Materials to Maintain Your ZHP IIIII Hand Protection IIIII Tools to Maintain Your ZHP
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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Sep 2014
    Location
    Newnan, Ga
    Posts
    1,190

    1994 Miata Track Toy

    I figured since we seem to have some Miata fans on here, that I will transfer my build thread over to this forum! I'll see if I can condense it down since I've had the car for the last 6 years!

    I was looking for a nice NA for a first car and came across a nice red one in Clearwater, FL. My family and I went down there to look at it. Well I fell in love with it, but I never actually drove the car because I didn't know how to drive a stick!
    This is how the car looked when i first got it.


    Then for Christmas my sister gave me some Racing Beat springs to lower the car a bit. She bought them 3 months before I even got the car!

    After buying the car and driving it for a month it I decided to take it back to Florida to go to a big Mustang car show with my dad....well the car decided it didn't want to come back home and left me stranded 5 hours from home! It had been overheating without me realizing it (young and dumb!)


    Motor was not very pretty inside...PO didn't take the greatest care of it!


    The car had quite the oil leak from the front main seal

    Found the coolant leak that caused over heating!

    The hole


    Things were getting exciting at this point!

    Got the head back from the shop





    I learned a TON from this experience! Did it suck that the car left me stranded 5 hours from home? Absolutely, but I bonded with my sisters boyfriend (now brother-in-law) and learned more about cars in a month than I had in my entire life!

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2014
    Location
    Newnan, Ga
    Posts
    1,190
    Months went buy of trouble free driving and I saved up to buy some new wheels!


    Then I bought a front bumper! From the body line up, it is an NA (89-97 Miata bumper from the body line down it is an NC1 (06-08) Miata bumper.




    I promise you that the hood is not this shiny in person!





    Added a roll bar!







    Garage Vary rear bumper installed





    Revlimiter Rossa gauges! Adam at Revlimiter is the single greatest company you will ever do business with! He is a one man operation and he knocks out some amazing products! He also has the nicest Miata I have ever seen!





    This photo shows some mods I haven't listed yet. NB (99-05) steering wheel, Voodoo shift knob, shift boot, and floor mats!

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Nov 2014
    Location
    Portland, OR
    Posts
    10,242
    Nice! I didn't realize you had done so much to your NA Miata. Really makes me want to go drive my father's but it's still a little too cold out.

    Subbed.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Sep 2014
    Location
    Newnan, Ga
    Posts
    1,190
    Quote Originally Posted by BMWCurves View Post
    Nice! I didn't realize you had done so much to your NA Miata. Really makes me want to go drive my father's but it's still a little too cold out.

    Subbed.
    I still have 3-4 years worth of ownership to post in this thread!

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Sep 2014
    Location
    Newnan, Ga
    Posts
    1,190
    This is by far the most popular picture of my car! For whatever reason it has made its rounds on the internet! It is used on rspeed.net to sell the Garage Vary rear spoiler and has been used in multiple advertisements!


    Dyno run proves that the engine rebuild was a great success! The numbers are right where they should be for this car when it was new!


    Made it into the Revlimiter calendar


    Comparison from the first day I bought her to year 3 of ownership


    Installed some side diffusers. Notice the missing spoiler, very poor installation (they give you two tiny little clips) and it fell off while closing the trunk one day!





  6. #6
    Join Date
    Sep 2014
    Location
    Newnan, Ga
    Posts
    1,190
    Over the course of ownership I have met some of the greatest people! We have an extremely tight knit Miata community in Atlanta. The feel is very similar to this forum. I met my best friend through this car and he goes way out of the way to help me keep this thing running! He has rebuilt these things so many times it's crazy! Since I had zero car knowledge, from a mechanical standpoint, when I bought the car he has always been there when it breaks down which leads me to...

    I pulled into the garage steam started to come out of the hood. Great. So Eric came over after work to help diagnose the problem.
    Excuse the blurry picture, but you get the idea. Coolant on the subframe. (Yes, I know I have an oil leak)

    This is not how I wanted to spend my day!

    So we figured out that the thermostat had died and it was also leaking. Cool. That was an easy fix! Oh wait, there is another leak. ****. Luckily the clamp on one of the coolant hoses just came loose and the hose was leaking. Another easy fix. (Although not the easiest spot to get to) We noticed the alternator belt was split and missing a rib, but we only needed it to last a week and a half. (That is when we will be replacing the front main seal)

    Yay!! Car is back and working just fine! :D


    That is...until today. I drove the car to school with no problems. Everything was working great! I went to leave class about 30 minutes ago and upon start up I had belt squeal, which has been happening for a while now, but I figured the belt needed some adjusting. Then I got a nice smell of rubber with a nice little POP!!! ****. The belt broke and I knew it. It is now sitting in the parking lot at school waiting for Eric to get here with parts and tools.


    Addressing the terrible terrible oil leak!


    Here is a before and after!



    It became a really bad habit for this car to just break down on me! Stupid little things too! Coolant leaks, belts snapping, and now this time was an electrical short!

    The car just died on me while going to school! Thankfully I was only a few miles from home, but unfortunately it died and I pulled into a parking lot, with a hill, so I couldn't push it myself! I had to get three people to help push it! I thought these cars were light!



    The main reason I bought a Miata was because my sister had a Mazdaspeed Miata!


    I custom made my own door panels and bought some door pulls.





  7. #7
    Join Date
    Sep 2014
    Location
    Newnan, Ga
    Posts
    1,190
    My sister decided to sell her Miata to fund a wedding, so I got first dibs on any parts she had! I bought her coilovers which were JIC Magic FLT-TAR's, brand new these things cost more than I paid for my Miata! She bought them and had them rebuilt, so I basically got brand new coilovers! Here are a bunch of pictures of the new ride height! You can also see the new exhaust, which I think sounds fantastic and it fills up the massive exhaust hole in the GV rear bumper!


    ~IMG_0531 by theotherSawyer, on Flickr


    ~IMG_0510 by theotherSawyer, on Flickr


    ~IMG_0503 by theotherSawyer, on Flickr


    ~IMG_0498 by theotherSawyer, on Flickr


    ~IMG_0475 by theotherSawyer, on Flickr


    ~IMG_0470 by theotherSawyer, on Flickr


    ~IMG_0557 by theotherSawyer, on Flickr


    ~IMG_0542 by theotherSawyer, on Flickr


    Time for a new clutch!

    Motor is out! Engine bay is dirty!


    Dirty *** engine!




    Clean Engine!


    Clean Trans!


    Cleaning the engine bay! And this is my good friend Eric in the picture. Notice I also bought a hardtop!








    So clean!!!!


    Going in!


    Once the motor was put back in I drove it for about a week and then the heater core was leaking coolant into the interior! Removed the dash and swapped the core! Good to go! Then the coil pack died and the car wouldn't start! Swapped it for a known good one and the car was back up and running!







  8. #8
    Join Date
    Sep 2014
    Location
    Newnan, Ga
    Posts
    1,190
    200,000 smiles on the Miata!!!!!! :D

    IMG_0394 by theotherSawyer, on Flickr

    Tow strap and fog lights installed! If you can't tell, I like to do little photoshoots when I install new parts!
    Finally took some real pictures of the tow hook and fog lights installed! :D











    And this last set pretty much brings us completely up to date!














    Oddly enough this thread is titled Track Toy and there are zero pictures of this thing on track! lol So I have a deal with a friend of mine that organizes track days! I go to his events and take photos of the drivers for half of the day and give my photos to the drivers free of charge, and in return I get a half day of track driving for free! I would say it is a pretty sweet deal! I put in a little bit of work for free track time! So since I am driving the car there is no one out to take pictures of my car when it is on track! lol

    So where is the car right this moment? In the garage in a million pieces! Broken down once again! Water pump started to leak on me at the last track event! And of course the car is being a royal PITA to fix! lol! I promise these cars are reliable!

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    Liberty Township, OH
    Posts
    37,935


    Sent from an S6 Edge
    Call Me Dane l 2/2004 330i ZHP l 18x8 ET45 BBS CK's wrapped with Michelin Pilot Sport AS3+ @ 245-40-18 l KW V1 Coilovers in front l KW V1 springs w/ Bilstein B8 dampeners in rear l BMW Performance Rotors l UUC StrutBarbarian l Racing Dynamics Rear Strut Bar l Jim Conforti Shark Injector l Light Birch Interior Trim l Bimmian Celly Mount l M3 Trunk Mat l l e90 Performance E-Brake & Shift Knob l M3 Tri-Stitched Boots l AL Headlight Retrofit with ZKW Lenses l CobyWheel Wrap w/M3 Stitching l LCM sw 4.5 triple blink and rear fogs l Maple Interior Trim

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Nov 2014
    Location
    Portland, OR
    Posts
    10,242
    Damn, those custom quilted interior door panels are sexy.

    Serious respect for the amount of stuff you've done and dealt with in that car.

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