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Welcome to my build thread. Enter our main character, a long neglected hero, full of potential, waiting to rise again to its true potential.
Before I get ahead of myself, there’s about 3 years worth of catching up to do before we get to this point in the story.
~3 years ago I stole this car from Facebook Marketplace. The PO was very out of touch with the market. He had recently moved and couldn’t get the car to pass emissions, so he decided to sell the car. After some negotiation, I handed him a cashiers check (printed earlier that day at the bank) for $3000. I took the car and was able to get it registered in a different county, which doesn’t do emissions testing.
At this point the car had around 150K miles.
The car came with the hardtop and had the following mods:
KN Typhoon Intake
Koni Yellows with Ground Control Adjustable Springs
Hard Dog Roll Bar
Extended rear top hats
Racing beat sway bar up front, Deleted Rear Sway Bar
ISR Header + cobbled together exhaust
TE37 Reps (15x8)
Barely secured double din head unit
Duraflex Front Bumper (PO hit a "gallon of milk" that was in the road)
Deleted Washer fluid system
Deleted Evap System
**** Seat Covers
Liberally applied self tapping screws
Carpetless/stripped interior
Unfortunately I didn't get too many comprehensive photos early on, but here are a few from the first couple days of ownership. Custom paint and custom bumper fitment Note the seat cover and the broken hinge on the center console. Random fuses scattered throughout the car are usually a good sign, right? Freebies and trunk patches. Still unsure why those are there.
I took a day off of work to head up to my parents place and do and initial pass through the car. Cleaning and taking inventory of what all I had just bought. Goodbye seat covers
Around this time I began to theorize that someone bought this car, prepped it for autocross or track use and later sold it to someone who did not take care of it. There were lots of quality parts on the car, but also a lot of shoddy parts and poorly installed parts. If I could tell whoever installed this soft top that self tapping screws aren’t the proper installation method I would be very happy.
Early on most of the work I was doing was fixing the POs work. I ditched the double din after it fell onto the shifter while launching the car. The steering wheel wasn’t installed properly which caused it to bind (fixed by sanding down the plastic turn signal canceler), patched the seats, etc…
A buddy from Autocross helped me replace all the fluids in the car. All of them were in need of a change. Took a few tries to get the coolant flushed out.
Got out to the last autocross of the season. It was cold and I was on bald all seasons but it was still a blast.
I will mention that at this point I was living in an apartment, super frugal and had minimal hands on experience with cars. I'd done things like spark plugs, oil, air filter etc... and had watched a ton of youtube, but hadn't been in a place financially or space-wise to have my own car.
I didn't have many tools, and was largely relying on the generosity of my friends to let me use theirs.
At this point, I was having fun doing the little fixes around the car to make it more comfortable. Mostly low hanging fruit that didn't require a ton of effort, but was fun and gave me a chance to get creative and explore the various aisles of Home Depot.
Added some carpet to the floors, fixed the broken hinge on the center console, made a shift boot. Also cut out some vinyl stickers. Cut to fit and zip tied in. Still looking for a better way to keep this in place. Small hinge from Home Depot does the job fine. The shift **** was on the car when I got it. Bald Driver, Hairdresser Car
I wasn't sold on the cheap head unit that was in the car when I got it. After the stereo ejected itself from the dash and onto the shifter during a relatively unaggressive launch, I decided it was time for it to go.
I couldn't really figure out what I wanted at this point. I enjoyed the old Android Auto app that has since gone defunct and didn't want to spend a fortune on a full blown Android Auto head unit.
The solution I came up with was to get a phone mount and a small bluetooth amplifier which I could hide behind a delete panel. My phone is essentially my "head unit" at this point, which just connects to the amp via bluetooth once the car is on.
The amp was about $20 and I sold the old head unit for $50.
There was already a stereo adapter harness in the car, so I wired the barrel jack to the power (switched I think) and attached the door speakers to the outputs on the back of the amp. A pretty simple ordeal. Stock photo of the amp Prototype, note the **** from the amp sticking through Vinyl wrapped to clean it up a bit. Finished product
I've been really happy with this setup. At this point, around 3 years later, the amp can get a bit scratchy when adjusting volume due to a dirty potentiometer, but it's still functioning well. Sometimes there are small gremlins with the bluetooth getting out of synch with my phone, but those are resolved by turning the car on/off.
Throughout the rest of Summer 2021 the car saw a lot more use. More autocross, cruises and mods.
I wasn't building the car to any specific AutoX class, but figured I'd be sticking around STR levels of mods (suspension, seats, sway bars, intake, etc...)
I picked up a used Sparco Sprint from another club member. Complete with patches already installed.
Another friend of mine (now my roommate) let me test fit some of his tires. 15x9 or 15x10s, I can't remember.
Shortly after I got some new wheels and tires so I could stop abusing my all-seasons or borrowing tires from my other friend (now my other roommate). Mounted up Checking clearances
We have the meats.
15x9 Advanti Storms running a 245/40/15 Falken RT660. The Falken's aren't the most competitive autocross tire, but the bang for the buck is awesome IMO. That is, assuming they don't delaminate immediately.
I replaced my valve cover gasket, as I was finding oil leaking out above my header. The PO apparently had a similar issue, as the previous valve cover gasket had a nice amount of RTV all over the sealing surface.
It didn't totally fix the issue, but it did give me my first look at the health of my engine and foreshadow things to come. Somehow the "2" on the cap is still visible.
I'm not sure how many miles I'd put on the car at this point. I'd taken it 5 hours each way to get to my old College town, and to a wedding which was around 5 hours round trip. The car was performing well and outside of burning some oil (~140K miles in July 2021, so unsurprising) I was surprised at the reliability. Given the appearance of the car and the questionable PO, I was crossing my fingers each time I loaded it up for a long trip.
When I took the car to the wedding, someone actually wanted to valet it. He drove a Mazdaspeed 3 and was pretty enamored with my car. He parked my POS towards the front of the lot, and while it was a smaller mountain town hotel I still got a big kick out of it.
Also, I'm not sure about resizing these photos, but hopefully I'll spend some time to figure that out soon. I think the photo quality/quantity will get better as the thread progresses.
When I picked up the car, my roommate who went with me was vocal about the paint being terrible. According to the PO the car was a promotional vehicle for a military surplus shop at one point, or a shop that painted military vehicles? Can't remember exactly how he explained it.
For me, the paint is the least of my worries and if anything, means I don't have to worry about dinging it up. It gets a ton of attention, always positive. I've had people tell me, "You can't ever repaint that thing, it's perfect".
Not sure if it's primer, or actual military CARC. It's really weird about getting oily and washing clean. I can get the car all soaped up and it'll be totally dry in no time.
Unfortunately, some stickers have left residue and the paint has gotten worse over the years, but like I said, it's not the biggest priority for now.
Glad you stopped by Z, I've been enjoying your build thread as well!
Interesting choice of vehicle if it was for a suplus shop haha. Gives it more character though!
I'm the same way with my paint. My car got a respray a few years before I bought it but it's a shitty bottom of the barrel Maaco job with overspray all over the place. As long as it looks good from 40 feet away, I'm happy lol. That's a trip about about how it washes. Obviously it depends on what the paint actually is but I remember one of my buddies having to use a special type of soap on his car after getting it painted a matte color years ago. Can't remember why it was required though.
Glad to be here and glad you enjoyed my thread! I'll keep an eye out for updates.
Next up for me and the car would be a trip to Packwood, WA for the SCCA Prosolo. My car was in no way ready for competition of this caliber, and frankly neither was I. Regardless, I think we both came away from the trip feeling positive.
This trip was over 15 hours round trip including the detours we took after. I remember being really nervous about this one. No trailers were involved getting the car to the event and this was the first time (maybe the second, but regardless) pushing the car on the 245 RT660s.
Setting up the tents Getting competition ready Priorities at the local brewery Not a bad place to wake up.
I ended up running in the S1 class. My car was running in CSP at the time, but was very, very far from built to the class. However, it was a great learning opportunity, and a super fun time with friends. It would also be the first time running into BBundy, who demolished my times all weekend in his red NA. There weren't any real mishaps, although I learned to double check toruqes on your lug nuts, especially with new wheels. I was in grid when I realized one of my wheels had finger tight lug nuts. So thankful I caught that before I ran!
Not bad parking at the AirBNB On our way to order "Jagger-Bombs"
On the way home we stopped in Leavenworth WA. For the unaware it's basically a small, traditional German Village in the middle of Washington. Our AirBNB was walking distance from the main bit of town, so we celebrated a successful weekend.
Not too long after, another trip was made out to Helena MT for an EVO Driving School. Fun fact, the site that they use for that was also used to test one of Travis Pastrana's Gymkhana cars.
For that trip we were looking at around 16 hours round trip, although we did take a less optimal route to find fun roads, so it was probably closer to 20. This trip was just me and my roommate who was driving his NA. Another member of our local SCCA club drove separate and was kind enough to take our tires.
I don't have many photos from that trip, but we hit an insane storm headed home. Possibly the worst rain I've ever seen in the car, and we were on a sketchy twisty mountain highway.
I remember my defrost barely keeping up and water coming through some of the door seals when the big drops of rain hit.
God damn, I'm jealous of anyone who gets to experience the PNW during the summer haha. Place is so gorgeous and I bet there's some killer roads up in the Cascadias.
15 hours round trip to race your car is ballsy. Props for doing it more than once. Last year, I'd still get nervous driving my car 5 hours round trip for a regular track day. That being said, there's something gratifying about packing a Miata to the gills, setting up a tent at the track and roughing it for the night.
Packwood's venue is fantastic. The site is an old lumber mill, so there are large coverings that we are able to camp under and keep us out of any potential rain. I love that location.
Montana's drive is way better though. Highway 12 is fantastic assuming you don't get stuck behind RVs or Semi's.
I'm always nervous heading out to one of those events, granted the drivetrain at that point was stock (unopened engine + trans) as far as I'm aware. Stock ECU as well.
The engine was consuming oil, probably about 1 quart per oil change. Not the worst I've had (don't you just love Subaru's?). I kept up on it and topped it off as we went.
My roommate would note that I blew a lot of smoke out when downshifting, especially when we were climbing hills, so I'm guessing my rings were pretty worn out.
The rest of the summer was pretty standard as far as the car goes. Maintenance and lots of AutoX. Another trip was made out to Montana for Coneheads, a regional event that'll get you into 3rd gear at one point on the course. Shakedown run with some friends. Got to ride along in this Cossie at Coneheads. This is pretty high on my list of dream cars.
I was lucky enough to get to take a trip down to COTA in October to watch F1 with a group of friends from college. We had seats right at the starting line. Many hours were spent sim-racing the track to learn it before the trip (even if I wasn't going to drive it). Practice Day 1, hence the empty seats.
As winter came and went I drove the car as much as I could given the snow. While I had my Impreza wagon for backup, the Miata has been the car of choice since I got it.
I was getting pretty tired of my job at this point and had been wanting to look for something else. In the back of my mind I had also been wanting to do the cliché mid-20s backpacking trip to Europe. Without much tying me down, I figured I should go for it.
In early September (before the F1 trip) I bought a 1 way ticket to Barcelona. I'd never heard someone regret going on a trip like this, only regret that they hadn't. So in March 2022 the Miata was parked at my parents place until further notice. Not the most conventional stable, but they all fit a niche. Also, does it really matter if you black out your license plates? I figure it doesn't, but who knows.
This one's going to be a lot. I won't be surprised if it turns into two posts. I'm going to try to avoid making this a travel blog, but I figure people might appreciate some of the car related adventures I went on.
Cars, and the community I had built at home around them, were something I missed greatly while I was away. I like doing the same things I do at home when I'm traveling to see how they differ, so lots of car focused entertainment was in order.
I spent 7 months traveling around Europe, living out of a 40 liter bag. Checked off a lot of bucket list items. It's not all glamorous though, there were plenty of days where I felt depressed and aimless. I'm sure it varies from person to person, but 7 months is a long time to constantly be making friends and trying to settle into new places. I did a few work exchanges where you work part time in exchange for housing and/or food. Mostly it was grunt work, but those were some of the best experiences in my opinion. I worked at a pub just below Wales and it was the highlight of the trip. One of my coworkers let me put around in his RHD Renault, which was super strange.
I got to visit some famous tracks, and drive the Nurburgring (I have hundreds of laps in Assetto Corsa). Met some great people, commiserated about missing our Miata's. I look back on it fondly, but try to keep the rose tinted glasses off. It was great, it sucked. I often fantasize about "running away from real life" again. Almost every one of these photo's is pretty significant to me.
This is a glimpse of the trip's car related highlights. I have tons more photos, but I think these will be more appreciated here.
Lots of weird, small cars. It was especially shocking/interesting at first Random MR2 while hiking up to Montserrat Smart Roadster. Didn't know these existed, but saw a few during my trip. One of few Miata's I saw Cosworth in a tiny Spanish town in Mallorca Wicker bucket seat anyone? Think those cylinder walls could hold some boost? Inspiration for the NC You thought Miata's were small? Silverstone. A bit of a journey to get there, but a bucket list item for sure. Big car day at Brands Hatch Is that Jimmy Broadbent?! Goodwood FOS Casual Mclaren F1 GTR at Goodwood More racing at Donnington Park VW Autostadt Legendary Machines at the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart Nurburgring Nordschleife Rented one of these for 3 laps of the Green Hell Mazda Musem NC Superlight Concept, insanely cool An interior to inspire
That heat exchanger on the left side of the McLaren’s front end some really cool cars in there!
I went to Europe on a couple occasions with my parents when I was in middle and high school and remember thinking while in the big cities, “These tiny damn cars are what everybody drives??”. Playing Midnight Club and watching F&F movies as a kid ruined my perception lol.
The girlfriend and I are planning to do Europe for our honeymoon one day, and I’m for sure making a point to get a few laps in on the Green Hell. I might shoot you a message with some questions when the day comes haha.
I felt like a kid in a candy store at Goodwood. So many car's I'll probably never see again, both because they're too rare, too expensive, or both. A great mix of historic machines and one off's getting thrashed.
Feel free to ask questions. I stayed nearby in Koblenz and rented a car to drive over to the ring. I think it was about 45 minutes. Not that hard of a trip to plan, it's mostly just picking dates and $$$. It was raining when I went, which was a blessing and a curse I think. The track was pretty empty, but I also was told the rubbered in part of the track drives like ice. If you're going to practice, don't forget about the wet line.
Well done, I would have loved to do a few laps at the 'Ring!
I did 7 weeks in Europe in 2007. Big retirement trip. Got a Renault Clio 1.4TD, camped mostly. Did LM24, French GP, Goodwood FoS, Shuttleworth Collection, Donnington Collection, Mulhouse French national motor museum, Beaulieu British national motor museum, and another English aviation museum - all in four weeks and about 5k kms on the Clio without putting a scratch on it lol. Highlights were camping at Le Mans (Arnage at 2am!), and Goodwood FoS - mindblowing, both the range and the access to the cars/crew/drivers! Then spent a week in Paris, and two weeks being shown Scotland by a friend. Photo galleries here if anyone interested, I won't hijack your thread further.
@Gee Emm Sounds like a fantastic trip! I wanted to go to Le Mans, but I think the race was occurring when I had to be out of the Schengen area for visa purposes. FOS is amazing, I agree on both accounts.
I'll take a look at those photos, and don't worry, if the build thread turns into a travel thread then at least we'll have something more exciting than my car to look at.
I had been keeping up with things back home, so I timed my arrival home to be a bit before OctoberFast, a regional autocross hosted down near SLC Utah. Going from Oktoberfest to OctoberFast was a bit of a mixup, but both were super fun in different ways.
Unfortunately, my Miata was upset with me abandoning it for so long and decided to have a throwout bearing failure on the way to meet up with everyone. Thankfully it started as we were leaving so I was able to nurse the car back up to my parents place and grab my Subaru.
I assumed I'd figure out what to do on the way. I ended up getting offered to codrive a couple of friends' STX prepped BRZs. Really enjoyable and responsive cars.
I wasn't the only Miata with a failure that weekend. My soon to be roommate's clutch slave cylinder went out halfway through Sunday's runs. Quick trip to the parts store and some quick hands had it functioning by the end of the day, ready to head home.
Around this time I picked up a SpeedyEFI plug 'n play unit. I really like the idea of Speeduino, and SpeedyEFI provided that in a convenient form factor. I think I paid around $200-250 used on Facebook marketplace.
I was able to make it to the last local autoX of the year as well, although the car was still down. More codriving ensued.
The clutch replacement came in soon after. I went with a FM Stage 1 as things were starting to go into motion for an eventual turbo. ECU tuning has intrigued me for years, so the ECU wasn't solely purchased to run a turbo, but that was the logical next step.
I tarped the Miata while I was away. The tarp flapped around and did some weird stuff to my paint. Coupled with some residue from Packwood stickers and my attempted removal of said residue, the paint is looking worse for wear. I look back at those photos from when I picked up the car and as bad as the paint is, it does make me feel like I ruined it.
Replacing the clutch was by far the biggest job I'd done at this point. I'd never taken an exhaust off a car, much less pulled a transmission. Obvious thanks to Greg Peters.
I was loaned some garage space from a friend. This job ended up taking me 3 days so I just spent the night and worked on it during the day. No job at this point so I had the time and enough savings still to play mechanic for a while.
This box was living in the kitchen of the house attached to the garage. Alongside this, there is a full Miata dash, lots of trim pieces, and I believe a head was being rebuilt on the kitchen table.
I can't remember when exactly it happened, but this box became my property at some point. My friend had bought it here on the forum but decided to go with ITBs instead. The kit is a FM Kit from ~2000 from what I've gathered. I picked the kit up for around $1k. A big box of gOld
The car went away as ski season began...
Ski season quickly ended for me. If you fall on your shoulder, and trying to touch your nose with your eyes closed causes you to end up poking your cheek, you should probably go to the hospital. This was something it took me about 10 days to figure out after falling on my skis.
...
If you get squeamish from injuries, I'd skip looking at the X-Ray below.
...
I'm glad I got the clutch swapped out when I did.
Thanks! I'm filling in a backlog of posts from the past couple years when I've owned the car. That accident happened a bit over a year ago.
My shoulder's doing pretty well now, but reaching overhead is not very easy. I've been doing some yoga to help stretch it, but I'm not sure it'll ever be 100% again. It doesn't really hinder me in my day to day unless I need to grab something off the top shelf in the kitchen, and then it's just a bit of effort.
01-12-2024, 05:06 PM
Sergeant Slow
1
some really cool cars in there! 
