No matter how much I scrubbed and treated this old plastic piece, it still looked like a hot mess.
Much more sanitary.
I ordered this one out of Japan rather than buying one of the usual suspects. The Japanese one is just a lot nicer. Most of the other brands are just a flat piece of aluminium.
Like my friend Gunchsta would say, "much success" and "many JDM".
Clean as always. I approve
Cousin_E, Thanks for the powdercoating explanation/pictures. You are a class act. The level of taste, and detail is amazing on this.
Cousin_Eddie said:No matter how much I scrubbed and treated this old plastic piece, it still looked like a hot mess.
Much more sanitary.
I ordered this one out of Japan rather than buying one of the usual suspects. The Japanese one is just a lot nicer. Most of the other brands are just a flat piece of aluminium.
Like my friend Gunchsta would say, "much success" and "many JDM".
WOW
In reply to Cousin_Eddie :
Took the words right out of my mouth.
Man those powder pictures are gorgeous! I love this thread. Keep up the good work.
Today I have been doing the sort of work that most people wouldn't even notice.
I'm going down each fenderwell from front to back removing all the doo-dads, cleaning, replacing hardware, dielectric greasing all connectors and plugs and powdercoating all the little brackets. Then reassemble. I sleep better at night knowing that there is no grime or grease anywhere anymore and that all the electrical connectors have been cleaned and greased.
It's a little more obvious if you saw it in person that someone had invested some sweat into cleaning and detailing.
Little brackets like that are what make an engine bay truly stand out as spotless. Sure you don't specifically notice THAT bracket has been powdercoated, but when your eye has no where dirty to land on all the sudden your head explodes.
I also can almost feel how good it felt to clean that one little piece. It's rewarding, it doesn't involve a ton of disassembly or finagling, and you get the very personal satisfaction of knowing that it may go completely unnoticed, but it matters to you. It's a good feeling.
That being said, NOTHING I have is this clean, but I do always take great satisfaction in cleaning some mundane little piece.
More bling to look legit when hardparked.
I spent the morning putting the radiator in.
After this pic was taken I wound up removing the fans and putting edge molding (commonly called door edge molding) around the edges to seal the gap between the fan and radiator. Fortuitously I had a giant roll of the stuff saved. Win.
I'm still waiting on an order of parts from North Penn Mazda. I needed some new radiator hose clamps, clips, etc.
It's close to being back on the road.
This car is amazing! I need a miata like this in my life.
While awaiting arrival of some final hardware and small pieces to complete the engine part of the project, I decided to address some of the other things that have been wearing on me.
Number 1 : The Turn Signal Intakes
The lights aren't bright enough. Even with fresh bulbs, they're just too dim. The solution of course is to use a brighter LED bulb. But, that takes me down a path of having to open up the turn signal flasher module and replace an internal resistor with a different one. I don't want to go down that rabbit hole right now. So, new clear lenses and fresh incandescent bulbs got me back to living the bright life.
Number 2: The radio
Somewhere way back in this thread I had installed this radio and I mentioned something like it fit reasonably well and I wouldn't fixate on it to save driving myself nuts. Well, I have been fixating. It looks like crap. The radio sticks out too far and it just looks too added on.
So, I got a nice new, proper quality, mounting bracket and I'm now on the hunt for a head unit that appeases my OCD. I'm really wanting a vintage Alpine with the square green preset buttons. That takes me back to high school. I need that in this car.
So I'll probably wind up taking an inordinate amount of time, effort, and expense to turn up a vintage radio that isn't functionally half as good as this modern one.
I decided to go ahead and install the current head unit with the new mount bracket, at least until I can turn up a radio that I like better.
It's hard to tell in the pictures, but the radio now sits 7/16"-1/2" further in that it did before. Plus no trim bezel around it, or even the normal DIN sleeve. It's hard bolted to the bracket now.
I should have wiped/dusted it off before taking these pics.
Bye, crappy old plastic rattling bracket.
That radio mount looks super sanitary. I think the green button alpine sounds like a good 'ultimate' solution... when it arrives. Nice to not be tune-less in the interim.
Gunchsta said:That radio mount looks super sanitary. I think the green button alpine sounds like a good 'ultimate' solution... when it arrives. Nice to not be tune-less in the interim.
Thanks for always keeping this thread alive. Sometimes it seems like I can hear crickets when I open this thread.
Preliminary eBay searching shows the Alpine is going to require me to take a bit of a leap of faith. A decent green button Alpine cassette head unit is 100 bucks and up. And then you hope it really does work beyond the power-up pictures shown in the auction pictures.
I am currently waiting for UPS to deliver my bolt order from MixMaster-Carr. In the mean time I did a little something that no one would ever notice, but it makes me feel good.
Since my new mirrors aren't power, the dash switches were not being used anymore. So...
And then on the other side of the column, some philistine had drilled an alarm LED light into the other dash blank. So I got one for it too.
It's funny, all of the Miata used parts places sell these dash blanks for about 7-9 dollars or so. You can buy new ones cheaper than that if you know where to shop online.
looks good. need something to fill blank space at bottom of radio bezel. gauges?
MazdaFace said:looks good. need something to fill blank space at bottom of radio bezel. gauges?
Funny you should say that. The company that made the radio mount (DDM Works) mainly sells them with gauge holes. I just chose the blank one since I doubt I'll do too much performance modification work or have much need for additional gauges.
That said, I am on the eternal backorder list for a header. Each time the delivery date gets fairly close they back it out another month. Apparently that's about the only way to get a Racing Beat header, patience.
In reply to Cousin_Eddie :
not sure what all factory gauges you have but as OCD as you are i'm surprised you don't have oil pressure/temp & volt if it didn't already come with them.
Cousin_Eddie said:I'm very attached to my brake lever handle. It's an IL Motorsport from Germany.
However, I'm definitely not married to the shift knob. I just haven't found one that talks to me yet. Most of the aftermarket ones are made of stuff that would get blistering hot here in Texas. I'd like to have a leather and al-you-men-ium knob if I could find one, to match the Momo wheel and IL Motorsport brake handle.
That's a very good point on the shift knobs. The black Voodoo knob in my old NA would get so hot that I used to carry an old sock to put over it on long drives in the summer. 110° and no top makes for a very uncomfortable interior. Something tells me that your level of quality precludes having an old sock in your car...
MazdaFace said:In reply to Cousin_Eddie :
not sure what all factory gauges you have but as OCD as you are i'm surprised you don't have oil pressure/temp & volt if it didn't already come with them.
I guess I'm not what you'd expect in that vein. I try to keep up with mechanical stuff and maintenance and then don't worry about it. The cluster does have a temp gauge which seems to do pretty well and an oil pressure gauge, which is simply a dummy that either reads oil pressure or none, with no variance.
thatsnowinnebago said:Cousin_Eddie said:I'm very attached to my brake lever handle. It's an IL Motorsport from Germany.
However, I'm definitely not married to the shift knob. I just haven't found one that talks to me yet. Most of the aftermarket ones are made of stuff that would get blistering hot here in Texas. I'd like to have a leather and al-you-men-ium knob if I could find one, to match the Momo wheel and IL Motorsport brake handle.
That's a very good point on the shift knobs. The black Voodoo knob in my old NA would get so hot that I used to carry an old sock to put over it on long drives in the summer. 110° and no top makes for a very uncomfortable interior. Something tells me that your level of quality precludes having an old sock in your car...
I guess I could go all upscale and get a wool sock. Or tartan...
Progress report.
The engine is all buttoned back up together. I did screw up an injector o ring upon assembly, which gave me a fuel seep. A quick trip to O Reilly for a set of new o rings cured that.
I spent an inordinate amount of effort on the little details, which the photographs completely wash out. I swapped in a ton of stainless hardware, new spring hose clamps, new plastic clips where needed, and more. I still want to spend a day detailing a little bit more before I move onto something else. This should hold me till winter when I can pull the engine and get more serious with detail and dress up.
Gunchsta said:That being said, NOTHING I have is this clean, but I do always take great satisfaction in cleaning some mundane little piece.
I'm pretty sure if I were ever to pop the hood on one of mine around him he'll take one look and punch me in the face, or run away screaming and start bleaching something.
Crackers said:Gunchsta said:That being said, NOTHING I have is this clean, but I do always take great satisfaction in cleaning some mundane little piece.
I'm pretty sure if I were ever to pop the hood on one of mine around him he'll take one look and punch me in the face, or run away screaming and start bleaching something.
Not at all. I'd just stroll inside and roll my detailing cart out there and get to work. I have a cart packed full of every detail tool and supply for any occasion. We would have it looking mint in short order.
Color me impressed - Gorgeous - you have another fan.
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