Boy’s First Car -1993 Miata

As is required, here's the beginning of a build thread for a car I haven't bought yet. That'll happen later today. It's a 1993.  No A/C, power steering, or power windows.

My son turns 16 in March  He's been looking for a car for a while.  Most everything in Tucson is flogged, sun burned, and grossly overpriced.  This one is none of the above  

The wheels are hideous and will go soon. The tires are 2020 date code but probably only have 1,000 miles on them. The body isn't great, but the paint has shine. In Arizona, that's hard to find. The car spent its first 29 years in Minnesota, and was garaged in the winter. The underside is surprisingly clean. 
 

Here's a photo. I'll be ordering some books from Keith when I get home from picking it up. 

Rad!

Cool. He's turning 16? Admittedly I'm profiling here, he's probably going to be talking about putting some coil overs on it and trying to get it lower. 
Keith has some well informed opinions on this. 

Looks like a good find. Wheels aren't too bad. At least they fit under the fenders. 
 

No ac in Arizona?

He is turning 16 in March. We looked at a few others, including a 1990 that was basically on the bump stops. He's good with form following function.  And he's already been spending some quality time on Flyin Miata, Moss, and Good-Win. 
 

We had a 30 mile shakedown on the way home. The shift boot is torn, as is the rubber underneath. It's not so smooth going into 5th. I think a shifter rebuild is in order. The passenger side rear caliper was dragging for a bit. It seems to be intermittent. There's a corner marker light out, and the passenger taillight is either in need of a polish or is starting to delaminate. The boy and I have some work to do. 
 

As far as the no A/C in Arizona, we tried to find a car that had it. But we also have a Civic Si, a Wrangler, the G8, and I have a car for work. So if the boy needs an air conditioned ride, there are options. 

In reply to G8MikeGXP :

doesnt need to be pertfect for a first car, just has to be fun and reliable.

Very nice! If it has a limited slip diff and he's not familiar with what it can do when the roads are wet, better school him on it. 

NermalSnert (Forum Supporter) said:

Very nice! If it has a limited slip diff and he's not familiar with what it can do when the roads are wet, better school him on it. 

Tucson doesn't provide many opportunities for driving in the wet. I hope to get it up on jackstands in the next day or two to see what, exactly, we bought. I don't think there's any chance it has a Torsen. It's definitely a base model. 

Get him a roll bar immediately

camopaint0707 said:

Get him a roll bar immediately

I am no expert but the internet is full of facts and opinions.. For a DD you are less likely to roll over than get rear ended, getting rear ended with a roll bar and no harness or helmet could be very unfortunate. 

I had the same car. '90 base model, red.  As a base it would have come from the factory with steel wheels.  I'll bet those alloys were dealer-added before the car was delivered.  If the wheels are 14" then I can almost guarantee it.  The choice for 14" alloys (instead of 15") would be so that the factory tires could still be fitted.  
As a base, it would have arrived with no radio.  I'll bet it has an aftermarket radio.  A "fresh" radio with current technologies can be a nice way update and modernize the car.  

As a base, the car has no PS.  Let me give you this advice which will be contrary to how your son is being taught how to drive....
In parking lots, the non-power steering can feel very heavy.  I'm talking about times where you are stopped, turning the wheel can feel like a fight.  Here's the part that is different, teach him to never try to turn the steering wheel without the car moving.  Even just the slightest forward movement of the tires makes the steering effort soooo much different.  It actually takes away all the steering effort.  

I know what I wrote might seem rudimentary but PS makes it so effortless to sit in a parked car and saw the wheel left and right.  The PS makes you/us lazy.  

When under way, the non PS is not heavy.  Actually, it's magically wonderful.  The one thing I loved the most about my base model was the non-PS.  It's level of effort and road feedback is my definition of perfect. 

It has a factory radio and the wheels are 15s. The lack of A/C makes sense is it spent the first 29 years in Minnesota. Luckily, it doesn't appear to have ever seen salt. It's shockingly clean underneath. 
 

I totally agree with the steering assessment. Even at a walking pace, it lightens up. And it is great on the road. I can see it being a hindrance on a tight auto-x course, but that's down the road a ways. I need to get him a license first. 

So, the work has begun. We started with an order from Flyin Miata. Door bushings, a shifter rebuild kit, and some reading material. We started today with the shifter. I'd say it was due. 
 

I wouldn't be surprised if those we the factory pieces. They were totally fragged. The boy was excited to try it out, so we took it for a quick spin. My Redline MTL should be here tomorrow. We'll drain the transmission and suck out the oil in the turret. It looked cleaner than I would have expected based on the crunchiness of the shifter. 
 

Even the smaller boot on the turret was smoked  sheesh.

We gave the trunk a good scrub down. There was a pretty substantial layer of dirt. 

We popped off the door cards and lubed the locks and handles. Then we pulled the seats and did some cleaning. Other than an obscene amount of hair from the PO's Australian Shepherd who apparently loved the car, all was well. No surprises. 
 

The tabs on the console for screwing down the shift boot are all broken.  I'll need to figure something out.  The easy button may be to just order a new one.  Or we ditch the console altogether.  

We got the fluid in the transmission and shifter swapped out. Things are, unsurprisingly, much smoother now. We still need to figure out the console. There are a couple of Miata dismantlers in Phoenix. I'll probably grab a used one. We did put the shift knob from my 2005 MazdaSpeed Miata on it. It's been in a box since 2009 when I traded the car in on the G8. Wrong pattern, but we'll go with it for a bit. 

Today we did a proper inspection of the underside. Maybe we should have done this before handing over a stack of bills to the old lady whose husband passed. Oh well. Moving on. 
 

As I said above, it's really clean underneath. I couldn't find any rust. 

There's some dried mud. And clearly there was a substantial oil leak from the front at some point. There's no active drip now, and yes I checked the sump.  It's not empty  

There is one issue on the front that I knew about, but gets worse the more I look at it. I knew the car had been in a front end wreck back in 1997. It tracks straight, the cradle is good. But the passenger side frame rail ahead of the cradle is pretty wrinkled. And the sway bar mount is berked. 

I don't know exactly how to approach this. I don't want to leave it as is, but it sure seems like it's going to be a Pandora's box if I start monkeying with it. 

A new issue popped up and I'm not sure how to address it.  The original key twisted while opening the trunk.  We got it twisted back into shape, at least enough to get the car started.  Unfortunately, it must still be a bit tweaked because it won't come out of the ignition.  We were at the hardware store when this happened.  In hindsight, I should have walked in and tried to get a new key made, or called the Missus and had her bring us one of the backup keys.  I did neither.  Does anyone have any tricks?  Or am I swapping out the ignition cylinder?

Good to see another kid with a non "boring" first car.  My almost 16 year old son and I are working through getting his 86 SAAB 900 Turbo back on the road.  It is taking longer that I expected, but old cars have a tendency to hide things.

Update: the boy got the key out. As he explained, he was bored so he went out and sat in the car. He wiggled the key and gave it a pull. So that's that. 

Now for the actual update. Christmas presents this year consisted of Miata parts. There's a place in Phoenix called Mike's Miata Mecca that's closing at the end of the year. I had to be in Phoenix for work, so I did some shopping. 
 

Our center console was missing two of the tabs that the shift boot retainer ring screws into. So I got a new/used console to go with the new, and pretty decent, Etsy shift boot and hand brake boot. 

No pics, but the top latches were pretty blown out. The passenger side didn't like to stay latched, and the driver side rattled like crazy. Those got traded out for a rebuilt set from Miata Mecca. The rattles are gone and the top seals much better. 

The passenger side taillight was pink, so that was on the shopping list also.  Not sure why only one was discolored.  It almost looked like the plastic was delaminating. 

 

The biggest change, literally and figuratively, was the new/used hood. Ours had been on the receiving end of a bicyclist, allegedly, during prior ownership. And probably a hail storm. It was shiny, but mangled.  After the boy spent some time with the clay bar, compound, and wax, we swapped them out. 

 

Here's the old hood for comparison.

Now the boy is on the hunt for some wheels. He wants 15x8.  Without power steering, I think 15x7 is a better idea.  Any thoughts from the crowd?

Same car, different person. Anyways, got some Advanti Storm S1's in 15x7, got the tires transferred and Discount Tire dropped a wheel, so they replaced it. Here are some updated pictures.

There also ended up being a hole in one of the heater core hoses, got it out and replaced it. Refilled the radiator to find that there was almost none left in there...