mxteryman

I'm excited to tell the story of my car. I hope someone besides me enjoys this, but at the very least I plan on getting a lot of joy out of writing and updating the 'saga' of my lovely little MX5.



My dad was always a 'car guy', maybe better described as a 'closet car guy'. When I was growing up he favored utility and practicality but after the NA was released always wanted one. He bought new cars every 4 or 5 years, and it wasn't until he was in his 70s that he decided he could do something for himself. So, in 2012 or 2013, I don't exactly recall when, my father went on the lookout for an NB2 with <gasp> an automatic. I grew up in the Chicago suburbs - and my folks were living there when he found 'The Car' in Milwaukee. He picked up a little beauty - a 4,000 mile NB2 base automatic for around $12k.



He loved the car. Everything about it. The simplicity of it. The fact that he could fit a carry on suitcase in the trunk for a weekend getaway to Wisconsin. It was his favorite car in a long line of vehicles he'd owned or driven since he was 14 on the farm.



He lost his 20+ year battle with Leukemia 2 years ago. My mom had the car in the garage and wasn't sure what she was going to do with it. She didn't think she could keep it and offered it to me. I wasn't sure I could do it either, it wasn't (and still really isn't) 'mine'. I took it and parked it - not really sure what to do next.



Before he passed away he had the 10 year service done to it, new water pump, timing belt, and a number of other things done to it at the dealer (and holy MOSES that was expensive). I took the car in with about 16,000 miles on the clock in 2018.

I made the decision I had to make it 'mine'. Here is where we started.





I started collecting parts for a manual swap. I picked up a 5MT from some kind soul on miata.net for $50 plus shipping (which was $100). I sold some stuff out of the garage and kept buying things here and there. More on that in a bit.



If you're wondering about the garage door - we live on a little golf course and that's the spot for the golf cart - so it is a 'tandem' 3 car garage. Two spots are side by side, and what you see there is facing the BACK of the house. The Miata would be really close to being able to fit out that door, but I've not actually tried.



Here I was proud of my work getting the shorty antenna in and after a wash it didn’t leak. I was so excited that I managed to ‘do something’ that I took a picture.




After I parked it I noticed that there was red fluid underneath it...then noticed the power steering pump starting making a lot of noise. I put some Lucas Leak Stop in it (for PS) and it was good for a year. This year it went from a trickle to putting fluid in and having it come right out of the rack. Since it was going to be needing an alignment, I figured I'd do some work on it and picked up a set of Mazdaspeed springs, sways, FM endlinks, and KYB AGX shocks. I set about doing the very first suspension swap I have ever done - I've never considered myself 'handy'...and two days and a very dirty 'me' later and I had successfully swapped the suspension myself. Clearly I managed to not kill myself with the spring compressor, too.






My new found confidence in my skills led me to do a little stereo swap on it. I'd never removed door cards before, I was always TERRIFIED to do so...but I stuck a pair of ~$90 6x8 Alpine speakers in the door and a Carplay headunit.

It sounds plenty good for me - and I can actually hear it at 80mph. This little project led to me to do a speaker swap on my Tacoma, too.

Next it needed to be sent out to get the steering rack installed - that was not something I was brave enough to attempt.

I ended up buying this rack from Advanced Autosports in Beloit, WI.

And this is where I feel like a dumbass and thank the good people of Advanced Autosports...It showed up without any lines on it, I didn't really know what I was looking at. And my guy doing the swap was a little surprised it didn't have lines on it - so he carefully swapped my lines over from my old rack. Fired up the car, and the rack was leaking everywhere. That's because this was a DEPOWERED rack. The folks at Advanced Autosports have agreed to take it back and give me a refund for it. Look 'em up if you are looking for a depowered rack. I want something street friendly.









After a swap of the rack (well a swap and a swap again), I was in business. I brought her back home and got the name of a local Miata Hero (Cameron, you are my HERO! ) who agreed to do a manual swap on the car. I went out and took some pics before that was started...


That's VtecKiller2000 himself on the right, MxteryMan (c'est moi) on the left. Note the social physical distancing - this is summer 2020 here.

MUCH more to come

mxteryman

Updates 1

mxteryman

Updates 2

mxteryman

Updates 3

HarryB

The car looks fantastic, up to the point I would consider keeping it totally stock (besides the manual swap)

mxteryman

Thanks!

More posts coming, it's come a lot further but I think it is 'tastefully' done. And it's sort of a "forever project" for me. More posts in the next few days.