Year: 2003

Where Does The Time Go?

This week is one of those work an extra hour Mon-Thurs to get Friday afternoon off – 9 hours. Painting kitchen cabinets, a light color over dark requiring 3 coats. Can only do half of the cabinets at a time to maintain working kitchen – 1.5 hours. Eat (breakfast & dinner) – 1 hour. String lights on Christmas tree (wife hangs ornaments.) – 1 hour. Blog – 1 hour. Read Miata.net forum – 1/2 hour. Shower – 1/2 hour. Sleep – 6 hours. 3.5 hours left over? Doesn’t seem like that. I must be forgetting something. Oh yeah, deleting spam – 3 hours. 😉

Mods Roll On In (soon I hope)

Last Monday, the night we picked up the new car, I ordered it’s first non-hand-me-down modification, a black mesh grill. I ordered it from a place in California and they are shipping it via Conestoga Wagon and it should arrive on this Friday according to the UPS site. I suspect it might make it here tomorrow as it was in Greensboro, NC at 12:35 PM today, check the progress for yourself. A mesh grill serves two purposes, 1) it protects your expensive A/C condenser from damage when the low slung mouth of a Miata eats road debris. And 2) it looks good in there, hiding that A/C plumbing.

Mod #1 is not even here and today I ordered #2, mudflaps. On my pervious Miatas I never did get any and towards the end of their lives with me I regretted it. After 100K miles the paint and finish behind the wheel wells starts to really became ugly looking with chips of paint missing and tar spots that don’t come off. On the last one I even got some white paint specks from some where that never came off. A front and rear set, pre-painted in Garnet Red were a little over $100. Money I hope will be well spent.

Post Thanksgiving Stuff

Did everybody get enough to eat? I was a good boy in keeping my servings small so that with even having seconds, I had enough room for a slice of pie and didn’t explode.

Visiting Donna’s sister and her husband was nice, but the 550 mile trip, one-way, was a killer. No need to mention that there are too many people traveling on I-95 and they are all going too fast and driving too close together. On our 10 hour trip down we passed on accident and in the 11 hours homeward we passed two. One of those was a 6 car chain reaction cause by just such behavior. All three caused us to travel at least 2 miles at walking or slower pace.

The car is back at the dealer awaiting Wednesday’s arrival of the “paint guy.” Who I guess is like Thursday’s “dent guy”, traveling shamans who visit dealers to fix what ails new cars. Kind of puts me in mind of Mr. Haney from Green Acres or Professor Marvel from the Wizard of OZ. I remain skeptical that it can be fixed with anything less than a repainted door, but we shall see.

Six Days and It Is Gone Already

Dropped the Miata off at the dealer last night. They are going to look at it Wednesday when the “paint guy” comes in. Here is why.

Got as many pictures as I could gathered up for the Master’s Miata Club 2004 Calendar and uploaded them to Shutterfly. We got 16 submissions with a couple of folks having more than one choice. I also uploaded a copy of the Club Logo for the cover. If you want one you don’t have to join the Club, but you will have to join Shutterfly! Here are all the pictures, check them out.

Never Pick Up Your New Car At Night

When Donna went to get in the car this morning she said, “Hey, what’s this.” I went over and looked and there are about 8-10 little scratches on the top of the door. Looks like someone’s dog either rode around in the passenger seat with its paws resting on the door top or it spent a few minutes licking the face of a passenger. We do not own a dog and when we drove the car home last night we pulled it straight into the garage. They must have been there from an earlier test drive. When we looked at it Sunday on their lot when we decided to buy, it was covered in dust, etc from being outside. The car was washed but who ever did the job didn’t notice or didn’t want to say anything. When the salesman or whoever (maybe even the person who washed it) parked it under the awning for delivery didn’t see them because they are on the passenger side.

When I called the salesman he was very apologetic and said bring it back and we’ll make it right, no matter what it takes. He did say wait until Monday though, with the Thanksgiving holiday they won’t be able to get to it until at least then.

Had there only been a couple or maybe if they were in any other spot besides the top of a door where it is really noticeable, I’d have said nothing. I mean the car is going to get a scratch or two or worse eventually, why not just be done with it.

Day One

The car has been ours for exactly 24 hours now and I’ve already started the personalization process. Actually that started before I even turned the key. On Sunday I returned the blue car to as stock a form as possible, but I didn’t have my original shift knob, so I had to leave the Voodoo Magnum on for the drive over. After the price was agreed on and the finance guy was looking for a cheaper than we had 4.09% interest rate, I removed the stock knob from the new car and put it on the trade-in. Then the Voodoo went on the new car.

When we got home I put the matching e-brake handle and the black leather brake boot on. Next I swapped out the 1 piece sun visors for the folding ones of a early 90s Miata. They are slightly faded compared to the brand new ones, but they don’t cover the top latches, so they eliminate two steps in the top dropping process.

Next was the removal of the government mandated baby seat tie down points and the seat stop bracket which kept you from impaling your kidneys on the tie downs. This gave the navigator an extra 2 inches of rearward seat travel.

While technically not a mod, I removed the front license plate mount and with it the plate that said Rader.

Thanksgiving

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Have a Norman Rockwell-esque Thanksgiving.