The miata rust repair

Hello guys

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

this is what the rockers are looking like

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

those parts are pretty straightforward to drop

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

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

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)

the inner lip is not in such a great shape and will require attention

Just cut out all the rust and put fender flares with some big ass wheels and youre good to go.

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

You are a real human bean user!

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

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

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

Did you make that part yourself?

godspeed user, cars like this should live on to tell the story

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)

that's what I believe

Next update tomorrow, I hope the thread will still be alive
>select all images with cars

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

Just cut it out with an angle grinder and carefully weld in new shit.

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

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 /

during

& 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.

Good thread OP, like to see the progress.

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?

fucking yikes
I can fuck with the engine and such, body work is the one thing I'm scared of

>2k to repair an NA MX-5

M8 what are you doing, just buy a rolling shell for half that and swap over parts.

>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....

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

the cheapest rust repair for a miata is to buy another miata

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)

That looks hella nice
Good job

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