Hello, Dave H here. 66 years young. Been playing with Miata since Jan. 2019. Done a ton of work on her, being retired and having an interest in anything new I jumped into the Miata world and picked the absolute wrong car to start with. However, I did push my way through, MAJOR rust repair, engine build, suspension, brake, taught and did a reasonable job with base coat and clear coat on first try. OBVIOUSLY I have a lot of time on my hands. Always to look to improve skills and of course the car. Just a DIY'er ready willing and able to learn from anyone and any source. Some pics from the awful to the running condition. Currently running a 1.8 VVT, with forged internals, balanced, rebuild head and FF supercharger. I reached my technical limit and handed over the car to improve the ECU with megasquirt tuning at the local tune shop. The future is open. TWIN induction????

My first lesson in Miatas. LOL

Uhhhhh, I worked hard to resolve this

Both rear quarters done

A year later

Rusty has a new engine and some boost!

 

Welcome. Nice first post.

For what do you use the Miata? Obviously, not to get to and from work.

DNM

 

When I get the need for speed and curves. I jump in it. Belong to he MOPO club in Portland Oregon and we often go on cruises. This time of year we park them for the most part.

 

Welcome! Nice work, most people (me) run when the rust is that significant, but I am so happy to see a saved NB -- especially so well done

 

Impressive work. Welcome.

 

You might enjoy G3ML1NGZ thread He also did massive rebuild work that is impressive.

DNM

 

Yep, I ran a hard MOPO run and when I started to pull the car apart was pretty shocked. The front horns were pretty difficult but with a laser level, about a hundred repeated measures, some new steel re acquainting myself with mig welding I was able to recreate fairly strong horns. Ignore the writing I was making notes to myself during the rebuild.

 

That was the exact area that caused me to send a relatively otherwise nice NB down the road for a part-out, giant rust holes the length of my forearm where that bracket is supposed to attach... I even looked into the frame rail pieces supposedly available outside the US, but was not confident in my own abilities to safely repair it. I now always tell people looking at NB's to specifically look at that spot!

 

Yep, by the time I found mine I was too far down the road to give it up. Soooooo, I took a few days to decide to fix it. Luckily, the rust stopped at the bracket on both sides. For some reason Mazda used sandwiched thin gauge metal in these cars. Moisture gets in between and rusts from inside out. By the time you see it it's too late. My car was owned by the beach for its first few years and I suspect the owner drove it on the beach. I found steel in the dimensions of the frame, cut it out one at a time and mig welded it back in, fore, aft and along the thin gauge sheet in the inner fenders. My newest "secret" desire is to twin boost it. Already have MP62 on it and although I have't dyno tested it but I'm sure it is running somewhere around 190 rear wheel hp right now. +/- 10hp. I'm thinking about a turbo secondary. I don't want to race or beat it but I do really like the country runs and occasional high rev run on open highways.