Grif's White P5

Installed:
Red LED cluster swap
Dome light LED swap
Swapped back to regular H7 bulbs from HIDs
Corksport adjustable weighted shift knob
Mint condition side mouldings to replace dirt stained ones (@Coker)
Paint touch-up/rear emblems replaced

Ordered:
AWR rear sway bar
Roof rail delete strips (@Jperera)
Weathertech wind deflectors (F & R)
Hydra front bumper sap kit
OEM trunk cargo cover

Future plans (in no specific order):
Replace/fix front bumper
Fix dent on rear passenger door
Change belts/waterpump (parts sitting)
Paint valve cover (black wrinkle?)
Replace radiator & radiator support (Mishimoto?; support is bent)
New wheels (leaning on 16x7 RPF1's)
Bucket seats?
Double din/sub woofer
Exhaust/headers
AWR trailing arms
Coilovers (BC?)

While installing the sedan headlights, I've found that the front end damage was worse than I thought. Haven't previously ever taken off the front bumper; come to find out the whole radiator support is smashed in.
Not too bad, bent it back a bit so that the bumper/headlights sit a bit more flush with the body. Might try to find one at a junkyard to swap in.

Pics real soon :D
 
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Finally got a hold of a msp lip w/ fog deletes last night, so stoked.
Just gotta do some sanding/primer/paint/etc and the P5 will be another step closer to what I had in mind :)

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haha! Got the same one since mine ripped as well. They seem to match the interior pretty well imo.

They're surprisingly not too bad for how cheap they were! Although I've since went back to the leather boot ;p



Got the AWR rsb installed last week, I love it.
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Last night I stiffened it a whole bunch by moving it more back via the clamps. Was a recommendation from Jared White off the fb groups.
On the softest placement via clamps towards the end of the bar, it would occasionally clunk with the lateral links.
So I moved them in front of the lateral links and it seemed to fix the issue. Plus it felt a lot better hue hue.
It doesn't sit that low once the car is back on the ground, don't worry
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Also made some progress on the MSP lip. Got it all sanded, primed and gonna do some wet sanding sometime this week to clean up the runs. Don't know why but the primer ran quite a bit..
I get my roof rack delete strips and trunk privacy cover this week. Still waiting on the Hydra bumper SAP kit.
Changed out the AC belt as well, didn't get to the other accessory belt bc it was such a tight squeeze even with the wheel removed. Was too tired to bother lol.

Anyway, here's a few pics I haven't uploaded from the past couple weeks.
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Yea I was surprised at the cheap Bride shift boot lol. Much nicer (looking) than I thought. haha

I had the same problem with the AWR bar hitting the lateral links. Mine was resting on the lateral links when I was super low. So, I cut the ends off. (eek2)
Worked great. Did you know the AWR rear bar is hollow? (wiggle)

You still have a lot of room to work if you want the bar stiffer.
Have a look where my endlinks were positioned awhile back.

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Yea I was surprised at the cheap Bride shift boot lol. Much nicer (looking) than I thought. haha

I had the same problem with the AWR bar hitting the lateral links. Mine was resting on the lateral links when I was super low. So, I cut the ends off. (eek2)
Worked great. Did you know the AWR rear bar is hollow? (wiggle)

You still have a lot of room to work if you want the bar stiffer.
Have a look where my endlinks were positioned awhile back.

Did not know that.. thing feels solid lol.

I couldn't find many pics on google for reference, so was limited to what I can go off of lol.
That looks pretty stiff, how's the ride?
 
Did not know that.. thing feels solid lol.

I couldn't find many pics on google for reference, so was limited to what I can go off of lol.
That looks pretty stiff, how's the ride?

I was so surprised to see that too.

Yes it was stiff, but not uncomfortable at all. You will be 3-wheeling in driveways a lot more though, which can break brackets and stuff. I try and angle the front as I enter the driveway, and then try and align the rear so its straight inline with the driveway as I go up. Both rear tires hitting at the same time. I hope that makes sense...too early...need coffee. (cheers)
 
Man, the more I see those AWR rear swaybars, the more curious about them I get. Hypothetically, if I install the RB front swaybar and max out the stiffness of the AWR one in the rear, shouldn't that give me less overall body roll without causing awful understeer? Must be something to test in the future.

By the way, I saw your facebook post about crashing the Miata meet :^)

What did the Miata guys think?
 
I was so surprised to see that too.

Yes it was stiff, but not uncomfortable at all. You will be 3-wheeling in driveways a lot more though, which can break brackets and stuff. I try and angle the front as I enter the driveway, and then try and align the rear so its straight inline with the driveway as I go up. Both rear tires hitting at the same time. I hope that makes sense...too early...need coffee. (cheers)

Haha naw you're good. I haven't experienced any 3 wheeling yet but wow does it handle like it's on rails.
Maybe if i stiffen it up more I'll have to deal with what you go to :p

Man, the more I see those AWR rear swaybars, the more curious about them I get. Hypothetically, if I install the RB front swaybar and max out the stiffness of the AWR one in the rear, shouldn't that give me less overall body roll without causing awful understeer? Must be something to test in the future.

By the way, I saw your facebook post about crashing the Miata meet :^)

What did the Miata guys think?

Haven't heard any positives about doing the FSB! but the AWR rsb... i love love love it. Really handles like a dream now lol I was zooming around all day today.

:D
They were cool, there was about 20 of them haha and i knew some of them too.
I used to have a miata and was in the club before but now i'm just the "past miata owner" guy lol.
But we had mazdas so they didn't mind at all, hell they said we can come out more often if we wanted to b/c they meet up once a month.
 
Delete strips installed, also changed out the terminals for some "military spec" terminals by Fastronix.
Now just gotta get the lip painted and mounted and I'll be set for a bit.. until we finally upgrade to coils/wheels :^)
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did you have to take your headliner off in the process of installing those delete strips?
 
did you have to take your headliner off in the process of installing those delete strips?

Yes I did. I was dreading it up until I actually had to do it, and it wasn't even that bad.
Just remove the pillars via clips and a few bolts, including the trunk panels. Sunvisors and holy-s***-handles need to be removed as well. After that it's several or so nuts on each side to remove for the rails, then you're set to install the strips.
I think the hardest part was cleaning up all that grime and crap underneath the rails. Wetsanded and buffed and it was fine.
 
gotcha. those piller clips always break every time i remove them lol. i avoid it as much as possible
 
So the lip is at Maaco getting painted right now. $200 flat for repair/prime/paint. Supposedly ready tomorrow..
The other day I changed out all the rotors/pads. Went with Brembo blanks and Power Stop evolution plus pads.
Thought of the whole Power Stop slotted/drilled set but the Brembo's were $25 each... I could not pass on that lol. Plus I didn't care much for the drilled/slotted stuff.

Also replaced the EGR valve with a new one, the old one was so rusted up and pretty gunked up inside so I opted to purchase a new one, $159.99 :( but I thought of it as something I wouldn't have to worry about afterwards.

Replaced a muffler exhaust hanger, the kartboy one I had on was loose (it was also a 12mm XL instead of 12mm) so no more rattling.
Then I reinstalled the Ralco RZ STS. The bolt on the lever for my stock one (3rd link kit bolt? dunno the name) had a half inch of it broken off, and when I went underneath I saw the nut to tighten it was missing.
A bit notchy but I like it, I guess the rattling isn't there anymore. Not sure if the weighted shift knob helped that.

Cleaned up the transmission housing a bit, it's actually nice and silver!
Also picking up some CR3 washers this week from Cres, time to make the engine bay look pretty.

Sorry I didn't get any pictures, I will try post some up after I install the lip :)
Here's an updated one of the suspension:
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TO DO (in order)
Mishimoto radiator/Samco hoses (current one is rusted where the hoses connect, it's leaking as well.. fluid isn't a clear green)
Timing belt/water pump
BC coilovers
Wheels (Bronze RPF1's?)
 
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coming along real good. bronze wheels is good. bronze anything is good lol
 
Bronze. Nice. Bronze RPF1's, nice x2.

When you do get the bc's, leave them alone until you actually install them and you'll have no weird noises or issues. I cant tell you how many people I've seen play around (using the spanner wrench on the collars just to see it spin...ugh...) with them prior to installing them. Then they have some weird problem. The preload will get all messed up. Just leave them as is, then if you need to adjust anything, do it after they are installed. Leave the preload alone. Adjust the height all you want, but not the preload. Trust me on this. Mine have never given me any issues from not touching the preload, knock on wood lol.
The install is super easy too.

"Cool story bro" time about when I got my bc's.
I purchased them from a retailer in Florida. I installed them, and a few weeks later, I come home to see a big box on porch. Its ANOTHER set of bc's! So, I call the retailer and let him know I have received a second set. He said he would send me a shipping label and notify UPS to come pick them up. A month goes by and nothing. I call again. They say they will send the label over. Nothing lol. Six months goes by and they are not answering phone calls and will not answer my emails. Turns out the place went out of business. So I have a second set of coilovers now. I tried and tried to return them honestly several times. Being they were out of business and I could not return them, so I ended up selling them to a friend for a few hundred bucks. He got a great deal and I collected a few hundred bucks as well.
 
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