Crashed my MX-5, determined to fix it!

General Discussion Forums MX-5 Chat
2

Hi all,

In a moment of stupidity I crashed my NA Eunos Roadster at a quiet T-junction. Didn’t brake in time for the junction, locked up, hit the verge across the junction, rode up it and hit a tree.

Needless to say I feel awful, especially as I was so excited at the prospect of getting it into great condition and having a car to be proud of.

The obvious option would be to scrap it but it wouldn’t make me feel any better, I want to fix it up. The damage is as follows (see pics):

  • Front cross member damaged beyond repair (Pic)
  • Front drivers side chassis leg kinked at the end (about 10cm back from where the front cross member joins), has kinked around the bolt hole (Pic 1, Pic 2)
  • Bonnet slam panel bent
  • Typical front impact damage (radiator, bumper .etc)
  • Drivers side lower wishbone and drop link bent
Another pic, and another, and another

Mechanically the car is still sound, the difficult damage is the chassis stuff at the very front.

My plan to resolve this is to purchase the following:

Cut my damaged front off and weld. It won’t be an easy job (involves completely stripping the front of the car), but I think it will be worth it.

Does anyone have any tips or advice, or just general thoughts? I need to know what might go wrong!

Many thanks

3

 

“Does anyone have any tips or advice, or just general thoughts?”

Have some advanced driving lessons.

Reg

4

for that sort of welding you will need to jig it up !!!

5

I’d understand jigging if the damage affected the suspension geometry, but it doesn’t. Could I not do without?

6

I have seen many race cars straightened in race paddocks with far heavier damage than that and drive straight and true afterwards. Yours looks pretty light and from your pictures it would appear that the damage is confined to areas that are more about hanging the various bodywork bits off at the front of the car. Before you start talking about cutting whole front end’s off cars, I would talk to someone who fully understands, and can actually view, the state of play and give you advice.

7

I’d have said that could easily be pulled out by somebody with a damage dozer and a bit of nous.

Bernard

8

I know that i PROBABLY could pull it back to shape, but I’d be more comfortable putting the extra effort (stripping and welding) in so I could get it back as good as new with peace of mind.

The radiator (hence its mouts) was pushed back in the crash, will this be further work or will it be included in the replacement of the front chassis section?

Thanks for your responses everyone.

9

Also, could anyone recommend me some good techniques for getting the measurements right when I make the cuts to my chassis?

Worst case scenario is I weld the new section on and my bumper sticks out 10cm…

10

I have reconsidered my options after speaking to the guys at MX5 City, who do repairs like this fairly often and say I should be able to straighten the ends of the chassis legs once I’ve got the slam panel and cross member / impact bar on.

What concerns me now is whether there is damage to the radiator mounting arrangement, and can it be dealt with independently of my other repairs?