Are the Mk. 2.5s and 3s still prone to rust
Discussion
k.From working on and owning these little gems over the years, my take on this is....the Mk 1 shell is less prone to rust than the Mk 2's and 3's, the gauge of metal is thinner on the later roadsters? and catches rust a lot quicker, so they take a lot more work to keep the tin worm at bay, now before i start a war on Mk's i am not saying the Mk 1's never rust, they just take a lot longer than their later sisters,and i am sure if you ask others that work on them, they will say the same?
M-m
M-m
It all depends on how they have been looked after and how they have been used. My current 53 plate has no rust issues whatsoever. It has been well looked after and has not been on the road much in winters which obviously helps. I had a mk3 a couple of years back but it was probably too new at the time to give a fair assessment. Buy a good one like mine and you should be fine!!
MX-5 Lazza said:
Interesting perspective from someone who works on them MM. Is that comparing like for like i.e. taking into consideration that probably 50% of Mk1 are JDM imports while probably less than 10% of Mk2 are imports?
Yes, comparing against mx5 Mk1's and Mx5 Mk 2's/Mk1 roadster imports and Mk 2 roadster imports, it really makes no difference to me, i had a 3 year old ford/Mazda Mk 3 here the other week and it looked like it had been sat on blackpool beach all of its life so far,the rust under her was shocking,rear drop links bent ,sway bar bent and thin because of rust,front wheel bearings shot,to name a few.I see more Mk2/2.5's going for repair panels because of tin worm on rear arches and sills than Mk 1's to be honest,the standard on the 2's is just not the same,including paint,whether thay are UK spec or imports, but if owners do the protections,then i am sure that there will not be as many,but that course needed to start when fresh to make sure, be it UK or Jap versions.
Now don't get me wrong.i am not saying the Mk 2's are a no hoper,otherwise i would not own one myself,now my Mk 2 was and is fully protected from straight off the boat and has been here just over 4 years, and i need to take her for a rear repair panel on the passenger side,alright it is not major yet,but it is coming off ,and that is my Mk 2,and anyone who knows me will tell you just how anal i am with mine,and it has got to mine??now whether i had trapped it in there, who knows,but it as found it's way out.
Lazza,have i seen you on planet Mx5???is it any good.
Found some rust today on my Mk3 
Just starting on the inside of the rear arches.
Anyadvice one what to with it? It's very minor at the moment, and I don't want to have any of the otherwise immaculate paintwork which is on show affected.
Was thinking clean back and then treat with ku-rust or similar? I will only be using the car for fun so keeping it tidy from now should be no problem.
Just starting on the inside of the rear arches.
Anyadvice one what to with it? It's very minor at the moment, and I don't want to have any of the otherwise immaculate paintwork which is on show affected.
Was thinking clean back and then treat with ku-rust or similar? I will only be using the car for fun so keeping it tidy from now should be no problem.
Mazdamender said:
Lazza,have i seen you on planet Mx5???is it any good.
Yep, I was one of the founder members of PlanetMX5 (or Cobham Commoners as we were back then. PlanetMX5 was the website/forum for the group). Myself and another OC member decided to try the South Central group as it is actually our nearest OC meet though we had heard about them being old & boring. Turned out what we heard was pretty accurate. To be fair they did have a big turnout but as it wasn't summer most of them turned up in their Volvos and they weren't really interested in talking about cars beyond asking which model we had. We decided that their had to be a lot of MX5 owners in the area who wanted to have a regular meet/drives etc. but who didn't want to go to South Central and Cobham Commoners was born. It's grown amazingly well since then and while it's heartland is still that area of Surrey and the main membership lives in the Surrey/Berkshire/Sussex area we are attracting members from all over the country. I don't think there have been any real meets arranged away from the South but they have been suggested a few times so it's only a matter of time.The main draw for me is that there is no rivalry, there is no pettiness, no arguments, no knob-ends and it's a very friendly and welcoming place to be, there is a lot of good advice to be had there and it's nowhere near as busy as Nutz. I'm also a member of Nutz but I just don't have time to keep up with everything that goes on over there which is why I stay mostly on Planet and here.
Oh, and we have fairly regular tech-days which are always really popular. A mechanic would always be very welcome
Edited by MX-5 Lazza on Monday 25th April 00:06
http://img854.imageshack.us/i/dsc00313g.jpg/
This is the rust on my 2004 Euphonic.
Can anyone please advise likely cost of repair, either DIY (if its still possible for a complete bodywork amateur like me to work on) or from a body shop?? How would I even go about sorting this?
I want to sort it before it gets too bad!!
This is the rust on my 2004 Euphonic.
Can anyone please advise likely cost of repair, either DIY (if its still possible for a complete bodywork amateur like me to work on) or from a body shop?? How would I even go about sorting this?
I want to sort it before it gets too bad!!
seany87 said:
http://img854.imageshack.us/i/dsc00313g.jpg/
This is the rust on my 2004 Euphonic.
Can anyone please advise likely cost of repair, either DIY (if its still possible for a complete bodywork amateur like me to work on) or from a body shop?? How would I even go about sorting this?
I want to sort it before it gets too bad!!
I'm a complete bodywork amateur and I wouldn't tackle any of it.. Cutting, welding, filling, smoothing, priming, painting, laquering.. This is the rust on my 2004 Euphonic.
Can anyone please advise likely cost of repair, either DIY (if its still possible for a complete bodywork amateur like me to work on) or from a body shop?? How would I even go about sorting this?
I want to sort it before it gets too bad!!
That looks like absolutely bugger all rust to me though. I'm sure you could fix that yourself just by rubbing down to the metal then applying some sort of rust treatment before respraying. It looks like it's a very isolated patch of surface rust dusting on an inconsequential part of the sill so don't panic over it.
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