I don't keep up with the forums much any more these days, but I picked up a 95M a little over a year ago and thought I'd share it here.
Presenting, Merlot Haggard (S0616226):
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She was in pretty bad condition when I picked her up from just outside of New Orleans, and almost none of the features that make it special were in decent enough condition to make it worth "restoring" the car to original spec. Although this is a sad state of affairs, I'm going to give the car a new lease on life by sprucing it up with all sorts of parts that I've been accumulating over the years. It won't be a pristine M-Edition, but it will be special.
The good: The BBS wheels are in OK condition, it has a torsen since it's an M-Edition, it has the 95M seats (although they are in very bad condition), the paint is in such terrible condition but it is still a gorgeous color, and best of all it currently runs, drives, turns and stops--which is a good starting point.
The bad and the ugly: The seats are torn up (although I do plan to try to repair/restore these), the Nardi knob is missing the upholstery+logo and is in two-pieces, the turn signal front turn signal lenses were cracked, the high beam switch didn't work, the horn didn't work, the A/C doesn't work (compressor locked up), power steering leaked/leaks, suspension/steering is sloppy, cruise control didn't work, power antenna didn't work, ABS pump module needs to be replaced, the washer pump was dead (and no longer available), the driver mirror doesn't entirely snug up to the door so it rattles, the soft top was shredded, the hardtop needs some SMC repair, it's definitely been in an accident or two (though nothing too major) and repainted (poorly), the interior was thrashed and covered with caked up dirt and grime, the trunk lid and taillights leaked and it was holding a couple gallons of water and organic debris and is now covered by surface rust, the engine has been replaced with a used JDM engine (which seems to have a collapsed lifter and a strange power dip at 4500 rpm), the 5th gear synchro is shot (and who knows how much damage all the debris has done to the rest of the transmission), and probably a few other things that I can't recall at the moment...
I've been working pretty slowly on it, but I did a lot of basic maintenance just to get it running reliably and pass inspection. I've stripped a lot of the old crusty stuff out and have cleaned up just about everything but the surface rust around the trunk, so now I've just got to find the time to start building it up. I've got nearly everything on hand to start the suspension/steering/braking overhaul: new control arms w/ SADfab delrin bushings, new wheel bearings, hubs, ARP extended studs, depowered rack with angle spacers + iConcepts inner tie rods, 5XR rack spacers, Superpro poly rack bushings, new outer rod ends, new balljoints, FM 4-wheel 11" LBBK, SuperMiata Xida Club Sport Gen2 700/400 coilovers, Racing Beat hollow bar + support blocks, and a handful of other related goodies. Once the handling bits are up to snuff I'll probably move on to chassis bracing (V8R front arch braces, FM rails+butterfly brace, and possibly a Blackbird Fabworx roll bar). Then I'll move on to interior/electronics and Megasquirt, followed by swapping in my built engine and MSM 6-speed trans (and hopefully I'll have a torsen with Mfactory 3.3 gears ready to go by then as well). The plan is to add a Trackspeed EFR to the mix, and then the final step will be exterior/body work. It's likely to be a long slow process, but I'm looking forward to it!
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