Welcome to my Nightmare
05-17-2017, 01:27 PM
#1
I'm Miserable!
Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2017
Location: Sunnyvale CA
Posts: 6
Total Cats: -11
Welcome to my Nightmare
I'm sure it was all of your's at one time.
Discovered the wonderful world of Miata.
My wife had always said,"It would be so much fun to have a convertible". So I went and found a well used,but clean 1999 Silver Miata. 224+++ on the clock. I had done a bit of research prior as to the availability and cost of parts. I had a 510 for a while and that got to be a PIA to get parts. Cost prohibitive too! Seeing that JDM drive trains were readily available,I chose not to worry too much about the mileage. This particular car had a clean Carfax. It was apparent it was tired and in need of some work. The body,top and interior were in great shape,for a 17 year old car.Bonus was it had MSM 17" wheels from a 2004 on it. At first I thought it looked a bit ghetto,but with time I kind of like the way it looks.
I found the car in Sacramento. I live in the Bay Area. The seller was kind enough to meet me at the train station and we went for a lengthy test drive. I could see it had some issues. Front of engine by the crank covered with grease,as was the undercarriage. Looked like the valve cover gasket had been replaced,but the overall clean up wasn't very good. It ran good and strong,so I wasn't too concerned. Agreed on a fair price for us both and drove it home.
I did not tell my wife what I was doing. Parked it in the driveway and waited. She came home from work,and almost hit it in the driveway! After the initial shock,she asked,"can I drive it to work tomorrow?" I guess that worked out okay.
Now the really fun stuff. I found a JDM engine and transmission. Took the plunge. Over Thanksgiving last year took it to my shop and swapped it out. Pretty simple and straightforward really. The car is an over smogged,chocked CA car. After surfing around a bit,I said screw that 2 cat set up. Went for the 48 state set up. Header pipe from a 2004,midpipe with the O2 farther back,etc,etc. Working towards getting the 421 error code remedied. The car is driven daily and fun.
The only real problem is I don't get to drive it! So when the current status of this one goes to "all issues resolved,reliable daily driver". The search will move toward building a track car for me...............................Hence the Nightmare!
Discovered the wonderful world of Miata.
My wife had always said,"It would be so much fun to have a convertible". So I went and found a well used,but clean 1999 Silver Miata. 224+++ on the clock. I had done a bit of research prior as to the availability and cost of parts. I had a 510 for a while and that got to be a PIA to get parts. Cost prohibitive too! Seeing that JDM drive trains were readily available,I chose not to worry too much about the mileage. This particular car had a clean Carfax. It was apparent it was tired and in need of some work. The body,top and interior were in great shape,for a 17 year old car.Bonus was it had MSM 17" wheels from a 2004 on it. At first I thought it looked a bit ghetto,but with time I kind of like the way it looks.
I found the car in Sacramento. I live in the Bay Area. The seller was kind enough to meet me at the train station and we went for a lengthy test drive. I could see it had some issues. Front of engine by the crank covered with grease,as was the undercarriage. Looked like the valve cover gasket had been replaced,but the overall clean up wasn't very good. It ran good and strong,so I wasn't too concerned. Agreed on a fair price for us both and drove it home.
I did not tell my wife what I was doing. Parked it in the driveway and waited. She came home from work,and almost hit it in the driveway! After the initial shock,she asked,"can I drive it to work tomorrow?" I guess that worked out okay.
Now the really fun stuff. I found a JDM engine and transmission. Took the plunge. Over Thanksgiving last year took it to my shop and swapped it out. Pretty simple and straightforward really. The car is an over smogged,chocked CA car. After surfing around a bit,I said screw that 2 cat set up. Went for the 48 state set up. Header pipe from a 2004,midpipe with the O2 farther back,etc,etc. Working towards getting the 421 error code remedied. The car is driven daily and fun.
The only real problem is I don't get to drive it! So when the current status of this one goes to "all issues resolved,reliable daily driver". The search will move toward building a track car for me...............................Hence the Nightmare!
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