[chanathon]

That's one clean engine bay. Any specific degreaser/cleaner you use to clean in there?

 

[miatapasta]

Not that I know of. I think he used a pressure washer while the motor was out, so that took care of most stuff.

Greasemonkey: After you said something, I see what you mean. I'm going to tuck the bay some more and see how it looks after. I still kind of want some sort of neutral color like grey.

 

[shiz]

I'm glad Mike was able to get the engine stuff ironed out. I just reread your thread again and all your side projects is what made this build. The you have any good links that I can read up on and learn how to build LED light boards like you did for your rear tails? Looking at how you did that is inspiring to try my hand at it.

 

[miatapasta]

Nope, I basically just winged the whole taillight project one step at a time. I cut out a piece of plastic to hold two bulbs in place and soldered wires directly to the bulbs. Power wires go to the silver dots on the bottom; ground wire is soldered directly to the side.

 

[shiz]

Haha alright. Sounds good.

 

[Bryan]

Haha alright. Sounds good.

I'm curious, too. It'd be cool to do LED lights all around. Less likely I'll have to replace them.

 

[miatapasta]

Don't mean to sound snarky, but...

http://clubroadster.net/vb_forum/89...miatapastas-new-beginnings-4.html#post5384409



I can help to clarify anything of course.

With OEM housings you can just swap them out and add a resistor in the OEM flasher. I recommend JDM ASTAR bulbs.

 

[Bryan]

Don't mean to sound snarky, but...

http://clubroadster.net/vb_forum/89...miatapastas-new-beginnings-4.html#post5384409



I can help to clarify anything of course.

With OEM housings you can just swap them out and add a resistor in the OEM flasher. I recommend JDM ASTAR bulbs.

I'll look into it. Thanks

 

[miatapasta]

No problem, man. ^^^

I finished up my spark plug wire cover yesterday. I bought a "no parking" sign off eBay for $6 and will be using it as scrap metal for various plates and tidbits I'll be making in the future. The cover was made out of such. It is painted with SEM self-etching primer and the pinstripes are vinyl cut from Twisted Chrome. Go check out his site. It's pretty sweet.

For those of you wondering about mounting hardware, I used two M6x1.0 (I think that's the size, don't quote me) bolts, two washers, and a spacer in between.

Here are some various pictures of everything during the process. Hopefully this helps somebody. Total cost: $20 (most expensive part being the pinstripe sticker at $13.)

Sheet metal dimensions:

OEM acorn bolt vs. the new bolt length:

Hardware assembled:

Spark plug cover is ultimately sandwiched between the top washer and the spacer, as such:

Finished product. Painted, pinstriped, and the back end is bent up at 45 degrees to clear the wires. I rounded the two front corners because I thought it looks good, but I wouldn’t do it again because it looks a little off against the flat surface of the cam gear housing.

 

[miatapasta]

Supercharger update: been making it look pretty.

POR 15's metal prep solution, etching primer, then metallic gold paint. Used more scrap metal to make the black plate and stuck on an antique badge off eBay. Any idea where it came from? Seller thinks it's from the 30s.

 

[auburn]

Supercharger update: been making it look pretty.

POR 15's metal prep solution, etching primer, then metallic gold paint. Used more scrap metal to make the black plate and stuck on an antique badge off eBay. Any idea where it came from? Seller thinks it's from the 30s.

Any thoughts on doing a wiretuck? Even if not, that's an extremely clean engine bay you have. Can't wait to see what it'll look like with the gold supercharger in it. Beautiful.

 

[miatapasta]

^^ Thanks man. I too am stoked to see how the SC will look. I have ordered a second intake mani and will be shaving that down (smoothing casting marks, filling unused vacuum ports, etc.). It will be painted the same gold color so things are symmetrical. I am curious to see if gold intercooler piping will be too much, but we'll see.

But as for the wiretuck, yes, it is slow but sure. Here is the progress on the passenger side. The DS will be cleaned up with the deletion of the oem airbox and HID ballasts.

I like the fuse box in the bay, but the wires leading to it were pretty bad looking, so I made a cover out of 4" PVC pipe. A few holes were blocked off with sheet metal cut pretty flush. I am going to use smooth head carriage bolts painted white to visually delete the random holes left open. Still a work in progress, obviously, but thanks for the kind words.

And I took the top off yesterday. Loving the top down feel.

 

[miatapasta]

More financially bad decisions!

I have an S2 Racing bumper coming in from a friend of mine. I will be selling the modded OEM bumper to another friend of ours.

Stock photo:

The bumper itself:

A pipe dream is to run H4 headlights and projectors where the amber turn signals currently go, and then add in some blinkers in the vents down below. This will allow me to delete the entire headlight assembly. I have my eyes set on this race hood on eBay, and it not only allows more room for the supercharger blower (which I think I actually will need...), but it will also have the headlight lids already bonded into the hood itself. Then the bay will be extra tucked and empty!

Also, ordered a set of Flow Force 610cc injectors. These are the last missing piece of the puzzle before I can go and get the MS 1.3 tuned.

Did I mention I was shaving an intake manifold? Well, I am. Looking to finish it today and it'll be painted a bronze color soon.

Ghetto fabulous blanking plates, lol. One hole has a bolt inserted and JB welded in. The other has a metal plate covering the two holes and it too is JB welded in place. Hey, if it works, it works. The fuel rail and injectors actually hide this area of the manifold, so it won't even be able to be seen anyways.

Little details: Installed some Eclipse vents and a Challenger fuel lid.

Installed the trim rings on to the vents by doing some grinding.

Challenger fuel lid needed some grinding as well. One day, when I get the car repainted...again...I will weld in the outer trim ring to the body and have it paint matched. This way it will fill in the gaps on the side. The actual flip-up door part will remain chrome.

 

[miatapasta]

Nothing special...we have been entangled in the nightmare of using Homestar Financial as our mortgage lender and consequently firing them for being entirely incompetent. It's resulted in us living out of boxes while we beg the seller of the house we have our eyes on not to put the house back on the market while we look for a new and more reliable lender. We have since then managaed to find a very professional and experienced lender and she's getting stuff done. That's another story, though.

I guess I've just been tinkering with the small things while we've been living in limbo...

Added a bandana to cover the missing plastic cover thing. I actually kind of like it.

Also finished my shaved intake manifold project. The badge is a bicycle head badge off eBay.

What's not pictured is the new 4 wire O2 sensor I need to install so it's not running so dang rich (18mpg :haiguyths, the Flow Force 610CC injectors, and the variable TPS I need to install on the TB for the Megasquirt. I guess I'll update more once we finally get into this garage/house.

Re: O2 sensor -
If you ever install an OBX header and have a one wire O2 sensor, make sure you swap out the 1 wire for the 4 wire. The 4 wire has a built in heater to make sure it heats up to the necessary operating temp. Without doing this, your stock ECU won't get a good reading and will default to running way too rich. There are a multitude of guides online to help you swap over.

 

[GreaseMonkey2000]

Wow the intake manifold turned out great! The engine bay is going to look fantastic when you get everything installed! :icon_cheers: Excited that you are getting the mp62 installed as you had hoped for. Plans are great but they are so much sweeter when they 'pan out'.

 

[miatapasta]

Something wicked this way comes...

What is it?

It's an S2 Racing bumper! Too coooooool!

This piece has seen three different countries, and at least three owners before seeing me. The person who had it last unfortunately wrecked his car the day before he was going to put it on, but he made out really well on his part out and he got a ~250 HP MR2. Good for everyone!

Here's a stock photo just to show what they look like in a lighter paint scheme...

It's gonna sit like this for quite a while. I want to get a bunch of new body panels and have it all repainted one day. I'm so happy on this piece though! So glad to have it.



Also, I managed to test fit my blower the other day. I'm happy to say it fits on the motor, but it needs a bit more clearance under the hood.

I can do one of two things: cut the bracing away or buy a new hood. I think I'm going to go with the latter option. There's a cool hood made for V6/V8 swaps on eBay, but it will do for my car too I think.

Since the headlight lids come pre-molded into the hood, that gives me an idea to retrofit some projector headlights into where the turn signals are on the S2 bumper, and then put some amber signals into the lower vents. Time will tell. I'm getting ahead of myself though...I'm nowhere near installing the blower yet.

I'm off to go close on our house! Woo! I'll have a garage of my own in 45 minutes!

 

[miatapasta]

I have a garage now.

 

[onetwo]

A garage is the best mod ever. Congrats!

 

[miatapasta]

Not any update per se, but the ol' boy's going back to the shop.

TMP is gonna swap out my busted old Megans for some Tiens, plus do a new bushing setup and upgrade to 1.8 sport brakes. Why aren't I doing this myself if I have the skills, tools, and garage?

Cause I'm also picking up this from the shop owner as a new daily! Can't wait to go off-roading. AWD 2001 Outback. Auto & AC; perfect for daily duties while I make the Miata a better racecar.

 

[miatapasta]

I ordered a set of Land Rover Defender (?) beehive style lights because I wanted to swap the bumper's amber light housings out for clear ones.

However, the ones I got were plastic (not glass), and also did not have the nice chrome trim ring. (This is a stock pic for reference.) What to do?

Well, I looked back on eBay and looked up the markings on the original bulb: Lucas L594. Lo and behold, a few clicks later, I found the exact same glass bulb, chrome trim and all, but in a clear color. It's in the mail.

Now what do we do with all this extra stuff?

Cut it up!

I started by pulling the chrome trim ring off of the original lights...

Then I cut down the plastic lenses I got in the mail...

Here's a shot of all the carnage:

And hopefully, this will explain the madness...

Fender winkers!

The only clear set of the JDM/OEM fender markers I could find were $45 + shipping from Europe. I made these for ~$10.

I need to add a base, and then order some sockets so I can install some T10 wedge LED lights. The chrome ring will be polished here shortly. I was also able to sell the original glass amber lenses for about $25 on eBay, so it's a win-win.

It will be quite some time before these get installed. However, if you'd like to make the same lights, here is your shopping list:
1. Lucas L594 (or other beehive style) clear lenses. They need to be plastic so you can cut them down. Lucas lenses stick out too far from the body so they need to be shortened, and other beehive style lenses are too big in circumference.
2. Lucas L594 chrome trim rings. They sell the rings separate.
3. Clear adhesive to mount the ring to the lens.
4. Some form of base. I'm gonna use scrap plastic.
4. T10 socket + associated wiring.
5. T10 LED bulb. I have always used JDM ASTAR bulbs on Amazon. They can be clearly seen in daylight and aren't washed out by the sun.

Note: When you cut your plastic lenses, if you have the Defender/Rover lenses, notice that they have rings that create the beehive effect. You'll want to cut around the perimeter of the outermost ring. This will leave enough material for your chrome trim piece to be affixed to.

That's it! Have fun.