mx5cartalk.com

I've just recently picked up my first car and dream car.

After searching for lots of MX5s and getting continually let down I started looking at Civics and Kias.

But then this one popped up for sale! I managed to get it for a great price. It's an auto, but I'm a learner driver so that's ok

Pros:
* Long nose
* Hard top
* Cheap
* V-special GBR/tan (exactly what I wanted)
* minimally modified
* drives decently
* interior in pretty good condition for a tan interior
* tan soft top

Cons:
* Automatic
* has been given a ridiculous home paint job, which looks like it was done with spray cans. The paint is rough feeling, no shine. There's overspray, flaking etc
* One of the previous owners took pretty dodgy care of it. Bages were removed without filling the holes
* Rear window on the soft top was completely "burnt" from the sun. Needs replacing

Future plans:
* I intend to keep it factory style but restore it
* Roller paint job with marine paint
* remove rust, fill dents
* polish valve cover and factory rims
* Manual conversion, maybe
* Roll cage for safety









Nasty Paint

Love the Matte green and tan combo.
Manual conversion should top the list IMO.

Nice pick up.

PS. Those rims look just like minilite/watanabe with the caps removed, sprayed black and lips polished. Much easier than polishing the whole thing too.

The paint looks real ghetto in person so it definitely needs a repaint. I'm planning to remove one panel at a time to paint, to allow me to fix dents and rust as I go. At least that's the plan.

I can't drive yet so the auto isn't a huge concern. I'm not going to track it, do any performance mods or drive particuarely fast. Manuals are better for just driving around town anyway, so a swap will be in the future. Until I learn to drive and register it, she's just a driveway beast.

I wanna stay all-original, so my rims won't get painted. I'f just clean them if I could, but the metal is corroded. Nothing a trip to the polisher can't solve.

Best colour combo IMO

The good thing about MX5's is that the manual conversion won't cost you much! Gearboxes are dead cheap and the other associated parts are easily obtainable.

If you can't afford to respray in the meantime, the dodgy matte spray can job paint can look good with black wheels (even steelies) etc until you get to rectifying the paint. If you're in Sydney, as a recent member has posted, visit Concord Customs for a well priced respray (~$2.5k) unless you plan on doing it yourself.

A good foundation for a project car

Giselle wrote:I can't drive yet so the auto isn't a huge concern.

Once you do you will want to kill yourself because auto NA6 is the worst thing in the world, trust me.

Giselle wrote:I'm not going to track it, do any performance mods or drive particuarely fast..

none of those things are true, trust me.

Giselle wrote:I wanna stay all-original, so my rims won't get painted.

No you wont, trust me.

emily_mx5 wrote:

Giselle wrote:I can't drive yet so the auto isn't a huge concern.

Once you do you will want to kill yourself because auto NA6 is the worst thing in the world, trust me.

Giselle wrote:I'm not going to track it, do any performance mods or drive particuarely fast..

none of those things are true, trust me.

Giselle wrote:I wanna stay all-original, so my rims won't get painted.

No you wont, trust me.

hahah that sums it all up

enjoy the obsession after manual conversion

IMO those are the original alloys, same as came with my '89 NA

zero00 wrote:IMO those are the original alloys, same as came with my '89 NA

Pretty sure they are and IMHO I reckon they suit the car so well. More often than not I prefer the standard mx-5 wheels than aftermarket ones

Not sure how you'd go about polishing the centre caps.

M1474 wrote:Not sure how you'd go about polishing the centre caps.

They would pop out right? I have a set of NB wheels lying about and the center cap is just held in with a spring loaded clip. Pops right out.

I could just repaint the NA wheels silver, if they're unlikely to polish up nicely. At the moment they're just too corroded to clean.

Money is too short right now anyway

Yeah they just pop out.

They look pretty nice with just a clean and caps removed, very light too.

M1474 wrote:Yeah they just pop out.

They look pretty nice with just a clean and caps removed, very light too.

Yeah I wish I could just clean them but the front ones are badly corroded (23 years of brake dust I suppose). I just want them polished enough to come up as-new- not shiny or anything.

I scrubbed mine with a green scourer and some cream cleaner goop. Then they came up nice after that with pressure cleaner, just don't use pressure cleaner on centre caps.

...or turps

Try an alkaline cleaner on the wheels, rinse them really well and then apply some car polish (LOTS!).
Greg.