• An Overdue Detail

    It seems like every time I get a chance to detail the car and clean it up, month-long work cycles shortly follow and the once clean exterior is shortly rendered dusty again. I not only want to break the chain of LONG periods of dormancy, but I also want to be more active and stay […]

    No responses April 10, 2016
  • Throwback Tuesday

    It’s past midnight and technically Wednesday at the time of posting, but whatever. Still calling it Tuesday. I stumbled upon this picture somewhere while lurking around and saved it. This was back when I was going through the first bout of bug fixes and dropped the car off at Marcus’. It’s interesting to see my […]

    No responses April 6, 2016
  • Sunday Cruising

    Without a moment’s hesitation, I started taking the RX-7 out for spins practically the minute after I buttoned up the Miracle Cross Bar. It’s helpful, too, that Mike and his Porsche are just down the street from me. He just got his car, I am eager to start driving my car, and another buddy just […]

    2 responses March 28, 2016
  • NeXT Miracle Cross Bar

    With my sights set firmly on replacing the roll bar and continually falling short of my needs, I realized I was being too singular in my direction and took a step back. My main goal was obviously to fix the rust that appeared on the old roll bar and obtain a replacement – but it […]

    12 responses March 28, 2016
  • In-Between

    Figuring out the solution to the roll bar has undoubtedly been the trickiest and least straightforward. Initially, Samberg agreed to cover a new replacement if I return my old one, given the amount of additional work I had invested in the finish. It was a generous proposition and a best case scenario. After I removed […]

    One response March 27, 2016
  • Starter Booster Relay

    In my troubleshooting to resolve the intermittent failure to start issue, I’ve replaced the ignition switch and bypassed Mazda’s security relay. Neither proved to be the solution, but still worth the try and good things to do regardless. The next logical step is to look deeper at the circuitry and determine the weak link at […]

    10 responses March 13, 2016
  • Plates, E-Brake Button, and Emblem

    Since the beginning, I have purposely hung the license plate without a bracket, due to my original shyness of branding. As time went on, I eventually opened up and became more accepting of having logos on the car. In a selective manner, of course. After coming across an OEM part number for a Mazdaspeed license […]

    5 responses March 12, 2016
  • Moddiction Anvil 2

    I would consider this an impulse buy, but I reasoned that it would be worthwhile to have a spare or backup shift knob. Plus, relatively speaking, the Moddiction Anvil 2 shift knob is cheap. I picked this one up at $67 shipped. It has the correct brass fitting to match my MGW short shifter’s unique […]

    3 responses March 6, 2016
  • Movements

    I pushed hard to keep the momentum high. The To-Do list was daunting, especially in the short time frame I mandated, or at least desired. The most difficult aspect to manage is the variability of the outsourced work. For example, I dropped off the bumper over a month and a half ago and had to […]

    No responses February 29, 2016
  • Black Alcantara Spirit-R Recaros

    I initially chose to reupholster the Spirit-R Recaros in red and stay true to their original colors and to add contrast to the overall color scheme. That was over 2 years ago. Being reminded of this leaves me baffled at how fast time flew by. 2 years was long enough for me to change my […]

    5 responses February 22, 2016
  • An Electrical Excursion

    As if finding out that the roll bar was rusting underneath the clear coat and that the front bumper was the wrong shade of color was not enough bad news, I shorted out and killed the light relays. It was certainly difficult to stomach the list of failures that piled on all at once, but […]

    4 responses February 7, 2016
  • Rise, Remove, Replace, Repeat

    The Greek mythology of Sisyphus is starting to play a disheartening relevance with this build. With the To-Do list provided in the previous post, it is evident to see that the front bumper needs to be removed and repainted for the 4th time, a 3rd roll bar needs to be installed, and the seats needs […]

    5 responses January 26, 2016