'04 Euphonic paint finish (also wheels...) NEW MEMBER, BE GENTLE!

Hi all - I’m posting here on behalf of the missus who has just bought a lovely shiny 2004 Euphonic because her trusty old MGBGT “Doris” has finally fallen apart around her ears, and before I get into any technical details on it (that’s for another day when I’ve had a good look over it), I have a query about the body paint. It’s a metallic silver with a kind of blue tinge to it except that the bonnet and boot are silver with no blue tinge. I’m guessing they’ve been replaced at some point but interestingly I just had a look around Ebay to check on prices etc, and saw this one which has exactly the same look to it…2004 Mazda MX-5 1.6i Euphonic 2dr CONVERTIBLE Petrol Manual | eBay
Any clues? NB the Euphonic badges are all present and correct.
Also, the wheels are the correct ones for a Euphonic, but they’re gold and dont look to have been refinished. Is this a standard finish?
Ta!

Hi Chris

Welcome to the community, hope you find the answer - someone here will have it for you. I’ve just helped a friend buy a 2004 Euphonic, but it has a fair amount of mods and I’m not an expert on this specific model! I own a basic 1.6. NB.

Either way, the MX-5 experience is fantastic!

Thanks for the warm welcome, Doug!
Yes, seems like a friendly forum - the car is sweet as a nut, clean, very little tinworm in sight, 17 years old, 103k and purrs like a kitten. Very impressed!

Now here’s a thing: there are VIN panels on the door jamb, firewall, bonnet and boot and they are identical. Yet the paint finish is definitely silver on the bonnet, boot and ‘A’ pillars, and has the tinge of blue on the wings and doors. I thought maybe someone had swapped the boot and bonnet but unless they swapped the VIN plates with them (which I think is pretty difficult to do without it showing) then it does seem a very strange colour finish. Hmmm :slight_smile:
Closer looking under better light shows that the inside paint on the boot and bonnet is actually that bluish silver so I can only think it’s faded in sunlight - but the upper part of the wings is still blue and not faded so it just seems so weird!
(PS we’re amused to find the VIN ends in 666 :slight_smile: :grin:

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Any help ? Mazda MX-5 Euphonic

I would say the boot/bonnet have faded and looking at that in the eBay link they show odd colour matches too. Of course taking pics for adverts the colour can show up different shades, especially on plastics. I get you have the car in the flesh to look at so try posting up a couple of pics so we can compare.

Sometimes adverts can be misleading getting models incorrect, check against the V5 what you have, even the V5’s can have discrepancies too. My last MX-5 was down as a 4 seater.:grin:

That’s not the OPs car.

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It just says that the Euphonic had “Titanium Grey” and “Sunlight Silver” in its paint options but I can’t find descriptions of the colourway of these options…

We’ve had it a couple of weeks so the V5 hasn’t arrived yet, but the DVLA check returns “Mazda MX5 Grey”. Couple of pics showing the finish differences:



It’s quite apparent and the silver finish is consistent across the whole of the bonnet, boot and rear scuttle (behind the window to the front of the boot, which is part of the bodywork and not the boot lid).
Also note the gold wheels when the Euphonic only had the one option of Titanium Grey. They dont look to have been repainted (or if so, it was a professional job).
Pics I took of the inside of the boot lid don’t really show up too well but it’s definitely got that blue tint.

I owned a Mk2 a few years ago, it came from Japan as an import. So it spent around the first 10 years of its life out in the Japanese sun. It was a Racing Bronze colour, to some a gold colour. That had faded in the same areas shown on your car. Yes the paint can fade in this country too, I’ve seen a few and mostly the metallic colours.
The alloys should be shade of metallic grey finish not gold, they’ve been refinshed on your car.

si4423_sml

It would seem that way, but once again why on the bonnet, boot lid and rear panel but not on the wings and doors? The silver panels are not patchy or blotchy but uniformly the same all over.
These are interesting, from www.miata.net, showing 2004 Titanium Grey and Sunlight Silver. Looks like Titanium Grey is the one with the blue-ish tint…
https://www.miata.net/gallery/images/04titanium.jpg
https://www.miata.net/gallery/images/04silver.jpg

Wheels have 100% been repainted, none of them came with gold from factory. I believe your bonnet and boot have been repainted for some reason at some point in its life. A paint thickness gauge should reveal all

Jimmy_p is probably correct having a think about it.
Bonnets can get chipped, boot lids rust under the rear part and spread to the upper part. A repaint can’t be discounted and to blend in paint that rear deck behind the boot lid. Sad to say they have used the wrong shade, should it show up darker if the correct Titanium grey was used?

Sounds reasonable.
Why the rear scuttle panel and ‘A’ posts/windscreen surround should also be the wrong shade as well just bugs me!

Cheers all