Hey man, just saw your thread by seeing that you looked at my profile. Awesome car, just beautiful!

Not Much has been happening the car is just sitting in the garage until it gets nice out. I picked up some cool parts this winter.

15x9 Bronze gen 4 6UL with 245 Maxxis VR-1. Excited to see the VR-1 compared to my RS-4 and I have always wanted a set of these wheels in this color. Picked these up in near perfect condition second hand.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4878/...54f6e4b4_b.jpg

Found a set of black Lotus Elise seats local and I couldn't pass these up. I'm always on the lookout for lotus seats and I got a great price. Plan is to swap these out for my current grey Tesla seats and sell those. The Lotus seats have more bolstering and I wanted black. Hoping my current mounting solution will work but if not I will make something else up.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4832/...6809cdec_b.jpg

Also picked up one of the Junk2 TBs when they went 45% off. I have already drilled a couple holes to adjust spring tension so once its in the car I can decide which one works the best.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4810/...8d9b7c7f_b.jpg

My squaretop is off getting powder-coated wrinkle-black, I cant wait to see how it comes out. Will update with pictures when I pick it up.

Be careful with the type of media used to blast before powdercoating.

Where was this Junk2 Sale? Thinking about picking up an unmolested TB for modification but never could commit to spending full amount.

Thanks for the heads up psyber, I made sure they weren't using aluminum oxide. I'll find out exactly what they used when I pick it up. They're an automotive specialty shop so I trust they would know what to use.

The Junk2 sale was on their website for blackfriday, I posted it in the sales thread. If you subscribe to their emails they run sales pretty often it seems so hopefully you can catch the next one one. They just had one for new-years but it seems to have ended.

Square-top came back from powder-coating and looks great. I'm really glad I didn't attempt to wrinkle black this myself, there is no way I would have got in all the nooks and crannies as well as they did.

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The weather in Chicago has just started to get warm enough to allow me to start working on the car.

Before I'm fully ready to start tuning again I want to install a few things.

1. Mount the Elise seats.
2. Install squaretop and skunk2 TB
3. Install FM Oil Cooler Kit and do an oil change.

I started this weekend by working on custom mounts for the Elise seats. I bought four 2' sections of 2" wide 1/8" thick stainless flat stock. The seller I bought the seats from also sold me flip side brackets but this wont just be a bolt in affair with the stock sliders because I want to be lower and have removed the rear seat humps.

My plan was to fabricate two pieces of metal that utilize the OEM front mount then get bolted flat to the floorboard in the rear. Something I had to keep in mind was getting the right amount of recline with this design as well. The amount of recline and how far back you can mount the seat are inversely related so it took a few attempts to find a good recline that also allows me to have the seat far enough back.

The passenger side went first here you see a comparison of the old Tesla Roadster seat in grey and my new Elise seats in Black.
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7908/...cdfb85a_c.jpg?

A few differences
1. Elise seats are FRP and Roadster seats are dry carbon.
2. Roadster seats are 2" wider across the middle
3. Elise seats have more bolstering
4. BLACK

Here is the bend brake and stainless flat stock I will be using.
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7833/...c3af3b7_c.jpg?

And here are the brackets all mocked up... this design works well.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4891/...5be4975_c.jpg?
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Still left to do is have bolts welded in the rear mounting hole that will pass through the floorboard and be bolted from the bottom. This is necessary because it is impossible to reach the rear mounts from the top with the seat installed.

I will also be spraying them wrinkle black before they go in. This side took a while to complete. Drilling the stainless was extremely time consuming and hard using a hand drill. I ended up borrowing my Uncle's drill press and it made things 10x easier. Drivers side will be started tomorrow.

Anyone have any ideas of good ways to fill old holes in the floor? Jb Weld? Jb weld+ a piece of metal?

What about actual weld? Is that an option?

Actual weld wont be an option for a while but it is the end goal. I just don't want to take the whole interior apart and find someone capable right now.

Got the drivers side brackets made today and my cousin welded the bolts into the rear holes on all of them, he did a great job. I am almost too low on the drivers side with this setup (I'm 6') its even lower than all my previous seat setups.

I'm calling it for tonight. Tomorrow I will grind all the corners to a nice round edge, paint them wrinkle black, get them final mounted in the car, and this project will be finished up.

The same overall length and bend angles from the passenger side worked on the drivers side but the front hole needed to be farther forward than it does on the passenger side.

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7820/...86d7911_c.jpg?
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looking good! hope to see you at MATG this year!

Thanks! I'm hoping to make it out but accepted a new job for the summer so we'll see where I'm at closer to the event.

Got all the sharp edges and corners rounded smooth and sprayed them wrinkle black. I did 3 heavy coats, got them to start wrinkling with a heat gun, then let them cure on the grill for a couple hours on low. I love wrinkle black it's super easy, forgiving and always comes out great. Seats should go in for good today.


https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7908/...0de54b9_z.jpg?

Enjoyable thread you have here, very thoughtful progression.
I've never made it to MATG personally but it's been on the list of things to explore. My wife is building herself an NB as well so we might make a trip down with the dog in our cars.


Re the seats; an extra washer or two on the strap brackets and seat brackets each could help adjust things to get you setup perfectly. I'm a big fan of that wrinkle black as well as the rustoleum hammered colors, the latter being better for a cage or something you can't bake.

Seriously impressed with the quality of this build, particularly considering your age. Beautiful car, fun to watch it go together.

Just needs some good suspenders.... :D

slammed200, thanks! It has definitely been quite a ride to where it is now changing so much stuff and even re-doing things I've already changed. I can't recommend MATG enough the experience is tons of fun and just the place is really beautiful if you've never been to the Smokey's yet.

I was planning to use washers to fine tune the recline and seat height. I also plan to add some of the aerogel foam to the seats so that may increase height too, just have to wait and see what I think once I drive in them for a little. The Rust-Oleum paint looks nice too, I'm a fan of any paint that's easy to use.

Thank you haha IMO its hard for even young people to not know the right way to build a miata, a lot of them just choose to do dumb things. Maybe someday :giggle:

It's not even the fact that you are choosing quality parts, but also your taste in parts, the car you started with, no gaudy body kits or crown royal shift boots or bright red wheels or anything stupid. It's all understated, solid, quality stuff.

Gawd I love that color bronze on a red car.

MS3, correct? If this is still an issue, we can talk about it. I understand 18 is off-line presently.

Yep the MS3pro pnp unit from DIY we were still fighting that issue and it seems Vlad is bussy with real life. I am planning to get back to tuning this weekend so your help would be awesome! I’ve been reading and collecting ideas from a lot of other idle threads and your posts have been a big help in learning new ideas and strategies. Also just read through the whole manual for 1.5.1 this week in preparation!


Well, thank you! It means a lot and I try my best. Bronze/Red is the hotness... I cant wait to see the car on the ground with the new 6ul bronze.

Oops. May have spoken out of turn. I’ve not delved into 1.5.x with engine states, yet.

Still, post a tune tune; and possibly a log; and I’ll take a look.

Stock fans at this time, yes?

No worries! Any help will be appreciated, and maybe others will chime in too. No stock fans, I have the FM stage 2 Spal kit which has not made idle tuning any easier.

When I get done with work I will post the tune and some of my concerns with it and then get some logs as soon as I get the car on the road.