I bet you thought the Blue Miata was dead, considering I haven't posted for so long. But no it's not dead and the reason I haven't posted for so long (amongst work, family, laziness etc.) is that I've been driving and driving. But more on that later. First here's the process of getting the thing back on the road.
As you may remember the right front suspension of the Miata was all mangled after an unfortunate judgment lapse on my part. After ringing around the local parts shops I learned that buying new parts was cost prohibitive which meant taking a stroll down to my local junk yard and digging out the necessary parts from some wreck. No problem; and it being around fathers day at the time I thought I'd make a family outing out of it. First we had to find a donor car. After asking the attendants at the junkyard they brought over this high mileage rear ended red Miata.
My Pa and I got right to work taking out the pieces we needed.
Look at that team work.
My mom was there too, she took these shots and helped out. That's what the Miata does: brings families together.Finally we pulled out all these bits and then some (which may or may not have been smuggled out in my mom's sweater like a family of gypsies but come on the junk yard is a royal ripoff).
I then got the parts home and compared.
You can see how the messed up the angle of the lower control arm is on the old bit. Ouch.I noticed a neat thing about the the control arms. They're hollow.
Every other car I've seen they're a solid piece of metal. I realize they're hollow to be light. Being light saves fuel and improves handling and performance. Just like a race car. I thought that was pretty cool. It also makes it that they fold like origami when hit.This is what a Miata looks like with no right front suspension.
And there are the new pieces in place.
After a quick visit to a wheel alignment and frame shop, the Miata was good as new. Thankfully the shop reported that the Miata's frame was not bent so all it needed was the allignment. I will never get an alignment anywhere else. In a frame shop all they do is allignments and the technicians and equipment are specially suited for this task, plus it's generally cheaper.
Finally the Miata is on the road for the summer ready for more adventures.
I'll hopefully be able to control my urge to crash. Overall this actually was kind of fun; going with my folks to the junk yard, taking apart stuff, putting it back together, and it didn't really cost that much money. The Miata: fun even in tragedy.
