What did you do to your vehicle today?

[bcrdukes]

Lots of rocks, gravel, flies/bugs, and rubber pieces. My car has gotten worse since going to the track.

[bcrdukes]

Originally Posted by EvoFire

A track wrap is when you are cheap and only wrap bits of the car that get dinged and not the whole car. Nothing to do with the material itself and everything to do with my insufficient wallet

Oh, I just saw this.

Interesting...

[EvoFire]

You can see next week what the track wrap is. I regret not doing the full wrap but my wallet didn't allow me to.

[red kryptonite]

That settles it. No wrap for me, there are better things to do with 5k than troll around in a lego mobile.
I think the key point we all blew over is I was quoted 5k to wrap 80% of a damn mini.

[bcrdukes]

Just enjoy the car. And if you really want to troll, change your username to ecafllort and use Badhobz avatar but flipped.

[roastpuff]

I wish the S2000 was in a good enough condition to put PPF on it.

The PPF on my A4 has paid for itself over many times.

[OriginalJC]

Originally Posted by underscore

I jad something similar happen after manual swapping the Prelude, a clip came off one of the cable housings and I couldn't get any gear below 3rd. Maybe go for a late night drive and do some hard shifts and see if it holds up, or take a look in there in a couple days and see if it's staying in place.

Was away for a business trip, and got back this week. Took the time to take it all apart again and double check everything.

My late night repair job, though "working" and seemingly ok, it 100% would have popped off again. A little finger pressure had the shifter cable pop off the shifter base lol. It is now properly secured on, doesn't budge now with pretty strong pressure. No clips broken, but made a minor chip on my shift knob when I spun the shift knob off the threads and it went flying

While I was away, my new carbon fibre flat bottom steering wheel arrived. I'm just going to have Garage5 install it when I get my exhaust installed...

[djstyles]

Installed a Goodwin Racing shock tower brace and front subframe brace on the Miata today. I'm pleasantly surprised at the noticeable reduction of cowl shake and overall NVH, any further improvements to the car would be a bonus.

[EvoFire]

Did you have to scrape away the undercoating where the subframe brace goes on? Or there's a square just open like that? Looks ripe for potential rust down the road.

What you are saying is making me remember rigid collars which help center the subframe. AJR seems to sell a version of it for the ND.

https://aj-racing.com/products/rigid...42921712418978

[Traum]

oh man... that subframe brace looks awesome! Is it for the front?

[djstyles]

Originally Posted by EvoFire

Did you have to scrape away the undercoating where the subframe brace goes on? Or there's a square just open like that? Looks ripe for potential rust down the road.

What you are saying is making me remember rigid collars which help center the subframe. AJR seems to sell a version of it for the ND.

https://aj-racing.com/products/rigid...42921712418978

No, my car has the undercoating. The picture of the subframe brace is from the website I bought it from and I used it since I didn't take a pic when I was under the car.

I thought about doing the collars too but it seems like a lot for two pieces of metal, nevertheless its on the list of potential mods. My next mod will probably be the rear shock tower brace from Cusco to tie everything together.

[djstyles]

Originally Posted by Traum

oh man... that subframe brace looks awesome! Is it for the front?

Yes its for the front.

[Traum]

GWR had 2 pieces for rear subframe brace for the NC, and I had wanted to purchase them. But they only sell those as part of the whole underside vehicle brace kit, and I didn't want the whole thing, so I never ended up having any underside bracing done at all...

[68style]

Originally Posted by Traum

GWR had 2 pieces for rear subframe brace for the NC, and I had wanted to purchase them. But they only sell those as part of the whole underside vehicle brace kit, and I didn't want the whole thing, so I never ended up having any underside bracing done at all...

I have been trying to dig back to find the post I think it was you made about things to watch out for on the NC after I bought one and posted a pic of it and I'll be damned if I can find it... do you recall where it was???

[Traum]

I have no idea where that post would be anymore LOL~

But off the top of my head, I think these are some of the more common issues associated with the NC?

- cracked / brittle OEM plastic coolant tank -- aluminum versions avaiable from aftermarket

- best to remove the small (engine) cover that covers up the ignition coils. Over time the cover will pinch on the wires connecting the coil pack. When the wire breaks, you'll have no spark.

- (under) cowl opening where the OEM foam piece would age and disintegrate, allowing water ingress to the footwell -- the opening is there on both the left and right side of the cowl, accessible from outside the car

- clogged rear water drains (close to the door, accessible from the top with the convertible top partially opened)

- garbage OEM engine mounts -- GWR Roadster sport version is much better for performance driving, without introducing a ton of NVH

- clutch, brake, or gas assembly (I can't remember which one it is) that will see metal fatigue over time, and eventually cracks. Weld on gusset reinforcements recommended.

- shifter lockout plate is made out of plastic. Wears out over time, and could cause shifting into first / second difficult

- soldering in windows switch eventually cracks with age

- rust build up on the black metal piece immediately behind the small triangular window on the door

- general rust proofing just isn't that good on the NC (a Mazda "tradition", I guess?)

- stock headers are super restrictive garbage

I'm sure there are more things to watch out for, but the NC is still by far the car I've had the most amount of fun in (with clothes on ), as well as one of the most reliable out of all the vehicles I've owned.

[djstyles]

Originally Posted by Traum

GWR had 2 pieces for rear subframe brace for the NC, and I had wanted to purchase them. But they only sell those as part of the whole underside vehicle brace kit, and I didn't want the whole thing, so I never ended up having any underside bracing done at all...

Most of my Miata mods were purchased from Goodwin Racing (GWR). I've probably spent around $1600USD with them already. I'd highly recommend them for anyone with any generation of Miata looking for mods. Fast shipping (FedEx) and I haven't been charged any duties or tariffs for some reason. Flying Miata is great too but I had to pay fees on some things.

[EvoFire]

I think Traum got most of them.

We got the GWR bracing kit for the NC and honestly it didn't feel like it made a huge difference. My friend got the Cobalt front strut tower brace to replace the OEM one because you can't adjust coilovers top dial with the stock brace. He said the Cobalt brace was better than stock. I have driven it since but can't tell a difference but I didn't push it.

There are seat lower rails you can get which would help you sit lower in the car to give a bit more clearance. There are also better door bushings so there's less overall cowl and door shake when driving as you use the door as better bracing for the chassis itself.

[djstyles]

Originally Posted by EvoFire

I think Traum got most of them.

We got the GWR bracing kit for the NC and honestly it didn't feel like it made a huge difference. My friend got the Cobalt front strut tower brace to replace the OEM one because you can't adjust coilovers top dial with the stock brace. He said the Cobalt brace was better than stock. I have driven it since but can't tell a difference but I didn't push it.

There are seat lower rails you can get which would help you sit lower in the car to give a bit more clearance. There are also better door bushings so there's less overall cowl and dooshake when driving as you use the door as better bracing for the chassis itself.

Yeah the only thing I can definitively say it does it reduce cowl shake by a large margin and NVH. Others on the Miata forum say the steering feels sharper and maybe it is??? The front end feels more solid and this is most evident on bad pavement. The door bushings are great too because they're inexpensive and avaliable at tons of places.

[OriginalJC]

I didn't want to wait to have the steering wheel installed at G5, so just did it myself. Was alot faster on the FL5 than swapping the steering wheel on the FK8.

Real CF wheel with perforated leather, picked up from Unity performance.

[Badhobz]

^god damn that looks good !!! But I guess this takes away the heated steering wheel ? Or does the CTR not have a heated steering wheel ?

[OriginalJC]

Originally Posted by Badhobz

^god damn that looks good !!! But I guess this takes away the heated steering wheel ? Or does the CTR not have a heated steering wheel ?

Thanks! No the CTR doesn't have heated steering wheel. I think the Integra Type S does

[Matsuda]

Installed my carbon fiber gurney flap on my rear spoiler. Hard to photograph though

[mb_]

Said goodbye after 10 years

[JDMDreams]

It's not a beetle why are you Heiling

[Traum]

Originally Posted by mb_

Said goodbye after 10 years

I know that feeling, man...

To the next car / bike!