Applicable to '90 - '97
14 piece custom dash kit made of a paper thin brushed aluminum with a protective coating.
When I opened the box and saw the kit, I thought yuck, no way this is going in my car. Don t get me wrong, I don t have a show car or anything, just a 5-1/2 year-old Miata with 90k on the clock, but this wouldn't do. There may have been real .001 thick brushed aluminum in there, but it was hard to tell through the soft protective coating.
There is a close-up photo of the aluminum dash material on the vendor s site and it looks exactly like brushed aluminum. This photo is 100% accurate and the kit components look just like the photo. The only problem is this stuff looks like this only when you looking directly at the material with your line-of-sight perfectly perpendicular to the material. Once your angle of view changes, even slightly, it looks just like shiny silver globs because of the 1/8" protective coating. All the brushed effect is lost. Because of the location of these pieces you are almost never looking at them straight on, so there is no brushed aluminum look, only plasticy sliver pieces. If you are considering an Aluminum Dash Kit and want real aluminum, the 1/8 protective coating ones are not it.
Difficult to remove without leaving damage
Applicable to: '90 - '97
This is a great-looking simulated burlwood dash, console, and door kit from Team Miata. It really dresses up the interior (especially if yours is all black, like mine).
I got this kit from Michelle at Team Miata, who is a delight to work with; very friendly. The kit arrived in a few days, and I went to work installing it. Most of the time involved to install the kit is spent prepping the dash and aligning the parts. Team Miata included some swabs and alcohol with the kit; it just takes some time getting everything cleaned up. The kit goes on with a 3M adhesive that is already molded onto the dash parts. The nice thing here is that if you screw up, you can take a hair dryer to the part and re-align it. On my '97, I had to modify the door panel pieces to get them to fit correctly, but this was a small chore that took only a few minutes and two cuts.
Once on, the kit has a very professional, finished look. Good quality, along with killer service from Ken and Michelle at Team Miata, and I give this an A+.
Under 30 minutes to remove completely
Applicable to '90 - '97 1.6 liter 1.8 liter
Adhesive dash kit in brushed aluminum finish
Installation was a snap, and the kit includes both an alcoholic cleaner and automotive-grade adhesive.
The kit looks great and has the exact same finish as my pearlized aluminum Voodoo knob/e-brake handle. The fit and finish is outstanding and the final result is distinctive.
Under 30 minutes to remove completely
| Back to Product Reviews | 17 June, 2001 |