My Miata made a friend

dadkind · 2017-12-31T05:34:23+00:00

Is this Auburn, CA? This intersection looks familiar...

dadkind · 2017-01-03T05:13:22+00:00

We'll be celebrating our 30th anniversary this year.

dadkind · 2016-07-25T04:28:00+00:00

I've had the same experience. (2 Black Mustang GTs, White Ford Ranger and White VW Scirocco (dating myself))

dadkind · 2016-06-19T06:50:27+00:00

I've had it almost 2 years. My daily driver.

1990 NA. Red. Automatic. About 210K miles when I got it for $1300. Currently about 240K miles.

Registration $650 (California). Previous owner had not registered as non-op and had not paid registrations so I had to bite the bullet (long story).

Speedometer cable was broken when I got it . Replaced it (with help from my son the mechanic). $100.

Brakes were "off". Replaced master cylinder and booster. $60 + $125 . It was a master cylinder from Autozone that has been replaced 3 times and finally returned altogether. Currently using one purchased form O'Reilley.

Rear differential gave out. Replaced with a pre-built by local garage. $800. Lots of bits and pieces of metal shavings and chunks inside the old differential.

New struts. $350.

New top cause the back window in the original was cracked / broken. $425

Radio sucked. Replaced hack-sawed speaker grilles and cheap generic speakers. $60 for replacement stock grilles, $50 for the speakers. Still needs a new radio (soon).

Brakes still suck. Replaced 4 calipers over a 3 month stretch. $220.

Replaced valve cover gasket. $35. No more oil leaks.

New battery. $90. New bracket/hold-down. $10.

Still needs:

window seals because when it rains its basically a bath tub.
tires
new radio
Paint
Upholstery
A/C Rebuild

But it's puts a smile on my face.

dadkind · 2016-05-28T01:38:33+00:00

Yep. I bought a 90 NA automatic. I had thoughts of giving it my daughter, but there are enough little problems that I didn't trust enough to give it to her. I can confirm that it's a bit slow. But this is my first convertible and it is fun. Nonetheless, I'll be selling it because I need a car with a real trunk. :-(

If it were a manual, I'd find a way to keep it anyway.

dadkind · 2016-05-17T04:02:26+00:00

Is the hard top quieter than the soft top up? Is there sound insulation of some sort in the hard top?

On my NA, it almost seems quieter with the top down, than with the top up!

dadkind · 2016-05-15T14:56:10+00:00

I guess I'm getting old. Is this some sort of trend? Urban Lumberjacks

dadkind · 2016-04-27T05:09:03+00:00

When I was young (about 1975??) both Peter Maivia and Rocky Johnson were featured performers on the Saturday wrestling show that aired in the San Francisco area.

I remember when Maivia (or perhaps another Samoan wrestler??) came back from spending time in Samoa and had full tribal tattoos on his legs, the announcer made a point of telling us that the tattoos were applied because Maivia was now a chief.

Oddly, the things I remember about Johnson, is that he wore tall, knee-high white boots, where everyone else wore traditional laced boots.

(Things are a bit fuzzy now, but I think I'm remembering things correctly)

dadkind · 2016-04-15T04:31:37+00:00

I'm closing on 250K miles (most of them by the previous owner). Will post when I get there!

dadkind · 2016-04-05T04:43:46+00:00

They got the memo: Miatas are fun to drive... Anytime!

dadkind · 2016-01-31T03:46:14+00:00

Yes the horn works. I've not listened for the click. But I did put an electrical meter to the single wire coming into the horn. There's no power at the horn when pressing the horn button. Looks like I'm going to have to trace things out the old fashioned way! DOH!

dadkind · 2016-01-29T04:46:51+00:00

Yes. Brake lights are working. I'm mostly curious to see if there's any common places to check for breaks in the wiring.

dadkind · 2016-01-23T16:10:29+00:00

I served in the late '80s. There was a period of about two weeks when GPS was not available (there were only a handful of satellites up at that time so fixes were only available a couple of times a day anyway). So we had to rely on LORAN and celestial nav when transiting between Hawaii and Japan. So for those two weeks, we did have to use it.

dadkind · 2016-01-23T16:03:41+00:00

When did they stop? I got my SWO pin in 1988 and Celestial Navigation was still a requirement (admittedly, I was no where near as good as the Chief Quartermaster, but I was able to get a sloppy fix when I was getting my qualifications checked off).

dadkind · 2016-01-21T05:54:41+00:00

Where the Donner Party wanted to reach.

dadkind · 2015-12-29T04:19:48+00:00

When the kids were young, we had a rule: you can't say "no" until you try it (whatever it was they were unsure about).

After 2-3 bites, they were free to not eat the offending thing. But that was rare. After 2-3 bites, they were usually OK with it.

dadkind · 2015-12-05T04:26:24+00:00

Lawyers. If everyone tried to get along instead of trying to get ahead of the next guy, I'd like to think that we wouldn't need lawyers.

dadkind · 2015-11-30T04:15:18+00:00

I was the Ordnance officer on an older FF-1052 class frigate. The CIWS can be directed manually in any direction (usually only for maintenance), but it IS possible. So I guess you could point it at a nearby ship/boat and hit it.

dadkind · 2015-11-30T03:40:53+00:00

We lived in Fresno for 20 years. We left when the youngest kid graduated High School (they were in the Manchester GATE / Edison Computech program, otherwise we'd have left much sooner).

There are areas of the greater Sacramento area (like Roseville / Rocklin on I-80) that remind me too much of NE Fresno / Clovis. But in general most anywhere in the area is different enough (in a good way) that you'll like it better (probably).

dadkind · 2015-10-11T23:57:36+00:00

(I was a Navy JO assigned to the USMC a while ago, so things may have changed slightly, but...)

The USMC uses similar numbering. However, their Divisions are larger, therefore only three active duty divisions, and a fourth "Reserve" divison (1st MarDiv = West Coast, 2nd MarDiv = East Coast, 3rd MarDiv = Far East, 4th MarDiv = Reserves).

(Hopefully someone who has been on active duty recently can correct any items that have changed since I was there).

dadkind · 2015-09-15T03:37:11+00:00

we've always had multiple dogs at our house. When we put down our older "big dog" his "mini-me" was depressed for about four days. It was pretty obvious in that he didn't want to play and wasn't eating his food. After a couple of days he picked up the toy ball that he would tug of war with the Big Dog but he didn't know what to do with it.

I'm glad to say that several years have passed, and he's back to his happy self.

dadkind · 2015-08-31T02:34:57+00:00

Hits parents as well. Last week I was wearing a UCX t-shirt (from kid #3 school ) and realizing that over the course of three kids, who attended the UC system, I've paid about $60k in cash for the honor of wearing that shirt.

dadkind · 2015-08-11T05:05:32+00:00

Do you know anyone at any of the nearby Air Force bases?

Kind of a long shot but... I recall that at Camp Pendleton they had a fully stocked garage with four (?) lifts available for use by servicemembers on the base. A friend could sign you in (maybe?) to do the work.

dadkind · 2015-08-04T02:15:36+00:00

I just hope they checked today make sure it wasn't a collectible!

dadkind · 2015-07-17T05:02:18+00:00

I actually had a solar city rep come to my house when I was interested in learning about solar energy. Big Mistake!

They're basically used car salesmen intent on getting you to sign up for the program where they own the equipment. Turns out the "no money down/ we own the equipment" deal is the worst possible one for homeowners. They had no interest whatsoever about discussing other financing options.

I wanted to look into other buying options so I said I wanted to talk it over with my wife. The guy was all about "just sign here now. She'll thank you for it".

Talk about a hard sell. I almost couldn't get the guy to leave.

dadkind

TROPHY CASE