Teh Official "Dude Where's My Forum?" Thread, Brought to you by the minds of Box, and her fiancée, Lorelei Options

[Box]

Had someone that's apparently been watching the Miata for awhile now stop late yesterday afternoon and looked it over. Says if he can get the money together he'll buy it. Hopefully he can as he's wanting to save it, so it'd be nice to see it go on to where it can continue to live on.

Almost forgot, but there's supposed to be a car show in my old hometown sometime in mid-late June. I'm thinking about going to it. The downside being it is literally the land of ricers, EVERY "modded" car is the typical eBay and AutoZone parts special. It's like the backdrop for a really bad and cheap Fast and the Furious knock-off. It's terrible.

[Box]

I just realized something this morning while I wasn't sleeping, the way the Firebird is geared I'll never be able to rev it out any seeing as it wouldn't leave 1st until 75-80 mph...

[1994Celica]

Had someone that's apparently been watching the Miata for awhile now stop late yesterday afternoon and looked it over. Says if he can get the money together he'll buy it. Hopefully he can as he's wanting to save it, so it'd be nice to see it go on to where it can continue to live on.

Almost forgot, but there's supposed to be a car show in my old hometown sometime in mid-late June. I'm thinking about going to it. The downside being it is literally the land of ricers, EVERY "modded" car is the typical eBay and AutoZone parts special. It's like the backdrop for a really bad and cheap Fast and the Furious knock-off. It's terrible.

Is it a show or just a meet? Meets in my town are like that but shows have some actual class. Honestly I'm not a fan of shows. You sit there for hours and the masses surround your car, and few have actual respect for them. Cars and Coffee is a much better medium for me. It's a lot more fun.

[Bitter]

go there with a cardboard wing taped on the back and a coffee can stuck on the tail pipe.

[sircalebwhite]

I can't ever find or even know of any meets in MN or atleast north of the metro area. And where there are meets, it's probably street racing and mostly kids and their riced out Honda Civics thinking they run the streets. I just want something casual here. Sigh. There are only car shows here but only for classics and "American" cars.

[Box]

It's being done by the O'Reilley's in town, and it's bring whatever you have. Just that every punk ass kid in that town, and there's a lot of them, have primered Hondas on cut springs with straight pipes or sometimes an eBay canister muffler if they're feeling ritzy. The school there is relatively small and only has about 100-150 students per grade, so much so that K-12 is one building. So many riced out cars for a few hundred students that actually drive. The school where I live now is only 9-12 with probably more students in those grades than the entire K-12 of the other and I've only seen a few riced out cars and they were nowhere as bad as the ones in my old hometown. It's really to the point of being surreal.

What I should do is get long-tubes and header mufflers by then so when they start to rev their SOHC D-series with a straight pipe I can drown them all out. Hell it's loud now with log manifolds and full exhaust, I'd hate to know how loud it'd be that way.

This post has been edited by Box: May 21, 2015 - 4:43 AM

[Bitter]

Today I....

Pulled all 4 plugs on the Celica to check them as it's been 40K miles and they're NGK Iridium IX which are a 30K mile plug. Yep, all 4 worn as expected, especially #1 which had nearly a double gap! Idle had been getting a little rougher in gear and some of the perk of the 2ZZ wasn't there especially at lower RPM and in lift. So all 4 plugs out, notice one coil is split down the side. Looked at all of them, all of them are split down the side just the same. No misfiring but it's only a matter of time so I ordered 4 new Denso coils from Rock Auto to the tune of $230. Walked over to Advance and grabbed a set of 4 Denso IK20TT plugs which are 90-100K Iridium and Platinum plugs. The center is a .4mm Iridium and the ground is a .7mm Platinum point. Dealer price on the coils was $105 each list and 85 each my cost since my shop has an account. Ouch! Advance could get them for $76 each. Nope, Rock Auto for the win at $57 each!


Coils are all original, 15 years and 123,000 miles I guess it's OK.

[Box]

I love RockAuto. Meh, both Maximas had 200K+ miles and 17-20 years on the original coils with no issues.

Just Toyota cheaping out on the plastic casing. At the very least this set should last the remainder of the car's life.

[Bitter]

Hopefully, hell the plugs should last a good long time. I need to get my Mazda fixed and moving again (well it's not immobile) so I can keep the miles off the Celica more.

[Box]

The Mazda doesn't rev to 8K though.

[Bitter]

No, it surely does not. It'll wheeze up to 6000 RPM and sound like an empty blender.

New plugs have gotten me a much much much smoother idle and restored some of the 'perky' feeling at lower throttle and at lower RPM. The engine feels much smoother but not much faster. I think it actually idles better than it did with the Iridium IX when they were brand new.

[Box]

Found someone 50 miles out with a shaker hood. They offered to trade hoods, but they said theirs is needing some work though. Which in of itself really isn't the issue, it's just the whole either trying to work on the hood with it on the car or constantly taking it on and off until it's done that's the problem. Thinking about doing the hood and shaker in satin black ala Mopar instead of trying to match the faded red. What I need to do is get a paint gun and halfway decent compressor and then find someone that can take the gallon of PPG "Mayan Red" and either recolour it to my liking or exchange it.

[Bitter]

Setup to buy some OEM HID head lights to replace my hazing halogen lights. Going to leave them off and swap the JDM/Euro turn signal diffusers and install my custom LED turn signals I've had sitting around for years. Should be sweet!

[Box]

There was some tape residue on the Firebird's rear window that has been bothering me for some time, but I've dreaded getting back there to clean it. Luckily it was was so old it came right off. More surprising is the fact I actually fit back there. I have about a finger between my head and the headliner, but I fit. I'm not sure what kind of black magic is involved here because the second gen Firebird is only 49.3" at its tallest point, and there's some severe raking going on. Yet I can't fit at all in the back of my brother's Genesis which is/was 54.5" at its tallest point, or the Celica which was 51.6" at it's tallest point. The Celica had some decent raking going on, and so does the Genesis but it's not as bad as either. I guess in the Firebird the seat is just that much lower in the rear, I suppose it's good to know people of average height can fit.

Oh, I'm 5'10" by the way so I'm not super short or anything. Just not super tall either.

[Box]

Had someone in Mississippi message about the Miata, supposedly he's wanting to come and get it Monday and will let me know for sure Sunday. So here's hoping I guess. I could use some 17's with summer tires.

[Bitter]

My OEM HID lights came. I ordered some headlight protect films from Amazon with my other order for $5 each vs $70 each (set, head lights and fog lights, xpel brand I think). Need to order new bulbs, the original 85122 are done, past done. I think I'll order some Nightbreaker Unlimited bulbs since they're the brightest and most yellow in 35W HID for the very best in visibility. Need to crack them open and install the custom LED turns and the EU/JDM turn diffusers.

[Box]

Yay seeing!

[Bitter]

Well to be honest my current lights are damn good, but not HID good. I have the OEM halogen projectors with 2100 lumen 65W low beams on a dedicated harness and some 9011 HIR high beams packing about 2400 lumen each. So it's not bad but it's not HID good. I'll get more width on the low beams, way more width and a farther reaching hot spot and if I want to mess with the wiring I can setup a leveling switch so I can adjust the vertical aim on the fly as well. I have to build my own harness for that and source the switch though, so not right now. Just want to get the current project done with them.

[Box]

Anything has to be better than sealed beams.

Anyhow didn't have a very good weekend. Ended up having my brother change my oil and since he had it up in the air figured would do the trans filter and oil while it was there since the condition was unknown, I had given him a Magnaflow muffler so he owed me. Turns out the transmission didn't like going from the Type F fluid the previous owner had been using back to Dexron-III like it should have. Drive still engages and it'll start rolling, but as soon as any throttle input is given it slips. Reverse is still perfectly fine though. I asked if maybe he put the filter on 180º off as that'd partially block the pickup tubes, but he's pretty certain it's on right. I also used a Dacron filter versus the mesh/paper filter that was on it, supposedly the Dacron is more restrictive but I can't see it making a huge difference. I guess the only hope is that going back to Type F fixes it well enough until I can do a manual conversion...

[Bitter]

It maybe was built with some different kinds of clutch plates that need the type f fluid?