I recently bought a 1992 Miata 3 weeks ago from my brother when he moved to the Philippines to study. He showed me the car on craigslist and originally I wasn’t interested. Naturally he bought the car and he came by me visit me in Houston. When I saw the car at the alignment shop, I immediately wanted it before I even drove it. So when my brother left for the Philippines I bought the car and got to work.
Soooo… I think the last update I had on my hatch was almost a year ago. When I was pulling out the 16v and dropping in my 20v. The last post featuring the hatch was 8/6 day of last year, 8 months ago. Over the last 8 months this is, in short, the progress of the hatch:
-broke down
-20v didn’t run properly
-pulled motor
-stripped interior
-swapped levin front end from coupe to hatch
-fiberglass doors
-mounted shine auto trd style wing
-new sideskirts
-custom DIY purple plastidip
-slammed
-f20c swap
I’ll pick up from where I left off from the story of the coupe:
As soon as I got the coupe up and running with the 20v, I began to focus on reviving the hatch. Which at the moment, had no front suspension and I mean NOTHING.
Last night some of the Natsukashi Garage boys decided to get together to showcase some new additions to our rides, or at least modifications. For Thaison, Cody, and I it was all about slamming our cars. For Arick, we were just celebrating the fact that his car still worked…. for now…. because we all know that won’t last long.
The rest of the night was fun, and involved things such as Charlie getting pulled over in my car (which has expired registration) and us spotting a fire from the top floor of a parking garage. Also, no night is ever complete these days without Thaison getting mistaken as a girl (apparently “she” was driving around with a suspicious car). Luckily for him, the Pho game is kickin and the police knew him from the Pho shop.
In the end, it was to get these shots. Here are a few from the night that I personally really liked
So, I recently bought some Rota SVN R 18×10 with tires for a really good deal from one of my friends. With my 15mm adaptors, it makes the final offset to et15. After test fitting the wheels, the tires were poking 1.5″ from my already pulled fender!! But I still wanted the wheels and if there is a will, there is a way. Since the GTI come with stock with rear camber bolts I maxed it out to -4 then with a heat gun and baseball bat I flared the rear fenders.
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You do not want to miss this event, this will be the largest meet in the Austin area this summer. pass the word along and make sure to save the date.
Renegade X Sarupbuhay summer meet
— Saturday June 8th 2013
— 8:45pm – 11:15pm
— at Pho Thasion
9500 North Interstate 35 Frontage Road, Austin, TX 78748
Sponsors:
— Loyal KNG
— Lead Industries
— Natsukashi Garage
— Squirrel Squad
— Grip Royal
DJ MIK ONE out of Houston will be playing music for your ear holes.
King Ptolemy of Austin will be debuting his second album demo
Kawaii Lani will also be making an appearance
Dec. 20, 2012
So after the coupe was painted, I decided it was about time to get the car looking like a whole car again. Most people around town knew me as the guy with all the 86’s (which happen to always be missing a body panel). So I decided to piece the coupe together to be as close to 100% appealing to the eye as possible. So first thing first, was to get the rear over fenders to fit the 15×9 -41 rear work equips.
Just look at that… NOT CUTE
Man, I’ve been terrible about updating my builds. Over the last three months…a LOT has changed on my corolla(s). Branden did a quick profile on me back at the end of 2012. You can check it out here. At that time, I had just freshly prepped and painted my coupe. Being my first time using an HVLP gun and single stage paint, I think it turned out pretty good!
Here’s a before shot of the car:
Nov. 8, 2012:
First thing first, I started sanding down the spray paint on the car to get to the original paint. Once I got to that, I scuffed up the original paint real nice for the primer to stick. And started primering with Rustoleum spray paint. (in the future, I would buy actual automotive primer from Sherwinn-Williams bc, I don’t think my single stage paint stuck to the car as well with rustoleum).
All taped up, ready for primer
Two weeks ago I saw a link to meetup.com that was something along the lines of “Austin Sportbike Riders.” I immediately thought “Shoot, this is cool I need some people to ride with!.” With that I headed to their Noob event and met a bunch of great people. Long story short, after talking to some fellow members, (Ignacio, Art, May,Candace, Dannen, Cory) I was given a chance to go to a track day with a few of them. Normally I would have had to go through a lot of trouble to find transportation but ASR’s Ignacio coordinated it all for me. These people really know how to make someone feel like family, and did all they could to make sure that I could go there at any cost. Cost was another problem as I’m still in school and paying for my first super sport, so the fact that all things were worked out just so I could go and race around a track in a safe manner. You can’t really ask for better people than that.
Long story short, after trying to sell my xbox (failed), I still found a way to make it out, even though it was only for one of the two days of the event. Before we go any further I would like to give special thanks to my amazing friends Ignacio, May, Candace, and David for helping me so much these past two weeks, and for being truly awesome human beings. Through them I have started to realized my dreams as a racer.
I arrived with my duffle bag on my back. Since I had to ride over to David’s place I was trying to be a minimalist
My friend David has a pretty awesome race bike. He’s a fellow Honda head as well, and used to own a variety of great cars. He now, however, has moved on to racing motorcycles…. something that I could see in my future.
Close up on that awesome exhaust
Shout out to David’s sponsor
That Honda Racing life
After Candace showed up at about 6:30 PM we loaded up (we as in Candace and David) and head off to Cresson
So by 11:30 we made it to the track. After unloading the bikes we headed to our sleeping quarters and got some rest.
We started the morning early at about 5:30 AM. When we woke up it was time to get everything prepped for the day. Needless to day I didn’t have much work to do, but while everyone else was putting their bikes on stands and firing up those tire warmers I walked around and snapped some shots of the place.
Prep Complete!
Even the cruisers had their own class! ‘Merica
Race bike out and out. Sometimes farings just get in the way.
Most of the day’s ASR group
Don’t worry friends, even your fit’s can tow you to the track!
May has a cbr250r like I did, except her’s is all tracked out. Unfortunately someone (not pointing fingers) forgot her key and so she ended up riding some else’s ninja 250. Ignacio’s track bike on the right is a little track monster. For those who don’t know the 07-08 600rr is the fastest 600rr to date, and his was a testament to this.
May and Ignacio posted up like champions, leanin’ like a cholo
When you don’t race, you read. Get your education on noobs.
All types of bikes show up. As always I’m partial to the 600rr, especially 07-08’s (those little monsters), but those super motards are boss
For those of you who don’t know, racing bikes that run slicks or DOT tires use tire warmers to get their tires up to operating temp so they are ready to run right when they get on track. They also serve as a safety precaution since cool racing tires are hard.
This bike reminded me of my old hatch with the paint pens everywhere.
The man told me his niece’s and nephew’s went crazy on it. You gotta love My Little Pony right?
Our bikes in prime form
IP’s wife May and their son Zane having fun with the pit bike
There was no shortage of money at the track.
Street fighter GSXR. This bike just looked awesome, sadly he went down later in the day and had to replace a radiator. The awesome part about RideSmart is that everyone there extremely nice and helpful, and people were immediately ready to help him as soon as he was back in the pits.
That day there was a CMRA mock race for those who were getting their liscense. My two friends Candace and David were there doing just that. Here is a little pre-race mind game action for you.
Candace and David in their battle stance
The rest of the day went well. I was feeling much faster and much more confident in my riding. This was one the best experiences I’ve ever had and I can’t wait to go back (I am actually on my way to Texas World Speedway as I write this to do some corner working for RideSmart).
Later Candace!
I would again like to give special thanks to ASR (and all my friends there) and RideSmart for making this a great weekend. If anyone in the Austin area is looking to ride please look up ASR on facebook at http://www.meetup.com/austin-sportbike-riders and also RideSmart for your Texas track days at http://www.facebook.com/ridesmart1
After doing my Unitronic Stage 2 tune, I decided to change my oil every 3,000 miles instead of the 10,000 mile oil change service from VW. I figured the more frequent oil change will help improve the engine life since the boost is increased and keep the engine feeling fresh.
I bought my Fumoto oil valve drain from ECS tuning. The part is pretty straight forward, remove the old oil pan bolt and then then replace it with Fumoto oil valve drain. The valve is simple to use and it eliminates the risk of someone over tightening or striping the oil pan drain bolt.
To do the oil change I needed to remove my skid plate, and you can see my skid plate is put to work. For anyone slammed status or just want to protect your oil pan and transmission BUY the Panzer Diselgeek skid plate. Houston roads are horrible, Ive hit reflectors, bumps, small rocks, and dips going 80mph. You’ll hear a loud bang and see sparks but its just the skid plate.
You can see the two bottom bolts that hold the skid plate were cut down paper thin from the roads. Thats low life, some people dont get it but thats fine, you dont need to. I used my adjustable wrench and pliers to remove those bolts.
After i got those removed, the two front bolts holding the skid plate were in good condition, because they were not exposed to the road and carnage.
I used a 30mm socket to remove the bolts.
You can see the diference from the bolts and how much I scrape. Since the two bolts are scar faced, i bought new bolts from Dieeselgeek and its a direct replacement. I only waited one day to get my bolts with the basic shipping.
With my aluminum skid plate off, it may not look thick but its not weak. I can tell Dieselgeek did some engineering because you cant see any bends, open holes, or deformities. The skid plate can take a beating.
After seeing all the scrape marks from the skid plate, Im sure if didn’t have it I would have been stuck on road with a busted oil pan or transmission several times. The skid plate already paid for itself many times!
With the skid plate off, I can now get to the oil pan. I used a 18mm socket to remove the OEM oil drain bolt and let the oil drain out.
The Fumoto oil valve drain plug has a lever were you move it to open and close the valve. You can see there is a spring, to lock the lever in place to prevent it from coming lose. Fumoto also comes with an extension and washers but you dont need a extension for the MK5 GTI.
After the oil has drained, hand tread the Fumoto oil drain bolt. Then use a 18mm socket and torque it to the factory spec 22lbs. Now you dont have to worry about someone over tightening or striping the oil pan bolt! The Fumoto oil drain valve makes oil changes easier and less messy. I just have to put back my skid plate.
When putting back my skid plate I had some clearance issues. My Fumoto oil valve bolt was touching my skid plate. No big deal though, I use a hack saw and cut of a part of the tubing.
Ahhh, more clearance.
Dont forget to add thread locker to the bolts when attaching the skid plate!
My illest sticker holding up pretty well.
With the car on leveled ground, time to put the oil. The oil I used was OEM spec, Castrol Edge 5w-40. The engine uses 5 quarts but I used 4.75 quarts when my dipstick showed it was max level. I left it that way because overfilling is bad for the seals and gaskets. After topping off the GTI with oil, I drove it around and no problems. I didn’t change my oil filter because it is rated for 10,000 miles before I need to change it. Just some basic maintenance to keep my car healthy.
As most of you know I acquired a 2004 Mazdaspeed Miata a little less than a month ago. Getting this car was one of the most exciting things that’s ever happened to me. I live to drive, it’s what makes me happy and keeps me sane… literally, there was a point when I didn’t run a single road for 3 weeks and I was the most irritable person ever. So as you most of you can imagine getting a car with as much potential and heritage as a Miata (not to mention the fastest one produced) was a huge moment for me. The day I met with Dillon to make the trade, I was both nervous and excited. I couldn’t imagine that anyone would want to get rid of such an amazing machine; it took a total of five minutes before we both agreed to the trade and I was on the road. I was so excited that I had blasted through down town and weaved my way through SXSW traffic and was already on the highway when Dillon called me to mention that I had left him with all of my keys. As I drove back towards down town to pick up my keys, I couldn’t help but smile. The smooth exhaust note and slight ‘pshhhhhh’ from the blow off valve was more intoxicating than anything I had ever experienced.
Being that I have always wanted and planned on owning a Miata, I knew right away what sort of mods i would be making. I’ll admit that I’m a bit of a nut when it comes to cars and I love to dream; since I was 16 I’ve had this notebook filled with cars, parts and my would be builds if I owned one of them. One of my many dreams had become a reality and it was time to get to work. I spent the next three days scouring the web for parts and info that would help me build my perfect car.
Then… it happened. I woke up for work three days ago, got in the car and started making my way to the office. That’s when I heard it, that’s when I heard the sound that literally broke my heart… it was rod knock. Not too loud and not bad by any means, but I knew what it was and what it meant. That sound meant my dream was on the verge of death, so I did what anyone would do in my situation… I lied to my boss and told him that my “girlfriend” had been in a car accident and I needed to pick her up. I got in the car and drove straight to the dealership to have my car guru (Cody) take a look. Turns out that the fellow I had gotten the car from hadn’t changed the oil before letting it go. I had been running dry for god knows how long. We topped it off with some oil just to hold me over until I could do a full oil/filter change and I headed back to work. This was by far the worst and most unproductive day of work I have ever had. Instead of searching for parts and ways to make the car faster, I spent the entire work day reading thread after thread of people with my same symptoms. Over the next two days, I went back and forth trying to argue that it wasn’t rod knock. it’s got to be the lifters, it must be a bad water pump, maybe it’s a bad exhaust leak… as much as I tried to lie to myself, I knew what it was.
Being that this is my only car, I found myself in a bit of a shit sandwich. I had to drive it to get to work; but I didn’t want to in fear that I would further damage the motor or be left stranded on the side of the road with a ventilated block. As much as it killed me, I did the only thing I could think to do. I posted the car on craigslist. Within a four hour period, I had received four cash offers and three offers to trade (one of which was for a drag racing boat… how sweet would that be?). Seeing how desirable the car was and how much people were willing to offer for it made me realize how much I didn’t want to let it go. I was in love, it’s been a short relationship but I have fallen head over heels in love with my car. After sitting in my back yard starring at nothing for an hour I got an idea, “Why should I get rid of it? I always get rid of things when they break. I’ve never tried to fix anything. This is it, big things 2013! You are going to rebuild it!” i did my research and contacted an old friend who happens to rebuild motors and transmissions for a living. Fred assured me that he could get it done in a timely fashion and would be giving me that “friends and family discount” that we all know and love.
So here I am, currently stuck with a car that may blow up at any given moment while driving, stuck with a list of wishes and wants, and stuck with the responsibility to rebuild it and to do it properly. So unfortunately, you all won’t be seeing anything about my Miata for a while. First I need to save up for a beater car to get me around from “A” to “B”. Then the fun begins, then I get to start saving up for what will be the most expensive and extensive project of my life. The question is… will I rebuild it to factory specifications? Or will I splurge on forged internals and build it to be more than it already is?
Natsukashi Garage 