More poor life choices #3(and possibly #4)

With the Vette still unsold and the title still lost somewhere in my disorganized mess, I decided to do the most illogical thing possible and made a deal on a pair of NA6 Miatas for a grand. Follow along on my continuing plunge into madness and ruin...

No pics yet, because when I checked out the cars I wasn’t planning on making an offer until after the Vette is gone. However, when the seller contacted me last night saying he needed the room, there was no way I could pass it up. 

Honestly at this point I don’t even know the years. What I do know is this:

The red car had ~101kmi, with a good drivetrain, but a certificate of destruction due to it being a flood car(although there’s no sign it ever had any water in it).

The white car had ~195kmi, with a clean title, good top, and signs of recent service/parts, but the engine was seized. 

The seller pulled both drivetrains, and started harvesting the better interior bits from the red car, then ran out of time & ambition. 

The white car appears to have a VLSD based on pics I found online(I didn’t check the red car), but a spare 1.8 Torsen is included too. Oh, and both cars are 100% rust-free. 

The general plan is to put the good engine in the white car & build it for STS autox, while saving any spare parts from the red car I may need for another attempt at building a Locost someday. 

In the mean time I have no place to store the cars inside, so I need to get some tarps so I can park them in the yard. I also need to clean & organize my garage and shop so I can make room for the drivetrains. 

Let the public shaming and beratings begin...

This forum is as close as I get to a therapy group. Good luck with your condition, er project(s), you have friends here 

I’m guessing a rust free roller even with a CD is going to get half your money back

If you decide you don't need that Torsen I could use it for my challenge car...

Patrick said:

I’m guessing a rust free roller even with a CD is going to get half your money back

I’ll just be a shell with subframes by the time I’m done...probably. I’m planning on harvesting everything I can off it for a Locost. 

I'll buy one of the shells, esp if you can conveniently get it back to il.

In reply to Robbie :

I can probably work that out, but it wouldn’t be anytime soon. It would be the red one with the CD. I plan on getting the white one on the road fairly quickly. 

Have you owned a Miata before? I'm interested to hear your thoughts as you dig in to them. 

It's been like 24 hours and no pics?

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

Yes, I had a 94 that I owned for 6 or 7 years, built up for STR autox, sold to nocones, and now mtn owns it. 

In reply to Stampie :

I’m spending tomorrow cleaning up the garage & shed to make room(and the fact the garage is still trashed from when I brought the Vette home), so ilI probably won’t have them here until next weekend or possibly one night this week  

Pete Gossett said:

In reply to Robbie :

I can probably work that out, but it wouldn’t be anytime soon. It would be the red one with the CD. I plan on getting the white one on the road fairly quickly. 

No problem, just let me know if/when you want to sell.

Robbie said:

Pete Gossett said:

In reply to Robbie :

I can probably work that out, but it wouldn’t be anytime soon. It would be the red one with the CD. I plan on getting the white one on the road fairly quickly. 

No problem, just let me know if/when you want to sell.

Let me know. If it’s a roller and I can put it on a Uhaul and could bring it back up. 

In reply to SyntheticBlinkerFluid :

Thanks! If everything goes to plan though(ha!) it’ll just be a shell with some random bits likely still attached. 

I decided to do the most illogical thing possible and made a deal on a pair of NA6 Miatas for a grand.

OK , just for that, I'm looking at a 1952 Chrysler with a seized engine tomorrow in the snow. Making it heap# 5  if I get it.

In reply to Agent98 :

Wow! Good luck!!?!??

Well unlike every other project I’ve ever done, rather than attack this car with a vague concept of what I hope the finished project ends up like, I decided to - you know - actually plan a little bit. 

One reason for this is since I know I want it classed in STS, I can look at other builds for an idea of what parts most people are using, then try to do a (somewhat) budget-friendly version of that. So to that end, I decided to actually plot out a budget. Sure, they’ll be other unplanned costs & things I’ve forgotten, but it’s a good place to start. 

So here’s what I have so far. I’ve not included shipping or fluids, so that may affect which vendor(s) I use for specific parts. I’ve also not checked Rock Auto yet, nor added wheels/tires, which will be another grand or so. 

Selling the Vette should cover these costs, so that’ll hopefully put me on a good path towards completing this project. 

STS Miatas are a blast. Looks like you have a good plan for a reasonably well-prepped car on the cheap. Have you seen the whitener shocks? The opposite of cheap, but he's got some interesting suspension setup ideas that really seem to be working.

Also, as I'm sure you know - you can find most or all of that stuff fairly readily for pennies on the dollar if you have a little patience. I know that I have at least a cat sitting around that I would part with.

In reply to cmcgregor :

Thanks, I might take you up on that offer!

I’ll definitely be shopping used when I can - I already talked to mtn about possibly buying back the Koni/GC setup from my old 96 that nocones bought, then sold to him.  

So it begins...

The plan lane is to head back in the morning, load up the 2nd car, both engines, and as many parts I can fit, head to band practice, then come home & unload, and return Aeromoto’s trailer Sunday morning. 

I got the rest of the crap hauled home today. 

More detailed led pics of everything. 

 Here’s the engines & trans. This is the low-mile good engine  

This is the good trans on the seized engine. 

And here’s everything tucked into place. That’s Miata stuff on the left & center, Vette stuff on the right. 

I was pretty beat from yesterday, but I did a bit more garage/shed cleaning & organizing, then dig into the white car to get a better look at the parts it contained. I decided it made more sense(for now anyway) to leave all the random hardware & bits inside it, so I know they belong to it & I’ll definitely need them upon reassembly. 

I dug out all the paperwork from the glovebox & brought them in to go through. 

Besides a full owners manual & old TX title, I have paperwork going back to the 4th PO, and spanning from 1997 through 2014. 

The latest registration expired 3/20/16, but the last repair receipt is dated 7/7/15. Presumably, sometime during that period the engine seized, causing the car to be parked until it was donated, then purchased my the most recent PO last year at a charity auction. 

Among the more recent reciepts:

• 8/4/15 - A/C service & replaced seatbelt. $79.96
• 7/7/15 - R&R hood release cable & right door handle, replaced trunk gasket, & pulled dent in RF fender. $418.62
• 1/2/14 - Installed used trans, replace rear trans seal, rear main seal, clutch set, speedo cable & shift bushings. $1,829.63
• 6/6/13 - Replace master cylinder, rear pads & calipers. $624.44
• 9/12/12 - replace convertible top. $347.75
• 7/6/12 - Replaced exhaust manifold gasket & welded leak. $132.68
• 4/7/12 - Replaced radiator, hoses, thermostat, clutch plate, TO bearing & front calipers. $1,291.34

So hopefully at least some of these parts are still good. Sadly no mileage was listed on any of these invoices. The last mileage given was 148,376 on 12/24/07, so it was driven ~47k over the next 9-years. 

That white one looks much nicer than I expected. 

In reply to Stampie :

It’s rough around the edges - the black trim around the windows & on the wipers is starting to rust & there’s a surface rust spot on the windshield frame. There’s bare primer on the RF corner, and some peeling botched repairs on the front bumper cover. Oh, and there was a receipt for a partial respray under warranty in the stack of receipts too. 

Im ok with redoing the trim myself, but I have zero ability for “real” body & paint work. I contemplated Rustoleum white, but I’m not setup to spray either, so I’d have to rattle-can or roll it on.

I have pretty good examples of almost every interior part though, so it’ll be a jigsaw puzzle when I put that back together. 

In reply to Pete Gossett :

Looks better than my white one being drive in as totalled condition.

In reply to Stampie :

Fair point.