In the 2 months of ownership I have added or changed 11 things to make the car my own. Of those 11, nine are just what I wanted, there are 2 I am slightly disappointed in.
The first is the Shark Fin delete. It was something a fellow on the Miata Forum was selling on eBay, a small 3-D printed plug that fills the hole on the trunk lid once the satellite radio antenna was removed. He did have some that were professionally painted in stock Miata paint colors, but my car’s Aero Gray wasn’t one of them. I ordered one in white and then bought a spray can of touch-up paint in 52C PaintScratch along with a can of clearcoat to finish it off.
After a little sanding and painting I went to but it place, but it wouldn’t fit in the underside of the trunk lid’s cavity. The “plug” portion wouldn’t line up because the round base was off center in the trunk lid’s round hole. I had to sand about 3/32 of an inch off the front half to get it to fit. When I did get it in and lined up, my Aero Gray touch up did not match the trunk lid’s Aero Gray. I was going to put the shark fin back on, but by then I had decided to vinyl wrap the car so I left it in.
The second item is the Rear Running Light Strip that I bought from CravenSpeed here in Portland. It is a strip red LEDs that are stuck to the underside of the trunk lid that spans between the two tail lights and lights up when ever the lights are on or you hit brakes. A few cars have something like this from the factory, most notably, the Porsche 911. It isn’t as nicely integrated as the 911’s, but it is cool looking. Trouble is, the 2024 Miatas have gone full CAN bus, so that every time I start the car the left info gage in the cluster shows a big old “Rear Brake Light Warning” note that has to be dismissed by by hitting the Info button on the steering wheel. It is a minor hassle to have to do this every time right now, but I’m not sure about how long it will be minor hassle.
