Welcome to my build thread, where I become chronically addicted to Miatas!

My name is Serinio, I've been slowly learning and building my Miata for almost 8 years now. This was my first car, and the first car I learned to drive standard on when I was still in high school. I purchased the car through my uncle who lived next door, he ran an animal shelter and ended up with it as a donation to his shelter. I always saw it on his property and I eventually inquired about the car, wondering if he would potentially sell the car. He was more than happy to sell it to me as he told me it was most likely gonna get sent to the scrap yard anyway.

EDIT: I figure I should post a picture of the car how it sits as of now of July 2024! Enjoy this thread of my journey, thanks for following along!



Here are some pics of what the car looked like back in 2016.



Granted the car was in much worse shape when I first got it, as it did not run and needed a new soft top as well as a deep clean since it was infested with mice.



The car was mostly stock aside from some XXR wheels, and some old *** Megan coilovers. It also had a salvage title due to the previous owner backing it into a pole, but I didn't care as it was my first car and I was hyped just to call it my own.


Pic of the old Megan coils xd

Here's a video of when I first got it started. I ended up draining the old gas and changed the fuel filter and it started right up.

Also did I mention this thing had 320k miles on it when I bought it? Previous owner drove the hell out of it, nothing better than a car that actually gets used!


OG miles before I started driving it!

One of the first pics of the engine bay.. Peep that sick hot air intake, kept the car running warm for those cold NM winters lolol


It's dirty in this pic, but believe me it was was much worse when I first got it lol

A couple months go by and I'm enjoying my Miata, driving everywhere trying to find and excuse to drive the car. Here's a pic of me and my dad when we decided to go out for a nice top down cruise!

 

I'll post more later! For now I need a break from the computer.

 

End of 2016 I saved up my pennies and bought an eBay Manzo exhaust, at the time I thought it was badass but looking back I can't believe how loud it was. The definition of bark and no bite, I'm not sure how my parents put up with it.


Was a struggle getting those rubber hangers off lol

Of course I had to get a video with the exhaust off, would be crazy not to haha


Had some fun with the camera angles lol.

Here's a video at my buddies place when I got the new exhaust on, can't really tell how loud it is since we were trying to be respectful to his neighbors but it was truly ear piercing. Surprisingly had a good tone to it at certain rpms but was just way to obnoxious.

So at this point I pretty much got the bug for messing with the car, I've always enjoyed personalizing and making something my own.


Bought a GV knockoff front lip, and had some really tacky stickers haha


Top down cruising, also peep those sick amazon special buckets lolol

I went to a local pick & pull and scored a clean trunk lid and finish panel. Miss those days when you could find stuff like that in junk yards, nowadays they won't even have a Miata on the lot.


Finally got the rear end all fixed up, just needed a new tail light.

Now that I had a clean trunk lid, it was a good excuse to get a ducktail. Keep in mind I was in high school I was stoked on how it looked. Even today I don't think it looks too bad, but I wouldn't do it again.


First mock up with the ducktail, also put on some cheap mudflaps.


Spray painted it black and was ready for the final install. It doesn't look half bad

Also for those that don't know, I did BMX Racing competitively throughout high school and still dabble here and there today. Here's a picture before I left to the track with my bike on the Miata! It looks kinda sketch but the bike never fell off so it did it's job..


One of my favorite pictures back in the day.

 

Around mid 2017 the car blew a head gasket and ended up destroying the motor because of my ignorance, the engine overheated due to the lack of coolant leading to a head gasket failure and was driven for too long warping the head and block losing most of its compression. It was a super devastating day, I couldn't stop blaming myself but I knew I had learned my lesson and I wasn't gonna make that same mistake again. I believe what led to the head gasket failing was most likely due to a small coolant leak that I had neglected telling myself I'd get to it eventually.


A picture of the next day when it was dropped off from the tow truck.

I started digging into the motor a few weeks after looking for any hope the motor was still okay. Unfortunately everything was pretty warped and the motor did not want to turn over by hand. it was pretty apparent how much damage was done.


Was greeted with a nice surprise when the head came off...

At this point I figured it was too much money to get everything machined and rebuilt. So I decided I would let this one go and source a new engine. The motor definitely could've been rebuilt but I didn't have the desire to invest that much into a rebuild, when I could swap in another motor for less of a headache. Sadly at this point the car ended up sitting for quite some time before I saved up a little. It didn't make saving any easier since I made a lot of impulse purchases for the car before I sourced a new engine lolol.

 

Serinio!

Psyched to see this thread, there's already so much I had no idea about this car. 300+k miles! I never would have guessed considering how the car looks now days.

Anyways I'll be following along. Thanks for sharing.

 

Yo! Welcome to the build thread section. Looking forward to seeing the progress over the years!

 

Sub’d! I was looking for an explanation behind the Fly Racing pants you were wearing during the exhaust install haha. Looks like all of us ride or have ridden bikes at some point!

320k miles to start is epic lol. How many miles do you have on it now?

 

She's been around the block a couple times lol. The odometer reads a little over 330k at this time! There's actually a bit of a mile discrepancy since I swapped gauge clusters back in 2018 due to a faulty gas gauge, I believe I racked up around 20k miles on the other cluster. So the chassis should be close to 350k by now!

 

I believe this puts us at the end of 2017, I ended up sourcing an imported 1.6 engine on eBay. I know what everyone is gonna ask, why didn't you swap a 1.8 into the car? To be truthful I didn't know at the time that the Miata came with a 1.6 and a 1.8, all I knew was that I needed a motor from a 90' so I dove head first into the unknown, not knowing that this was gonna put me one step further into the grave of Miata addiction lol.




Was super stoked!

It's actually a cool story on how I ended up buying this motor. I was saving my pennies in hopes of buying one used locally, but around this time I was still racing BMX competitively and was still in school so money was slow for me. Well as it turns out there was a track that just opened in Deming, NM and they were hosting a pro-am race with a pot prize for their grand opening. Naturally I wanted to race the pro-am and was also super excited to just ride another track, as we don't have many tracks in New Mexico compared to other states like California. I ended up winning that weekend and took home the pot for first place, which is what funded most of the cost of this new motor!


Me in the middle, alongside my team mates!

Anyway back to the car.. Now that I had another engine I started pulling the old one right away, I quickly realized how easy these cars are to work on and ultimately it's what taught me the basics about working on cars!


First engine pull!

A couple days later the new engine was in, while I was in there I replaced the clutch and installed a new coolant reroute and a sick eBay rad with shitty efans. Still had the hot air intake as well..


Also put on a strut bar, not sure where I bought that.

The car was finally back up and running and it felt great, I missed driving the car and it was finally back better than ever.. Minus a front main leak but we don't talk about that. Now that the car was back I started messing with it again. Aesthetically anyway, maybe not the best taste but it was either cheap or free which worked for me. I painted the wheels black cause I wasn't feeling the chrome lips, and I also did a rear bumper cut. Very poorly if I might add but it was a quick process.


Painted the wheels black!


Not sure what I was thinking with the red stripe but it didn't look bad.

Also my dad laid bricks in front of the garage which helped a lot working on the car since it was mostly outside early on in my ownership. The garage at the time had way too much clutter everywhere to even fit a bike, so a car was definitely a no go. My family are hoarders, including myself!


The poorly done bumper cut.


Peep that Manzo jap cannon!

Beginning of 2018! Me and my family were visiting relatives in Chicago, Illinois at the time. Of course me being me I was cruising facebook marketplace and craigslist, since I was in the area I might as well check if there were any Miata parts for sale! I ended up sourcing an oem hard top and a roll bar for a steal and I couldn't pass it up! Thankfully we took the minivan with us on the trip but there was barely enough space to fit everything, after a long 20hour drive we made it back home and I couldn't wait to put everything on.


Roll bar was a pain to install but well worth it.


Roll bar and hardtop fully installed!

 

January 2018, I got my first set of 200tw tires, 205/50r15 Federal RS-RRs. Not the best by any means compared to something like the Nankang CRS, but at the time these were night and day difference compared to my old Kumho street tires. They were super cheap, plus the tread pattern was interesting so I decided to try them out. I didn't have any complaints with them, even without an alignment they lasted quite awhile with lots of street miles and mountain driving.


195 Kumhos vs 205 Federals


Mounted and installed!

The tires gave the car a pretty aggressive look compared to the old Kumhos, granted these were a step up in size but it truly looked meaty on the car. Surprisingly it never rubbed while driving, the fenders were already rolled when I got the car but I'm assuming my monster truck ride height was the biggest reason as to why I never had problems.


Dat poke.

One of the rear calipers ended up seizing and was no longer actuating, so I ended up upgrading to 1.8 sport brakes with Hawk HP plus pads! Sometime early on when I first got the car I did the brakes with eBay pads and rotors, so I figured this time I might as well upgrade since I'm doing it again! I bought used calipers and rebuilt them and painted them with some high temp exhaust spray paint, also can't forget the sick Mazda decals lol.


Fresh black paint!

After installing everything and bedding in the pads the next day the brakes felt great, initial bite was great and they still worked good when cold. The only thing about these pads is they were so squeaky and dusty, after all they are dual duty street/race pads but man every time I stopped it would squeak. Here's a video of when I was testing out the brakes the next day after I bedded them in.


The car was driving good! I got some cheap amazon led headlights for those late night mountain drives, which was a step up improving visibility greatly and gave it more of a modern look.

Parked up with the new LEDs!

Sometime down the line I wouldn't say I matured but I definitely grew tired of how loud and droning this Manzo exhaust was, so I put the stock exhaust on and man was this a game changer. I forgot how nice it was to be able to hear your own thoughts not having any drone right behind your ear, I'm sure my parents and neighbors were happy as well since it probably sounded like I was racing down the street every time I left the house.

 

Damn, I wish I could say I funded part of my build by winning a bike race hahaha. That's rad man.

I also had no idea that NA's came in 1.6 and 1.8s when I got my car. Just figured it was a good deal and bought it lol.

 

I love the BMX winning to fund the motor, that's great, little things like that really make the history of a car special.

Great progress so far, and still so much to go to get current. Stoked to see the next update!

 

Alright, finally back from a much needed vacation and realized I haven't updated this thread in awhile. October 2018 I've been driving the car a ton and I ended up getting another ricer mod and picked up some eBay altezza tail lights and sprayed them red with VHT spray from O'Reillys! I loved the contrast the all red on the tails brought with the white, so much so I still have a similar setup even today.


New tails!


More leds!

A couple weeks later I ended up finding a used FM butterfly brace for a good deal, as well as a cheap no name rear subframe brace online. I remember at the time when installing the butterfly brace it was a PITA and I told myself I never wanted to do it again. Sometime after this I needed to take it off to pull the exhaust so I ended up leaving the middle section out and just rocking the frame rail braces since the middle section was such a pain to install/remove.




The beginning of November of 2018 I pulled the trigger on got some new wheels! 15x9 +35 Advanti Storm S1s with 245/40s RS4s. I always planned on going with that meaty track stance with the car but part of me wishes I stayed with all seasons and learned how to drive with those first instead of jumping straight into 200tws. Regardless they looked great and was comical seeing something that chunky on a Miata. At least for me anyway lol.






Also looking at these photos I see I ended up getting a rear jack bar and turn signal intakes at some point. I tried looking for pictures in my google drive but it seems I never documented that and ended up just installing them... From here the car stayed pretty much the same for a year and a half besides the +5hp stickers here and there and painting the hood and finish panel black. That didn't come out good admittingly, even now I'm embarrassed I rocked it like that with all the tiger striping. Anyway here are a few pics throughout the course of that time.











Spring 2019 I ended up getting a new daily, and of course it had to be a Mazda. I'll give you a hint as to what it was.. It's a hatchback, came factory turbo, with a 2.3 liter, and 6spd, manual trans yatata okay yeah it's a 2010 Mazdaspeed 3! Drove all the way to Dallas, TX to go get it with my Mom, it had 90ish thousand miles on it, and man it was a fun car. I remember at the time I really wanted a gen 1, but ended up settling for a gen poo since it was hard to find a clean stock gen 1. Not the best on gas but for my first turbo car I wasn't surprised, I had a heavy foot the rest of that year as I couldn't stop getting into boost. Didn't do anything to serious with it besides minor bolt ons with a Cobb AP and other small stuff but I made sure it was staying the daily, but as a car guy I had to mess with it a little lol.


First time my Miata and the Speed meet after the roadtrip picking it up. Sadly the car didn't come with the stock mazdaspeed wheels so that was a bummer, I planned on eventually getting different wheels so it didn't matter as much anyway.

 

Yo wait, NM plates are 8 letters? I learned something new today. Man, we get f*cked on everything here in California hahaha.
Is the "MUCHGrip" plate inspired by Greg Peters' "MUCHPSI" plate? Love it lol.

Do you still have those taillights? I honestly love the look of them haha.

Great update dude, I'm still very much enjoying following along!

 

Yeah you got me there! Inspired straight from Miata dad himself haha. I got quite lucky with it since I believe 8 characters is the max for a vanity plate here in NM for the prestige plate.
I don't have these exact tails, but yes I do still have Altezza style tail lights and sprayed them red!

Glad you're enjoying the thread, thanks for following along!

 

August 2019! I picked up more bracing and bought some Garagestar fender braces! While I was at it I decided to take the time and unseize my front coilovers so I could lower the front more. Long story short when I first got the Miata it came with some Megan coils on it already from the previous owner, the fronts were seized not wanting to budge at all, while the rears for whatever reason still moved freely.




The whole front end disassembled ready for fresh fender braces and more low!



Fender braces all installed, it's a shame they get hidden behind the fender..

As well as finally unseizing the front coils with the help of torch and pb blast lol, sketchy but it worked. The car looked so much better after I got the car sitting right, and from that day on I became and still am an advocator of good fitment. Call me a stanceboi but you gotta look good on the touge lol.


Everything installed and back on the ground. Peep that fitment!!



Also got some cool side stripe decals, not sure how I feel about them now but seeing them on the car back in the day looks right.




Didn't have the front bumper on yet since I was repainting it with some fresh Rustoleum xD

September 2019, I watched thecarpassionchannel aka "Miata dad" Grec Yeeters video on how to depower your steering rack, and decided to give it a whirl myself. Everything went smoothly and was even easier having the tutorial on hand so thank you Miata dad for everything you do for the Miata community. Everything I learned about Miatas was from "how to" vids on YT and forums!


Seal cut and everything apart ready for reassembly!

Time skip to January 2020 as nothing much happened with the car.
I finally got myself my favorite headlights for the NA in my opinion, Jass Performance lowpro headlights! I'm aware these aren't the first lowpros on the market and they've been a thing for quite some time for these cars, but these were the cheapest and easiest to acquire compared to other rare and expensive lowpros. Although I would love to own a set of RS Active or Brainstorm headlights sometime in my life.


New Jass low pros on the car!


Still can't get over how much it changes the car.


Also check out that fresh paint on the front bumper, it didn't last as rock chips quickly covered it lol

 

Yoo, nice updates. Those fender braces look nice, I've got the frog arms on mine. I too have followed Preg Geters for a while, he used to hang out on this forum before he got too cool for us.

I won't make this superlap, but should be at the one in Sept! Miss yall lol.

 

See you in September! Hope you're doing good.