I've always wanted to do a build thread but was always too lazy or didn't think I had enough **** going on to have frequent posts.

Well here it is!

As some of you guy's might know, my MSM a few months ago was hit by a deer on the passenger side and pretty much fuxored the whole side and windshield.










Got to work soon after cleaning and removing the windshield.







Insurance didn't total the car, but sent me a check for $4300 to get it fixed. With the rust on the lower rockers and pinch welds as well as other miscellaneous body damage areas etc I decided to source a clean shell to swap all the nice MSM parts over too.

Fast forward to last weekend, I sourced a mint 99 nb base for $2950 off ebay! 116k on the odo and this thing was clean! Had a local friend take a peak at it for me before I planned my 2000miles trip to pick it up. He gave it the thumbs up so I threw down a deposit and bought some plane tickets.


Flew to Vegas on Friday to pick up the new car. Seriously impressed with it. Totally worth it, I really got a deal! Drove it back across Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, and Illinois with no issues what so ever. It even made it all the way up Pike's Peak and back down with no issues other than the fact at 8,000ft-15,000ft elevation it makes all of 30-50hp.

So the only things wrong with it are as follows:

Needs a new softtop.

Window motors in both doors are iffy at best, need to replace more then likely.

Paint blemish on the driver's side rear quarter... Basically it probably need a paint job. There's no dings or scratches but just wear and tear from a 16 year old car.

One tire has a slow leak.

Alignment is slightly off.

Trunk lights either don't work or just bulbs need replacing.

Ebrake needs adjustment.

When I first picked up the car it was missing the rubber bushings on the radiator brackets but I already knew this and swapped them with my MSM ones before the trip.

Otherwise the car is pristine. Seriously had not one issue with it the entire 2000 miles. I was worried for a bit it might have low compression but as soon as I got into Nebraska quickly realized the car was just down on power from either extreme heat in Nevada or elevation in Utah/Colorado. Seriously don't know how people own cars in those areas cars make no horsepower there! All the way up Pike's Peak had to keep it in 1st-2nd and really ring it our to get going. But I think we had a much easier time then the big 4000lb suv's crowding the roads to the top. Once we got back to normal-ish elevation in Nebraska suddenly the car felt like it had power. Now driving it here in Chicago it feels quite peppy and decently fast. At one point somewhere in Colorado there was a 6 1/2% decline that went on for 7 miles! We got to just put the car in neutral and coast the entire time. Reached speed of almost 95mph by just coasting.

Overall I would rate the trip 10/10 would do again. All though if we could just omit all of the state of Nebraska I'd be ok. What a boring drive.

In no real order:

 

Gave Project 99MSM a much needed bath today. Spent a good amount of time cleaning. Some weird funk coming off the cloth seats I had to basically use one of those carpet cleaners on. Also pretty sure the rain rails haven't been cleaned in forever. I found more gunk in there. I only noticed cause it rained and water was pooled in the back. I'm sure this car has barely seen rain in it's life.



Came out to my car this morning for work and got down my driveway before noticing the tire that was a slow leak the entire trip became a big leak and wouldn't hold any air. So I figured this was good enough time to swap my FFD 15x8's. Car sure looks goofy on stock suspension. Woulda snapped more photos with the HT on but it started downpouring.

 

Over this last weekend I've been fixing little odds and ends with the car. Since the MSM had a recent shifter rebuild I swapped that over to the 99 cause the boot and stuff definitively needed it.

While I was at it, I swapped the center console from the 99 one to the 05 which now means I have 2 cup holders! Yay! Also swapped the MSM radio bezel to match the cc. I also swapped the sun visors from the MSM over to the 99 because the MSM has a mirror on the driver's side which means I can do my makeup in the car.

I moved over the hardtop finally too.



Fab9 sent me a free windshield banner. Not sure if I like it yet. Love thier stuff, but their logo is meh.



Swapped over the enthuza muffler from the MSM. I was half expecting it to sound terrible. But it actually gave the car a nice growl. Very pleased with the sound.




Here we have a 2005 MSM with 105k on it. Spent it's entire life above the salt belt.



Here we have a 99 miata with 116k on it that spent it's entire life below the salt belt...

 

I didn't notice till the other day, but the tail lights on the 99 are different... Not sure if that means one was replaced at some point. I can't see any visible damage or fixed damage signs.

Probably will end up swapping the MSM tails over since I think they look better anyways.

 

I'm probably not swapping the turbo bits for some time. Year or 2 plus. I'm likely going to pull the MSM motor out and sit on it, maybe build it over time. Unless I get super antsy. But I'm really enjoying it being N/A right now. I plan to swap the Suspension bits from the MSM over the coming weekends. Stance coilovers, FM swaybars, 949 links, strut tower brace, and the MSM butter fly brace. After that the next thing will likely be installing the rollbar and an oil cooler with some gauges. I'll probably leave it in that configuration as a nice track setup for a while. Probably over the winter I'll swap the MSM rear-end since not having a LSD is lame. Oh yeah I also have a pretty much barely broken in FM happy meal with the light flywheel in the 5spd on the MSM. I'll be wanting to swap that over too.

This is so much fun because none of these parts or mods cost me any money. Just time to remove and install. It's like Christmas every weekend!

Is it worth my time at all to look into doing a header? I was also thinking about getting the 5xracing adjustable timing wheel. I realize these things will probably net me all of 10hp if that. But I think I can find a rb header or something used on the cheap. The timing wheel I hear will help a little with pickup and acceleration. I just want quick N/A response feel.


Stay tuned for updates!

 

Nice find! A far as I know the later NB sport (incl. MSM) butterfly brace is not a direct fit on the early NB as the studs are not there for attachment.
NB2 subframe brace fits fine, less two bolts, and is an improvement over the NB1 one.

 

Took this shortly after putting the exhaust on. Sounds good.

https://goo.gl/photos/cbb2CdF9G85so6Kw8

 

Need help with this window issue. Pulled off the driver's side door panel and can't for the life of me figure out why the window won't go all the way down. It's like the motor runs out of juice. I cleaned and regreased the windows guides to no avail. I don't think it's a broken cable or anything. What do you guy's think?

 

I had a similar problem with mine. One of the cables inside the door might be stopping the window. Make sure it has a clear path and tie the loose cables out of the way.

 

Well I managed to fix the driver's side window. You were right in that the cables were binding the window. Some zip ties and it's fixed!

The other window on the other hand...








The passenger window would go down but stop. Then after playing with it, it went all the way down and didn't come back up and made some nice clicking noises. Further inspection I noticed practically all the window guides had deteriorated and then I ended up removing the window motor to notice both places where the cables go were cracked and bent.

So looks like I'm pulling the window and motor from the MSM this weekend.

 

Not much to update... haven't really had time to get anything done. Hoping this Saturday to attack a few things like some general maintenance and finish swapping the window assemblies etc.

I also picked this up:



I know it's purple... Gonna paint it. Maybe like a gunmetal or something. It's a bossfrog double diagonal with the bolt-in harness bar. I chose to get one of these over moving my Harddog ACE bar from the msm. The ace bar is nice, but not as aggressive as I'd like for a track car and kinda cramped when using harness's and kirkey seat back bracing. Just where the diagonals met the bar is the same spot as the welded on harness bar. So to fit 2 harness straps then the bracketing was a pita. Ontop of all that the ace bar doesn't come as far over as I'd like. The headrest of the seat isn't quite fully covered by the bar.

I'm hoping to have some more updates after this weekend.

 

Heh i think i took damn near that same exact route home with the MSM when i bought it.

RB header or bust.

Beware, 2 years is a lot of time to make an NB1 stupid fun to the point that you might not even bother throwing the MSM motor in. I don't miss turbo at all.

 

Haha... Yeah starting to feel that way already. This 99 motor is rock solid. I bought a 5xracing timing wheel for some cheap hp.

 

I got some time yesterday and managed to completely swap the MSM passenger door motor and guides to the 99. The new-ish bushings and guides work great!

Just for future record if anyone is curious, I've noticed a slight difference between the msm door card and the 99. Instead of having to pull up the little carpet on the inside of the handle to access the screw when removing the door card, the MSM door card has a second hole just below the handle.



The difference being the little plastic piece that the screw, screws into.



One is more angled and has the screw go directly to it. On the 99 the plastic piece sits flat and has a bracket that bolts to it, which then in-tern the screw that holds the door on, then screws into.

I meant to swap the MSM door card over to the 99 but for some reason just couldn't get it to sit perfectly flush. It was getting late and I was tired of messing with it so I just put the 99 doorcard back on and called it a night. But both windows work perfectly now. I might go back to the driver's side door on the 99 and swap the MSM window and bushings/guides over when I get some extra time.

 

NB2 door panels are not a direct swap to NB1. Door handle sits in a different spot. The easy option since you have an MSM to cannibalize would be to move the rods from the MSM over to the NB1.

 

Ahhh well that makes sense why I couldn't get it to line up right.

 

n/a street car BP?
fun?
*404: does not compute.

 

Looks great Phil!

But needs more K swap

 

Glad you found a nice shell. I saw your posts in the facebook group IIRC. Sad to see that you decided to kill the MSM shell. But, I understand why.

Following your progress. Good luck Maduh.

 

I've had three MSMs in my garage, all kill the batteries with the trunk left open. 2 01 NB2s have not done this. I think in the 03+ upgrade they changed the license plate lights to turn on when the trunk opens, I don't think 99-02 do this, so your trunk lights might not be a problem.

Also, swap your MSM cam over to the 99, that's the setup I have in my '93 right now, and it gives it a great burble on decel.