The Reemergence: Miatapasta's new beginnings

Parts list: Current as of 5/31/17 for those of you who are curious. The car's story is below the parts list.


Exterior
-Kirker single stage white paint (link)
-House of Grafx stripes & meatballs (custom dimensions) (link)
-Chaparral 15x7 +38 wheels (with 20mm H&R Trak+ spacers)
-OEM hardtop
-DIY fender winkers made from spare parts (link)
-Universal bullet mirrors on the fenders w/ convex lenses (link)
-Genuine Garage Vary panel w/ reverse light deleted (link)
-Corvette C3 lenses w/ JDM ASTAR brand LED bulbs retrofitted (link)
-S2 Racing front bumper (link)
-Rear bumper cutout
-Front & rear red tow hooks
-Complete LED conversion w/ modified OEM flasher (prevents hyperblink)
-Amber underglow wired to blinker circuit (total ricer move, don't care lol) (link)
-Center exit dual tip exhaust
-Antique Vehicle Ga. license plate (vehicles >25 years qualify)
-Dodge Challenger fuel cap (link)

Interior
-Custom upholstered tombstone, center console, & crash pads/upper door pads (link)
-Diamond stitched door panels
-Discontinued (?) Moss Motors teardrop speaker panels
-Pioneer Bluetooth head unit
-Kicker 6.5" door speakers
-DIY switch plate below radio (link)
-Customized IL Motorsports center console (link)
-Completely DIY gauges & cluster (link)
-Eclipse vents with retrofitted bezel chrome trim rings
-04 MSM seats (link)
-OEM EUNOS (JDM?) steering wheel
-Bandana used as shift boot
-Miata stitched floor mats

Motor/trans/cooling (including non performance parts)
-1995 OEM rebuilt 1.8 swap on 1990 1.6 chassis/wiring
-1990 1.6 5 speed OEM trans
-Race clutch (good up to 250 HP)
-Open diff (until it blows)
-1990 1.6 OEM ECU
-Minor shaved/tucked bay (link)
-LRB Speed upper radiator cooling panel
-Yonaka radiator & fan shroud combo (link)
-LRB Speed lower radiator cooling panel (link)
-DIY spark plug cover (link)
-Protege valve cover, powder coated wrinkle red/prismatic gold (link)
-Shaved intake manifold, powdercoated prismatic gold (not installed yet) (link)
-OBX header, new catalytic converter, Racing Beat muffler, center exit dual tip exhaust (link)
-Garage star windshield cowl cover, tucked/hidden clutch & brake booster lines (link)

Parts deleted / nominal weight savings
-AC system & belts
-Cruise control
-Spare tire
-Power steering (FM depowered rack)
-Windshield wipers/motor

Suspension & wheels
-Dunlop Direzza 205/50/15 tires
-Silver Chaparral wheels, 15x7 +38
-H&R 20mm spacers (effective wheel offset 18mm)
-Tien Basis coilovers
-Autocross alignment
-Poly bushings w/ zerk fittings
-OEM swaybars

And the "soon to come"...
-Coolant reroute (being installed currently)
-Flow Force 660 CC injectors (purchased, not installed)
-NB throttle body w/ TPS (soon to come)
-DIY PNP Megasquirt (purchased, not installed)
-BRP MP62 supercharger kit (purchased, not installed)
-DIY front splitter for S2 bumper, plus DIY side splitters & rear diffuser (have materials, need to make)
-Shaved intake manifold (being installed currently)


Prologue

A long time ago, there was a guy, fresh out of high school, working at a fast food joint, and driving a sweet 4.6l V6 powered Ford Aerostar in the classic 90’s faded red color which he hauled all his skateboard buddies around town in. He loved that van.



But bad times hit, the old horse had to go, and his folks handed him down the epitome of all soccer mom vans – their ‘97 Ford Windstar. Something like this, but imagine in baby blue.



Don’t get him wrong, he was thankful for the car. Never put down a gift horse, as his dad taught him. But he was getting older and it was getting to the point where he needed something of his own. He really wanted an older VW Bug, but all of the ones he found in his price range were either old rust buckets or half running paperweights. So the plans of a chopped-top, flat black, pinstriped and smoothie-wheeled Beetle went to the wayside as he kept working marginal hours at his fast food job to afford a car in the $3,000 range while still going to college. Two years of hard work and saving up brought him to “that day.”

“That day” was a normal day, browsing Craigslist, sadly contemplating the boring sedan on his screen. He remembered sitting in his dad’s old Triumph TR250, watching the road go by through the rust holes in the floor pans as an eight year old little kid.

This is him as a kid in the driver’s seat, with his little brother standing next to it.



Maybe it was nostalgia, as the car had been sold long ago, or maybe it was just how cool he thought that car was. Regardless, a switch flipped and he typed in ‘Miata’ into the search bar. The first result was a bunch of grainy pictures of a stock, two-owner, 1990 white model with 78,000 miles. He met up with the guy in the next town over and bought it the next day, not knowing a thing about Miatas…or stick shifts...or cars at all, for that matter.

That was five years ago, and that guy was me. Since then, it has gone a long way from the peeling 90’s paint and trashed soft top. Of course, since I bought it when I was young (19), it went through a bit of an immature stage…the remnants of which still reverberated for much, much longer than I’d like.



It seemed like for each ‘stage,’ I got it almost right and then went something went wrong. You know, it’s interesting, really – I’ve been influenced by old, old vehicles my entire life. Of course, there was the TR 250. My neighbor has a really nice older Charger and the roar of a V8 has always been a part of my childhood. My dad and I also worked on replica Whizzer motorbikes when I was younger, running them until the cheap motors popped and a new one came in the mail. Then he got into motorcycles, and eventually got a genuine 1947 Whizzer his friend sold to him as a rust bucket with a seized engine, so my dad did a complete nut and bolt restoration on it.



I’ll try to get more pics of the thing, it’s actually really neat.

So because of my background of older things, I had always pined to draw from their influences. I couldn’t let go of the founding fathers of automobiles; yet here I was, driving a Japanese import, the likes of which I swore to never drive when I was younger. I tried to mix new and old. I really did. Yet I was still young back then, and always managed to mash up new and old in some sort of terrible way - hence me almost getting it right, and then a few bad decisions would throw the whole thing off. Case in point…



I realized not too long ago that I just needed a blank canvas again. To start fresh. Although throughout the years I had always been thoroughly enjoying the car as it was meant to be...











It just wasn’t sitting well with me, knowing that it could be living out its true potential.
On a whim last year, I tore the whole car down to bare metal, stripping off ye olde paint and giving myself the blank canvas I’ve needed for so long. I thought it would be a weekend project – prep Friday, prime Saturday, paint Sunday…but what resulted was a nearly yearlong learning process in the world of rolling restorations.

Chapter 1 – a reboot

I wasn’t happy with the way the car had turned out before I started taking the paint off, nor was I happy with myself. Let me clarify. I was completely happy with how I was coming along as an emerging adult: 24 years old, starting my student teaching, finishing college, graduating in May 2015 with a degree in secondary English education (which means I’ll be teaching high school literature), a successful two-and-a-half-year long relationship with a wonderful woman (which is still going strong – she’s ahead of me and teaching middle school now), a strong interest in science and astronomy, and a steady job suitable for a college schedule (the job, mind you, is not the same fast food gig). I have two best friends, and of course, a car which I bought under my own financial power. I have a strong dislike for the typical younger attitude of today and much prefer quiet nights with my girlfriend and our cat, or hanging out with my two best friends and talking smack about each other while playing Tekken 3 on the arcade machine.

It was my online persona that was lacking, really. I know it sounds silly, but in today’s digital world, your online presence holds almost as much weight as your physical presence. As I said, I was young when I bought the car, and young when I joined CR. I was trolled left and right because let’s face it, I was kind of dumb. As I matured in reality, I still had ripples from the younger frame of mind from “those days” of sitting on hoods and it showed just a tad too much for my liking. I asked the mods to change my username and shed the tired old screen name that I’d used out of force of habit since 6th grade (I know right!).

I also took a bit of a break from forum posting as I worked on restoring the Miata. With that aside, I’d like to present the fruits of my labor. This experience has been one of the most fulfilling experiences outside of school that I’ve ever had – from trying my patience in the garage to looking back at the car every time I park it, I am glad I put myself through this.