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figure 2 |
This is the passenger-side front latch receiver. With the
hard-top currently installed, you do not get a full sense of the
presence of this part - when the soft-top is down, this piece will
really accent the black interior and exterior nicely. The sun
visor is ugly. It will be removed in the spring and in its
place, blank "plugs" will cover the mounting point.
|
| Shown here (fig. 3) is the driver's
side front latch receiver. This angle gives a slightly better
perspective on the accent parts. These should really stand out
nicely when the top is down. |
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figure 3 |
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figure 4 |
Shown here is the driver-side side
latch. These are only in use when the hard-top is installed
and as such will be exposed quite a bit. The interior panels
are currently not installed because they need to be trimmed to fit
with the style bar. You may notice that the style bar is currently
installed - this is a teaser picture for the spring project. A
full installation write-up will be posted when we re-install the
style bar to completion. |
| What a beautiful accent. This is
the emergency jack-handle mounted in its regular service location.
Back-set on a charcoal carpet background, this piece will greet you
every time the trunk lid is opened. Some people thought this was a
waste of money - you be the judge. |
[click for larger image]
figure 5 |
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figure 6 |
Shown here is the spare-tire tie-down
hardware. Once again, chrome on a black backdrop nicely
accents the trunk. This serves to complete the notion that
less is better. This part will only be seen during car
show-n-shine events as a road-side emergency kit is stored in the
small space between the spare-tire and the parcel tray. |
| This piece was originally stamped steel
which looks exactly the same as the ugly bracket seen in figure 7.
We will be painting the ugly bracket gloss black to match the car
such that it will be hidden. You may notice tape on the chrome
piece, this is to reduce the wear that this part will experience.
The tape will be replaced with clear plastic tubing (or perhaps the
new 3M invisi-barrier used on late model production cars to reduce
stone-chips). |
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figure 7 |
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figure 8 |
Barely noticeable here is the hood prop-rod. This part is a very
sexy accent in the engine bay. This piece really stands out nicely
in-person. For those who are frugal, you can polish this part with great
ease yielding a similar result - just be sure to use some metal wax or
even clear-coat paint to prevent oxidation. |
| Finally, the center-piece of the
project - the valve cover. We first saw a chrome valve cover
whilst looking through a Miata-only accessories catalogue and fell
in love with it immediately. This creates an absolutely
stunning array of reflections in the under-hood compartment. With
the valve cover temporarily in place, we have decided that the
intake manifold should also match the luster and glamour of the
valve cover, and as such, we are currently searching for a second
intake manifold for a BP8 1.8l engine. Chroming the intake
manifold will be almost twice the price of the valve cover - but in
our opinion, the intake manifold should really have the same
treatment as the valve cover to properly balance the engine bay. |
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figure 9 |
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figure 10 |
The final shot in the update section focuses on the center-piece from a
slightly different angle to show the extent to which the valve cover
brightens up the engine bay. With the project nearing completion, we
are very happy with the results. If you enjoy a clean, shiny engine
bay, we highly recommend you follow our footsteps and embrace the
beauty of chrome. |
