I've never had a build thread as I always considered it something for people that know what they're doing. They have a goal for their car, make a plan, and then actually do it in a reasonable timeframe. That ain't me. At this rate it never will be, so might as well go ahead with a thread. It's not like car forums have too much traffic to handle nowadays...

I'm not much of a picture-taker but I'll start at the beginning and go through the pictures I do have. Need something to remind me what happened in what order.

How it began: 2014, had a turbo 940. It broke, I wanted a new car anyway, and a Miata seemed like a good idea. Ended up with a 32k mile 2000 NB1 for ~$8k if I remember right. First manual car, lots of hills between the used car dealer I got it from and the house. Apologies to all the people stuck behind me at green lights while I stall, over and over. I should probably note that pretty much everything I've done to the car so far I'm doing for the first time. A lot of this is tiny/easy work in retrospect, but seemed way harder at the time.

Old vs new, so clean!


A few months later, I realized a Miata was not a great car to daily in the Northeast for a good part of the year. I liked the car though, so the only option was to move to AZ where it doesn't snow.


It took a beating during the trip, going through snow/sleet/rain. Upon arrival in AZ it smelled terribly of gas. Probably used this forum (or miata.net) to find the smallest of cuts in one of the hoses rear passenger side that connects to the CA-smog giant charcoal canister. Met Mike "The King of Miatas" whom sold me a new one. Interesting guy, no picture though.

Bonus cat picture, RIP.

I knew no one in AZ, so joined a group that did occasional trips around the state. Also got some 6ULs and converted the headlights to HIDs, and the turn signals to LED DRLs/signals. Very cool in 2015.

Went all around AZ with the group, great way to see the state. In one trip you could go from desert sun to mountains with snow. One big problem with the group though, they wanted to take pictures, spend hours talking about how they totally are going to upgrade this or that, whatever. I just wanted to drive, really no interest in spending an hour getting the cars lined up for the perfect instagram shot. Maybe track people would be more my thing? Got a rollbar and replaced the soft top at the same time. Also replaced the rad with a SuperMiata one in preparation, the stock one was turning weird colors.

Actually, maybe I should just do bike track days instead.


Ah ****, better stick with the car actually.

Next post will start at 2016.