3M Headlight Restoration kit.
I was surprised that I was able to save the deeply scratched passenger side. Those scratches on the bumper went right across the light. It was much worse than it looks in the first photo.
3M Headlight Restoration kit.
I was surprised that I was able to save the deeply scratched passenger side. Those scratches on the bumper went right across the light. It was much worse than it looks in the first photo.
I'm a big fan of the 3M kit.
Just ordered a pair of Flyin' Miata sway bars.
I love this thread.
Go get'em Woody!
My truck has been at the Toyota dealer for a frame swap since the day after I brought this car home. I had completely forgotten about that, until I realized that I hadn't been to the gas station this week.
The car came with a broken tail light. I used red tape for a quick temporary repair but finally removed it today.
The only affordable replacement that I could find had a lot of overspray on it. I was able to remove almost all of it using 0000 steel wool. I used really light pressure and then followed it up with a coat of Meguire's Cleaner Wax.
Not perfect, but much better and not terribly expensive.
In the interest of finding free horsepower on old cars, I always check for excess slack in the throttle cable. Not much was happening during the first inch of gas pedal travel and here's why:
The throttle is still up against it's stop in this photo^. A few turns of the adjusters took up almost all of the slack. That will also translate into more fuel and air getting into the engine when the pedal is on the floor.
Fun fact, they do make bbq paint in silver. I see it at lowes all the time but I always default to black. Ive never used it on a valve cover though I always use it on exhaust parts with good results.
Another quality of life issue: I did the Parking Brake Mod.
I just barely fit in this car as it is, but the way that the front end of the parking brake lever poked into my right thigh was intolerable. Fortunately, there's a cheap and easy solution.
After removing the driver's seat (which took less than a minute), I was was able to get to the parking brake mounting bracket. I loosened the top two mounting bolts and removed the third lower bolt. I put two washers between the parking brake base and the transmission tunnel, replaced the lower bolt and then tightened all three. It moves the top of the parking brake handle about an inch or so in toward the shifter and it makes all the difference in the world.
use the 3m kit on the taillight...
Never heard of the parking brake mod before. Interesting.
Mad_Ratel wrote: use the 3m kit on the taillight...
I don't have a "before" shot, but here's what the parking brake lever looks like after adding the spacers.
More Quality of life stuff.
The short seat base doesn't offer a lot of thigh support. I removed the seat, flipped it over, removed the front bolts mounting the seats to the rails, and loosened the rears and the ones mounting the seat belt buckle to the side of the seat. I found a pair of longer bolts for the front in the Big Bucket of Metric Hardware, put five 5/16" washers on each side between the rails and seat base and then tightened everything up. This raises up the front of the seat base, giving more thigh support. It also raises your knees, which effectively yields noticeably more leg room.
So the parking brake mod and the seat shimming took me less that an hour combined and cost me the price of two used bolts and twelve washers. The car is now exponentially more comfortable to drive.
I love that kind of stuff! Just a little tweak here and there to take a cookie cutter and tailor it to fit yourself nearly perfectly.
Is a roll bar required for the ice racing? Might have looked at cutting some of the foam out while you were tailoring the seat. Will give you a couple inches if you need them for the broomstick test.
No roll bar necessary, and I decided that these seats are too perfect for a foamectomy.
The night before last, we had a freak ice storm and none of the roads got sand or salt. I drove the car to work (firefighter) without any trouble. I had trouble walking from the parking lot into the station and spent the first eight hours on duty dealing with car wrecks and people who had fallen on ice. The firetruck slid off the road twice. Eventually, we thawed out, but froze up again overnight. I could barely walk to my car at the end of my shift this morning, but the Miata got me home as if the roads were dry.
I finally got around to painting the yellowing wheel center caps (Rustoleum #7271) and gave the car a proper cleaning.
Now I kinda miss doing Miata things.
Harvey wrote: Now I kinda miss doing Miata things.
Buy a Honda. It's like doing Miata things, but worse.
Harvey wrote: Now I kinda miss doing Miata things.
Would "doing Miata things" be anything like this tumblr blog?
..I know...I know...so cliche.
I'm digging the interior mods and might have to steal a few.
Let me know if you decide to stud up some tires! I'd love to know what I can safely get away with and not destroy what's left of my fenders!
If for some mysterious reason you want another passenger taillight (seals are damaged from...uh...fire), I'll snap up some photos and send it your way for shipping only. Ditto a Mazdaspeed stock muffler (sounds better, still heavy) and a '99 sport strut bar.
They are just easy cars to work on and everything is dirt cheap.
In reply to kylini:
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