My Miata - fix up & hopefully better mileage!

[Stubby79]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Delayed response...
I'm not crazy about it. Around here, a car painted that way always means someone has done shoddy rust repairs and is trying to hide the results. Even if that's not the case (probably not much rust on a Vancouver Island Miata), it's an automatic association for me.

Ahh, sorry to disappoint, but the only rust she has is from chemical leaks/issues.

Meaning the brake fluid eating the paint under the hood and the area at the battery, which is probably due to not using an AGM battery. Plus that's the corner where she got dinged...that might have something to do with it.

No, really...car's don't rust out here, unless they get water trapped in them. Like the POS Metro 'vert I bought a number of years ago, which had sat in a field through the winter (rainy season) with a leaky roof prior to my buying it. It eventually died of "cancer".

Anywho, I quite agree with the automatic assumption of painted rockers and such covering up rust repair. That's always my first thought. But I checked her over before I bought her. And I've been under her there dozens of times. No rust. Not even rusty bolts(I had to take off a fair number of major bolts to change the differential).

You guys back east would be jealous of how much easier these things are to work on when the bolts aren't rusted solid.

My theory is that buddy buddy who used to race it, raced it either on a dirt track (or at least a pebble-strewn one), or else he lived down a dirt road, and the doors got a bunch of road-rash. I'd not have come to this theory if it wasn't for the pock-marked windshield, which I can only assume is from chronic pebbles/gravel smacking against it. (no cracks or even proper chips, but it's bad enough that I'm going to have it replaced this year, as it's annoying as heck and can make seeing through it impossible if the light hits at the right angle)

I like the two-tone. All the "cool" cars had two-tone paint (usually the "ground effects") when I was a kid...in the 80s and early 90s.

[Stubby79]

Already looking better:

[MetroMPG]

Nice!

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by Stubby79

You guys back east would be jealous of how much easier these things are to work on when the bolts aren't rusted solid.

I will say I've been more than pleasantly surprised at how easy it has been to work on this car so far - no siezed bolts! For a car this age, it's a revelation.

It's rusty from rain collection, not road salt.

[Stubby79]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

I will say I've been more than pleasantly surprised at how easy it has been to work on this car so far - no siezed bolts! For a car this age, it's a revelation.

It's rusty from rain collection, not road salt.

It's still a horrible way (and waste) to go!

[Stubby79]

Nothing new for the Miata this week.

Weather turned wet for a few days there, which I didn't appreciate driving my nice clean car in. Clued in to the idea of using the Miata on good days, and the Jetta on wet ones. Seemed like a good idea. Plus the Jetta is a lot easier to drive - particularly in the bumper to bumper traffic - then the somewhat unruly Miata with its racing clutch.

Of course, I was reminded of a few things that needed attention in it, the first time I drove it again. Like the stereo wasn't working...it's best feature!

Oh well. Just pulled the fuses for the stereo to reset it, and it came back to life. Nice and easy. I have great sounding tunes again.

I attempted(?) to fix the broken hinges on the glove box this morning. We'll find out if the epoxy is up to the task or not tomorrow.

Since that was a "hurry up and wait" job, she finally get the rest of her interior LED upgrade bulbs put in. 4 dome lights (3, but I put 2 identical panel bulbs in place of the single/main dome bulb). Two rear seat lights. And two in the front doors. Lots of bright/clean white light now. Especially that dome light. POOF!

Ok, I still have to do the glove box bulb. Kinda hard to get at right now.

Watch those little LED festoon bulbs that come with an aluminum heatsink on the back. Much too easy to blow a fuse when said heatsink manages to touch both brass terminals.

I like the clean white light(and plenty of it) of these LED bulbs. I highly recommend it!

[Stubby79]

Nothing much to report on the efficiency end of things, other than hoping/lined up to hit 400km this tank.

Ordered the spark plugs at last. Should arrive any day now...oh, they just cleared customs an hour ago. Guess that means another day or two. Anyway, i held off, cuz I wanted to order other things, and those other things would have come from other warehouses and would have doubled the cost of shipping. After putting it off a week, I checked again, and this time I could get them all from the same warehouse. Shipping was dirt cheap, considering. You couldn't mail them within Canada for that price.

I bought a "new" drivers seat yesterday. I needed the seat tracks. He didn't want much more for the whole thing than for just the tracks, so I took the whole thing, since i knew my original was rather badly worn. This one was in as good of shape as possible for something 27 years old. Not even sun faded, as mine are.

I pulled the cheap racing seat out and dropped it in. Checked for head clearance. I had to turn my head sideways to fit in. Oh, that's right, it was with the soft top on that I could fit properly, not the hard top.

Make note of that, potential Miata owners. If you're anything over 6 foot, and you want/get a hard top, you're going to have to do some modifying to fit. Maybe fiberglass a hump in the roof, like there is in the hood?

Son of a bee-atch. Now I remember why I bolted the aftermarket seat straight to the floor. Well, I'm not going to do anything to this nice, pristine seat...so I grabbed my old driver's seat, hacked out all but a thin layer of the seat foam, and bolted the seat rails to it. I can fit now. Just. The real test will be going over bumps...if I hit my head again, it's gotta go.

Why bother? Well, because I want to take it in to get a new windshield...and if they don't have someone my height, they'll never be able to reach the pedals to drive it in to the shop. Might want an alignment too.

Methinks I'll end up with the aftermarket seat in again. This time I'll put the other one in too, so that they match. And I won't do such a half-ass job of putting it in, either. Heck, those rails are so low that maybe I will put the seat on those and see if I can make it work. I was too impatient the first time.

[MetroMPG]

Sorry if I missed it, but how come you haven't taken the hard top off yet? Isn't it mid-summer weather on the island by now?

[Stubby79]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Sorry if I missed it, but how come you haven't taken the hard top off yet? Isn't it mid-summer weather on the island by now?

Crack heads who will gladly cut my nice new soft top to get in, do hundreds of dollars in damage for a $5 item. My parking garage isn't secure. I wouldn't own a convertible without a hard top any more.

If I park it on the street, it's less likely go get broken in, but I can kiss my nice clean/shiny paint goodbye within a week or two. Pollen, rain, bird crap, etc.

Besides, I drive at night most of the time, so I wouldn't drop the top anyway. And I can have the hard top off and locked up in a matter of a couple of minutes now too, for weekend drives.

[MetroMPG]

Ahh yes, I forgot about that side of owning a soft top in a big city.

Last one I had was a VW Rabbit convertible when I was going to school in Ottawa. I never locked it in the city and always took the coil wire with me.

I have an aunt with an A4 cabrio in Ottawa -- someone went in her underground parking area (unsecure) and knifed her roof to steal parking change.