Project: 1995 Miata

[Jake]

Update here... suspension still rocks my socks. Very fun at autocross. Chris and I managed to cord the R-Comps (which were free) so I'm back to street tires for the foreseeable future. No big deal.

Also purchased a subwoofer from DJ's friend, so I now have massive amounts of oontz-oontz. It's a 10" Infinity Basslink, which is self-amped. Easy install since the Miata has the battery in the trunk and a tunnel leading through to the cabin, right behind the spare tire. Now I'm "that guy" who rolls up to a stoplight and annoys the old lady in the Buick with my excessive bass.

[caa337]

Dammit wish I coulda had the money to get that for the Z. Oh well I'll get some bass eventually. Sounded good tho :thumbup:

[balactm]

jake, everything looks great! Why didn't you leave it slammed? I know that was a while ago, but it looked sooooo good low. I can't really tell much of a difference between stock height and what you have now...

[D_Eclipse9916]

jake, everything looks great! Why didn't you leave it slammed? I know that was a while ago, but it looked sooooo good low. I can't really tell much of a difference between stock height and what you have now...

He wants it to handle and ride the way the suspension geometry is designed to operate within? :dunno:

[Jake]

jake, everything looks great! Why didn't you leave it slammed? I know that was a while ago, but it looked sooooo good low. I can't really tell much of a difference between stock height and what you have now...

He wants it to handle and ride the way the suspension geometry is designed to operate within? :dunno:

Hellafunctional, bitches!

And I wouldn't have made it out of my friend's garage with it that slammed.


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[balactm]

jake, everything looks great! Why didn't you leave it slammed? I know that was a while ago, but it looked sooooo good low. I can't really tell much of a difference between stock height and what you have now...

He wants it to handle and ride the way the suspension geometry is designed to operate within? :dunno:

Hellafunctional, bitches!

And I wouldn't have made it out of my friend's garage with it that slammed.


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it didn't look that low....
I understand suspension geometry, i just didn't think it was that low. and i figured the flyin miata suspension was designed with lowering in mind...

[Jake]

it didn't look that low....
I understand suspension geometry, i just didn't think it was that low. and i figured the flyin miata suspension was designed with lowering in mind...

It is, and it's lowered about 1.5" from stock ride height. As it is, I can scrape on some things. Moar lowar would be disastrous. And look a little too rice for my taste.



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[Goodspeed]

it didn't look that low....
I understand suspension geometry, i just didn't think it was that low. and i figured the flyin miata suspension was designed with lowering in mind...

What you smokin' Willis??

[balactm]

touche goodspeed, although to be fair, the front doesn't look as dramatic as the rear. but i get the point. apparently i'm smokin crack...

[Jake]

Not much to update. The Miata has been running like a top, still. I pulled the JVC head unit and subwoofer and put them in the BMW. I still have a nicer H/U installed (some Alpine, thanks Tyler!) so my weekend drives and drives to track/AX events can remain filled with iPod/iPhone goodness.

The one Miata electrical fault on the NA is the power window switches. I recently experienced this when my driver's window refused to go up. Naturally, this started during the Monsoons of Virginia. It started out as a "takes multiple presses of the switch to roll up" problem, and then last night it gave out altogether.

Fortunately this is an easy fix. The issue is that there's no fuse between the windows and the switch, so all 12 volts of power is handled by the switch. This leads to carbon buildup on the contact points, at which point the switch can't make contact with the little points beneath it.

I removed the center console (five screws + shift knob) and then the window switch from the console (three more screws).



Then you un-clip the switch from the circuit board, while being careful to not break the brittle, old plastic tabs. Four little metal pieces will fall out. They are the contact pieces between the plastic switch that your finger presses, and the circuit board.

Here's what I saw when I did that:



Holy cannoli Batman. Some 400-grit sandpaper made quick work of cleaning things. I then lost one of the four metal pieces. I then found it. After testing, and re-testing, I finally re-assembled everything, and now the windows work again. Hooray!

There's something to be said for small, ten-minute projects that result in a feeling of accomplishment. Now off to burn down the Chapins' house.

[ScottyB]

holy crap are your windows diesel powered?! did you consider installing a fuse while you were at it? i mean, it lasted 16 years without one, but i was just wondering.

There's something to be said for small, ten-minute projects that result in a feeling of accomplishment.

i love that. :lol:

[Btothefnrock]

off topic a bit, but you (or anyone else on here) don't happen to have an extra NA power window switch do you? My car came with the switch apart, and is missing the metal tabs that rock to connect the posts, so I have to ghetto it with bits of wire right now.... lol

Guy is sending me a new switch, but its gonna be another 2 weeks or more, which kinda sucks...

[Jake]

holy crap are your windows diesel powered?! did you consider installing a fuse while you were at it? i mean, it lasted 16 years without one, but i was just wondering.

Some people apparently do install fuses. I was okay with just cleaning and re-assembling for now. Mainly because I didn't have a fuse within arm's reach of the car during the fix-it procedure :mrgreen:

off topic a bit, but you (or anyone else on here) don't happen to have an extra NA power window switch do you? My car came with the switch apart, and is missing the metal tabs that rock to connect the posts, so I have to ghetto it with bits of wire right now.... lol

Nope, I don't. I actually lost one of those posts for about 10 minutes this morning and had to consider my options. Speaker wire was one of them...

[Jake]

Because Rollbar!

After three years and countless "I will, soon!" empty promises to Maeng and others, I finally got a rollbar installed. Big thanks to the Zarellas for their help in the install process.

I drove down to Strasburg yesterday morning (had the bar shipped to Joe's work so I didn't have to transport it) and we started tearing the car apart. It's really not a hard install process, you just need to be patient. It took us ~5 hours, going slow and eating pizza.

To get started...

• Remove seats
  
• Remove carpet from behind the seats and where the top folds down
  
• Remove the metal cover on top of the fuel tank
  
• Jack up rear of car and remove both rear wheels and fender liners
  
• Remove plastic trim around seatbelts, then remove seatbelts
  
• Remove stock Mazda "bracing bar" behind seats

Then you place the bar in the car. There are three holes at each of the four mount locations. One of those three holes lines up with an existing hole in the car. You drop a bolt in there to line things up, then (gulppp) get out your electric drill and drill holes through your sheet metal for the other two. After you drill the holes, there are backing plates that go under the car to hold everything together.

After the bolts, you "only" have to reassemble the interior. This involves cutting part of the metal fuel tank cover, cutting the plastic around the seatbelts, and (if you choose) cutting the carpet to accommodate the bars. I need to cut my carpet still.

First impressions... The car looks far less girly and far more badass. About as badass as a Miata can. It makes the chassis a bit stiffer. It hurts if you lean back and smack your head on the bar. I need to get padding for the bar. Raising and lowering the roof can still be done from the driver's seat, but requires a good deal of contortion.

Only photo so far, will get some "finished" ones after work:

[D_Eclipse9916]

Win! So whens the first event

[Jake]

Win! So whens the first event

I can scrape together enough cash to Hyperdrive at VIR in two weeks

And the first full weekend WILL be in August at Summit. I'll eat Ramen for two weeks if that's what it takes. It's about damn time to drive this thing hard.

[Goodspeed]

So much win! Sorry I couldn't make it to the install, but I can't wait to see more pics. Nice work.

[Jake]

Okay, one shot of the rollbar with everything all installed:



In preparation for the Hyperdrive, I got a few things done this evening. Rotated tires front to rear, checked my brake pads for life (plenty left), and installed the bawlin' red tow hooks that I had kicking around. Got the hooks from Scott K. in trade for, uh, something a long time ago. I had to move my license plate over from the middle mounting location.

To do that, I retained the driver's side "baby tooth" and finangled a piece of metal in there, to which the plate is bolted. Hopefully it will stay together. As a plus, the radiator is now less blocked for airflow, so in this weekend's forecasted brutal heat, the car should stay cool.

Front:


Rear:

[V1GiLaNtE]

Very nicely done.. Looking forward to track pics.

[Scott]

Okay, one shot of the rollbar with everything all installed:

Needs padding asap.........