I was distraught at the time of the accident and this tarnished my clean driving/accident-free record! After a few days of having Roy just sit in the garage and not looking at the damages, I had the other insurance’s estimater come out and the damage didn’t seem as bad anymore.  Here are some snaps of what happened when an SUV backs into a Miata.  And FYI – the SUV sustained literally NO damage to its bumper.

Yep, nothing to see here…

Left rear quarter panel.

Such a clean car (was!).

The lip of the fender(?) was bent outward so it was making contact with the tire when driving home.  Luckily, I didn’t need a tow because I was able to “roll” it back up a little bit.  Today, I changed back to the stock BBS wheels and no rubbing driving around the block, so now I can drive him to local bodyshops to get an estimate.  The estimater said that the dents can probably be pulled out and then the panel would have to be repainted.  Let’s hope that’s all I really need done.

My lesson that I learned – don’t park close to the entrance because that’s where all the idiots park.

Got the car home and I decided to detail Roy’s exterior with help from Justin.  Clay bar, swirl remover, polish, wax…all done in about 5 hours (yikes!).

Here is Roy’s before – swirl marks all over and lackluster black paint:

Spot check with the swirl remover – what a difference!

This is a snap of the trunk after some of the swirl remover was wiped off – like a mirror, the garage is reflecting off Roy.

Reflection of Moss on Roy’s rear panel.

About 1/3 complete.

The day went dark and we finally finished; unfortunately, I couldn’t take a better finale picture since it was too dark and was raining practically all day today.  I really like how the hardtop looks! We’re almost ready for Laguna Seca.

Thanks Justin for helping~

I’ll be picking these up at the event next week! I’ve been dying to get these and I don’t know why I’ve taken so long to order them, but this is such a cheap mod while improving the stiffness of the car noticeably.  From Flyin’ Miata’s website – “These braces slide over the factory frame rails and stiffen the car dramatically.” Sounds good to me.

Look for the installation and results in a couple weeks =)!

I took Roy to ProTech, managed by Anthony, to have the work done.

Here is the new Roy:

From a distance the hardtop looks pretty swell and acceptable, the subtlety of the gold metallic flakes and lighter black is a nice balance and I think stands out well.  With that being said, getting up close, I noticed some imperfections with the paint /sad face.  I think having rushed the job and not giving enough time for the paint to completely harden and dry led to a quarter-sized burn in the paint and swirl marks from having the hardtop polished.  As a courtesy, Anthony had asked me if I wanted it polished and I agreed not knowing that the painted needed more time to dry! So off to Pro Tech to have the paint re-done!! Argh.  At least I still have about 1 week before the big weekend and that should give enough time for the paint to dry.

On the other hand, the bumper looks so much better with a decent paint job.  I’m not sure what happened with the previous owners, but a shitty job was done and the paint never really matched the body and an unsightly “pig nose” where the emblem was.  I opted to not have the Garage Vary front lip painted – would it look cleaner if it was painted?

Unfortunately, this past weekend I took a drive down to Davenport and the bumper collected a bunch of bugs…there goes a brand new bumper! Hopefully this doesn’t affect the paint too much since I think the paint hadn’t completely hardened/dried – I might have embedded bugs…boooo!

Well, here’s hoping that 2nd time is a charm and the Sparkling Black Mica is perfect!

My inspiration:

(Silver hardtop with metallic flakes)

Today was a highly productive day – firstly, I want to thank Brian and Justin for helping and doing most of the dirty work; it’s always nice to have competent pals .  Roy and I are very appreciative of your help and glad that nothing broke or went wrong! Cheers!

The agenda was to install new front brake pads, coilovers, and wheels.  Sounds like a big day of sweat, blood, and tears – doesn’t it? I guess the perk of having people who know what they’re doing (ya know, doin’ it right) is that things will get done quickly.  I would say from start to finish it took less than three hours and this was done without air-tools! Again, the nice thing was that nothing broke!  I was stuck with doing the easy stuff like jacking up the car, removing and replacing the wheels, removing nuts and bolts…I think that was it (hah!) – even though my tasks were simple in comparison, I learned and gained a little bit more experience with working on my own car…plus the satisfaction that it was all done at home.

Before Brian arrived I put Roy on jack stands using a brand new rapid pump low-profile jack from Harbor Freight.  Just a quick review of the jack – at 45lbs this thing was heavy lifting out of the box, but maneuvering it around the garage was really easy.  Our older Craftsman jack could really only go forward and back then to have it go sideways we kind of had to drag it left and right.  With the HF jack, it glided really easily back and forth as well as side to side…it really didn’t feel like 45lbs once it was settled on the ground.  Overall, it has a very sturdy and reliable feel to it.  The pumping wasn’t exactly effortless, but each pump got the car higher quicker.

Here’s a snap of Roy teetering on the stands.  This made me really nervous.  What if one of the stands failed?!

Moving on – Justin and I decided to install new brake pads for the front.  The pads that I used were the Performance Ceramic by Hawk.  I didn’t lend a hand for this, but it must be an easy process if it was done quickly even before I could ask about the status of it.

These are the original brake pads – they look like they’ve got a lot of meat left! However, the Hawk pads are so much more responsive and braking feels a lot more solid now.  I’m a lot happier now with how the braking feels much more secure and reliable (this is coming from a person who has nightmares of not being able to stop >_<).

Once Brian arrived, the real dirty work began…

I was assigned to remove the nuts from the trunk and rear shocks. Here you can see the Bilstein shock.

I was told that the bushings were in pretty bad condition, along with the dust boot and the spider webs -__-;. A few months back I bought a set of bump stops and dust boot for these guys, I may just replace the old with the new since they’re off the car and incase I want to put them back on Roy.

Tein Flex coilovers on! Now time to put the goodies on…

RS Watanabe 15×6.5 front 15×7 rear +35 (I think…).

I think I want the ride height a little bit lower and he would look perfect.  What do you think? Like? Hate? Ricer? Awesome?

]]> http://meetmossandroy.com/2010/02/teaser-finale/feed/ 0 http://meetmossandroy.com/2010/02/teaser-day-2/ http://meetmossandroy.com/2010/02/teaser-day-2/#comments Sun, 14 Feb 2010 19:13:58 +0000 Irene http://meetmossandroy.com/?p=400 Justin ordered these for me from Japan! OoOooO JDM =P I can’t wait to have these put on…

Hawk Performance Brake Pads

Tein Basic Coilovers

Tein Strut Bar

Racing Beat Front Sway Bar

Racing Beat Rear Sway Bar

Flyin’ Miata Frame Rail Brace

My goal with Roy is to improve what Miatas are known for (among other things) – handling.  My hope is that with the above parts, Roy will stay planted in the ground through the twisties while I’m being tailgated by a car with far more power ^_^;; I think I’m on the right track.

My humble wishlist:

Tracy Reese Printed Silk Shift Dress

Marc by Marc Jacobs Totally Turnlock Natasha Bag, Black

Canon EOS Rebel T1i

Since Roy is more important than myself, my wishlist is a bit smaller, although way out of my budget! The MMJ bag I don’t necessarily need, but once it’s gone it is GONE! I hope to get one of these items soon because checking online everyday for sales is not healthy .

Being a car enthusiast is just like any other hobbyist; we spend our earnings on our money pit, we tinker with our toys during the weekends, we gather as much information as we can about our interests, we browse craigslist endlessly, and more importantly we get together with those that share the same interests.

I really wanted to meet the locals and their cars; I had known that there were a few members in the area and thought it would nice to take in the scenery of Lands End.  Maybe it was too early or there were other events that day, but it really wasn’t the turnout that I had expected.  For some, even when served, there will always be dissatisfaction.

Overall – 2 NA, 2 NB, Civic Si, Chevy and a random MR-2 were present.  It was funny how the driver of the MR-2 parked, came up to us, and started chatting it up.  When asked if he was part of NCR – he asked “What is that? something Cool Ricers?” lolll… Also, the drive through Great Hwy and Skyline was a nice segway into dim sum!

Thanks to those that put in that effort to show up – I know it was early and if there is a next time it’ll definitely be at a more reasonable time.

|Gallery||

…he had to stand out just a little.  The original thread can be found here: RX8Club.

Here are some snaps I took – [personally my favorite is the RX-8 RS!]:

Jon: and meeting you, who is ALWAYS happy to just see your car [Roy]… even though… I think it needs work! .. makes me sad how I cant find that same feeling
Me: well
Jon: EMOTIONAL MOMENT!
Jon: *e-hug*
Me: *e-hi-five*
Me: i don’t have the same feelings towards Moss…
Me: we’re so silly with our cars…

It’s true – I’m absolutely crazy about Roy, here are some symptoms:

• After I’ve parked, I have to look back a few times and think how cute he is
• I take pictures of him at any given moment
• I would rather have someone slash the top or break a window than have him stolen
• I like looking at him just to look
• I keep his original parts for sentimental reasons
• I really enjoy driving him even though he isn’t the most flashy, expensive, or fastest car on the road
• I tell people that I love♥ my car and mean it wholeheartedly

I want to believe that I will be the last owner of Roy, meaning he’ll be with me as long as I live because I can’t trust anyone else to take care of him the way I do and keep him in good running condition.  What makes him special? It could be that he is 1/1500 sold in the US that makes him unique, that’s certainly a good reason.  Also, it could be because he is a Miata, one of the most beloved cars produced.  They are like toys that can be collected and bring out that feeling in you that another car can’t.  I’ll take him the way he is because it’s unconditional.

How can you not take a second look at Roy??