Meet Moss and Roy

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?

This is an excerpt from a conversation I was having with a friend about our cars and how he currently isn’t so satisfied with his car -

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??

March 19, 2009 – A&W Norcal Roadsters Meet

Below are photos from the weekly Norcal Roadsters meet.  Most pics came out bad since lighting was low and I didn’t use a tripod.

It was nice to see such a big turnout, a little surprising even, but I found it a little unwelcoming and distanced.  Those that I did meet were nice, but I definitely wanted to learn more on what I can do with Roy from experienced Miata folks.  My experience at a previous meet, Wing Stop @ Union City, with MOCC members kinda spoiled me with the initial expectations of meets. Next time… <3

Additional photos (edited):

Twilight or Midnight Blue?

I like how the cars are staggered, but not the Sentra (wrong meet?)!

(The MSRP for the 1993 Miata LE in 1993 clocked in at $22,000.  In today’s dollars that would be $32,146.)

I purchased Roy 3/15/09 with approximately 76k miles.  We drove him back to San Francisco from Los Angeles and even though I was worried about how the long distance would affect this 16 year old car, we made it home safely! Along the way, the CD player stopped working; this is probably due to driving in the heavily traveled right lane on Hwy 5.

The photo was taken at a pit stop along Hwy 5; I’m not sure where exactly we are because everything was pretty much the same for 300 miles.

Considering the age of the car, the paint was in exceptional condition.  There were some scratches and dings that can be easily repaired.  The plastic housing for the rear lights were a bit faded and needed some polishing.  All in all, minor repairs and some TLC is all Roy really needs!