Oldekamp's build ('Grace')

[Oldekamp]

Dirty girl after drifting last Sunday.

I signed up for the drift day, not realizing I really shouldn't be drifting my car anymore. It's just too nice to risk anything now. Then I had some cooling problems, replaced the radiator, and it was still going hot on highway speeds. Turned out to be the thermostat, so my car was ready. Nobody wanted my ticket, so I decided I would give her one last day of sideways action. Went smooth all day, no damages whatsoever. I will get myself a beater miata to mess with on track whenever my income starts allowing it. In-action drift pics are on their way.

[Tobben]

not realizing I really shouldn't be drifting my car anymore.

So that's why you've highjacked my car

[Oldekamp]

Back in January I came across a set of red interior. I've been in touch with the seller nearly every week since.. He took the car from a scrapyard to cut out the sills, to repair his own Miata. It took very long for the seller to disassemble the car, he was busy at work and had some personal stuff going on.. All I needed to do was be patient (which was pretty hard sometimes..). The main problem was that the car was outside, and the left door wasn't on the car. It was outside all this time. Halfway through May, he had half of the interior out and offered me to take the bits he disassembled for almost no money at all. I practically begged him to keep disassembling the car (it would be scrapped anyways). He would try and find the time, so again more patience was needed. The seller got his own place and moved out of his parents' house, so of course that took some time aswell. The car was still in his parents' driveway, and naturally they got tired of having a scrap car in their way. They had it towed to a scrapyard. I was devastated.. The main carpet and some red plastic bits were still in the car.. I asked him if he could go to the scrapyard and see if he could still get the carpet out. After a few days, he went over there and pulled the remaining bits out. All this time, I was pretty scared someone else would go to the scrapyard and find half of my interior there up for grabs.. I got lucky.. All parts are secured now, right..?

Right.. It was July. It was up to me to arrange shipping from his doorstep to mine. I found a courier and they would stop by his place the next day to pick it up. We went through adress details at least 5 times. No mistakes now. The courier came by his doorstep, and pickup up his packages. He also sent out a differential to another buyer in Europe. After 2 days, I still couldn't track my shipment. I asked him if he got a receipt, and he didn't. It didn't take him long to find out he gave both of his packages to one single courier.. The one that was on it's way to deliver a differential.. to Warschau, Poland!

I felt sick. I put so much time and effort into doing this right.. Was it all for nothing..? I couldn't sleep..

A few days later the buyer asked me if I could arrange shipping from Poland to my doorstep (Netherlands). He would cover the costs.
I tried all courier services, but apparently the shipment was too big to ship between these countries. I was at a loss for words.

The next day, the buyer sent me a message saying that the buyer of the differential had arranged shipping for us locally, for next to no money at all.. I couldn't believe how cheap it was.
I just hoped for the best..

Thursday a white van showed up in front of my house. Out came a package..






Mr. Kitteh can tell somethings up!




I packed it all up to drive to my buddy, Tobben. Let's get some shit done!



Still dirty on the picture, and the ugliest wiring ever seen. We made sure we cleaned it all up before putting in the new carpet. Sadly, I forgot to take a picture after the cleaning..


Aaaand.. It's in!


Yet, things get interesting. All of the red bits came out of a RHD car. The passenger footwell and drivers side footwell are the other way around. The drivers side being short on carpet, the passenger side being too long. With a few smart cuts, we fixed that problem. We trimmed the footwell plastics. Mazda made this an easy job because you can cut along the casting lines on the back.





I found a LHD dash, it's just a matter of getting it shipped over here. I have a set of custom door cards in 93LE red, but I could also mount original 93LE doorcards (we have those laying around aswell).
I'll have to get an electric window system first.. Also, we have some red seatbelts to mount up, but I couldn't find them quickly enough and I couldn't wait any longer to see the end result..

Last but not least, I installed the birthday present I got from Tobben and another buddy: Jass Performance HVAC panel. Looks sweet, thanks again you guys!

[Cermivelli]

Still unbelievable story! Still jealous! give me back my nakamae!!! ;)

[Oldekamp]

Still unbelievable story! Still jealous! give me back my nakamae!!! ;)

Your nakamae is safely boxed up, I presume it won't be long before we meet up again?

[Fishbulb]

Just found this and these are two of the nicest looking silver NA's out there, nice work!

[—atank—]

That LE Red looks great!

[Oldekamp]

The car didn't get much love while I was studying halfway across the country. I've dropped out though, since the study wasn't for me. Took her back to my hometown, and gave her a well-deserved bath and wax. Then, it was time to take some pictures. They speak for themselves.

[NCGreasemonkey]

Robin, that center rear-view mirror is auto porn for me! Beautiful car!

[Oldekamp]

My wheels have annoyed me ever since I got my Miata. More recently, one of the tires kept going flat.

Last summer I found some used and abused BBS replicas for an absolute bargain. I was never really fond of BBS wheels, but I really fancied a change. I sure as hell wasn't going to spend a penny on my old wheels. I hated those from the get-go. The BBS replicas turned out to be an equally big mistake.

Two weeks later, a friend of mine came across some RPF1s on a MX5 classifieds section on Facebook, and notified me about it. I'd never seen RPF1's up for sale in my area before, but all of the sudden: there they were. I told my friend that I couldn't afford them anyway, and thought I'd leave it at that.

As it turns out, I'm a pretty lucky dude. My girlfriend noticed what was going on, and she said to me: "Sell the replica's as fast as you can. You've been wanting those wheels for way too long." The problem was that I financially couldn't. This is where my parents in law stepped in and offered me their help, and so it happened after all. I can't express in words how happy I am. I couldn't possibly thank my girlfriend and parents in law enough

[EunosMonster]

I will get myself a beater miata to mess with on track whenever my income starts allowing it. In-action drift pics are on their way.

Looking good.
That's a good idea you should get any RWD POS that runs for that ...