[Kayak Jack]

Evening CR!
Been a lurker on here for a few years while I owned my last two Miatas and now I finally purchased another one. Everyone jokes "you'll be back" after you sell your Miata and its honestly so true. I'm sure plenty of you have owned multiple Miatas at this point haha. Hard to stay away from these cars for better or worse. :woolery:

Anyways, this story of Miata ownership started about 4 months ago when I moved to Seattle from Chicago. Main reason for moving here was to take care of my dad. I was lucky enough to find another Lexus Dealership right away to start working at once I moved here. Moving is not cheap as we all know nor is medical bills so getting a Miata was put on hold for a little bit. I was pretty much 100% certain I wanted another Miata once I moved here seeing so many nice examples on craigslist. Those who dont know, Chicago uses salt on their roads in the winter and 90s Japanese steel does not react well with salt (rip rockers) So seeing so many rust free and good condition paint from the lack of Seattle Sun Miatas hovering around CL I knew I had to make my move!

I picked this car up 11/11/17 and I am now the third owner. The car was owned by two older ladies who were friends before I purchased it. Lady who sold me the car was extremely sweet and looked after her Miata very well. She told me she knew I was a perfect fit for the car and gave me an extremely good deal on the car at $2,250 with only 109k miles on the clock. Car is 100% stock besides a new headunit, luggage rack, and aloha floormats XD. I feel extremely fortunate to have stumbled upon this Miata in such great condition!




My plans for this car are to create a functional daily driver with occasional weekend autocross and track use. My plan of attack will mainly focus on interior first, then move to suspension brakes and wheels. Progress might not be as quick as I would like due to my other project car, but more on that car later! For now just ecstatic to be owning and driving a Miata again. I will update tomorrow with some pics of some parts that have already came in. Excited to be a part of CR and to meet and chat with you all!

-Jack

 

[Kayak Jack]

As I stated above, I planned on tackling some interior bits to prep the car. Though the stock interiors of these cars are designed very well, I figure I spend most of my time inside the car so making it visually appealing while being functional is important to me! I know quite a few people hate tan interior, but I really enjoy it.

For starters, picked up this used Buddy Club P1-Limited Edition from one of my IS300 buddies. I am a 32 waist and fit very comfortably in this seat. I absolutely love suede too so that is also a nice touch. Very comfortable seat that also has a great amount of bolstering so you don't fly around like the stock leather seats lol.


To keep the seat planted and secure, picked up a used PCI Adjustable Seat Mount off a member from Miata Club facebook. Usually I run Nagisa rails, but the price on this was too good to pass up.


I've had a large selection of steering wheels in all my cars over the years and I still cant for the life of me decide if I like a suede or leather wheel better. In terms of favorite wheel manufacture, I am impartial to Nardi. I have had this Nardi Personal Grinta 330mm sitting in my stash for a while now. Had this wheel in my first Miata so I've had it for a few years now. It saw brief use in my Lexus. Still need to source a hub going to get a Daikei one i believe. If anyone has a used one they would part with pm me!


Shift knob is another important interior piece to me. Did the preorder a few months back for the Garlido Beautiful Boy Racing shift knob. Great quality on the machine and it feels great too. Decent weight on it as well. Not a huge fan of the factory Nardi wood knob. It is kinda bulky and has no weight to it haha.


Next, I made a few small purchases from Garagestar. First being hardtop brackets (for the top I dont have yet XD) Then door bushings. I installed the bushings the other day and the car honestly feels less "flexy." Super easy installed just two ten mils per side.




Not a ton of stuff, but a good start nonetheless. Hopefully going to be ordering a roll bar soon or my friend who works at a great fab shop said he could help me out as well. Going to be ordering some new floor mats pretty soon here from Garagemoonpower. Also want some new gauges.

Also I threw the car up on my lift at work today and its spotless underneath. Super happy about that. Getting really excited to order more goods soon and move onto suspension. :smile:

 

[CollinMB]

Good purchases so far. You might want to get a short shifter to pair with that tall shift knob.

 

[Kayak Jack]

Good purchases so far. You might want to get a short shifter to pair with that tall shift knob.

I was planning on it! I did pick up a tomei shift knob last night that’s shorter.

 

[Grumbles]

Cool stuff. Do you have any wheel plans?

Edit: wait what happened to the black car?

 

[Kayak Jack]

Cool stuff. Do you have any wheel plans?

Edit: wait what happened to the black car?

Wheel plans will follow soon after suspension. I have some pretty cool ideas in mind but won’t spoil the fun just yet! Black car sadly developed a rod knock lol I don’t really have a place to swap a motor in my current living situation. So that car is just sitting at my parents place. Undecided what it’s fate will be yet. :dunno:

 

[Kayak Jack]

Today just did some simple cleaning up of the car and of course it starts raining after. But I got the interior looking really nice. Going to hand the car over to one of my detail buddies soon to really make it perfect though. Here is how the car sits as of now. Waiting for black Friday to get some good deals for the car. Probably will be buying FM V-Maxx XXtreme's and some other goodies then!


A couple small purchases for the car last week included floor mats from Garagemoonpower,


70mm Tomei Shift Knob, Feels better than the taller Knob I had in before with the oem shifter. Will probably put other knob back in once I get a short shifter.


And a kinda cool free item, a soft top cover for the rear parcel shelf. Not sure if oem or if I will ever even use it lol but nice to have I suppose.


Been loving daily driving this car much more practical to commute in than my other car. Was daily driving my IS300 I have setup for drifting so not super ideal as a commuter, but fun nonetheless! Still putting a lot of work into the Lexus so progress on the Miata wont be the quickest ever but no real rush considering the rainy wet winter of the PNW just started. Few pictures of the Lexus:


Red Miata behind in the last pic was roommate's car back in Chicago.

Hope everyone has an enjoyable Thanksgiving and safe travels!

 

[Grumbles]

**** mismatch RG is hot. so is that luggage rack.

speaking of rg

 

[Kayak Jack]

You are going to make me go broke. I’m okay with this.

 

[Grumbles]

:haiguyths:

I don't even have cool **** and I'm broke already.

 

[Kayak Jack]

To be fair I’ve never been cool ever so you are one step ahead of me ?

Ordered gauges from Adam at RevLimiter. In case you all haven’t seen, he is having a sale right now through the 27th! I also ordered a hub for my steering wheel no more bulky stock wheel soon yay!

Visit http://revlimiter.net/ for the sale.

 

[Kayak Jack]

So I have been MIA for a while, lots of rough spots in my life as of late. I lost my dad in April and he was my biggest inspiration. Shared the same love as I do for cars. He used to take me racing with him when I was younger in his Lotus Elise. As I got older and more experienced, we began sharing his BMW E46 M3 and tracking together. He eventually went on to become a BMWCCA Track Instructor. Miss him like crazy every single day. Finally feeling up for doing things that make me happy like cars again. Been putting in lots of work on the Miata to try and get to a track day or two before the mild Seattle winter hits.

 

[Kayak Jack]

Coilovers showed up in May and I installed them later that month. I purchased FM V-Maxx XXtremes for the car. Heard nothing but praise about them. I'am very happy with this purchase. Even on the stock balloon miata tires, it is not too bouncy and handles really well.


Also had a local guy parting out his NB and it happened to have a Harddog M2 Bar the exact one I was after so I could keep my glass soft top and eventually down the road get a hardtop. This was my third time installing a roll bar into a miata and it gets easier every time. Have to get a little creative with some of the drilling and re-routing the ABS sensor lines that my car has, but all in all very worth doing for the added safety and chassis stiffening. Plus rollbars look cool too.


Ordered some beautiful gauges from Adam @revlimiter.net. All the gauges looked great but these ones really spoke to me. Reminds me a lot of the gauges from older racecars. Install was incredibly simple thanks to Adam's clear instructions. Love how they look one of my favorite mods I've done yet. Need to do HVAC controls next!

Don't have any other pics of the interior but got my Bride seat in that I traded my Buddy Club for. Need to figure out a way to lower the seat some more. I'm not crazy tall (5'10") and with soft top up my helmet hits the roof. Anyone have suggestions on how to mount the seat lower I would be appreciative. I can get more pics of the interior if anyone is curious with the wheel, seat, and harness installed.

Now for some bad news. Two weeks ago my miata got backed into by my neighbors Nissan Frontier. Driver fender and door are trashed, but luckily I found a Montego door in good shape locally which I was nervous about. Also picked up a black NA fender in good shape. It will be painted this week or next.

Decided to also switch my focus from my Lexus over to the Miata for a bit and decided I should finally quit rolling around on the stock wheels and tires and upgrade to something much better. Tires showed up today and the wheels are scheduled to arrive on Saturday. Decided I would go with 225/45 15r Federal RS-RR's. Heard they were very good value for the money and I've driven a few drift cars with those tires up front for grip and they feel phenomenal. Excited for the wheels to arrive soon and will hopefully have them all mounted up next week!

 

[Kayak Jack]

Today cleaned up the interior and pulled the radio to redo the wiring and clean it up a bit. Also dropped the new fender off for paint. Will get that back soon so I can remove the backed into fender. I need to transfer the emblem onto the new fender once its painted or order a new emblem and apply it. Got a pic of the seat with the harness setup. Seat is also super comfortable so that is an added bonus. The bandanna is covering a small hole in the side bolster that I will eventually fix if i decide to keep this seat or not.


Also purchased a temporary front lip because I couldn't bear looking at the front anymore without one lol. Its an ebay garagevary rep and fitment is as you would expect with something that was barely 40$ shipped. Looks better than not having a lip at all though. Plan to eventually do a full R-Package lip kit.

(yes i know front plate has got to go lol)

Also ordered a few parts today as well that should be here within the next week.

 

[Kayak Jack]

Super exciting package to come home to. Even if it was guarded by 2 attack cats. Decided to go with the 6UL's because I've always loved how they looked on these cars. Also did not hurt the bank to bad and are extremely light. Recently learned they came in a new finish, TiO2, basically a very nice glossy white finish. I have always loved white wheels since seeing older touring cars with center locks.



Threw them on for a test fit and I love how it looks. Going to try and mount the tires and align it at work on Monday.


Also picked up my painted replacement fender. Montego Blue is truly a great color. Will get the car fully detailed soon.


Also completely random find at work, never seen it here before, cool little Eunos! GV tails and Work Equip 40's look pretty cool.

 

[Kayak Jack]

Got all the paintwork done on the car just need to transfer over the M Edition Logo. Paint turned out really good. Thought Montego Blue would be really hard to match. Most of the car is super dirty right now from all the forest fires and ash up here in the PNW so I need to give it a good wash ad get my DSLR out to take some pics. Also got my wheels and tires mounted and on the car. Love the new look so much. Had my detailing buddy use a compound called "wolfgang" to create a shield for the white wheels from dirt and brake dust. Apparently will just wash right off. Need to make a couple small tweaks and adjustments before I align it. Going to use SuperMiata's "Dual Duty" alignment specs to dial it all in. Still very much a streetcar so that seems like a good balance of street and track use.

 

[m00se]

Awesome colour combo! Great choice in parts, great documentation. Also cool cats and Lexus. More updates please!