I probably overspent on this thing, but it runs good:

There's dents on most of the panels, it looks like it's been hit in the left rear (or more likely it backed into something hard), the CEL lit up on the way home, needs shifter bushings, but it drives well enough, came with a decent amount of spare parts, including an extra set of wheels, and as I said before, it's not rusty. It's pretty much the only sub-$2000 Miata I could find in the area in a short amount of time that didn't have rusted rockers and rear fender wells. The price was critical because it is a backup to my S10 Challenge Project.

Plans for now involve just doing little stuff to make sure it is in good enough shape to run well enough to finish the challenge, maybe selling off wheels (and the style bar) if I need to get money into the budget. It already has Nitto NT05 tires, and Hawk HP+ pads. Longer term, I'll concentrate on making it more enjoyable to drive, without worrying to much about what it looks like. its rough enough that if I want a better looking example, it'll be a lot cheaper to just spend more money upfront on another car. At least with this one, I won't worry about door dings, or be afraid to leave the top down when I'm away from it.

its really not that bad, no rust means more than a straight body to me.

HonestSpeedShop wrote: its really not that bad, no rust means more than a straight body to me.

That's its best side

I agree with you. I'll live with dents and body damage all day, if they don't affect how the car drives, and I don't have to break out the torch (or the angle grinder) to loosen nuts and bolts.

Oh yeah, it's been just over 5 years since I got rid of my NC, and just the 2 hour drive home from central Ohio has me wondering why I waited so long to get another Miata.

my miata is not the nicest, I like it that way, no worries ever really. I really want a NC to daily, been hunting for a blown up one.

Now titled and registered in my name. Won't be able to play with it in the next week, but will be giving it a once over when I can in order to see what will need to be done before the challenge versus what I can let slide until after.

Nice find. How did a rust-free, if dented, Miata find it's way to Ohio (and where, if I may ask, did you find it?)?

stan wrote: Nice find. How did a rust-free, if dented, Miata find it's way to Ohio (and where, if I may ask, did you find it?)?

It was originally a Tennessee car. I bought it off someone near Marysville, Ohio. They moved here earlier this year (after winter was over) for a job at Honda. It really is amazing how beat up this thing is, and how clean it is underneath. It's got over 200K miles, the rockers appear to be totally solid, and the underside is even cleaner than my Florida S10.

Glad the title worked out easily. I've been cleaning my garage but still no sign of the shifter. If you want a washer and drier or bad subaru transmission I have those...and lots of spiders.

Turbo.

If you want to turbo this on the cheap, I've got a challenge friendly Garret turbo off a Turbo Dodge that I was going to use on the Miata. But the Miata is no longer mine.

That one looks ALOT better than the one I turned into an Exocet! Mine, from Dayton, was also curiously rust free!

Hmm, turbo could be in the future, but I may hit the easy button and Flyin' Miata it. That'll be after an overhaul, though, I doubt the engine will hold up to much boost in it's current state.

Interesting, I wonder if the Dayton Miata was also southern, or just kept out of the winter weather.

Dayton Miata was owned by a high ranking officer at Wright Patt AFB first down South, then later in its life up here, and babied until "junior" got a hold of it. After that, ricer, drift car, etc., etc. I got it from a coworker who bought it at a garage sale with the intent of restoring it, but never found the time. They were moving, his wife said it wasn't coming with them, so my gain via a fluke conversation for $250. Mechanicals were mostly fine, no body panel was left undented. Very lucky me !!

Minor update.  The cheap shifter bushing set came in while I was on vacation, and I installed it yesterday, snapping one of the three bolts that holds the shifter in place while reinstalling.  Wasn't putting a lot of force on the bolt, but apparently it was weaker than I thought it was.  The good news is the shifter is not sloppy at all anymore.  The bad news is I need to remove it to get the remains of the bolt out, and replace it.  Supposedly a 6 X 1.25 12mm long bolt.  Hopefully a 10 mm bolt will be fine, as I am guessing that's what I'll be able to get locally.

It's going to be raining for the next few days here, so there may be minimal progress for a bit.

It could really use a full shifter rebuild kit with the boots, but that would have blown my budget out of the water.  Before the challenge, I'll see if I can come up with some sort of boot for the console, then take it all apart and get the proper parts after the challenge.

If the rain does stop for long enough, I may also pull the style bar, and put it up for sale.  And install the stock chassis brace that was included with the sale.  I also still need to inventory all the spare parts that came with the car, and maybe also put the spare wheels up for sale, in order to expand my budget headroom.  It'll be a bit of a false economy, though, as I'm likely to want a set of wheels/tires that are not the NT05s that will be used if this goes to the challenge.

That looks like a PERFECT candidate for a lift kit and rallycross action. 

The bolt would be M6x1.0. If you don't want a budget hit you can take one out of the top of the front fender, and it improves weight distribution moving it from the fender to the shifter. 

Or I can bring you one to the rallycross this weekend if you will be there. 

EvanB said:

The bolt would be M6x1.0. If you don't want a budget hit you can take one out of the top of the front fender, and it improves weight distribution moving it from the fender to the shifter. 

Or I can bring you one to the rallycross this weekend if you will be there. 

Cool, thanks for letting me know.  May just do that for the first pass.  Also, I think I have a ton of M6x1 bolts in the garage, they're common in the world of scooters

cmcgregor said:

That looks like a PERFECT candidate for a lift kit and rallycross action. 

Thought about the lift maybe, not so sure about rallycrossing it.  All the Miatas in my region seem to run around stock height, and a few of them (Including EvanB) are really fast.

On Friday, I went to do what I thought was going to be the annoying process of removing a broken off bolt.  Picked the correct lef-handed bit to drill it with, used a punch to make sure it stayed in place, then started the drill.  The friction from the drill bit pressed against the broken bolt was enough to spin  it loose.    I followed EvanB's advice, and used one of the fender bolts to replace it, and it worked fine.  Car shifts a ton better now.

Today, I did some weight reduction, and removed the style bar.  When I get back form a business trip, I'll try to get it up for sale.  I was going to install an OEM seat back brace, but the studs on the style bar messed up the threads on it.  I'll just grab some 10x1.25 nuts and lock washers to fix that issue at some point.  I'm still using some chunks of metal that I think belong to the style bar, so I'll need to come up with something before I sell it.

I picked up some Redline MTL fluid for the transmission and some gear oil for the differential, since I have no idea how long it's been since those were changed.  Will try to get to changing it when I have a level surface to work on.

I now have a roller with very similar paint color in my back yard. There isn't much mechanical left on it but let me know if you need anything.

In reply to EvanB :

It doesn't happen to have a good rear bumper and rear panel, does it?

Oh yeah, Lori's not interested in the other Miata. If you get it, let me know, and I'll probably buy some parts if you part it out.

The rear finish panel is good, the rear bumper is also good but cut in the middle. Something like this:

In reply to EvanB :

Thought I'd replied to you, but apparently not.  I'll pass on the bumper, but let me know what you want for the rear finish panel.  If it happens to have the stock radio or sun visors, I'd be interested in those, too.

Small update.  There is definitely something loose somewhere in the suspension, probably on the right.  Sounds like it might be a ball joint.  Could be something else though.  This ups the odds of needing to sell the spare wheels, so I'll probably drag them home from the storage locker in a few days, clean them up, and put them on Craigslist.  Still need to post up the style bar, but figuring it won't sell for much.  There's been one on a nearby CL for $50 for a month now.

Post Challenge, I'm thinking it needs new seats, some sort of radio or way to connect an MP3 player.  Might just dig up a stock cassette deck radio, in the hopes that no one would try to steal that.  It'll get a new top over the winter - right now, I've been putting a tarp over the top when it's likely to rain.  For fun stuff, I'd like to install a roll bar, and maybe some sort of suspension that will lower it just a tad, as long as it doesn't hurt the ride.  In the distant future, a FM turbo kit is a possibility, but it think I'll track down a lower mileage engine and trans before attempting anything like that.  I've been amazed at the reasonable prices I'm seeing for used parts.

I have some ball joints you can have for the price of shipping if you decide you need them. 

The shell doesn't have visors but I think i have a pair around somewhere. The finish panel is yours when you want it.