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Keith Tanner
Keith Tanner GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
12/2/17 5:55 p.m.

I like that. Door cards aren't really all that difficult, but people rarely tackle doing custom ones. Makes such a difference to the interior. 

 

Nice find on the fasteners, too. 

Cousin_Eddie
Cousin_Eddie Reader
12/2/17 6:02 p.m.
Keith Tanner said:

I like that. Door cards aren't really all that difficult, but people rarely tackle doing custom ones. Makes such a difference to the interior. 

 

Nice find on the fasteners, too. 

Thanks Keith. Those fasteners were a rabbit hole for me. I hate door panels that don't fit snug due to haggard clips so I knew up front that I needed to find a source. All of the forum boards just tell people to go to Autozone and buy some five dollar blister pack with a variety of clips hoping one or two will work. No thanks. Auveco makes every clip and fastener for pretty much any car and they are all cheap if you can find the right part number and do the Googles.

759NRNG
759NRNG Dork
12/2/17 7:59 p.m.

Your attention to detail/execution  continues to amaze....when you're done, would you be the least bit interested in a 1962ish Bentley??

Cousin_Eddie
Cousin_Eddie Reader
12/2/17 8:14 p.m.
759NRNG said:

Your attention to detail/execution  continues to amaze....when you're done, would you be the least bit interested in a 1962ish Bentley??

Thank you for the continued kind words.

My wife has already signed off on me doing an early BMW or Datsun next though. I've been showing her pictures of 510s and 2002s and she's nearly as excited as I am. 

759NRNG
759NRNG Dork
12/2/17 8:20 p.m.

I vote 510 ......with a 2013 GM 2liter turbo (buick) ala Loose Cannon's Pink Panther EMP.

Cousin_Eddie
Cousin_Eddie Reader
12/7/17 12:48 p.m.

A small update.

I'm sure it's mundane to all of you cool guys, but to me, laying out nice new parts is exciting. This is all low end stuff to most folks nowdays with coil overs and whatnot being all the rage, but, I'm getting to be an old man, and making more conservative choices lately.

I've about got all the stuff I need for my suspension refresh other than waiting on a pair of bumpstops from Flyin Miata. Over the Black Friday weekend I ordered from Flyin Miata, Good-Win Racing and Moss Miata. 

 

As soon as the front bumpstops get here I'll take a day and get it all installed.

akylekoz
akylekoz HalfDork
12/7/17 1:40 p.m.

Remove that image, porn is not allowed in this forum.

NOHOME
NOHOME UltimaDork
12/7/17 1:49 p.m.

Reminds me...I forgot to add the swaybar links to my FM order! DOH!

Cousin_Eddie
Cousin_Eddie Reader
12/10/17 10:42 a.m.

Another mundane update while I'm awaiting the last of the suspension parts to arrive.

This post should give you an insight as to my OCD sickness.

When I bought the car it had a broken passenger side taillight. I wound up buying a nice used one on eBay and installing it. But, since then, something has been weighing on my mind.

I literally lose sleep over stupid stuff like this.

I had noticed how deteoriated the taillight gasket was when I installed the used taillight. Now, mind you, this car is thoroughly garaged. It doesn't get driven in rain. Pampered is too mild of a word. But still, those taillight gaskets weighed on me. "What if the car were ever in a driving rain ? Water might leak into my trunk."

I know. My mind is sick. I've never been able to overcome it. If you ever see me selling a car, you should buy it. There will be no hidden surprises.

You don't even want to know about the time I spent days rebuilding and powdercoating a transmission. Not a sexy transmission either. an SM465 dumptruck transmission. Or waiting a week to have an air cleaner wingnut replated at the zinc plating shop. There are countless stories of madness I could tell.

octavious
octavious Dork
12/10/17 12:48 p.m.

I wish I had the patience and skill to give a  vehicle the “cousin_eddie treatment”

759NRNG
759NRNG Dork
12/10/17 3:10 p.m.

Let me repeat ......see above (12/2/2017)

Cousin_Eddie
Cousin_Eddie Reader
12/13/17 5:47 p.m.

I started the suspension work today. My progress was causal to say the least. I spent some undue time cleaning the trunk and making everything just right. I also spent a good bit of time loosening the entire suspension and relaxing the bushings to their new position with the lower ride height.

Koni shocks, Flyin Miata springs, Flyin Miata upper spring hats, Racing Beat sway bar, Racing Beat end links, and stainless brake hoses.

Tomorrow I will start on the front. I'm still awaiting a UPS delivery for front end stuff tomorrow anyway.

 

Cousin_Eddie
Cousin_Eddie Reader
12/14/17 10:00 a.m.

While the car is up in the air I figured I might as well get these changed. I'd guess they would be very easy to change on a non AC, non PS car. Mine has both those. 

With an impact and a two foot wobble extension, it really wasn't too annoying of a job to do. About thirty minutes front to back.

My old mounts really weren't too bad. The driver side was torn part way, the passenger side was intact. New compared to old.

The old mounts.

Regardless of how intact the old mounts were or weren't, it really surprised me how much the new mounts raised the engine up. The old ones were apparently quite a bit sagged. The pan is about 1/2-5/8 of an inch further away from the steering rack now. 

Cousin_Eddie
Cousin_Eddie Reader
12/14/17 5:05 p.m.

Now to drive it around a while and let the springs take a set. I'm guessing it still has a measurable distance to settle in. I'm measuring right at 13" front and rear currently (down from the stock 14" F/R). 

Cousin_Eddie
Cousin_Eddie Reader
1/4/18 5:12 p.m.

I did a little round of cosmetic work on the interior recently. None of these parts will strengthen the macho image of the humble Miata, but I like it.

The factory airbag module had failed so I did a steering wheels swap. I wound up ordering a steering wheel adapter out of Japan. It was pricey, but no mangling of the clockspring wiring needed.

The shift boot was haggard so I ordered a new shift boot and a loose fit hand brake boot from Poland. I'm still waiting on a leather hand brake handle to be delivered.

I also swapped some interior switches out with aftermarket parts. I tended to rest my elbow on the factory switches and was always startled when the power window would start to move. These hella flush, JDM yo switches fixed that. I think the kids nowadays call them dope.

And finally, replaced the inop factory radio/CD combo with aftermarket. The dash kits on the market for these cars aren't anything too great. Fitment is just okay and I'll force myself not to fixate on it lest I rip it all back out and go another direction. For car audio equipment I always just hit the Crutchfield easy button.

AC/DC FTW !

 

Next up is drive it to work a few times to settle in the FlyinMiata springs some more then take it have an alignment done. 

 

 

Dusterbd13
Dusterbd13 MegaDork
1/4/18 6:12 p.m.

Where did you get the window switches? I like those quite a lot.

 

And gorgeous car, man. Im not even an na guy and that one is just RIGHT. 

Cousin_Eddie
Cousin_Eddie Reader
1/4/18 6:41 p.m.
Dusterbd13 said:

Where did you get the window switches? I like those quite a lot.

 

And gorgeous car, man. Im not even an na guy and that one is just RIGHT. 

Thank you for the compliment. The switches came from Adam over at Revlimiter.net . He's a neat guy that runs a one man shop making high end Miata goodies.

I'm afraid my build is going to jump the shark soon in the eyes of the GRM hive. I'm going to be doing some cosmetic work next that doesn't really add value to it as far as performance.

Dusterbd13
Dusterbd13 MegaDork
1/4/18 6:53 p.m.

Looks are performance.  After all, concourse is 1/3 of the challenge. 

 

Im off too check out revlimiter. My wife may hate you tomorrow.....

Rodan
Rodan Reader
1/4/18 7:27 p.m.

My favorite NA color!  And I really like what you've done! yes

And I hate to be repetitive, but that was a fantastic buy!  That would easily be a $5000-5500 car here in AZ.

759NRNG
759NRNG Dork
1/4/18 8:55 p.m.

Cuzin' E i begrudgingly follow this only cuz of you.....BTW Happy New Year!!!...have you wanted one of these like forever????

tux424
tux424 New Reader
1/4/18 9:18 p.m.

Your attention to detail is amazing! It has really cleaned up well.

saazbaru
saazbaru New Reader
1/5/18 8:25 p.m.

I'm hecka jealous man, my NA is of the ratty variety!

Matthew Kennedy
Matthew Kennedy GRM+ Memberand Reader
1/5/18 10:50 p.m.

She's a beaut, Clark. 

Keith Tanner
Keith Tanner GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
1/6/18 12:27 a.m.

Nothing wrong with making your car look good. 

Cousin_Eddie
Cousin_Eddie Reader
1/6/18 1:38 p.m.

I sure appreciate everyone's positive feedback. It's nice to hear that.

I am kind of feeling a wheel change. Maybe some Rota RB or something like that. Unless I could turn up a set of Watanabe wheels in a decent offset for a non flared car (zero chance of that).

Still to come :

  • framerails. Mine are mint and I want to keep them that way
  • Upholster the seats in the Porsche material to match the door panels
  • Replace headrest speakers
  • side winkers (maybe)
  • Japanese Zoom Engineering fuel lid
  • Japanese chrome or stainless mirrors
  • Brakes. Not sure what I will wind up doing there
  • Pull engine and do a full nut and bolt detail and address everything in the engine exterior and the engine compartment. Polish, plate and powdercoat as appropriate

I'm an old guy and I like being that guy with the level of detail that can only come from having a pampered car. I've got a shop to keep my stuff parked in and a Toyota 4x4 for driving when the weather isn't nice. I might as well go full stupid on fussing over the details on this car. My wife doesn't want to kill me in my sleep near as often after I work on a project and get full OCD on it. It keeps my head screwed on right.

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