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Thread: ' 91 Canadian BRG in Germany

  1. #1
    Idling - Listen to it purr...
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    Post ' 91 Canadian BRG in Germany

    Hello everyone,

    so I decided to start my own small "build thread".
    Here I'll show all the big and small things happening to my Miata.
    Car is a '91 BRG which was imported from canada to germany. First owner was the daugther of a
    canadian doctor, who bought her the car as a present (?). Don't know if she moved to germany
    and took the car with her or if the car was imported while she was allready living here. I only
    could see that she moved once and became a doctor herself.
    Second owner was a man who won some money in a german gameshow and one thing he bought
    from the money was this miata. As I was told by the last owner (who was a friend of the second
    owner) the car didn't get much attention after the second owner got kids and hadn't much money
    to spend on the car. So the last owner bought it and took some care of it.
    The car got some basic maintanence and a cheap respray in original color. Also the softtop was
    changed for a fabric one fitting the color of the car.
    Last year I bought the car as a present for myself (got 30 yo), since I was looking for a small
    car to work on in my freetime. Wanted to buy an 200SX (240SX in the US), but those are pretty
    rare here in germany and if you manage to find a deccent one, it'll be pretty expensive.
    After some research I decided to get an MX-5/Miata and found this one.

    The car was in a used shaped with some rust, but nothing too fancy. Most cheaper MX-5/Miatas
    here in germany have a lot of rust at the sills and underneath - so I was pretty happy this one
    was in a quiet good condition. The drivers side sill got repaired earlier, but will need to be redone
    in the future, since the repairjob wasn't done that well. Also the left rear wheelarch starts to
    rust at some points and will need attention.

    Last year I allready replaced all oils, filters and spark plugs. The carpet behind the seats was
    removed and cleaned, since there was a lot of green stuff growing in the corners where the
    waterdrainholes are. I also took the seats out, gave the leather a good cleaning and a lot of
    leather-conditioner, since it was really dry. The drivers-seat got some cheap repair done before
    and is beyond restoreable. So plans are to get the interior done completly new from an upholstery
    some day. I'd exchange the seat-covers myself but couldn't manage to find any for the miata-seats
    with integrated speaks by now.

    This spring I replaced the timing-belt and many gaskets on the engine, since it was leaking at the
    front crankshaft-seal, the camshaftsensor and the front of the oilpan. I also took the trunk apart
    and removed some rust where the battery is mounted. Someone exchanged the battery for a
    random car-battery, which wasn't connected to the ventilation hose. This caused some "nice"
    corrossion underneath the battery. Also the masterbrakecylinder was leaking and caused the whole
    paint on the panel underneath to flake off. The panel also had some decent surfacerust on it.
    Now to some pictures of the work I did the last few days:

    Center console and tombstone removed - lot's of dirt underneath


    Outer shiftboot was in pieces


    And so was the inner, small one


    Cleaned and replaced


    Radioconnectors where connected (some wheren't anymore) in really questionable way


    Fixed


    Rust and flaking paint underneath the leaking master-brakecylinder


    More rust


    Cleaned with a blasting gun (used glass-particels for blasting)




    Metal covered up in Fertan to get rid of the remaining rust - it was pretty hard to get by everywhere with the blasting gun while the engine
    is still in the car


    In the next days the trunk will get some fresh paint and new gaskets for the taillights. The sidemarkers will be connected again (connected
    to the turn-signals right now, but not working well) where they belong to. Paint the glass-blasted panel and refit the brakebooster and
    mastercylinder (gaskets have been exchanged). Change the steering wheel for a wooden nardi classico 360mm. Change all brakediscs
    and pads. Adjust the ignition-timing and then finally drive the car for the rest of the summer.

    Almost forgot - a good cleaning is also needed hard

  2. The Following 6 Users Say Thank You to Gigges For This Useful Post:

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  3. #2
    Admin / Pit Boss / Miataholic Phatmiata's Avatar
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    Kirin the '93LE Roadster #1073
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    Looks like you are getting right in there!! Lets see some exterior shots of your MX-5!

  4. #3
    2,000 rpm - light wheelspin, no bog here! Ctsquid's Avatar
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    1991 BRG SE
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    Plainville, CT
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    I'm in agreeance with Randy, we need exterior shots!

    I need some motivation to get my own BRG on the road again.

  5. #4
    Idling - Listen to it purr...
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    1991 BRG
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    Germany
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    Hello everyone,

    just thought I'll post an update, since I'll start working on the Miata again now. Hopefully it'll get warmer soon, so I can
    do more work in my garage without freezing my a** off.
    The plan is to have the car ready for the road on April 1st - this is the first day of the year where my license-plates are
    road-legal again (car insurance is payed for April - October). The car needs to be inspected by the "TάV", before I'm
    allowed to drive it again. Here in germany the car has to be checked every 2 years by a technical engineer from TάV, Dekra
    or a similar company - and I can tell you, these guys take there jobs serious.

    Since you asked for some external shots - these 2 are the only ones I can provide at the moment, since the car sits jacked up
    in my garage:




    Since my last post I finished the engine bay rust removal and put everything back together:




    I also removed some rust in the trunk, where the battery is located and repainted everything there:


    Besides that I solved some eletric issues - the driver side front lights where far too dark, caused by corrossion in the grounding-spot underneath
    the masterbrakecylinder. I removed all old connectors from the cables and fitted new ones. Cleaned the connector itself and sealed everything
    with wax after reinstallation. Also did I change the headlights together with the light-bulbs, since the old ones had rust on the chrome-plating.

    I then took both power windows apart, removed the old, hardened grease, cleaned everything inside there and put it back together with a
    delrin-repairkit from il motorsports. I also replaced the outer seals between the windows and the door, since the old ones where hard and stiff
    like plastic and did stick to the windows when moving up and down. I took apart the switch for the power windows and cleaned the electric
    contacts inside, because these where pretty burned and had way too much resistance. Sadly I didn't take any pictures from this work.
    On the passengerside door a spring had broken inside the door-lock which led to a malefunction with locking up the car on this side. I exchanged
    the spring and the lock works fine again.
    Sadly I didn't take any pictures of all this steps.

    Last thing I got is a nardi wood steering-wheel, which I bought used from ebay UK. Sadly I got scammed a bit and the wheel was in a far worse
    condition then mentioned in the ebay-ad. At least the seller gave me a partially refund - but I'm thinking of reworking the wheel myself, since
    I'm not happy with the current look.


    Today I'll try to remove the complete exhaust-system, because I think somewhere in the front is a crack or broken gasket - the car sounds a
    bit like a leaking exhaust and there's also some smoke in the engine bay, when revving the engine.

    Furthermore I plan on rebuilding the brake-calipers, because the dust-seal on the rear-right caliper has a small cut and I don't want the caliper
    to take corrossion damage or to lock up, since I changed the discs and pads allready.

    I'll try to post more updates from now on, when something happens on the car.

    Greetings to everyone

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  7. #5
    Ninja Messiah kung fu jesus's Avatar
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    Nice work. Sometimes the subtle repairs are the most satisfying.

    In the US, car inspections vary from state to state. A few are fairly stringent, some have virtually none at all. None are like TUV or MOT. There are some very poorly-maintained vehicles on the roads of the US.

  8. #6
    2,000 rpm - light wheelspin, no bog here! LagBlu's Avatar
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    Hi Gigges! At the moment I would prefer warmer temperatures, too.
    The Eunos is on the road from march until november. But unfortunately these days -10 degrees outside and snow.
    I plan on doing the same for the windows next month - outer seals and delrin kit.

    Have you planned to visit TidM or another meet?

  9. #7
    5,000 rpm - there be torque here! Greasemonkey2000's Avatar
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    Love BRG's! Looking forward to see what you do with it!
    '01 NB2 aka MisF1re: http://mazdaroadster.net/showthread....218#post207218
    '97 M aka Warbird, gone but not forgotten: http://mazdaroadster.net/showthread....B&goto=newpost
    Instagram: @greasemonkey2000

  10. #8
    Idling - Listen to it purr...
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    No big progression made in the last days, since it was pretty cold outside - and so was my garage.
    I removed the whole exhaust-system in search of any loose parts and cracks.
    I broke one bolt on the kat and also one connecting the header/downpipe.


    As you can see there's a crack right above the old weldjoint on the exhaust-header, where the four tubes connect into one. Also someone
    put some "pretty nice" weldspots on the heatshield-mountingpoint... Yesterday I put a fresh weldjoint all around the tube right beside the
    old one, since there where several small cracks visible. This is not only a problem with the sound of your exhaust-system, but also can
    mess up the measuring of your lambda-sensor, since it is above the mounting-position of the sensor.
    Now I need to order fresh seals & bolts for the exhaust-system and also for rebuilding my brake-calipers.

    I'm still unsure what to do about rust on the sills - especially the left (driver side) one. There's obviously a selfmade patchpanel welded
    in on the rear left sill, which I don't like, since it's not that well made. Also the front part of both sills starts to corrode where the front sidepanels
    are mounted. So I'm unsure if I'll start work on these at the end of this season, or if I'll sandblast and spraypaint them myself. My wish/goal is to
    have the whole car rustfree and then repainted once more by a good paintshop.

    @LagBlu: What's TidM? Sorry, I'm not that familiar with carmeetings anymore.

  11. #9
    1,000 rpm - releasing the clutch m00se's Avatar
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    BRG '94 NA8T, mariner blue '91 stored
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    Frankfurt, Germany
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    Hi! Nice car, I have a canada imported BRG myself, although not even close to being stock anymore

    TIDM is "Treffen in der Mitte" in Hannoversch Mόnden, http://www.tidm.de/ You should come, it's awesome.

    Gruί aus Frankfurt, Max

  12. #10
    Idling - Listen to it purr...
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    1991 BRG
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    Hello everyone,

    I've been busy the last weeks - so here is finally another update.
    I've welded the cracked exhaust-header and ordered/received some parts.

    Feels almost like Xmas - 4 new Sachs shocks, new Monroe upper shockmounts, new cat-converter, new O²-Sensor, 4 rebuildkits for all breakcalipers and a new quality
    torque wrench (only had a cheap one till now).

    While I had the exhaust-header out I noticed the paint in that area was also flaking away caused by the leaking master-break-cylinder. So I removed the paint & rust,
    sprayed everything up with Fertan and repainted the area while the header is out of the car.



    Then I removed the front left shock, wheel carrier, upper control arm and the whole breaking-system.


    Since the wheel-arch also had two smaller rust-spots I cleaned out these also, resealed and repainted the areas.





    While removing the front-axle parts I noticed all 3 dustboots on the outer balljoints had small cracks in them and where slightly leaking grease.
    Since the balljoints themself are still in good condition with no play I decided to order just new dustboots besides some other small parts like
    copper-sealents for the brake-line attachment on the calipers. These parts should get delivered the next days so I can finally put everything
    back together and rebuild/repaint the calipers.

    I hope I'll make a bit more progression the next days to get the car back on the road again and checked by the TάV.

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  14. #11
    Super Moderator atank's Avatar
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    Making great progress!...............................

  15. #12
    Super Moderator Bryan's Avatar
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    I'm certainly impressed. Nice work!
    Quote Originally Posted by DazedAndConfused
    I dont know a word you just said, but that **** sounded COOL.

  16. #13
    Idling - Listen to it purr...
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    1991 BRG
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    Germany
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    Bolted the exhaust-system back on today - sadly the cat I bought didn't fit. Not sure if the german/EU MX5 uses another cat then the US Miata.
    I asked il Motorsport for help now. Hopefully they can tell me if the cat in their shop will fit my car. Also I'm still missing a package from IL with
    smaller parts to put the front suspension back together - so at the moment I'm stuck because of parts missing...

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