Dual purpose NA Miata

First off, I'm apologizing in advance for pictures. I'm still learning, and well, shops are dark and my camera is set up for other things.

So, I guess the best place to start with a build thread is to lay out goals, then current problems, then the build, so this first post may be a bit on the long side.

Goals The main goal of the car is dual purpose just because. It is my daily driver, but it will also be my autocross and play toy as well. The setup for autocross/most daily driving will be the stock drivetrain, these 10 way AGX shocks, the red DropZone(fronts are about 3/16" thick and 3.25" diamete) springs I know nothing at all about, and the wheels I ordered today, Proline 138B 15x6.5 with Dunlop Direzza DZ102 tires on all four corners.

That's about the end of the simple build part, almost not worthy of a thread. Where I'm taking it for play though is entirely different. I'm ordering in the 3 inch lift kit, going to find the meanest most aggressive mud and snow recaps I can find, and making it into an offroad toy. This all really depends on how easy it is to put on and take off the lift. Hopefully, Flying Miata has them in stock this week, and I can get it ordered.

Known Problems Aside from not knowing anything about my springs, I've got some issues that need resolved. One is the massive hole in the back window of my top. I've had a brand new top sitting in the closet all winter because unless there's stuff coming from the sky, my top is down. That's easy, and will be taken care of come better weather.

Today, while it was on the lift so I could measure for my brush guard and skid plates, I noticed what looks like a long time leak right around the oil pressure sender, <img src="" /> I haven't gotten more than the pictures and the look at it yet, but while I have some blue smoke at startup, my oil level seems to be fine.

Rear brakes on both sides are wearing very strange. The top of the pad isn't even touching the rotor, and the pads appear to be wearing at an angle. Every parts store in town in miraculously out of rotors right now, so that is on for another time as well. I still can stop and slide, tires wear fine, but before Test N Tune on April 30, I need to get this oil problem and the brakes squared away.

The third and final known problem cropped on about 20 minutes ago. I was on my way to home depot to pick up some slotted zinc coated angle to start fabbing a front light bar, and both my rear speakers just cut out. The wiring is fine on the speaker box, but once I get this typed up I'm going to go start tearing into it.

Summary While not a Challenge build or anything crazy, this is the first real build up I've been able to do for some time. All in, aside from the oil leak and new top install, this should be just around a grand. So please, join in at me laughing at myself as I burn through the budget and find more new problems, err, build a fun, dual purpose miata.

Ok, there must have been an invisible break in the wire somewhere, but odd behavior. My rear speakers are in a box on the rear deck, with a direct line from the head unit. They both just randomly quit working on the way to the store, so I brought the box inside and hooked it up to my shelf system, and everything was good. Back in the car, the right channel refused to work, but the left did. Replaced both wires from the head unit to the box and it's fine again. Might be time for another set.

And as I was finishing that up the screaming poop machine arrived, so I guess CAD renderings instead of actual mock ups will have to suffice until she leaves in a few days. Hopefully, I can get her to not run away outside and make use of this great weather.

OH. Forgot about this. It looks old, doesn't feel wet. This is going to the rear passenger wheel. I know its a hard picture to make out but you can clearly see the leak I'm concerned with [img=http://s7.postimg.org/jiu2dw39z/rearpassenger.jpg]

If you've seen my other posts recently, you know I'm going to be turning my miata into a part time off road toy. In part for looks, and in part for just making it brighter at night, I'm going to be mounting some Hella 500s on the front, on a homemade light bar.

I've got a couple options, I made some cardboard mockups tonight, and doing that made me realize just how difficult my original plan was. I was really overthinking it in AutoCAD before I just took some cardboard and blue tape to the car.

Has anyone made one before that would have some advice?

I'm going to build a bracket to come off the baby teeth bolts, as the cardboard shows in the attachments. In my mind at least, it will be 1 inch bar stock coming out past the front bumper enough that the back of the lights won't rub at speed, I'm thinking an inch past, about 8 inches long on either side. They have to come out pointing together, otherwise they hit the sides of the bumper. Thinking about this as I'm typing, I'm going to tie them both together to provide a stiffer support for the lights, but I don't know whether to use bar stock or square tubing to mount the lights on. Or maybe run supports from the front license plate mounting holes, but I'm afraid of the plastic getting damaged. Really don't want a 6" light coming straight up the hood at highway speeds. Tying them together, I would use the studs of the lights as bolts through the metal, which I think is the strongest way to do it, although I like the looks of center mounted.

Where would a good place to pull power from? The AC fan circuit, power windows, rear defroster? I guess another important question is can the 1.6 alternator support basically a second set of headlights?

I'm also unsure of the legality of this. Not using them on the roadway, just having them on the car in general, so being bolted on, they can come off easy.

New wheels came in WOOhOO

But upon box opening inspection, found this. Not real happy, but should be a replacement in on Thursday, so I'll be going for tires this weekend or early next week.

Also replaced the slotted angle with 3/16 bar stock, so when I can get over to my buddies portaband, should be able to have the lightbard together.

Finally got the autocross/dd wheels and tires in and mounted up. Pretty

did get the light "bar" fabbed up and lights mounted. It still isn't powered, but it's there. It was too dark for a good picture when I got done with it tonight, but I'll get some tomorrow

The mockup lights are on and working. I need to invert them, the light's only shining about 5 feet in front of the car at full back position. I'm pretty sure the hella's I'm looking at are thinner, and should be perfect, but these ones definitely need inverted. I think they look good though, subtle when covered.

I'm just going to order the lift kit, and wait for it to come in from FM. But in the mean time, I've aquired another set of wheels, (making 3) and am going to be taking them out to get the most aggressive tires or recaps I can find that will fit a 14x5 rim. Thinking 185/50/14 in an aggressive winter tread is going to be the best I can do though.

Lift kits are close.

Btw, if you don't have the Hellas already, I've been underwhelmed with the 550s. I've got some 3000s and 4000s that work really well, but the 550s I bought for my VW just don't cut the mustard. They're overshadowed by the LED headlights on the van, the same type you'd put in the Miata.

So if you haven't bought the Hellas yet, spend the money on some Trucklites instead.

The new lights are pretty far down on my list, after helmet and possibly springs and roll bar, so I'll keep an eye out for sales. While I only foresee using these offroad, they could really come in handy on bad nights.

Garage Star skid plate and engine lift kit came in today! I need to track down a driver for the bolts and call my lift guy, don't think I'll have enough room under jack stands to get it on. But damn is it beefy, I'm glad I decided not to make a huge skid plate from 3/16 steel.

I also just saw ecotecmiata site and prices, and while I'm not thinking this year, that looks to be a GREAT swap price wise, and with the availability of go fast parts for a 2.2 eco, this could be a blast. I'm going to have to keep an eye on this.

Much stress and anger over this skid plate install. The lift blocks are in, and it sits flush, but where Garage Star made the holes that are supposed to fit, I've got weld and seams. So much for doing it on jack stands. Currently devising brackets, considering welding. I've got some nice speed nuts though, those could allow for a little wiggle room for spacing the holes. I'm half tempted to use hollow wall anchors to put the damn thing on.

While it was up in the air today, I noticed some of my cooling hoses need replaced. Namely, the one on the bottom driver side of the radiator. Oh joy. If I'm going to flush the cooling system changing that one, I might as well change them all right? Time to get another order in.

Still waiting and hoping these lift kits get back from QC, but I'm also torn on the tires I want to run with that now. I've been thinking an angry mud and snow recap, but the idea of AG tires came into my head. No idea how legal that would be, or even if it would be driveable at all though.

I'm trying to get prepped for Test n Tune on April 30th, but not knowing at all what to expect there, it's a little difficult to prep. I have already decided I'll be getting new brakes and rotors, and possibly flushing my brake system and refilling with DOT 4 come June or so. I'd love some advice or tips on that, as I've never purposely purged a brake system before.

The dash cam is in and installed now too, I'm still messing with it, I'm hoping to figure out how to save my runs at autox so they aren't loop recorded over, but with a cheap no name dash cam, this may be easier said than done.

Typical miata, another week, another couple hundred bucks and no real difference. If I knew for sure I could bank the money for the ecotec swap this year, I'd almost not do autox and save all the maintenance and bullE36 M3 until the new motor is in, then do everything at once.

Got a box of parts in last week, between the weather and the screaming poop machine who now climbs EVERYTHING I haven't had time to get to it yet. So while I wait for the lift kit and prepare for autocross, I'll replacing radiator hoses, thermostat and a full coolant system flush. Also adding new ceramic pads and a fuel filter. Supposed to be beautiful all weekend, so hopefully I can start thursday or friday and be done with time to ride.

Also, thanks to a thread found on the googles Woody on Classic Motorsports, I now know how to install that flawed through design Garage Star skid plate, so hopefully I can get that on as well. Thanks Woody, any extra tips?

I got hit with a 2000 dollar tax bill this week, so my budget is a little messed up. Hopefully I'll be able to get the tires I want for when it's lifted by the time the kit comes in.

Boring maintenance got done today. New ceramic pads with a proper adjustment have definitly improved the pedal feel. New radiator hoses, blind plug, thermostat, and a full coolant flush and refill with 65% water 35% coolant. Seems a bit happier now. I forgot about the fuel filter, whoops, and still haven't gotten to the skid plate. But all the pre autocross maintenance is done now.

Figured out my oil-like smoke and missing brake fluid are related. Bad seals in the resevoir are letting brake fluid get to the intake on a cold start. It's not a big loss, it explains a lot. But that's on the back burner for now. Since I've decided I need to start saving my pennies for an ecotec swap, I'm not going to bother with it unless it becomes a big problem. And that is my new prevailing attitude over this project. Another set of tires when the lift kit comes in, then as little money is going to the car as is needed to get it through the auto cross season.

Painted the tops of the headlights today because they always seem to get covered in grease when I'm working on the car, so they might as well be black. quite a bit of overspray though. Making me think to paint the hood. I may just paint my whole car slowly in sections.

I just haven't decided on a final color. I did the headlights like this to help line up the dashcam and conceil oil fingerprints. I'm thinking a dark blue or green, wrinkle or hammer finish. Just to be different.

I has a sad. Got the email last night, the lift kits are effectively canceled for the time being because of quality issues. My card wasn't charged, so it's not like I'm mad or expecting a refund, but I'd have happily paid in full if that little bit more money could help for higher quality on the production run.

I guess I could go to even heavier springs and crank my coilovers to the top to get the desired height, but I don't think I'll have quite the bounce protection I would lifting the whole suspension up. And god knows what kind of stress the dropzone springs will take.

Tomorrow the car will be making its first autocross appearance and runs. I'm really excited to be officially "racing" even if it is just against the stop watch. I can already predict a slow first and second lap to learn the course, then probably spinning out on the third trying to find these tires limits. Because tomorrow isn't for season points, I'm opening the drivers seat up to just about anyone, and hoping I can tag along with one or two of the other miatas to see how their drivers do things.

When this rain goes away, I'm going to start piece painting the car. Start with all the pieces that can come off easily, and then do the ones that don't. I'm not to concerned with a plaid car for a while, but It will eventually wind up black and blue. I prefer green, but can't find a shade in a rattle can that I like.

revrico wrote: I has a sad. Got the email last night, the lift kits are effectively canceled for the time being because of quality issues. My card wasn't charged, so it's not like I'm mad or expecting a refund, but I'd have happily paid in full if that little bit more money could help for higher quality on the production run.

Which lift kit was it? The Paco Motorsports one?

NickD wrote:

revrico wrote: I has a sad. Got the email last night, the lift kits are effectively canceled for the time being because of quality issues. My card wasn't charged, so it's not like I'm mad or expecting a refund, but I'd have happily paid in full if that little bit more money could help for higher quality on the production run.

Which lift kit was it? The Paco Motorsports one?

Flyin Miata pulled it from their site, so it looks that way.

Yes, we've had multiple slipped delivery dates and bad product. So they've been pulled until that gets sorted out. The cost of the kit had nothing to do with it, we never trade off quality to get a cheaper price. Paco has to work things out.

I'm not too worried about it, saves me on tires and whatever I'm sure to break playing offroad for the time being. I honestly thought it would get canceled due to lack of interest, but that doesn't seem to be an issue. I was actually gonna ask you come the first of the month if anything had come of the kits, just saved me a message.

Edit in the hope Keith reads this: When I got the email from Bill last night, it lists everyones email that he sent it to. That has the potential to be a privacy problem that someone might want to look into.

Yeah, I need to speak to him about that. We don't usually do it that way, it was a clumsy move on his part.

Lack of interest was definitely not the problem.

Ran my and the cars first autocross today. My first lap was 49.6 seconds. Last run of the day, 36.4. Nice big jump in times.

Passed the car around like a hooker with a Groupon, everyone was averaging 34ish, best run in my car was 33.1

Not bad for a 23 year old car.

I'm classed in sts though, so now I need to learn those rules and regulation.

She ran fine, took all the abuse, but I really need to start doing bushings before something bad happens. Time to start shopping kits.

Also pleasantly surprised, the guys that had nc miatas did almost as well in my old na, within a second at least. And they all seemed to be surprised how great it handled.

Videos should be coming this week, both my dash cam and some go pro footage shot. One of the guys is going to do a gopro split screen of my run and my instructors run, even without telemetry I think it will help me learn. I do take to instruction well though, the guy that ride along acted like a rally codriver and that got me a one second boost.

I don't know how to embed youtube videos, but here is the dashcam of my personal best run of the day.

https://youtu.be/OvMdL_k96l4

Just ordered my shiny new helmet that the daughter is getting me for fathers day.

I'm good with open face for autox, and this car at least, will never see a track. SA 2015 so it's good pretty much forever to me, and all of $170 delivered, I'm a happy boy.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/Id-T95KeVss I'm the driver on the bottom. Can see going into the turn right after the slalom, brake too much and never got the speed back

And the helmet is on backorder. berkeley. 1 to 2 weeks supposedly, so hopefully it will be in before the next event