1997 Mazda MX5 MK1

Thanks for your comments and advice, in your experience is it also advisable to replace the rain rail also? I’d rather order everything at once to save leaving the car in bits.

Looks a great project, I fitted a mk2 frame and hood, gives you a reasonable sized glass rear heated screen.

The rain rails often break when removing the hood I ended up having to repair a couple of small cracks in ours with aluminised tape which has lasted well.

Hello

I will order a rain rail and hood, if the rain rail is ok I can just return what I have but for longevity and best practice I think it makes sense to replace both, not checked drain holes yet, that will be on the list todo when the old roof and frame come off.... currently it is under a waterproof cover and has not leaked.

A couple of people have suggested just a hardtop, however it’s not a one man job to remove them so don’t want to add that complication 🤔

It will be staying stock right down to the steel wheels, I have enough quick machinery to hand if required so want to keep it stock for the purists.

Spent an hour this morning with some Maguiers two step a friend of mine told me to try, tried it with the machine polisher first but wasn’t working as expected so broke out the guns and manual labour commenced. The below took roughly an hour and 4-5 applications, great 10 yarder but does require one more application to remove the oxidation.

Good news all round and the paint is recoverable albeit not to a showroom or new car standard but will have ‘patina’ .....

Once again not ideal conditions to polish a car but good results...... I still hate cleaning cars though 😈

Hello

Managed a few hours between other chores today and surprisingly no hangover which allowed me to get on with the mind numbing job at hand,,,,, the paintwork! I ordered some more G3 and a Maguiers Ultimate Compund to crack on with. Machine polish and G3 really did’nt touch it, but 3 Machine Polishes with G3 and a finish off with the Maguiers gave pretty good results, to be honest I think another application of the Maguiers will get it as good as it’s going to be...... I’ll let the pictures do the talking for the few areas I have done so far...


























I had to go and get one of my other Cars from storage so when I returned it was getting to cold to polish ( thank god!! ) so I took the wheels off and put it on stands, the tyres will be taken off so I can refurb the steel rims to get that job ticked off the list. While their I noticed the back pads have less meat than a cat walk model so I will replace front and rears place change the brake fluid, service and change the cambelt.

While in the air I pulled out the hose and cleaned the wheel arches out, one would have used the petrol power washer but next door is expecting child and did not want to add too much stress to the situation, results below...






























Quite pleased with the above, no frilly arches either, below is a shot of one sill showing how solid they are..





The only sign of grot is on the o/s rear sill end which looks to be water ingress under the stone chip, a prod with the technical tapping tool and its surface rust so I will clean it up and reapply a stone chip along both sills.



I have to build some planters tomorrow and do some gardening chores but hope to finish the paint and lube up the hood mechanism ready for hood replacement next month!!

Thanks for looking, and as I have had a busy day outdoors I have decided to treat the bin lids to a takeaway tonight to save me cooking, personally I’d like a Chinese but ultimately the decision is with the GF as she is running a half marathon tomorrow in prep for the London Marathon she has a place in!!!

Thanks for Reading

Can you let me know what order of materials to do the mop & polish?
On mine I've used g3 by hand on my mirrors & number plate panel.
I want to do my main panels with my mop but unsure what process to do. You are using g3 & 2 meguiars compounds, which way round are you using them?

That's brilliant info mate. I guess I'm going to get on Ebay & order some meguiars.

It's a while since I had some blasted but I would expect you could get them all blasted and zinc sprayed for around £100. The last set of steels I did I de-rusted electrolytically in a dustbin then hand sanded, epoxy primed and top coated, they seem to be holding up well.

Wheel Update

I set about the wheels last weekend, firstly a wire brush followed by wire wheel on a drill and then a 800 grit to take out any deep imperfections. I then liberally brushed on a rust killer I found from a decade or so ago then as directed rinsed them off the following Day.

I have been working Dubai hours this week which meant a 6 am start meaning a wake up call at 5 am...... why is this important you may ask, well I managed to have a couple of warm afternoons to spray the wheels. Two coats of primer, inners in satin black and outers in a generic silver from amazon, two coats each and then lacquered also. I ordered some Avon tyres from Blackcircles which mail ordered turned out to be 37 quid a corner.... quite reasonable but I had to pay for removal and fitting on top......

Below is the only photos I have of the finished article.......







Discs and pads were orders last Saturday, I think it was either euro car parts or GSF had a 60% off sale and the parts came in at £160 so I ordered them from RockAuto in the states for £116 to find out if I went to MX5 Heaven in the UK they would have been £100. Either way money saved but it will pay to shop around more in the future!

Hoping to get the wheels on tomorrow and a seat in so it can go to the garage for a cambelt next week then go into my storage so I can take the hood off and replace it while the Porsche is not in their.... all busy busy and as usual my faithful garage will do some of the mechanical stuff as my work takes priority.

Thanks for looking and Happy Easter..... I can highly recommend a very chilled Villa Maria Sauvignon Blanc with black bomber cheddar and proper chunky Branston Pickle!