Interior Updates to the Miata

In addition to the new carpet I showed in the previous post, I did a couple other little dress-up projects in the Miata's interior.

First, I sent off to Revlimiter for a nifty new horn button and some new door sill emblems. All of these are in the vintage Mazda script that is also found on the gauge faces I installed 3 years ago, also from Revlimiter.

The horn button didn't work with the center trim ring that this Momo Tuner wheel normally has, but works just fine if you just omit the trim ring, which I did. I'm fine with the wheel without it.

The door sill emblems replace the original stickers with these made from urethane epoxy. Instead of flat stickers they're a bit domed and have a little "give" to them. These door sills came via eBay a number of years ago, and were pretty well broken in then. I've polished them up a bit but they still show quite a few scratches. I chalk it up to patina and live with it.

So the interior looks pretty nice. Nothing fancy but stock-ish and clean with different elements purchased decades apart. The vent rings are the original "MRoad" rings I must have bought in about 1998. The shift knob and brake handle are Voodoo items from about that same year. The seats I did in 2017, the steering wheel in 2012, and the gauge faces in 2018. The radio is the original from 1994. The door panels I re-did in new vinyl in 2006 or so.

1994 Miata Original Radio Goodness

Still working on getting the interior in order, I did a little work on the center stack. I had previously hacked up the 'tombstone' to install a double-din stereo out of a 2002 Protege. It fit but I had to widen the opening just a bit. After that stereo died I put the original stereo back in, but after 15 years I had lost the cubby hole and the hacked up plastic looked pretty bad. So, I installed a brand-new 'tombstone' and a blank panel under the radio where the cubby was.

The part number for this blank panel is NA01-55-231. Now that I have the fancy gauge faces (previous post) I feel like the A/C controls need a little help. Gotta think about that.

Revlimiter Gauge Face Install in '94 Miata

So I'm doing some work on the Miata! I've had this Miata for almost 20 years now, and the last year and a half since we moved to Tennessee has been really hard on it. It's been parked outdoors 24/7/365 and for a 24 year old car, that's brutal. I've got some parts and upgrades ordered and it will be getting a complete paint job here pretty soon. I'm also going to find a way to park it indoors. To kick things off, though, I decided to do something I've always wanted to do but never got around to it. I've long been a fan of the bespoke handmade gauge faces made by Adam at Revlimiter.net. His designs are pure genius and the workmanship is top notch. The best part is he doesn't charge an arm and a leg. So a few months ago I ordered a set of his faces, and they proceeded to sit on the shelf for six months or so before I got a chance to install them. This is pretty typical for me, by the way. I have a set of Flyin Miata frame rail braces that I bought in 2012 that I have yet to install. I swear, I'm getting to it.

Anyway, as usual I'm not going to tell you how to install anything. Revlimiter has outstanding instructions on the website. Instead I'll just post some photos and make some comments.

Just for reference, here's the old gauge faces just before I took them off.

I just thought this was interesting. In 20 years of Miata ownership I've never seen these parts. I think they're wonderfully analog!

New faces in place.

Getting the needles lined up right. The only tricky one was the water temp gauge. It just wanted to read too low no matter what I did. I finally got it to point straight up when the engine is warm. That's close enough for this inaccurate gauge. Ditto the OPG. The numbers don't mean much. I checked the speedo against GPS and it's within about 2 mph at 40 mph. The tach seems to read too high unless I set it too low at idle. I don't care.

The finished product.

Here's how they look at night.

This is a meaningless yet strangely satisfying modification. I think it bodes well for where I'm going with this car. More to come.

Jeep Cherokee XJ - Rusty Floors, Bedliner and Interior Recolor

So I finished pulling the nasty carpet out of the XJ the other day. The driver side floor is perfect, but darned if I didn't find a bunch of rust on the passenger side. The carpet went straight in the trash. I'd never reuse it. It was really nasty.

The rust went all the way through the metal in a few small places. It was not so bad that I needed to replace the whole floor pan, so I went to Home Depot and bought a few small pieces of sheet metal, trimmed them to size to cover the holes, and riveted them in place.

Here's the floor with the metal patches riveted in over an initial coat of Chassis Saver paint (POR-15 is a similar product).

I spent a couple hours with a wire brush on my die grinder and then slathered on another thick coat of Chassis Saver paint all over the floor and right over the patches I riveted in. It should neutralize the rust and keep it from progressing.

I then covered the whole floor with Desert Tan Monstaliner (truck bed floor liner) and it looks pretty good. It took an entire gallon to do the whole vehicle.

I used Duplicolor plastic and vinyl paint to recolor the interior from gray to black. It worked pretty well. In this photo you can see the original gray color on the door panel.

The fabric soaks up a LOT of paint and it leaves it feeling a little crispy, but overall it looks ok. I did the seats as well and the color has held up for a while now. It might need to be re-done every year or two if you sit on them a lot.

New Steering Wheel

MOMO Tuner wheel. I really like it.

Here it is in the car. The previous wheel lasted 12 years but it was time for a new one.

One of the next projects - Hella FF50 driving lights. I'll do a blog post on the installation.

Refurb Results!

The car is pretty much done! I'm just taking care of details at this point. I still have to wet sand and polish the whole car to correct some flaws in the paint. I'll try to document that as I go. I'm also going to revisit the valve adjustment. The car runs like a scalded cat, but the valves are noisier than I think they should be. I just want to check it again and try to get the clearances down to the bottom half of the specs. This is the downside of getting rid of the Hydraulic Lash Adjusters from the '94 head.
 

Here's the car on its first outing! The hood is still unpolished after wet sanding but you can't see it too much in this picture. The Reptile Red paint really pops in the sunlight. It's insanely red!

The engine money-shot.

This shot shows the color in more normal lighting.

I replaced the instrument lighting with LEDs. This doesn't make a huge difference except the needles are now white instead of green.

This came in the brown truck the other day.

It replaced the 12 year old MOMO Champion that was getting quite ratty. I love the red stitching and will probably mimic that on the seat upholstery when I do that.

Iggee leatherette seatcovers - installation in the '94 Miata

Did this today. They are Iggee leatherette (vinyl) seat covers - not full upholstery. They install over the existing cloth seats. Got them directly from Iggee through eBay for $125. Will just show the driver side.

The driver seat is getting a bit tatty.

The bottom cover is held tight by six elastic straps that hook on the bottom of the seat pan. Then a drawstring-like cord ties in the back. I routed it through a hole in the seat pan. This photo is before I was quite done tying things up.

The back cover is held tight by these big velcro flaps. Installation is an exercise in trying to pull them tight from both sides while sticking the velcro.

Pretty much done.

Back in the car.

For a slipcover, these are amazingly nice. You can tell they're slipcovers if you're looking for it, but when sitting in the car it's just like the seats were meant to be that way. No more tatty seats!