Ronald the Crappy Miata

NickD said:

I spy a front shock tower brace that used to began life on my car before I did the engine swap and supercharger kit.

And the alternator...

I love that shock tower brace. You're a boss for giving it to us. 

I got in the car after it sat in 85 degree heat for only and hour last week... I immediately realized that it didn't matter if I was employed or not.. i was going to lose my palm to the knob in the Texas summer heat.. 

So i hit up our friend at flying miata for a new delrin knob. It goes on tomorrow. 

New shift knob is nice. Going to take getting used to the increased height. But the material is wonderful and it feels cool in your hand. Perfect for Texas weather

In MORE news.. I've been watching my local miata FB groups for body parts just to see if a stock black fender might show up.

One did over the weekend. 

$50 and Ronald has body panels all the same color and it was a 13 minute drive from my house. 

Kid also has the black hood in not perfect, but nicer shape than Ronalds and we made an agreement for $50 for it and his dad is going to drop it off to me later in the week. 

At this rate you're going to have to change the title of the thread to "Ronald the not very Crappy Miata" 

spacecadet (Forum Supporter) said:

I got in the car after it sat in 85 degree heat for only and hour last week... I immediately realized that it didn't matter if I was employed or not.. i was going to lose my palm to the knob in the Texas summer heat.. 

 

So i hit up our friend at flying miata for a new delrin knob. It goes on tomorrow. 

 

I don't think you're going to be stealing Angry's hand-modeling job anytime soon....

And his hand is even half-chewed off.

mazdeuce - Seth said:

At this rate you're going to have to change the title of the thread to "Ronald the not very Crappy Miata" 

*Ahem*

Presenting Ronald... The considerably less crappy.... Miata.. 

I had the same shift knob in my ND RF and I loved it. It is still sitting on my desk since the N has a splined press fit shift knob(boo)

spacecadet (Forum Supporter) said:

NickD said:

I spy a front shock tower brace that used to began life on my car before I did the engine swap and supercharger kit.

And the alternator...

I love that shock tower brace. You're a boss for giving it to us. 

The alternator was on the NB you had with the berked-up timing gear that Seth fixed. Because it came off the junkyard NB1 motor that is in my car and I couldn't use it, because I needed a '94-'97 alternator.

In reply to NickD :

thats right! derp.... well your contributions are still greatly appreciated. 

I went to get lunch today. I said i was gonna take hazmat. But as i got outside... I moved hazmat out of the way and took Ronald. 

It's taken me a few months, after Seth spent 18 months on it himself. But Ronald has become a really nice car to get in and drive. It's quiet and comfortable. The Konis turned up to stiff combined with the 15's result in a ride that's no longer overly floaty and is now confidence inspiring. 

I have details i want to continue to polish on so the car can be even better. But I'm very happy for how far the car has come. 

Adjusted the passenger headlight cover to be more flush with the hood and fender.

And i installed my GRM stimulus stickers on Ronald. 

So since Hazmat isn't a track car for the foreseeable future.. Ronald is now that car.. 

So this gets to go in the Ronald thread.

I answered an ad last week for a broken AIM Solo up in the Chicago area. 

$50 for the solo with a cracked screen protector and a damaged LCD and a RAM mount for it. 

​​​​​My parents were going out to run errands and we're gracious enough to run up to the Northside burbs and grab this device for me.

my dad got it and started diagnostics and it was in a bootloop of death. A email to AIM that evening and a call out to social media said 2 things.

#1 send it to AIM and they'd fix it

#2 it was most likely a dead internal lithium battery. 

​​​​​So my dad shipped it off to AIM on Thursday and it arrived on Monday afternoon a day earlier than expected. 

AIM called me first thing Tuesday morning at 0815 and said they'd recieved it and confirmed what was on the letter to them about what to work on. 

2.5 hours later i got a call back from them saying it's all fixed and my total is $141 for the repairs and shipping. 

New battery for $30

New LCD for $52 

And a New upper outer case for $40

I paid over the phone and it all arrived today. 

My brand new looking Solo arrived from AIM

and box of accessories stuff arrived from my parents as well. 

My tally says the RAM mount parts total more than $70. 

So for $192... I have a basically brand new AIM Solo and $70 in mounts. NOT a bad haul.. 

​​​​​

In reply to spacecadet (Forum Supporter) :

But there are no brownies in the care package?  What kind of parental shipment is that?

Very cool on the AIM!

In reply to TVR Scott (Forum Supporter) :

LoL my mom isn't a big baker. 

But they happily made the drive 45 minutes to pickup the Solo and then shipped the spare parts to me and the unit to AIM and refused to let me pay for their shipping costs on the condition I buy the first margarita at the San Antonio Riverwalk. 

Ronald and I went out for a long drive. Almost 2 hours. 

Found some twisty roads up north of DFW. It was a good time. 

In reply to spacecadet (Forum Supporter) :

I've been to the San Antonio River Walk - many years ago.  They do indeed serve good margaritas there.  A hard bargain your parents have made.

In reply to TVR Scott (Forum Supporter) :

They drive a real hard bargain. 

I called them to ask them to pick it up and  was like.. how am i gonna entice them to do this.. and they literally were like.. oh we're headed out in an hour.. where do we need to go.... Parents that are supporting the dumb track rat habbit are fun. 

The car looks good! I like that your hardtop tape strip matches the stripe on the wheels 

In reply to cmcgregor (Forum Supporter) :

Thanks!

I have had that vinyl literally sitting in a closet for 4 years.. various closets.. but literally in a closet till last month when i pulled it out to fix the vinyl on that edge that got ruined back in January. it just happened to be what i had. 

and the wheels were that way when we got them.. but I don't hate them.. i'm planning to eventually make them silver.. or maybe bronze. tbd.. not huge on the black.. but it's not terribly done so they look good. 

spacecadet (Forum Supporter) said:

Ronald and I went out for a long drive. Almost 2 hours. 

 

Found some twisty roads up north of DFW. It was a good time. 

I need to see these roads with you some day.  I have several cars we could choose from.... too many.  Of course we are both driving, but you can help me pick which car for "scientific" purposes. 

And after putting a big ball shift knob in my first Miata, it is always the first thing I have done to any Miata I have owned.  If I do an LS swap (plan to), I will be getting a knob threaded or making a shift handle to accept my Voodoo knob.   Delrin is "cooler" though, literally.

In reply to spacecadet (Forum Supporter) :

Did you come up to 455? I know that quik trip

In reply to shagles :

yep. This is the one off 121, It's really close to where I live right now. 

In reply to spacecadet (Forum Supporter) :

Yeah that's right across the street from my work. And i live off 455

Ronald was unflappable to San Antonio and back. I think I actually overadded oil.. because I hate reading  the dipstick on these cars and just wanted to make sure it had more than enough for the drive home tonight. 

But i added less than a quart... and i think that was too much.. 

car saw almost 800 miles of driving over the past 2 days because I did a bunch of extra driving around san antonio to explore...

car is running better than ever, but I have been noticing my red vinyl edge on the hardtop has not been sticking well and it started peeling on one section tonight and making a buzzing racket on the freeway. 

I uh... Checked ronalds air filter... 

I couldn't see light through it when I held it to the sun. 

I whacked it against the tire to shake some of the dust out of it.. and then i could see light.. but man I need to get a new one ASAP.