Miatatude

Should Have Picked Murals

Should Have Picked MuralsAs I mentioned Thursday, I did start a photo contest over on Miata.net called Capitol Idea. I got it all setup and ready to go late Friday evening. I posted the announcement even though I didn’t even have my usual example entry up. I didn’t have one.

This morning Donna and I drove up the Columbia to snap some photos of the Miata with the SC State Capitol in the background. First we tried to shoot from the east side so that the sun was behind us. There was no clear vantage point. The couple of pictures I tried were awful with just a glimpse of the dome behind trees. The east side views are nearly non existent period. The west side views were slightly more accessible, but the sun was such that the extreme back lighting made good exposure impossible. The best views and lighting were with the north side views. Of course there was road construction going on such to prevent any stopping for picture taking.

I ended up with nothing for a contest entry. While driving around we passed one of my favorite photo spots, the parking area that has the hay rolls mural and the tunnel mural. We found a new place with some railroad themed murals, a night club with a nice parking lot out front. The sun didn’t really cooperate here either, but I did get the one attached, that isn’t too bad.

After the “Capitol” disappointment I logged on to Miata.net and cancelled the contest. I hadn’t received any entries anyway. Still in the mood to run one of these things, I renamed the contest “My Favorite Miata Picture” Contest 2 and relaunched it over on Miata.net.

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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 269

Uh-Oh!

I’m getting bored.

Time to change the look of the blog maybe? Probably not, as I do like the look and the scheme goes well with the car color…that’s it, I just need a change of the header image. Wait, I know, I need to run another photo contest.

Last year I did one called “My Favorite Miata Picture” Contest and got 44 entries. I think I want to call it a “Capitol Idea” Photo Contest. A picture of a Miata with a capitol in the background. I can’t seem to find it, but the inspiration for for this is a photo I’ve seen a couple of times on the Miata.net Forums (and I can’t seem to find right now) of a 10AE in a parking garage at night with a lit up dome in the background. Found it! Now I realize that limits the backgrounds to 51 (states & DC), so maybe I’ll let them use any sort of domed building, county courthouses, churches, etc. Heck, how about any business with capitol or capital in the name.

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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 263

Only 1623 Days And This Puppy is Mine

Retractable Hard Top Miata

Today Mazda released some photos of the new 2007 Retractable Hard Top MX-5. It is power operated and adds about 80 lbs to the car. The big thing is it does not encroach on any of the existing trunk space. Now we know why the trunk is shaped the way it is.

Everyone questioned why they make the lid so short, why was it reshaped to be slightly bigger, but less usably shaped. When I look back at the new car’s introduction photos they showed a bare frame and it seemed like there was a lot of empty space below the storage area for the folded soft top. They added some behind the seat storage area plastic cubby holes in there, even put covers on them in the higher trim levels. Obviously they were thinking of this folding hard top contraption from the very begining.

They must not be so proud of the direct side view with the top up because of the angle this shot was taken from. There is another image that shows the top mid-change directly from the side and the hard boot cover has some funky looking bulges in it…

Top Up View

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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 213

Nice Evening For A Convertible

The recent 80’s with low humidity weather, which is very much unlike SC in June, has been perfect weather for top down motoring. After dinner Donna wanted to go over to Hopeland Gardens and take a walk, so we drove over. The parking lot was empty except for two other cars.

Tops Down

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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 188

Sticker Fun

Put on the replacement C & H sticker on the back bumper. I think it is a little bigger than the last one. The original sticker in silver that I put on crooked was 6″ high and I thought it looked a little big, so when I went to dark yellow I got him to make it 5-1/2″ high. This one looks like we reverted to a 6″ size. Seems a bit too big and I put it on leaning a little too much, but it looks good back there anyway.

I had one zoom-zoom sticker left and I put it in the same spot I have on the last two cars, on the inside of the trunk lid with each zoom straddling the trunk latch, so you can see it when the lid is up.

Now we just have to make a trip to Deal’s Gap to get a dragon sticker and start the under lid collection in earnest.

While I was there I straightened out the lid. loosened the 4 nuts and pushed and pulled until it is pretty good, not perfect, but better than before. I used an 11/64th drill bit as a spacer. On Monday I’ll take the calipers back out and give you the new measurements. Oooh, goody, more trigonometry.

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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 182

Trunk Math

The good news is the trunk is fine, just the way I looked at it was off. This morning at work I walked out to the parking lot with my digital calipers in hand. I measured the gap on the right side of the trunk lid, near the front it read .196 inches and at the rear it read .151 inches. That I could see, so now I measured the let side which I thought looked good, near the front it read .165 and near the rear it read .209 inches.

Time to do some ciphering. The difference between front and back on the left is .044 and the difference between front and back on the right is .045 meaning the trunk lid sides are parallel, but it is installed crooked. If we add up the gaps at the front we get .361 while the back adds up to .360 inches. At this point we’ll go ahead and throw out that odd thousandth of an inch because of not measuring in exactly the same spots on each side. The gap between trunk and fender should be .180 inches all around. I guess tomorrow morning I’ll go out to the garage and loosen the 4 mounting bolts and see if I can it all lined up.

For fans of higher math let’s use a little trigonometry and see what the angle of error is on the freshly painted trunk lid. The error between front to back was .044 inches or the opposite side of our triangle. The distance between front back measurement locations is 22 inches or the adjacent side of our triangle. Using my favorite mnemonic, Oscar Had A Hairy Old Ass, I know the tangent of the angle is the Opposite divided by the Adjacent. I can divide .044 by 22 and get .002, now I just have to figure out what angle has a tangent of .002, or what is the arctangent of .002. The calculator that comes with windows does tangents, but not arctangents, so a googling I go. I am led to Carbide Depot.com and their free online trig calculator which gives me an angle of 0.11459140° or if you like, 0° 6′ 53”.

Not much of an angle, but noticeable (at least on one side) to me.

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Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 181

No Bull

The Taurus is gone and the Miata is back. They fixed almost everything on my list and came close on the other two, so I got our car back and will learn to live with a couple of minor imperfections.

The trunk lid is off kilter by just a little. Funny thing is that the gap changes noticeably on one side while it is hardly perceptible on the other side. Is the trunk itself crooked? They bought it through the local Mazda dealer… The thing that worries me the most is the thing that is supposed to reassure me, a sticker on the inside of the lid that says “Mazda.” Like that really confirms it is a genuine Mazda part. After only a month or so with my original Miata in 1989, I got a cracked windshield from rock kicked up by a big truck. The glass replacement guy made a big deal of showing me the little white lettering that said Mazda to prove he was installing an OEM piece of glass. Neither of my subsequent Miatas had that white lettering on the windshield.

They got most of the scratches out of the shift knob, I think after a while I’ll not notice the leftovers. But it is now summertime and each afternoon when I get in the car and burn my hand trying to shift with that hot metal ball I think about getting something different anyway. I wonder if I could get an upholstery shop to cover it with leather? I really like the round shape.

Actually, all in all, it is better than when it went in because they fixed the two small dents and 2 small scratches on the right rear fender. Now that they are through fooling with the car I’ll go ahead and put the replacement Calvin & Hobbes sticker on the bumper.

Started up, went down, back up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 178