1995 Miata, Purchased 5/11/04; "C" Package with 77k mi., theft recovery insurance write-off, rescued via Mazda Recycling in Sacramento, missing items replaced with those from a '95 M-edition ... introducing, Black Diamond!
Pictures from the Ad:
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| Sizable dent on front fender, with some paint chipping in the crease. | Leather seats in pretty good shape. | Deep gouges on rear bumper. | New top with glass rear window. |
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| Another interior view. | Nice and clean engine compartment. | Only a few tiny dings on passenger side, not even visible in pictures. |
5/16/04:
| Patched the bumper gouges with bondo and primed. Came out pretty even, but still a bit of roughness showing through. Tough to get right with the countour of the bumper! I figure I'll have it professionally painted. |
| One of the BBS wheels was dented and wouldn't hold air, so I swapped over the wheels from the Protege (same size) as a temporary solution. But they ride so nice and look so aggressive, they might stay on a while. |
| Another picture of the bondo'd rear end and swapped wheels. Looks kind of rugged without the center caps. |
| Another shot of the "new" wheels. Love that Potenza RE730 tread! |
| Added some nice M-Edition door sill plates. |
5/19/04:
| Slight change of plan... I was told a professional painter would sand down my finish work, so I figured I might as well try a cheap fix and apply some generic gloss black spray paint ($0.94). Turned out surprisingly well. Not perfect by any means, but barely visible from 10+ feet away. We'll see how long it holds up. |
| Similarly, I dabbed some flat black paint on the chipped section of the fender dent. Does a reasonably good job of not grabbing attention (no longer a reflective blemish). The car's bound to get more dents over time, so it's just as well it isn't cosmetically perfect to start out. Less heartache later. |
| Ok, scratch the no-cap rugged look. Definitely better with them installed. |
| A happy pair of '95 Mazdas. |
| Another angle of the no longer as visible fender dent. |
| I was hoping the add-on honeycomb grill would show up here, but I'll need to try again with different lighting. Looks very aggressive. |
5/28/04 - Big project ... replaced the "barn door" headlights with Moss dual low profiles:
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| Before | |
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| Intermediate - one side done; note the dramatic visibility difference from inside |
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| After - installation was quite a chore, but adjustment of the bulb patterns was much easier than expected ... excellent light output! | |
5/28/04:
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| Also added a chrome/leather Moss Motors shift knob and Moss interior light kit (2nd picture; barely noticable with the camera flash at night) -- both work great |
6/21/04:
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| Added a cheap ($15) aluminum gauge bevel. Fit isn't perfect, but not bad considering the price. Gone (for now) is the cracked plastic clear cover. I later got a replacement clear cover and didn't want to break it opening it up to transfer over the aluminum bevel, so out of the car it (the bevel) went. |
7/10/04:
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| Added Konig Helium wheels and Bridgestone Potenza RE750 tires in 205/50/15. One of the '95M BBS wheels that came with the car was badly dented, so instead of replacing it, I sold the other three and that perfectly covered the new wheels and tires. |
8/20/04:
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| Added a stainless steel style bar. Love the look, but the fit is a bit tighter than I had hoped for raising and lowering the glass windowed top. Undecided if I'll keep it... This was the car's "registration gift" after a 3 month ordeal and two additional trips to California to get the paperwork sorted out. | ||
9/10/04:
| Cleaned the brake rotor rust and painted them silver with Rustoleum. Holding up just fine after 10+ months. |
4/12/05:
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| Paintless Dent Repair (driver's side fender and door) at the club's Tech Day. Pretty darn impressive work! Now to touch up the paint that was previously chipped away in the fender dent... Also, added a long-wanted chrome fuel lid. | ||
5/13/05:
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| Added a "Stiffy" front license plate bracket. Not quite as aesthetically pleasing as no front plate, but it sure beats the ugly factory bracket or blocking the grill's air intake, not to mention holding your breath every time a cop passes. Very nicely designed item, and not dependent on having the tie down hooks still in place like other similar brackets do. Also, the car is now sitting 1/2" lower after the TEIN Basic install, as evidenced by the wheel well gap in the second picture. |
5/17/05:
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| Installed the OEM rear lip spoiler; located on a white Miata in an Arizona junk yard; $120 shipped. It was in nearly mint condition -- too bad it was the wrong color. I attempted all the prep work and painting myself ... not perfect, but pretty good, all considered. (Par for the course with bodywork on this beauty.) I used a can and a half of Dupli-Color, part #88-01109, which as it turns out (the first can wasn't marked as such), is the color match for Mazda's "Brilliant Black," then followed it up with clear coat and rubbing compound, then polished and waxed. |
6/15/05:
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| Major Exhaust upgrade! A couple of guys in the club were parting with lightly used items, so I picked up a Jackson Racing 4-2-1 header and Flyin' Miata Dual Exhaust with resonated mid-pipe (and a non-resonated spare on its way). Amazing difference in sound and performance! Sounds beefier than some V8's and has noticeably more power and much faster throttle response than before. See the club write-up page Rod put together on the install. |
7/18/05:
| One more long-wanted item scratched off the wish list: Turn Signal Intakes, or TSIs. Just the left side in for comparative purposes. Should aid in engine cooling (better performance), but mostly just looks cool. Although, it does seem to have eliminated a daily start-up temperature spike. I lucked out and found a lightly used set of the newer style, already painted factory black. |
11/10/05:
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| Painted the brake calipers, using the Duplicolor kit ($15 at Walmart, Autozone, etc.). | ||
11/15/05:
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| Shaved and polished the rear lenses (side markers, tail lights, 3rd brake light). Before/After shots of the side markers ... not easy to take a picture of a reflector with a non-defeatable flash! |
11/22/05:
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| Installed the OEM front air dam ("lip spoiler" or "valance"). Finishes off the "soft chin" look quite nicely. |
11/30/05:
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| Added a MOMO Commando D-Cut steering wheel. A bit smaller than stock diameter, thicker grip with perfectly countoured hand positions, and more legroom below. Switched out the MOMO horn button with a hopefully less theft-visible/appealing Mazda one and covered up the MOMO logo on the spoke. Also finished installing and calibrating the real oil pressure sender and gauge and put the dash back together. |
12/24/05:
| Replaced the ratty old stock shift boot with a nice leather one from Auger Resources. Also replaced the slowly decaying Moss shift knob with a used one from a Mazda6. I modified the Mazda6 knob a bit, removing the large aluminum collar at the base that is too overwhelming for the small Miata interior. (Here's what it looks like with the aluminum collar.) |
3/27/06:
Zoom-Zoom! Bought and installed Adam Wolf's year-old BR Performance M45 Coldside supercharger kit.
| The obligatory "Before" picture. | |
| Somewhere around here, it dawned on me how big of a project this would be! | |
| Disassembly completed. Sure looks empty over there on the cold side with the intake manifold removed. Note the bulky, stock coolant overflow (bottom) and windshield washer (top of pic) bottles... At the same time, I decided to strip the non-functioning alarm system. I removed 5-10 lbs of wires, control modules, door lock actuators, and sirens, much of it intertwined with the ignition system. Probably not the wisest choice in the middle of a fairly major project, but it all worked out in the end. | |
| The hot side isn't exactly crowded now that the stock airbox is gone. | |
| See that oil pressure sender with the light green wiring plug smack dab in the middle of the picture? That's the part I contorted painfully over to get installed a mere two months ago, only to have it be laughably easy to access now that the intake manifold is removed. Sigh. | |
| Almost there! Manifold, blower, intake, and pulley/tensioner system all installed. I'd like to do up a NACA duct lid, but for the time being, the turn signal intake should provide enough cool air for the big K&N filter. | |
| I was going to relocate the charcoal canister over to the driver's side to make room for the intake, but I decided to try and make it fit just a few inches over from the stock location so as to avoid running all that hose over and back. Here you can see a top view of the clearance between the canister's hose and the blower belt. | |
| Here's where the coolant reservoir ran off to. I'm a bit nervous having the plastic bottle that close to the header (the coolant itself should be able to take it), but so far no indications of trouble... I even polished up the cruise control while I was over there. | |
| And that tiny little space in the upper left corner is where the washer bottle will have to go, but in slightly modified form. Here are a series of pictures of the Frankenstein mini-washer bottle, made entirely of panels cut from the stock bottle and a few different types of epoxy. The first picture is an intermediate one, and the final two are what it looks like after being installed on the car. The stock pump and mounting location were retained, as were the electrical connection and water hose. Pic 1, Pic 2, Pic 3, Pic 4, Pic 5, Pic 6, Pic 7, Pic 8. | |
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Recent "build thread" items:
Mods Completed:
Performance & Handling Stuff:Wish List Items:
| Former Member, Willamette Valley Miata Club |
