So Here Is My Introduction Thread. =)

[cxmoney]

My name is Chase. Currently enlisted in the Marine Corps, from the suburbs of Atlanta(Lawrenceville, Villa Rica, Stockbridge). I have a black 97 miata that i bought out in Twentynine Palms, California back in august that only had 78k miles on it, but it was completely bone stock. Since then, Ive driven it accross the country back to georgia, and ive bought and sold 2 black hardtops(i should of kept the first one.. bought it for $600 and it was in perfect condition. smh.) but as of right now it is sitting in storage with a brand new softtop, a powdercoated white bossfrog clearview, megan racing ex coilovers, powdercoated white xxr 002 15x8 wheels, touge run front lip, and a 2001 NB interior.

so far i still need to make the 2001 door panels fit onto my doors for a complete interior. Ive also got some Bride replicas and a boss frog harness bar that im considering putting in the car.

But yeah here is my introduction. future plans are still unknown for the most part. im still trying to decide what to go with under the hood(Turbo my 1.8, 04-05 Mazdaspeed miata engine swap, 5.0 swap, or lsx swap) but bodywise im considering GV taillight conversion, autokonexion blister fenders and rear quarter addons, ducktail replacement trunk, Black 6ULs, hardtop, rollcage, and a new paintjob(either plum crazy purple and black, or the porsche mint green(Like Nick93's car) and black. i still havent decided yet.

Pictures are to come this weekend. for some reason last time i was home i didnt take pictures of my car with everything installed(wtf was i thinking? lol) so this weekend i will take quite alot of pictures.

[keepitsimple]

Sounds like you have your stuff together. Welcome to the Mx5 Addiction. There will be days you hate it and days you cant imagine being without it.

later.

[theothersawyer]

Welcome! Sounds like you have your plansall sorted out! And I say go for the purple we already have a mint green on here we don't need two of them.

[oldgrayfrog]

Well as long as you stay in California and register the car in Georgia, you should be able to avoid paying the ridiculous registration fees in Cali, and avoid having to smog the car. Of course we have smog here but as long as you are out of State on Military duties, Georgia will wave the emissions test, and Cali will allow you to keep your car in state a a guest. Don't change your residence to California! The odds are high that you will be stationed there again in the future (when you re-up, you can change it to another state, pick Illinois, they also don't take taxes from active service members). That means you are free to do what you want. If you don't think the Marine Corp will be a twenty year thing, then stay with what you can get smog-ed. The 97 is an OBD II car, so running a stand alone is tough as none will feed the OBD II port the info for the emissions checks. If you can save up around $12,000, you can do a V8 swap. These use OBD II engines, so as long as you use a OBD II ecu you'll be fine. I remember that the guy who runs Monster Miata isn't far from the Palms. A good 302, or 5.0 with aluminum heads is within 40 lbs of the LSx engine, and much cheaper, so you may want to look that guy up. 400 whp in a 302 is easily accomplished for around $2000 and many use the T5 trans as it fits in the trans tunnel a lot easier than the T56 anyways, and if you want power a Ford rear end is pretty much standard. My build is in it's final stages, with the Duckbill having gone in for paint today, the GV tails were mounted just last night. Your list sounds a lot like my build, so if you want to see what it'll look like, only in red, look in on my build thread now and again. Welcome Aboard Marine.

[cxmoney]

Sweet thanks for the comments! I was going to get purple until i saw nicks miata. An i fell in love with the color almost instantly. But if i did paint it mint green, i would get a carbon fiber hood from autokonexion, a carbon fiber top, as well as a carbon fiber trunk(and eventually the carbon fiber fastback) and i was going to paint around the windsheild black, and was thinking about the racing stripe similar to the BMW tt concept, and have a mint green stripe running along the carbon fiber parts. But thats all if i go with the mint green, just so it is of my own taste and different scheme from nicks car. But if i go plum crazy, i will probably take a different route with the paint scheme most likely.

But anyways, i was in california. Right now i am in camp lejuene, north carolina for temporary duty. Still dont have a permanent duty station. I am really hoping i get to be stationed in camp pendleton(inbetween san diego and los angeles), but we will see how that goes.

And i practically live on mx5atlanta now. Haha. I was an everyday cr.net visitor, but ever since that one day i found nicks car on google that lead me to mx5atl, ive been addicted, checking this for threads more than i do cr, which is weird because we dont have many posts here... Lol.

But anyways, like i said i will be leaving togo home for memorial day this weekend, so i will be getting home to finish stuff on my car and finally take pictures of it in its current state. So most likely ill be able to snag some saturday afternoon and have the posted by saturday night. =)

[cxmoney]

Pictures!!

http://i319.photobucket.com/albums/mm459/CxMoney/474fb489.jpg
http://i319.photobucket.com/albums/mm459/CxMoney/7f6d0afb.jpg
http://i319.photobucket.com/albums/mm459/CxMoney/394b5387.jpg
http://i319.photobucket.com/albums/mm459/CxMoney/805bebe9.jpg
http://i319.photobucket.com/albums/mm459/CxMoney/592b1cd1.jpg
http://i319.photobucket.com/albums/mm459/CxMoney/607207ac.jpg
http://i319.photobucket.com/albums/mm459/CxMoney/6473cd5c.jpg
http://i319.photobucket.com/albums/mm459/CxMoney/8fae57d8.jpg
http://i319.photobucket.com/albums/mm459/CxMoney/00c11f70.jpg
http://i319.photobucket.com/albums/mm459/CxMoney/a6809e5c.jpg
http://i319.photobucket.com/albums/mm459/CxMoney/ee824eb0.jpg

[Bernie]

Welcome aboard Devil Dog, nice looking NA ya got there.

[epilonious]

Lovely car, but I think your driver-side front wheel is on backwards...

[theothersawyer]

Lovely car, but I think your driver-side front wheel is on backwards...
I believe you are correct. Those tires are directional and are on incorrectly!!

[cxmoney]

actually, it is on correctly, i thought the same and thought it was on backwards, but on the side of the tire it says "<< Rotation" i was confused. haha. maybe the manufacturer made a mistake?

[RotorNutFD3S]

Those look like Ecsta ASTs and they are indeed mounted backwards, odd if they got stamped wrong, but check out the rotation indicator (at the bottom of the pic) vs. the tread pattern on the stock photo:

http://www.mx5atlanta.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=4688&stc=1&d=1307045703

Flip 'em around on the car.

Car does look good though!

[nickt93]

Wow - car looks good! I'm digging the black and white color scheme.

[GVfanatic]

Go PLUM CRAZY Purple with it!

[doombastic]

Beautiful car.

Love the rollbar/wheel color match

[nolift]

Not mounted backwards, just on the wrong side of the car, check the other wheels. Someone did an incorrect tire rotation.

[oldgrayfrog]

Not mounted backwards, just on the wrong side of the car, check the other wheels. Someone did an incorrect tire rotation.

Damn beat me to it! Did the same damn thing when I was rotating M3 wheels. Pissed me off, and that was in my garage with a jack. Sorry you have to do it in the heat! You are most welcome to come down to a meet sometime young leatherneck, we aren't that far away! Love the look of the car. You must be one of those skinny a=s Marines to fit into those Bride LoMax seats! Love the look, too big the A=s on me to fit. Keep us advised as per your duty station and such, as well as your modifications!

[theothersawyer]

Yeah they are the same tires I have and they are indeed on incorrectly, but enough of that.
Car looks really good and I definitely like the color scheme you have going on!

[cxmoney]

Well thanks for all the comments! Like i said eventually ill be painting it once i finally decide what im going to do about under the hood. Ive narrowed it down to either plum crazy and black, or snakeskin green(from dodge viper) and black. But thats a little down the road.

But as of today i am in Camp LeJeune, NC. And either tuesday or wednesday they are flying me out to Pensacola, FL for mos school, to be a Fixed wing aircraft mechanic. So im pretty excited about that

[cxmoney]

Welp. i managed to snag a 1995 black shell from metalman, and my original plan was to swap everything over from my 97 over to the 95 for the ODB-I emission standards, but my cousin gave the crazy idea to v8 the 95 and just turbo my 97. and since the turbo wont pass emissions, looks like ill have to do what others say can be done and works so when its time for emissions, ill take all the turbo stuff off and throw on the stock stuff. ive decided that my goal for the 97 future turbo miata will be at least 230hp to the rear wheels. it seems reasonable and easy to get to with the flyin miata hydra stuff, along with all the engine parts like forged rods, and tri coated pistons(like in rotornuts build), 99 head, ect.

but as for the 95 shell, i decided that it will be a 5.0 swap. i love the sound of 5.0 and for parts are damn cheap, so 5.0 is the way im going to go. its a complete stripped shell, so i am going to have to source all the body parts first before i start buying the monster miata kit and engine parts. my goal for the 5.0 is at least 275hp to the rear wheels. ive got some plans for the body already in mind. ill try not to ask or post much on here since it pisses Oldgrayfrog off so much, so ill just keep you guys updated with my extremely slow progress. =)

Here is my v8 project.
http://i319.photobucket.com/albums/mm459/CxMoney/photo4-1.jpg
http://i319.photobucket.com/albums/mm459/CxMoney/photo5-2.jpg