Nice. I don't commute though. I vinyl dyed my interior. Quite happy with the look. Brought back the life of the interior for sure

 

Another thing to consider is why they are rusting from stock- they were poorly protected (did they even have any paint or protection? All the ones I've seen were bare steel looking)

I find it advantageous if the car is going to sit in the garage over winter or not driven for an extended period of time with the interior sealed / doors unopened, to go down to the hardware store and get one of those five dollar moisture/humidity trapper things- the plastic tub with silica gel in the top, which takes moisture out of the air and holds it in the bottom of the plastic container. The interior is a small space and these do a great job keeping the air in the interior "dry" - trapping moisture that otherwise goes towards rusting things like the dash bar, etc.

 

What is vinyl dying and can you show a pic?

 

It probably has just as much to do with electrolysis.

 

I think it's just rusting because Mazda didn't bother to coat or treat the steel. The bean counters probably saw that it was something the end user would never see, it wouldn't cause a structural issue, and the amount of rust was OK for the life of the car.

Look at the newer Ford Mustang, cast iron rear end on it with no treatment. New car with a very visible from the outside rusty part. At least Mazda painted the diff housing!

Dale

 

I had to pull my dash to restore my HVAC boxes. I removed mine from the dash, sanded, and used some Rustoleum rattle can all-in-one to coat it before I reinstalled it. It was more of a "while I was at it" thing, though. It's amazing how much rust forms on that thing.

 

Had mine re-plated. Turned out fantastic, pics don't capture it. 150 bucks




Before



After



Installed

 

That's nice. Any issues with grounds? What type of plating?

 

Plating is a great idea.

Is that a WEVO shift ****? What kind of shifter are you running there...?

Is that a Royal Clover key? Nice MoTeC unit. Nice MXG, too.

 

^^ No issues with grounding at all, cad plating doesn't inhibit electron flow. Remember that all the hardware you use for grounding is plated


Thanks, nice job on the **** and key ID. I didn't think anyone would recognize the shift **** haha. I made the shifter as the WEVO **** isn't threaded, it uses a bolt to secure it. Carbon rod with an aluminum/titanium base.

 

Dale I can have the bar media blasted for you, I'm having a shop media blast a lot of stuff for me so I can just add that in. All you would need to do is cover cost of shipping and material used on the bar.

 

Thanks for the offer, Moe! I'm not going that nuts with the project, just going to use the rust prep stuff, prime and paint.

Dale