Whole lotta Miata

[Jake]

The metallic rattle is probably a loose heat shield above the exhaust. Ignore it until it bothers you more.

The foamectomy is super easy and helps a LOT with taller people (aka: you) fitting in the car.

I believe the headlights have adjusters so you can fix how it sits. If you fix the front and then the back is sticking up or down a bit, just grab the headlight cover (the painted part) and give it a push or a tug. They get bent because mechanics will lean on them while working under the hood.

[SlimKlim]

Woot! Nice little car, glad to see you diving in head first.

[Evan]

The issue you'll encounter with the 14" wheels is that it's impossible to get good tires for them now.

Falken Azenis come in 14" , about $75 each shipped.
Great grippy tire.
not a soft comfy sidewall by any means, but its a great track and autoX tire.

[D_Eclipse9916]

The issue you'll encounter with the 14" wheels is that it's impossible to get good tires for them now.

Falken Azenis come in 14" , about $75 each shipped.
Great grippy tire.
not a soft comfy sidewall by any means, but its a great track and autoX tire.

yeah... back in the stone ages :wink: Street tires have come a LOOOONNNGGG way since the azeni.

The RE71R (200TW) "street tire" was pulling 1.9 second 60 foots on a 2008 Corvette Z06 this past weekend at the Pro and stated by multiple pro-hoosier people that the tire isn't much off a BFG R1S/Hoosier A6 in lateral grip.

[Senor_Taylor]

Well, the foamectomy was a success. I took about 2 inches of foam from the bottom and an inch from the back. I probably could have done more, but I didn't want to ruin the seat. You can't even tell I did it since I took the foam from the underside. The bucket was SUPER rusty, which concerns me. Overall, my knee just barely hits the bottom the steering wheel with my biggest tennis shoes on, so I think I can live with it. Definitely feels tighter around my back since the bolster things hug me more now.



I took this entire bump off and a little more.









The window regulator is as bad as I suspected. The cable snapped and there's really no repairing that without a lot of trouble, so I took everything out and kind of reconfigured it with the unbroken parts so I can pull the cable out through the door to raise the window then tie it somewhere to keep the window up. I can now roll the window about halfway down. I guess that's better than nothing. I have to leave the door panel off to be able to use the window so I need to decide between three options:

-Leave it this way with no door panel and a half working window.
-Put the panel back on and just leave the window up
- or lastly, drop $80 on a new regulator and have everything right



I also got the headlight a little closer to flush. I pulled really hard and it gave a loud "POP" and snapped up a little. It's still not perfect.
Also called the junkyard near my house. One miata but there's almost nothing left of it. No regulator, so I doubt anything else I need is on it. May swing by later.

[navin]

Looks like a good day to remove that god-awful pinstripe :o

[SlimKlim]

I vote for Option #4, find a parts miata somewhere with a window that still rolls up and steal the guts from it for way less than $80. It's going to get really annoying having no panel or a non functioning window.

[V1GiLaNtE]

I vote for Option #4, find a parts miata somewhere with a window that still rolls up and steal the guts from it for way less than $80. It's going to get really annoying having no panel or a non functioning window.

These things have to be dime a dozen in the JY and CL right? :dunno:

[Senor_Taylor]

Is the pinstripe that bad? I don't mind it.

I've been looking around for a used regulator, trust me. I have one more junkyard to check. I'll head to Lynchburg now and look.

[SlimKlim]

Is the pinstripe that bad? I don't mind it.

Yes, kill it. Kill it with fire (hairdryer).

[ViPER1313]

Is the pinstripe that bad? I don't mind it.

I've been looking around for a used regulator, trust me. I have one more junkyard to check. I'll head to Lynchburg now and look.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://car-part.com">http://car-part.com</a><!-- m --> - most junk yards will gladly ship the part to you for a small cost.

[Kaan]

with rust like that on the bucket... I'd be worried about your floor boards.

[Senor_Taylor]

Went to the other junkyard in the area and trolled around for an hour. Found the ONLY Miata there and literally everything was on it except the regulators. It was an 1.8 liter. Grabbed a glove box (which didn't fit) and the passenger side speaker. Put that speaker on my driver door and moved my crappy, but working driver door speaker to the passenger side. They sound honestly pretty good now. Awesome.

Current on the left. Junkyard on the right.



Then I looked through 20 old Tarauses and all of the airbag module were gone until I found a 94 with one. Ran the part number and it came back with the part number of a 93 airbag module, which doesn't seem right. I figure I'll use the rest of the day to try to wrangle this other module in and see if it works.

P/N F2df14b056ae


P.s. Fuck batteries in the trunk. Accidentally grounded my wrench about the trunk frame when I was taking off a terminal. Hope I didn't fry all of my electronics. Definitely fucked up my wrench.

[Jake]

Hahaha re: trunk battery and wrenches. I've done that so many times. Car should be fine.

The entire dash changed in 1994 with the 1.8L update so that's why the glovebox won't fit. You can bolt up the entire NA8 interior (or NB interior, yes really) to your NA6 but it's pretty much an all-or-nothing affair.

Pretty sure the undersides of my stock seats looked similar, too. It's untreated metal (or poorly treated) and in an open-top car that has more than likely been rained in repeatedly. My car was caught with the roof down in thunderstorms at least three or four times during my ownership.

[SlimKlim]

I lit my 325i trunk carpeting on fire once. Thought the sub amp wire (dat late 2000s stereo scene doe) didn't have the fuse in it. It did. 8 gauge power and ground wires touched. Carpet burned. I screamed.

I also have a nice chunk of a wrench missing from doing something similar, and I once blew my ass clean off of my Saab because the ground wire slipped up and hit the battery terminal while I was making full bodily contact with the power wire/engine block.

I'm slightly more cautious now.

[Senor_Taylor]

Can someone please tell me how to get these blue and orange connectors off?

[JPolen01]

My car was caught with the roof down in thunderstorms at least three or four times during my ownership.

Ahhh one being that 33w cruise with me and Andrew in his topless miata as well. Good times.

[Senor_Taylor]

Got the airbag module disconnected and tried to plug the one I bought in. The plugs look EXACTLY the same, but they won't fit into each other. Oh well. I buttoned up my beautiful POS and parked her for the day. Looked at the link Viper posted. Closest is 200+ miles away. I'll send out some e-mails once I recheck my budget to make sure I can afford to order one, haha.

Today's conquests:
Foamectomy
"fixed" driver side window (still doesn't stay up all the way. Gap between window and roof)
Headlight is better
Speakers now work
Back is now broken from laying under dash/on the ground for hours.

Maybe I can sell this glovebox and make some of my money back.

[Jake]

FYI "Viper" is Adam.

[navin]

Are these decent prices for the airbag module?

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.XF2df14b056ae.TRS0&_nkw=F2df14b056ae&_sacat=0">http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R4 ... e&_sacat=0</a><!-- m -->

Can always try the lowball Best Offer feature and see if you get lucky. Also, just if you aren't already doing this, unplug the negative battery when messing with the SRS / electrical components on your car.