Obelisk's Garage - Daihatsu Midget II, Mazda MX5 (NC2), racing mower

[Chris30]

Good luck man, how often do you wash your cars? We wash ours once a week. We own a 2006 Toyota Corolla. Hope you achieve your desired goals for your cars and Midget.

 

[Chris30]

I hope you had a safe Halloween and are making progress with your Midget and other cars. Best of luck to you my friend!

 

[Obelisk]

Good luck man, how often do you wash your cars? We wash ours once a week. We own a 2006 Toyota Corolla. Hope you achieve your desired goals for your cars and Midget.

Sorry for not responding to this - Every 3 weeks or so.

 

[Chris30]

No problem man, don't worry about being inactive. You deserve a break/rest from all the hard work you put in with those cars/ and the Midget.

 

[Obelisk]

You see that dirty, mucky filter on the left?

Yeah. That was the air filter inside the Midget. It looks like it's the original one that the car was sold with. The more I find, the more annoyed I get with the prior owner of the Midget.

Took me a few days of experimenting, and finally caving in to a $7 app, but I got the carb retuned to account for the new air filter and the vastly improved airflow.

The annoying thing is that despite everything being dialed in and verified with the app, the Midget still:

• sounds like a riding mower
• sounds like it's fast idling

Some things you just can't change, I guess.

 

[Chris30]

What a great improvement to your Midget. Keep up the great work and labor, I'll support you every step of the way.

 

[Obelisk]

Put the Midget to work today, had some stuff to take down/move ahead of the winter season.

This was the third and final load the little old lady hauled for us today. After that was a quick errand and a much needed car wash. I'll be heading to a Cars and Coffee / Toys for Tots event tomorrow a few towns over.

Figured the toy truck would be appropriate for the toy drive!

 

[Chris30]

You know I may have to end up buying a Midget when I get some extra money to help transport furniture, supplies or any of my needs to appointments or my family's/cousins house. Would help me out a lot since I have health issues.

 

[Obelisk]

You know I may have to end up buying a Midget when I get some extra money to help transport furniture, supplies or any of my needs to appointments or my family's/cousins house. Would help me out a lot since I have health issues.

Honestly speaking, you would be better off with one of the alternatives - Daihatsu Hijet, Mitsubishi Minicab, Suzuki Carry, Honda Acty, Subaru Sambar... to name a few.

 

[Chris30]

Honestly speaking, you would be better off with one of the alternatives - Daihatsu Hijet, Mitsubishi Minicab, Suzuki Carry, Honda Acty, Subaru Sambar... to name a few.

I'll do extensive research about those and see which one I think will give me the best benefit and help. Thank you for the advice. Keep us posted on your progress with the Midget and other cars.

 

[Obelisk]

Very quick, small update:
Picked up a set of 16x6.5 steel wheels for the Miata. The plan is to run it on the steel wheels + 205/50r16 all seasons and save the factory alloys for autocross/track tires. Then in the spring of 2025 will be an LSD swap, sourced from from a manual NC.

Then finally, some small power mods (Manifolds, rest of the exhaust) later on once things clear up.

For now, I've rotated the tires on Mimi so I can get through the winter and collect the things I need for the spring.

Daishō has been parked for the winter and won't come back out unless I have a sudden need for cargo/pickup shenanigans.

 

[Obelisk]

I have an actual update for the Midget instead of a small 'this that' kinda post. I took it out for a long drive to Burlington for an impromptu car meet with special guest WayBeforeTheFame. I'd like to think we hit it off - he seemed especially interested in my Midget.

While looking over the truck with him, he pointed out that I didn't actually have a floor mat like I thought I did. ...Turns out the prior owner tossed the floor mat and used/cut up the rubber mat from the bed in order to have a floor mat in the Midget. I've put in a bid for an authentic second hand Midget II carpet that would have been on this vehicle, and I'm waiting to hear back on the results of that. If all works out, I should have the new carpet in by the end of December.

I feel like my thread motto is going to be "The more I learn about Midgets, the more annoyed I am at the prior owner" (or more simply: "My Midget's prior owner is an idiot.") because of how many truly bone-headed decisions apparently went down with regards to this car. As if the 28 year old air filter wasn't already stupid enough...

No photos this time - will share the car meet photos elsewhere on GTP tomorrow.

 

[Obelisk]

I have an actual update for the Midget instead of a small 'this that' kinda post. I took it out for a long drive to Burlington for an impromptu car meet with special guest WayBeforeTheFame. I'd like to think we hit it off - he seemed especially interested in my Midget.

While looking over the truck with him, he pointed out that I didn't actually have a floor mat like I thought I did. ...Turns out the prior owner tossed the floor mat and used/cut up the rubber mat from the bed in order to have a floor mat in the Midget. I've put in a bid for an authentic second hand Midget II carpet that would have been on this vehicle, and I'm waiting to hear back on the results of that. If all works out, I should have the new carpet in by the end of December.

I feel like my thread motto is going to be "The more I learn about Midgets, the more annoyed I am at the prior owner" (or more simply: "My Midget's prior owner is an idiot.") because of how many truly bone-headed decisions apparently went down with regards to this car. As if the 28 year old air filter wasn't already stupid enough...

No photos this time - will share the car meet photos elsewhere on GTP tomorrow.

He actually featured my Midget and I in his video about the car meet! Time stamp 11:25.

 

[Obelisk]

So couple of things are happening over the next few weeks.

First, I ordered a set of tires to go on the steel wheels I'd gotten for the Miata. Figured I'd take advantage of the winter season and get the tires done sooner rather than later. Since I got a set of 16" wheels fitted to OEM spec (downsized from 17" OE alloys to give myself a little more sidewall), the next step was to pick up the OEM tire size for 16" - 205/50R16. The tires I settled on were the Falken ZIEX ZE960 A/S. I went with grand touring all seasons instead of dedicated winter tires as a logistics compromise, as I do not have the room, time or ability (yet) to manage summer/winter sets and a set dedicated to Autocross.
So for now, it's all seasons on steels and autox on the alloys. I'll be getting the tires mounted about halfway into the month, then putting them on myself.

Second, the floor mat for the Midget arrives Monday. In anticipation of that, I pulled the original "mat" from the truck to check the condition of the interior.

First: this really never was a floor mat.

Second: Eugh. This was a little neglected.

I went over all of this a few times with the shop vac, a screwdriver (to dislodge stuck dirt) and a sanding block to get it all sorted out. It doesn't look like much improvement in the photo, but it was an improvement. Also took the opportunity to sand something on the footwell as there was a spot that needed to be painted.

Then came the Rustoleum primer coat.

And finally - A fresh, generous coat of Bright Jade Metallic.

The only casualty of this impromptu/newbie restoration was the throttle pedal getting a small patch of jade.
I'd like to think I did a solid job for a first time restoration/proper touchup and rust clean up...

Now to wait for the rug to arrive so I can deep clean that and throw it in the little old lady. She deserves a bit of period correct flair.

FYI - This is the floor mat Midgets came with. This example is the one I purchased and has a lot of age/dirt on it.

 

[eran0004]

Wow, that original floor mat looks nice! Didn’t expect to see that level of design in a Midget.

 

[Obelisk]

Wow, that original floor mat looks nice! Didn’t expect to see that level of design in a Midget.

I was a little surprised, too. It seems like it's a standard option on all of the trims...

Speaking of the mat, it arrived today and I got right to work. Checked to make sure it fits, but didn't fully throw it in since I wanted to start cleaning.

It's takem some small bends from being folded into a package for a week and a half, but nothing I can't sort out.

One pass with Resolve and two passes with a stronger compound + wet vac later...

And just for reference, this is how dirty it was... eugh.

The floor mat is currently drying off in my basement with the bent parts being held down by a few small, heavy objects. Should be good to throw in the truck by lunch tomorrow.

Tires for the MX5 are arriving as well, so I should be ready to get those set up and on the MX5 by the 15th.

 

[Obelisk]

All good to go. 👍

 

[Chris30]

All good to go. 👍

View attachment 1410082View attachment 1410083View attachment 1410084

Well done mate, I like how to took care of the Midget. Maybe for Christmas you'll give it some decorations. It's up to you though.

 

[Obelisk]

I screwed up this morning... The good idea fairy told me to gently tap the fender to get rid of some stuck snow.

Ended up being able to fix it.

Really need to figure out a solution for that left panel. It was broken when it arrived, and I fear it'll only keep breaking more and more.

Remember folks, if the good idea fairy tells you to do something with a car whose panels are questionable, DON'T DO IT.

 

[Obelisk]

This is the discussion thread for an article on GTPlanet:

Buying a Real-Life Gran Turismo Legend: the Daihatsu Midget II​

As we’ve seen over the years, GTPlanet’s members are a bunch of car enthusiasts at heart. Whether they own something fast or expensive or not, they do love their cars — and a large proportion have had that enthusiasm cultivated by Gran Turismo...

I'm writing this post to follow up on my review above with some new clarifications, comments and notes about my Midget II - after all, it's been two months and 2800 km since I got this little award-winning truck on the road.

The first thing I wanna address is that I got the MPG somewhat wrong on the article. The website I was getting my information from (which has otherwise been 100% spot on) has apparently made a weird error where they entered the wrong number for the quoted MPG - the number itself is accurate, but it's the wrong unit and I'm not sure what the correct one is.

In practice, my 28 year old engine is getting about 36 MPG on a very good day, which is gives me an ideal range of 216 miles on the 6-gallon tank. It's lower than that in practice, due to the pace of traffic in my area and the lack of respect/consideration afforded by other drivers. On the flip side, it's still significantly cheaper to fill the tank - it's still about $17-20 for a tank of 93 petrol (93 octane AKI = 98 octane RON). The Midget also does not seem to care about what grade of petrol is in it - it runs perfectly well on 87, 93 and a mix of both. As long as the carburetor is adjusted correctly, it'll grumble away happily.

The second thing: the handling.
I'd described the car as not rolling a lot under cornering - for the most part, that's still true, but it's become more apparent to me that it's still very willing to display body roll when going over uneven bumps/rough roads or experiencing especially harsh loads (such as running it around Palmer). Besides that note, that passage has held up quite well. The seat is still the biggest issue. Making any kind of hard turn (i.e. a perpendicular turn) will push the driver to the outside.

The third thing: the gearbox
In the article, I noted how short 1st to 3rd are and how long 4th is by comparison. What this has translated to in practical driving over the past 2800 km has been as follows:
1) Am I on a steep uphill? Use 1st
2) Anything else: Start in 2nd.

There's just enough torque in 2nd that you can get to 20 km/h before fully releasing the clutch... which is good, since it'd stall out at speeds under 10 kmh otherwise.

The short gearing also seems to contribute a bit towards preventing stalls in the car - 1st gear is short enough to be a crawl gear. On a mostly flat surface, you can slowly release the clutch to build more speed without touching the gas pedal. So, it's ultimately useful in both crawling and steep hill starts... and ironically, heavy traffic.

In practice, you're going to be in 4th gear for 95% of the roads here in Massachusetts... And by extension, most of the US; since most areas start at 30 mph (48 kph) unless otherwise noted by signage, it's hard to really find a situation where you can justify using 3rd gear. You can reasonably use 2nd gear in parking lots to get around without speeding or stalling the poor thing out.

Fourth thing: Miscellaneous thoughts
I am noticing more and more that the bench seat is a little inadequate for comfortable driving. There's basically no padding on it, and the back isn't properly supported... Which leads to situation where the top of the seat (fully against the truck) lurches forward and slaps me in the back, launching me forward a few inches after going over a harsh bump. You can imagine that this gets annoying rather quickly when you're going over uneven, under-construction roads like the section of route 138 in Raynham that inspired this comment. Ow, my back.

On the bright side, it's silly enough feeling the truck rocking back and forth under the seat that I can't help but laugh at it instead of being annoyed.

Driving around, I have very quickly found that there are a lot of areas where a left turn that would be sensible in a US spec car - an MX5 for example - are significantly more terrifying in the Midget. Having less than 30 HP (old car!) means you have to plan ahead and commit to certain turns instead of reacting or just sending it like a solid percentage Americans (and apparently almost all of Mass.) are inclined to do. There is an intersection near me that requires a left turn across three lanes... which is also situated dead center between a traffic light and the local instrastate exchange. I have rejected all GPS routes requiring this turn with extreme prejudice, because I'd rather not get run over by the hordes of angry dudebros in brodozer trucks here.

On the topic of highways: Nope. Nope. NOPE. Nuh-uh. It is absolutely off the table unless you have 165 or higher cross section tires and the 5 speed from a 2WD Hijet S110P. The 4 speed and 145 tires both turn it into a terrifying, skittish drive on opem highways. Pairing that with the fact that the speed limit is a suggestion to most, the safe speed on the highways for the Midget is 100 kph minimum... which, as indicated in my review, is pretty much right at the end of 4th gear.

Any crosswind feels like it's going to blow the car over, too... so better plan on incorporating some kind of stabilizing bodywork to counteract it if you don't have the wide tires.

Also, do NOT drive one of these in the snow if you are not already used to MR/RR cars in low traction scenarios. It's rear heavy.

On the car: being a small single seater also makes it a mildly inconvenient errand car - at best, you could fit two small bags of groceries in the cabin: In the footrest by the cooler unit, and behind the shifter on the left side. Anything extra, or larger for that matter, has to go into the (shallow) bed.

You'll have to fashion a storage box for the bed or repurpose a cooler. Unless you have eyehooks for the bed (like I took the liberty of installing as noted in here), strapping down the box/cooler is a pain in the butt as it doesn't have much in the way of hook/mount points.

If you want a Midget as an errand car, get a Midget Cargo instead of the pickup... If you can manage to get one. Bloody auction snipers.

On logistics: It's not quite as bad as I described in the article, thanks to the Midget and Hijet essentially having identical components, but bodywork/cosmetic/trim is a nightmare to find. Better have good connections with local businesses that specialize in kei trucks if you want to fix things.

On working on it: It is surprisingly simple to get to everything on a Midget, so a capable mechanic (like @Dennisch iirc, I know you've talked about getting one of these and i've seen your work elsewhere here) could reasonably maintain and repair one of these things without too much trouble. Just be ready to have to use different lifts for it due to the sheer compactness of it.

On parking: any space will do, lol. The only issue I have with it is backing it into a parking space. It feels much wider than it is, so it's still a bit difficult for me to get it reversed into spaces properly.

On people: Dear God, no one leaves me alone! I know I'd been wanting to be seen for a while, but this car will drag you into EVERY conversation and you're gonna be made to socialize at every stop. People will even shout at me while we're all going down the road. I will sheepishly admit that this truck's an excellent social catalyst. I've had folks tell me that I've gotten more vibrant since getting it, and I assume it's mostly to do with being forced to socialize.

I say this with as much love as I'd have for a hypothetical future firstborn child, but the Midget is still the best and worst thing to happen to me. It's still throwing lots of little things at me (mainly the washer fluid system is shot right now), but it's also done wonders for me both personally and socially.

Bonus trivia:
I learned quite a few things... In no particular order:

• The change to the engine (EF-CK replaced by EF-SE) happened in August 1999, which is also roughly when the S200 series Hijet started going into production.
• The Midget underwent two very minor facelifts - one in 1998 to comply with updated safety regulations (marked by a wider front grille) and a later one in about 2000 when the bonnet and spare tyre were updated (I assume this was specific to the "Custom" trim mentioned below) - you can tell by the spare tire cover being recessed into the bonnet OR the Midget in question not having the spare on the front at all. If it's absent from the front, it will be on the rear of the cab, behind the driver.
• Incidentally, the recessed tire cover is technically compatible with the older Midgets, since all versions of the car used the bolt pattern of the rims on that hardware.
• The Midget was designed to be able to run without the side and rear panels. The bare bed underneath all of it is the actual bed/intended appearance of the Midget, and you can see that when you look at B-type Midgets. The D and R types both had the body panels in place as an included option, but it's technically not necessary.
• These could come with Nardi steering wheels from the factory as an option.
• There were notes in the official promotional material/brochures suggesting there were ways to utilize the bed for things such as flower shops.
• This confusing advertisement exists, and the scene at the end depicts an American neighborhood. ...Why? Also found this one from 1997 that's a little less weird.
• This is less trivia and more context/perspective, but when the Midget II was included in Gran Turismo 2, it was a brand new model that was available in Daihatsu dealerships. ...Which is incredibly jarring when you see that in GT4 and onwards, it's always a used car.
• A 4th trim called the "Custom" was made available following one of the facelifts, and it was slotted above the R type.
• In 1996, the Midget only had three colors: White (exclusive to B-Type), Black (D/R Type Only) and Bright Jade (Also D/R Type Only). 1997 was when more colours were added, as well as when the Cargo was introduced.
• In theory - I've heard this as a rumor in the Midget facebook group, and I do want to try and verify it if I can - it is possible to convert the pickup to the van and vice versa. This is word of mouth and unverified, so please don't take my word on this until I verify it.
• Someone has a track-modded Midget. It has the JB-DET from the first gen Copen and a lot of custom work underneath.
• Someone built an EV Midget in 2004. Pictures of this one have been posted to GTP before... The event it was at was at Oiso Prince Hotel, as far as I can gather.

That's everything I can think of for now. These are really weird little machines and I enjoy them immensely.

 

[Obelisk]

Gather round, folks, and listen to my story on this quiet evening 'fore the holidays. 'Tis a tale of research fails, botched simple solutions, and ultimately triumphing over my self-inflicted foolishness.

It all began in late November, on a day as quiet and undisturbed as any other. I had discussed my plans for the Miata with my team (and close friends), and wanted to put into motion. The idea was straightforward: purchase a set of steel wheels and all season or winter tyres, then reserve the alloys for autocross and track usage. 'Twas a simple enough idea. Heck, I was even able to find 16x6.5 steel wheels that not only lined up with the NC's official specs for the 16" wheels, it worked with the Miata's sister car, the Mazda6!

At the time, I noted that the manufacturer did not advertise these wheels as being compatible with the Miata, but dismissed it as the manufacturer possibly not being in a position to verify or test the wheels on an NC2. Note this for later.

The next step, spaced out over a few weeks in December, was to get the tires. I had a decent number of choices set out for me courtesy of Tire Rack's filtering system, and ultimately settled on a set of Falken ZEIX ZE960s in 205/50R16.

It all arrived quickly, and I found myself asking a favor of the Midget - after all, its younger sibling and stablemate needed help! It agreed... not that a car CAN agree to anything, but I digress.

Onwards we trotted, 'til we arrived at the ever-so-familiar and welcoming yellow building of Kenwood Tire Company. These fine folks are the fantastic local business that helped me with the alignment on my dear old Midget not too long ago.

They were quick to fulfill my request, and I was sent back home with a fresh set of tires and wheels for my dear Miata.

(Quick note: These were all strapped down. I took the straps off for the photo.)

With spirits high and the smell of fresh rubber in the air, I set forth to put these new shoes on the Miata.

...How little I knew.

As it turns out, the NC generation of Miata is known for having unusually large brake calipers, which makes fitting wheels onto them a bit more difficult than other generations. Combining that with the steel wheels that did not list the MX5 as a compatible car led to me learning a harsh, but small, lesson on checking clearances...

(Note: The slight silvery streak on the center/center-right of the caliper)

"What a fool I am!" I cried in anguish, having harmed my car in the process of trying to care for it. Options, possibilities and emotions roared through my mind until a kind voice reached out and offered a simple answer:

"Why not get some spacers?"

So I did. Straight from Autozone, I'd purchased myself a set of Dorman multipurpose spacers... Rather thick, 0.326 inch/8.2mm spacers.

Harsh lesson #2: Steel wheels need solid spacers, not slotted spacers.
Harsh lesson #3: 5mm spacers are the absolute maximum thickness for the factory studs on the NC MX5.

I realized my folly nearly instaneously, as something felt horribly wrong when attempting to feel out the car on the new setup. After a quick consultation of the Mazda forums and a discussion with someone somewhere, I concluded that I needed to secure the correct spacers ASAP.

As of today, I have received the new spacers and successfully installed everything on the NC2.

Upon taking my weary self and the Miata for a peaceful parade around my neighborhood, I'd been alerted to a problem by the car's management systems:

A tire pressure alert.

Harsh lesson #4: You should've bought TPMS sensors, you idiot 😂

Thankfully, I am equipped with tools for managing the air pressure in these tires without needing the TPMS to tell me they're low.

And thus concludes today's tale of foolishness.

life lesson for me:
Check your frickin' specs and clearances before springing for new wheels next time.

Comparison of the new Titan hub-centric spacers vs the old Dorman spacers: