THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED

I'll soon be making a trip to Indianapolis. While there, my cousin and I plan to get some things done to my car. But those details can wait for a post after the fact. This post is about getting there. Like most folks, I have normally taken the Interstates to my various destinations. Shorter travel time = more fun time (at the destination). But now I have this little car that is so much fun on the twisty backroads. The equation has changed.

Instead of taking I-24 from Chattanooga to Nashville, and I-65 from Nashville northward through Kentucky, I'll ditch the Interstate for part of my trip, climbing Signal Mountain out of Chattanooga, and not rejoining the masses until Cave City Kentucky.

click for larger version
All new roads for me. I'll go up and down mountains (well, what we call mountains back east anyway), wind along rivers, and cross the Cumberland on a ferry. I'll go through places named Mount Airy, Mount Crest, Bone Cave, Rock Island, Boiling Springs, and Nameless, with the ferry crossing at the point where Turkey Neck Bend Road has never had a bridge.

I love to drive, even on the Interstate. These twisty backroads with the 'Speed Miata should be memorable.

(If anyone's interested enough to care, the roads are:
US27, US127, 30, Bone Cave Road, Rock Island Road, 136, 135, Ditty Road, 56, 290, 53, 214, 100, 63, and 90)

SEAT ADAPTATION

In choosing a 'Speed Miata to buy, I preferred an 05 because I wanted the Black Mica paint. But I wanted the red/black interior available only in 04 (05 interior is all black, except for red stitching on the shift lever, hand brake, and steering wheel). Thus the plan was born to buy an 05 Black Mica, and then to later buy the red/black cloth seats and red/black door panels from an '04 car. The all black interior just doesn't quite do it.


Well, I found a good pair of red/black seats!

Fortunately for me, Mark in Arizona takes great care of his 04 Mazdaspeed Miata (often places it in car shows), and makes lots of modifications. He had 12k miles on the clock, and decided to install racing seats, and was looking to sell his factory red/black cloth seats. After all the details of what would be a long story, I bought the seats and he DHL'd them to me. They're in great condition except a couple minor deformations that happened during shipping to 2 metal parts on the bottom of the seat --I saw the DHL guy drop the first seat just 20 feet before handing it off to me-- but they're blemishes that don't matter at all.


When I took the original seats out, I saw all the grit and litter and leaf bits that had accumulated on the floorboard under the seats. Hmmmmm. Yeah, I think I'll make it. I drove the car seatless to the car wash a couple miles away to vacuum out the floorboard really well. A folded up blanket to sit on raised me just enough to see and drive well, and the two cops I saw didn't notice or didn't care that I had no seats in the car. Vacuumed, got it back home, installed the new seats.



I wonder: could mine be the only Black Mica 'Speed Miata with the red/black seats? I kinda hope so. But no matter -- I think these seats look even better with the black paint than with the Velocity Red or Titanium Gray (the only two exterior colors they came with from the factory).

In fact, I'm now satisfied enough with the look inside that I may never go to the trouble and expense of the door panels. If it happens fine, but I'm not looking hard.


To complete the red accenting of the car, I plan on painting the brake calipers red when I get around to it. Already bought the paint, now I just need to get it done.

HEADLIGHT HAZE: CURED!

This deserves a post all for itself.

When I bought my Miata, I noticed that the headlight lenses had begun to haze over - though it wasn't really bad yet. You've seen cars where the lenses get horribly hazy. Couldn't let that happen to this car (new lenses are bound to be a bunch of money!).

Once again, mazda-speed.com had the info I needed. If your headlights are hazy, get yourself down to your friendly local auto parts store, and purchase a bottle of Meguiar's PlastX!


It's an easy application that polishes those lenses clean, even if it does require a little persistence in polishing. There is just a bit of haze still on one of the lenses, but it's so little that I don't even know which lens it is -- would have to get down close to spot it. And if I worked a little longer, maybe I'd have gotten that little bit also. But the main point? Now my headlights make the front end look great! :)

WINDSHIELD WIPER DELETE

Before my purchase, I determined to find a very well-cared for example, and give it equal care, and keep it until it's basically antique (and I will be too, by that time). That means keeping it out of the rain. I just don't want all that defilement mucking up the underside of my car! The original owner of this car had driven it in the rain once while he owned it, and then the day he drove it to work when I bought it from him, it was in the rain once more.

My rule is: never drive it locally on days when rain is possible, but go ahead and take it on trips, and if I get caught in the rain on a trip, so be it. I do want to enjoy having the car after all.

Then I noticed a fellow-member's comment on the forum mazda-speed.com, talking about how much nicer the view out the windshield was when he temporarily had the wipers off for a day. And wow he was right! Further, I'd used Rain-x a lot, and was completely comfortable relying on it alone for the few days I'd ever end up in the rain, so.....

That's right, my car is now wiperless! And looks great.

Having removed the wipers, I was then confronted with the bright bolts and plastic surround that stick up where the wipers mounted. Well, that doesn't look good. I needed to cap them with something that would fit perfectly, and not look like some garish add-on -- like the end of the actual wipers, for example. So I got a couple wipers from a Miata salvage company (partsgroup.com), and cut off the end pieces that cap those bolts, and mounted them. Kept my original wipers in case I ever decide to put them back on.


visible here: the cut side, pointed down toward the engine bay

From the driver's seat, I really like seeing the contours of the hood that had been partially obscured by the wipers, and the view of the car from the outside is great too. It just looks much cleaner inside and out!

INITIAL MODS

I've never had a car that inspired me to make any modifications to speak of. Not until now anyway. There are a lot of mods I have in mind, the more important ones enhancing the car's performance. But right off the bat, I started making some more cosmetic modifications. The performance mods (i.e. the expensive mods) will have to wait a little longer.


When I flew to Dallas to buy the car, I had with me the visor blanking plates I had already purchased. You see, as low as the roof is, the visors in the car don't serve a lot of purpose except get in the way of my line of sight out the front windshield! Since a lot of Miata owners feel the same way, aftermarket suppliers sell these little blanking plates, that fill the hole left when owners remove their visors. After buying the car, my friends and I stopped for lunch, and after ordering, I went back out to remove the visors and install my blanking plates! Ah, much better! And that ugly yellow warning sticker is gone too!

Next mod was after I got the car home. The car comes from the factory with amber colored front side marker lights. On my Black Mica paint, those side markers just did NOT look good. In such close proximity to the headlights, the new clear side markers look much better, don't you think? The clear lenses came with amber bulbs, so they do shine amber when they're lit.




I still need to remove those clear side markers sometime to smoke them a little - so they'll match the factory smoked headlight lenses.

A week and a half after getting home, I made two more modifications. I removed the little factory meep-meep horn and replaced it with a Nautilus air horn - much better sound, and considerably louder - the latter of which is what justified the expense. I've found that other drivers tend to not see this little car with their quick glances (it's 3 feet shorter than a Camry!), and they come right over into my lane! Thus, the louder horn. And finally, Miatas come with two little hooks in the front "mouth" (where a grille would be if there were one) - they look like tow hooks, but are in fact simply tie down hooks used during shipping, and serve no later purpose. In the Miata community, they're known as baby teeth. Now, they're gone!