Special Projects - 1997 Mazda Miata

The owner of this 1997 Mazda Miata wanted to have some aftermarket body parts installed.  This is something we normally wouldn't get involved in considering our heavy schedule of collision repair work but one of us has a thing for Miatas so we decided to take on the project.  The parts were manufactured by Racing Beat and consisted of a new front bumper cover, rear bumper cover, and side skirts.  The parts are made out of fiberglass and are pretty good quality compared to other aftermarket parts but they still required a significant amount of work to ensure a good fit.  Several technicians were involved in this project and we logged over 40 man-hours in this project.  Click on the images below for a larger picture.

This front quarter view shows the changes to the body lines and how the lines in the front bumper cover flow into the new lines of the side skirts.  The owner's next phase for this project is a complete lowering suspension, brake upgrades, rollbar, and supercharger.  The suspension lowering will really help bring out the overall effect of these body modifications.

  In addition to the new bumper covers and side skirts, a set of Turn Signal Induction (TSI) Lamps were prepared and painted to replace the stock turn signal lamps.   The theory behind these lamps is to give an additional air inlet/outlet for cooling the engine compartment.

  This shot from the front shows the grille opening and how it is now framed on each side by two smaller openings to allow for brake cooling.

  This close-up of the grille opening shows the installation of the aftermarket aluminum grille.

  The most challenging part of this project was the integration of the side skirts into the natural body lines of the Miata.  After trimming and test fitting, the side skirts are glued to the car using 3M structural adhesive.  After the parts were glued and had time to cure, the upper edge of the side skirts had to be integrated into the lower line of the center horizontal seam of the Miata.  Our shop foreman is the resident expert on fiberglass and he spent many hours feathering, filling, and feathering to get the seam right.  This meant the skirts had to be painted on the car.  To do this the doors had to be removed.

  This view shows the integration of the rear of the side skirt into the left quarter panel.  It was also decided that the factory applied texture coat should be removed from the lower half of the doors because the side skirts covered all the texture coat on the fenders, rocker panels, and quarter panels.  The texture coat also had to be removed from the center horizontal seem along the whole side of the vehicle.  This was very tedious.  While the skirts were painted on the car.  The TSIs, bumpers, and lower half of the doors were painted while off the car.

  From the left rear quarter view the shape of the new bumper cover is visible.   The upper part of the cover is exactly like the stock cover but below the that the cover flares out into an integrated rear skirt.

  This close-up shows the flaring of the rear cover behind the wheel and into the integrated rear skirt.

  We learned a great deal from this project and the owner was very happy with the results.  The long term durability of these aftermarket body parts is not known and the owner will have to take special care in the future because the fiberglass parts will not have any of the elasticity of the factory rubber bumper covers.  Also, the side skirts attach to the pinch-weld seam along the bottom of the rocker panels so these traditional jacking points will not be available in the future.

  These images were taken at the Miata World 99 event in Dallas Texas on May 8, 1999.  The owner had completed his modifications and the car looked fantastic. 

  The most obvious additions are the twin 9" blue racing stripes and the lowered suspension.

  The owner had met his goal of having an eye catching, aggressive looking Miata.

  The owner had also added a Hard Dog Sport rollbar which also adds to the aggressive look.

  The aggressive looks of the stripes, rollbar, and body kit are backed up with a Jackson Racing Supercharger.  The supercharger components, intake, and cam cover have been poweder coated white.

  The interior has been dressed up with the addition of a Momo Champion steering wheel.