You need to submit this build to a major car magazine. Seriously this needs to be documented in print so you can frame it and hang it on your wall. This is cover material.

I think for a "magazine cover" you need a perfect $6k paint job and be herrafrush these days right?

I assure you the paint doesn't look nearly as good in person. Most of that is due to the fact that I haven't cleaned the paint once since I painted it. Also need to wet sand it and buff it too.

I have always secretly wanted to be on Build Threads. It is pure car restoration porn.

Also Curly. With the impressive amounts of engineering that Mazda put into the PPF, are those PPF aftermarket braces even necessary? Or are they more placebos.

I have a subscription to modified magazine and they almost never feature hella flush cars. They mostly deal in either heavily modded street cars or track beastd and the paint jobs are good but not usually show quality. I bet your car would stand a good chance or a cover and would definitely make it to a main feature car.

I'd bet GRM would be interested in the car as well. They love Miatas. They love incredible builds being done in a home garage. They love tenacity. They love a good story.

You have all these things.

Hell, if my piece of shit Escort got a half-page feature in that magazine, this should at least be a page or two worth.

Seriously. This would get in any sport compact magazine you'd submit it to. SCC, whatever.

Don't forget a shout-out to the "little people" when you get all famous!

This is a no-brainer considering the "stolen and flipped" part of the story. It's magazine gold.

Kinda figured, just never saw the hole drilled.

I have no idea, although I would never install them.

Seems like all they do is keep the transmission and engine from twisting on it's axis. Could be beneficial if you want to keep daily derivable engine mounts installed, instead of delrin. But in the back you could probably go to solid aluminum diff mounts and get the same effect. Much longer torque arm.

It's really a toss up, I'd have to play with one, and I don't think many people have purchased them.

Just please dont end up on Super Street Magazine. Your better than that LMAO

I think the story would be more about how a community of angry objective bastards taught a 26 year old baker how to build a Miata properly!:rofl: I'd never forget the people who are the only reason the car has gotten to the point it has.

Seriously, you guys don't know how much you have influenced my OCD and going "above & beyond".

The nice thing about a build thread like this is it keeps you honest and you get instant peer review on your work. You guys have no idea how much ya'll have helped me keep going at this pace and standard of quality.

No homo:dancegay:

True it does have the sound of a good magazine article!

I am WAY to introverted to ever actually submit an article though.

I haven't read an actual physical car magazine in years, I have no idea what is bad or good. :noob:

Last bit of work for the next couple of days.

Forgot I had this heat-shield laying around so I figured why not, and install it. It doesn't have good coverage but it does cover the brake/clutch reservoirs, so that is nice.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1392784374

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1392784374

Also installed the rear subframe brace thingamabob.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1392784374

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1392784374

Finished up the rear endlinks and zerk fittings. I adjusted the endlinks as much as possible to get a near vertical endlink, but I can't tell how much better it will get with an actual suspension load. Much better than it was before!:rofl:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1392784374

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1392784374

You have no idea how much this thread has kicked me in the ass to get going on mine. If it wasn't calculus, other homework, sleep, wife, and waiting for stuff I'd be trying to one up you. If anything I have gotten to lax in my efforts to do a great job on mine, and this thread just makes me want to go back to doing it right.

That is the very definition of "so clean you can eat off of it." I seriously doubt my dishes are that clean. I know my grill isn't.

The spacers that came with the supermiata endlinks are meant between the sway bar and the end links ;)
Get them right, they are far from ideal now.

http://i43.tinypic.com/ih5lsm.jpg

But Vuti, look how ugly the underside of your car is. Shame on you.

tee hee

Not my car, pic stolen from CR.net :giggle:

Too right Vuti, I completely overlooked that. This is what happens when you work into the wee hours of the morning.:facepalm:

Thanks for spotting that.

No problem Jeff, it happens even to the best of us ;)

Your cars theme song

Jeff,

You will actually need to adjust the end links with the car on the ground. With the weight of the vehicle on the suspension, you then need to adjust them so the sway bar is as close to parallel with the ground you can get.

Yup final adjustments will be on ramps. Just merely putting them on for now.

Shit, I think my rear sway may be installed upside down :hahano: :facepalm:

Yesterday the Jeff-bug has got to me...

Started with this:
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1392877976

An hour later I ended with this:
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1392877976

Jeffffffffff - what are you doing with all of us...! :vash2: Nevermind, I just couldn't paint whatever paint there is (I did wan't to use POR15) over that rust...

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1392878274


Damn...you weren't kidding about my rust being laughable...that is ridiculous.

Good work Zaphod, LET THE OCD SPREAD!

Looks worse than it really was, it's only surface rust and was be wirebrushed away quite fast.... There are some small crevices that you barely reach though

*stopthreadjack*

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1392880738

Jeff you have no idea what real rust is ;)

I'm going to be grateful that I still remain naive to what "real" rust is. That means I haven't had to deal with it.

Wow just went through all 65 pages in two days. You're attention to detail is astounding! I second the idea that the ppf should have just been hung on a wall as a momento of how awesome this car is. Major props for all the work you've done! Now I'm motivated to start working on mine again. :makeout:

Looks like the one that you can see on the driver's side front of the engine. You can see mine hanging from the motor not hooked up to the subframe yet. it goes to the threaded hole in the subframe. You can see it faintly in my crappy cell pic in the subframe above the steering rack boot.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1392906336

The driver's front ground strap is a braided one from the factory. Some people upgrade it to a beefier solid cable like pictured above. It connects from the little shelf under the brake booster to one of the bolts holding the tranny to the engine.

And, BTW, for low-electrical noise and proper ground references, you should go back to a braid. They did that for a reason.

I've never seen one on the front of the engine like John shows. On all my Miata's the ground goes to a threaded hole on the shelf like Adam described.

John, that's some impressive inner-fender sheet metal work. What's that about -- or is this a swap into another car?

That's the Miata motor in my SAAB. You must be the only one that hasn't seen my build thread, lol. Oh, and it's gots truboz now. As far as the "never seen one" I can't answer that. Mine is as I removed it from the 94R that I parted and got the drivetrain from so I assumed it was stock. There is a thread hole in the subframe already and the cable matched perfectly so I assumed this was normal. His cable looked just like mine.

Thank you Stein and Rev for locating the ground cable locations for me. Very much appreciated.

Stein your SAAB thread is insanity levels of fabrication and restoration. Kindred spirits we are. Only, you surpass me so far with your technical/welding/fabrication ability it makes what I do seem trivial.

Also for those of you that have bought your own leather to refinish things, is there a certain grade/grain/quality you'd recommend? Did you just pick it up from a local upholstery shop?

I know nada about leather.

Reason I ask is I am going to redo my arm rest on the center console, and I think I will wrap my ABS door cards/upper door pad, as well, for a slightly more refined look.

I'm not a professional when it comes to leather or anything, but I would suggest trying to find something that has a more natural finish, at least if you're going for durability. A lot of leather these days has almost a painted, plasticky finish on it that makes the grain and color perfectly uniform. This looks very clean when new, but as it wears the dye will fade and you will wear through the perfect finish exposing subpar leather underneath.

If you buy a natural-finish leather -- which, if you get good quality, can still be uniform in finish, though the grain will often be smaller -- it will look better as it wears, and it will feel much nicer on your poor, abused elbow.

Good points. Thanks. I'm halfway tempted to find the source for the "pleather" in my Jetta. 4 years and 75k miles of abuse and it still looks brand new. Plus it is soft and comfy to boot.

Yeah that v-tex leatherette is pretty good stuff, I think it's a lot better than the leatherette you get in BMWs and Benzes. Not as nice on the skin as real leather though ;)

In for leather-wrapped dash and door cards.

FTFY

I believe Adam/Revlimiter is into leather :giggle:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1392933678

Anytime I think about working with leather I always see the scene from "Best in Show" in my head. "6 months of working with leather who WOULDN'T be happy!"

I've seen the Redline leather goods and they seem to be decent. It seems they have a good reputation in the Miata world.

Repainted the door latch sliders...no idea what the correct name for them is. I did a pretty crappy job the first go around so this was take 2.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1392955929

Also experimented with putting a carbon filter in the blower intake. We'll see if it restricts airflow too much. This is a very rough draft. If I don't end up liking it I'll find something the fits a little better.

I had a spare carbon filter laying around for my VW Jetta so I hacked it up and put cardboard around the edge followed by foam weatherstripping and some sealant just for good measure.

It is ugly as sin but no one will see it so...who cares! Living in the desert you have no idea how much sand and dust will get in your car just by having the windows down let alone not having a filter between the bare air and your cabin.

It looks way worse in the picture too BTW...:rofl:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1392955929

Thank GOD! Above proves you are human after all :rofl:

In for results though

THAT was a fun project. I'd happily sew a quarter hide of leather again.

You know you want to buy a hide off ebay, Jeff. The leather is calling you.

It was such a hack job:giggle:

It was rushed, admittedly, I'm not happy with it but it is one of those function over form type jobs!...At least that is how rationalization is helping me get through my "F" report card I gave myself on it.

OK let me preface this by saying I have never used bondo before. So this looks rough, but sandable.

Most of the reason that I am doing this is because the plastic wouldn't respond to any of my conditioners, it stayed a really chalky white. I started off by wet sanding with 400 grit sandpaper, to remove the top layer of oxidized plastic. You really don't want to use anything less than 400 grit. Anything coarser will introduce fine scratches that will show through the plastic paint when you are finished. More headache than it is worth to speed up your project.

After sanding I cleaned it again thoroughly so I could get a good idea of what I needed to correct before painting. The thing I've notice about painting plastic is that any blemishes/scratches/dents etc etc really really show through in your final project. Anyone can spot them really easily, and it makes the 90% perfect plastic look like shit due to the 10%.

Saying that, I've never really had an issue with deeper scratches that I couldn't at least sand out/massage out. So I bought a tub of Bondo, and researched it a little before diving in.

Pretty sure I go the mix ratio of hardener-Bondo just about right, but damn does this stuff really set-up fast. I mixed way too much up the first time around, so it taught me to use a tiny bit at a time.

Going to let it cure for an hour before I start sanding the bondo down flat again.

Sanded

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1392963439

a couple of the imperfection I was talking about. There are more but they are more minor and mostly just small scratches and pinholes.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1392963439

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1392963439

Bondo setting up. I know it looks messy but I was trying to round out the edges well so that I had a lot of material to play with when I started to sand.

I'm going to trim some of the good sections from the Colorado car's carpet that was mostly trashed, and line the arm rest pocket/cup holder spot so that things don't rattle around.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1392963439

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1392963439

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1392963439

Wear your respirator folks!

Mind pointing me in the right direction of the leather grain you got? I have no idea where to start for good quality.

I really do want to buy a hide to have a lot of it left over after the door projects. Just in case I get crazy enough to do the dash.:idea:

That's how we roll here... using the side windows as a mixing board for the bondo...! :bowrofl:

BTW - just a last threadjack - to let you know how the dash bar turned out:
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1392964050
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1392964050

Greets

Oh, you're crazy enough

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1392964236

But seriously, I've been watching this thread in amazement for weeks and I'm picking up more and more tips as I go along. Don't be afraid to tell us what cleaners/chemicals/paints and such you are using, some of us are taking notes.

Awesome work man, AWE-some. As in, inspires awe. :winner:

They were just sitting there!...

It turned out perfect Zaphod! Damn fine work. I would've done it myself but I reached my limit on sanding and wire wheeling rust around the time I powder coated it.

Don't forget to sand the paint off your ground points.

Yepp, I did already ask Adam aka Revlimiter about that via PM (thanks Adam btw.)

Do it. Then your interior door levers will feel more at home like their brothers in the Aston Martins.

Thanks dude, makes me feel like I know what I'm doing instead of making it up as I go!

By the way, you and I just became friends with that picture. Evil Dead 1&2 and Army of Darkness are my all time favorite movies.
Funny enough I'm contemplating going back to the OEM door handles. Unless I can find a better way to do the door pulls, I just don't like the feel of them.

So it is 2:45am, so that is roughly 3 hours of sanding to get it jussssttt about perfect. I'm scared to spray the primer since painting plastic sometimes just doesn't want to cooperate.

If you do this. Buy a rubber block to attach your sandpaper to. If you do this all by hand you are going to force the sandpaper into the depressions you just filled with the bondo.

With a block, as long as you hold it flush with the plastic, you'll get a nice smooth finish.

An old trick in the detailing world to test how smooth the surface is, is to put a plastic sandwich bag over your hand and run it over the surface. You will be able to feel the imperfections a lot easier then with just your bare hand.

You want to make sure that all the bondo patches have a feathered edge as well. Any hard edge you see is going to show up in the primer/paint. So just make sure you keep going over the area you are sanding until it seems seamless.

Enough talk, pictures!

Hard edge around the keyhole. Roll your sandpaper into a straw and roll it around the hole to get it out easier without over sanding the surrounding area.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1392976291

all smooth

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1392976291

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1392976291

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1392976291

Good example of a feathered edge

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1392976291

Wish me luck with the paint...I really hope I don't screw up. It will really make me rage quit if I do.:vash:

Don't rage quit, just spend money instead :-P

Centerpanel Long Glove Box

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1392980602

There's a cupholder version too....

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1392980602

I think I'm happy with how it turned out Richy! Thanks for the links though.

Taking the long route, as always, pays off in the end.

Damn it looks smooth. There are a couple spots I'm going to lightly wet sand with 1k grit sandpaper to ensure the final coat has a consistent finish, but it'd be pretty hard to do much better than this for my first time working with bondo.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1392981845

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1392981845

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1392981845

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1392981845

Holy shit, you are never in the beginner level - you always start as a Pro - it seems...
Props! What colour will it be - just plain black?

OEM black trim paint finish. Matches the interior pretty closely. After it cures a little longer and vents any leftover moisture then I'll start putting the top coat on.

And I'm going to call this one beginners luck!:party:

Stunning, glad to see your build featured here:
NA MX5 nut-and-bolt OCD rebuild | Build Threads

I never seen anyone bondo plastic interior panels before. Really cool. I usually just replace them lol

I use bondo to make gauge pods and it works perfect! I make these for a little side gig I have going lol




https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1392994223