Miata Mods

Hope Springs Eternal

After our latest two day trip to Hendersonville and back, with a couple of quick trips into the mean streets of Asheville, we have come to the conclusion that the leather seats wouldn’t have helped our comfort level at all. This got me thinking, “What is the big difference between the CTBNL and the Emperor?” The shocks are the same, slightly newer even, but the lowering springs are different. The Emperor had Flyin Miata springs and the CTBNL is sitting on Racing Beat, both trusted long term Miata parts purveyors, but further investigation reveals that the hive knowledge on the forums vastly prefer the Flying Miata units.

The secret is in the spring’s strength numbers. When you shorten the spring length you have to increase its strength to prevent bottoming out. The Miata’s stock springs are rated at 162 lb/in & 118 lb/in (front/rear), the Racing Beat springs that lower the car an inch all around are rated at 195 lb/in & 145 lb/in a slight increase. The Flyin Miata springs, which drop the car about three quarters of an inch, are rated at 318 lb/in & 233 lb/in which is nearly double the stock units.

The Racing Beat springs would probably be just fine if you ran only on race tracks or all smooth roads, but we live in the real world. South Carolina has very cheap gas because we have a very low state tax on it and this translates into plenty of deteriorating roads. Just on my little 6 mile commute there are several places I need to slow way down to cross railroad tracks or traverse drainage dips or edge real close to the center line to avoid burgeoning pot holes or pine tree root bumps. And don’t get me started on the transitions between asphalt roads and concrete bridges…

From my memory the Flyin Miata springs, even though they are stiffer that the stock (and the Racing Beat) shocks didn’t really ride that harsh and they would definitely keep me off the bump stops on the sharp hits of roughness. Today was Suspension Sunday as part of Flyin Miata’s Black Friday sales event with $60 off their springs, so I took the plunge. Not being sure how the Racing Beat bump stops are configured, I went ahead and added the FM bump stops to the order as well. So, in a couple more weeks the CTBNL, with the existing Koni shocks, will be riding on the FM Stage 1 Suspension Package which is the exact same setup as the Emperor had.

This afternoon, both cars got a bath. Didn’t take long to do both, they are small and they were covered only in a bit of road grime.

17,000 Square Inches of Leather

About a month ago I talked of buying leather seats and since then I have placed a set of them in the shopping cart at GoMiata.com…twice…and couldn’t pull the trigger (or click the buy button.)

The first time I did it, I paused just before clicking. I had looked at the image they have on the site and thought I needed to order the body style, but the ordering page said it was unavailable for my vintage Miata. Unsure what to actually order, I called the folks at GoMiata and asked. Turns out that I needed to order the combo style.

The second time was the next day, now knowing what to order (combo style, black with smoke perforated inserts, black stitching and no piping), I paused just before clicking again. The total, with $75 for shipping, came to a nickle less than $700. And I still needed $30 minimum to get the hog ring pliers with some rings, so it was starting to sound like real money and I just couldn’t drop my forefinger that last inch.

Besides, we could really use that $700 towards something else made of leather. Our just shy of 5-year old living room couch looked like leather when new (its not), but now the faux leather outer layer is separating from the polyester base fabric. We’ve tried to extend its life span some by covering the cracks with some tape. Not silver duct tape like Martin Crane’s recliner on Frasier, but by using some Realistic Red Brown Leather Repair Tape. That repair tape is pretty good looking, but unfortunately it is not flexible enough to withstand being sat on.

Today we got in the Mini and hightailed it over to Augusta to buy us a real leather couch from Ashley Furniture. It is very similar in color and look to our current shedding couch, so it fit right our living room. Plus it will fit right in our horse town because right there in the description it says it has “equestrian style.” We opted to call this our Christmas present and splurged by buying the power reclining model. No more having to awkwardly pull at a handle to pop up the footrests, no more having to forceably push down & back to get it to latch closed and we can stop the recline at any angle we want.

Sometime on Saturday, on a different trip to Augusta, the Landybug, which has Carbon Black Leatherette seating, flew past 17,000 miles on her odometer.

58,000 Perferations

Our recent seven-day trip in the CTBNL was the first big road trip we have taken in it since we bought it last year. When we got home both of us commented how the seats in the car didn’t seem as comfortable as the ones in the Emperor. They are the same seats in both cars except the Emperor’s seats were covered in tan leather with about 58,000 perforations in the center sections instead of the black cloth of the CTBNL.

The only thing I can think of that would make that much difference between cloth & leather is stick-a-tude. In the cloth seats, you plunk your butt down and that is pretty much where you stay. This which is why the autocross guys love ’em, you don’t slide around a lot in the turns. With the leather, there is just enough slippage that after a few minutes of driving your butt self-centers in its most comfortable position.

So, we have (re)started to explore getting leather upholstery.

At an MMC Bug Splat event a few years ago, there was a couple in the club who had recently had their seats recovered in leather at a local shop and were showing them off. Because at that time the leather seats in the Emperor were getting tired looking and worn in spots, we had been considering that same job. We oohed and aahed appropriately as both Donna and I thought it looked really nice. When we asked how much it cost, it sounded expensive ($1200), so we tabled the idea and decided to think of the wear on our seats as patina1, not a defect.

That four-figure price above included installation and the hive mind that is the Miata.net Forums say it is a do-it-yourself job. I’ve looked at a couple of guides on there and it is possibly doable even for me, but it will probably take me not the 8 hours claimed, but a whole weekend to do the job. That same wisdom recommends either LeatherSeating.com or Katzkin as the quality leather upholstery to buy. The price (shipped) direct from LeatherSeating is $750. The Katzkins are only sold through re-sellers and there is only one vendor on the forum shopping page that sells them, GoMiata, and a set shipped from them is $670. Either way I’ll still need another $30 for hog-ring pliers and the rings. Coming up with the $700 free dollars won’t be the hardest part about re-upholstering the seats though, it will be setting aside a full weekend of not driving the Miata…

On the way back from Columbia on Saturday the CTBNL passed the 58,000 mile plateau.

Another CTBNL Modification Removal

When I bought the CTBNL from my Fairy Godfather (thanks again David) he had done a few tasteful mods and when he took off a stock part, where he could, he kept the removed item. This is why when we I bought the car I also got a bunch of parts in a box, a few larger things that went in the shed in the back yard and some others went on the departing Emperor.

Now that Donna’s retired, the CTBNL is my daily driver and this means that over the summer I have driven home in a few gully washing type afternoon thunderstorms. When this happens, I will invariably have to drive through a few puddles that have formed along or on the road from the overflow of washed gullies. This then washes the underside of the car causing the accessory belt(s) to squeal in protest (they must like water like cats like baths.)

One of the mods David did was replace the large plastic engine undertray (#13 on this Moss Motors page) with a fancy Beatrush Aluminum Underpanel, so one of the large things in the shed was this huge hunk of plastic. I tried to sell it to members of the MMC, but got no takers. I was going to put it up for sale on the Miata Forum, but opted against it because I did not want to have to figure out how to ship it. Now I’m glad I still have it.

The Beatrush panel is slick looking, if you are laying on the ground looking up at it, but I doubt there is any reduced wind turbulence compared to the OEM plastic piece as they claim. The thing is even heavier than the plastic undertray, so that’s not a plus. The only advantage I see is that it extends past the stock unit to cover up the oil pan and on a lowered car this might be a benefit. But the negative aspect is the sides are open, thereby allowing water to bathe the bottom of the accessory belts when fording impromptu bodies of water. The original plastic piece curls up at the sides sealing off the bottom of the engine compartment better.

So when I jacked up the car on Labor day to rotate tires and change the oil, I put the jack stands one notch higher than usual so I could get under the car easier to take off the Beatrush Aluminum Panel and put the OEM plastic piece back in its place. I’m hoping that this might eliminate the squealing of belts when driving through puddles in the future.

Old New Old Clutch

Astute observers would have noticed my statement yesterday about the Miata spending the last week mostly outside and knowing that the Miata normally resides in a garage would have been asking themselves, “What happened here?” Well, it goes like this:

Early on in the ownership experience with the CTBNL I complimented the previous owner, and my current fairy godfather, on his Miata modification choices as they closely mirrored what I had done to and wanted to do to The Emperor. He thanked me for the ego boost and said that if he had to do it all over again there was on mod he wouldn’t do and that was the lightened flywheel/clutch set-up.

I liked the engine responsiveness from the lightened flywheel. I didn’t like that the clutch required a bit more leg muscle to operate and a lot of finesse to get a smooth start when backing up or from a standing start. I figured I would adjust, six months later and I still hadn’t. I guess the almost 27 years of using a stock Miata clutch was too ingrained to overcome, or that adage about old dogs and new tricks has some basis in fact.

After enough of my constant herky-jerky backing out of the garage, the Bogardus Enterprises CFO told me to go ahead and investigate the cost changing the clutch/flywheel out. That’s when I had a great idea on how to eliminate having to buy any parts. I thought Steve at Panic Motorsports could find a new home for the ACT Street-Lite flywheel and ACT performance clutch that had a mere 8 thousand miles on them. The sale of that would be enough to buy the replacement new OEM components. flywheel, a pressure plate and clutch so I would just need to cover the labor for the job. He thought so too, so a deal was set.

We dropped the car off at Panic in west Columbia last Saturday and just picked it back up. It was actually done last Thursday but circumstances prevented us from retrieving it until yesterday. Judging by the pollen layer on the car it probably spent since Thursday outdoors in the densely pine tree’d area where the shop is.

How Did We Do ????

About a week ago I got an email from my buddy Frank at CroftgateUSA. Today’s post title was the entirety of the body of that email. I wrote back to say that I hadn’t used either of the products yet. Last week it pretty much rained the whole time and this week is supposed to be a repeat, so on what was to be the only marginally nice weather day in a fortnight, Saturday I washed the Miata. I started in the usual way with a soapy bucket of water, a fresh water hose rinse and drying with a squeegee and several towels.

Then I broke out the special sauce and followed the instructions on the spray bottle: spray on surface, spray on microfiber towel, wipe surface with towel, then buff with separate microfiber towel. I will have to admit that the matte stripes do look cleaner and nicer. Whether that is placebo effect or an actual difference, I don’t know…anyway, we’ll see how it works. Especially how it handles beading water on paint.

I’m gathering the makings of the glove box light. The little LEDs are in hand and the switch is on its way. Figuring where to mount what and wiring it up, well those details are sketchy at the moment.

It is not all fun and games here at LOB HQ though, the CTBNL is afflicted with what every Miata of a certain age gets, slow power or hard to crank windows. Mazda in their effort to save weight or money or both sourced a plastic window bushing guide with a useful life of 8 years or 10,000 ups or downs. Now you can get these same guides on the aftermarket made from Delrin which will outlive the car. I’ve got a set on the way from Rspeed and might be just the rainy weekend project.

Notice Anything Different? – Part II

black-accents

They are 1″ wide flat black accent stripes…

When I asked the folks at Charleston Wraps about my gloss black stripes as wax buffer plan, they cautioned against it. Paste wax and any vinyl is not recommended. They suggested I should get something called Wrap Care After Care JP from a company called Croftgate. So I scrapped the gloss black and ordered up some one inch wide flat black vinyl from vinylstriping.com.

I went to the Croftgate site for the recommended product and was put off by bullet point #2: Long lasting protection with a brilliant shine, so I contacted the company and asked about it. The fellow who replied said not to worry about that, as the words “brilliant shine” were aimed at the glossy wrap crowd. So I asked in return, what do you have that I could use as a wax/protectant on both the vinyl stripes and the cars paint. Frank thought that something called Wrap Care Matte & Gloss Cleaner would fit the bill.

I checked it out, and it sounded alright, but I wondered if the stuff called Wrap Care Matte & Gloss Sealant would work better for both paint and stripe. I went ahead and ordered a bottle of the Sealant product. I emailed Frank from Croftgate a thank you for your time thing and told him what I ordered. He replied, “We’ll get your order out right away and I drop a little something extra in the box for you.”

Frank came through in spades, I got a bottle of the sealant and he put a bottle of the cleaner in there too. Aannnd…a couple of their microfiber towels too. Over sixty bucks worth of stuff for my $30. Maybe this weekend I’ll get a chance to use the wrap care products and then take a nicer photo of the black accents.