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