The wheels on the yellow M-coupe are made by ASA, which is owned by BBS..

Ok, on the ASA site they say these rims are mfg to tolerance of 1/100mm
(.0004").  They have a picture of them being inspected on a CMM, which
may be industry standard, but it’s still a pretty expensive and precise
way to go…  Anyone who’s done any machining knows that .0004" is WAY
overkill.

Anyway, where can ASA wheels be purchased in the U.S.?

I found a place called JD Wheels that has ‘em.  Anyone deal with
these people?

>Anyone know what wheels are on the yellow Miata coupe on the cover
>of the Summer ’96 Miata Magazine (or any of the other magazines
>that had the yellow coupe…)

>It’s kind of a split 5-spoke (10 spokes in 5 pairs) "blades" kind
>of thing, with wheel center covers.

Hmm….well, I haven’t seen the magazine, but I have some suggestions
of wheels that look like that.

Fittipaldi Tubolare (not blades, really, more like 2 tubes next to
each other per spoke)

Borbet Type M fits the description really well.

Borbet used to make a couple more that looked like that, but I am not
sure if they still do.  Try http://www.tirerack.com and look at the above
suggestions.

Osman Ullah
|=——————————————|
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA
http:///www.prism.gatech.edu/~gte212f

I would be very surprised if any professional paint outfit couldn’t get
a match that good these days, but a more taxing test is to look at it
under a sodium streetlight – especially if you can find an old low
pressure (bright yellow) one.  Mercury vapour lights are pretty good at
pulling the variation between original and repainted panels out too.
These lights have very narrow spectral bands in which the paint colour
must match perfectly, rather than give roughly the right mix of colours
that daylight viewing would provide.

I would certainly look at any used car under such a light source to give
some idea of rework that might be otherwise difficult to spot before
buying it.  Fortunately, dark winter evenings make this very easy to
achieve.

A cheap respray can cover a multitude of sins.  :-(

–
Kennedy
Yes, Socrates himself is particularly missed;
A lovely little thinker, but a bugger when he’s pissed.
Python Philosophers         (replace ‘nospam’ with ‘kennedym’ when replying)

It’s kind of a split 5-spoke (10 spokes in 5 pairs) "blades" kind
of thing, with wheel center covers.

TIA,
Eric

> …

> One advantage to the Miata is that it is small, and you don’t (normally
> anyway) paint the top!

The $300 special and painting the top reminds me of a bootleg concert tape of
Bruce Springsteen’s song "Growin’ Up".  In the obligatory intro story, he talks
about Earl Scheib (they’re all over the US, right?  not just Cleveland?)  where
they’ll paint your car for $50, and if you leave the windows open and your
little brother in the back seat, they paint him for free….

    Eric Lucas

> jaso…@webtv.net (Jason 00) writes:
> >I plan to keep Phoenix forever, so eventually I’m gonna want to give
> >her a new coat of paint. Do any of you have an idea of how much one
> >would expect to pay (Florida, US $) for an above average (not one of
> >those 40 coat base, 40 coat clear jobs out of Lowrider Magazine!)
> >paint job?  Also, a few (6?) dings would require removal.

Automotive paint jobs have tremendous variability as to cost.  The
determining factors are first and foremost, the level of preparation.  The
proper way to do it is very labor intensive, and would involve removing
many parts of the car.  The cheaper way is to mask parts off … faster,
easier, but not as good.  I have a 66 Mustang GT in the shop for a complete
redo, paint & top.  The quoted price was "about $3,500".  I would suggest
this is on the high end of the spectrum, with the $300 quickie at the other
end.  

The other cost factor is the paint … are they putting on enamel or
polyurethane?  Basecoat/clearcoat or just one coat?  A friend had a 92 red
Miata repainted, with new white stripes.  Little details  include you
cannot feel the white stripe….the shop sanded the paint level and clear
coated the whole thing … beautiful job, redder than before, cost him
$1,850.  Can you spend less?  Sure.  Can you spend more?  Certainly.  

One advantage to the Miata is that it is small, and you don’t (normally
anyway) paint the top!.

Your best bet is to talk to people about body shops in the area … some
dealers don’t do their own, and farm work out … who do they recommend?
Then go see what they are doing, and how the work looks to you.  A good
shop will have a complete paint booth…the best one in town here (the one
that did my bud’s car)  has a downdraft model with all incoming air
filtered and conditioned … warmed up in winter, cooled & dehumidified in
summer …

My main perspective is that I have painted several cars myself, and have an
appreciation for the work it takes, IF DONE PROPERLY.  I don’t mind paying
for work, but I would hate like hell to pay a good price for shoddy work.

Its a real crap shoot … the more detective work you do, the better off
you are.

HP

———-
Jason and Phoenix
’92 Miata – Classic Red – no-pkg… yet
Fort Lauderdale, Florida, US
— Oneness between horse and rider –

Mark

>I plan on doing a few exterior mods (speedster canopy, TSIs, Mud
>guards, lip spoiler, Front air dam, rear side fairing) which will be
>painted at the same time. I will most likely install the items first,
>in primer, then have them painted with the car. Bad idea? Comments?

If you’re gonna do a higher-dollar than "$329 special" repaint, I
wouldn’t worry about installed vs. not-installed on the items,
though it will come out better if they’re uninstalled at painting,
then added on (no mask edges around the add-ons, paint color goes
all the way under them).  The body shop will probably do what they
need – and what you say they can afford – paint jobs can be as
cheap or as expensive as you want to make ‘em.  They might just
pull the stuff off anyway, or leave it installed.

And, you might consider a slightly different shade of red.  I had
a car that I had done in a stock Ferrari color.  That red, well,
it defines red.  I found this color because the guy doing the paint
on my car was working on an RX-7.  The RX-7 had some add-on body
parts, which they did in this Ferrari color to kind of accent
different parts of the car.  Well, the Ferrari color was so
overpowering, they ended up repainting the whole car in that color.

Yes, it’s bright, in-your-face red.  Just-write-me-a-ticket red.
Downside?  Red is among the fastest-fading of all paint colors,
and I’m sure a red as bright as this is just asking for fade.
But if you can keep it covered or in a garage, it’s worth thinking
about.  Since you’re doing an entire repaint anyway, you could
create an even more outstanding Miata with a not-so-subtle color
change – without having to resort to metallic-purple, pinkish-pearl,
or other color so popular on lowered Civics…