I haven't read your whole thread (sorry, but I'm on a painfully slow connection) so I don't know if you have tried this or not. If you have light rust, instead of cleaning it with power tools try Naval Jelly. Brush it on and it works wonders.

That spacer on the diff bolts on and off. You can easily replace it, but I probably wouldn't bother.

Awesome work! Really.

Jeff, have you considered covering the seats yourself with the fabric of your choice?
I mean, you do have the old seat covers. All you need to do is take them apart at the seams, duplicate the shapes, and stitch them together.
Yes, figuring out how to use a sewing machine is actually pretty easy.
Or, you could just staple them together at a couple spots and hand them over to the nearest tailor/alteration shop. That option should cost you no more than 20 bucks...

I mean, that's what I would do.

Considering that. I do have access to a $10k long arm sewing machine and a mother who has been sewing for 40 years, mostly I just don't know where to start fabric wise.

Thanks for the compliment, helps numb the pain of doing this stuff.

I've got the covers sitting in black dye right now but due to the fabric being synthetic I don't have much hope of it absorbing much of the dye.

Any advice on repacking the rear axles? Found plenty on repacking the hubs but not so much on this. Grease was pretty gnarly looking when I pulled the covers off it.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1386526460

Jeff - There are a couple of threads, one very recent, on seats. I would not look at Ultrashields for something that is not a dedicated track car.

Elise seats are great in theory, but as Mark said, no way you will find a set for tree-fiddy.

I would look for some entry level (or used) Sparcos/Corbeaus/Cobras/Momos or recover some stock seats.

I tried 3 or 4 different seats in my current miata.
Ended up wasting a ton of time and money, and went right back to the 01 seats.
For a daily driver, I don't think anything sub 800-1000 bux is going to cut it. Period.
Some would disagree, but those tend to be the guys that have no power steering, ac, or any other creature comforts and drive gutted uncomfortable and loud semi-race cars and make themselves feel good by calling everyone else a pussy.

You pussy!

On the diff spacer, agree with Curly. It's just a spacer. But you could easily find a used one if it bugs you. The critical hole is the other one -- it takes a bushing to hold PPF alignment.

On the CV joints, at this point you'll probably need to buy boot kits for the inners. Bit of a messy job, but not hard. Try to leave the outers alone if you can. You can get boot kits for them, but they can't be dissassembled. I wouldn't tackle it unless you have a parts cleaner and compressed air.

Just remember to work from the inside out, meaning, you'll be doing all the stitching on the inside, and then flip the whole cover inside out when you're done.
I wouldn't go into any fancy piping for those seats.
You could just get some neoprene, that's an idea. Or, any large fabric store will have a ton of choices for you.
Two tone, with black and charcoal would look cool.

You have already spray painted the existing synthetic seat covers. No matter what you do to them, you'll end up with paint flakes and dust coming off the synthetic fabric forever. That will be annoying.

On a related note, I should have done what you did with my bolts. I wirebrushed them (the kind that is attached on a bench grinder), and I regretted that later. It takes forever, and they rust afterwards.

I couldn't agree more with this. Personally I found the 01+ surfboard seats to be pretty comfy, but I probably sat a touch higher in them vs NB1 & NA seats.

My preference, stay away from leather, most are probably dried out at this age and not very pliable/comfortable.

The seats from my 97 NA are cloth and pretty comfortable all things considered. I don't care much for the earlier NA seats with the floppy thigh bolsters.

Just stay away from 99-00 seats. Easily the least comfortable (at least mine were, they were PRISTINE leather, still terrible).

I am mostly looking to recover at this point, I already have the seats, and I fit in them so why not just work on them and not let a good set of seats go to waste. I have a 31/32 waist so the Buddy Club seats fit me perfectly. No seats will ever fit my lats and shoulders though. I have damn wings for lats and very wide shoulders(no collared shirts fit me off the rack without a parachute waist).

I imagine the seats are very comfortable for 2-4 hour drives, but the 28 hour drive in 32 hours broke my soul a little bit when I drove it back to Utah from Alabama.

I don't call anyone a pussy but all the creature comforts are...gone from this car.:giggle:

Considering this is a weekend car I'd rather have the race seats and keep the benches in my Jetta...very very comfortable benches though, god I love the VW seats. No car maker adds enough lumbar support and VW adds gobs of it.

Yeah the spacer will stay, not too worried about it in the least, I just wasn't sure if it was an integral part or not.

So on the CV Joints part, can I just shoot a shit load of grease into it and put the covers back on? I haven't removed the bearing pack yet, I just wiped out the nasty old grease.


Rear differential is done, the aluminum being dirty is kind of a "fuck it" type of deal for me. It is aluminum, it doesn't rust and oxidization just protects it slightly. The cooling fins are a bitch to clean and I just don't care about it anymore.

Phosphoric acid=best purchase ever

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1386545615

Paint turned out AMAZING on the diff. It is still wet in the photo.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1386545615

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1386545615

Does everything just have to be new then?

No, but why not repaint stuff while it is out of the car. Its not like I'm actually buying stuff, just labor invested, no cost besides paint. I just like to think about it like this. Once this is done, I won't have to worry about it till a part breaks and/or maintenance needed. Its not like I'm going to remove the transmission or subframe just to paint it. That is ludicrous even by my standards.

Haha you have a point. It's just unbelievable how far you're taking this. I am blown away. I've read so may build threads on here but have never seen anything even close to this.

It's amazing.

See that's what I've been laughing about Turbofan. I, for the most part, have no fucking clue what I'm doing. I've never done anything like this before.

I've never pulled an engine let alone done a clutch, or wiring, the bolt cleaning, repainting subframes, redoing the undercoating...that is probably why I have gone so overboard....I'm just making it up as I go. If it wasn't for you guys, Google, and the Haynes manual I could have never gotten this far. Its a first for me every time I do something.

It just helps that I have OCD, insomnia, and no life to help drive the project so fast.

On the CV joint grease:

1. This isn't a ball joint. You're supposed to have a pre-measured amount of grease in it (the amount that comes in the CV boot kit packet).

2. Greases are not all compatible. You would have to be 100% positive that you are adding the right grease.

3. Doing a CV joint refurbishment is a basic skill that you need to acquire anyway. Not so much for the Miata, but for your VW. ;) It's not hard at all, certainly far less than everything else you've done. At your pace, 5 minute job tops.

4. BTW, you're not supposed to remove those end caps. They do commonly pop out when you take the axle off the stub, but you should try to keep them together and not let any dirt in.

Now that you've popped off those caps and wiped out a lot of the grease, It's time to do the rest of the job.

Hahaha... this isn't the same as the old VW's sir! lol my 150k mile '04 Jetta TDI is still on the original CV's and axles since new and the boots are still in great shape (knock on wood... I shouldn't say things like this).

Jeff, You keep saying you have no idea what you're doing. I hope this thing goes together properly. However you seem to have the determination and enthusiasm (and insomnia) to keep on truckin' so I'm sure you'll have it thrown together... no, strike that... meticulously-but-rapidly pieced together soon.

Good to know, I'll research it a little more before I move further with it. I'll have to check if Amsoil 2000 Dominator isn't the right grease choice, but if they sell it as a rebuild "kit" then it looks like that problem will be taken care of.

VW's do not like CV Joints that is for sure. I'm waiting for mine to go any day now on my Jetta. 60k Miles with 40% more torque than stock. Most people have blown their axles way before then.

They both popped off when I removed the axles so it was one of those, " oh god that grease doesn't look healthy....lets clean that shit!" jerk reactions.

You better go do something nice to your VW after saying something like that Turbo....;) We both know better than to anger the german gods by flaunting your "good luck" with the VW, that is when they slap your ass with a wheel bearing failure!

Sorry I should just stop saying I don't know what I'm doing. I'm a pretty humble guy and so I never try to come off as cocky or acting like I know all the right answers. Buying a business at age 21 made me learn that I don't know shit, and someone out there has already done the ground work and is much more intelligent than I am.

I never know what I am doing until I need to do it and then I research the ever-loving shit out of the problem at hand. I will go to the ends of the internet, calling businesses, looking at part diagrams to find out how to do something. If there is one thing I'll be cocky about it is my ability to find the information to find the solution. I LOVE learning new things. Comes hand-in-hand with insomnia. You are up so late all the time and so you just start reading things or learning little snippets of information. I'm a bottomless well of desire to learn how to do something new or tear something apart and put it back together again. Which is why I am going so crazy with this because I am having a ball of a time doing it. :loser:

I do something nice to my VW every day. I give it the enjoyable privilege of hauling my wife's beautiful arse around :)

Knowing how to do something isn't really what matters IMO. Having a determination to find out how to do something is far more important. someone who knows how to do things but doesn't know how to find more information is limited. No one person can be experienced at everything. You might not know as much right off the bat, but you know where to find the info and you keep going till you do. That's more valuable.