I've held off purchasing some of the optional Mazda accessories for the simple reason of the cost of paint.
Paint is expensive! And I didn't want to run the sweet accessories (chin spoiler, etc) in the flat
black OEM color. They want to be painted! Fortunately, I found
Tower Paints. They mix up custom rattle cans
of OEM paint. You just need to know the paint code. I ordered and here's the result.
One tiny thing before the photos: always use OEM colored primer. Under Montego blue is grey primer. I used
black on the mudguards. They could match better....
Painted and stripe'd OEM chin spoiler
The chin spoiler is a thing of beauty. It came out as a perfect match. Sure, it's a little
hard to keep clean, but doesn't the stripe and paint look much better than the flat black? M2's come
with painted chin spoilers! Why not M1s? It gets rid of the stock "overbite" look in such a stylish
way. This is currently my new favorite mod.
Nevermind the angle, check out the headlight lid
Here's an overhead of my NACA duct headlight lid. This is a custom thing I bondo'd in myself. And this
is the final version. The next photo will show the original black mask around it. For more details,
check out the NACA duct page.
A duct with fresh paint
I ordered this duct from McKinney,
a dragster specialty shop. The 4" duct fits perfectly. And yes, that is real carbon fiber. The thing
weighs about an ounce. But enough about the duct. This page is for showing off paint and body mods.
Wrinkle painted valve cover
I needed to change my valve cover gasket due to a leak and decided to paint the cover. I didn't want to
spend the time to polish it, so I went to Autozone and poked around their paint. This is Krylon's Wrinkle
paint. 3 thick coats will do it. The trick is making the coats even. You need a steady hand. The rest
of the trick is up to the paint. A heat gun will help the paint to wrinkle more quickly, showing you
which areas need a little more paint to even out the coating.
The vintage mudguards
This is a highly coveted original rear mudguard. The later mudguards were about 4" longer
and continued above the rear bumper line. For some reason, Miata guys go nuts over the original ones made
from 1990-91. I got these off a 91 BRG being converted to a Spec Miata. The other side has a little damage, but
they painted up just fine. Again, this is with the Tower rattle-can.
more mudguards
I love my mudguards. They add a little heft to the wheel wells and generally just give the car
a more beefy appearance. They kinda make the nose look longer from certain angles. I donno. I like them. And
I like not having rocks torture my rocker panels. They also got a spray of the Tower paint.
More pix of painted parts and body work will appear here as the parts are ordered!
return to the Miata Interior/Exterior Mods index
