I doubt the underside advisory is that much. Likely confined sills, as its a 2005 import. Price is fair, probably get it for less, given plunging temperatures.
You are NOT going to get a car without rust repairs for £1000.
Hi RIDSO. I have done what you are considering doing and believe me it is well worth while learning to weld and to spray paint. It will of course require you to buy a suitable welder and spraying equipment but there should be evening classes available for you to join and learn. As far as welding is concerned you will be surprised at the many jobs you could use your welding skills for. I was fortunate to have a son who is a welder by trade who showed me how to do it. Spraying I learned by trial and error and reading articles about it too. I used fairly large pieces of metal sheet to practice on from the body’s of old dishwashers and washing machines.
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I doubt the underside advisory is that much. Likely confined sills, as its a 2005 import. Price is fair, probably get it for less, given plunging temperatures.
You are NOT going to get a car without rust repairs for £1000.
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I‘m all for a £1k NA that needs fixable new panel rust repairs. Or a £3-4K car that doesn’t .
Good to see another Laguna Blue example out there, even a shabby one with dodgy wheels/roll bar. I’ll keep an eye on it and see what else crops up. Definitely food for thought.
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Hi RIDSO. I have done what you are considering doing and believe me it is well worth while learning to weld and to spray paint. It will of course require you to buy a suitable welder and spraying equipment but there should be evening classes available for you to join and learn. As far as welding is concerned you will be surprised at the many jobs you could use your welding skills for. I was fortunate to have a son who is a welder by trade who showed me how to do it. Spraying I learned by trial and error and reading articles about it too. I used fairly large pieces of metal sheet to practice on from the body’s of old dishwashers and washing machines.
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I would love to learn how to weld. Presently I just don’t have the time or space, though. My garage is tiny (which is one of the reasons I’m getting an MX-5) and I’m not going to be able to weld on my driveway.
Whilst I’m mechanical, I also know my limitations and that welding is a skill that won’t come naturally to me. At this stage, and for this project, I’d rather pay The MX-5 Restorer in Pevensey to do the job and sleep safe that it’s been done properly.
That dodgy rollbar is a rare factory fitted style bar. In Japan only, it fitted to the cockpit brace.
Factory fitted brace, someone has colour matched it, since it would be originally yellow. Interesting little gauge there.
You missed the exhaust. Also a JDM 4-2-1 manifold, probably cost £1000 new.
pressure guage on the aftermarket adjustable fuel pressure regulator
also note the 2 relays by the drivers headlight, one for the aircon fan & the other for front foglamps?
as to the regestration, I’ve seen it (& the car) on one of the forums, possibly a ‘build’ thread on M5’s or Nuts maybe?
Rich.
Interesting. So there’s some value in there At £1k. The more I look at that engine bay, though, it looks as if it’s been sprayed with salt water. Strange the way the bodywork looks OK, but the intake and cam cover + every nut and bolt under the bonnet is very corroded . Having said that, if the car wasn’t 250miles away from me, I‘d be tempted to have a look.
On a separate note, Ive been thinking over the advice about Japanese import NAs not rusting when they were on their home soil…
I get that the Japenese don’t salt their roads like we do, but I’m surprised that that makes so much difference. At least in the south of England, I reckon our main roads are salted perhaps 30 times a year max, and that washes off in the next rainfall.
I would have thought living near the seaside, or even just general climate, would make more difference. And Japan’s climate isn’t exactly dry. It can be humid, they get more rain than us and it snows a fair bit in parts of the country
I also believe that the Japenese cars weren’t given any additional anti-rust protection. So, is part of the reason that the imports suffer from less corrosion to do what the fact that only rust-free examples were deemed to be worth the cost of exporting from Japan in the first place?
On Sapparo, road salt is used. And no importer will touch a car from Sapparo. Besides that, importers, in their 5 minutes viewing the car on the stump before bidding, don’t go around trying to separate rusty from non-rusty cars. Its accepted that outside of Sapparo, cars are basically rust free.
Eunos Roadsters have exactly the same level of rust protection as Europe bound MX5s. Where this myth (perpetuated by Quentin Wilson) arose from is that on some disposable cars which are scrapped anyhow after 10 years, or home-market only cars, like the FTO (owners would pay extra for winter protection. Sad to see 20 years on, they still persist.
This is a blog from 5 years ago, restoring a 1990 UK car, so a 1994-5 UK cheapie MX5 now might be much the same:
http://www.motorpunk.co.uk/articles/total-restoration-of-one-of-the-oldest-mx-5s-around/
the aluminium of the camcover & inlet manifold is not anodised, if previous owners had sprayed wax / wd / acf50 over it then they wouldn’t have corroded, seems to be 50/50 of cars that have corroded covers as to bolts, earlier cars had chrome (or stainless?) bolts securing the camcover & it’s possible economic’s got involved with the plating of general fixtures in the 5’s production run?
^^sorta my opinion based on observations…
anyway, never buy a 5 based on the ‘extras’, always on the body condition as it works out cheaper & you can add easily fitted mecanical parts as you choose
Rich.
Interesting stuff, thanks saz and Rich. On the rust protection, what I meant was that I thought the rust protection (or lack of it) was the same for Japanese cars as UK cars vs the Quentin Wilson myth that imports were inferior.
That motorpunk.co.uk NA is one rusty MX-5! It does reassure me that even the rust in a basket case is not incurable, albeit it may not be economically sensible to do the job.
I see in this blog (as was mentioned in one of Keith Tanner’s books) that it’s implies rust effects the earlier NAs (I think Keith said pre 94?) the most. Given Keith’s obsession with the Miata, I would have thought this was more than just a coincidence of older cars being exposed to more weather for a longer period of time. Perhaps it could have been a US market thing, though.
A good quote from the motorpunk.co.uk article which mirrors my POV on welding!:
‘There is such a skill in doing this properly. The steel repair plates have to match the curved bodywork perfectly and some are A4 sized (paper, not Audi). You’re playing with electricity, gas, heat, metal and a lovely old car that is slowly taking shape again. This is why I am not allowed to help.’
Back to the import vs UK car rust topic, I guess then that a UK car that has barely been used, or used in the summer only and garaged in the winter, could still be a good bet. Like this one, if the advert is to be believed. Obviously, would need to be looked at in the flesh. And this one still needs a little work (and isn’t the colour I was after), but there are no rust advisories on its (albeit sporadic) MOT records:
Or I could just look for an import ![]()
.
There was a perception that post 1995 cars weren’t as good as earlier cars, as the sills failed earlier. All a bit moot now.
I’ve had a 1992 Eunos Roadster S-Package (imported 1997, 1997-2000), a 1991 S-Special (imported 1998, 2000-2005), a 1993 M2-1002 (imported 1998, 2005-2007), 1996 S-Special II (imported by Mazda in 2000, in 2005 it had ~80k kms, now on 270k kms) and a 1993 S-Limited (imported 2004, 2013-2019).
The S-Special II remains.
2009; it needed a respray, and had a small hole on the ns rear sill repaired
In 2014, still looked presentable
2017; os sill and arch was looking a bit scabby, ns was ok, but the wheel arch was starting to bloom. Took the decision to do both sides, work by Thrussington.
Before wire wheel
Attacked near side with a wire wheel
Old repair just starting to fail
Repairs in hand
Underside is still excellent
After
Just the odd glitch here and there
Very nice looking motor and repair saz .
Interesting thread. Strangely I had a very similar conversation with one of the club members on the MX5 O/C stand at the NEC Classic car show when I visited on Saturday. He too suggested that buying a cheapish MX5/Eunos that needed welding and then spending the money getting the work done properly could be an alternative way to get into MX5 ownership. Gave the matter some thought but I don’t think this route is for me - I just don’t have the knowledge - would rather spend more to try to get a more solid car in the first instance. As some posters have said trying to keep to a budget for rust repairs can be difficult as it can be hard to assess the extent of the problem bit like an iceburg where only a small amout is visible! - Saz’s post and pictures seem to confirm it can be a journey into the unknown!
Also spoke to another forum member at the show with the lovely Laguna blue Eunos - his advice was to try to find a fresh import although we agreed there aren’t many of these around now. Have seen a couple on Ebay but you are talking 7k and would there still be some further expediture to get it totaly right? I have seen a couple of cars that that have been described as imported in the last 2 to 3 years - again they tend to be a bit pricier but assume that if they are pretty recent imports they shouldn’t have the usual corrossion issues.
You are correct. Imports have slowed right down over the last couple of years. Apparently the cost of cars, the low value of the pound, and the fact that the Japanese are buying them makes them very expensive to import.
The fact that there are thousands of very rough, very cheap cars over here is keeping the prices very low. So that even a lovely rust free car will struggle to get a good price.
I must have missed that Laguna Blue. There were a couple of Mariner Blue Mk1s, but I didn’t see the Laguna Blue…
Autolink have a couple of “fresh” imports for about £4k (one has axtually been dry stored for a few years, not registered). They might need some cosmetics, but far less than £7k. They have a Tokyo Limited for £9k; but thats a very rare car, and the one they have seems to be a pretty good example.
Autolinkuk and others can offer a semi-DIY import service, where they charge a modest fee to get a car imported to order. The difference you are paying variouys monies up front during the process without seeing the car in the metal. That might put off some people, but then, buying a 30 year old car in the UK ought to offer an element of chance, with the greatest financial risk being those mid-range cars that an owner has over-valued, or is hiding something. We talk about rust a lot, but probably ignore what should be an equally important element, crash repairs. The MX5, on some days, is a sports car, and a few of them have ended up in ditches, hedges.
I suspect a fairly decent car, probably not anywhere near concours, could be had as a personal import, for £3k.
Eg, lookinghere:
https://www.auctiondatasearch.jp/statistics/?ob=-lot_date
There was a G-Limited, grade 3.5, looks fairly good, with 105k kms. Its seen some bodywork in the past. Sold for 402,000 Yen last month (£2900)
http://p3.aleado.com/pic/?system=auto&date=2019-10-29&auct=25&bid=10357&number=1
http://p3.aleado.com/pic/?system=auto&date=2019-10-29&auct=25&bid=10357&number=0
XX means repaired panel, but importantly, its just the front wings, no other frontal panels, so likely minor
A 1992 V-Spec, auto, grade R, so its had more repairs. Sold for 43,000 yen (£300)
Looks reasonably straight, auction sheet shows multiple front panels were replaced
http://p3.aleado.com/pic/?system=auto&date=2019-10-25&auct=67&bid=3634&number=1
http://p3.aleado.com/pic/?system=auto&date=2019-10-25&auct=67&bid=3634&number=0
Another 92 Vspec, but a manual. Grade 3. Sold for 292,000 yen (£2100)
http://p3.aleado.com/pic/?system=auto&date=2019-10-18&auct=64&bid=244&number=1
http://p3.aleado.com/pic/?system=auto&date=2019-10-18&auct=64&bid=244&number=0
A black S-Spec 1.6, with hardtop, 128,000 yen, £911. A grade R
http://p3.aleado.com/pic/?system=auto&date=2019-10-15&auct=156&bid=4010&number=1
http://p3.aleado.com/pic/?system=auto&date=2019-10-15&auct=156&bid=4010&number=0
Beats a lot of £1000 MX5s over here.
And finally, a top grade 1995 V-Spec 2. Very nice, but it sold for 1,726,000 yen, £12 grand
http://p3.aleado.com/pic/?system=auto&date=2019-10-08&auct=27&bid=635&number=1
http://p3.aleado.com/pic/?system=auto&date=2019-10-08&auct=27&bid=635&number=0
A lovely looking car.
A white 1.8, sold for 84,000 Yen £600. I see a ittle rust stain on the front wing., but its a grade 3.5, so probably just an untreated stone chip.
http://p3.aleado.com/pic/?system=auto&date=2019-09-24&auct=25&bid=5032&number=1
http://p3.aleado.com/pic/?system=auto&date=2019-09-24&auct=25&bid=5032&number=0
Taking the white 1.8
£600 would have got you the car at auction
Add £500 for local agent/FOB costs
7% for all of that for shipping insurance
£500 for shipping.
10% on all that for duty
20% on the total for vat
£100 or so UK dock fees
£500 UK importer service charge (might be less)
So that car, no rust, could be with you for £2800 and change. Then you have to register, MOT it. Service and a set of tyres; £500. You might not want the hardtop, worth £300+. Roof might be wrecked, so add £300 (boo).
The market is starting to close a bit with the lowerr end of the grey imports; importers now have to spend a bit on prep, whereas before, cars were being sold at sea.
[quote=saz9961]
I must have missed that Laguna Blue. There were a couple of Mariner Blue Mk1s, but I didn’t see the Laguna Blue…
Sorry getting my Blue’s mixed up still learning about MX5 colours! It was Ian Cummins Mariner Blue MX5 in the "Pride of Ownership " finals I was refering to - Lovely car a real credit to him.
The Autolink site looks interesting. Their fresh imports look a little rough round the edges cosmeticly but this is reflected in the prices and look very solid underneath. With some fettling and cash they could probably be brought up to a good standard.
The prospect of getting a fresh import from Japan for 3K looks tempting although would have to get my head around buying a car that I had not clapped eyes on!! The Japanese auction prices seem to vary quite a bit would the cheap ones be any good or are they just old scrappers that they are trying to get rid of? Might be worth a conversation with Autolink though.
The
If you fancy it I have a silver mk1 1.8 automatic that is unbelievably solid and rust free and never been welded, going on sale. Just passed the MOT.
Looking for offers around £2k
More than welcome to come take a look, based just off junction 5 of the M5
Thanks Matt, but I’ll be looking for a manual. I was reading some US commentary on Reddit about how the auto Miatas out there were generally garaged and very pampered and at a price where it was worth picking one up to convert to manual. I don’t fancy tackling this as my first MX-5 ownership job, though!
auto - manual conversion is easy & the parts needed are cheap
Rich.
The risk you mentioned with buying a mid-range car saz and seeing how good your car looked before taking a wire brush to it have been playing on my mind. I’ve watched the ‘lights up, lights down‘ sticky on this thread and quite a few other videos about spotting NA sill and arch rust and repairs. Unless the car is a lot more expensive, immaculate and has never been repaired, or you take some tools to the bodywork, it seems very hard to tell the longevity of a resonable repair and whether the inner sill is rotting from the inside out.
My worry is that I spend £3-4k on a mid-range car that looks OK, only to have to shell out another couple of grand on sill/arch repairs a year or so down the line. Whereas, I could pick up something for £1-2k with a decent chassis, but not great bodywork, pay the bodywork repair bills upfront and have the peace of mind that these have been done at a reputable shop and will last a long time.
Finding an NA with a non-rusted chassis obviously involves finding a seller who doesn’t mind me putting their pride and joy up on axel stands. Or I guess I could poke a Go Pro with playback linked to my phone under the car, assuming my head won’t fit with it in the ground!
Is there anything underneath an NA that will corrode and cause big issues that won’t be obvious to the naked eye? I know the NA doesn’t suffer from the NB’s rotten frame rails. So, my assumption was it’s just the subframe and floor pan that can corrode, that these parts aren’t a common weak point on an NA and, if needed, poking a screwdriver around them should show if there are any issues beyond surface rust. Am I correct?
I have to say that, although tidy underneath, those Autolink cars are high milers and look a bit scrappy for the money from my fairly uninformed point of view .