Third times a charm - 95 white

[Tekel]

Third time is the charm... maybe... This is now my third miata in 4 years.

First miata was a '97 I picked up with 45000 miles. I sold it in 2012 with over 70k miles. This car came to me as a former garage queen and I used it as a DD (summer and winter) for 2 years. Here is how it looked in the end:



My second miata was a 2005 MSM that I purchased in 2011. My original plan was keep this car til the wheels fell off and build it as a nationally competing auto-x BSP car. Well, plans changed, family grew and I needed to do some vehicle swapping. This car never saw winter and was my baby. Here is how it looked in the end:



Now on to my newest project.

1995 Mazda Miata
Purchased with 68k miles

I really don't have any specific plans, a muse, or a build thread direction other than eventually going FI. I have 9/10 of a turbo setup sitting in my garage, only thing I'm missing is an ecu. This will probably not happen until Winter 2014/2015 unless I come into some cash. Other than that, i'm just going to be doing exterior mods as I come across them. Lets see where this thing ends up. :icon_cheers:


Only photos I have of it so far:

[Tekel]

The car isn't even registered yet and I have started doing a few minor mods.

First thing I did was pull out the charcoal canister from the engine bay. I won't be going stripped bay, but i will be cleaning it up some.



The car also cam with a test pipe installed. Couldn't stand the ricey sound it made when taking off, so I started replacing that with the stock cat. First problem to figure out was getting the exhaust out of the way in order to get it in there. The studs made this a challenge. I tried pushing and prying, but in the end I used a hand winch attached to an exhaust hanger and the rear tow hook to make some space. I am only half way done with this swap. I get the cat in and had problems getting the nuts to thread. I got 2 of the 4 tight, but stripped out 1 trying to get it on and the other I just gave up afraid to strip it as well. I went to advanced to get some new nuts, the stripped nut threaded on a standard test bolt... I can only assume these aren't oem nuts and aftermarket hardware was used on the test pipe. Now I am thinking I probably screwed up the threads on my cat's studs and may be getting a new cat.

Here is the install. This picture is bad, but you can see the hand winch.


Ahhh, plenty of space to fit the cat now


Barely got that one back off


Still sitting on the ramps waiting for me to finish the job

[Tekel]

I finally just said forget it and ordered a new magnaflow replacement cat. I didn't feel like dealing with the now screwed up threads or trying to replace the studs on a cat that could very well be near end of life anyways. Will hopefully get some $$ out of it from the scrap yard.

I will also be ordering my suspension today. Am going to FM Vmaxx XXXXXXXXXXXXTREME track pack.

The saga continues on trying to get this thing registered. When the previous owner filled out the title, he incorrectly put his name and address in the assign title to field. So I had to send him a form to get signed and notarized saying it was a mix up, were sorry, please don't put us in jail. (no seriously, stupid people at the DMV act like your committing rape and murder at the same time because you screwed up on paperwork). Well he was awesome and get it done as soon as he got the paperwork. Now the USPS decided to lose the letter. They claim it was delivered, but nothing to be found. So here we are, 2 weeks after picking it up and it still isn't in my name.

[Tekel]

Will be mounting my used 205/50 star specs on my 15x9 6uls for now until I can afford rs3s. Don't really want the stretch, but you work with what you have.

[— Dandy —]

Nice start. It's the struggles we go through that give our cars a personality and a sense of history. It's going to look real aggressive with the Vmaxx and those big honkin' wheels.

[morr]

I like how we both ditched our NB's for NA's Can't wait to see it at MATG! I'm gonna be putting my 205.50 Kumho XS on my stock NB wheels. I'd rather have a slight stretch like you than a balloony look like I'm gonna have haha.

[—atank—]

Love the NA's................

[maharaj]

Third time will be a charm, especially since you finally have the correct color.

[Tekel]

Small update, new cat came in and suspension shipped. I was hoping the suspension would get here on Friday so I could install them this weekend, but FM said it would ship this past Friday, it didn't ship until yesterday and because of the 4th, it won't be here until Tuesday now. Oh well. My goal is to have all my parts installed in time for a car show on July 18-20.

Parts coming in:
- suspension
- radiator

Things to do:
- install above parts
- alignment
- wash, clay, wax
- clean engine bay

Also, I thought magnaflow was known for being decent quality... look at this cut and subsequent grinding job on the cat I just got.

Nice start. It's the struggles we go through that give our cars a personality and a sense of history. It's going to look real aggressive with the Vmaxx and those big honkin' wheels.

I like how we both ditched our NB's for NA's Can't wait to see it at MATG! I'm gonna be putting my 205.50 Kumho XS on my stock NB wheels. I'd rather have a slight stretch like you than a balloony look like I'm gonna have haha.

Third time will be a charm, especially since you finally have the correct color.

It wasn't the exact color I wanted, but it will work. I was looking for any color but red. My last NA was red and I just couldn't like it.

[—atank—]

Man looks like quality is slipping, I have had MagnaFlow and they were great but that has been a few years ago. Nice progress.....

[Tekel]

New Suspension INSTALLED. Would of been complete in about 3 hours, but because I ran into an issues with a bolt being stripped, it took longer. Total duration: 4.25hrs.

I was amazed that it was easier to swap the suspension on this 17 year old car than my 8 year old MSM. I believe it has a lot to do with the PO replacing many bolts and had installed and uninstalled coils. My biggest fear was finding stripped hardware since he knew he was replacing it to sell. But, to my surprise I only ran 2 that were. The 2 nuts that mount to the top hat were rusted and when I attempted to undo them, the bolt stripped and just turned with them. I am so thankful it was on the coil with easy access on the passenger side engine bay and not the driver side rear where you have everything completely in your way.

Current height is 11.5" front ~12" rear (hub to fender). After they settle I will tweak the measurements.

Also installed my 15x9 6uls.

FM Vmaxx track with all new bushings


Stupid stripped bolts










ohhhhh artsy


My only complaint? How they look in the engine bay. Every time I look at them, I get the feeling I assembled them wrong... Above the top hat is a bushing and washer thing.

[—atank—]

[riefdaddy]

You have it installed correctly. Mine is the same way and I verified with Keith that is was correct.

[—Martin—]

I'm no expert, but that doesn't look right to me. Is that the NB upper mount?

http://www.flyinmiata.com/index.php?...umber=13-57923

[Tekel]

Based on the diagram atank and other pictures I have seen, it is correct.

Was out and happen to have my real camera in the car so I finally snapped some real pictures.





Those slotted rotors


Having this steering wheel somehow makes it all better that the MSM is gone.