JoshuaM's Midnight Blue NB8B

[joshuam]

Hi everybody,

I haven’t posted here much yet, but I have been doing a LOT of reading (mostly NB8B / SE garage threads… but I do branch out) and thought it was time to start keeping one of my own (as much for my own benefit as to share).

Following 3 years with my ’97 Celica ZR I was ready to step things up a notch. This was supposed to be in the form of an engine swap to the 147kW 2.0L red top BEAMS 3S-GE engine, but problems sourcing a suitable donor car in Japan in time, and my friend losing access to his garage space where we would do the work, this was no longer practical.



I decided to cash out of the Celica (I bought it stock…. Then worked out how to import parts from Japan XD), and get something fun but not too expensive until I worked out what direction I wanted to go in next. I would LOVE a 3rd gen MR2 Spyder with 2ZZ + 6spd from a 7th gen Celica, but signing up to a new engine swap wasn’t exactly solving any problems. I decided as a car enthusiast it was my responsibility to own a MX5 at some point in my life, and now was a good time.

I did a lot of research into all of the different models available and the NB8B came out a clear winner for me. Given the reasons I was upgrading cars, I wanted a clean, fairly low kms car with good paint. The car is going to spend most of its time commuting, so safety in the form of dual airbags and ABS were highly desirable. Considering the fact that I would upgrade a NB8A with the later bumper, projectors, rear lights, seats and centre console…. And still miss out on the VVT engine and safety stuff it just wasn’t worth it.

I actually wanted a NC originally – I was looking at ’05-’06 soft tops with ~130k kms for around $13k. However, I didn’t have that kind of money in the bank (I would have when I sold my other car, but that would have meant more time) and I did some reading and the handling characteristics of the NB seemed to suit my needs better.

My Midnight Blue NB8B

I came VERY close to making an offer on this car, but I am glad I held off because I managed to get an even less silver one! (Running joke – when I had my last car we had 4/4 silver cars… nice, but sick of it )

Today marks 3 months since I flew to Sydney to pick up the car. A late ’00 midnight blue NB8B model with the 6 speed manual. It was a single owner car with 65,200 kms!!!

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The only drawback was that the owner did not have the service log book and was obviously not a car guy at all…. Just ‘took it to the mechanic when it needed done’. I took a guess at the service centre he was using and they found a couple of hits on their system that helped confirm that the kms were legit and it had been getting serviced (albeit based on kms not time… a problem with such low km cars). I had a friend who is an apprentice Mazda mechanic in Sydney test drive for me and he was pretty happy with it, and I chose a random garage nearby and paid for the owner to get a compression test done which came back all good so I was happy to proceed with the purchase. Price of $8k was negotiated before I flew down.

Arrived in Sydney at 8pm on Friday night, went out for a Nasho run with some friends from a car club for my previous marque, met the seller Saturday morning, sorted out all the paperwork and transport permits, chatted with a friend until like 11am and then drove back to Brisbane in time for a mate’s 21st that night.


Quick rest stop on the way home.

Getting it Registered

Since I didn’t have any service records, I didn’t know how much had been done beyond oil and filters in each of the services, so I wanted to start checking everything off. The last service was only in February, but I did a service with fresh fully synthetic oil, new filter, new spark plugs and a new air filter. The latter gave me about a 30% power boost, unlocking the high end performance. This may have something to do with it;



A few days later I took it down to get a QLD roadworthy certificate and registration. I knew the motor in the driver’s mirror wasn’t working, but the seller and I were under the impression that everything else was all good.

The mechanic that I went to was really awesome, he remembered me from the last couple of times I had been in there with other cars and offered for me to come into the shop and watch him do the inspection so I could check out the car on the hoist. Most things looked pretty good, but there was a small rocker cover gasket leak (planning to do the timing belt soon anyway), a leaky clutch slave cylinder and the rear dif mounts were shot. Purely for my own interest, he also noted that the suspension was fine at the moment, but the rear would probably be gone in 6-12 months, and that the brake pads had plenty of meat on them but were a terrible pad. There was nothing really dangerous, so they let me register it on the proviso that I fix up the stuff as soon as possible. Nice guy mechanic (y).

The Breakdowns





On my way down the coast at Easter for some much-needed holidays the engine started cutting out on me at 110 in the right hand lane of the M1. Managed to get off to the left hand side, and waited for some tools to see if we could find anything wrong. By the time dad got there (30 min) the car started straight up and drove the rest of the way just fine. Weird.

I couldn’t replicate the issue in the driveway, so I kept driving the car thinking it may have just been a random electrical glitch. It wasn’t. Happened again, this time at low speed with AC off, so completely different scenario to the first time. Car started back up after about 10 min. Did lots of forum searching but with the search terms I was using I couldn’t find anything conclusive. Rinse and repeat until I posted a video of the engine cutting out onto the MX5 Aus Facebook group. Within minutes I had the answer! A new cam position sensor was ordered and the problem was solved.

I almost forgot too, during that weekend that Brisbane get a ridiculous amount of rain I had the car parked out the front and the foot-well filled up with water. Pulled the carpet up to make sure I dried everything up 100% and eventually tracked down the problem to be the plug that seals the wiring going to the door was out and all the water was splashing in.




Currently

I am having an absolute BLAST with the car. Unbelievable amount of fun; even stock it puts my modified Celica with expensive suspension and chassis work to shame. If it’s this good stock… imagine it with a bit of extra love!

Since my dif cradle needed to come out to replace the mounts then it only makes sense to use the opportunity to replace the hideously long 3.63 open unit with a 4.1 FGR Torsen 2, doesn’t it? A unit was sourced locally for a very good price, but unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to install it before uni got too busy. It will happen in the next few weeks. I also have Super Pro poly mounts to go with it.

At the same time as I started getting the break downs I got a nice big tear in the roof. In the past 3 years the car had only done 3000km, all weekend use and garaged with the roof up during the week. Suddenly here I was flipping the roof up and down 2-4 times per day and parking it out in the elements. I thought about repairing it, but it is obviously well past its use by date so I am going to order a replacement top from the states. Looking for a cloth replacement top, zipperless, glass with defrost. Looking at something like the Robbins Streamline or the Sierra top. Just trying to decide between black and a navy blue.

Finally, just a couple of weeks ago I ordered a set of Tein Flex Z coilovers from Japan. This is a new model (basically a sealed Street Flex, so lower maintenance and cheaper… and about the same cost to replace a damper instead of rebuilding anyway), and I’ve been waiting for them to come into production for the NB MX5. Good news is that June 12 was the lucky day and they should be with my agent shortly. I am probably going to save some money and get them shipped via sea mail though… we’ll see when the bill comes through.



I am an electrical engineering student, so I love little technical goodies, so I am also anxiously awaiting the arrival of my Tein EDFC Active Pro damper management system! Worth the cost? I doubt it. Awesome? Most definitely. The Active Pro system uses latitudinal and longitudinal G force sensors to adjust the damping of each corner of the car on the fly. It also uses a speed signal input to allow you to have a soft and cushy ride when crawling around town and firm up when you speed up again. I think this will work great for a daily driver that I also want to put to test on the weekends. More Info.



I have always loved the NB design, but there are a few things that bug me, like the US sidemarkers that they gave us too. Eventually I would like to fill them and repaint the bumpers, but clear replacements will do for now. I then went a little bit silly on IL Motorsport (combined shipping! ); Quickshifter, clear sidemarkers and indicators, LED centre brake light, hood struts, chrome vent rings and some frankenstein bolts for a bikini project (already bought a NA roof to demo on).



I also went wheel shopping around Easter.... and got a nice little delivery yesterday morning;



I wanted a set of wheels that would suit the car in white, that were light weight (lighter than stock anyway) and look good. I don't want to run wider than a 205 tire for now, so I didn't want to go wider than 7". A spec miata class +25 offset would have been nice, but it is fairly rare to find used wheels. I bid on a couple of sets of 16x7 +35 Volks TE37, and I was in the right ballpark with prices, just unlucky.

I then saw a set of these Enkei RP01 come up for sale; 16x7 +32. Much cheaper, looks good (was actually factory fitment in Japan... but in 15" with a weak offset) and fractionally lighter than stock.



These will get a refurb with either a respray at home or powdercoating in white. Should look good;



The Future

.... I have lots more to put here, but I significantly underestimated the time this would take to right... so you'll have to wait and see!

[billybunter]

good read - all the best with your mods

[KevGoat]

This could get interesting ... looking forward to seeing more ...

[Lokiel]

It seems you've got a thing for "hairdresser's cars" - I always considered the Celica (apart from the GT4) a hairdresser's car, all show and no go, now you've upgraded to the ultimate "hairdresser's car"

Like many of us, it seems you've learned to appreciate just how awesome these little cars really are. As a DIYer, you're going to love it too, easy enough to work on, plenty of parts available, and almost endless mod options with plenty of sources of information.

Midnight Blue looks great,

[Roadster2]

keen to see where this thread goes. Also not to detract from this thread but I couldn't help but stare at the pic of that at rs coupe nb for a good few minutes. Awesome colour combination with wheels.

[ManiacLachy]

Great looking car, I'll be following along!

[speed freak]

Thats a great introduction haha, good to see the mods already coming along. Good find too, low km for a low price is great, despite not having the logbooks seems like everything checked out so all good there. Another thing to check if you havent regarding water in the foot well (or under the seats) is the rain rail drain holes behind the seatbelt towers, these need cleaning out every so often, and by the sounds of it the previous owner probably didnt do it. Apart from that and the CAS issue Im sure you will have many more happy motoring adventures. These cars are never dull.

[joshuam]

Thanks everybody for the warm welcome

I should mention that I am still a uni student, I only have a sporadic casual job through uni and I'm supposed to be saving up for a trip to Europe at the end of the year, so whilst mods will happen they won't be continuing at quite this pace

My main interest is to get into some amateur motorsport stuff; motorkhana, Mt Cotton Hillclimb, occasional track day etc. and have some fun with the car.

When I was living in California last year I bought a '99 V8 Mustang and did a couple of SCCA Auto-X events, which was phenomenal fun;

https://youtu.be/k4MtGTd4UMg

So I don't want to let mods get in the way of that.

It seems you've got a thing for "hairdresser's cars" - I always considered the Celica (apart from the GT4) a hairdresser's car, all show and no go, now you've upgraded to the ultimate "hairdresser's car"

Like many of us, it seems you've learned to appreciate just how awesome these little cars really are. As a DIYer, you're going to love it too, easy enough to work on, plenty of parts available, and almost endless mod options with plenty of sources of information.

Midnight Blue looks great,

I have also owned a '99 Mustang GT and a '98 E46 sedan, but both only for a couple of months each so didn't include them

The FWD models were definitely underrated, the camry-powered one I had was not worth revving past 5500rpm, but it had SOOO much torque that is flew around town and on twisty roads. It is also much lighter than the GT4. I owned a ST185 briefly but didn't get it on the road before I went overseas and sold it to a friend. He said that my FWD one was the better car (this is until you modify them, obviously). The 6th Generation ST205 GT-FOUR only appeared in Aus for a 77 unit WRC run..... they were MILES ahead of everything else.

Whilst it had fairly similar performance and could handle itself quite well, it has NOTHING on the driver engagement and maneuverability of the MX5 though.

keen to see where this thread goes. Also not to detract from this thread but I couldn't help but stare at the pic of that at rs coupe nb for a good few minutes. Awesome colour combination with wheels.

Yeah, I have spent a lot of time staring at it too, don't worry

I'm hoping the colour combination will work as well on the vert without the liveries. I have always wanted to try white wheels but I just didn't think it would go with silver.

Thats a great introduction haha, good to see the mods already coming along. Good find too, low km for a low price is great, despite not having the logbooks seems like everything checked out so all good there. Another thing to check if you havent regarding water in the foot well (or under the seats) is the rain rail drain holes behind the seatbelt towers, these need cleaning out every so often, and by the sounds of it the previous owner probably didnt do it. Apart from that and the CAS issue Im sure you will have many more happy motoring adventures. These cars are never dull.

Haha, yeah first car I kept stock for a year before I got into it..... I have learned I was very happy with the find - I searched for about 2 months which is a bit less than I expected. Went on Gumtree at $9200 but I waited to negotiate until the day his rego was expiring, started with a low ball offer hoping to end up around $8.5k but he settled at 8. Win I've seen similar stuff advertised around $12k, but for that kind of money I'd rather get a SE. I am definitely paying more now in all the replacement parts and service stuff that would have been done if the car was getting more use.

I have had to strip down my Celica due to blocked sunroof drains, so that was the first place I looked Miraculously though they were almost completely clear.


Also forgot to mention, one of my best mates had been looking at NA's for a while, but ended up getting the same model (built about 2 months after mine) in Emerald Green about 3 weeks after he drove mine

[Roadrunner]

Looove midnight blue! I wanted one in that colour originally but they didn't do the SE in that colour so settled for red.

It would have had white rims on it too!!

This was my original inspiration. That coupe above is even better!

[Lokiel]

This is Revlimiter's "Sharka", it's a heavily customised NA and I reckon your car would look great with the side white vinyl stickers and white lettering on the tyres (these are actually cheap modz until you decide to splurge on white rims):

[joshuam]

Looove midnight blue! I wanted one in that colour originally but they didn't do the SE in that colour so settled for red.

It would have had white rims on it too!!

This was my original inspiration. That coupe above is even better!

IMG

You're kidding right!?!?! I would've loved a red one but they seemed to be consistently around $2-3k more in poorer condition.

I was looking at a picture of your SE with the white wheels and it looks AMAZING! One of my hold ups with doing too much more than bolt ons at this stage is the chance of trading up to a velocity red SE

This is Revlimiter's "Sharka", it's a heavily customised NA and I reckon your car would look great with the side white vinyl stickers and white lettering on the tyres (these are actually cheap modz until you decide to splurge on white rims):

Haha, I am actually well aware of sharka - it is one of my inspirations for the bikini build;



I already have the Enkei RP01 rims at home, and they aren't getting tires on them until they are white Still deciding between doing a MCM style home repair and paint or have them sand blasted and powder-coated..... seems to be pros and cons to both.

I think the lettering would be a bit much with white rims too, but the vinyl does look good - I hadn't remembered it on Sharka.

Actually since getting the car I have been toying with the idea of running twin white racing stripes across the whole car;


Something like that^

But I always get torn between something cool and sporty or simple and classy.

Having them on the side does have a few distinct advantages though; it would carry the white theme onto the body work in a more subtle way, be harder to screw up than full body stripes and would also hide the ugly line where the rippled paint protection comes up to on NB mx5s. I'll be looking into this some more. Thanks!

[Lokiel]

Those rims on Sharka in the photo I attached are actually silver, which is why the white lettering works (it's not too overpoweringly white).

If you do the white vinyl lettering/stripes, try the white lettering on your current rims&tyres to check out "the look".

PS: You car's colour has a cool theme song too, Lou Gramm's "Midnight Blue" - nobody's ever bothered to write a song about "Velocity Red"

[joshuam]

I did a lot of searching on the side stripes on other miatas around the world..... Pretty much every NA I have seen it on is brilliant, where as few similar attempts on NBs really get my attention. The problem is in the curves... the NA is pretty much flat where as the NB has a lot going on down there, and kicks out a lot after the door.

I do think the concept would look absolutely brilliant though, so I was thinking about taking some inspiration from the NC guys who do this and cut off the vinyl at the door. The other reason for doing this is that since buying the car I've been looking out for a set of NB1/NB8A side skirts to fit (I find the later ones far too bulky), and as you can see it comes up to a really awkward height if the vinyl went all the way back;



They have been pushed back down the to-do list for now... but I still want to keep that option open.

Back to the vinyl, I decided to photoshop a mock-up and billybunter's car was fresh in my mind. I do really like the way that his have turned out, but some of his photos also show how the NB curves make it look like the back section isn't really straight when it actually is. It would be interesting to see if it is noticeable in person or not (I have a feeling it would be less so), but I love photography so doing something non-photogenic requires serious thought

His car (After the excellent and should-be-mandatory pinch weld painting!):


Photoshopped short version for my car (text would be different, obviously):


I'm still not 100% sold, but we'll see.


Also, got the bill on the coilovers and EDFC active pro system today...... gave in and paid for the DHL air freight, so they will be here next week!


I've got so many plans for little projects for this car I have no idea where to begin!

[ManiacLachy]

Side stripes have been on my mind for a while too, though not too high up the priority list.

I quite like the way the Porsche ones look:
http://www.porsche-mania.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/2010_Porsche-Boxster_Spyder_wallpaper_013.jpg**

I somehow want to encorporate the vintage Mazda M logo.
https://www.denverlibrary.org/files/Mazda-logo-3.jpg**

I hadn't thought of the curves that you mentioned though. It's not massivly high on my to do list though. But one day ...

** I've URL'd the images, because they're massive and I don't know how to resize them

[Roadrunner]

I like your photoshop version stopping at the door.
The other way you could do it is have the strip sweep up a bit towards the wheel arch after the door to counter the contour of the body like the side skirts on that orange SE.
Looks good in my head, probably not so in the real world