about 6 months of use, I still love them. I still stand by my statement that they need to be one of the first mods any n00b Miata owner does. Door bushings, vent rings, good tires, rollbar. Not necessarily in that order.

[★ revlimiter ★]

And today, Bucky got a Garage Star Handbrake Grip



Bucky’s handbrake is something I’ve wanted to change for a while, but never ran across the right one. Sharka has a Voodoo brake grip, which I love, but I didn’t want to just put the same one on Bucky. I shopped. I waited.

And then Garage Star came out with their E-Brake Lever Grip.





It’s just so… perfect. The handle seems rather lightsaber inspired. And it is one of very few handbrake knobs that comes with a button. Usually you have to buy a button separately.

The brake grip fastens with three set screws. You need an imperial set of hex keys to tighten down the screws.

Of course… you also have to remove your OEM brake grip.







It’s honestly quite easy to remove the handbrake on an NB. You just use a lot of force and twist it off. Twist back and forth in tiny motions while forcing the handle toward the radio. It took me less than a minute to get Bucky’s OEM grip off.

If you’ve got a wood handle it’s gonna be a bit more difficult. I’ve removed 3 of those in the past year. None crumbled or splintered, but each was much more stressful than the stock rubber piece. Just use a lot of force and wiggle the grip off. 5 minutes of work will have the brake and knob separated from each other.

The button is another thing. It screws on. So you just unscrew it (in the regular lefty-loosy direction) and replace it with the Garage Star button.

To me, it was much more difficult to unscrew the button. I had to use some vise grips and a cloth to keep from biting into the plastic too much. But I got it all off after another 5 minutes of work.





NOTE: Do NOT place the set screws at the 6:00 (straight down) position!!!!!!!

The handbrake body has a slot at 6:00. If you align the handle to have the set screws also at 6:00, the screws will just fall into the handbrake to be lost forever.

Rotate the brake grip to 5:00 or so (slightly toward the passenger) and then tighten down the set screws.



The Garage Star grip is fantastic. It looks great and it FEELS very nice. It feels sort of special in my hand. I’m used to holding the OEM shaped grip. Having a round one with ridges and a nicely machined button feels… excellent.

I highly recommend it to anyone. It’s well worth the asking price and when you add in the fact that you get a button with the grip, it’s a steal.

Bucky will be proudly wearing this for a long time to come. Thanks Ken and Jon!!!!



I had to snap a pic of Bucky’s Cosmos gauges as well. Since the days have been short and I get to drive at night more, I’ve really been appreciating them. They’re almost magical at night. I’ve had no desire to change them out for something else. That’s a new feeling for me.

Well done, Bucky.

[Rogue]

I had to snap a pic of Bucky’s Cosmos gauges as well. Since the days have been short and I get to drive at night more, I’ve really been appreciating them. They’re almost magical at night. I’ve had no desire to change them out for something else. That’s a new feeling for me.

Which is why we have 2 sets, they really are stunning.

[★ revlimiter ★]

^

Thank you very much.

[—tsingson—]

Bucky makes me want to go to 14 RPFs. Boo for making me want to spend more money. Yay for a beautiful car.

[—RotorNutFD3S—]

Damn it, now I want a lightsaber hilt e-brake grip.

[theothersawyer]

Do it. Do it now.

[—RotorNutFD3S—]

Heh, it'll have to be after I, and my wallet, recover from Christmas.

[Greasemonkey2000]

Nice upgrades Adam! Every time you update your build thread on Bucky it reinforces the notion that I NEED a NB back in my life....for my wife of course.

[★ revlimiter ★]

BOOM!

Bass. I've never had it in a Miata. I've never gone to much trouble to upgrade the sound in a Miata ever. Sharka has a decent head unit and some vintage MB Quart speakers, but nothing else. Bucky has some 6x9s in the doors and a crappy head unit. No boom.

I almost never have an adult passenger in a Miata. Friends and coworkers seem to actively avoid riding with me. My usual passenger is very short, looks like me, sits in a Recaro car seat, and her feet don't touch the ground. Those feet won't touch for a few years. Seemed like just the time to add some bass to one of the Roadsters.


Before


also before

Bucky seemed like the logical choice for bass. I drive the little guy about 3/5 of the time. Sharka is sort of a fair weather and weekend car. Bass would be nice in both cars, but I'd actually get to enjoy it more in Bucky.


The Black Roadster Subwoofer Box.

This footwell subwoofer box comes from a guy named William, who I’ve known for damn near all of my Miata driving days. He was a member of the Yourmiata.com forum (The Darkside) back in the day. I spent all of my hours there. We’ve chatted a lot over the years. I should have bought one of these sooner.

William has been making these footwell sub boxes for years. It’s just something he does in his free time. He has no store front. He's "black roadster" on this very forum. The sub box went for roughly $150 shipped. It comes without speaker or amp.


hot terminal action.

The box is really impressive to me. I know next to zero about building speakers or boxes or matching speakers to boxes or… well… anything about car audio. I’m truly NOT the person to be writing a car audio review, but I’m doing my best.

Anyways, the footwell box is sized to fit the NA and NB left hand drive Miatas. Mine fits in my NB perfectly, which is something I was ever so slightly worried about. They have small differences in footwell shape.

It comes with wiring, polyfill, and terminals. The box volume is .26 cubic feet. Polyfill increases the effective volume (or so I read). The front edge is carpeted.

It’s lovely, really.





I asked William for help matching a sub to the box. He sent me back a ton of links and info. In one email he more than doubled my subwoofer knowledge.

I will save you from a half-winded explanation of subs, sizing, and other such stuff and just give you the details.

I used a Rockford Fosgate P1S4-8 8″ subwoofer in this box. Mine is the 4 ohm version. It’s sized for a .2 to .3 cubic foot sealed box, so it’s perfect for the Black Roadster footwell box. It’s a 200 Watt RMS speaker, so it needs an amp that puts out something in that neighborhood (so I read).

And the little footwell box and RF sub work very well together. The sub mounted into the box with no problems at all. I highly recommend the pair.



I grabbed this 4 gauge wiring kit from amazon. It’s a “New England Providore” 20 foot 4 gauge kit with RCA and speaker cable. I’d link but it's out of stock right now. And amazon doesn't need any more free links anyways.

Decent wiring. Stranded copper with nice rubber insulation. Very easy to bend, crimp, and work with. I’m pretty happy with it. 4 gauge is way overkill for the small wattage I'm pushing (150W or so) but why not?


That's an amp on that tire. For real. It's not a phone or anything.

It’s a Kenwood KAC-M3004 amp. 4 channel, 600W max, bridgable. At 4 ohm bridged it puts out 150W per channel. So it’s sized well for my little 200W sub. Or at least that’s what I read and am attempting to blog here.

If you’re interested, google it. There’s a nice youtube of this amp on a dyno putting out some incredible numbers. It’s underrated from the factory. The dyno example put out 730 watts. That’s… insane. This tiny phone sized thing? Yeah. Technology.


Seems like a good place.

I looked all over the trunk and settled on the fuel hose cover as a mounting spot for the little amp. I wanted to put it in the passenger side tunnel, but that seemed a little hard to access. I still might shove it back there, but for now it’s mounted on the fuel hose cover.

Nice thing about mounting it here – I can easily find a replacement cover if I want to remove the system or move the amp. No permanent holes were drilled. It’s not often that I can say that about any given Miata project.


Power and ground wires cut and crimped.


Amp installed.


Sub in place.

I could have probably done a better job making the wires pretty on that amp install. Alas. It’ll give me another Miata project a few months in the future. I need to look at some pretty amp install pix.

The footwell box wedges in there solidly. It does indeed take away foot room. My legs don’t stretch out in the passenger side anymore. But the box also comes out easily and can fit in the trunk for a quick trip with a passenger.


Such stealth. Many floor mat. What subwoofer? Very bass. Wow.

With the floor mats installed the sub just disappears. I love this! Stealthy even if you’re looking dead at it.

Now, the several hundred dollar question: how does it sound?

BOOM!!! BOOOM-wiki-BOOM!!!

It sounds great. The amount of depth this little sub adds to any given song is truly impressive. It’s very clean bass too. I’ve got things tuned to not really distort. It sounds fantastic.

There’s even bass with the top down while driving at freeway speeds. THAT is something you rarely get from a trunk mounted sub. When the top goes down, your bass goes away. But with the footwell sub, your tunes stay rocking.

I’m really impressed by this upgrade. I should have done it a while ago. I just didn’t take the time to think who my passengers usually are. For the next 5 or 6 years, my copilot won’t have a problem with leg room.

Thanks again for the awesome boom-wiki upgrade William!!!

[★ revlimiter ★]

On a closed road in Mexico...

I’ve not had the chance to take a 100,000 mile shot for a long time. The last was when Sharka’s 97 chassis hit 100k in 2005 or so.

It’s a little ritual for any Miata owner who truly loves their car. When 100k rolls around, you plan ahead and cross the milestone at 100 mph. Taking a photo seals the deal. It guarantees that your next 100,000 miles will be as good or better than the first.

It worked for Sharka in 2005. Bucky deserved the same ritual.

From the closed road


I decided to do a small photoshoot to celebrate the occasion. Bucky doesn’t get as much blog-love as he should. No better time for some attention than at 100k.

Bucky even got fresh wax a few days before.

100,000 miles young


14" RPF1s > *


Control Center


Team Gurren!


Version Redline


I’ve been planning this 100k post for a while. I designed and installed a fresh set of gauges for Bucky. I call this one Version Redline. It’s the first all-white set of gauges I’ve designed. For some reason, the 90s nostalgia is starting to grow on me. It seemed like it was time for Bucky to have some white dials again.

They’re of course, in the store and for sale.

And then there’s the horn button. That’s how Team Gurren rolls. (If you haven’t seen the Gurren Lagann anime, fire up netflix and binge it now. It’s fantastic.)

Zoom-Zoom


Happy 100k Bucky! Here’s to another hundred.

[Greasemonkey2000]

Congrats to Bucky and you on the milestone! Here is to another 100k miles! I was surprised to see on Instagram that you think the NB chassis is more comfortable than the NC....would you mind expounding, please.