"The Unintentional Restorer"

[Zeldoz]

People think i'm mad! A 6'2" bloke driving a 'womans car'! My apprentice at work spent every penny he had and lots of pennies he didn't on an Audi A5 (to make up for being a dick) for instance, really doesn't understand about the driving experience. Never had a car that's such a good laugh to chuck down a B road. True, they're short on ponies but it's no big deal and you can do something about it if it really annoys. I've found the driving experience problem with other, especially young, folk too. People want bling. They want to park a f**king Audi or some stupid 4x4 outside their house so the neighbours think they're doing well. Got mocked for my R32 too! 'What?! a 1993 nissan?! Can't you afford a decent car?!'. I can actually, but I'd rather have an awesome car!

MX5's, R32's, S-Bodies etc... for the f**king win imo!!!

Did the rust force you to part ways with your 5? It's awful to be fair. New panels alone are set to cost me over £300. Along with everything else this job isn't what you'd call cost effective. Reckon it'll last well beyond its normal lifespan though, and I could easily spend the money swapping cars, fixing them too, etc etc...

..oh, I do like those wheels too. Suit the car. They're standard on the Euphonic aren't they?

If you think your rust is bad, take a look at the state my 14a was in... Erghh!

Coming along so much now bud! Love it!

[fritzkrackers]

Day ##11-#17

Condensed update this one. Been a busy week with work and the refurb. Spent as much time as I could cleaning up the rusty bits with wire wheels and sanding discs, slapping Hydrate 80 on the whole thing and spending my hard eared money on parts.

First.. pics and resto' progress. It's looking much better. Any loose paint and rust has been virtually obliterated. The Hydrate 80 covers all of it and will be lightly sanded prior to POR15 application. This has been one sh*tter of a job, to be perfectly honest. Despite wearing safety glasses the fine dust crap still gets in there through the vent holes (must get better ones) and constantly using a 4" grinder or battery drill for hours gets a tad f**king old, f**king quickly. The fatigue kicks in f**king quicker the next day when you repeat the process the following day. If i didn't also have the burden of work this would be much easier as trying to do this asap isn't leaving my much time to relax. Groan...

Getting there though. Engine bay was full of nooks and crannies so it should get a bit easier. Or it would do if the next stage wasn't the underside... Get a wee break with the area where the wipers live before the torture begins.




Looking not to shabby eh?

The dodgy bent subframe replacement has arrived as is in better condition than the original. good result.



Replacement wishbone arrived too. No pic needed here, eh? Going to remove all the susupension components then barter a deal with a shot blaster to clean them all up for painting.

Also purchased;

Pair of new rear quarters @ £170
Pair of new front wings @ £164
New front lower ball joint @ £21
Ramair 'make your own air filter' material @ £5 (to use as a heater intake filter. More on this later)
Pack of 2 LED number plate lights @ £10 (have a good way to fix the rear plate lights in mind)
Pair of sill repair panels @ £78 (they're a bit f**king short to say the least. Again, more later)
Pair of chassis inner/outer repair leg panel from MX5restorer @ £135 (sods law, I found cheaper ones i like better from MX5menders. Going to return these i think)
2Ltr Hydrate 80 @ £50

Must've spent £500 on parts alone so far. Rough estimate for the total build is about £2000 I reckon. Depending how carried away I get on mods. Going to run out of POR15. We'll see how far the 2 tins i've got take me then guage how much more to buy.

Finally... That nasty chassis leg? Couldn't resist running the griner/wire wheel over it to uncover how bad it actually is.... I think the modern phrase is OMG!!!!!!



Camera flash actually makes it look better than it really is. It's bad, ...really bad...


More soon and hopefully some modding soon to before I begin to self harm with powertools to take the pain away.

[Zeldoz]

Those chasis rails are clean!!!!

Iv been under many 5's lately that are complete cut out jobs!! Your making such good progress!

What are the plans when done, engine it OEM?

[fritzkrackers]

Clean?! Sarcasm surely!

Engine will remain standard apart from the usual filter and exhaust combo. My money's getting chucked at the handling

[fritzkrackers]

Day #17-#24

There's never enough time!

I really need a decent lottery win. Not a ridiculous amount, but just enough to tide me over for a couple of years while I get everything done! So much to do and the list just grows and grows...

It should come as no surprise then that I haven't got as much done as I'd have liked. Still managed some good grafting though. Here it comes....!



More parts removal. A nice new numberplate to come I think. Y'know, one with the letters spaced properly and doesn't look like a scrabble accident.



Rust where the number plate lighting was. I have an ingenious plan for this...



Boot could be worse. No holes that aren't meant to be there but still needing some tlc.



Aaah the dreaded rear sill. In a break from wire wheeling below the floor (my new pet hate/necessary evil) I chopped some of the rot away..... And found more rot. Grrrreat.



In another break from the hell below, I gave the n/s door a clean up and Hydrate80. Also a convenient time to decide I don't want a black car anymore.



N/s sill looks much cleaner now.



Part of what I reckon is the 75% of the cleaned area below the floor. Honestly, the worst job ever. I'm not doing this again with the R32. I'm getting one of those rotating spits. Wish I had one now, the underside would be done already!!



More reasons why the handling was a little iffy. A broken spring?! WTF?!?! Clearly been like that for some time. How it was missed on it's MOT was probably due to it being the very top of the spring and it being tucked up out of sight. A convenient reason to upgrade the suspension? I agree.



GF has been busy too when she can. She's been removing the interior whilst simultaneously learning to decipher a Haynes manual. Much confusion and girlie swearing. She's getting there...




On nights that time was tight, I spent time sanding, spraying a few coats of acid etch, and the following nights more sanding and a few primer filler. Looking much better and looks like proper progress. I like

In other news, I returned the mx5restorer.co.uk chassis repair panels and am ordering alternatives from mazdamenders.co.uk. The new ones are one single piece 'u' shaped and a lot cheaper. Worth doing. Also bid, and 'won', a brand new, boxed, alloy rad' from Japspeed on eBay for £72 delivered. Not as cheap as standard but much cheaper than the alloy rad' new. Realised too that I'd been a dick and ordered 2x sets of rear repair panels. Fixed that by ordering 2x genuine Mazda front wings from mx5parts. Quality 'fit first time' parts and got a 10% rebate after finding the DPD delivery driver had delivered them via the magic of flight by launching them over my 6" locked gate, stuffing a note through the door with the confusing 'your parcel is round the back' scrawled on it, generally enraging me, and forcing me to check for damage to the panels. I was not a happy shopper but I'll give mx5parts their dues, they sorted me out very quickly.

Update complete then. Do I have to go back under the f**king car again? Aaaaw really?

[fritzkrackers]

Day #25-#41

Updates have been a bit sparse to say the least...

It's been a busy few weeks. Birthdays to celebrate, work (...groan), and countless other commitments have all contibuted to slow up the restoration. I've been doing all I can but there's i've only got so much free time. The GF has been good with helping out though so there's some time saved.

Got my new chassis rails delivered from mazdamenders.com. A bargain £70 delivered and I like them a lot. Got them tacked in and joined up some of the welds before my baby mig jammed up. Got new tips and shrouds now but that was a delay I didn't need. Took all my front suspension components, subframe and vaious other odds and ends to a powder coaters called P&J in Thornliebank near Glasgow. Left the parts and had a call a few hours later quoting me just £132! not got the parts back yet but if all is well I'll be powder coating everything I can. Shame I can't do the shell...

Anyway, never mind the bollocks.. here's the pics..



Working from front to back, remember? Front nearly finished so got the GF to begin dismantling the rear to keep up her momentum. She's not up for learning to weld...



Cut away some of the rear quarter to see how bad things are. Things are bad. This will be a steep learning curve. ...Sh1te...



Think positively though eh? The lip around the inside of the wheel arch is dust. Things are bad. So if you think about it, it's probably a very good time to think about sorting out some extended arches and chopping all that crap out!

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At last.. some repairs! Makes a change from chopping out crispy metal! New chassis repair sections pretty much complete. Win



Had a play with the rear quarter repair panels. eBay quality rating: 7/10. Perfect they ain't. Will be using as little of these as required. Trial fitted using self drilling screws. Very handy donation from work.



GF isn't just talking the talk... she's taking it upon herself to sand parts like the bonnet when she's got free time and finished her last job. I'll 'reward' her later... hahaha!



Seam sealed where possible, considering there's still welding needing done below and the windscreen surround sanded/painted several times now. This is the kinda progress I like. Feels like change when you see change. Oh.. and there's no more rust on the front. F**K YEAH!!!



And finally... here's the old front rails chopped out before they got thrown in my ever growing pile'o'scrap. I can understand Mazda spending pennies on rust prevention on their more mainstream cars but it's such a shame with these. Little icons deserve better

Hopefully new updates will come a bit more regular. Big stinkin' drinkin' day out on Saturday is dumping on that idea already... oh well, it's only one day and a massive hangover....