My Miatas

In 1993 I bought my first new car, a white A-package Miata (crank windows, no AC). I really wanted a black and red '93 LE, but it was too expensive.

The next year I was taken by the promise of a bigger engine, more safety features, and other upgrades of the 1994 line. So I took the 93 back and traded up to - a 94 M Edition! It was loaded with leather, power everything, plus M edition goodies! I spent the next couple years playing with and adding to it - chrome style bar, front and rear airdams and mudflaps, vinyl stripes, extra bracing, underhood brace, lighted rear view mirror, pretty much anything I could get my hands on. It was a beauty when I sold it to buy my first classic Mustang project.

My current Miata (number 3 for me) is a red, 1991, base model. No frills. Not even power steering. This would have been one of those miatas that came with steel wheels. When I bought it in 11/2003 it had 108k on it, and it was in this guy's driveway, covered by a tarp held down with lumber. It was scratched up and had been in an accident, though it still passed mechanical inspection, and my mechanic said he thought it was pretty nice, and had been fixed right. He gave me a list of things he thought it needed fixed soon, but none of them were beyond my abilities to handle (or pay someone to handle), so I bought it and called it my little 'scratch & dent special'.

Unfortunately I soon learned the tarp was necessary because the car had all it's drain holes plugged and the interior filled up two inches deep with water before I found out. I got the drains flowing again, and emptied it out, then pulled out all the damp, nasty carpet padding and dried it out.

Someone before I bought it put a nice set of Konigs on it.

Unfortunately someone also added a factory luggage rack. Not my style.

I added a ding where I backed into the fencepost in our driveway. Ouch!

I also added red door panels, a red shift boot, and a red leather-covered shift knob.

I bought an original radio for it and sent it off to Jeff Anderson for the Miata radio special treatment. He sent back the hot-rodded radio with an aux out for my iPod and headrest speakers. This was also a good time to replace my center radio/hvac bezel, which some ham-handed radio installer had broken at every mounting point, leaving it rattling loose. I found one on eBay (the source for all things), installed the original radio, cubby, and new bezel, and made the center console all like new again. Sweet.

Unfortunately Miata doesn't always get treated like a princess. Most of the time it has to tough it out and just be a regular car.

I love working on my miata. Oh, is that a Corvette in the background? How did that get there ;) That's a toy we don't have anymore! Here I am replacing my failed clutch cylinder and bleeding it. I also did my own timing belt and water pump when the time came.

In Summer '05 I took it autocrossing at PIR, but it had a problem with the idle and just wasn't acting itself. I spent untold hours trying to trace down the problem with the help of the folks on Miata.net forums. I did eventually find a bad TPS, and I replaced the battery with a correct one, and cleaned up the grounds, and did a lot of stuff that needed doing. Now it drives fine. It's so fast and zippy, able to dodge bigger slower cars that try to run over it in traffic, I call it "The Squirt".

On my previous miatas I'd purchased a lighted rearview mirror from a Miata vendor, but this time I bought a lighted rearview mirror off a late model Mustang convertible cheap off of eBay and figured out how to wire it up myself. Works perfect. I wish I had saved the pictures of the install, I pretty much ended up removing the entire interior to put it in!

I also added trunk lights by buying a set of Miata interior lights and the door switch, and wired them up in the trunk, inserting the lights into the rear interior panel, and the switch so the trunk pushes it down when it closes. So when I open the trunk, I have light in there too.

Sometime in '05 I found a guy on Craigslist selling a set of Cragar BBS-like wheels - powdercoated red. I had to snap those up. He was in Seattle but he met us in Centralia to hand them off. I get a lot of flack from the tire guys for putting those 'old skool' wheels on it, but I love them.

I also found a guy on Craigslist selling this Racing Beat streamline rear deck cover for a price so reasonable it might be a knockoff. But I don't care. Sure, it needs paint, and we get a lot of sudden rain showers so it's inconvenient to leave on for long periods of time, but still - it's so coooool!

11/06 I was browsing the Maz-Toy junkyard site online and saw they had a red trunk with a spoiler. We jumped in the car and ran over there (it's not far away). It was pouring rain, and they led us out to the yard where they showed us a 93 red and tan Miata that had rolled (yikes!). But the trunk lid looked ok so I handed over the cash. Half an hour after I got home my Miata looked like this. Gone was the nerdy luggage rack, in goes a little rear spoiler! I was so excited, because I'd wanted this for a long time (like for every Miata I've owned) and never got around to it! This is going to look so freaking cool with that rear deck cover next summer!

I LOVE my Miata!

Pictures taken 3/29/07

I tried to sell it in March, but I had second thoughts. I can't imagine going a summer without a Miata. I just feel like I'm spoiled having an extra car just for fun. But it is fun.

June 6, 07

Last week I was at the post office when a Bronco in front of me threw it into reverse to let someone pull out of a spot he wanted, and before I could hit the horn - kronch! There goes the front corner light. His insurance paid out for it. I am going to replace the light, clean up the scuff as best I can, and not worry about it until the day comes that I can afford to fix that and the dent on the back corner (where I backed into the gatepost). It will probably need a complete paint job someday, so I'll just wait for that. I figure no point making the nose perfect when it will still have a dent on it's butt!

August 6, 07

Two months later and I've found a solution to my scuffed nose - ta-dah!!

Generally I don't like bras because they scuff the paint, but in this case...

stefrobrts@stephanies-mustang.com