I complained a few times about the shifter in this car in my earlier posts. My main concerns were the long throw, a bit of looseness, and just a general lack of feedback when shifting. The looseness was mostly fixed by the brand new transmission mounts + crossmember, but I still felt a certain amount of vagueness in the shifter. I replaced the bushings shortly after buying the car, so that wasn't it.

I had an eBay short shifter for a Miata on the shelf for a long time. I purchased it (advertised for an Rx7) and then put it on the shelf for awhile. Once the car was finally moving I went to install it, and realized the bottom pivot ball was too small. The eBay guarantee had long since expired so I was stuck with it. There is a write-up in the archive about how to modify the included nylon bushing and install the shifter in your Rx7, but I had damaged the bushing (sanded it down too little and it deformed when installing).

So I took one of my multiple stock shifters and figured there would be a way to hybridize the parts. Queue this very gross shifter from the T2 transmission in my shed:




You can see the difference. The short shifter has a longer arm for the pivot ball. This way the shifter (when installed with the included shims and barrel-thing) is raised up relative to the shifter housing and the throw is shortened. In my case, I need the short shifter to have a larger pivot-ball to match the Rx7 shifter.

You can see where this is headed:





After using a table grinder with a stone grinding wheel to cut a groove to lay weld in:







It's not pretty, but it's strong. I clamped it to the table and it hit with a big hammer; no bending or cracking. Then to install it:


All installed. I wasn't able to retain the little round springs on the bushings without the shifter binding, and I needed to use the included top plate with the short shifter as a middle plate then retain the stock top plate.

Once everything was together I rowed through the gears a few times and it feels way better. I get a much more positive "click" on engaging a gear and the throw is far reduced. The only thing is that reverse feels a bit strange. I can't test this properly until I can move the car, but as mentioned I have stock shifters I can put back if reverse doesn't work for some reason. It definitely engages but the click into reverse isn't quite as positive as the click into other gears.

Then I went to put my shift **** on and, whoops, the threads are different. I looked into it and the Miata has a M10x1.25 shifter whereas the stock shifter is M12xsomething. I didn't want to buy a permanent shift-**** yet because I haven't decided on which style I wanted. I decided to go with something a bit more juvenile for a temporary solution (refer to post title):


Enter an M10x1.25 nut and Amazon's finest $8 wrench.




Ended up laying another weld in the adjuster to stop it rattling while driving.

Then after cleaning the weld slag off and grinding the bottom flat, I could install it with a lock-nut.



Like I said, a bit juvenile, especially with the zip-tie. Also slightly concerned about the possibility of being impaled. But by the time I have my new camber links and can drive the car again I hope to have decided on an actual shift ****. This one is a good bit of fun for now and lets me test out the shifter without paying for a real **** in the event it doesn't work out. I may also have access to a lathe in the not-too-distant future, so I might try my hand at making one out of wood and inserting something to give it weight. Then with a threaded insert I'll have my own home-made shift ****. We'll see what happens with that.

Until next time

 

I'm not sure 100% yet but my method of trying to deal with this same eBay shifter is to swap the shift block to an S5 and use a new bushing. I needed to swap the return spring anyways.

 

That solution makes sense, since you're already swapping the spring. Or if one has the undamaged bushing the OD can be reduced until it fits the S4 shift block.

My spring is fine so my custom solution ended up being much more worthwhile. Otherwise there is always the Mazdatrix shifter, but it's quite a bit of money considering lots of people complain that it rattles. I wouldn't mind spending on it in the future though if I could be certain it won't end up rattling.

 

I tried to shave that bushing down and it just didn't turn out. It was cheap already and I just ruined it.

 

That's what happened to me too. I shaved it and then trying to remove it from the shift block twisted it up.

Unrelated: New shift **** is ordered, likely won't arrive for a few weeks though. Going to gamble that my shifter works, otherwise the knew **** won't fit the stock shifter.

 

I'm a fan of the skunk2 ****. It's heavy as hell so it helps sling the shifter. Had one in my del slow, s2000, wife's s2k and my NSX. The one for the rx-7 is in a box waiting.

 

My new camber links arrived (NA/NB Miata adjustable sway bar links).

The old ones were the ones mentioned in the 2nd Gen archive, a set of cut-down Integra sway bar links. Originally I cut them down, then adjusted them to stock size. After the alignment I threw a tack weld on each (which absolutely did not stick) and then I guess the threads that were left tore out. As for the weld, it was only supposed to be a tack so I could grind it off if I needed to adjust again one day. I'm not sure what they links were made of (they were advertised as 304 stainless) but given that 308 welding wire wouldn't join I'm guessing it was something else. It didn't take mild steel wire either, so who knows?

The plan with the new ones was to not even try to retain adjustability. I cut them down carefully until they matched the length of the old links (hole center to hole center) + 2mm. I had to leave the extra two mm to keep enough threads to feel comfortable, but with those extra 2mm it has about 5 threads engaged and it completely bottoms out. Then without installing the lock nut (it will never be adjustable again anyways) I completely welded the link all the way around.



These links are way beefier than the Integra links. Much beefier around the center (easily twice as thick as the stock links) and then much larger bearings (with included shims to reduce it to an M8 bolt and space it properly). I wound in the subframe camber adjuster about two rotations to take up the camber I put in with the added length in these links. Not sure exactly what camber I have now but the algnment shop put it at -1 degree rear so I'm in that neighbourhood.

The car is driveable again, but in the meantime some other parts arrived:



My car didn't come with a complete interior when I bought it. Among the multiple things missing (center console, front and rear headliner trim, center dash trim, vent covers, etc) were the floor mats. Trying to find a set of good OEM mats these days is quite difficult, so I grabbed these Phase 2 Motortrend mats.

How are they? Quality wise, they're acceptable. Fitment leaves something to be desired. In this picture there are at least two inches of space at the back of the mat (where it is supposed to meet the front seat mount) and still it barely goes up past the pedals. While driving I can look down and see the top of the mat. I know OEM mats vary but in my Celica the mat actually covers the whole floor (hence, "floor mat"). Maybe these match OEM sizing but I think a larger mat would be preferable.

I also don't love the checker-board pattern. It would be nice on a stock grey or black interior but with the two-tone interior it contributes to the "busy" look I keep trying to avoid. But the next-up floor mat (Garage Alpha) that comes in plain black is significantly more expensive, so these are the mats I chose for the foreseeable future. They also cover the cut on the passenger side footwell carpet, which is the main reason I felt compelled to buy the mats now.

With my shame sufficiently hidden, on to the last part that arrived. I mentioned before that I ordered a shift ****, and I also ended up not being happy with this one. When I originally ordered it I wanted something simple (and this definitely meets that definition) but I just had a different idea of how it would fit into the interior and it hasn't come together:



In a vacuum, I love the shift ****. But it's more at home on top of a gated shifter with a chrome stalk in a 70's car than in my 80's car with the leather boot. Between that and the floor mats it subtracts from the OEM+ look I am slowly working towards and it kind of ages the interior by a decade:



I'll see if it grows on me, but I already have another **** on order that will be closer to what I am imagining. On the plus side, the home-made short shifter works really well. I may grab some sort of extension to make the **** sit 1-1.5" higher though. A bit more leverage would be helpful with the shortened throw.

The crescent-wrench shifter, never having actually been used, will be saved in the drawer in case I need it one day. Maybe I'll put it in a little box on the wall of the garage; "Break glass in case of emergency".

Next up I'm waiting on some replacement parts for my 3D printer before designing something to finish the radio area and mount that gauge. I'm also waiting on some fuse taps to sort out the gauge wiring properly (currently the wires are jammed into my cigarette lighter plug, leaving me with no way to charge my phone).

Until next time

 

I dig the checkered mats, too bad they are too small. That **** is fugly😁 did you check out the skunk2 I mentioned? It's gunmetal with red infill. Would look great and the weight makes a difference in the throw.

What parts do you need for your printer? I have a bunch of spare junk. Are you any good in CAD? I'm going to try and fudge my way into making a replacement for the radio area that holds several things later on.

 

I actually did check out the Skunk2 ****, and it's pretty nice. Still not as OEM as I'm looking for though (seems weird to say that after the last **** I bought, but it's one of those cases where I placed the order then started questioning my choice right after it ships). Hindsight is 20/20. The added weight would admittedly be helpful though, I have yet to find an OEM looking **** that is heavy.

I'm waiting on a motherboard, but it's covered under warranty. The build quality on the entry level Creality printers isn't great but at least Creality honours their warranties.

I'm not amazing at CAD, mostly self taught. I usually make very simple designs in Blender and then slice with Cura. I should be able to do a radio faceplate without much difficulty though since it's just a rectangle of known dimensions with cutouts in known places. There are a few premade ones on thingiverse that look pretty good, but I don't think the stereo will end up in the same place.

 

Yeah that's the one part I don't have spare. Almost an entire ender 3 in bits left over from upgrades tho.

I won't have a radio in my car. I'll be using the Alpine PWD-X5. Just a small display is up front, kinda like an old changer control.

 

I ended up putting the wrench shifter back in for the drive to work today, since it actually has far better leverage due to the extra height. About 1" higher than the previous **** height is the sweet spot. With the extra height I'm happy to say the shifting is smooth and direct, without being too notchy or difficult to tell which gear I'm selecting.

Also a slight rattle I need to track down, but at present I'm not sure if it's the wrench shifter or the actual mechanism.

 

I finally have the shifter at a place where I'm comfortable saying it's done. The new **** came in (more on that later), but I quickly realized I didn't have enough thread on the end of the shifter to actually install it. Even without the boot retainer or a lock nut I only had two threads exposed on the bottom. Time to make even more modifications:




My first idea was to just tap all the way down the shaft of the existing threads, but then I realized the bottom part was too wide. Since I don't currently have a lathe I can't turn it down, so I moved on to the next solution:



Original shifter + M10x1.25x50 bolt + welder:



It was tricky getting the alignment right, but it ended up straight.

Test fit with a locknut and washer:




Plenty of space. Added more filler, for extra security:




The washer is to retain the shift boot. I had a random boot retainer from Amazon, but the top of the retainer was so narrow it looked strange when pushed against the ****. Measured the bottom of the **** at 1 1/4", bought a washer to match:







The **** is an eBay special, but surprisingly it seems like it's real leather. It's fairly weighty, and it also has the period correct logo and the stitching looks good, so I'm fairly happy with it.

If I had one complaint, I'd say that it sits around stock height due to the height of the **** itself. However the throw is still shorter than stock and the shifter feels way tighter, so I'm happy with the results.

Baby steps, but the interior is coming together.

 

So I've been driving my Rx7 more / less daily in the summer. Daily for me isn't a big job since I live 10 minutes from work, but the car has performed admirably (except for the 3800rpm hesitation, which is slowly driving me mad). One issue did crop up though; my driver's side outer door handle started to become loose and feel like it was tearing itself out of the door. It was getting worse so a few days ago I popped the door handle off to see what was going on, fully prepared to need to completely replace the handle assembly. I got very lucky this time, one of the bolts had fallen out and the other had loosened.



Here you can see two things; my original repair for the infamous cracked handle (with help from a piece of sheet steel and my old friend JB) and the missing bulb for the backlit keyhole. I guess I had that feature all along?

I replaced the bulb (cost $18 for one tiny 12V bulb) and tested it, and it worked! So then I reassembled the handle and reinstalled it with blue loctite to prevent the bolts coming out again.

And then like magic once I had it reassembled the light stopped working. Oh well, I'm not shedding any tears over that.

I also got a set of black inner door handles and cups:





Far from perfect, but they were the best price I've seen in awhile for used so I grabbed them. They also include position switches for the door locks. I have no idea if I will ever need them for anything, but I opened them up and tested them anyways before installing.

Installed pictures to come after the next update, which may be later today / tomorrow time permitting.

 

what do you mean "position switch"? are you referring to the wiring on the switch thats for the power lock?

 

Yes, not sure what the nomenclature is. I do have power locks that I installed with my alarm, but they're only actuated by the remote. They don't follow one another if you use the inner lock switch. It's a feature I've never needed.

I suppose I could implement that function now though.

 

The other task I've just about wrapped up is the speaker setup.

The speaker and amplifier situation in this car has frustrated me since I purchased it. It's frustrating because from the factory the S4 speaker system has potential but just isn't that great in my opinion. Now since it's a factory speaker system I don't expect it to be amazing, but there are a few confusing choices that bother me because they're frustrating to work around. Here are my main grievances with the system:

- Poor speaker sizing. The factory speakers are 4" under dash on both sides, 4" in the rear shock towers both sides. Never mind that the shock towers are sized to take 8" speakers, they decided to use a little box with a 4" speaker in it. And they're also paper cones.

- Integrated amplifiers. There are three of them, one under the dash (with a speaker in it) and one in each of the boxes in the towers. I don't hate them in principle but it means more work when you want to replace them, which you will at 15W or whatever their rating is.

- Poor speaker placement. You have the 4" under dash speakers, where they are pointed directly at your knees. Then you have the shock tower speakers where they are pointed straight up into the glass hatch. This means that the high frequency sounds go straight into your knees and vanish, or straight up into the glass and vanish.

Now one could mitigate the issues with a speaker replacement and restoring the factory stereo, and it would probably sound pretty good. But this still leaves you with the speaker placement issues and the anemic amplifiers. IMO the only good part about the factory stereo is that it matches the interior and looks really cool. However, I already have an aftermarket stereo that matches the interior well.

Since shortly after I purchased the car I have been using an amp in the passenger storage bin and a set of boxed 6x9 speakers in the hatch area, but this still isn't ideal placement and doesn't really have enough presence. But way back when I grabbed a set of S5 interior door cards and grafted them with some of my S4 parts to make my current door cards, which have the all important speaker placement I want; door speakers. Now it was time to make everything come together.

As far as speaker sizing, I originally wanted 6 1/2" door speakers. However after some experimentation I realized it just wasn't going to be practical to do that without relocating the bottom bolt where the power window track mounts. I was able to squeeze a set in there but only 1/3 of the speaker surface area ended up in front of the opening. So I ended up deciding on a set of 5 1/4" Infinity speakers, which fit much better. I'm guessing that S5 doors can fit larger speakers since they're actually designed to have them installed in this location.



You can see the area of the door frame in the background that needed to be "clearanced" with a hammer. I know no one will ever see it, but it still felt weird taking a hammer to my car. I used a simple piece of plywood as the mounting flange, and only needed to add a few rivnuts and foam to mount it.



In this photo you can see two important things; the 5 1/4" speaker fits almost 100% within the opening (well, the half of the opening that Mazda exposed), and that the door card needs to be altered. Since I'm using an S4 part for the maroon leather insert, the map pocket was originally much wider and extended all the way along the bottom of the door.



Took about 5 minutes of careful measuring and cutting, then some contact cement. Now the opening is clear.

I mounted the crossover to the door frame with a zip tie. After running the wiring and testing everything I reinstalled the door cards. Now the interior doors look completely factory, but have functional speakers in them. This lets me get rid of the boxed speakers in the hatch.

But 5 1/4" don't really have enough low end response to do the job on their own...



JBL 8" subs. Rated for 800W apiece, not that I'll be running anything approaching that power. Fits like a glove in the rear speaker towers:



I'm not into any music that I would consider bass heavy, but these respond fairly well up to about 140HZ, so they'll take up the slack that the 5 1/4" Infinitys up front leave.

Then I needed the amp. I already have a 340W Alpine that I was using for the boxed speakers. I bought it for $2.50 at a garage sale a few years ago with water damage and it's served me well ever since. I decided to re-purpose that amp for the 8" subs, then in keeping with my tradition of cheap used (and abused) amplifiers I bought one on eBay for the front speakers:



You can tell how much the previous owner cared about it by the way they packaged it (exactly as shown), and how they thoughtfully included the RCA pigtail they sliced from the previous install. But it works and it's enough to power the 5 1/4" speakers, so that's all I'm concerned with. It isn't going to blow the doors off or anything, but the Infinitys aren't terribly demanding and they sound as good with this amp as with the previous one.



Ran a new power wire for the amps, since 18 year old me installed the amp last time using the stock amp wiring from the shock tower speakers. Which is something like 16GA. Anyways, now there is a dedicated 10GA wire straight from the battery with a 70A breaker. Serious speaker installations would run much larger wiring, but this is fine for my application.


A distribution block is on the to-do list for this winter. There's nothing wrong with this electrically speaking but it gets messier and messier with each new wire (also did a fuel pump rewire awhile back). Going to have to neaten this up soon.

And speaking of "nothing electrically wrong but needs neatening up":



I need to make some simple mounting brackets for the amps, but since I am only driving this car for about 4 more days before garaging it this is fine for testing purposes. The to-do list for this winter is growing...

And well, it works and sounds pretty good! I no longer have the boxed speakers clunking around, the treble and mids have presence due to the door speaker upgrade and the bass is nice and punchy.

(As an aside, anyone looking for quality RCA cables should grab HD component cables instead. They're all thick and well shielded because HD component was susceptible to interference, and they come pre-bundled with a white, a blue, two reds, and a green. This gives you two obvious right colours, two obvious left colours, and a single green for a mono sub or as a digital input if your stereo has that provision. Best of all, they're super cheap since almost nobody wants these cables anymore).

Then I put the storage bin lid back on to hide my shameful amp mounting (or lack thereof):



And also my tweeter mounting leaves something to be desired:



The included mounting provisions don't work since they are designed to be mounted flush on the door card. This would be possible if (like most cars) the FC had it's vent on the dash, but the vent location integrates into the door card and therefore takes up the most optimal place. I decided to mount them on custom 3D printed door triangles, but the replacement motherboard that Creality sent me was also defective so I'm waiting on another. Until then I used a zip-tie. They work and they sound nice, so it's fine for now.

 

As promised, the installed door handle and cup. Even though they're clearly faded they still look better to me than the maroon handle. I could always die the cup since any scratches will just show the black plastic underneath, but I'm not going to bother since the handle will still be faded. I'm calling it good enough.



And that's about it for now. I'm winterizing the car in a few days, so over the winter I plan on taking car of all the little things that have been accruing over time and just doing minor projects.





Thanks for reading, until next time

 

The Rx7 will be on the road a bit longer than expected, since my winter car is waiting on parts. In the meantime I've been working on some little projects from my Winter to-do list:


(excuse my terrible handwriting)

My rear wiper and aftermarket coolant gauge both stopped working at the same time. The coolant gauge is powered using a fuse tap on the rear wiper circuit. I guess it had caught on the clutch pedal and pulled out, so all I had to do was re-route the wiring and plug it back in. Good to go.

The actual work was spent on the radio panel and wheel center caps. My replacement replacement motherboard arrived and so my 3D printer is back up and running. Starting with the radio panel, it was fairly simple to take some measurements and sketch up a small panel before creating it in Blender. The stock radio is a non-standard size, larger than double-din. I am running a single-din stereo so I needed something like this to fill the gap:





Motherboard #3 seems to be working fine now.

The little adhesion brim just pulls right off. I test fit it and the panel actually works fine, but since my aftermarket coolant gauge is currently zip-tied in the hole below the stereo I can't install this panel. I could cut a 52mm hole in the panel I made (or print another with provisions for gauges), but I have longer term plans to rework my gauge setup entirely. So instead I'm just going to keep this part aside until I am ready to eliminate / relocate the coolant gauge.

Next came the center caps. I found a set that I liked online, but it didn't include the measurements I needed to know if it would fit the wheel. I messaged the seller and there was no response, so I took a gamble. They ended up being a few mm too small, which means I need a spacer to make them fit:



OD matches the wheel opening, ID of the bottom part in this image matches the center cap. There is a small lip on the inner surface for the clips on the center cap to grab, and also a little brim on the outside to seat flush against the outside of the wheel opening.



Installed in wheel:



If I were to design it again I would slightly increase the width of the brim to fill the flat space on the wheel. I'd also remove the angle on the brim and just leave it orthogonal, but the difference is so small that it's not worth re-printing the set.

Center cap installed in spacer:



So they definitely fit, but I'm not sure how I feel about it. I bought them initially because "a wheel needs center caps, right?", but it contributes a bit to that "busy" look I dislike so much. I certainly don't hate them but I'm not sure that I prefer them to no caps at all. The only thing I definitely like is that they hide the dust cap on the hub.

Before:



After:



So I'm going to think on it awhile before I decide what I'm doing. I can easily uninstall them later.

Lastly, all the leaves from the tree by our driveway fell on my car and it made for a nice photograph:



Until next time

 

what leds are you going to do? i just saw a really interesting front drl/blinker board on ebay.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/313733917500

i may have to commission you to make my radio panel...any reason you left out the side tabs for mounting it?

 

Honestly I completely forgot the mounting tabs when I designed it, but after I finished printing it I did a test fit and it happily friction fits inside the opening. If I decide to mount gauges / switches to it though, I will definitely have to add mounting tabs.

As for the LEDs on my to-do list, probably just a simple light conversion. I do have some drop in LED bulbs that fit the side markers and tail lights, but the colour temp is too cool. This makes the amber markers turn greenish yellow and the tail lights turn pink. Very interesting effect, but I like the proper colours. Going to have to find some amber / red LED bulbs instead.

I already wired DRLs in the FTP lenses. I have a set of JDM FTP lenses, which come from the factory with a bulb fitting and reflector. Then I made a little harness for them that is powered with key to ON.

I'd like to do LED headlights, but the cost of name brand LED headlights in our size is pretty hefty. I'll have to settle for a drop in bulb in my existing housings. The stock headlights are very poor compared to modern cars.

 

Like all good Rx7 owners, I've been putting off winterizing it until the last possible moment.


Still undecided on wheel center caps

No really big updates, but I'm hesitantly (ha!) declaring victory over the 3800rpm hesitation.

I hate the 3800rpm hesitation so much. It forces you to either shift below 3800rpm and feel like you're lugging it all the time or shift at 7000rpm to stay above 3800rpm and obliterate the eardrums of nearby pedestrians. It just makes the car very unpleasant to drive because it sits right where power starts to really be delivered. Re-grounding the ECU hasn't fixed it, nor the pressure sensor, nor any of the other obvious fixes.

When I installed the new engine I used a catch-can. I hooked it up in a crude but effective manner: oil filler neck to one port, center iron nipple to the other, small air filter on top. This works fine but it left no good place to connect the charcoal canister, so I capped the line. This resulted in the occasional fuel smell but nothing major. I'll get back to this in a minute.

Today I spent a lot of time diagnosing possible causes for my slightly lumpy idle and the 3800rpm hesitation. I did find a vacuum leak, though it was one that I already knew about and was trying to ignore:


At some point I should take these out and paint them too. I'm thinking silver, like the plate at the end of the shaft.

When I rebuilt my intake the little rubber seals on these shafts had become crumbly. I pulled them out and threw them away, before making note to buy new ones. Then I found that Atkins listed them as NLA. I reassembled without them knowing there would likely be a leak, and the propane test confirmed it today.

I found a source online and placed an order, so we'll see if they show up. In the event they do I'll share where I got them. I'm doubtful because in my experience once Atkins lists it as NLA, it's NLA.

If they don't show up I'll look into what it takes to 3d print nylon or some other flexible material. Nylon gets brittle with heat but it would be better than noting. The design is simple, it's a small donut with a ridge in it. I have spare manifolds and actuators to measure the ID and OD.

At that point I played with the idle settings for awhile but I always had the same issue: If I set the idle to 750rpm it is lumpy, and with the BAC valve plugged in it bounces. No surprise with a vacuum leak. So I set it back the way it was: 900rpm, BAC unplugged. Since I have no accessories this has been providing me a fairly stable idle all summer.

I'd given up on solving the hesitation for the day when I decided to hook back up the stock PCV system for the hell of it. Then I took a test drive and it revved smoothly past 3800rpm.

I don't know why this fixed it. Maybe the small amount of fuel vapour sucked in above 2000rpm through the charcoal canister is important. Maybe the extra airflow is metered in. Maybe it combines with the vacuum leak. Frankly I don't care, I'm just ecstatic that it's gone.

At that point I decided to call it a victory and stopped messing with the car for the evening. I plan on plumbing the catch-can back in (inline with the stock PCV valve and plugging the air filter) but that will wait for another day.

 

I have some. Ordered them from AliExpress. Wish I'd known I would have sent them to ya. I have my actuators painted black and in some random bin for when I get to that point. I stripped all that mess down and am trying my hand at nickel plating the rods and all the bits too.

Let us know what size ends up working so I can compare to what I bought.

 

Allegedly the ones I'm getting are OEM parts, but I'll be sure to measure them either way. I'm assuming the supplier I ordered from has them as new-old stock. Either that or the listing is wrong and it gets cancelled by the supplier, or it never arrives and PayPal protects me. I'll know in 3 days or so.

I actually zinc plated all of the hardware for the rear suspension. Absolutely not worth it IMO, I wish I'd just replaced all of it with new. Once I added up the hours of time I spent I could have picked up a shift or two at work and had enough to buy it all. It was a really interesting learning experience though, and the hardware has been holding up really nicely if I may say so myself.

 

I may end up taking you up on that, the order I placed was cancelled a few minutes ago because the part is discontinued. I'll PM you shortly.

 

There haven't been any major updates recently. Part of the new gauge setup has arrived, but there are other parts going into it that have yet to come so I'm saving all that for later to compile it into one post. It's exam season too, so my effort and time has been focused on school lately.

Unfortunately my Rx7 is living outside this winter. We only have two garage spaces (not that I'm complaining) and since I've been using one for 4 years for my Rx7 it's only fair my family gets to use them for awhile. Plus the Miata has a brand new top so making it live outside in the winter (even covered) seems a bit harsh.



Had to take the wheel off for a day to get a slow leak repaired. The local Meineke was really cool to deal with: I brought it to them at 9 AM, they told me it would be ready at 2 PM. I showed up at 2PM and they didn't even charge me! Apparently I had a very minor bead leak, so it was just a dismount seal and remount. And they replaced the valve stem.

I'd give them a shoutout but I don't like putting my exact location online. I'll definitely recommend them to friends and family though.


I know it's just normal brake rotor rust, but I still hate looking at it.

I also grabbed some spare window glass that was being sold nearby. I don't need it, but I thought it would be good to have as spares since parts for these cars are hard to find now:



One other reason I want it is that I want to get the windows tinted.

The car came with tinted glass on all sides, but the tint is old and not as crystal clear as it should be. My rear glass has no tint because I replaced the entire hatch (previous owner or somebody damaged all the defroster traces before applying the tint).

When I called some local places about tinting it, I was quoted around $450. Apparently there is a $150 fee to remove the old tint. Now for $100 I have a new set of windows to install and I can keep the originals someplace safe.

The tinted fronts and un-tinted rear has led to a slightly strange look:



If Thursday is as warm as the weatherman predicts and I have the time, I'd like to swap the glass then.

Lastly, does anyone have tips for storage? I have a car cover and I've already filled up with 91 and added some fuel stabilizer. I'm running FL-22 premixed so I don't need to worry about that freezing. Parking brake is off and wheels are blocked to prevent rolling. I have space to drive it forward / back a bit every couple weeks so the tires don't flat spot.

I'm slightly concerned about preventing rodent damage though. Dryer sheets apparently work for the interior but what are people doing for under the hood? I don't want to use poison because the local chipmunks and squirrels might seek it out.

Any advice is appreciated.

Until next time