Denouement...

Does it have a clear coat on top?

-- Larry

Yup! I'm not entirely certain, but I think the original car was regular paint and not clear coat, but the new paint is clearcoated.

that looks great. love how they kept the stock look by including the black on the bottom of the side panels (not usually done). did you ask for the mazda logo to be removed from the front bumper? i see lots of cars without them and it says to me that the bumper was repainted... otherwise i probably could not tell. congrats, i am jealous.

Thanks. The sticker just hasn't come yet and I'm undecided about whether or not to apply it when it does. It would certainly add to the factor fresh look. I was undecided about the side panels and decided (by inaction) to let the shop decide, but I think that I'm pleased with "choice" I made.

But now it is just screaming for new wheels and tires...

I'm still considering running 16" rims, but only if I can afford ones that are light, light, light. I'd like to keep wheel weight under 14 lbs, I think, and perhaps as little as 12 lbs. SSR Type Cs are 12.0lbs, forged and I think the anthracite look is a pretty good one for a red Miata.

Anyone run SSR Type Cs?

How much difference would going from 45mm offset to 32mm be, really?

That looks quite a bit nicer than my beaten and faded red 1991 model.

I am running 16X7 SSR Comps. IIRC, they are 40mm offset. The car loses a little bit of "tossability", but it handles very well and the extra tire width does help a little to make it harder to spin the tires with the turbo and grabby clutch.

Without a turbo or other power upgrade, I would be more inclined to stick to 195/50/15's, obviously on 15 inch wheels, though it is getting to where 16 inches is almost the minimum size that you need for a great tire selection.

It reminds me of the increased availability that was offered for 15" over 14" about 10 years ago. There were M-edition Miatas and Miatas with aftermarket wheels driving on the Toyo T1's for a long time before they offered them in 14 inches for the rest of the pre-1999 model drivers.

Anyway, the bodywork and paint look great from your pics, and I agree, it is now screaming for new wheels.

Those steelies are 18 pounds, so almost anything under 17 inches will be an improvement. With 12 pounds wheels, a full 6 pounds less per corner will make a very noticeable difference in the way the car drives.

Pat

Yes! Your car looks awesome! I'm glad you decided to keep it off the scrap heap.

As for wheels, I got Rota Slipstreams for my car based on a suggestion in this newsgroup. Rotas are cheap, light and strong. The 15" Slipstream is less than 12 lbs. I have that one in 16" (13.5 lbs), though I also considered the Circuit 8 and Circuit 10. In terms of lightness to cost ratio, they're pretty tough to beat. There's a pretty good selection in

I wouldn't be surprised if there was a Rota distributor in the lower mainland somewhere.

Look for OEM alloys on e-bay or miata.net. I picked up a set of virtually new alloys used in the '99 model year for my '96 for around $400. They retailed for around $1600. Going with 15 inch rims will give you more choice in tires.

Car looks good! I have to put in two votes on the wheels;

for OEM related (Mazda content ;-) I'd vote for picking up a used set of the BBS wheels. There were a couple years the M Edition got a 15" set and they look better than the 14's and are still super light . They're relatively pricey at ~$750 for a nice set (~$500 for the 14").

for aftermarket, I love my 16" OZ Ultraleggra's. They are reasonably light (13.5 IIRC) for the money (

I like these:

as for wheels, the best bang for your buck for quality lightweight 15" wheels are probably the honig helium at under $100 each. second runner up would be honig rewind for a different look but a little more weight but the same price. good-win-racing.com has both styles with the correct 40mm offset and a selection of good tires. discounttiredirect has the honig wheels with slightly different offsets that probbaly is not much of an issue, but they are generally not very pleasent to deal with (both the customer service and the way they nickle and dime you, actually charging for valves when you get 'free mounting for wheel and tire packages' and for a lug nut kit... tirerack includes all that stuff and a wrench in their price, but unfortunately tirerack does not carry honig.

Sorry to nit-pic but if anyone isn't already aware of these wheels and tries to research them, it'll help to know they're Konig not Honig. ;-0

Chris

thanks for the correction. that was not nit-picky at all.