MX5 1.6 in need of TLC

[motorbreath]

Impulse buying again, saw this on ebay with 15 mins until the end of the auction, 16 minutes later I had a new car to add to the fleet!

Always heard a lot about these little cars but thought Id put the rumours to the test and have a go.

The paint is so faded it is pink, front and rear bumper nearly white on top, needs a few niggles sorting as well.

Here are some pics of when I got it home, I have spent 2 days straight polishing and waxing the body work, and I’m quite pleased as its come up a treat! No rust, no advisories from the last MOT, FSH only 65k UK car, 4 new tyres and decent brakes.

Ill add pictures of the finished product when I’ve had a chance to finish the last few panels, blinking rains stopped play!











And a sneaky peek of what to expect:



Watch this space, fingers crossed get pics up by the weekend :-)

[JFReturns]

How much did you pay for it?

[crugbun]

£735 by the look of it! Bargainous.

[JFReturns]

That is a good price considering it came with a hardtop.

[cjgreaves41]

Bloody bargin for age and with a hardtop... No rust UK car? Didnt know there were any!

Have fun with it!

[JFReturns]

I can't remember the exact dates, but a P reg 1.6 = low powered model?

[Munter]

JFReturns said:

I can't remember the exact dates, but a P reg 1.6 = low powered model?

Yep. Any UK 1.6 after 94. Still for £750, with £300 of hardtop on it. Not a bad deal.

[JFReturns]

Agreed, an excellent car for what was paid.

OP - how are you going about restoring the paint? I have experience turning a pink '5 into a red one if you need any tips



EDIT: I can see T-Cut in one of your pics. Be very careful as the paint on these cars is very soft. You would be better off with a lower abrasive polish as the T-Cut is far to harsh IMO.

I did mine by hand, but it was difficult and I would instead recommend purchasing a decent polisher.

Edited by JFReturns on Friday 20th April 10:04

[MadRob6]

That's how my MR2 looked when I got it. When I was finished it looked like this!


Meguairs ScratchX worked pretty well for me although it did require a lot of elbow grease. A good regular coating of wax should keep it looking like that too.

[Waugh-terfall]

Aaah, that'll be the same paint as my old 323. Used to Bonnet and the paintwork under the rear screen used to fade in the sun fairly regularly. It spent most of it's life in a garage so it was no where near that, but a little elbow grease always bought it up a treat.

[Riknos]

hmm.. A low powered 1.6 uk car for £750 is quite a lot! For a few hundred quid more you could have got a 1.8 Eunos with lots of mods. I know as I just sold one.

Enjoy though!

[ambuletz]

Looks interesting, can't wait to see it after a good polish/T-cut, I think they look lovely in red.

[Munter]

Riknos said:

hmm.. A low powered 1.6 uk car for £750 is quite a lot! For a few hundred quid more you could have got a 1.8 Eunos with lots of mods. I know as I just sold one.

Enjoy though!

Say the hard top is £300 on E-bay.

And your Eunos was £900.

£750 - £300 = £450. So really he got a £450 1.6 MX5. Which makes a £900 Eunos twice the price.

[Eighteeteewhy]

The best thing about this car is that it's rust free. Something not many MX-5/Eunos owners can say.

[Conor D]

JFReturns said:

Agreed, an excellent car for what was paid.

OP - how are you going about restoring the paint? I have experience turning a pink '5 into a red one if you need any tips



EDIT: I can see T-Cut in one of your pics. Be very careful as the paint on these cars is very soft. You would be better off with a lower abrasive polish as the T-Cut is far to harsh IMO.

I did mine by hand, but it was difficult and I would instead recommend purchasing a decent polisher.

Edited by JFReturns on Friday 20th April 10:04

How did you go about that?

Mine's isn't in really bad shape but I've thought about tackling polishing it, tested it on one of the lights and the pad started to go red so I backed off (although I've read that this is just the case with red cars?).

How much do you want for the Hard Top OP?

[Stoatman]

Sorry for butting in but how did the pad turn red when trying to polish the light ??

[Munter]

Stoatman said:

Sorry for butting in but how did the pad turn red when trying to polish the light ??

I think he means the painted pop up light cover. Rather than the lens.

[GLENRED]

Munter said:

Stoatman said:

Sorry for butting in but how did the pad turn red when trying to polish the light ??

I think he means the painted pop up light cover. Rather than the lens.

[Stoatman]

Ahh , right that's clear now then LOL.

I guess the paint has no clear coat (as alot used to ) taking a bit of red off is inevitable to get rid of all the oxidized paint. You'll need plenty of microfiber cloths !

[motorbreath]

crugbun said:

£735 by the look of it! Bargainous.

Inspector, how on earth did you figure that out!? Yep £735 which I was quite pleased with! :-D