So this spring I've bought a NA miata with 'minimal rust'. I knew the rust was not so minimal as the wings were attacked
I drove almost 20K during the summer, did some work to the suspension (kept stock, only maintenance) and the engine.
Now I was pretty pissed by the rust and contacted a well recognized bodyworker in my area. I was quoted 6K so i decided to bite the bullet and do it myself with a budget of 2K for parts, tools and paint
I plan of taking around 2-3hr every evening working on the car and share the progress in threads here, starting today (french time)
Anyone could be interested ?
Pic related, it's muh mx5
Joshua Turner
this is what the rockers are looking like
Levi Cook
the plan here is to do a proper repair, meaning no patch with bondo (where to put the bondo with that rust anyway ? ) but welding proper metal
So I bought a good mig welder and some gas
and down the parts go
doors, seats (yeah I have holes on the floors), bumper
Jose Allen
those parts are pretty straightforward to drop
Adrian Carter
Better hope you have a filter mask and something to protect your eyes, I work in a body shop and when you grind down rust it will shoot rust flakes everywhere and can get imbedded into your eyes requiring surgery
Ryder Baker
at this point I wanted to get a good look at what I was going into
Not a good thing apparently
Thanks for the input mate
Yeah, I got plenty of masks, a pair of plastic goggles and good gloves
and ear protection of course
Jose Evans
so yeah the job is quite easy, you take a spot weld bit and you drill all the spots (ugly ass job with the wing, I know, but the bottom part is fine)
Aaron Ortiz
the inner lip is not in such a great shape and will require attention
William James
Just cut out all the rust and put fender flares with some big ass wheels and youre good to go.
Carter Sullivan
I'm too much of an autist for that, I could not sleep at night knowing that the car was hiding rust
plus I'm quite keen on learning new stuff and I've never done bodywork before
Brody Martinez
You are a real human bean user!
Austin James
so yeah that's where I am tonight. Cut the shape of the new panel, now all those rusted parts will be ground with a wire brush and treated with rust converter while waiting for new metal.
that's it for day 1 guys
Carter Johnson
thanks mang
bonus 1 : here is the patch panel almost in place (wing was not cut yet) Note the NB patch at the back, I misordered like a moron and now I'm waiting for the good part
also note the pile of rust... and this was the 'good' side, the other will be much much worse
Cameron Stewart
Hope it all goes well, don't let anyone give you shit for "wasting" so much time on a Miata a cars a car in my eyes each deserves to be cared for and if this is the one for you don't let others say otherwise
Jose Roberts
Did you make that part yourself?
Parker Murphy
godspeed user, cars like this should live on to tell the story
Liam Bailey
bonus 2, there was a fucking bad repair that was made to hide all the holes
Completely missed it when buying the car...
yeah, plus they are not common at all in France, so it's worth it just for that Also I might have been buying a POS but since I bought it I need to take care of it
nah, it's from moss. Costs about 100€ I'll be replacing it on the other side as well, along with the complete sill. For all the metal parts not visible from the outside, I'll form them myself (hey, I'm only 22 and a bit broke)
David James
that's what I believe
Next update tomorrow, I hope the thread will still be alive >select all images with cars
Dominic Young
fuck, if you actually cared to buy all that material, and do it successfully and you don't work 60hrs/a super difficult job, you could probably start a side business doing this.
charge 3k + materials for a 20hr job, 150/hr sans taxes
just get an excellent god tier mask so your lungs/eyes dont get fucked like a dumbass, and always work in a well ventilated area/outside
Jackson Gray
Just cut it out with an angle grinder and carefully weld in new shit.
Michael Martinez
point is, I'm already doing basic maintenance on cars for coworkers/neighbours - brake pads,oil change, serpentine belts and things like that. It actually paid a bit for the material, and I plan to also propose to weld exhausts and to fix rust patches, but not on scales like this. It can be too time consuming, he he
Daniel Gonzalez
oh a french user doing its mx5, i'm from normandy and did mine last summer, feels great to have it in mint condition now.
Before /
Lucas Evans
during
Chase Adams
& after!
Try using a MIG to make the welding. Keep in mind the steel is thin as fuck underneath. and do not forget to protect the steel from the inside with a gel or sometfing after you finished your job.
Landon Peterson
Good thread OP, like to see the progress.
Carter Flores
how does one unfuck something like this? i see at least 3 layers of rusty underbody i never did anything like it, but i imagine it's much more complicated than cutting out rusty parts and welding on a repair patch
and after you weld it on do you apply some coating for the inside and outside surfaces?
Daniel Turner
fucking yikes I can fuck with the engine and such, body work is the one thing I'm scared of
Ryan Bennett
>2k to repair an NA MX-5
M8 what are you doing, just buy a rolling shell for half that and swap over parts.
Aaron Baker
>and after you weld it on do you apply some coating for the inside and outside surfaces?
Yes, its advisable to drill a small hole (that can also double as a drain hole for future water) and use one of those hoses with a sideways nozzle to spray rust protection inside the cavities....
Dominic Bailey
what if he doesn't find a rolling shell nearby anyway, this rolling shell he didn't use can be always swapped with a new engine, this way we keep more miats on the roads imo it's perfectly reasonable to put 2k into a fun-to-drive youngtimer
Nicholas White
the cheapest rust repair for a miata is to buy another miata
Cooper Rivera
I'm not sure how this happened to you friend
My NA sat outside for three years unportected (that I know of) and I don't have nearly as much body rust
But the back shelf was fucked because there was no rear window that entire time (currently getting quotes for repair so far we're at $4000)
Evan Brown
That looks hella nice Good job
Blake Nguyen
yeah me too, but hey, i'm poor so fuck it
you really can't find a 2K miata at all in france. Like really not. Really shit like mine goes 3K minimum, and clean one are up to 7K
close to the sea, no body maintenance, UK.
Fuck mate, good job. I'll indeed MIG the shit out of it. No update today on the miata, had to swap the fuel filter on my 940 (what the fuck were they thinking, putting a filter UNDER the car where you have to take out the entire pump assembly to change the filter...
I'll probably start a fresh thread tomorrow as this one might 404