If it is made of nylon you can fix this easily. Nylon is hydroscopic. It drys out over time, shrinks and becomes brittle. You can restore it simply by boiling it for 20 minutes or so. This forces water back into it and it becomes pliable again. It expands a little when you do this as well and in some cases you might have to wait a few days for the part to shrink back to normal size before reassembly.

If you dont know if it is made of nylon it generally won't hurt to boil it. The melting point of most all plastics is above the boiling point of water.

That being said, I don't have any idea if the plastic parts in the 1st gens are made of Nylon but some of them could be. The center console pieces on the 84-85 is probably polystyrene. I wonder about the inserts in the headlight rods. Those could be nylon. I have one left that needs replacing and the inserts that are still on the one that still needs replacing are crumbling so probably not fixable by boiling. I may try it anyway just to see what happens.

 

The RB front mount bar and oil pan arrived today!

 

Picked up my refinished mags today. Tires to be mounted Monday. Painting the last two pieces of the of the front suspension bits tonite and working on the interior.

 

Miata short shifter + custom wood shift ****. Need to figure out the right stain to match my grant GT wheel.

 

I am absolutely amused by your snow pic. I feel a little guilty for feeling such glee at not having the suckiest weather. Thanks for sharing.

 

Haha don't feel bad, I've had to learn to just deal with it living up here. Last year - almost no snow. This year - snow since before Thanksgiving and won't be gone till May it looks like. Very different, always changing, and usually challenging are the three stages of weather during a week.

Glad you got a kick out of it, hoped it would brighten someone else's day a little to have a chuckle at my expense

Got my Atkins order today! 13BT will be completely built tomorrow and readied for the drop in. Also got power window regulators, motors, set of switches, and dimmer switch sent out today, will be here on Tuesday - pretty stoked for that

 

I just got a good used light steel flywheel for it, plus matching disc! All that's needed is a bolt set from RB.

 

removed the storage wheels put on new rotors,and Hawk hp+ pads, new Optima battery, and put on the summer/ track wheels. going to go for a long ride and burn up the fuel thats been in the tank all winter and then change the fuel filter and a new set of plugs and we should be good to go for Mid-Ohio at the end of the month.

 

Little fiddly task that turned into several hours. Replaced the hatch strut tubes on the GSL-SE. A previous owner changed out the left side but both were too weak to support it unless a hot day. The left side is easy. The right side has the electrical stuff to the rear wiper motor so you have to take care when replacing to get it all apart without breaking any irreplaceable part and then back together so it looks correct.

 

Beauty of the SA's "curly cord" design; no speical strut needed!

 

upgraded to a new s4 alt. stocker was only putting out 30amps and had a bad diode

 

Factoid:

Not all SAs had the curly cord. The 79s had a fiddly setup whereby the defroster connection is made through the struts similar to the SE's rear wiper.

 

My FB (an '85 base model) has a curly cord for the defroster. Unfortunately, the connector on the glass was snapped by the PO, so the curly cord has been hanging from the ceiling. I thought it was some leftover from a removed CB radio at first. Anyway, it's not anything that a trip to Potter's Electronics and a soldering iron won't take care of.

fm

 

Getting there, slowly but surely:

 

Glory shot with the Z in the back ground

Got my engine done for the swap, working on wiring and the peripherals so I can get her in and running

 

whoa DD thats looking pretty sharp ... were you having to wear sunglasses??

 

Now if you drop that off at the chrome shop it will cut the maintenance of keeping it shiny down to just about nill. Wipe and shine!

 

I've never heard that before. I'll have to file that one away for future reference. Thanks.

 

Only because my future's so bright, Ray.

Still fighting with the nooks and crannies. Hopefully can wrap it up today & reassemble.

Downside being about $200 in additional cost and around a month's wait to get it back.

 

Well, today Smooth got a trailer ride (because she can't hold her transmission fluid) to the exhaust shop because the exhaust system is getting locally modified (from original). The guy comes highly recommended... Think I'll pay HIM to have the tranny seals replaced (A/T), as the pan gasket is NOT the biggest problem.

I can hardly wait to drive her home! I'd just gotten the engine running really nice... when she went out of commission before I could try my progress.

 

Just looked up how much the lower half of the steering column surround is from Mazdatrix. $40 isn't too bad, gonna have to pull the trigger on that purchase here soon. Can't stand seeing the wires underneath after I cracked he thing off with my knee but made it work for a while, and finally did it in by banging my head on it

 

do you think this might be nylon?

 

Might be, but more likely to be one of the "poly-" thermoplastics, like polypropylene or HDPE.

 

I guess it's hopeless

 

conducted a couple of experiments ... may have hit onto something



yes DD and I are doing the same thing before the same Rotary get together