Rescuing an mx5

[Dimski]

So, another car. One even I struggle to justify. However, together with the kind time given by a mechanic friend of mine, I am aiming to bring this mx5 back to good running condition as a second trackday car, and perhaps a more usable part time daily.

I picked this mk2 mx5 with an expired MOT and tax, hand painted alloys, rotten boot, a little rot showing in the sills, torn cheap'n'nasty hood, shot budget tyres, and no service history with its 122k miles. Oh well, at least it was cheap.

ish.

Anyway, pic. of the car from gumtree.



First picture on home ground.



The following day we got it through to a garage, and looked over it on the ramps. Well, there may be few extra details to mention. There's plenty of work in the sills, and a little hole underneath I'd failed to spot. The discs are destroyed, the car pulled to the left, the diff is knackered, there's play in a lower balljoint, a link rod is gone and it needs a good service including the cambelt.

I can already see that the amount of parts including the service items, tyres and so on will easily get past the £500, and that's before the new roof. Oh well, committed now anyway, so a nice whooping bill for parts later and I'm back up for the first little job on the car.

Diff out.





So far that's it. Up next is most likely the welding, then mechanicals, followed by the cambelt, service, brakes and new wheels & tyres.

[Arthur Daley]

Looks like a nice project, the advantage of buying cheap like this is whilst its more expensive in the long run you know the car inside and out and you know the bigger stuff has been done..
A prime example of this for me is buying a used car with a stamp for a cambelt change -invoice or telephone verification from the garage in question or factor in the cost of doing it yourself!