- Location
- Portland, OR
That's awesome.
Member's other Modded rides
- Thread starter jumbosrule
- Start date
That's awesome.
Did not expect to put time in tonight but we have out of town family and I had to get out of the house. View attachment 224154
Soooo I finished wiring up the battery quick disconnect (marine terminal). Also wired in the new stereo gear - you can see the post extension on the negative terminal. On the positive side I just used a ring terminal over the clamp post.
Wired in power, ground & remote for the cross-over, amplifier and bass tube. Bye-bye, trunk space!
I temporarily wired in the rear channel just to check out the gear. Even without the speaker enclosures, the range is much better. I actually sat in the car and played around with the fade and equalizer settings just for the hell of it. Even with the hard top off the car it's already sounding leaps and bounds better. Can't wait to knock out the enclosures.
Shaving tail lights caught my eye and I decided to try it out from a DIY I read on one of the Miata forums.
You can see the raised lettering on the headlight, surrounded by white wax from previous washings. These lights have 200,000 miles on them.
Went to Home Depot and found a sample pack of finishing sandpaper and a sanding sponge. Never done this before but the directions seemed pretty straight forward.
Started with a file and smoothed out the places where the lettering was. Then I went to 320 grit wet/dry sandpaper and sanded in one direction, up and down. Then I sanded 90 degrees (side to side) with 400 grit till I couldn't see any of the sanding marks in the other direction. Here you can see the sanding marks going the long way down the light.
Then 1000 grit, 90 degrees. You can see the sanding marks going left to right (short way across light).
Then 1500 grit, 90 degrees.
Then I used Meguire's Ultimate compound, rubbed in by hand with a microfiber.
followed by a Sonus swirl remover, by hand
and then finally plastic-X, by hand
Took about three hours for both lights.
First one complete - sitting next to the next one.
Both of them on the car:
Soooo I finished wiring up the battery quick disconnect (marine terminal). Also wired in the new stereo gear - you can see the post extension on the negative terminal. On the positive side I just used a ring terminal over the clamp post.
Wired in power, ground & remote for the cross-over, amplifier and bass tube. Bye-bye, trunk space!
I temporarily wired in the rear channel just to check out the gear. Even without the speaker enclosures, the range is much better. I actually sat in the car and played around with the fade and equalizer settings just for the hell of it. Even with the hard top off the car it's already sounding leaps and bounds better. Can't wait to knock out the enclosures.
Shaving tail lights caught my eye and I decided to try it out from a DIY I read on one of the Miata forums.
You can see the raised lettering on the headlight, surrounded by white wax from previous washings. These lights have 200,000 miles on them.
Went to Home Depot and found a sample pack of finishing sandpaper and a sanding sponge. Never done this before but the directions seemed pretty straight forward.
Started with a file and smoothed out the places where the lettering was. Then I went to 320 grit wet/dry sandpaper and sanded in one direction, up and down. Then I sanded 90 degrees (side to side) with 400 grit till I couldn't see any of the sanding marks in the other direction. Here you can see the sanding marks going the long way down the light.
Then 1000 grit, 90 degrees. You can see the sanding marks going left to right (short way across light).
Then 1500 grit, 90 degrees.
Then I used Meguire's Ultimate compound, rubbed in by hand with a microfiber.
followed by a Sonus swirl remover, by hand
and then finally plastic-X, by hand
Took about three hours for both lights.
First one complete - sitting next to the next one.
Both of them on the car:
Attachments
Last edited:
So finally, after waiting 48 hours for the acrylic to cure, I repeated the entire sanding process all over again, this time on the clear coat. I really like the custom look I've achieved. Just the reverse lights are not tinted.
After shaving and polishing the lens.
After masking, tinting, clear coat and polish.
Shot from the back - before tint
Shot from the back - after tint
After shaving and polishing the lens.
After masking, tinting, clear coat and polish.
Shot from the back - before tint
Shot from the back - after tint
Attachments
- Location
- Portland, OR
Nice work man. Looks great!
Was your battery always in the trunk or did you relocate it?
Was your battery always in the trunk or did you relocate it?
"LittleGagne"
Member
- Location
- Pot Falls
Looking good
Sent from my iPhone
Sent from my iPhone
SexualChocolate
Member
- Location
- SE Houston
All Miatas have then in the trunk OEM.
Yup, SC is right - all generations of Miata come with them in the trunk. The power and ground wires essentially are routed together in the harness to the front of the car. Of course - that's not very far in a Miata, lol. I cut the OEM battery clamp off, stripped the wire and attached the marine terminal to the positive side. Removing power is much easier and I don't wear the terminal clamp bolt with as often as I am working on the car. There is actually a molded battery cover that I now have installed.
I actually considered moving the battery in the FX to the trunk. It can be done with the other gear I have back there if I trim some of the plastic frame. I decided there was no good reason to do it other than to be different. It's not like it would be more convenient there. There would be a little bit of CG weight change and you free up the battery compartment for other gear so it could still happen if I have a good reason.
ThE Fx 45 BeAsT
Member
- Location
- Seattle
great work jumbo your attention to detail is remarkable.
You know what's funny - now looking at the photos of the tail lights before I tinted them in my post above, the tails are two different models. I knew the car was in a wreck and I actually pounded out part of the trunk, but check out the yellow signal indicators in each light - different shape & color! So tinting them totally solved that problem, lol.
---------- Post added at 07:24 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:19 PM ----------
Thanks, y'all. I'm really quite pleased with myself since this is really the first time I've done any of this. But honestly it makes me realize I can attack other similar projects that maybe I have been thinking I didn't have the skill for. Having this car to learn on is really priceless in terms of gaining confidence in the tools and methods. I would NEVER have tried this out on the FX. But now that I know I can do it and I can do it right, I'd consider at least shaving the lenses on the FX. Would still need to seal with clear though.
---------- Post added at 07:24 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:19 PM ----------
Thanks, y'all. I'm really quite pleased with myself since this is really the first time I've done any of this. But honestly it makes me realize I can attack other similar projects that maybe I have been thinking I didn't have the skill for. Having this car to learn on is really priceless in terms of gaining confidence in the tools and methods. I would NEVER have tried this out on the FX. But now that I know I can do it and I can do it right, I'd consider at least shaving the lenses on the FX. Would still need to seal with clear though.
- Location
- Los Angeles, CA
- Car
- 05 FX35 RWD
I like it, but I wouldve done the whole thing, no mask
- Location
- Houston,Tx
- Car
- 2007 Infiniti FX35 AWD
The miata is looking good brad, so when's the first auto x?
yeah, yeah Dave - I know. All blacked out, lol. Now that I have the tinting skill maybe I'll finally black out the FX heads & tails along with the upper and lower grills?
I'm doing a performance driving school at MSR Houston at the end of the month. Assuming the car survives, lol... my first autocross should be shortly after.
One of the online forum dealers was running a special - I got all four OEM rotors and pads all the way around for $125. I've been told I'll likely need to replace all that stuff after the weekend school and one autocross.
I'm doing a performance driving school at MSR Houston at the end of the month. Assuming the car survives, lol... my first autocross should be shortly after.
One of the online forum dealers was running a special - I got all four OEM rotors and pads all the way around for $125. I've been told I'll likely need to replace all that stuff after the weekend school and one autocross.
- Location
- Los Angeles, CA
- Car
- 05 FX35 RWD
haha. Jumbo loves chrome but I didnt know that included white
"LittleGagne"
Member
- Location
- Pot Falls
have fun with it! autoX is a lot of fun, especially in these little toys. next thing you know your gonna wanna throw an lsd in there and doin some drift things! hahah. have fun with it man. its coming along very nicely and your attention to detail is great! 
Finished up the audio today. Yesterday I was poking around in EPO and found some 4x6 speaker boxes ready to go. At $12 each I couldn't resist. They are just thrown into the back so I can use them immediately but the plan will be to "face" the speakers with a shaped insert that will look like a custom installation.
Had an interesting problem to solve. I couldn't get both left and right rear speakers to work. The driver's side had no signal after I swapped speakers to make sure it wasn't them. Turned out to be the RCA cable run from the head unit to the rear of the car so I can to run a new cable and that solved the problem. Had me stumped for about 30 minutes.
For now - sorry for the through the rear window pic. I've tried aiming them forward or laying them on their backs - doesn't make much difference in sound quality.
And here's a shot of the fuse and distribution block board along with the battery cover installed.
So I drove around for a while and tried to make some adjustments. The rear channel and sub are much stronger than the front channel at full gain, so I had to play around with turning down the amplifier gain bit by bit until the rear just blended in with the fronts when the fader was set to 0. I'm also setting the filters based on what sounds best while I'm sitting in the car. About the only negative is that my subwoofer is powered off the rear channel (just like the FX) and so there's a balance between bass and fading to the rear. I've had to take the gain on the sub down as well. I totally flaked out on motivating to make speaker enclosures, but if I can modify the off the shelf boxes to look like a clean install, I'll be happy.
She's a little dirty but here's how she sits now.
I really like the rear end - body kit, exhaust, custom smoked tails... I'm a fan.
Had an interesting problem to solve. I couldn't get both left and right rear speakers to work. The driver's side had no signal after I swapped speakers to make sure it wasn't them. Turned out to be the RCA cable run from the head unit to the rear of the car so I can to run a new cable and that solved the problem. Had me stumped for about 30 minutes.
For now - sorry for the through the rear window pic. I've tried aiming them forward or laying them on their backs - doesn't make much difference in sound quality.
And here's a shot of the fuse and distribution block board along with the battery cover installed.
So I drove around for a while and tried to make some adjustments. The rear channel and sub are much stronger than the front channel at full gain, so I had to play around with turning down the amplifier gain bit by bit until the rear just blended in with the fronts when the fader was set to 0. I'm also setting the filters based on what sounds best while I'm sitting in the car. About the only negative is that my subwoofer is powered off the rear channel (just like the FX) and so there's a balance between bass and fading to the rear. I've had to take the gain on the sub down as well. I totally flaked out on motivating to make speaker enclosures, but if I can modify the off the shelf boxes to look like a clean install, I'll be happy.
She's a little dirty but here's how she sits now.
I really like the rear end - body kit, exhaust, custom smoked tails... I'm a fan.
Attachments
Last edited:
- Location
- Los Angeles, CA
- Car
- 05 FX35 RWD
That looks great. Even the lights. It's so murder'd. Not anything I would expect out of your garage. Are you Bi-Polar or something?
---------- Post added at 03:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:40 PM ----------
We also need to change the title of this thread from 'Members' to 'Jumbos'
---------- Post added at 03:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:40 PM ----------
We also need to change the title of this thread from 'Members' to 'Jumbos'
That looks great. Even the lights. It's so murder'd. Not anything I would expect out of your garage. Are you Bi-Polar or something?
---------- Post added at 03:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:40 PM ----------
We also need to change the title of this thread from 'Members' to 'Jumbos'
Yeah - I've sort of dominated it, lol. I meant for anybody to post up in here but really it was just a back-door method of being able to post modifications to my Miata in my favorite forum.
What can I say Dave, the style just has to feel right to me. On this car, it works. I actually considered a bronze wheel with matching antenna and door handles. Probably just end up blacking them out. My autocross wheels are also black, but have a yellow stripe, sort of time attack style. I also still have the stockers, which are the lightest of the three sets. Those I can play with - got any powdercoating color suggestions?
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- Location
- Westchester, New York
- Car
- 09 FX50
- Location
- Los Angeles, CA
- Car
- 05 FX35 RWD
I lie the gold idea, but the bumble bee flavor could work 2.