The disappearing Miata...

It's tough to make much progress in winter even with a heater in the garage. Filling the kerosene heater runs about $25 and using the heater for short spans of time each day is terribly ineffecient. I could easily burn through a tank in a weekend of working on and off, so I've held off until I had a span of several hours I could work on the car. In the meantime a cylinder head in my Silverado started leaking coolant into the oil, so I had to drop everything and swap it out for a good one.

I finally had a few more hours to spend taking the Miata apart: time I refer to as therapy! It feels great to have something to take apart without worrying about how it will go back together! Ok, some of the parts will need to go back together eventually. Last night I pulled off the convertible top, the remote release cables for the fuel lid and trunk, the rear wiring harness, and labelled much more of the wiring harness. Here's what the Miata now looks like:

Oddly enough I've also been getting a serious itch to drive the Miata again and with gas prices going crazy using the Cherokee is getting very expensive. I'm in the processof buying a 1997' Miata to use as my fair weather commuter car. It's the STO edition which can stand for a variety of things depending on who you ask. Special Touring Option, Still The One, or Stuff Taken Off. The STO eliminates some options I would really love to have like cruise control, ABS, and a limited slip differential but adds other things like a tubular exhaust header, leather seats, and much nicer looking 15" alloy rims.

I'm so looking forward to driving my "new" toy and am really hoping this one isn's so much of a crash magnet!