Bumper Repainted!

Here are probably the latest pics I have of the exterior, from the summer of 2008. I really, really need some new ones. Also the bumper was repainted, and KG Works TSI's from Japan were added. Ignore the for sale sign, I ended up not selling the car fortunutely.





Since this engine photo, more wire tucking has been done.

Nakamae Console

While waiting for the new OE bumper to get painted I picked up this sweet Nakamae console from PhatMiata on clubroadster. Handmade in Japan and very hard to find! Also not the center console with the iPod dock. I made that earlier on during the interior swap. There is no headunit, just a dock connector adapter running to a JL Audio RLC-1 preamp, and then to an alpine amp.

whoops! Smacked a guardrail

We are still in 2007, so please bear with me here. I used my new found power to go tear up the mountains on a path we call the "snake run: in GA. I (not so smartly) ran E-bay coilovers with the same rates front and rear which was very fun for sliding around, but not so much for the mountains.

it happened right after I took this:



cracked the beautiful RS Aizawa bumper, one of only a few in the U.S.





After this happened I decided to go for a more conservative look. I sold/partially trade off the front bumper for a nice used Laguna Blue OEM one with R-lip, a few hundred bucks, and a cold air intake, which was a dumb move in the short term, but in soon after installing it I hit a mop bucket at 70mph destroying the lip and the bumper. Had I still been using the RS Aizawa one, it would have been destroyed forever. I picked up a new OEM bumper.





The hood latch busted, so I went with billet pins from a Shelby Mustang, this was taken just after install.

MegaSquirted!

Now that the car had a great engine it was time for management. Once significant changes are made to the engine, the stock ECU leaves a ton of power on the table. It just so happened that at the same time I needed a real, stand-alone engine management solution Jerry from DIY AutoTune - a leader in MegaSquirt EMS was looking for a beta test car for their upcoming MegaSquirt PNP (MSPNP) for the 96-97 miata. This was a great solution for guys like me who don't want to hack up thier wiring harness or use a soldering gun. Just remove the stock ECU, plug in the MSPNP and run a vacuum line, and that's it, youre ready to tune!

After several weeks of development I recieved a call from Jerry that the car had been on the Dyno. The new engine made a unimpressive 120rwhp and 107 ft/lb of torque on the dyno. (dont' have that dyno sheet) On the Megasquirt, it made 127 hp/121 ft/lb of torque, without VICS enabled and a crush-bent flowmaster exhaust. Later I came back with NB injectors at 70psi, an Enthuza Exhaust, test pipe, and the VICS operational. The car made 130rwhp, and a much more impressive 127.5 ft/lbs of torque

Engine, interior completed!

thats a hood riser, don't worry, it does not last long!

1993 LE interior goes in

Pimp'n gauge cluster



Here it is going in, don't worry, I decided against the red gauge hood later.







unnecessary wiring



fitting the carpet


rollbar goes back in



coming together!

Refinishing the 1993 LE dash

The colored Miata dashboards came with the top painted, and many got nasty and sticky over the years, so I cleaned it all off with carb cleaner (which may have been bad - it started cracking afterwords but I repaired that during the refinishing process) and resprayed it.






all done

Out with the old interior

to get the new stuff in, the old has got to go!

Look Ma, No carpet! I actually drove like this a bit before the engine came out...





dash is out!







it gets worse, before it gets better

1993 LE interior arrives...

will for this Miata project a new engine was just not enough. While the car sat in the garage mice got in and ruined the tan carpet, so thanks to Tom at Partsgroup I got a great LE interior at a very nice price.

look what showed up!

Wire Tuck, Engine goes in!

The new engine deserved a great looking engine bay, so I began the process of a wire tuck, running everything I could through the fenders for a clean look.

'

looking good...

One afternoon my Dad agreed to come over and help put the engine in. He was two hours late, and by the time he got there it was already in...