In reply to Subscriber-unavailabile :
I happened to catch a discussion in a facebook group chat where the car was mentioned. At which point Spacecadet, probably remembering how much I had been annoying him with rants about getting my Caprice or my Saturn ready for autocross season, realized I could probably find plenty of use for this car. He then suggested it in the chat. I immediately brushed it off...but the seed was planted well enough that it didn't take much of a push for me to talk myself into needing the car. So I bugged Mazdeuce about it and we came to an agreement and now we're here.
Gotcha, this site is my only social media so I miss out on all the good deals.
I'm bout to sell Janky my 98zx2 and been trying find something lil funner. When I bought it I had dreams of auto/rally X but it's an old escort...
Good news is it's closer to me for when Daylan gets tired of a reliable car.
The car drives pretty darn good, but it shifts like stirring cookie dough with a large mouth bass. Let's take things apart and see why! The shift.....tower? Cap? Whatever that thing is where you can see that it looks like it slid over because the bolts are loose? Yea, the bolts are loose.
Tightening those took about 80% of the fish out of the shifting. A little more exploration and stirring showed that the bottom bushing was good and the top was acceptable, but the whole thing moved up and down too freely. I think the torn rubber bit is supposed to provide tension in one direction or another.
Short of spending actual dollars on proper parts, which Daylan doesn't want me to do, what do I have laying around? How about a strip of inner tube and a zip tie? That'll do.
The big boot is also torn, like so, this is is really just a data point for Daylan.
And since I have all that inner tube.......
And pile the old padding up around where it cam from and things nearly seal properly-ish.
So where are we at? It's not a gated Ferrari shifter, but the fish is gone. It feels like an acceptable Miata. Not a great Miata, but I think the drive home will be nice.
Today in east Texas was beautiful, so I cleaned the Golfball. It made me happy.
I usually start with a test scrub on a door panel to see how much scrubbing is needed. Not terrible, but it's not clean.
Door panels, dash and console cleaned up very well.
One of the previous owners was a lotion wearer. Touch surfaces had this sort of.....stuff on them. Toothbrush and Purple power.
It all cleaned up nice as well.
I really think this car led a very pampered life until recently. The door rubber is super healthy. The interior plastics are nice. The seats are shot, but if you look past those, this car is in fantastic shape and was clearly garaged for most of it's life. It's way better than I thought it was.
The engine bay was a bit dirty. Sorry for the odd angles, I was dealing with sunlight/shadow issues.
Cleaned up VERY well. If I had more time I'd go full Cousin Eddie. This has the potential to be beautiful under the hood.
Washed the outside. Only had time to wax the hood. I might get more done this week, we'll see.
It's too bad about the hail damage. It's a handsome car. On the other hand, if it didn't have hail damage it would be worth three times as much. I think Daylan is going to have an exceptionally nice dimply car.
In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :
The dimples should make it faster, that's how a golf ball works, right? Or will they just make it spin more?
In reply to Pete Gossett :
You'd be surprised
https://youtu.be/VUiGhyHC-1A
I'm definitely not counting days over here or anything...
This work thing I've got now is certainly affecting my wrench hours. Instead of dropping the kids off at 8:00, going grocery shopping, and then wandering out to the Grosh at 10:00 ish, I'm heading to the store at 4:30, back home at 5:30 to say goodbye to Mrs. Deuce, and then an hour of poking around in the Grosh before heading back in to wake up the kids. On top of that, I don't really have time to just take 20 minute test drives any more during the week. I'll use less than 1/2 tank of gas before Daylan takes over. I hope I don't miss anything due to insufficient testing.
I did change the oil this morning. God I hate Miata filter placement. It leaks oil. I don't think it's LOTS of oil. I just think it's been going on for a while. I'd certainly start with cam seals when doing a timing belt and go from there.
One smush on the passenger frame rail, but still the most complete I've ever seen a Miata from a metal shape standpoint. 18 years and 206k miles in Texas and this is what you get. Remember this the next time you want to buy a local midwestern car instead of doing a fly and drive.
For perspective, here is a pic of a 2006 Chevy Equinox from Cleveland, Ohio with just 66k actual miles on the odo.
This is where the engine cradle meets (or should meet) the frame rail. Front passenger side. The car was hit (on the driver's side) but the impact seems to have caused the rust-weakened point to break free.
SO I'm now officially a part of this journey barring bad weather.
Current plan is to meet Day lan at the Houston Airport friday night of the pickup weekend. then we're headed back ot DFW to drop hazmat saturday morning and then we'll head northeast towards nashville. I have a 7pm flight that sunday night out of nashville.
This is gonna be a fun adventure
Well now I'm super happy that I cleaned up the passenger seat. It's nice. You'll like it. 
Glad you decided you could do it.
spacecadet said:
Current plan is to meet Day lan at the Houston Airport
Just be cautious around Night Ian.
dculberson said:
spacecadet said:
Current plan is to meet Day lan at the Houston Airport
Just be cautious around Night Ian.
We don't talk about Night Ian. Not since the incident. The dog still has nightmares.
I acquired some good parts today for the golfball..
my coworker used to have NB2 miata and asked if I wanted any of his spare parts for Ronald..
I asked him what he wanted and $20 bought me the whole lot.
he delivered them to me today during lunch. we park on opposite sides of the building.
solid haul for $20.
and it all goes home with Daylan.
And with that I've bought parts for a car I haven't seen in person yet. So things are about normal.
Daylan C said:
And with that I've bought parts for a car I haven't seen in person yet. So things are about normal.
its not grm without having parts for a car you dont own yet.
That's rad. My last project on the car was to make a trunk floor. That problem just solved itself.
Daylan C said:
dculberson said:
spacecadet said:
Current plan is to meet Day lan at the Houston Airport
Just be cautious around Night Ian.
We don't talk about Night Ian. Not since the incident. The dog still has nightmares.
Day Ian, enemy of the Night Ian
In reply to thatsnowinnebago :
You win the internet for the day already and it's only 3am.
Dang. Heck of a deal. I'm a bit jealous, but I'm sure it'll be a great car for you Daylan.
Is it too soon to get on the dibs list for if you sell it?
In reply to AWSX1686 :
Somebody(name rhymes with Spacecadet) may have spoken up for it already. It'll get posted here first for sure though.
Golfball spent the last week in the Grosh because it has zero use in my life right now. I want to drive it, but there just isn't the chance. I did pull it out on Saturday to bring kid#4 to a school thing though and this car drives nice. Cruise works, cigarette lighter port works, everything works. It did leave this on the floor sitting for a week. It leaks. That's maybe two tablespoons of oil. Going to have to pay attention to that.
Last thing that needed fixing was the passenger side license plate light. A tab is broken and it falls out.
Command strips to the rescue! This is how and why it's like that Daylan or whoever has to deal with it in the future.
The car is coming with this custom tool as well. It's a combination radio button pusher and fuel door opener. I think I've gotten the fuel door working properly, but initially it did need a bit of help. Absolutely need it for some radio buttons, emergency use for fuel door. Very handy.
And finally the spare tire. It loses about 10psi per day. This is not ideal behaviour in a spare tire. We should be able to hit it with 75psi on Saturday morning and it will work as an acceptable emergency device until Daylan gets home. I don't think it's worth it to put more effort into a 4x100 doughnut spare when they are so available in junkyards. That is a Daylan project.
I'm still slightly paranoid that I missed something and things are going to go pear shaped and it will be all my fault. A huge part of me wants to be the one driving it to Daylan so I'm taking the risk. But if I feel confident to drive it to Kentucky myself (which I do) then shouldn't I feel fine about Daylan driving it? I should.
