We all know there are a variety of tasteful Miata builds from around the world. Well here is a prime example of a very tasteful 1st generation Miata also known as a NA Miata, if you are not familiar with Miata generations. Here is John Daikus’ Miata build coming to you from Connecticut.
John has been in the VW scene for awhile, owning a variety of VWs before taking the leap onto something different. He ended up nabbing this NA for only $800; what a steal right? The original plan was the basic coilover and wheel combo, however, that went out the window and ended up buying part after part. That is what you call the “mod bug.”
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What you do not see in these pictures is John’s leftover Recaro fabric from the past VW projects, which he used to wrap the door cars, shorty console, and the headliner. Then he soon obtained an OEM hardtop for cheap via CL, and was ready for paint to give the roadster something unique.
John and his buddy worked on the bodywork and the paint. Some of the bodywork you might not notice at first included shaving the side-mirrors, and antenna. While, the painting process involved both of them going back and forth between a couple colors till the day they got it painted. The final decision ended up being settled on an Audi TT color, Aviator Grey, which is a color used by Audi only in 2001.
I am pretty sure most people have seen John’s previous setup with the chrome BBS RSs. John obviously knew he needed to switch it up after seeing a lot of people running RS/RMs, and so he started looking for new wheels. This lead him to claiming a brand new set of SSR MK1s, however, before deciding on them he was about to build a custom set of image wheels but did not want to wait 2+ months to have them built and shipped. And so, the SSR MK1s in 15 x 8.5 and 15 x 9.5 with 195/45 Toyo T1Rs became what we see today.
The last thing John needed was to sort a set of front and rear lips. He bought a set of Ratsback lips and color matched them, but didn’t like how they looked and was too low to run them. He didn’t even get down the road before they were both cracked. So John sourced a set of brand new front and rear OEM lips and made a DIY side splitter to tie it all together. Looks pretty complete with the Duckbill deck lid and Zoom ENG fuel lid; a lot of detail to every perspective of the car.
Enjoy the rest of the photos from the feature set below with special thanks to Dan A. Crosley and John Daikus for letting us share this build with the rest of the community. This roadster is just too tasty to not get the love it deserves. Hope you enjoyed reading, looking, and drooling over this as much as we have.
Stay EZ.
Perfekt!
Cheers Olli
Awesome shoot! Love this car with the new wheel setup! Mk1s match the grey so well.
Thanks!
is the finish panel custom?
Yup. It was filled in before getting repainted.