When I made the profile picture for the CTBNL I was so proud of it I used it nearly everywhere. I used it on Fuelly to replace a Miata photo. So over on the left there was one “icon” representing a Miata and one picture representing the Sonata. The Purple Whale was crying for its own icon. I hated to see him so sad, so…
I have caricatures of the last two Miatas framed and hung on the wall in the computer room. They were done by a fellow over in Scotland, Dave Scott, who had a business called Carartz that would do personalized drawings of your car. When we were contemplated buying a 4th generation Miata I thought maybe I’d get him to do one of that car too. I couldn’t find him. The website carartz.com is for sale and searching for “Dave Scott artist Scotland” turns up a bunch of David Scott’s, but none in the caricature business.
Didn’t matter, we didn’t get a 4th gen Miata, we got another 2nd gen, so that caricature still stands for it. Today in my Miata Google Alert email along with the usual Redit posts and Craigslist ads were a few things from a site called RedBubble that wanted to sell me T-shirts or stickers or drawings. Curiosity got the better of me and I clicked on the drawings link and found a fellow called car2oons that does personalized caricatures of cars. Right there in his header image is not only a nice line art drawing of a 1st gen Miata, but a caricature of one as well. I looked through his portfolio and saw a line drawing of a 2nd gen car, but no caricature, so I contacted him. He replied within an hour saying he’d be happy to whip up a customized one for the CTBNL and asked for a photo.
A 12″ x 16″ is only a little more than $18 and if I watch the Hobby Lobby ads for 1/2price picture frames I can get it on the wall for around fifty bucks total. Maybe I can go ahead and complete the whole set of Miatas owned. Our first one never got modified in any appreciable way and I bet he’d be willing to lose the Euro style front plate of the one he already sells too.
Alternate Post Title: Reunited
The previous owner of the CTBNL passes right by the Valve Store on most days when he goes into Aiken proper and if he times his look over just so, he can see his old Miata siting there in the back corner of the parking lot. Well, sometime in the recent days he just couldn’t help himself anymore, he pulled in and parked next to me to snap the above photo of his 1973 Orange 914 and its former stablemate.
On the way home from the Valve Store today the CTBNL passed the 49,000 mile mark. In the last two months I have put almost as many miles on the car as David did in the year and a half or so of ownership. Then again I don’t have a fleet of Porsche 914s and a Porsche Boxster (not to mention a Jeep Wrangler and maybe more) to choose from when I leave the house.
Almost hard to tell that it is there in the photos, but my clear lexan wind blocker project is complete. Well, sort of. After it was installed my navigator said, “Do you think maybe we could find some black screws?”
Materials required to make one wind blocker are 5′ of black plastic door edge guard ($2.71), two 1-7/8″ plastic coated loop clamps ($1.55), one 18″ x 24″ x 1/8″ thick lexan sheet ($10.56) and a couple of 5/16-18 bolts and nuts (0¢) for a total cost of $14.82.
But it cost more to make this one. I had to buy 18′ of the black plastic door edge guard ($9.74). I had to buy ten of the 1-7/8″ plastic coated loop clamps ($7.74), smaller or even larger ones were available separately, but not the 1-7/8″ size. I needed to buy two of 18″ x 24″ x 1/8″ thick lexan sheets ($21.12) because I cracked the first one when drilling the holes. The pair of the 5/16-18 bolts and nuts were still free (0¢). So the project really cost me $38.60, but it was well worth it because nobody makes a wind blocker for this particular roll bar.
Can you tell we’ve been to the Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia recently? Yesterday was the Valve Store’s Family Fun Day and instead of the usual picnic on the front lawn and handing out tickets to the Eastern Carolina Fair, the company gave everyone and their extended family tickets to the zoo and served us lunch there. Donna and I got there just as the gates opened and caught some of the animals before they had a chance to put on their game faces.
