"Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)" (rduncan5678)
04/20/2019 at 10:00 • Filed to: None
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"Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)" (rduncan5678)
04/20/2019 at 10:00 • Filed to: None | 20
| 21 |
I have gone and bought a thing! This is a 2001 Mazda Miata in Sterling Silver with the LS package along with 242k miles on the chassis. One might say, that’s a lotta miles! But the motor only has about 110k on it and I have a literal book full of maintenance history dating back to early 2001. I bought this car from the original owner, it has been in Socal since late 2001, it has been meticulously maintained, there is no rust, the paint is decent, no accidents, and it went for $4200. I already used a headlight restoration kit and fixed the stuck window which were the only pressing issues. Now I’ll show some nice pics just before sunset near Malibu!
So while these photos generally show a spectacular paint job and actually look quite nice, there are definitely some rough spots in dire need of attention. Faded paint on the hood, around the windshield, on the mirrors, and on the rear spoiler. It’s pretty bad in all of those spots but everywhere else is quite clean with minimal scratches and only a couple of small dings and chips. For an 18 year old car that’s been driven quite a bit more than 200k , it’s quite nice. The interior is a bit worse for wear but the new carpet installed and decent seat covers sure add to the niceness of it though. I need to replace the rear carpet but I’ll have a better idea of what shape that’s in when I do my roll bar install. One other thing was the fogged up headlights but I’ve already gone ahead and fixed them up a bit. The passenger headlight came out quite nice although the Driver headlight could still use some work. Leagues better than before though!
Before:
After:
The car definitely could use a nice clay, polish, and wax as well. It will certainly bring out the shine of the paint and give me a better idea of what I’m working with. The hood and windshield surrounds are probably just going to stay faded as is but I’d like to wrap the mirrors and spoiler in black anyways so that should work fine.
Immediately on my list of things the car needs are a shifter rebuild and shock replacement. Also the end links make all sorts of racket and there’s an exhaust heat shield rattling around a bit. But those will be easily solved within the next week. My FM coils and front sway bar will go in ASAP since stock handling is trash, even aside from the 242k miles on the ORIGINAL shocks. I just can’t stand the body roll, it’s like a broken roller coaster.
Then my list includes my Roadstersport exhaust and all of the other racing goodies like the roll bar, seat, and harness. I’ll order another shifter rebuild kit ASAP and also start looking into better coilovers. The car has brand new tires on pretty new wheels but they are crap no seasons on cheap 16 inch wheels. So I’ll use me to daily drive but eventually I’ve gotta take my 15 inch stockers I have on the other car and get a proper set of 200TW tires back on there once the mods are complete. Even though I have Toyo RR for the track days, I still want aggressive Street tires for the canyons.
That number makes me laugh every time I see it. It’s a proper Miata with that many miles and I hope to add many more in short order. None of those will be easy miles. Driving home gingerly just in case something went wrong before I gave it a once over on fluids and such, that was probably the easiest it will ever get driven again. I didn’t even get it to 6k until about the end of the day. Once the exhaust is in, I’m sure I’ll be back to beating the piss out of the car, just to hear that sweet sound again.
Hoping for a lovely inaugural weekend with the car, taking a drive up the coast and reveling in the top down adventures soon to begin again. I'll enjoy a single weekend of driving the car around stock, followed by a mad dash to rip apart the other car and make this one whole, hopefully in time for Laguna Seca in June! Ideally any "gremlins" will come about ahead of time and I'll have it all sorted for the track day.
Cash Rewards
> Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
04/20/2019 at 10:04 |
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Looks awesome! And I love my roadster sport exhaust on mine. Good luck with it, and good buy!
IJustWantMyZBack
> Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
04/20/2019 at 10:09 |
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T his is what I went with for shifter rebuild.
Make sure to get some fresh fluid in there as well. All the forums I read recommended some Ford Unicorn tears.
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Cash Rewards
> IJustWantMyZBack
04/20/2019 at 10:18 |
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There's the form unicorn tears, and there's shell rotella diesel oil recommendation that I just haven't had the guts to try.
Maxima Speed
> Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
04/20/2019 at 10:24 |
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Pretty nice looking little car. Congrats!
TheTurbochargedSquirrel
> Cash Rewards
04/20/2019 at 10:34 |
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I believe the Rotella is what the track near me uses in all their instructing Miatas. I didn’t catch the exact product name, just that it is apparently intended as bulldozer gear oil and makes Miata transmissions basically indestructible. In the one lap I did in one of those cars it kinda felt like the fluid was too thick and was gumming up the mechanism. My only other Miata experience was in a beat track rat with 120k+ track miles so I don't know what it is supposed to feel like anyway. Slightly gummy might be normal for all I know.
Just Jeepin'
> Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
04/20/2019 at 10:42 |
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Whole lotta fun in your future. Congrats!
mXxxxXm24 /O/ /O/
> Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
04/20/2019 at 10:46 |
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Awesome man! Y ou found her! At last!
ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability
> Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
04/20/2019 at 10:50 |
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The wheels are pure sex
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Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
> ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability
04/20/2019 at 10:57 |
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I wish they were 15 inches. Completely useless to me in this 16 inch size. I’ll use up the tires I guess but I might get sick of them too quickly as well. They do look nice at least.
RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
> Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
04/20/2019 at 10:58 |
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Ooo, very nice, congrats! :D
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ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability
> Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
04/20/2019 at 10:59 |
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Aww no :( if I hadn’t just bought new rims for the Mini, I would have bought them off you I believe both our cars have 4x100 and 17mm bolts
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Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
> ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability
04/20/2019 at 11:44 |
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Yeah those probably would fit then! I should be able to sell them, they are on very good condition. And considering I didn’t buy them, any money I get will be profit. The NB1 stock wheels I have I only paid $75 for them and they have zero curb rash and good paint. So if I make more than that, I’ll be ahead. I'd love to spend real money on a set of 949 wheels in bronze but I'll save the coin since the stockers are light enough and I have too many wheels as is right now anyways.
arl
> Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
04/20/2019 at 12:05 |
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Congrats! Headlights looking good!
Future Heap Owner
> Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
04/20/2019 at 12:25 |
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Looks like an excellent specimen. I’m glad your search finally paid off. Congrats!
Nasty
> Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
04/20/2019 at 13:20 |
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Sweet! I just picked up a 2001 LS a little over a month ago. Loving it! Life is truly better with a zippy roadster!
AestheticsInMotion
> IJustWantMyZBack
04/20/2019 at 15:17 |
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Those unicorn tears do a damn good job
Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
> Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
04/20/2019 at 16:10 |
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Beautiful car - congrats. Now you’ve got me searching the classifieds for a Miata although I know there are other things that need to be handled first...
MM54
> Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
04/20/2019 at 17:57 |
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Very cool!
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Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
> Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
04/20/2019 at 19:05 |
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Glad to have inspired! Get ready to see a lot of junk though. And overpriced cars purported to be nice but are actually junk lol.
daender
> Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
04/20/2019 at 22:00 |
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Congrats on the purchase! It’s S unlight Silver Metalic by the way. I recommend wrapping the windshield frame along with side mirrors for that NC Club- look , because it’ll look great if you get a black soft top (with glass) to replace that tan plastic-window top!
...Then again I might be biased.
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Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
> daender
04/21/2019 at 01:09 |
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The top is a glass window, so I'm probably not going to replace it. From the look and feel, it's probably a quality Robbins top, but I've gotta find the receipt to figure out exactly. I have a book full of EVERY receipt so I'm sure it's in there. But I definitely want to wrap the windshield frame and mirrors since the paint is shit there anyways. I just need to figure out how hard wrapping actually is.