Miata Mods
Goodbye License Plate
What amounts to the shortest Mod reversal in my Miata career occurred tonight, after only 9 days I took off my Faux Japanese Plate.
I thought I might have had a taker for it in the Miata.net community, but I haven’t heard back, so I guess not. May try and sell it on eBay. I’ll box it up on Monday and see what it weighs, then I’ll list it. Unless somebody reading this wants it, $25 plus shipping that is the plate and the custom mount for a Miata.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 23
Tokyo Taxi
Got the Japanese front license plate mounted this evening. A friend at work made up a mount out of 1/8 aluminum and bent it according to my fancy-schmancy AutoCAD drawing. According to Tim, he doesn’t do holes or windows, so I spent my lunchtime drilling the 4 mounting holes and the 2 plate mounting holes (both in the bracket and the plate.)
Tonight when I got home I painted the bare aluminum with some flat black paint that I last used to cover up the stock muffler, which for whatever reason, was plainly visible in the rear view of the car.
Although there are four holes in the mount, there are only three used to bolt it to the car. Because I didn’t want to have to disassemble nearly the entire front underbody plastic cladding to have unfettered access to the mounting points, I managed to only get two bolts in. After once again dropping the 3rd bolt on the third attempt, I gave up. Believe me when I say that 2 is more than sufficient to hold this little license plate and it’s bracket to the car. The things I took out were there to tie down the car to the deck of the ship that brought it over from Japan, one bolt would probably be enough…
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 17
White Face
I have always thought that the proper color for fog lights was yellow, so I bought some of those Lamin-x fog light protectors in yellow. They would protect the lenses, make them the proper color and tie in the amber side markers and yellow turn signal bulbs. Ah, the best laid plans…
The OEM fog lights aren’t very good as fog lights and the amber color is different from either the turns signals or the side markers. Step one was to turn the useless fogs into something maybe useful, daytime running lights. Step two I accomplished today, removed the yellow Lamin-x, added some clear side markers in the front and a pair stealth bulbs for the turn signals. A subtle difference to be sure, but hey I’m happy, and when Brian is happy, everybody’s happy.
Here are some comparison images:
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 17
Mod Fever
I’ve got a C note earmarked for Miata mods burning a hole in my pocket.
I started out going to buy some clear side markers for the front and some stealth turn signal bulbs. I would then pull off the yellow lamin-x fog light protectors, giving the front of the car a unified white light look.
Then I tossed around adding teeth again. I had some Alley Gator ones on the Laguna, so I would like something different this time. The only other one I really like is the Diablo, but in my travels along the Miata lane of the information superhighway this weekend I have come across two cars with those teeth installed, one of which is a Garnet Red! Are thet too popular or was this just a random happenstance.
My other thought is to go with something I saw on a car at the Rspeed Open House last year – A side mount for a front license plate with a Japanese tag on it. South Carolina doesn’t require a front tag, so if others can put a “GO COCKS!” tag on their cars…
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 14
Done
Jacked up one side of the car this morning and mounted the other side sill. Amazing how quickly the whole process goes when you know how to do it and have a nice sharp drill bit. I sprayed each hole drilled with some flat black rustoleum I had laying around. I’m sure some folks would have gone out and bought some nice zinc based primer (and still some people might have had the proper stuff to begin with) but because we don’t live in a state that has salted roads in the winter and my tenure with each Miata is about 7 years, I’m definitely not going to be worried about any rust. The effect is subtle, but in my humble opinion a nice improvement on the looks of the car.
One Down, One To Go
It only took me 3-1/2 hours to get one side sill on. To be fair, some of that time was taking the front mud flaps off. A big chunk of that time spent, even though I pre-read the directions, was reading and re-reading the instructions. They are not exactly clear in a lot of ways. I’m sure that comes from them being originally in Japanese and then translated into English. And you definitely want to make sure you understand exactly how things are supposed to go when you are drilling holes into you car.
Speaking of drilling you were supposed to use a 1/8 drill for a pilot hole and then a 21/64 for the finish hole. Raise your hand if you have a 21/64 drill bit handy. I didn’t. I did have a 5/16, which is close enough for my shade tree mechanicing. Trouble was it was kinda dull making it slow going drilling out the 10 holes. That’s right 10 holes, it was supposed to be 9, but for some reason I insisted on drilling out a perfectly good threaded hole. No wonder I broke my 1/8 drill bit…
Tomorrow morning I’ll do the other side. Should only take about an hour and a half now that I know what I’m doing.