More parts arrived today.
Fresh from the electro-plater (American Plating in Cranston, RI) I now have 50 copper lugs coated in a thick layer of nickel for corrosion resistance.
By total coincidence the #00 welding cable arrived on the same day!
I had been somewhat paralyzed in deciding where to buy this cable and exactly how much. The stuff is usually sold by the foot and it's pretty expensive so I wanted to estimate the amount needed carefully and also find the best deal. Recently, I found that weldingsupply.com had it priced at $2.75 a foot for quantities 50' and up. I don't think I'll actually need 50' in my miata, but having the electric car project held up because of a lack of wire seemed undesireable and it might be nice to have some extra lying around (Igor! Bring me zee 50kW cable. Quickly! Zee storm iss coming!)
A piece of bad news came today also, car-stuff.com sent an email that the manual steering rack is not in stock and they are refunding my payment. I called their customer service number and it appears they may not be getting re-stocked anytime soon.
Did a bit more searching on-line and found another company selling mazda parts that claimed to have a manual rack. Once bitten, twice shy though -- I called to verify and they didn't really have them in stock. (I think I was talking to the same guy! It does make it easier to keep up with the competition when they're you.)