'94 Miata resurrection

So, I bought a Miata today. It is "totaled" but the damage isn't that bad. It seems to have a bent radiator support and damage every body panel forward of the windshield. Also, while the top is not the worst I've seen, the plastic back window is shot.

However, the engine runs, the clutch is good, the car is still in alignment, the transmission shifts well, there is not that much rust and it has a Torsen LSD, so I went for it. I can always sell the Torsen swap for pretty much what I bought the car for.

The first order of business will be to strip off the busted body panels and find new ones. Until then, it will sit under a tarp.

Serendipity: as luck would have it, I have a set of 15" BBS basketweaves from a BMW I used to own. The center bore will be a bit too big, but they are 15x7 rins.

I never saw these wheels on a Miata before. They're alloy and apparently factory- only 14s, though.

Mx-3 wheels perhaps?

When I lived in Raleigh I constantly hit up the LKQ's in Durham and Clayton. They usually have 1-2 Miatas at a time. Barely missed a hardtop there one time. Pulled a couple of Torsen swaps there for around 150 bucks each. Sold them and made big profits for my Miata.

There is a guy in Apex that parts out Miatas, but he has generally high prices and won't negotiate.

Brett_Murphy wrote: I just got a line on Mazdaspeed shocks and springs, plus a 23mm front swaybar. I know EvanB is running the shocks/springs on his car, but is the swaybar worth it or is that just asking for understeer? $300 for everything with 50k miles on them.

$300 is the going rate for the shocks & springs, the swaybar is icing on the cake. Get an ebay coilover kit and some bumpstops and you'll be golden.

There was a ninja edit here, I moved it to EvanB's thread since he is running it. Thanks for the reply, I think the guy sold them, though.

The car arrived home today at lunch time.

It was garage kept, so I think I am going to have to cover it with a tarp to keep water out due to the condition of the top until I can get that fixed.

Or just pull the drain plugs in the floorpan and let it ride

Mazdaspeed suspension is long gone. I'll keep what I have for now and work on getting the car drivable.

You should keep an eye out for another set of the MSM suspension setups. I was going to put those on my car until I heard they can raise an NA by up to 1.5". This would be ideal for rallyx.

"Up to" being the keyword here. I've had MSM suspension on my NA for a little while and I don't think it got raised by that much.

I didn't notice any raising of my Miata from stock to MSM suspension.

They are the longest shocks available for the Miata though so a good option if you want to have them revalved.

Ehhh... if I was really motivated I'd look them up on Mazdaspeed and see if they are still available. Maybe tomorrow. I am stuck at work and I'm getting pretty tired.

Oh, my. I found an FC RX-7 GXL with a clutch LSD in it at the LKQ. I am thinking that that might be better for rallycross than the torsen.

There is an established swap for this conversion. I figure at the worst if it doesn't work out, I have an RX-7 LSD to sell.

The rx7 lsd works great for me. Shimmed with beer cans for extra awesome.

I pulled it, and someday I'll tear into it to see what the clutches look like. I should do it before the end of the year so I can get my $30 core charge back.

Do body panels count towards the $2014 budget if I replace the banged up originals with used originals?

I would assume so.

Guess I will have to do it on the super-cheap, then. That might involve banging the driver fender mostly straight. Since the hood is aluminum, I'm on the hook for one of those.

Luckily, LKQ has 50% off sales.

I had a dream that I did a RENESIS conversion on this thing today. Aside from the huge amount of fabrication required, I don't know how to get an aftermarket ECU to run it for an inexpensive price, so that will probably be forever a no-go.

Maybe I'll join Dollraves and the others in doing a regular 13b swap.

So, this car is going to be going away on Friday. I spent today pulling the radio and the Hard Dog bar out of it.

My wife pitched in getting the roll bar out- I think it is possible doing it solo, but I really didn't want to continue down that path after 5 minutes of trying.

Next thread: the 2000 Special Edition.