When I bought the white car, I was happy that it was a 1 owner car, and that it was garage kept.   In the early 90’s they switched to waterbased paint and they didn’t get it right. The people on Miata.net stated that ‘if you have a white 90 that the paint hasn’t come off of yet, you’ll be just fine’. Well, that didn’t happen.  The trunk and windshield surround paint came off in sheets.

I decided to give it a cheap, garage, single-stage paint job in bright white.  I sanded the car to bare metal and painted anything that was metal. No bumpers, mirrors or roof – that paint stuck just fine.  This also gave me a chance to fix the missing passenger rear quarter.  Instead of just welding it into place, I decided to use Lord Fusor metal to metal adhesive.  I’ve never used this stuff, but it seems like this might have been what they used (or should have used) when they built this part of the car.  There are 2 pieces of metal that are sandwiched together – if you weld it – the rust has to return; there’s no way to dress the back of the weld with paint or seam sealer.  Glue it was.

It worked well.  The panel has a seam where the body crease is and in the door jamb; I used some filler there.  I also used some filler where I welded up the antenna hole.  Other than that, I did no body work- just bare metal, primer and paint.  There’s a few dings here and there… but the car is going to be a track car – it’ll be good enough.

I finally got the car onto the track.  A few track days at New Jersey Motorsports Park – Lightning circuit.  The car handled well – I was impressed on how easy it was to drive at speed. The tires are still the Yoko S-Drives, and although they are great street tires, they were making quite a racket when pushed.

It was a good time, with no car issues all.  It really held it’s own through the esses and the lightbulb… and was decimated on the front stretch by the R8s/ Corvettes/ Camaros.  LOL.

The car number was a nod to my Uncle John’s motorsport effort: the 747.  The 747 has been around since forever in different forms and usually wildly successful.  Currently, the Sprint Car is driven by Davey Sammons, and the Modifieds are driven by Ryan Godown.  These guys are fast, and the cars look fantastic.

I borrowed these pics from 3wides.com. Here’s a link to their site: 3 Wide Picture Vault

I traded my red hardtop with defroster/ headliner for a lighter early top.  Finally, the red head is gone.  I put these on with a set of hardtop brackets and tow hooks from RennMetal.  I also installed a set of Sparco5 fixed back seats and G-Force 6 point FIA belts from OG Racing.  I removed the bumps on the floor of the car where the back seat bolts attach and made up some seat brackets that mount to the floor in the back to get as low as possible,

You’ll also see that I found rust on the passenger side rear quarter.  I cut it out and painted the surrounding area with POR15.  I’ll install the repair panel some other time.  This will hold for now.  I’ve had more than 1 person ask me if the hole is there for some sort of cooling…

For my brakes, I’ve got a set of 1994 caliper brackets with rebuilt calipers, Porterfield R4 pads, 949 Racing stainless brake lines and a Wilwood adjustable proportioning valve. The car has no issues stopping!