Cincinnati / Columbus / Dayton Ohio / Northern Kentucky
 

Hello everyone,

I bought my first miata after many years of wanting one, its an NA with high miles. I am checking out this forum for the first time. I am curious if there is anyone in Cincinnati, Columbus, Dayton or Northern Kentucky who has a V8 miata and who wouldn't mind "mentoring" me a bit. I'd like to find a shop that can help with the work involved as well as go for a ride. I simply don't have the mechanical skills to make it happen on my own.

I will have to do this piece meal, gather up the parts over time due to financial reasons but eventually I hope to have a V8 miata.

I will search these forums now that I'm on here.

Thanks,

I can't think of any within 250 miles of you but there is a really good one for sale in Pittsburgh right now if you have the $$. You might want to post up on the V8Miata facebook page too. I wish you were closer I'd be glad to help you out. Post up some shots of the NA and lets see what you have to work with. Is the body clean?

If nothing else you should plan to come to the Mitty in Atlanta at the end of April. Last year we had 23 V8 Miatas there and hopefully we will do better this year. You'll learn more in a couple hours hanging out with those builders and seeing the cars than you will in a week of reading this forum.

As for mechanical skills it's not as hard as you think it is. If you can remove and replace a bolt from a tight space and are able to follow a wire from end to end you have all the mechanical skills needed to swap a Miata. The more difficult skill needed is patience in problem solving and good project management skills. Read any build thread towards the end of the build and you will see the hard part is not mechanical ability, the hard part is builders fatigue. The swap is really not rocket science but it is a really big rocket!

Anyway welcome to the forum we glad to have you here!

Welcome to the Forum!

Something I'll re-iterate for Jim is the word "patience". I very often find myself getting frustrated over different parts of the car, only to step back and remember that building the car is half the fun, and even though I want to see it done sooner rather than later, I have no deadline! If you look at my build thread you will also probably notice an occasional adult beverage container, those help too!

I'm in Southern Illinois so if you ever make it over this way I'd be happy to go over my build with you. I actually snagged my subframe, oil pan, and FM cooling kit from a guy in Cinci.