miata's

[Chrispy]

14.5% of U.S. men are 6 foot or taller, so just slightly more than left handedness (taking the median).

[962porsche]

last night i had 5 friends hanging out at the shop all of us were over 5'11" but one and he was 5'10" .
rob the guy that's 5'10" said him self the miata could stand to have a little more head room .
Ben is about 6'6" and he did not fit at all in the car do they have a gurney bubble for a soft top ?
so i don't know were they come up with how tall the average male is but i don't think they are right .
by the way the car is white and it has not started to delam yet .

[paultg]

so i don't know were they come up with how tall the average male is but i don't think they are right .
by the way the car is white and it has not started to delam yet .

Maybe it has something to do with it being sold all over the world, and engineered by Japanese men.
If it's the original paint then it's been a well cared for / garaged car most likely. Just don't power wash it.


Paul G.

[962porsche]

i know a guy that does body and paint work he would cut you a hell of a deal on a strip and paint !

[paultg]

i know a guy that does body and paint work he would cut you a hell of a deal on a strip and paint !

Mines red, but on that note we should talk at one of the events this year when you can take a closer look at my car. My rocker panels are in need of some attention and I might consider an entire respray on the car if funds allow. It has a couple of dings/dents but isn't in too bad of shape overall. I keep telling myself it makes no sense to paint a "fun" / "track" car, but then I think of what I have into it and think it is just as crazy to let it rot away. My first job was at a body shop (years ago), don't claim to know what I'm doing anymore but would love to be able to help out with prep to reduce costs, but you are in another state. *sigh* - Paul G.

[CP]

Track rat = rattle can paintjob.

[962porsche]

i have done some many of the miata's with the rocker QTR area's roting away it's not funny . for the most part there not to bad to repair and if the rot has not gone past the tape line were the chip guard is the paint work can be kept below that area cutting the cost way down . most race cars of that size i will paint for 1500 to 2000 with average body work included in that price .
the thing about the miata's is there is a heavy gage center rocker that when it rots out you lost the main structure of the car . then to do a proper repair to fix it you have to cut most of the lower QTR /rocker area away . dong that adds to the cost of the job and may not be worth repairing the car at all .

[TroyV]

I use stove paint.

[John F]

50/50 rule applies, right? Has to look ok from 50 ft at 50 mph.

[962porsche]

you could always go with latex house paintand a low nap roller or better yet a foam roller .
when it comes to restorations you pay by the foot the less feet you want the more the price goes up
it's not the spraying that costs it's the time you spend on the substraight and the quality of products you use .
it does not take any longer to put paint in the gun and spray on a 1000 dollar paint job than it does on a 60000 dollar job .

[Dtangard]

so i don't know were they come up with how tall the average male is but i don't think they are right .
by the way the car is white and it has not started to delam yet .

Maybe it has something to do with it being sold all over the world, and engineered by Japanese men.
If it's the original paint then it's been a well cared for / garaged car most likely. Just don't power wash it.


Paul G.

Is this what I have to look forward to?

[962porsche]

what ? a white miata that has a delam problem ?
not all are doing it i could get into the technical reason why as i was a BASF tech rep for many years .
the mazda corp. uses BASF (RM) finishes for there cars .
but the quick reason is the sealer AKA undercoat that mazda went with for there light colored cars .
dodge did the same thing with the purple and white colored neon's .
what happends is the colors they used did not bite into the undercoats because of there long flash times .
so what happends is the undercoats dry faster that the top coats when that happends it's like applying a top coat over a non sanded undercoat and we all know what happends when you don't sand some thing the paint will not stick .
the repair for this type of delam is not that bad to do at all . you do not have to strip the car down to bare metal to fix it .
you can take a single edge razor blade and a good holder for it and strip the paint that way . justdon't catch the edge of the razor and cut the undercoat . to combat catching the razors edge you can take a piece of 80 grit sand paper and round off the sides of the blade a little . then when you have to top coat removed DA the undercoat (sealer coat ) with some 220 grit paper and spray 3 to 4 coats of a filler prime . then wet or dry sand the car with 320 to 500 grit paper spray one coat of sealer and then top coat with either single stage or base clear .

[paultg]

Is this what I have to look forward to?

No, it was only an issue on the early 1.6L cars. I think they only did white for 90 & 91 (red, white, silver, and blue), then switched to red, black, silver & blue in 92+93.
94+ 1.8L cars didn't have issues with white.

i have done some many of the miata's with the rocker QTR area's roting away it's not funny . for the most part there not to bad to repair and if the rot has not gone past the tape line were the chip guard is the paint work can be kept below that area cutting the cost way down . most race cars of that size i will paint for 1500 to 2000 with average body work included in that price . the thing about the miata's is there is a heavy gage center rocker that when it rots out you lost the main structure of the car . then to do a proper repair to fix it you have to cut most of the lower QTR /rocker area away . dong that adds to the cost of the job and may not be worth repairing the car at all .

Yup, I've looked at many threads and images online. My driver side rocker rot is still small, but gone slightly vertical above the chip guard line. I've pulled some of the outer layer away and from what I can see the inner metal is still there and not too soft. But it could be worse than it looks. The passenger side is just bubbling and a bit soft at the bottom of the chip guard. I've already had the windshield pulled, a-pillars sand-blasted, and repainted then new glass installed a few years ago when it was time for a replacement windshield. The paint was bubbling along the bottom of the pillars. Other than all that its a pretty solid car for it's age. It wasn't in NE it's entire life.

When I get it out of storage I'll send you some more up to date pictures. I'm sort of feeling like fixing the rockers and just redoing the chip guard on the bottom (maybe with black truck bed liner) is as far as I should go considering it's use and that when it is cleaned and buffed i still get lots of compliments on the condition. I like that I don't have to worry about where I leave it, but it doesn't look like a total POS.

This is from three years ago, the dent on the drivers door is probably the worst dent on the car (under the door handle). You can kind of see the bubble on the rocker panel in this pic, it has since become a hole:

[962porsche]

the rocker rot spots are always worse once you cut the outter panel away .
it's one thing if you don't plan on painting any thing (color) over bed liner but if you plan on spraying real top coat over it than bed liner is not as good as chip guard . the reason is chip guard is a rubbery product and will soak up a hit from stones when they hit it so the top coat will not chip off it as ez . a bed liner is a hard product and when you top coat it and then a stone hits it the top coat will just chip off the bed liner . the chip guard on miata's goes all the way up to the body line down the sides of the car then they spray body color over it .

back to a early reply to this posting .
i just had the news on when i was having my morning coffee and they said that the city of new haven had a rash of 11 honda's stolen this week .
i miss my delsol but i will never buy another honda just for that reason . i don't know just what the apeal is to steel honda's there good cars but i don't think they a a great car . what i don't get is the kid that tried to steel my delsol walked right past a porsche 911 SC and tried to take the honda insted . if i was going to steel a car i think i would have gone for the porsche .

[horizenjob]

When all the thieves steal and drive Hondas, they don't look suspicious. One of these jerks in a Porsche 911 SC would probably get pulled over the first time a policeman sees them...