Modifications
Performance Parts
Car Audio & Video
- Eclipse Sound Processor
- Focal Speakers
- Kicker Subwoofers
- JL Audio Sub Enclosure
- Eclipse Video
- Viper Security
- Focal Tweeters
- Eclipse Head Unit
- Soundstream Amplifier
Exterior Styling
Greetings! Thank you for viewing my cardomain page!
I will try and keep this as coherent as possible. This is the story of one little Miata who’s had a very active life, and I must say it is pretty hard to get all of this down in chronological order to where it will make sense to anyone else but me!
INDEX
Page 1: Before and after + tutorial pictures
Page 2: Miata events Page
Page 3: HDR (High Dynamic Range) pictures page
Page 4: The Miata and the Jet Ski
Page 5: For sale
Page 6: New pictures!
First off, I want to note that I have an older cardomain site floating around. It is still active, so more pictures of what the car used to look like can be found there, but I will have a couple attached here as well. Since I no longer have access to the email account on the old cardomain site, I cannot login or do anything with it, so I'm creating an all-new site, for my basically all-new car! This is the OLD car domain site a while ago when cardomain was one digit of members shy!
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/579036
Background:
She was born in 95 as a white with tan leather package. I do apologize, but I do not have ANY original pictures of the car at this time period! But this is almost what she looked like minus the front under spoiler and rear deck lid spoiler.
She has been in the family since she was new. In 2001 when I finally got my license to drive in NC, she was turned over to me and it's been a joyride ever since!
Accomplishments Thus Far:
Just this year after finishing up the majority of what I had planned, I begun to participate in Miata events, my first being MAMBII (Miata’s At Myrtle Beach II).
Next she was entered into the Food lion Auto fair’s show at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte NC... where she won best in show for the Carolina’s Miata Club. I became a member of the club and I graciously await many fun trips and get togethers on down the road. Hopefully EVERYTHING will be done before MATG (Miata's At The GAP) but I doubt it, as it's never "really" done.
Page 3 is the picture page for events...
Exterior Appearance Modifications:
Needless to say, I've upgraded her quite a bit... started off with a minor fender bender that dented my front bumper a little... I decided I would like her to have a new face at this point and not so much a smiley face as before (you got to admit an NA stock Miata with the headlights up looks exactly like it's smiling at you!) ...which I did not want. I wanted the overall look of the vehicle to be a bit more aggressive for what I had in the plans for it. Even though I was young at the time, I never EVER have liked the idea of destroying a good car with useless modifications (IE: fast and the furious crap) Though looking back at some old pictures I can admit I was a bit distasteful, and I'm glad I have fully grown out of that.
Anyway, so most of the body modifications I've seen for the Miata have been a bit on the "ricer" side. The only kit's that are available that are actually nice and stock looking and compliment the features of the Miata, are the racing beat add-ons (not to mention the fitment is almost direct bolt on which is always a plus). The type II front nose has been one of the most liked and best looking ones made... so I settled with that and shortly after a set of side skirts (also racing beat) and rear bumper racing beat extension.
I never liked the pop-up lights. Bad engineering in my opinion there... stock the lighting was sub par, and they even blocked the driver's point of view when they were up, and there were issues of cooling when they were up versus down and issues with aerodynamics and un-needed and un-necessary weight... not in the least bit subtle. I've always like the looks fixed headlights, and I wanted to incorporate HID (High Intensity Discharge) lighting into the mix since they were at the time brand new and were and still are the best automotive lighting choice available. But as always, I did my research, and went with OEM lighting from other vehicles, only retrofitting into the Miata. To start out, when I came into this fad the early brainstorm kit which was the best for the job had been discontinued, so I was forced to go with the midtennmiata kit which was to me rather cheaply made, and none the less I did not keep it long. I ended up having custom headlight buckets made molded from the flimsy brainstorm buckets that I was able to get my hands on, and brackets laser cut and powder coated. Then, I went through a series of HID projectors from other vehicles from Audi, BMW, Mercedes and I actually settled on the best yet believe it or not; a set of Acura TSX projectors made by Stanley Inc. They had overall the best output and the sharpest and most colorful cutoff line. For high beams I went with set of German Valeo H7 projectors. That completed my custom headlights, which have absolutely astonishing light output, as we made the buckets and projectors sit high enough to where all the useable light output completely cleared the front bumper (un heard of with any fixed headlight kit available).
As far as exterior modifications go, eventually I ended up having her painted black (which looking back I wish I had skipped that stage!) The black paint job was sub-par and was always chipping, just bloody awful! I lost the rear racing beat rear bumper extension on a trip home from the beach one day (which I didn't even flinch when I noticed loosing it because I already did not like the way it made the rear stick out even more...) Here are a few pictures of what she looked like during the "black" years:
Last year I finally broke down and was tired of the black all together. Dealing with keeping it clean, touching it up constantly and the overall poor quality of the paint job, I set plans on changing once more. This time I went with true red (07 Mazda color code A4A) using only the best paints, and I did all the prep work myself! I spent about 60+ hours in the body shop sanding and prepping for this job, and the car was COMPLETLY disassembled, sanded, primed and painted piece by piece then the chassis and engine was delivered on a flat bed, and I put her back together in my garage. All this for only $1500 + my labor which was the best money I've ever spent! This paint job is better then I've seen Mazda leave from the factory, and looks just like it was never white or black. I absolutely LOVE the true red color, I think it's the best actual single layer "red" Mazda has ever made. I strongly recommend it to anyone having his or her velocity or classic red Miata repainted; you will just love it! To go with the new look, I got a new Robbins tan sun fast cloth top with a no-zip glass tinted window to match the rest of the car's tinting... which is also a GREAT improvement over the OEM vinyl top. Just not having a zipper and that flimsy plastic window makes a world of difference! I also got a set of OEM rear mud guards which I had painted also true red at the body shop (not pictured in most of the pictures yet as it was done after the main painting). I've DONE AWAY with the neon under car kit WHAT THE HECK WAS I THINKING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Enough said about that, I was young and naďve what can I say. I've re-badged the exterior with some m-edition badges on the front fenders, and I used NC (06-08) badges for the rear, and had a special JDM "roadster" NC badge shipped from Japan.
Below are some pictures just after getting her put back together day 2 from the body shop!
Shortly after taking these pictures, I upgraded the chrome ugly 14" wheels pictured to OEM NB 01+ 16" alloys. There have also been minor changes to the exterior such as new projector bezels for the HID headlights, and the rear OEM mud guards.
The taillights are black altezzas, but I've fully built a one of a kind set of LED lights out of the altezza shells. I used almost 400 red leds to make a truly stunning OEM looking set of tail lights which use tail light converters to blink one of the brake lights for turn signals. When the park lights are on, two large 4" circles of LEDs light up at 75% brightness. When the brake lights are hit, those circles fill in and the outer smaller 2" circles illuminate with another circle of LEDs. I've also custom made my LED third brake light... there are over 50 LEDs in it alone. All 4 of the side marker lights have been fitted with #194 LED amber and red replacements. For the front marker lights: I got a set of clear lense replacements from Ebay, and I did the same as for the taillights and made a one of a kind set of marker lights. I used the exterior Canadian DRL blank housing and installed 25 high lumen output amber LEDs in both right and left. I then got a pair of refractor based LED replacement bulbs and installed them in the stock bulb location (to match with the custom amber DRLs). Using another taillight converter, I was able to make it where the turn signals blink the entire light including the DRL. These DRLs are extremely bright; they work great and really add to the look of the overall vehicle. Of course 4 load resistors were needed to retain the turn signals normal blinking rate with the all led lighting.
Here are a few pictures I took shortly after completing the taillight project. I do not have any pictures specifically of the amber parking lights, this was more of a follow up to the taillights. However, you can see them depicted in much of my pictures later on down the line. Also pictured is how I made my custom LED 3rd brake light using inexpensive LED replacement bulbs; anyone can do it!
And that pretty much sums up what I've done for exterior styling.
Performance Modifications:
As far as performance goes, she's been fitted with a Jackson Racing MP45 Supercharger system with their 8 psi big boost pulley kit. The system uses JR Powercard for fuel management, and J&S electronics Safeguard knock control sensor for timing control. I have the DDMworks Jackson Racing Supercharger cold air intake kit, designed specifically for use with the supercharger, and it works great for my open headlight design. The engine gets nice cool air from the driver's side headlight bucket. To go with the supercharger, I had an Exedy stage II clutch put in along with a Fidanza light weight aluminum flywheel. I also upgraded the stock plastic radiator with a steel one (only after the stock one developed a minor crack.) For suspension, I've used Koni yellow adjustable shocks with stock springs. As far as exhaust, she's all stock from the header to just past the stock resonator except at the rear I've had a local muffler shop make some custom dual exhaust using a stock Chevy Camaro muffler (because no ready made dual exhausts were quiet enough for me.. as stated above I dislike the ricer “tin can” sound, and even the supposedly quiet racing beat dual exhaust was too loud for me!) I started off with a Flyin Miata duals set, which was WAY WAY EXTREMELY to loud for my tastes, which purged me to then sell it and get the custom exhaust made. On the performance side, it is still in the works.... plans are to fit a 99-00 NB engine, and of course still using the current supercharger setup... then dyno-tune and dress up the engine bay... so the engine bay is still considered "unfinished" and that's why it looks... well... incomplete when compared to the rest of the car.
Here is a shot of the soon to be improved engine compartment! It looks dirtier then it actually is the sun was setting and there was a very warm tone to this picture. However it wasn't too clean in this picture either, it is just normally cleaner. I power wash it and keep it all looking good now since she is in shows, but again this part of the vehicle is not finished!
Interior Styling:
Well, as you might have noticed, the interior has gone through a few stages as well... my apologies for only having photo documentation for 2 of those (the major change stages). Looking back at the first one... I can only say that I must have been color blind, because no tan matched the other! It was just a poorly put together interior that I thought looked "ok" but was never really happy with. This is a couple pictures of what the interior primarily looked like before... this was during the "Black years" and it progressively got better, but was still not something I can really be proud of LOL! (you can see the progression in the pictures... a couple at the end were actually after it was painted red, just literally days before the interior transformation!
TIME FOR AN UPGRADE!
I had always LOVED the way the NB (99-05) interior just went together so nicely and looked ages ahead of the tired old NA interior I had grown so used to. So, I got it in my head that one day I would have this nice looking interior I so envied...
Starting out, I got my hands on a set of 99 door panels complete with everything I needed. I took them apart and died the lighter beige (NB color) parts tan or "camel" to match the rest of the NA interior. (you can see them installed on a couple of the before pictures) At the time, this was a great improvement for me, but after seeing the 01+ re-designed panels, I fell in love and out came the 99 panels! I did a write-up for the miata.net garage on how to do the early NB door panel conversion. It can be found here: http://www.miata.net/garage/door_panel/index.html
There is only slight difference between my article on the 99-00 panels, and doing the 01+ panels. The interior handle is in another place, and it is angled. Once you get past this, the rest of the panel can be fitted the same way to the NA door. I improved upon my design the second time around and made mounts for the edge of the panels to mount just like they would on the NB, eliminating the need for screwing them in on the bottom.
So anyway, I went with these NB 01 door panels for a while... ever so admiring how nicely the looked, but how awful they looked with the rest of the NA's dated interior. I had always thought that there would be no way I could ever do the dash. It was just too intense for me and beyond what I thought was my skill level. However, I recently proved myself wrong! The finished product is a complete NB 01-05 interior; the beiges are died to match the NA's tan color. This interior utilizes ALL The NB factory parts, even the factory door lock module/relay so I can unlock and lock the doors with the driver's side mounted switch. The NB instrument panel with its digital odometer was an excellent upgrade as well. I took the NB's passenger airbag switch, and moved the NB's hazard button there to make room for the s2000 starter button installed in it's place. To the left of the hazard button is a remote trunk release (electric relay controlled) and to the left of that is a custom dome light switch that I integrated and made from an NA dome light! I changed out the seats for a set of 95-m edition special retractable head rest seats (The only ones ever made were found on the 95-m!). Ultimately I went with a set of black plushy carpet from an 04. Now the ONLY modifications I want to do to the interior, is add a little more brushed aluminum like the factory LE's radio and shifter brushed aluminum bezels or the Mazdaspeed’s faux carbon fiber versions. I'm also wanting to swap out the seats for an NB 01+ set of black leather ones which I will have the factory “Miata MX-5” logo died tan, and the stitching around the seat will be done in tan. That will compliment my shift and e-brake boot nicely. I also will be adding a single pod gauge pod on the driver’s side a pillar trim, which will house a dual digital boost and air/fuel gauge (for the supercharger system).
For the steering wheel, you might notice that it did NOT come on the NB! In fact, it is from an 07 NC and it is fully functional, cruise and audio controls! I used a PAC module to get the steering wheel's audio controls to work with my navigation unit, and I modified the circuit board for the cruise control switch to send out the proper signals for the NA's cruise control computer. I have a thread going on miata.net that explains all that went into this interior; I just don't have the time or energy to fully explain how it was all done again! I will say that everything that has been transferred over from the NB and NC functions as it should, and looks just as it came that way from the factory. The interior illumination at night is LED blue, and red. The gauge faces are Electro Luminescent blue and red and the steering wheel audio and cruise controls light up blue and red. The rest of the interior lighting is blue. The S2000 push starter button illuminates red when you put the key in the ignition, then goes off when the car is started. It further illuminates blue with the dash lighting. Here are some pictures of the all new interior and some of the exterior shortly after the conversion which has itself undergone a slight progression. For starters, I took a set of beige NB carpet and died it NA camel tan, and I used the NA's instrument cluster to begin with. You will see the tan carpet and NA cluster in the first set of pictures, then you will see the most recent with the NB cluster and black NB carpet. The only change that has been made to the exterior of the car in these pictures is the addition of the rear OEM mud guards and the changes to the interior since these pictures are as noted the black NB carpet, the NB instrument cluster, and the 07 Corvette Onstar rear view mirror replaced the cheap Chinese brand you see in the pictures.
For interior dome lighting, I've added luxeon 1 watt LEDs in place of the factory sun visors mounts and the sun visors themselves have been removed. These two LEDs fill the entire interior with light; but to further compliment them, I added two more high output 1 watt luxeon white LEDs in the bolt covers on the sides of the dash. Needless to say, the interior of this Miata is no longer dimly lit in the least!
Electronics:
Navigation: I settled on the eclipse avn-5495 which has a 30 gigabyte hard drive for music storage and navigation; Sirius satellite radio amongst an array of other features.
Security: Viper 791XV which I installed and programmed myself utilizing all of it's available features which include:
* Remote start with the Miata’s neutral safety switch (car will not start if it is not in neutral)
* Dome light supervision
* All available factory listed benefits I utilized... so not to just list DEI's list of features lol!
The brain was placed top dead center of the dash just above the HVAC and it has it's own back up battery supply. Needless to say, it cannot be tampered with without removing the dash! The viper has a total of 5 input sensors (normally comes with three). Each door has an impact sensor (very sensitive); there is a hood sensor, trunk sensor, and a perimeter sensor that detects any movement inside the car when armed. I also have installed a set of whelen police strobe lights, which are installed in the front left and right parking lights, and the rear left and right parking lights. They can be activated via the NB OEM fog light switch inside the car manually, and they also will always go off when the alarm does as well as the siren, lights flashing and the horn blowing.
All of the NB's electronic interior features were used; from the instrument cluster to the window switch to the dash switches to the door lock switch... all of it is NB. And, as mentioned in the exterior styling section, all of the lighting is done in LED. I don't think there is one incandescent bulb anywhere on the car anymore! Just for that further added touch of technology, I added a rear view mirror from an 07 Corvette which is auto-dimming, and displays the outside temperature and a digital compass. Not to mention, it boasts all the "Onstar" buttons LOL.
Audio:
My head unit as mentioned is an eclipse avn-5495 double din in dash all in one. The door speakers are Focal Polykevlar K2P 6.5" components. The titanium tweeters are installed in the factory NB tweeter pods. For subwoofers, I have a JL audio stealth box and the subs installed are Kicker COMPVR 8" 400 watt dual voice coil subs. The system is powered by a Soundstream Tarantula amplifier mounted in the trunk. To back up the battery, I also have a 1 farad capacitor installed. Also the whole interior of the car has been sound proofed. The system sounds amazing, the Focals are the best sounding speakers I've EVER heard. I would highly recommend spending the money for a top of the line set of speakers like this; they are simply amazing.
Here's the finished product as it looks now courtesy of others via Miata events. To date, I have yet to take any new photos of my own other then HDR photos I've been experimenting with which can be viewed on page 4.
Please feel free to sign my guest book and let me know what you think! Thank you for taking the time to read my book "A Story in the Life of One Miata"! LOL
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