A few questions for anyone reading this after driving the car 2 days...

First and foremost, on sustained higher G left-hand corners, I'm getting what seems to be a fuel starvation. It doesn't happen on right-hand turns The car cuts out almost as if you shut the fuel pump off for a second then flip it back on. After some digging, I think it may be related to either of these. Never had this issue in any of my miatas
https://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread.php?t=611304
https://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread.php?t=609144

Secondly, does anyone have any feeback of Sadfab bronze bearing converted Poly vs the Sadfab Delrin? Lead time is going to kill me with this one as both of my RUCA-O bushings are hating life right now. Looking at the best option..

Thirdly, I believe my rear brake dust shields are making a noise/rattle. What exactly is the purpose of the dust shields? I intend on upgrading the rear brakes eventually, and the rattle is annoying.. Any disadvantage to removing them?

2. Friction should be about the same on either if you're greasing them regularly. I'd imagine the biggest difference to be the poly gives you a bit of compliance to maintain some degree of streetcar and vibration control, and delrin lets you do offset bushings for camber. I fully intend to go sleeved poly on my car, but I'm also installing sound deadening right now so...

3. Mostly dust control, plenty of people pull them off. If you're not having problems otherwise, I would at least try to check the clearances and pull them away from any potential contact. Are you sure it's the brakes and not a heat shield from the exhaust or similar?

Delrin is available (although with a lead time), poly is unavailable (supplier issues).

Very little nvh gets transmitted through the bushings. But for a street car the extra bit of compliance you get might be worth it.

I'm not too concerned with the additional NVH that delrin may have over sleeved poly. Had poly in my last miata and they didn't bother me at all from OEM (granted I didnt have a lot of creature comforts in my last miata and I didnt care). Seeing as poly isnt available right now I guess that makes my decision easy..

Positive its something with the brakes. Went under the car and could hit the rear vertical with a deadblow and hear a familiar sounding rattle coming from around the shield. Putting my hand on the shield and hitting it the noise was still there, but no idea what else it could be if it wasn't the shield.

Sounds like you are already getting the delrin, but I have the delrin kit on my street car, oem exhaust and intake (quiet as a miata can be) and i didn't notice any increase in nvh, and actually noticed better ride quality over bumps.

The dust shields are for rocks to get stuck in, score your rotors, and create noise. I really never understood what they really did... I mean there isn't a shield on the outward facing rotor surface.

Pulling the trigger on the SadFab NASA Full Package..

interesting experience today.. noticed the rattle over bumps going on in the rear end somewhere (what i'm perceiving to be some sort of dust shield rattle) goes away if I ride the brakes.. regardless i think replacing all the suspension bushings is a good start to eliminating variables on rattles/clunks. Looks like I'm definitely going to be behind schedule for the lofty Gridlife goals in April I was hoping for..

Based on your experience, do you think it is possible to retrofit the Corolla LEDs to a NB1?

If you get rid of the reflector in the NB1 headlight, there is a ton of room. I'm sure you could make it work. Not simple, but I'm confident that you could do it. (I've got FX-R's in my NB1 mounted to custom brackets with the reflectors removed)

Corolla LED's are low beam only projectors, so I'm not sure you'd want to do that on a car you drive often at night. I dont drive the bike often at night and even when I do I rarely use the high beams. With the heavily upgraded low beams that are now brighter than my previous high beams were, I think I'll be fine (at least thats how i justified it). Parts were only $100 so the build has been cheap which was one of the main driving forces in giving this a try, but its a very labor intensive projector to install. The OEM shroud is sort of a pain to make work and it would be an odd shape to have in your round curvy miata headlight. I'm sure you could make it work in an NB1 and it would definitely be easier to install in an NB1 than my CBR, but I'd personally go with a Morimoto MH1 and call it a day. They are virtually plug and play and give you better performance than an LED projector will at the only expense of costing more. just my .02

Nice start! Im personally not a fan on those tail lights. I would get some NB2 tails and smoke those out. That would look the best IMO.

Thanks for the replies!

They cost about what a set of used NB2 tails cost and I wanted to give them a shot to try something different. I could likely sell them for a profit and pick up NB2 tails which I wouldn't be opposed to, but its not exactly high on the priority list anymore. I don't have cracked NB1 tails, that's all I care about at this point. Time to make it fast(er) :likecat:

received my sleeved poly RUCA-O's today.. hopefully once installed this fixes my bad rattle i was having over bumps. the rest of the bushings should be here in 4 weeks or so.. big props to Sean at SadFab for expediting those 2 bushings for me!

Installed RUCO-O's last night. the OEM bushings came out with a few swings of a hammer which only goes to show how shot they were, but it made removal easy without needing any sort of press. I still have the rattle however. I'm thinking its the rear brake pad clips now as I found out that if I ride the brakes over bumps the rattle goes away

Pictures of what I'll have to deal with in the somewhat near future
Attachment 181499
Attachment 181500



The RUCA-O that i pushed out by hand. You can see where the control arm was contacting the vertical.. its where i thought my clunk was coming from but i was wrong
Attachment 181501
Attachment 181502



Got the car all washed up and installed the Blackbird Fabworx Tow Strap..
Attachment 181503





Also, its friggen amazing working on rust free miatas... everything came apart so easily... no bolts snapped!!! it truly is the little things in life

looks clean.

Had a MT member see this thread and ask if i could bring some life back to his NB2 headlights.. He liked how the MSM headlights looked.. ask and you shall receive


Started out chrome...
Attachment 181495


A view of the terribly weathered lenses
Attachment 181496


After a little TLC.. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out for a budget restore on NB2 lights that were pretty rough to start with
Attachment 181497








In related news to my project... I know i have some fuel pickup issues during hard left turns and the fuel level sensor only goes up to 1/2 tank.. knowing that something is goofy in there, i browsed CL and ended up finding this whole NB1 assembly for $75 so I should have everything i could possibly need to fix the fuel issue in the tank (unless god forbid the tank is shit). The DW200 should work nicely for future plans as well :)
Attachment 181498

Why don't you just drop in that unit instead of taking it apart to fix yours?

I could which is why i picked it up.. i have no idea what's wrong with my current installed one.. If its an easy fix, i'll fix it and let the OEM pump do its job.. If not, i have a drop-in unit to make the job even faster. I don't see the need to put a aftermarket pump on an otherwise bone stock NB if i dont need to

Why not do it tho? its not gonna hurt anything. Its better than OEM.

nothing more than preference really i suppose. its not going to hurt anything, but not going to help anything either. i'll save the life on the higher flow pump for when i need it if the OEM one is fine for now. it's not like changing out all of this stuff takes any longer than 30 mins regardless

started with this on Friday
Attachment 181483


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a few beers later I removed some things
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.Attachment 181484


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and here we are
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Also, pretty much stole this brand new Sparco Evo 1 from a friend who bought it, used it for a few weeks, then sold his BRZ he had it mounted it.. Fits me perfectly, now just need to figure out how I want to mount it.
Attachment 181486

Still gay.

I like that weight reduction, and the blackbird black spoiler. Looks real nice on the black car. Those Sparco Evo seats are great too, I sat in one at Sonoma Raceway and nearly bought it on the spot.

But seriously, still gay.

I have that exact Evo in my car. Im using a PCI adjustable mount. You have to hammer the tranny tunnel to make the mount fit. I had to bang mine in a ludacris amount. If I were you, id try the garagestar mount.

I LOVE the seat though. It fits me perfectly and I daily it with no issues. (25min commute each way). The slight modifications are so worth it for the support. IMO its the most comfortarble seat I've sat in.

Thats the goal. A man does not sell his Caddy to become less gay....

Do you have any pictures of the hammering needed to get it to fit? I've been looking into mounts..

Honestly, I'm half tempted to try and fab my own for how ungodly pricey they are.. I have Pro-E software access and access to friends with laser tables and press brakes.. These guys are making a killing on these given the $150-$200 sale price

I don't have pics. I was too frustrated with the damn thing. The front right of the mount would not sit flush with the bolt hole no matter what I did. The tranny tunnel was sitting too far out and up for the seat mount to even be remotely in the right position. I had to bash the shit out of the tranny tunnel with a sledge to get it to fit. I heard that you had to do this, but it was just mind boggoling how much needed to be pushed in. I was thinking to myself, "Whats so hard about making a fu&*ing mount that just drops in?".

When I did my PCI mount in my '99, it required some hammering, but not a ton. Unfortunately I did not take pictures. With that being said, I despise mine. The sub belt mounts are too close to the seat, so you have to mount them to the floor anyway, and because I'm short I can only pass a broomstick test with the cushion out of the seat. If you're willing to do the work, I would just copy the OG Racing super low mounts, or something similar to the Garage Star ones. Regardless of what you do though, you will end up clearancing the tunnel to some extent so you can center yourself properly.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...7f590a6ab4.jpg

Do your rear brakes have the little "M" clips on them like this? Mine were missing when I bought it and that noise was driving me nuts.

I didnt know that the sub belt mounts were too close to the seat. Makes me what to just sell mine and get the garagestar mount even more now.

I also have to remove the cushion to pass the broomstick test. Im only 5'8"-9"ish. So that's just sad.

I'm probably going to modify the seat mounts in the floor to make me sit low in the car.

I'm 5'7", and I think my problem is that I sit too far forward. If it was further back, I think it would be better as it is on the passenger side. I have a friend who is 5'10", and he has no issue with passing a broom stick test on the passenger side in my Momo super cup.

The problem with the sub belts being too close, was that the opening in my seat (Sparco Rev) was very small, and the sub belt attachment on the bottom side were​ pinched in the opening. As in, if a crash were​ to happen, the belts would crush part of the seat as the belts are pulled tight. Also with no cushion, the buckles were​ touching my legs

Thanks for the fair warnings on the seat mounts guys. I'm 5'9", so i'd be skeptical that the PCI mounts would work. For as low as I would like this seat to fit, the Garagestar ones seem most attractive even though i still hate the price. It would save me a lot of time designing if someone had scanned the floor into a 3D model. I dont think that has occured in the 3D parts thread though.




They did not. I didnt have any clips for the pads in the rear either. Went and picked up a $9 hardware kit at the parts store and tossed it on. NOISE IS GONE! Where i went wrong when i first diagnosed the car was i had it on jackstands with the parking brake on, so the pads weren't loose and making the rattle when i was hitting things with a dead blow hammer. The next closest thing was the control arm bushings (which are bad regardless and to be replaced soon) but not the source of the noise I had.

You're welcome :)

+1 poscat for you

installed a CF13 JL-02 flasher relay to prevent hyperflash. neat little trick to use one of these instead of adding resistors on every turn signal circuit once you add LED's like I have done. The less wiring and clutter I need to deal with the better.

Had an opening weekend at the local drag strip. Car club I was part of in college has an 85 firebird junkyard build that they work on, and they wanted to get some early season runs to test out some changes they did. I decided to attend as an alumni to give them a hand and some pointers. its nothing special, but runs low 12's which is plenty for most students just getting into cars. Anything faster gets pretty sketchy for someone thats never drag raced before.
https://scontent-ord1-1.xx.fbcdn.net...c5&oe=598EF79D
https://scontent-ord1-1.xx.fbcdn.net...aa&oe=5998A95D


Decided as long as I was there that I was going to get some stock baseline performance numbers before the build gets stupid. I was quite happy with results which is hysterical considering the last time i was at this track in the fall I had the Cadillac and was running 11.9 @ 120.. that was a fun car.. Alas, I was hoping for a 15.9 in the miata and walked out with this.
http://i739.photobucket.com/albums/x...psdfeb4fex.jpg


Also, for anyone that cares to know.. that ET is VERYY close to what this silverado of my buddies was running. He had a 5.3 with 3.08 rear gear fwiw. We were racing all day. I'd get him out of the hole, but then he'd sneak up on me on the back half. Made pathetically slow straight line racing somewhat enjoyable lol
https://scontent-ord1-1.xx.fbcdn.net...a1&oe=5988A51B


also, decided to give these a shot.. still need to adjust them as my drivers door doesnt like to shut quite right since the install, but there seems to be slightly less rattles than before. Every little bit counts and it was an easy mod. Not as good as hyped to be, but still would say its worth it.
http://i739.photobucket.com/albums/x...pssxwsb4c6.jpg




Also, got spotted on my way to the track... this picture just exemplifies how worn down and beat my OEM suspension is.. having 2 dudes, a full tank, and a wangg doesnt help with the squat situation you see here.. working on saving to do all the suspension at once in a mass frenzy of "corner balancing, aligning, go-kart creating" greatness. Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither will this car. Its nice having a project I can drive everyday with the top down though!
Attachment 181367

Good times. My car crashed against the bumpstops with the stock suspension. Terrible ride over bumps.

dang, almost a tenth faster than i ran, and the same 60 foot. I got 15.59@ 87.3

Nice drivin!

realized I never really shared how the headlights came together from a performance perspective...

heres how the "angry eye" and switchback turn signal look together. In person it is noticeable that there is a color temperature difference between the white LED's, but my phone really seems to pick up on it. It's not quite as bad in person as the camera shows. In daylight they appear pretty close. both the angry eye and the turn signal turn blink amber while the turn signal circuit is active. The ambers match perfectly. Looks pretty nifty and is very visible. Headlight bulbs arent even on in the video to give you an idea on brightness


Switchback Angry Eye's and Turn SignalsAttachment 181356


quick shot of LED's and retrofit headlights at work during night time hours
Attachment 181357



and then finally heres the wall shot of Low Beam & High Beam.. please ignore the fact the parking lot isn't perfectly level, you get the idea.
Attachment 181358
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Overall, very happy with output. Makes night driving on country roads so much better when you can see far past the width of the ditches on both sides of the roads. Also a good way to fight back at the trucks with light bars. They don't seem to like it when I toss my high beams at them. :giggle:

That's awesome.

That's from a TRS kit right? Looks rad!

I think I may have seen your headlight build earlier in this thread.

yes, these are just parts from TRS from my headlight build earlier in this thread.

I met a few local miata guys since my job switch in September. Ended up catching up with them and went to a little cruise-in meet. A decent array of build goals between all of us. Pretty awesome that I found a group of guys thats all about function over form while having clean cars. Clean rust free miatas are a tough commodity to find here in WI.

Their cars were as follows:
NA8 with an ITB build in progress. Budget Koni/FM suspension setup. Porsche slate gray paint job
https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net...48&oe=599A4AB6

NA8 with budget turbo build in progress. OEM+ sort of build. Simple and clean
https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net...79&oe=59897CFE

NA8 with a 30R on 22psi, E85. Obvious custom paint. There's always that one high hp guy in the group....
https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net...78&oe=59939386
https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net...22&oe=595308DF

Got talking to a guy I see at the track often. Long story short he let me take his 2014 S4 for a rip. Was not expecting him to toss me the keys at random. Nice car, he does insanely well in it locally at events. Reminded me of the Cadillac in some ways but only much more nimble at low speeds. The torque vectoring AWD really is an impressive system during corning, however even for as modified as his is at 400awhp, it is still a pooch in a straight line compared to the Cadillac was bone stock. The motor simply runs out of breath. I'd still likely get another CTS-V before one of these, but i gotta respect them for what they are.
https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net...dc&oe=594CF192

Last but not least. Finally got a decent shot of my car. Its slowly but surely coming together. Proper suspension, wheels, and tires will really bring this car together. I've got everything picked out, its just a matter of saving for it at this point
http://i739.photobucket.com/albums/x...pspmu9jnzf.jpg


And the pile of parts to install has officially begun. SadFab Delrin NASA Bushing Package! Very happy with initial quality appearance and packaging. Long lead time to receive parts, but Sean did good work it looks like. Cant wait to replace the OEM junk I have on the car. Thanks for the recommendation guys or I would've made a mistake with a standard energy poly kit
Attachment 181331

really nice collection of cars.

No pics, no care.

Installed the Sparco EVO2 with Garagestar rails.

Pros:
Lots of adjustability. Ability to adjust seat distance to pedals with use of 10mm and 12mm ratchet wrench and about 5 mins total.
Delrin spacers are nice to keep your seat from getting scrached up
General construction out of stainless is top notch.
Ratchet wrench makes for easy rail to car tightening.
I now pass the broomstick test with a helmet on

Cons:
Still requires beating the shit out of the trans tunnel to get the seat far enough over to close the door
The shoulder bolster still hits the door panel. Requires a decent slam of the door, but the door will close snug
The laser cut edges (basically every edge on the Garagestar bracket) will cut the shit out of your hands during install if you dont have a pair of gloves on
I found it surprising that I require the seat to be mounted all the way forward. Usually i find myself in the middle of the adjustment range. I'm 5'9"

Anyways
Attachment 181251

I also have mine all the way forward with my PCI mount and its still slightly too far back. The door should close easier after you "break it in" to the seat. I actually ended up taking the door panel off and sanding the wood structure from the vinyl with a dremel. Helps a lot and it doesn't look like complete crap.

How tall are you? I am slightly taller than Padlock at 5'10", but I have very short arms and short legs, so I have to sit pretty close, so these would probably be on the edge of acceptable to me, at best.

went for a quick spin with the new seat this afternoon. I'm definitely going to be putting the seat back a few hole locations. hard to get a good feel for seat location until your actually driving. I think you'd be fine with these brackets depending on the seat

No new miata updates.. just saving money for the big purchases required on it..

In the meantime, been completing my budget friendly build on my fast vehicle if you remember me starting this 2015 Toyota Corolla LED projector retrofit in my 2004 CBR600RR a few pages back. Used a hard drying and sandable construction adhesive, some cut down PVC adapter joints, and some .100" thick HPDE to seal off the back of the bike headlights.

Attachment 181034

Attachment 181035

Hit it all with some semi-gloss paint to blend it all in with the housing
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Looking mean was the plan. I think i succeeded!
Attachment 181038

Bought some 100mm rubber caps to seal everything off, 3M taped the LED drivers to the inside edges of the headlight housings, and did some quick wiring work (dont worry it got zip-tied up a bit better looking than what you see here!)
http://i739.photobucket.com/albums/x...psyuefs6tb.jpg


and the money shots!
Attachment 181039
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Absolutely love how they look. Safe to say this is the only successfully sealed corolla/cbr retrofit in existence. Yay for uniqueness! Cant wait for riding season this year!

Still no new Miata updates, which is really pulling at my heart strings as all my friends are out racing and I literally cant because my tires are so dry rotted I deem them unsafe for competitive driving. I have a plan put in place to get out there by mid-summer though, so stay tuned!


...and in other news
https://img.memesuper.com/318f7c48e1...e_400-400.jpeg

The whole reason I sold my Cadillac, got into something cheap again, and started this thread was to be able to say I'm debt free again.. As of today, 2 years after graduation, I'm finally there. 24 years old. Engineering degree paid for by myself. Everything I have is paid off, and my future from a financial perspective is looking friggen fantastic even while playing with cars. To say I'm stoked is an understatement :party:

Congrats buddy, well done!

Congrats! Now just don't kill yourself on the bike and you should be good.

:likecat: nice work man. I should have sucked it up and gone that route haha

Thanks guys. I've heard a lot of friends with the general statement looking back saying "yeah I wish I would've done that". The interest saved alone on these loans will pay for a set of Miata tires every season :likecat:

The goal is to not go down, but I know first hand that it can happen. I've already been down once (2 years ago on my first bike), I'll try my darndest not to do that again... public service notice: wear all the gear all the time. I wasn't when I hit some sand in a corner during early riding season while only 2 miles from home, that was a painful and expensive lesson learned after 14 stitches to the forehead. good thing women love scars :hsugh:

I like riding too much to give it up though, there's nothing like the feeling you get riding on something that literally tries to kill you if you overstep your limits. It's made me a better car driver as well. :skid:

Its funny (kinda). If you actually think about it....everything that us car people find fun, is fun because the consequence of screwing up is really bad. Its just how we are wired. We like fast cars because the feeling of being on the limit is addicting. Same with bikes.

I used to have a yz125 2 stroke that I used to ride. It was fun, but I do think street riding is more my thing. Il probably get a street bike as an occasional toy eventually.

Just installed a Sparco Evo in my 99 and have fitment issues myself. I'm afraid I'll smash the window slamming the door so often. It get closed but the door doesn't line up with the body and it pops open when I open the door lol

I can agree to that statement. Since my accident, I'm much more aware of risk on my bike. My head is on a constant swivel looking for traffic or road hazards that could spell disaster. I enjoy it as more of a fair weather cruiser than anything most times but don't get me wrong. I still have enough fun to float the front wheel on a 1st gear pull or get rid of the chicken strips on the tires on twisty roads I know that are clear. That said, there is a reason I don't have any intentions on racing my bike and am building this miata instead. The miata is far safer and much more forgiving to drive at its limits.

You probably need to hammer the trans tunnel in more is my guess. Mine contacts but its not as bad as yours sounds like. I'm honestly tempted to get rid of the seat to compromise to something a bit better for DD use like a pair of lotus seats. My shoulders are a bit wide for the sparco i feel like, and the sparco definitely isnt the easiest for access/egress as a DD. that decision is still TBD.

The one thing my bike has taught me well is awareness. And it translates to car driving as well. Which is helpful.

I've also been thinking of putting the stock seat back in my car for DD. But cold leather in the mornings and hot leather in the afternoon is kinda turning me off...

Well done!

I'm super jealous. I won't have undergrad/grad school loans paid back till I'm 40. YAY DEBT!

Installing it was a pain, but I think i'll give it a shot when I take the seats out to install a rollbar