Brap-Brap's (Mis)adventures version 2.0
 

I did this to my last NA:

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Not gonna do that again.

So I bought another one:

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Meet Riley the 97' NA. 77,264 on the ODO when I bought it. 100% bone stock, right down to the factory soft top. AC/PC, power windows, power mirrors and a torsen. AC still works surprisingly. Not a spot of rust on her.

If y'all have seen my first build thread you know how I roll. If not, go read it. "Brap-Brap's Miata (Mis)adventutes"

Time to do it all over again, but better this time.

Why is it surprising that the AC works? Nice car, always nice to see a clean unmolested NA that's about the become a dirty molested NA.

On most of these cars the AC is either deleted, doesn't work or wasn't optioned from the factory. The difference between this one and my old one is i'm going to do it right this time. No more eBay parts, no crooked seats, no half-assing it this time.

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I ordered this stuff from Summit on Saturday night and it arrived Monday afternoon. The perks of being in Ohio.

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Mmmmmmmm Billies...

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Can you figure out what i'm doing yet?

Also, funny thing is the "Summit Racing" branded springs on the website are just QA1 springs with the labels rubbed off.

Plenty more to come this week.

So as it turns out I ordered the wrong Bilsteins. I needed NB B8s, not NA B6s. I didn't realize until I tried to stack up the tophat bushings and the threaded shaft was no where near long enough.

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Advanced Autosport coil sleeves.

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Orange tophats means I have Xidas right?

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Fab9 COP kit installed. Seemed to fix my idle dip and issues I had with her breaking up in the higher RPMs.

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Sticker panel makes a return.

I saw someone on Miata DIY use a 90mm halo LED ring to turn the ring into a driving light. Figured I had a spare set of tails and I would give it a go.

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Foil keeps the heat indirect and prevents the coils from burning something.

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People complain about these Chinese LED rings breaking and cracking from vibration. So I used some clear silicone to glue them down into the ring. The ring in the lens fits the LED ring perfectly, almost so perfectly I would say you don't even need to glue it.

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Running lights

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Running lights + Brake lights.

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Also put back in my LED headlights. This time I went with Cibie Housings instead of the Hellas. Cutoff and light throw seems a lot better.

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And finally the old shell going away.

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Moving on from the past.

For those wondering about the vanity plate, this is the meme is came from:

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Took the time to get some quick mods done before I put her away for the winter. Just usual driving/comfort things.

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Did a massive foamectamy. I left a 1" piece of foam on the bottom for my tailbone, but otherwise this gets me VERY low. Also adds a ton of lateral support.

A friend gave me a set of headrest speakers so I transplanted them, but the plugs were different. A quick set of spade connectors fixed that. Also allows me to add rear speakers when I want to down the line.

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A friend also gave me this Whiteline shock tower brace. I heard they don't do much on these cars, but it looks nice and was free.

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Also installed a FM brake master brace. It fits with the Whiteline STB. The brake master brace got rid of my semi-squishy pedal on the street. Braking just feels better all around.

Also (not pictured) I installed Garage Star door bushings. Wow do they make a difference on a stock car. Bumps are more solid clunks and less rattles/shakes. Car just feels overall better.

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Got rid of the Walmart special radio. Dropped in my Clarion M508 unit I saved from my old car.

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What wonders a new head unit does to the sound of a car.

Also ordered a new I.L. center console, polished the shifter like before, re-installed my Redline Leather shift boot, re-installed the trim ring and put back my flower shift knob.

Now I just have to find my damn wooden e-brake handle I made and the interior will be close to done.

QA1 springs are trash.

Why would you say that?

because back in 2007 when we were all piecing together shitty sub-par suspensions, we all tried them and quickly realized they were trash. Compared to swift springs, they are thicker and tighter bound at the same length/rate and tend to coil-bind when run at normal ride heights.

Interesting. Its easy enough to change springs that if I run into any issues I'll snag a set of Hypercos or Eibachs from Summit or on the used market.

I bought the summit springs for my DIY setup and haven't had any issues that I've noticed yet. Things got even quieter once I got the frame rails on.

That's that's because you never drive your car it's always broken.

LOL I would ask what ride height but if it's broken it doesn't really matter.

I did notice the QA1s/Summit springs had much thicker coils than the eibachs on my car previously.

I might bite the bullet and get a set of swifts just for the clout. We'll see...

I was sitting around on Sunday with no homework. So I said to myself "i'm gonna build my billies today"

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So I did.

NB B8 Billies, Advanced Autosport sleeves, FM rear tophats, NB fronts, QA1 550/350 springs. should work nicely.

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Interior is coming along nicely as well.

Also, the allure of Fashion keys caught me recently. Unfortunately my wallet hasn't caught up. So like usual I took matters into my own hands.

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Just a sneak peak into what I have in the pipeline.

Errr... Are you sure you're thinking of the right person lol.

Ride height is pretty high, like just a bit less than stock. My driveway is super steep and has a weird step up to it and it's the only way I can get up and down without bottoming out. I've got about 5k miles on them if not more and it's been fine. I did have a new groove machined for the captive spacer on my MSM shock body though.

I see. We'll see what happens. I'm planning to run pretty low, similar to my old car. If I get coil bind I'll snag a set of 9k/6k swifts or Hypercos. QA1 also makes a "High travel" spring.

those springs look a lot better than mine did:

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the qa1s on the front were 400 lbs at 7". See how tightly colied they were? once they had some weight on them, there was JUST enough travel in them before hitting the bumpstop -- which i think I had to modify and make the shock hit sooner to prevent it.

I wonder if they've redesigned them? my 7" 350s looked similar, and i had to swap them out for the blues one above which were 8" from a different company.

They might have redesigned them. I wonder how they compare to the new "High travel" springs from them. Ya'll had me seriously worried but after building them and seeing how much space I have, I dont think I'll have coil bind issues. Why did you go 400/350? Seems like an odd spring combo unless you're drifting.

The FM rear tophats are just plain weird. I have no idea how to set them up on the NB bilsteins to be honest. Right now my stack-up on the shaft goes rubber fender washer, FM tophat, FM tophat bushing (to ensure pillowball clearance and motion), inverted stock NB bumpstop cup, stock NB upper rubber tophat bushing, washer, shock nut. We'll see how it goes. I may end up ordering some garagestar extended tophats just to not deal with the ridiculous stack-up. Or I may turn up a spacer to eliminate the bushing and bump cup.

What ratios did you get again? I had the recommended MSM billies and just ran the ratio that savington recommended. I kinda wish it was a tiny bit stiffer and I'm sure I'm going to want to change it after swapping to wider wheels and doing some additional bracing, but... lazy.

550/350 7" springs on NB B8s.

rears were 250, that was a typo.