Not having much luck with my 5 at the mo, she is running great, took her to Birmingham last Tues, very smooth nice drive. Decided this weekend to replace rear pads…Mmmmmm!!!
Started to jack the car up and heard a crunching noise,the jack started sinking in the sill so i quickly removed jack.Investigated the rest of the sill and it looks like the only decent part is a couple of foot in the centre, bothe ends are shot.
This is a similar to the other side to
I did pop in to my local garage and they had a look around and tapped both sides of car sill’s and said it would pass the MOT next week, have attached some pics.
Bit of T-Cut it’ll be fine - joking apart, pop out the rubber bung/gromit thing inside the rear wheel arch and shine a torch in to have a look. You can get an idea if its rusted from the inside out or just on the surface.
I can’t remember if you need to take off the plastic inner wheel arch covers, it’s an easy job.
Sadly yep the rust has gone through, is so typical having spent a few hundred pounds this year having cam belt and other belts replaced now the dreaded sill’s, i new there was rust there just didnt think it was that bad, that will teach me.
The question i have to ask myself is Sill’s £4-600, was looking at full respray £1000-15000, when there are some good second hand 5’s around for less. But I have got attached to my 5 but where do i draw the line.
“tapped both sides of car sill’s and said it would pass the MOT next week, have attached some pics.” If an MOT guy will pass this then he desevers the sack. You could be driving around in a death trap. IF you had an accident and police were involved this is the first thing they would take note of. You should get it fixed properly for your own peace of mind and for the safety of others.
I would not be too sure on that one, i have been helping a local chap viewing roadsters for him as he has set his heart on one, with prices from £1000 up, i can honestly say that i have never seen so many sheds on our roads, one was asking £1,200 and looked like it had spent most of its life sat on a beach, and that was a late 1.8 import,all arches were shot including sills,she needed a full respray, a new roof,full service as he could not find any paperwork(120 Km)engine by was full of rust,brakes were starting the freeze up, and she was leaning on the billies(dampers)
And that is just one of the ones over the last few weeks,you will pay for what you get.
You can see someone has patched the bottom of the wing up to the wheel arch. It may be the majority of the corrosion is within these newer pacthes. The structural stuff underneath may be ok and the crunching may just be the rusty new weld on the pinch weld. If you can see major corrosion in the sill proper that pops out infront of the wing section this may be more problematic. Best way to check is grind off the patches and see what you have. I would say 20% of mk1s and a good number of mk 2s seem to be driving about with corrosion like this visible so MOT testers must be passing them…
The outer panel isn’t structural. There is a much thicker member inside (it has lightening holes in it and is almost an RSJ!). However, this much corrosion near a seatbelt mounting point is dubious for the MoT.
Mazda Mender is right… stick with what you know and once a very good gob has been done on the sills, it will last and be better than when it left the Mazda factory in that it will be better protected. It can be “Waxoiled” or Dinitrol waxed from fresh. sadly, on this part of the MX5, Mazda were not great in rust prevention. I just hope I’ve caught mine in time by squirting in waz from as many angles as I can
Its not a death trap, nor would a mechanic be sacked for passing this. It looks as though it hasnt gone through yet, so providing that is the case, it’ll pass on this area.
It (as noted) has been patched previously, you can see the MIG welds seamed along the lower edges. You can probably get that cut out and a cover sill or sill section fitted in its place, re-welded and sealed etc for under £4-600 as you fear.
Its not as bad as you’re thinking, but it does need attention before it spreads and gets worse.
EDIT - DO NOT overly worry about it being a death trap or the police even looking at this. That post is not relevant to your vehicle.
Love the optimism, but it is ripe as a pear, more like £500 plus painting
BUT look at it this way. If you scrap it and buy another you will be £1200-1500 out of pocket, and you will have a car that’s not as good as the one you have after spending the same £1200-1500 on it!!
Depends on what work you get carried out. Privately, a cover sill or plating will be under £500. Painting isn’t too much of an issue as its stonechipped anyway. Replacing them with new sill panels will be £300+ a side plus parts easily enough.
Plating will be under £100. Sill repairs short of an entire rear wing replacement will involve cutting out the affected metal and welding in new metal, and then dressing with filler etc. Some repairers will use the sill repair sections supplied by MX5parts, especially if a substantial part of the arch has gone, but a decent coachworks will be able to form the curved outer panels from sheet. As indicated, the outside part isn’t strictly speaking structural; there is a substantial inner sill membrane, which is usually sound. Even in advanced cases, this can be effectively repaired.
I had repairs done to both sills. The apparent rust was quite modest; I had a single visible hole.
The only sign the other sill was going was when tiny beads of water started forming under the paint; a sign of pinholes in the metal, as its perforated from the inside out (small paint bubbles that when you squeeze them, release water). In finding a local repairer, I was careful to ask questions as to how they thought the repair would be effected (I knew how the repair would go, I wanted to hear from them).
The most laughable response was from a coachworks who apparently paints cars for Noble, who said he was cut out perfect circles of metal from the affected area, and then weld in a placement piece. In the end, I used a place that had tackled MX5s before, and knew enough that a belt and braces approach was needed for the outer metal. In the end, the ultimate repair is to place the entire wing panel; the cost of this for both wings and a rear half repaint was £2500.
I had my repairs done as part of a full repaint; £1200 for the whole job, but that included £200 for a restoration of a carbon fiber front nose cone (which has since met with an unfortunate end). I wouldn’t call this a “showroom” finish; the shell was only partially stripped, and in a few places you can see the sanding marks where the garage sorted out dings etc.
(120 Km)engine by was full of rust,brakes were starting the freeze up, and she was leaning on the billies(dampers)
sadly, on this part of the MX5, Mazda were not great in rust prevention.