Month: July 2016

We finally get around to waxing

There is a van that comes to my office and washes cars, one day I asked how much it would cost to compound the Craigslist Miata’s paint. The immediate answer was “We can’t promise that it will look good” and after explaining that all I was interested in were there abilities with a high speed polisher and just trying to even out the three shades of red that currently cover the car. See the driver side is a bit flat, the passenger side is a bit more polished and the roof came from some one else. So depending on what side of the car you are standing on, the exterior can be better or worse, all I was interested in was making everything as “better” as possible.

Back to my original story, there was no way I was going to give those guys $100. While I was staring at the aisle of polishes, pastes and other paint care I momentarily considered picking up a clay bar and doing the whole three-stage all-day elbow punishing route, when a man who emerged from a newer Mercedes GL walked right in front of me and picked up a can of NuFinish. The idea of a once a year car polish for a car that had been on a strict no washing regimen since the Long Beach Police Department instituted a policy of riding dirty.

Needless to say, some sides took two coats while those with more patina got three. The biggest challenge was the front bumper, the top of which had’t seen clear coat for quite some time, but even that piece of plastic began to reflect light. Not bad for $7 worth of wax and a few more on rags that can be tossed in the trash, because that red is never coming out.

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Classic or Crazy? You decide!

After spending a few minutes playing with Photoshop, realizing we had a new logo to work with. One thing led to another and this Steve McQueen Gulf liveried inspired Le Mans racing jacket went from classic to crazy. Special shout out to all The Craigslist Miata supporters including Mazdaspeed for providing racing discounts, Hiro’s Auto Repair for when it comes to serious work, Dunlop tires and of course Valvoline with their wonderful High Mileage power steering fluid which we buy by the case.

FD Thursday Drift Night @ Irwindale Speedway

It was finally time, after a year of excuses the Craigslist Miata was as in a good a shape as any to hit the infield of Irwindale Speedway for the Formula Drift sponsored Thursday Night Drift. For $75 you are free to run what you brung until the lights go out. While this is more of a practice session for those honing their skills in fully-built machines, Thursday Night Drift is open to almost any car, so long as you meet some pretty basic safety standards, and you got a helmet.

The plan was to pump up the tire pressure and mount the snow tires to the rear. 45 PSI was as far as I dared tread on the street tires, and the lack of a fully functional handbrake and the need to drive home at the end of the night meant these were pretty much fun runs. I tried to enter at the top of second gear, stab the brakes and get the back end to step out and ride the slide as long the little Miata could. Transitions were OK until all power steering pressure was lost and then a grinding sandy noise ensued, not to mention the transitions became much mire “herky jerky”.

At the end of the day the footage affirmed that the sensations experienced behind the wheel were exponentially multiplied compared to the level of “drifting” that was achieved. A gigantic thank you to the Formula Drift staff that volunteer there time so that we can have a safe place to get sideways, at least until Irwindale Speedway stands no more.



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