Page 1 : Why ?
Page 2 : Interior
Page 3 : Winter
Page 4 : Exterior
Page 5 : Projects
Page 6 : The DIY Grille project
Page 7 : The DIY Center Console

Why ? Because our Miata can change the weather !!!

We live in Hamburg, Germany. This city has a reputation for bad weather. Brenda's dreamcar was always a little red Miata. It had been a dream too long, you don't get younger and it will get harder to climb into that car. Also there will always be some "practical" reasons not to get it ( where should I put the shopping bags, etc). So this Valentine's day (a Friday)I tricked her and made her think I had forgotten about it. She had this sad look that all husbands know...
But when she came home from work that day there was a Miata in front of the house that I had leased for the weekend. She called me all kinds of names but was not really mad when she did. We had a wonderful time that weekend, the sun was shining( a miracle for Hamburg in February) and we put like 500 miles on the car. On Saturday she already started saying things like " well, I guess you can put the shopping bags on the passenger's seat..". I knew she wanted that car.
Now I have a rule never to buy a new car but rather look for something with more than 7 years on it but in exellent condition. Since I am a handyman I am not afraid of hidden problems. You just check and make sure there aren't any! You will have to spend some time and you might have to look at more than 20 cars. But there will be one out there that fits your requirements!
Well, we looked at 16 and drove more than 800 miles altogether - and then we bought the first one we had looked at. Yeah, I know...
Anyway, by being so patient we got a very good deal on the car. The thing was on the dealers yard for almost a year and he really wanted it to leave. It had been stolen in the meantime and he had to put a new roof on it because they had cut it - good for us. Brenda is an America from Dayton, Oh and what she liked about it was that is was a Miata, imported from the US and not an MX-5. A piece of her home.
From that day in the middle of April we had the hottest summer Europe had ever seen. Sun Sun Sun. We are sure the only reason for that was us buying the Miata. We now have November and are looking back at 7 wonderful months with a car that makes her(and any other girl)look like a moviestar ...

...and me have so much fun with putting all those accessories in. The bug bit me badly!
The first pictures above shows how the car looked when we bought it. No, wait a minute, the chrome fueltank lid is already new. Not bad for a 1995 - uh ?
The car is a 135hp, was already lowered, had a sport muffler with a nasty(love it) sound, clock and oil temperatur instead of the center vents, fog lights and some other things that made it stick out already.
In those seven months we put in accessories for about $ 1.500 and really, I don't see the light at the end of the tunnel yet...(Remarks of other people : your car is like KITT(Nightrider), looks like a christmas tree at night)
These pictures were taken before I made the Parking Light Conversion( described by Rod Roller at www. birminghamauto.net/cams/techpark.html). A rather simple but very nice conversion. It allows you to drive at night without the barndoors open. At least in the city, out in the countryside without any streetlights we still drive with open barndoors. When you make the conversion the front side markers will blink with the signal.
parking light, signal off - see how much light they give (21W bulbs) ?

parking light, signal on

barndoors, signal off

barndoors, signal on

We will keep you updated (at least those of you that care and I was surprised how many of you care)with more stories and pictures. Matter of fact, let's go to the next page and start right away with the mods that we have done so far. Actually I am curious myself now - one forgets so fast...