My name is Nick and I am in Fort Hood, Texas. I am currently active duty with the army until June 8th upon which I will be returning home to Omaha, Nebraska to go to school for diesel tech. I've been dabbling in car-stuff as a hobby for about 6 years now and I very recently picked up a 1991 red Miata with 215k miles on it to be my first real project car. For the past year or so I've been helping forum member ryanr on both his 96 NA (R.I.P.) and his 02 NB and I was so impressed with the handling and relative mechanical simplicity of both of the cars I finally bit the bullet and bought a car of my own.
I have not done too much to the car so far (mostly just fixed what was cobbled by the previous owner) but I have installed a Hard Dog roll bar and door bars, larger aluminum koyorad radiator, glass window soft top from ryanr's 02, stripped the interior, and replaced the dash and seats with much nicer pieces donated to me from ryanr's 96 NA. I'm slowly piecing together all of the parts to swap in a 94-97 1.8 and in the next month or so I hope to get rid of the tired old 1.6.
I am not very knowledgeable mechanically but I enjoy doing my own work the right way and I will likely be relying heavily on this sites tremendous wealth of know-how. I have already learned a great deal from this site and I someday hope to be able to contribute to the pool of knowledge here.
Now, without further ado, I would like to officially introduce the "Cruisin' Cranberry:

I would also like to take one quick second just to thank ryanr. Without him I never even would have learned how to drive stick let alone been able to get the project off the ground. His support and generosity has made it all possible. Thanks man.

 

Strips the interior to save weight

Installs heavier dash from NA8

Welcome to the forum!

 

Thank you! Very observant of you; I should have been more specific! The replacement dash is a 90-93 piece that had been installed by ryanr. The dash original to the car had a small crack in it and the donor did not.

 

Brilliant.

This a DD or building for the track?

 

I'm only planning on driving it on the street for now. I would someday like to track it, but for now I'm just going to get it running reliably. Suspension will most likely come after the swap. I was thinking the FM v-maxx classics with an ES bushing set and the sway bar set from 949. From what I've read that seems to be a very streetable combination.

 

Thanks for joining, NickO!

 

Welcome! Clean looking car. I had to laugh a little when I read "I haven't done much... except for replace the entire top, most of the interior, put door bars and a roll bar in, and also did a major upgrade to the cooling system."

Although I suppose in the context of this website that isn't really "a lot".

 

Welcome to the forum.

I was born on Ft. Hood and I've never been back. What's your MOS?

 

Hi Nick. Nice car. Those parts all look super familiar. I suspect you also have some exhaust parts waiting for install.

 

Killeen/Fort Hood is not the "Great Place" it advertises. I wouldn't recommend returning. I'm an infantryman with 3rd Calvary Regiment for the next couple of months.