- :
- 92 & 16 Meyatas
Those came out great!!!!
NB MX-5 Hey, it's Minnie!
- Thread starter chiefmg
- Start date
Had some medical appointments that occupied my time this morning. When I got home I shot the spats with four coats of clear. I think they came out decent. After that, I had one more task to accomplish.
When I cut off the bottom of the spats I lost two of the threaded inserts (per side) that dcbe provides to allow you to use screws to attach them to the bumper along with any double-sided tape you want to use. One of the inserts got cut in half because I didn’t see it was in line with my saw. I was able to salvage the other one and held onto it. These inserts are brass, threaded M3 on the inside with some sort of knurling on the outside to hold it in the material. I picked a spot low on the spat and eyeballed the location for the first one. Measured distances so I could drill the other spat in the same spot. The insert measured 3.75mm OD. I don’t have many metric drill bits, but I do have a number drill index. I just pulled a bit that was close and gave it a shot. I then progressively went up in size until I got to one that let me mount the insert snugly (that ended up being #21). Here’s a picture of how that looks:
My plan is to get these mounted to the car tomorrow. No pictures until then, you’ll just have to hold on to your excitement.
When I cut off the bottom of the spats I lost two of the threaded inserts (per side) that dcbe provides to allow you to use screws to attach them to the bumper along with any double-sided tape you want to use. One of the inserts got cut in half because I didn’t see it was in line with my saw. I was able to salvage the other one and held onto it. These inserts are brass, threaded M3 on the inside with some sort of knurling on the outside to hold it in the material. I picked a spot low on the spat and eyeballed the location for the first one. Measured distances so I could drill the other spat in the same spot. The insert measured 3.75mm OD. I don’t have many metric drill bits, but I do have a number drill index. I just pulled a bit that was close and gave it a shot. I then progressively went up in size until I got to one that let me mount the insert snugly (that ended up being #21). Here’s a picture of how that looks:
My plan is to get these mounted to the car tomorrow. No pictures until then, you’ll just have to hold on to your excitement.
Got started this morning. First job was to transfer the location of inserts for the mounting screws. I decided a while back to try using a form of centering screw for this. I bought some M3 set screws that came to a point for this. Tried 12mm long ones but they were too long, so I went with 3mm long (would have been better to use 5-6mm but couldn’t find those). Sorry for the blurry photo, my phone didn’t want to focus but you should be able to get the gist of what I did:
I tried just pushing those onto the bumper but didn’t get very good marks, so I used some painter’s tape and marked it that way. It was just good enough for me to see:
Once the holes were drilled I temporarily installed the spats with screws to make sure I had the holes where they needed to be (not all were so I had to drill other holes, half of them were off by a little). After I had them located I removed them and put on the double-sided tape like so:
If you haven’t done this before, you peel back the backing a little and fold it over to let you pull it off all the way once you get the item in place.
End result? Here it is:
I’ll get some distance shots from outside which may help seeing how it looks as part of the overall package.
I tried just pushing those onto the bumper but didn’t get very good marks, so I used some painter’s tape and marked it that way. It was just good enough for me to see:
Once the holes were drilled I temporarily installed the spats with screws to make sure I had the holes where they needed to be (not all were so I had to drill other holes, half of them were off by a little). After I had them located I removed them and put on the double-sided tape like so:
If you haven’t done this before, you peel back the backing a little and fold it over to let you pull it off all the way once you get the item in place.
End result? Here it is:
I’ll get some distance shots from outside which may help seeing how it looks as part of the overall package.
- :
- 92 & 16 Meyatas
Looking cool! I didn’t realize their aero importance! I always thought of them like a mud flap.
Yeah, all the cool race cars have some form of them. 
I have been noticing on modern cars that a lot of them have the bumper going out far enough to act as an air guide around the front wheels.
I mentioned about possibly replacing the parking brake cables because of not being able to adjust the handbrake where it needed to be. I did some research and found a couple of places online that had decent prices. I decided to just replace the front cable to the lever for the time being as it runs about 50% of the cost of the two cables that join it to the rear wheels. I placed my order with www.mazdaparts.us and got the cable a few days later:
Part number on that one is NA01-44-150D. Had some time today so hoisted her into the air and set to it.
First I removed the driver’s seat and center console for better access. Pulling back the carpet cover reveals the parking brake lever, held in with three bolts:
I then went underneath and scoped out what I had to remove. The cable penetrates the body above a heat shield that has to be removed:
This one is a little tricky, you can see three bolts holding it but there is a fourth one hidden above the exhaust and driveshaft. Here is the shield removed:
I was lucky to be able to get to all the bolts with how my car is configured and the tools I have, not sure how much harder it would be with stock components. Once that’s out of the way I could see the connection to the rear cables:
Sorry for the blurriness, my camera wouldn’t focus where I needed it to. You can see the spring that keeps tension on things, as well as the bracket that connects the handbrake cable to the rears. That was a little fiddly to get out thanks to 26 years of weathering. I found it best to remove the side of the spring connected to the body. There is also a small bracket holding the mid-point of the cable like so:
Once those are all removed you have to remove the grommet the cable passes through to the cabin and then pull the cable out.
Grommet is the black piece at the bottom of the picture. When I had it all out I compared the length with the new cable but didn’t really see any difference.
Assembly is the reverse of the above, I used some silicone spray on the body penetration grommet and it slipped right in. I cleaned up the heat shield as it had some junk on it (from when I had to drive her with deicer on the roads). All fasteners underneath got a lick of antiseize. Once the brake lever is back in you can adjust its pull. Before I did that I readjusted the rear calipers to have everything at a good baseline. End result of this was I was able to get the lever adjusted to be tight at 5 clicks. This will suit me for now, although I do plan on replacing both of the rear cables so the whole system is new.
FYI, part numbers for the rears are as follows:
Driver’s side: NC10-44-420A
Passenger side: NC10-44-410A
I have been noticing on modern cars that a lot of them have the bumper going out far enough to act as an air guide around the front wheels.I mentioned about possibly replacing the parking brake cables because of not being able to adjust the handbrake where it needed to be. I did some research and found a couple of places online that had decent prices. I decided to just replace the front cable to the lever for the time being as it runs about 50% of the cost of the two cables that join it to the rear wheels. I placed my order with www.mazdaparts.us and got the cable a few days later:
Part number on that one is NA01-44-150D. Had some time today so hoisted her into the air and set to it.
First I removed the driver’s seat and center console for better access. Pulling back the carpet cover reveals the parking brake lever, held in with three bolts:
I then went underneath and scoped out what I had to remove. The cable penetrates the body above a heat shield that has to be removed:
This one is a little tricky, you can see three bolts holding it but there is a fourth one hidden above the exhaust and driveshaft. Here is the shield removed:
I was lucky to be able to get to all the bolts with how my car is configured and the tools I have, not sure how much harder it would be with stock components. Once that’s out of the way I could see the connection to the rear cables:
Sorry for the blurriness, my camera wouldn’t focus where I needed it to. You can see the spring that keeps tension on things, as well as the bracket that connects the handbrake cable to the rears. That was a little fiddly to get out thanks to 26 years of weathering. I found it best to remove the side of the spring connected to the body. There is also a small bracket holding the mid-point of the cable like so:
Once those are all removed you have to remove the grommet the cable passes through to the cabin and then pull the cable out.
Grommet is the black piece at the bottom of the picture. When I had it all out I compared the length with the new cable but didn’t really see any difference.
Assembly is the reverse of the above, I used some silicone spray on the body penetration grommet and it slipped right in. I cleaned up the heat shield as it had some junk on it (from when I had to drive her with deicer on the roads). All fasteners underneath got a lick of antiseize. Once the brake lever is back in you can adjust its pull. Before I did that I readjusted the rear calipers to have everything at a good baseline. End result of this was I was able to get the lever adjusted to be tight at 5 clicks. This will suit me for now, although I do plan on replacing both of the rear cables so the whole system is new.
FYI, part numbers for the rears are as follows:
Driver’s side: NC10-44-420A
Passenger side: NC10-44-410A
