Alex's white NA8 build.

[Alex 2550]

Now as Stan the Man has mentioned and a few people around here know it was about this time that I acquired a lovely piece for the car from green machine.
It is a bare fully ported Gary Stewart BP4W race head, it’s ported both inlet and exhaust, valves have been un-shrouded and it is shaved 60thou, yes that’s right 60 thou.
Now it is generally agreed that every thou taken off a BP head gives 1/4 compression bump so this should mean that my 9:1 compression bottom end becomes 10.5:1 with this large a shave.
Now I have the head, Mazda speed SUBs, supertech light double valve springs and titanium retainers but that is all at this stage...... the parts hording and collecting is only beginning.

Some teaser pics


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[StanTheMan]

I thought the NA8 was a compression ratio of 9.4:1 .....which would mean you might be up to just under 11?

[Alex 2550]

Now I suppose I should talk about that carbon miata and Jass performance orders.
I really want this car to be a retro JDM throwback sort of thing and look it’s not everyone’s cup of tea but that’s what’s great about MX5’s they can be turned into just about anything, from a couples weekend getaway to a track monster and everything in between even “stanced”, insert vomit emoji here but each to their own.
So I thought about time I started putting the mx in a time machine and rolling back the interior look a little.
Some parts aren’t retro as more of little niceties.
Also around this time I fitted some NA6 footwell lights as my car only had the windshield one that is tinted (good job Mazda tint an already dull light)
The factory wiring is still up in there so I literally pulled the blanking caps out of the dash and soldered the new lights in so they work as factory with the doors.
Anyway back to the pretty bits.

So from carbon miata I got:
Quilted real leather door cards.
Quilted real leather sill covers.
Airstream door pulls.
Retro oil cap.

From Jass performance I got:
Gauges.
Gauge surround.
Needle caps.
Handbrake handle.
Handbrake button.
Ignition cylinder cover.
Dip stick handle.
Tow hooks.
Heavy duty frame rails from the group buy.
And a partridge in a pear tree....... well ok no partridge.

Now I have missed a critical part acquired before this but I’ll get to that in a sec my doors now looked like this



I unfortunately didn’t get the aluminium door lock assemblies because I ran out of money pure and simple same reason I didn’t get the quilted leather transmission cover however as luck would have it a set of door lock assemblies came up for sale here brand new in box so I grabbed them, doors now look like this.



There was quite a bit of machine marks in the door lock assemblies so I decide to sand them back and get a brushed look but then decided I didn’t like that so I sanded them right back removed all marks and polished to a mirror and look far better than it does above, small improvement but a worthwhile one.



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[Alex 2550]

I thought the NA8 was a compression ratio of 9.4:1 .....which would mean you might be up to just under 11?

From my readings NA8 is 9.0:1 the BPW4 NB went to 9.4:1 NB8B vvt is 10.0:1.


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[Alex 2550]

Now as I said I missed a critical step in the build here.
Corey on here who has that insane looking NB had some awesome machined gauge rings in his NB which I loved!.
I got in contact as luck would have it he had a set machined for NA as well by a skilled older gent in Nowra so I grabbed these off him before getting gauges they are beautiful



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[Corey]

Now as I said I missed a critical step in the build here.
Corey on here who has that insane looking NB had some awesome machined gauge rings in his NB which I loved!.
I got in contact as luck would have it he had a set machined for NA as well by a skilled older gent in Nowra so I grabbed these off him before getting gauges they are beautiful



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I'm happy you love them Alex. I hope they're still holding up after all this time!

[Alex 2550]

So I’ll start with the gauges now as I said I got the gauges, surround and needle caps from Jass performance.
The gauges and surround are the darker ones they do the caps are just the normal polished jobs.
I took the acrylic lenses out of Corey’s gauge rings and had some glass ones knocked up.
The trip reset knob is not the chrome one from IL Motorsport because it’s too expensive it’s a drilled out pen top lol
This is before

This is after

With flash

I also polished the indicator stalk and removed the green condoms from behind so we have a nice retro halogen glow at night.


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[Alex 2550]

Still love them mate! I ended up putting glass lenses in because well I could.
They are still one of my favourite parts, thanks again Corey


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[Alex 2550]

So with all these changes the interior looked like this the first pic doesn’t have the door lock assemblies in it




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[StanTheMan]

I now understand what you mean abourt the colour of your roadster sill plates....mine are black. They seem to appear black in the earlier pic but that one really shows off the brown.

[Alex 2550]

You can see in the above pics how well the colour of “roadster” matches the wheels and rocker cover.
So with the interior coming along I got a little excited.
What would a retro “miata” be without an order from Adam and Sharka from Revlimiter.
I absolutely love Adams NA known as Sharka and if you are unfamiliar do yourself a favour and check them out at www.revlimiter.net
So I ordered some bits well actually these bits.





So I got
Sharka gauge rings.
Retro window switches.
Retro hazard/pop up switches.
Key ring that matches my side stripes.
Nose badge that matches my side stripes.
HVAC panel.
Shift diagram plate.
Extra switches and rings for a custom console I want to do.
Complimentary Stickers, a matchbox car and handwritten thanks from Adam.
I really can’t compliment him enough he is brilliant to deal with and makes you feel like a friend, even the way he box’s things up like the shift plate was in a little like jewellery box with Revlimiter on it.
When I fitted the HVAC panel I removed the green lights from there as well so it’s all amber halogen in the interior now.


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[Alex 2550]

I now understand what you mean abourt the colour of your roadster sill plates....mine are black. They seem to appear black in the earlier pic but that one really shows off the brown.

Yep there like a bronze metallic sort of thing, I looked to try find them else where but can’t.
Someone said maybe an M2 model had them but I would doubt it.


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[Alex 2550]

So interior was then like this

The seat covers are $20 from Supercheap but I have plans there.


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[Alex 2550]

In the Jass order I also got the frame rails which were very easy to fit but in saying that my factory rails were perfect.
basically line up, mark, drill holes, paint holes with colour matched paint inside, paint underneath with underbody coating, silicone around holes and bolt up.


Good opportunity to clean under the carpet. anywhere that had been scratched under the car and marked the protective coating was touched up as well.


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[Alex 2550]

It was about this time I went to take the MX for a drive which isn’t often, put my foot on the clutch and it went straight to the floor,
Yep the usual clutch slave failure so I got a new master and slave from the local parts place that I like to support and a braided HEL clutch line from MX5 Mania which were a pleasure to deal with as always.
Getting rid of that stupid clutch line Mazda put in there was the hardest part.

I couldn’t figure out where the gummy worms and hotdog mounted so I just ate them.


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