Project Track Rat: 1990 Miata

[SlimKlim]

Redline is like 7,200 or something. Fuel cut is somewhere after that. The tach goes optimistic that high.

I like the sleepy eye concept but I think you'd be better served with them a touch more open. They look sorta broken right now.


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Yeah I agree, I can tweak it every time so I'll get it where I like it. I'm not planning on running them just yet, the rest of the car is too stock, but when Its rocking nice wheels and a good ride height, it'll look pretty sweet.

Congratulations you ghetto modded to put a ghetto looking mod on your car. Sorry hate it.

I'm crushed. Lucky for you, you don't have to drive it huh?

[Scott]

and what is the function of the sleepy eyes on a "track" car?

[Sully]

and what is the function of the sleepy eyes on a "track" car?

Ram Air :evileye:


My 240 had a similar mod from the previous owner. It fits on the 240 becasue its the JDM ricetastic scene bro.And I did rock it occasionally but never really thought it made the car look better. I'm undecided on how I feel about it on a Miata and especially on a track Miata but it makes it yours and as long as you like it. I do agree with Jake though, need moar open. Looks dead rather than sleepy.

I still like this miata mod:


oh yea and:

[Jeff]

I dunno. I think the lazy headlamps make it look broken. I though about putting them on my 91' Lebaron convertible (man that was a trend in the late 80's early 90's huh?) but never got around to it. I always wanted to switch to two motors so I could make it wink. The Lebaron has one common motor behind the hood striker.

[Scott]

Looks like a great way to screw up your Aero.....

[SlimKlim]

and what is the function of the sleepy eyes on a "track" car?

There is no function. But it cost me $4 and I like it.

According to the guys at m.net having the barn doors open reduces under hood temperatures, and they do the sleepy eyes because they don't like driving around with the lights wide open all the time.

I dunno if it's true, I don't care. It's a track car that I still plan on hopping into and buzzing around town, and when I do I'll rock my sleepy eyes. It was cheap, and took almost no time. And it irritates DJ, its the perfect mod!

[SlimKlim]

The rubber on the door trim was all dried out and nasty. Replacements are relatively expensive, so I went the cheap route and painted them.

[SlimKlim]

Hory Sheet!! Are those some donk ass rimz?!?!?! Why yes good sir, I believe they are some donk ass rimz.





Back about a month ago some guy came and bought Jake's stock style 5's for a Spec 3 race car. Started chatting with him and found out the reason he was building a Spec 3 is because he crashed his spec Miata. Oh rly? Told him about my plans for mine, and he said he had a set of TRM C1s, but one was broken. Had basically new Kuhmo XSs wrapped around them. He wanted $280 for all of it, and a new wheel from TireRack was $89. So fast forward a few weeks and when that wheel finally makes it off the slow boat, and here we are.

Judging from how bad the wheel was busted up, that was defintely the blow that killed his miata, and they were still caked in some good ole VIR mud. Thanks to David L. for letting me use his driveway to clean them up. I put a couple coats of sealant on them to hopefully keep the dust from eating in, and bolted them on.

Now for price sheet update:
Total cost to get the car on the road so far:
$500 Purchase
$146 Parts
$ 45 Title
$ 54 Moar Parts
$ 25 Fluid
$ 80 Tools (I actually spent more but I'm returning about $60 worth, you could argue that tools aren't part of the cost, but its the cars fault I went and bought em)
$ 45 Tags+ Registration
$ 31 Front Brake Calipers
$280 3 wheels and 4 tires
$104 New wheel with shipping
$ 26 Mount and Balance

Total Cost: $1,336

I look at it and think it doesn't look like much with its rust and rattles, but then I remember how much I've invested, and with a professional rust repair, I could more than make my money back. Then I think it looks pretty tits.

Since I have way more time than money right now, the next step in the project is to polish it, paint the rockers back to the correct color, slow down the progression of the rocker rust, restore the top and polish out the back window, keep cleaning up the interior a little bit and just drive it.

If I scrape up a couple hundred bucks and spot a good deal, I'm going to jump on a set of used coils and sways for it. Hopefully I can get that done by September and the car can do its first every autox in its entire 21 year life at the College Invitational.

However, every month it seems like I find a new bill to pay on top of my expensive ass apartment, and my amount of free cash gets smaller and smaller. So we'll see how it goes.

[SlimKlim]

Just got back from the gas station to put my second tank in it.

I drove 345 miles, and refilled it with 8.17 gallons, meaning 42mpg! Which would mean I have the most fuel efficient 1.6L on the planet. Something can't be right, I thought I reset the trip within a couple miles of getting gas, but maybe not. I reset it at the pump today, so in a couple of weeks when it needs to be refilled again, I'll report back. :lol:

It's definitely in the mid-high 30s though, and that's me driving it like I'm mad at it about 100% of the time, because it's balls slow.

[JustinG]

nice, some eerily similar looking rimmzzzz should be on my porch Tuesday.

[SlimKlim]

Goodspeed would be proud of me. Today I stayed home from an autocross so I could paint the rockers back to the correct color, help the rust fall the rest of the way out, do a two stage polish, two coats of sealant, clean and recondition the top, and put some sweet ass tire dressing on. This is what I started with:



It was very hard to photograph because 1. Red photographs well. (Pro-tip, if you want your car to look nicer than it actually is when you try to sell it online, make sure it's red.) 2. I had it up on jack stands to make it easier and I wasn't taking it down to roll out into the sun and take pictures.

I polished with a borrowed 6" Porter Cable DA, coarse and fine foam pads, and a good intensive polish and fine polish for the seconds step. I spent about 90 minutes doing the first stage, and maybe 45min to an hour on the second. Then I applied two coats of sealant and conditioned the top, cleaned the windows, dressed the tires and did some other little stuff while I let it haze.

Then I pulled it into the sun to show it off.











Then I pulled it right back into the garage. What am I gonna do, drive it? Pfft.

Its kind of hard to show the change, and as hot as it was, documenting the process was not my first priority. Its definitely not on Dan's level or anything, but it'll certainly do for my purposes. There are some small clearcoat scratches that were a little stubborn, and because it's not the original paint, there are a lot of little imperfections. A couple of runs, spots that look like they used to be fisheyes but were mostly polished out, etc etc.

Next steps while I continue to save up money for suspension are to assemble my homemade intake, continue cleaning it up a little bit, throw a home depot lip on it and some other small stuff.

[Kaan]

We saw you drive by in the bimmer the other day... I was wondering where the miata was hiding.

paint it and park it!

[SlimKlim]

Tiny update. Did a "foamectomy" yesterday. Probably took 90 minutes all in all, you have to completely disassemble the seat in order to get in there. However, BEST MOD EVER for tall people in a miata. You sit in the car instead of on it. The metal support underneath the seat has a shovel shaped indent under the driver's posterior. I decided to just remove the foam that filled that indent. The result is a seat bottom that looks roughly the same but makes me sit about 2-3 inches lower in the car. If I lean my head back it actually touches the headrest. I also removed part of the center of the back, which gives me a few more inches of leg room, and makes the side bolsters actually bolster your side.

Another huge benefit is now if I end up installing a rollbar, I won't feel like I'm taking my life in my hands when I drive it with the stock seat, I can probably even get away with doing a couple of track weekends before I have to saddle up and do seats and harnesses.

[Jake]

The worry was if the top would keep most of the rain out, which it definitely will.

Not anymore. :dunno:

[Kaan]

Jake you quoted yourself.... I'm not sure how I feel about this

[Jake]

Jake you quoted yourself.... I'm not sure how I feel about this

Bored at work + reading project threads + update time.

Problem bro?

[Ken]

going to have to agree, it's like "liking" your own status.

[Kaan]

someone write this down! we agree!