1997 Mazda MX5 MK1

It’s quite possible that the areas where the paint clouds over are the original paint.

They weren’t lacquered from the factory, so the red does go pink in very short order. On the red mx5s I’ve owned it was the panels that had been resprayed that held their shine for longer!

It’s good to hear you’re enjoying driving it after all the work you’ve put in 🙂. My vote would be to not worry about the paint till autumn and just enjoy driving for now.

Anddddddd..... good news on one of the fleet.....

My day started with the Girlfriend returning from the school run saying ‘a light was on on the Mini Rev counter but I can’t tell you what it is without my glasses on’, is it running OK? ‘Seems to be’ was the reply, I duly trundled out in my slippers, clambered aboard to be greeted by a plethora of lights.... EML, TPS, Triangle with Circle and a fluctuating temperature gauge. A quick doom search revealed anything from a flat battery to a buggered ecu module, I managed to reset the TPS and on closer inspection noticed NS rim has been in the wars...... 7 days out of storage and touch parking already!!!!

I requested it not be driven until I code read it and to use the truck for further daily duties.

In the torrential rain I departed in the non leaking MX5 to go to the body shop with my mate asa guide, the owner looked round the MX noting the lack of rust to attend to and just one impression dent on the rear quarter to remove, quick discussion about what I wanted and a deal was struck with work starting mid June at a price that is more than acceptable, I was warned it could take a couple of weeks as he will fit it around other work hence the more than reasonable price..... I call that a result in my book!!

Anyway, returned home to find Mini missing and a missed call from the Garage about my other Car on here, ali can say is what I am saving on the Mazda will now be directed to the Porsche and the Mini needs an O2 Sensor plus the Battery has swelled so needs replacing..... hence the flickering gauge!!!

One hand taketh, the other giveth.......

Good news on the Mazda though..

No news is no news!!! I was looking forward to getting the Mazda back last Friday end enjoying some topless action with the girlfriend (oohhh matron) but when I called the body shop it has been knocked down the queue with other presumably profitable work. New eta now the end of the month, so I reckon that translates to mid July!!!!

Slightly annoyed but life moves on and we have the Mini if we want to burn ourselves!!!

I did manage to remove both manual regulators and they are toast so will replace them once I have it back along with rebuilding and lubing all the mechanisms up.

Well, an all good update, remember this?



A lot of time and effort went into the rehabilitation but after spending many an hour with the detailer it kept hazing up again and inevitably was going to end up being painted.














Lots of smaller jobs now to finish the exterior, then I need to deep clean the interior and in the winter look at rebuilding the backend so it looks as good as what’s on top, quite an easy project as I can remove all the rear suspension, diff, subframe while it’s in the barn and rebuild it at home.

Much happier now I can put some miles on it while and if we have a summer!!

Final comments for this post, it will not be dropped/lowered if people think the ride height looks high, it will be kept as Mazda intended! Both my Porsche and BMW have factory sports suspension and on the country roads I spend 95% of my time driving they are like riding a Grifter on a cobbled street!!! For those wondering what a Grifter is I’m not referring to a petty thief or the film but:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raleigh_Grifter

Really big transformation. Well done.

I am not a fan of lowering stuff simply to follow visual fad, so you’ll get no negative comments from me about leaving it factory. 👍👍