[Bryan]

Fun

 

[Grumbles]

finally repainted and resealed the calipers with por15 caliper paint. one of the rear calipers was going to be too expensive to repair so im buying a remanufactured one as i type this out. need/want to find a set of new banjo bolts and crush washers to finish these off but rebuilding these has been a chore and im dying to just get the car on the fucking ground. i have a spring break coming up, and i have a small laundry list of stuff to do:

-install fresh brakes and bleed
-car desperately needs an oil change
-roll fenders
-buy 3 more tires and mount to mkiii
-bolt in my frame rail braces
-bolt in my joyfast exhaust
-put zeta in
i ran out of money so the car is going to sit until i get a job once i get all my stockpiled parts on it

 

[Bryan]

"Sit" as in "not be driven" or "no more new fun parts"?

 

[Grumbles]

planned to finish the brakes on the car but rockauto royally fucked up my order so that didnt happen this weekend. got all the calipers on and halfway rolled the fenders, and got my tires exploded on. the tire machine took bites out of the rear of my spokes which i should be more mad about

 

[Bryan]

WTF on the wheels...

 

[Grumbles]

WTF on the wheels...

yeahhh im just convincing myself that they were damaged before from bad brake clearance, i can't get too mad that way i guess

 

[Grumbles]

bled the brakes today and was able to pull the car out of the garage for a couple photos. rear wheels hit the brake calipers a little bit still but i think i can just file down the caliper at those points. replaced all swaybar endlinks too. still have a small oil leak somewhere after replacing the oil cooler o-ring. as long as the leak is coming from a gasket i havent already replaced, i'm not too upset.

 

[Grumbles]

car is pretty much an alignment away from being drivable, next step is clutch/seals and then i think it's ready for some body work.

 

[berrie]

v v good

 

[davemx-5]

Love the new wheels! Where did you pick up the Mazdaspeed lip? Was on the look out for one for years but never see them come upe for sale.

 

[Grumbles]

got car aligned and put the bucket in. wheels still rub up front at lock and compression but the car looks cool and drives okay. scrapes a good amount but its fine on decent roads.

 

[berrie]

i still can't get over the height. or like the whole car. damn.

 

[Bryan]

That height and camber ain't my gig (I've got enough anxiety about noises I didn't create), but you do you.

 

[Grumbles]

went for a drive yesterday and car sputtered out and died after having a weird idle hang, high idle, and chaotic tach needle. limped car home and stuck a paper clip in the diagnostics box, not surprised when i saw the igf signal fault. ordered new coils (and o2 sensor for my already-existing CEL) and that should fix my problem.

 

[Grumbles]

with the car broken, i decided to just bang out the whole clutch job while fixing the car. for me, this included:

-exedy clutch
-10lb fm flywheel
-rear main seal
-new ignitor/coil pack
-replaced ecu as mine was erratic
-joyfast exhaust/cat/maxim header
-scrub every ground
-new NA starter
-other **** i cant think of right now


once installed I realized the header leaked severely from the flex pipe, and my welder happened to screw up when replacing it. n/a-than was coming up to wisconsin for final bout this last weekend and i wanted to have the car drivable, I lucked out and was able to source an oem header and na8 cat the night before he visited. was super cool to have him take photos of my car. i also realized i still have an oil leak coming from the bac of the engine, i guess my oil pan seal is toast since i only replaced the rear main. i've taken the enlightened road and choose to ignore that for the time being. I also managed to break off a transmission bellhousing bolt when torquing everything back together even though i only had my wrench set to 60 ft/lb.

beyond these issues i am enjoying the car, it sounds cool and looks pretty cool aside from the paint. hopefully i can land a job since ive recently graduated and keep up this progress.

nathan took a couple cool pictures, i will post the high res versions of what he took whenever i get them. i would like to get stiffer springs eventually to improve drivability at this height.

cold video of the joyfast catback literally 10 seconds after starting the engine:

 

[Grumbles]

nathan photos, thank you so much

 

[berrie]

fckn

güd

 

[Grumbles]

replaced the coolant tank due to some cracks forming, did some other stuff, spray painted and forced the lip on to see if i like it. i think it looks pretty cool even though it fits terrible. probably gonna start working on paint prep next week. heres some pictures because whatever.

 

[Grumbles]

had to replace the coil pack again (?) after like 450 miles, both driveshafts are throwing grease everywhere, and te car is still not painted. has been running pretty good recently, it developed a leak at the cat and decided to give my test pipe a try. it sounds really cool but im pretty sure the carbon monoxide was getting to me yesterday. i moved into a new house that has a one car garage, but some wheel dollies let me push the miata up against the wall sideways. i think it looks cool because my brain is broken.

car is probably done for the season. over the fall/winter i am going to replace the driveshafts and start working on the bodywork prep. hopefully i can get a real job soon to expedite this build, i would like to be drifting a single color car come summer 2022.

some noise

 

[99blkx]

I think you mean axles rather than driveshafts. Will make your shopping efforts easier. I hated how my car with a test pipe smelled and sometimes it made me nauseous. Do not recommend.