Original Condition

A few days after purchase. The color looks more blue than green.

The "nose" of the Miata was in good shape. The engine bay was clean, but the previous owner was not sure when the timing belt was last changed. At 180K we thought it might be overdue.

The paint job was well done, even the door jambs and inside the trunk. The blue green color was unique.

The roll bar was black, as was the top. We found the zip-ties on the padding annoying, so we removed the padding.

Overall, she looked to be a very clean, good little car. And in reality, she has been very reliable.

No signs of rust anywhere at the time of purchase.

The valve train during the timing belt maintenance.

A better shot of the engine bay, after the timing belt maintenance. Of course we cleaned up the valve cover.

We replaced the broken original radio with one we had lying around from the Wagon. The silver frame looks so out of place in the black interior.

As Rally Girl was my daily driver, I didn't take many pictures of her. I found this one that was taken when we taught the Boy Scout Automotive Maintenance Merit badge. A few scouts are doing an oil change on my Miata. Notice the rust starting to form on the driver side between the door and the rear wheel. This is the problem area for all Miatas.

As my daily driver, Rally Girl sat outside during all weather. Note the red driver side mirror. The mirror was a manual and in adjusting it one time, it cracked. We replaced it with one from Ebay. For some reason, most of the parts available for Miatas are red. Seems it was a popular color. The mirror was a Christmas present in 2012.

Ok, so taking pictures of a daily driver vehicle was not high on the priority scale. In 2012 and 2013, we were finishing up the Wagon, replacing the engine on my 2002 Jeep Liberty (the original blue one), and started a new hobby, Top Alcohol Dragster racing. I do apologize for the lack of interesting pictures.

So I went trolling through the family photos and found a few pictures of Rally Girl. Not my best photographic work, but good enough to document her slow decline of beauty.

I found this picture of Rally Girl in mid 2013. She had the hardtop with her when we purchased her.

I couldn't resist this picture, captured during a snow fall. Those bright white spots are the reflections off the snowflakes. Rally Girl is next to Pepe, prior to his accident, and my original blue Liberty.

I found this picture of Rally Girl in February 2014. She still looks good here. You can barely see the bubbling paint. Or the peeling clear coat.

Christmas of 2014 is when I received the patch panels. However, my son had purchased his first vehicle in November, a 1994 Jeep Cherokee. It was in great shape. Unfortunately, it was T-boned three weeks later and totalled. The blue Dodge truck that hit him left the scene. Due to the age, insurance paid very little, but it was enough to find a replacement. The replacement came from West Virginia and was a white 1994 Jeep Cherokee. Recall all the problems with the white Bronco? This Jeep was much worse. Needless to say, it consumed all free time for the next six months. Then my husband purchased the Bronco, which took another 18 months. Rally Girl had to wait three years to have her patch panels installed.

One other project that stalled fixing Rally Girl was Pepe. We were in the midst of rebuilding him when his replacement, Smoke (in the background of the picture to the left), was also wrecked. So Pepe became the primary project and Rally Girl had to wait.

Note: as a daily driver, the Cherokee does not have a webpage yet. However, with the amount of work and now customization, it may yet get one. I haven't decided.

I found this picture of Rally Girl in April 2015. Note the peeling clearcoat on the driver door. By the time we settled in to paint her in February 2018, the hood and the trunk lid both had peeled away as had the tops of both doors. I hadn't noticed the waves across the plastic nose cone until I started the body work, but this picture really highlights them.

I found this small clip in the Bronco pictures. Note the fading and non-shiny paint. This was just after Christmas 2015. However, Christmas of 2015 found a new black bezel radio and new speakers under the tree for her.

Sept 2017, when the 280Z came to us, I found this clip in the corner of her pictures. This is the best I have of the peeling paint on the hood.

Look closely and you can see the peeling paint on the hood. It's starts at the front edge and goes all the way to the back edge. That is her new softtop, which did not look good with the faded green color.