Team Stampie 1994 Miata build

Yesterday I bought this 1994 Miata as a possible challenge car. It ain't pretty but it was cheap.

I do have a question about the budget. I won't be using the top, loose interior parts he threw in, or tires. I had him bill of sale me $500 for the Miata, $200 for the top, $100 for the interior parts, and $60 for the tires for a total of the $860 I paid him. So my budget starts at the $500 for the car right?

My plans are hopefully to run this year almost as is just to see how the event goes then do a lot of work in the next year to get it ready for the 2016 Challenge.

So far all I've done is primer the f bombs so that my 7 year old won't show his new teacher the words he learned over the summer.

Stampie

Yep, $500 is your starting point but if you want to use any of the stuff you broke down into separate purchases then you'll have to count that in your budget at that price. Unless all of those other parts are, extra top, extra interior, etc.

Spend $$$ on tires since they're free in the budget for the first set. Every year the pros say the same thing, about guys cheaping out on tires and being the best first mod.

Nice score. Very quality platform for the challenge.

Two words. Art car. DO IT!

alfadriver wrote: Nice score. Very quality platform for the challenge.

Plus a bunch! Gut the nonsense out of it, put on the fattest stickiest tires you can afford, give it a good alignment, freshen up the brakes (stock pads are fine), foamectomy the seats, and come out and play. It will be one of the most entertaining things you've ever done.

Thanks guys. I like the art car idea. This year it'll be pretty much as is. I'm starting a list of the things I need to fix just to get it safe for the challenge. Now if I can talk my ex into changing weeks with me I'll see about bringing my son.

Stampie

Today was the first day I had time to do stuff. Got a tag this morning so that we could drive it. Even snagged a parking spot with a free 45 min left on the meter. If any of you live in Jacksonville I'd recommend the downtown tax collector. A customer recommended it to me yesterday and we came out with 25 min still on the meter.

Once we got back the first order of business was putting safer tires on it. I had just put a new to me set of wheels and tires on my 96 so I put the hollow spokes on Fea as we're calling her. Found that the wheels on her are Honda rims which explains why I couldn't quite ID them. They had four totally different tires on including a snow tire and a directional tire on backwards. Tried weighing them vs the hollow spokes and depending on the tire they were only 1-2 lbs heavier so I'll use the Honda rims for the challenge.

Got excited this afternoon as I spent 71 cents on two screws for the tag. Finally spent some of my budget but then realized that I could take the tag off at the challenge and the screws wouldn't count to the budget. Kinda bummed me out. I found 15 cents under the passenger seat and the primer was $4.02 so the budget is at $503.87 right now.

Stampie

Well bad news. I was out front today and I noticed a tire shaped depression in my grass. I thought that's strange then realized that's where the wheels were off the Challenge Miata. Mother berkeleyers stole them. Guess it was some scraper as there were easy to steal tools within 10 feet but nothing else missing. So now I've got to figure out what wheels I'll run.

Stampie

Today was not a total loss. We're taking a little road trip so I hit up all the Craigslist along the route. Got these for $50 in Charleston. Yes they're for a NC but I think I can make them work. Stampie r

Oooh, very nice!

Thanks to the advice of you and others I'm going all in on handling this year. To bad I'm an old fat guy that has never autocrossed.

Stampie

In reply to Stampie:

There are pro drivers provided you can use who can get anything around the autocross amazingly well. It's up to you whether you use them or not.

Continued our road trip to upstate South Carolina and picked up a set of nb top hats and a nb front antiroll bar. No great deal on these, $100 for the top hats and $50 for the bar. Not actually sure I'll use them because of the budget hit but I can always put them on my 96 DD.

Ordered a set of eBay coil overs tonight. Hope the dice roll on spring rates works out for me. Now I just have to figure out the wheels and tires I want to run.

Hard part is getting all these on the car. My friends give me a hard time because I'm very good about collecting parts but really slow about putting them on.

Stampie

If your Ebay stuff doesn't work, let me know. I've got a pair of struts/ springs I'd like to sell to a good cause.

They are an oddball combination, but they will fit on an NA. They came off my '91, which won 3rd place on the autocross last year wearing them (I have upgraded, and would like to put a few dollars back in the budget)

About done collecting parts. Today I picked up a windshield (bonus mirror to sell) Seatbelts, set of wheels with some worn out RA1s (anyone know what these are?)

And ordered two helmets and roll bar padding.

Yesterday the eBay coil overs and some other springs came in.

Budget is on track.

Total from before $503.87

Cost that will be used: Bilsteins $50.00 EBay coil overs $53.99 Wheels $100.00 Windshield $50.00

Total $757.86

Cost that may get used:

NB Top hats $100.00 NB front sway bar $50.00 250 lb springs $69.98

Cost that don't count: Seatbelts $20.00 Roll bar padding $34.20 Two helmets $546.98

We're going wheeling this weekend and my friends and I had something planned the next weekend so we figure on two weeks from tomorrow to start putting on parts.

Stampie

Damn this stuff goes slow. Plan was to work on it at a friend's house since he has more room. Go to drive it over there and it won't start. Short story it ended up being the coil pack. Long story involved 1.5 year only coil pack and Google making me think it was the CAS first.

Next on the list was the major exhaust leak. First tear down we find no gasket between the down pipe and the cat. Surely that was it right? Nope still a bad leak. After a few burns getting to close I narrow it down to around #4 pipe on the manifold. Today we tear it down again and I noticed that the PO put the heater hose bracket behind the exhaust manifold gasket creating a 1/8 inch gap. Yep I'm a dumbass for not noticing first time. So now we're at the point of gonna start our suspension mods.

That was this morning, this afternoon I was driving along in my very clean 96 83,000 mile original Miata when the guy in front of me takes the exit ramp then all of a sudden decided that he really didn't want to. Put my front passenger corner into his rear. I can see what I think is frame damage under the headlight bucket and above the tire. So might make the Challenge Miata more of a fun street car instead of a stripped down race car.

More fun hopefully next weekend when we start the coil overs.

Sorry to hear about your miata. That sucks!

I suck at making updates but I needed to cut part of the shock top cap off the front shocks. Would have been a 5 min job on a lathe but I don't have one so I made do with what I had. Here's a metal cut off wheel in a table saw. Redneck engineering at it's finest.

I've done worse.

If you decide to turn your drill press into a vertical lathe, a 3/8 drive universal don't like the top speed on a 16 speed ludell. Bad things happen.

I also recommend a thorough cleaning and relubing of the table saw after cutting metal. The tiny shavings and the abrasive dust really berkeley them up and also get impregnated into the wood you cut.

Yea at first I was leaning over to see where I was cutting then realized that if the wheel let go (had that happen on a grinder) then it was my neck that was gonna catch it. Ended up repositioning so that only my arm would get cut off.

How are you dealing with the different bottom mounts in the lower A-Arm that are on your shocks?

Oh you noticed that? Yea little issue. We'll find out in the morning. Nothing that a little sweat and blood can't solve.

Stampie wrote: Oh you noticed that? Yea little issue. We'll find out in the morning. Nothing that a little sweat and blood can't solve.

The rears on NA/NB miatas are generally shorter bodies. How will that work out? I expect pictures.

Front mocked up. Almost as if the Miata gods said "For the 2015 Challenge Stampie will want to solid mount his hacked up NC shocks"

Are you heading up Thursday night or leaving Friday morning?