The Next Step

"Turner950s" (Turner950s) 09/29/2013 at 00:23 • Filed to: None

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Some of you may have seen my !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! today involving the windscreen on the M edition.

Yesterday, I fixed a rattling speaker by remounting it. I've also ordered a heat shield to go between the aftermarket exhaust and gas tank to keep fuel from vaporizing in the tank. That pretty much sums up all the restoration the car needs. Now at stage 0. Back to stock, with 90,000 miles.

My question to you is: What's the next step? Limited funds, of course (it's a Miata not a Mercedes). This means I can likely only do one of the following things in the course of the next few months. Price range is rather low.

Some things I've been considering:

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Front strut brace

Beefier sway bar(s)

Stainless brake lines

Brake cooling ducts, hooked up to an "R" style front spoiler (I made these raybestos pads !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! the other day)

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Better brake pads

Squid > Turner950s 09/29/2013 at 01:18

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The front shock tower braces don't do much for the Miata. You'd be better off going with the Flyin Miata Butterfly brace. The only thing with that is you got to be comfortable with putting holes in your floor to bolt it up to the frame rails. It gives you extra torsional rigidity and the benefit of not having to worry about your frame rails getting flattened by speed bumps. Oh and it allows you to use the rails as a jacking point so you can lift one side of the car up at a time.

Slave2anMG > Turner950s 09/29/2013 at 09:59

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Stainless brake lines will firm up the brake pedal as they don't swell under braking pressure the way rubber lines do....

RotaryLover > Turner950s 09/29/2013 at 19:28

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How limited is it?

Turner950s > RotaryLover 09/29/2013 at 20:07

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I'm at college, so we're talking like $200 or less if I want to be realistic.

If I want to eat ramen for the next few months, that figure can go up a bit.

RotaryLover > Turner950s 09/29/2013 at 20:29

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What kind of pads do you have? I know it's Raybestos but which grade and how used are they? Cooling ducts can be made cheap by hooking high temperature orange hoses from the opening of the bumper to near the brakes backplate (it's shaped to get cooled air already somewhat). For the front spoiler, you can do a DIY lip with home depot gardening edging. SS brake lines would be the right thing to do along with swapping your current fluid with a racing one IMO. The rest can wait.

Turner950s > RotaryLover 09/29/2013 at 20:46

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No clue what kind of Raybestos pads they are; PO had just installed them before he sold the car to me last summer. They fade way too quickly and hardly leave any brake dust, so I'd imagine they're the not the hottest grade. Definitely upgrading once these are used up. How effective are cooling ducts in preventing fade? I might just upgrade the pads if that's going to be a significant improvement. I don't autocross the car at all (yet), so I don't really need a racing setup.

The home depot air dam proposition is an interesting budget approach. It looks like you can get OEM-replica airdams on ebay for about $50, so I'll have to think about that one.

SS lines and ATE Super fluid are going on eventually. Not too psyched about flushing brake fluid in a public parking garage, though.

Thanks for the advice! There should definitely be a super-low budget car mods thread on oppo, including your air dam tip.

RotaryLover > Turner950s 09/29/2013 at 20:59

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Yeah a thread like this would be awesome! If it sucks that much...get PBR or Axiss Ultimate pads (really cheap and great!) instead. If the disks are ok, no need to change them for the moment. Save up for the rest.

greenagain > Turner950s 10/01/2013 at 11:16

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Rebuild your shifter