I got the fender on last weekend and drove it on the little a bit, just enough in fact to determine that the brakes were not in good shape, and there's no way in hell I was going to drive it off the lot at all. 

Now all I have left to do is install the comically cheap convertible top I purchased on amazon. I'll make sure to do a video of that, since I've never done a convertible top before. I'm also going to do it at home so I can do some heavy drinking if it's as annoying as I think it will be. Here's a quick video of the car in it's current state. 

For those of you following along at home, I rescued this Miata from a copart salvage auction. It needed a fender, a tail light, and a new convertible top. Tail light is in, fender is now painted and installed, and as soon as the title comes in I will drive it home and install the cheapest convertible top I could find on Amazon. Nice to be making some progress. The Green NB is getting the motor installed this weekend if everything goes to plan. 

So, I’ve seen OEC Japanese Express every time I go to Kroger, it’s on the other side of the shopping center from the Kroger at Stage and Bartlett Blvd. It has good reviews and it’s super close to my house so I thought I would give it a shot. I am super glad I did. We called in an order because I had a very sleepy child on my couch.

We ended up ordering a pretty decent variety because all three of us were hungry. We got the Japanese egg rolls, chicken yakisoba, crunch crab roll, shrimp killer roll, and crunch kani cheese roll. I never get sashimi or nigiri on a first trip to a new sushi place, I’m not that brave. I go to pick it up and it’s a tiny little hole in the wall in a strip mall, with the ultra wide lens I managed to get effectively the entire restaurant into a picture.

They’re pretty steady for it being early on a Sunday night, and that’s a good sign to me. First off I definitely want turnover at a restaurant that serves any kind of seafood. Second, if this tiny place in a strip mall is busy on an off night, the food must be good. Spoiler alert: it was.

Everything tasted super fresh and flavorful, the egg rolls are almost certainly laced with crack. The noodles were solid and the sushi hit the mark on pretty much everything. I think the shrimp killer roll was my favorite, with just enough heat and still crunchy shrimp. I’ll basically just shut up now and let the pictures do the talking. (As an aside I’m super impressed with the iPhone 11 Pro camera, but again, I’ll let the pics do the talking.)

Also, all of that food was right at $30, which is downright cheap as hell for good sushi as far as I’m concerned. I’ll definitely be back and I now trust them enough to try to some yellowtail nigiri, which I’ve been constantly craving since whenever I was in California last. If you find yourself out in Bartlett and want some sushi, I would definitely give them a shot.

OEC Japanese Express if you would like to check out their website, it has the full menu on it.

I replaced the oil pump pickup tube, got an AN10 fitting welded on the pan and finally put everything back together. I’m just waiting on lift time to put it in.

Meanwhile the white Miata is just waiting on the fender to come back from the paint shop. It should be back today and I’ll throw it on early next week. I also have a new convertible top sitting in my garage waiting for the title to come in so I can drive it home and then install it. It will be my first soft top replacement, I’ll do my best to document it here.

Pretty boring update this week but next week should be fun.

But I also couldn’t let an 80k mile NA be parted out, so when this popped up on copart, I picked it up. I ordered a fender and tail light from a local junkyard, and I ordered literally the cheapest Miata top on amazon. I’ll try to get it together this weekend, then all I have to do is decide what the hell im going to do with yet another Miata.