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Kim's NB tall guy stock door pull mod

Disclaimer first: Information below is for people comfortable with cutting up things they love.
This mod was performed on my (right hand drive) NB8A and may work on other NB's, not sure, haven't tried it.

It will give the driver extra room for the right leg, which in my case, was sometimes getting slightly wedged between the steering wheel and the door pull. I'm around 6''2' with longish legs and shorter torso. I had already done the foamectomy, a second much more aggressive foamectomy and removed the footrest.

There are some pretty cool door trim mods to gain extra leg room in the NB.
The idea centres around thinning out the relatively plump NB door trims and replacing them with something thinner to give more leg room in between the steering wheel and the door.

I haven't seen anything similar to this yet on the net, so I thought I'd post it up.

Here's a picture of the completed mod, which looks relatively stock from a couple of meters away.


And couple of close ups looking a little lumpy but showing the extra leg room


The idea is pretty simple, just remove the plastic guts from the door pull, leaving the stock anchor point above and below, and then use chain or similar to keep it strong, and house the entire thing with the stock door pull cover.

Things I used:
hot glue
chain
key ring
hacksaw
dremel
repair manual

Remove the door panel. (You MUST do this step to get the door pull off unfortunately no short cut here, follow the instruction in the 1999 repair manual section 09-17-7.)
Remove the door pull from the door panel but unscrewing it, should come off easily.

Started by removing the leather covering from the plastic




Then using a hacksaw I cut wildly


Here are the bits I kept


And a rough placement of where things would go


I made the mistake of cutting the base in 2 portions, if there's ever a next time I would try and keep the bottom part all in a larger more solid piece.

I couldn't find my thin kevlar rope from my kayaking days, and I had some chain handy so I just used that instead.

Stick the chain to the top plastic part.


Then I drilled a hole into the plastic to insert the chain into.
Length and position is important, because I wanted the chain to bear the force when shutting the door, rather than the trim itself.

The reason I did it this was so that I could adjust the length, once the plastic pieces were seated correctly.
Once the length was correct I put a zip tie in one of the chain links, hold the chain in place between the 2 pieces of plastic trim.


The leather cover was then hot glued with the plastic seated in it's original position.
Then it was stuffed with spare 'foamectomy' foam, to roughly maintain its original form.

Here's a pic with foam just in the handle, not in the sump which looks deflated.


And then finally, reinstalled back onto the panel, then into the car.

Things I would do differently next time include:
Keeping the lower bit in one piece - as it is, it warps a little when my leg's pressed into the door.
Maybe stuff a little more foam in to fill the gaps.
Use some kevlar rope instead of chain, no risk of rattling.

Went for a drive immediately after I had finished and I am very happy with the extra clearance now.
Overall it looks not bad for a first try, and definitely a lot better than anything I could come up with using custom trim.

Kim.

there has to be a more elegant solution than that. The door pull is now effectively ruined. Why not simply have removed the door pull and attach a closing strap suitably braced on the trim in such a location that when the car is sold the door pull can be refitted. Any holes put in the trim can be hidden with closures that were often used on older cars available in black. PS see the xmas tree or canoe clip on the centre console on the photo which "masks" the hole.

Morlock, how is the door pull "effectively ruined"? It didn't work for him because it interfered with his leg. Now it still works as a door pull but doesn't interfere with his leg. No, it's not reversible, but that isn't always an issue. I swear, with this and the "do they make them for men" thread, maybe you just hate tall people.

I have no doubt that there are more elegant and creative solutions out there, I don't think with my skill level I could pull any off though Perhaps it is because I am not elegant nor creative hehe.
I tried a few straps, but the curve of the rest of the panel and pocket holder makes them look out of place.
Some of the NA guys have some really cool straps, and it definitely works well with the flatter lines of rest of the door panel


At this stage I don't want to change the rest of the interior, so I think just changing the door pulls would look funny. In my mind interiors are more of an all or nothing thing

As for resale, I would imagine I would install my spare door pull if it was an issue.

I'll probably trim more of the ABS at the top and perhaps even out the foam a little to make it little less lumpy. Otherwise it's fine for me, looks relatively stock, does it's job, and now stays out of the way.

I'll have to look into the canoe clips in case anything else comes up in the future.

Trimmed more of the upper plastic and added more foam, looks neater now.

Mr Morlock wrote:there has to be a more elegant solution than that. The door pull is now effectively ruined. Why not simply have removed the door pull and attach a closing strap suitably braced on the trim in such a location that when the car is sold the door pull can be refitted. Any holes put in the trim can be hidden with closures that were often used on older cars available in black. PS see the xmas tree or canoe clip on the centre console on the photo which "masks" the hole.

Let's look at this argument and see if it holds water, and do a brief cost/benefit analysis.

Worst case scenario, Kim sells his car after 3 years of comfortable driving with his 'door hack'.
How much does a door trim cost? Let's say, $200, to be generous and Kim replaces the door trim when he sells the car.
Over three years, that's 200/(3*12)=$5.56 per month, for Kim to be able to more comfortably drive his car.

Worth it? Fuggit - it's cheap at twice the price.

I think Japester is missing my point. I think Kim has done well to make a mod that makes driving the car more comfortable I merely commented on how it was done. Anyway Kim has his bases covered as he has a spare trim.

Actually quite an innovative solution Kim.

What I might have done differently though (and of course, this is based on learning off what you've done) is I would have kept the ABS part of the grip, replaced that with a piece of foam modelled around that shape, and secured the chain with two small plates to the trim.

Easily reversible, and you won't have a hard bit of trim at the top and bottom of the handle to get uncomfortable against.

Mr Morlock wrote:I think Japester is missing my point. I think Kim has done well to make a mod that makes driving the car more comfortable I merely commented on how it was done. Anyway Kim has his bases covered as he has a spare trim.

I missed that point in your post, because it wasn't there to miss. If you mean to compliment someone on their work, than you need to use words which actually convey that meaning. Apu's statement "Actually quite an innovative solution Kim. but I would have done it like <blah>" is a good example of how that can be done well.
All I saw in your comment was "Dude! you wrecked your car!"

I have been looking for a solution to this problem since I bought my NB on Saturday. I am 6' 3" and can't even get my knee between the door pull and steering wheel. I have the 2002 SE with the electric door locking switch in the upper part of the door pull as well as an added challenge. My first thought was to get a smaller diameter wheel but I can't find one where I can use my existing airbag (or comes with an airbag). Plus I really prefer to leave that bit of safety kit alone. Also, I'm located in the U.S. so shipping wheels w/ airbag is expensive I understand.... so I'm left with finding/creating a low profile door pull so my (left) leg (LHD) can pass between it and the steering wheel. I like the approach that Kimisboard tried but it won't work for me because of the switch and the clearance required is at the top of the door pull. Any ideas for off-the-shelf solution would be appreciated by all the Tall Guy Miata lovers world wide!

Here's a picture of the problem when I try to bend my knee upwards. It jams between steering wheel and upper door pull.

Beautiful innovative idea, you have created thoughts in my mind. I'm now planning on cresting flat door trims for the na and nb, these will be similar to the Porsche 911 gt3. Google for images.

I'll bump this post when I have more information.

What I'm looking for is a reshaped door pull that replaces the original, has a place for the switch and leaves the rest of the door panel intact. I'm not prepared to do a major door card redesign and want to keep the nice speakers and stock look of the current ones.

I think if a custom builder out there made one of these as s prototype you could get a lot of tall NB owners to buy 'em.

I think if a custom builder out there made one of these as s prototype you could get a lot of tall NB owners to buy 'em.

My thoughts exactly, if i get a template made up i'll make a few and get my old man to trim them to peoples desired specs

I've been researching this further and here's a picture I was sent of the door with the pull/handle removed. Based on how this looks it seems like if you had an oval shaped aluminum piece with a cutout for the switch and a strap attachment slot for the top and a triangular piece at the bottom with a strap attachment you would have a nice neat solution for this common problem. With just the stock door pull removed it looks crappy otherwise. Plus, you need a door pull. Thanks!