So I recently got a 2001 Miata from some rich 16 year old kid who dicked with the car and pissed off daddy and daddy sold it to me out of spite. 187k miles, 5spd, ruined leather, stanced rota wheels with Megan coilovers, and a crushed fender.





Anyway, pretty sure it was in a front end accident because the AC didn't work and the front support was a little crunched. Fixed the ac with a new condensor

Also changed the oil and replaced the top.



Raised the front to get rid of the camber so it stops eating the tires so fast. Plan on replacing the tires with a 225/50/15 soon.
Before and after



My end goal is a daily that I can take to the autocross for some fun. I don't have a picture of the crushed fender, I need to take one. But I figured I could just make some fender flairs and not worry about ruining a good fender than.
After it's been made reliable, plan on boosting it this coming spring/summer.

Anyone have experience autocrossing with stretched tires? There is one coming up soon that I really want to go to. If I can't get new tires put on by then I was worried about the tires popping off the bead around corners, anyone heard of that happening? It's a 195/45/15 on and 15x9 wheel.

 

sick bro can't wait to see what it looks like without stretched tires

 

You either didn't install the straps (which should be on an NB roof frame?) Or missed something thebrear bow for the top is not in it's correct place.

 

Yea I forgot to install the straps, I will install them once it stretches out and isn't so hard to work with.

Can't decide if I should get the 225/50/15's or just get a whole new set of wheels+tires. I really don't care for the 0 offset of the current wheels. But I don't really want to get rid of them.

 

Just an FYI, 225/50/15's are over an inch taller than stock. I remember seeing a thread somewhere where Sav or somebody was talking about them rubbing badly. You may be happier with 225/45/15's. I run them on my car on 15X9's, and they are perfect.

 

I appreciate the heads up. I am leaning more towards new wheels and tires. With my 0 offset wheels I won't be able to run the 50's. And the 45's are a good jump in price and not worth it IMO since they are probably going to wear out quick.

 

45's are cheaper than 50's.. unless you're buying crappy tires.

 

Honestly I haven't made up my mind on the wheels/tires. Next weekend.

Anyway, raised the car a good few inches to get rid of the camber so it'll stop eating the tires so fast.

Headlight restoration with the 3m kit before and after



Changed the gear lube for the trans as well. Shifts smoother, hopefully it'll help when it gets cold. Old fluid didn't look too bad.


Next weekend is wheels/tires and axle change. The driver side axle boot is torn and is surely on it's way out. Ordered a new cardone axle from rockauto.

I removed the axle nut ahead of time and tried to push the axle in a little bit, but as I was afraid, it's seized to the bearing/hub. Anybody have experience with this?

 

Got some new wheels a couple days ago. Konig Control 15x6.5 with 40mm offset. Here is a link
Control - Konig Wheels

Total was about $520 because I had to buy another tire because stretching my tires ruined one of them. I have 2 Toyo 195/45/15's and one other good "race" tire that's a 195/45/15 and this new Bridgestone all season 185/55/15. Only one they had that would fit, kind of sucks having it be such an oddball but I didn't have a choice. Definitely buying a new set of tires before Christmas. The two oddball tires are on the front while the two good Toyos are on the rear.



Thinking about dropping the car back down a little bit, maybe .75" in the front and .5" in the rear. Anyone know if the offset affects the camber at all? With the new wheels it looks like less camber, but I don't know for sure.

Going to replace the axle Friday, I hope it all goes smooth.

 

Replaced the axle today. Went very smoothly, axle came out of the hub with a few whacks and everything else was smooth. New diff fluid and it's good to go for the autocross next weekend.

 

Had the autocross today. Here are the video links, sorry for the rough, but I don't have a video editor on my laptop yet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URBd...ature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROfA...ature=youtu.be





Everything went well, no issues at all. I was like 24th out of 28, so I definitely need more seat time next spring.
Had some crab after

 

Replaced the clutch with a new exedy from rockauto.


Old clutch wasn't even that bad. Ah well.


I'll be uploading a video of the whole process soon.

 

Nice, another miata saved from the stupid 'stance bro' scene.
good luck with your build.

 

Thanks, yea unfortantely I'm seeing a lot of NA/NB's that are just straight up trashy from 16 year old kids having a hay day.

 

Here is the timelapse.
All in all the whole replacement was around 10 hours over 3 days.
New Exedy clutch, rear main, and wasn't expecting to, but new dorman driveshaft with replaceable u joints. Ever since I had the car the shifter rattled, I just thought it was tires, no it was where PO decided to replace a non replaceable u joint. Yea the u joint was centered and one of the caps didn't have grease, I'm lucky the thing didn't explode on my drive home. 250$ for another driveshaft and good to go pretty much forever since they're replaceable.

Anyway, got a good shot of the dent.


Disregard the tape holding on the taillight, that has since been remedied.

I'm thinking stud welder, slide hammer with a new bumper and repaint of the section and I'm good to go. Most of the dent can be covered by the bumper so there isn't a lot to get straight.

Also did a little polishing.




Also lowered down to final level i'm happy with.
Before

After


I also picked up another project, 1985 S15, 2.5l 700r4 automatic. Can't argue free.

 

10 hours, over 3 days?

 

Around 2-3 hours a day. First was removing the clutch, then replacing clutch + trans, and finally bolting exhaust, PPF, etc back on.

 

So I know it's been damn near a year, but I figured later is better than never.

So around June of this year it's been turbo and it's been running great. I kind of gave up on the thread because I figured this type of thing had been done dozens of times, and I probably would've been given **** for the route I took.

The turbo is a Garrett Airesearch T3 out of an old Mercedez that I rebuilt.
Model: Garrett/Airesearch TA0301 (T3 Series)
-Compressor Trim: 50
-Compressor Housing a/r: .42
-Turbine Housing a/r: .48

Intercooler is an ebay kit, AEM wideband, ebay BOV, internally wastegated to 8psi. Fuel management is the voodoo box. I made the downpipe to bolt to stock exhaust, also did my own intercooler routing and mount.
I retarded the timing a little bit with by filing the crank sensor trigger wheel. I also unplugged the VVT to prevent any advance. Oil feed is the 1/4 plug on the VVT, drain is a drilled and tapped in the pan.
That's the details here are some pictures.

https://imgur.com/NmJ6iwd













Overall it's been solid, it really made the car feel like it's suppose to stock. Ive put about 5000 miles on this setup now and no gremlins have popped up. I average about the same mileage highway. I have to run 93 otherwise it will ping at higher rpms.

 

Pics don't display because photo bucket is ****

 

Should be fixed