May 4, 2017I went to another autocross this past Sunday. Since my brother was off from school, we brought my Miata along and ran both cars.



Here, you can see my cars out behind my friend's Evo. Made a new friend in the Mazdaspeed3 as well.





Here are both my cars, one looking clean and one looking ugly lol. I may end up paying a shop to redo my Miata.

 

May 4, 2017
There were quite a few nice machines out, most of them ran, except the GTR. Here's hoping it runs next time.



Mean sounding STI that ran good times. 285 width tires on SSR wheels...SWEET!!!







Erik's clean ND Miata. I'm pretty sure he was running good times.

 

Jun 14 2017
I haven't made much progress on the paint prep for the Miata. I finally decided to fork over the cash and have a shop paint it, however, I don't want them stacking paint on paint. For this reason, I started stripping the paint with aircraft stripper.





Seeing the result on the fenders, I realized that sanding first will help as the stripper really only eats a coat at a time, so it pays to sand into the clear first.

 

Jun 14 2017
This time around, I am removing every last part where they could possible leave a visible edge. To that end, the rear belt line molding and the plates around the Frankenstein bolts have to come off.





I'll be stripping the fuel door and the area around the fuel filler next

 

September 8 2017Dropped my Miata off to the body shop for a full paint job.

PF13 by Jose Matos, on Flickr



In the meantime, I have a new toy to play with. A shiny blue GSX-R750 [img]data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7[/img]

Wash1 by Jose Matos, on Flickr



Check out the bike in better detail and see the mods I will be doing below.

[MEDIA=youtube]T3n-2G_U9DM[/MEDIA]

 

Sep 13 2017

Still have no word on when my Miata will be done. Looks like it will be delayed for two weeks due to Hurricane Irma. I ended up getting most of the week off since my job didn't have power back. I took a drive around Miami to see what things are looking like after the hurricane, and as you can see in the video below, things aren't fully back to normal, so it will likely be a while before my Miata is painted.

 

Oct 2 2017So my Miata finally re-surfaced after over a month. Looks like the body shop put her on some serious steroids, she re-surfaced looking rather muscular...



20171001_130837 by Jose Matos, on Flickr

 

Oct 2 2017

So yeah, I got an SS 1LE Camaro...

1 by Jose Matos, on Flickr

 

Oct 16 2017
I have been wanting one for a long time now so I went and got it lol. It's absolutely amazing! Just got it ceramic coated too, it looks so good and water beads right off of it like nothing.



5 by Jose Matos, on Flickr



7 by Jose Matos, on Flickr



8 by Jose Matos, on Flickr

 

Oct 31 2017


Well, if the body shop ever gives it back I totally plan on it... should be ready by Friday lol.



PF17 by Jose Matos, on Flickr



PF16 by Jose Matos, on Flickr

 

Oct 31 2017It would seem that in the rough situation after the hurricane, my friend managed to hire a competent body work guy. Although I suspect he did most of this himself. In any case, I can't wait to see the final product. I took extra care to completely disassemble the car such that there won't be a single tape mark. I'll also allow it to cure a while before rebuilding it, such that the mirrors and such don't indent the paint.



PF15 by Jose Matos, on Flickr



PF14 by Jose Matos, on Flickr

 

Oct 31 3017

In the meantime though, I'll continue putting miles on my Camaro so I can get to that magical 1500 mark, change the fluids, and head to the track!

 

Nov 18 2017

The body shop sent me some shots of the progress

PF18 by Jose Matos, on Flickr

PF19 by Jose Matos, on Flickr

PF20 by Jose Matos, on Flickr

PF21 by Jose Matos, on Flickr

PF22 by Jose Matos, on Flickr

 

Nov 18 2017Here are a few more



PF23 by Jose Matos, on Flickr



PF24 by Jose Matos, on Flickr



PF25 by Jose Matos, on Flickr

 

Nov 20 2017

I brought the car home from the shop. Still haven't had time to take day time shots, but I will upload some too. There are a few details I am not too happy with, and the paint had some swirls (they likely washed it at some point). However, once the paint has cured for a month, I need to take the car back for wet sand and polish so the swirls don't matter in the slightest.

 

Nov 20 2017

Here are the pictures they sent me of it assembled. I plan to hold off until the car is polished before I go and reassemble it.



PF26 by Jose Matos, on Flickr



PF27 by Jose Matos, on Flickr

 

Nov 22 2017

Here are some day time pics



PF28 by Jose Matos, on Flickr



PF30 by Jose Matos, on Flickr

 

Nov 22 2017Once the polish is done, I'll reinstall my hood pins

PF29 by Jose Matos, on Flickr

 

Nov 27 2017

Looking at my Miata, I couldn't get over how ugly the brakes looked. So I got new rotors and pads, followed by some sanding and painting of parts to make everything look nice and new.



BF1 by Jose Matos, on Flickr



The pads on the driver's side front were extra worn

BF3 by Jose Matos, on Flickr



The rears were in pretty bad shape too

BF4 by Jose Matos, on Flickr

 

Nov 27 2017

It's a shame the rotors won't stay this nice

BF16 by Jose Matos, on Flickr



So I sprayed them such that the areas that don't get scraped by the pads will stay rust free

BF17 by Jose Matos, on Flickr



A few days later, on Saturday, I took the old brakes off and installed the new ones



Once the calipers are removed, the rotor can be popped off by sticking a bolt in the threaded hole in each rotor hat

BF5 by Jose Matos, on Flickr



You will need an M8x1.25 bolt for this

BF6 by Jose Matos, on Flickr