My free Miata hard top!

[MazKid]

Finally obtained it. It had been sitting in my dad's work area for months. The guy that originally bought it for his MSM had it painted at our body shop, and they did a crappy job...then there was a recall about a latch problem or something, so one of the other mechanics started to remove the latches and one bolt head stripped. The guy demanded a new top, and the old one was supposed to go back to Mazda as a warranty claim, but never did. My dad talked to the parts manager about it and he said that if I could use it, I could take it. And I did.

Here it is on the car:





Yeah, it's titanium, and abnormally blue-ish at that...the paint has "dirt" in it too. It's also scratched from being moved around. Hey, it was free...a hard top new costs $1,595 plus paint, used you'd be lucky to get one for $800. I'll take my freebie.

Good thing is, according to Miata.net's FAQ, I needed the old style front latches, each are $125($89 with my discount), then there's the bolts and what not. I tested one of the hard top latches on my soft top to see if it would work, and it did just fine. I was originally going to take the latches off of the soft top to use on the hard top and just switch back and forth between them, but that's how stuff gets ruined and bolts strip.

The only parts I've had to buy are the side striker plates and bolts(though I might be returning them), that was $42($38 for both strikers). So for that minimal fee I have the hard top on the car which also allows me to do SCCA Spec Miata racing, if I ever choose to.

Pretty cool eh?

[D323]

lucky mofo. Nice score.

[Lex]

Man, you're the king of free/cheap atuff u can find

[worldhazard]

no kidding... dude you are a lucky sob dude... damn...

[Marc93lx]

Man, you're the king of free/cheap atuff u can find

naaa Darryl is the king of free **** for his car. That mofo has gotten so many free hookups it's not even funny.

Nice score, get it painted.

[MazKid]

I *might* get it painted in the summer. I still need to get the rust fixed on the car. It's just so much fun to drive I can't imagine doing without the car for more than 2 days. I've seen other Miatas with tops that are painted different colors...blue cars with red tops, white cars with blue tops, etc, so the titanium top isn't that bad.

While I'm here(and this relates to the free stuff), does anyone know if a stock MX-6/626/Probe GT turbocharger bolts onto the BPT turbo manifold? My brother has a few extra ones he'll let me use(on the Protege) but I don't know if it bolts on or not.

Yeah, I get freebies/cheapies pretty often now-a-days. I guess it's the dealership. Remember that I also got a tonneau cover for free, which is normally a $100ish part.

[MazKid]

Wow, what a difference this top makes! Even with the side latches not hooked up, driving on the highway I got basically no wind noise up til 75mph...took the car up to 105 and it wasn't nearly as loud as my Protege! My dad installed(I helped him finish, I'm on the clock and had a car going(stupid Tribeca and our car wash broke today, so I had to run it through at the dealership across the divided highway) so he was mostly done when I finished the detail) the side strikers(requires cutting out an oval shape on the interior side panels) just now and putting the top on, put the rear clasps on, pushed the top forward, latched the fronts, then did the sides and it really pulls it down and tightens the whole sheebang. Can't wait to go blasting down the highway without wind noise!

[mike_moss]

Hawt!

[MazKid]

Ohh, and it gets better!!!

Someone traded in a beat to hell '99-'00 Miata last week. It's basically junk...140,000+ miles, every body panel is dented, top is ripped, interior reeks of smoke, leather seats torn, etc etc. Well, it's a LS and has the 15X6 5 spoke wheels, and it's a wholesale car.

Now, no, I didn't try to buy it. Evidently my dealership gave the guy $2,800 for it(believe me it's not worth near that much), so that means I'd be paying more. It's trashed.

But, one of the other car preps I work with had a Saturn SC sedan('96), and swapped wheels with a wholesale newer saturn wagon. Just a direct swap, free.

I also found out that you can swap parts with wholesale cars...like if you have a cracked headlight and there's the same car with a good one, you can swap, asking first of course. This is utterly amazing.

If you can't already see where this is headed, I asked the used car manager if I could swap wheels with this Miata. At first he was a little iffy on it, especially when I told him they'd be 14"s, though I did say I could try to find 15" steels if that's any better, and he said nah. He thought it over for a few seconds and said "it's not going to be 2 wheels in the front and 2 different ones in the back?" I said "no no, it's a whole set and they are in good condition." He said OK.

So, I just got a set of 15" Miata wheels for free. I don't have them yet, they are still on the car, and I've got some tire-swapping to do. I'm going to put the good set of tires from my 14" Protege wheels on my 14" Miata wheels, then put the crappy tires on the Protege wheels and put them on this wholesale Miata. Then I get the awsome 15"s and still have 14" Miata wheels with great tires.

The Miata 15"s need a little work. They're in good condition, didn't notice any curb rash or anything, but they appear to have never ever been washed. The brake dust is stained into every wheel. I'll try to clean them and if that fails they get painted(could polish them...hmmm).

And, they have good Yokohama AVS(is that what it is? I don't remember, but they are high performance tires) all around.

MazKid wit da JDM hookups yo!

[MazKid]

Damn, I was wrong, my brother had the same tires on his MX-6 for a while and they're ES100s.

[Pastor_Protege]

Unreal. I think the Miatas look a 1000% better with a hardtop and nice wheels.

[MazKid]

Agreed. While I like the stock 14"s(they're like 10.8 lbs each), the sidewalls on the tires are just too tall and flex to much for the Miata. The 15X6s are 13.1 lbs but they look good too. I was aiming for 15X7 MazdaSpeed wheels, and while I was able to buy a set the seller sold them locally instead of to me, claiming that I "shouldn't have to pay all of that shipping to find out they don't fit", even though they are 4X100 just like everything else. Oh well.

[funkdaddysmack]

I don't like you.

[MazKid]

That's understandable.

[MazKid]

I decided to put my Protege wheels on the Miata since they have good tires, I don't really know how to use the tire machine at work to put these tires on my Miata wheels, and I'm tired of the dryrotted mix-matched tires on the Miata wheels.

These will only be on for a few days until I get the 15"s.