I finally got my car back to today. I have had this car just over three years. It was a scruffy, but very sound 1994 RS-Limited with a few dings and scratches here and there. I initially cleaned the car up a bit before taking on a 2600 mile trip around Europe with my son, which took in a few laps of the Nurburgring on the way back. That left me wanting a Porker… However, after 3 years trying 997s, 996s and 993s, I’d been left a little cold - all capable cars but not really more ‘fun’. A could’nt see a Boxster being that different either.
Work has been manic the last 12 months, and I had been missing club, and Pistonheads events, and driving the car less and less, and it was once again beginning to gather dust. So, I decided about 3 months ago to bite the bullet and just plough some effort into the car I love, my trusty RS. In the last year, I had already fitted a Stainless Steel exhaust system, from a 4-2-1 Manifold, through a small Jackson Racing Cat, and a Dual rear box. I wanted the car to be the best it could, and given my lack of time, I was looking for someone to take on the project for me.
Via the MX5 Nutz website, a member called Garath was suggested. He had been doing some great work on bringing some ailing Mark 1s back to life, and was planning on starting an MX5 Restoration business (now operational - called ‘The MX5 Restorer’ http://www.themx5restorer.co.uk/ ). A quick visit to see him near Eastbourne led to a work list and agreed estimate being drawn up. I was looking to bring my car up to as close to ‘new’ as reasonably possible. Jobs to do included: All dings and scratches fixed, and body prepped - Full respray in the original Montego Blue, refurbish the BBS alloys, source, paint and fit new Rocker Cover, fit new rocker gasket, replace ‘O’ Ring, heat wrap and re-hang exhaust (was moving about a bit), change cambelt and water pump (as a precaution), clean out the engine bay, clean out the interior, fix worn Recaro seat panels, and fit new roof. The car, as I mentioned was sound and in good overall condition - so this was a serious spruce up, rather than attacking anything wrong. I was to drop the car over in a couple of weeks. In that time, I found that a good friend of a friend is a Master Trimmer (trained at Rolls Royce, now works on Astons) and said he would do the seats for me over a couple of weekends - and MazMania would be at the Owners Club Spring Rally and could fit a new hood for me there - that left all the rest for Garath and his collegue Marc to sort out for me.
Garath removed the seats for me to take away to the trimmer, when I dropped the car off around the 10th of April - and that would be the last I would see of if for a very painful 6 weeks. I picked the Seats up from the Trimmer on the evening of the 22nd May - They were AWESOME - a fantastic job done!. My plan was then to drive down to Eastbourne with the seats, bright and early on the Sunday (23rd May) morning to pick the car up at 9am, then drive up to the MX5 Spring Rally in Paddock Wood to have my new hood fitted and enter the car into one of the competitions. Bright, early and Sunday mornings never seem to work well together for me - so I arrive at Garath’s new unit at 10:30. Garath gets the seats fitted in a jiffy as I look over the car - the paint job is great - I did say that I was keen to avoid or minimise any overspray, and could not find any. The windscreen had been taken out, and the car very well taped up, obviously. (They also repainted my tired old wiper arms in satin black). A few final jobs to be finished, was deciding whether I wanted the old ‘Eunos’ and ‘Roadster’ badges fitted, which I did. The engine bay looked great, very clean, the Rocker cover effect was exactly what I was looking for. Upon start up, it looked like a little over exhuberance in the clean up - we had to spend a little time drying up some excess moisture before I could get on my way.
Seats
Car:
Engine Bay:
It was great to be back in the car and I was getting reaquinted with it - realising that another job I need to do is sort out the alignment again - a trip to WiM will be needed over the coming weeks. I made it the Spring rally about 12:30, a little late for my appointment for the new roof, but not a problem as Peter from MazMania appeared to be running a little behind also. Getting there so late meant that I could not take part in any competitions - and as we were chatting so much while the roof was being fitted, I did not leave till almost 4pm after everyone had left and most of the Sales stands had been taken down and the trucks gone. Peter did a very good job on the roof (as you would expect - all while a rain storm hit while the car had no roof), and the car looks great with its new Black Mohair/Glass hood. All in all, a very expensive, but thoroughly enjoyable end to 6 weeks without my car. Hope you enjoy the pictures.
Roof being fitted:
looking exceedingly good and back in time for the sunshine,when it reapears again
steve
Very nice mate, noticed this on PH earlier.
Lovely job.
That looks exceedingly good !! Who did the paintwork ? 
Looks well smart.
what are the seats and how much and comfy are they 
They are factory fitted Recaros; unique to the RS Limited and certain RX7s.
the search begins…
I don’t know exactly where he took the car, but Garath from ‘The MX5 Restorer’ arranged it for me. We decided to spend a little extra and get the car done from somewhere new. Not sure if he is on the MX5OC site, but I’ll wait to see if he will answer.
Yup. That is correct. This is one of 500 cars finished in this spec. The seats are indeed now very rare.
Was me !!! Was just pulling ya leg !! Glad ya like it
Wow that really does look mint :O! I wish my paint and engine bay was that clean 
the retrim on the seats looks to be done to a very high quality too! (jealous…
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Ahh. Sorry. I was wondering about the smiley. Thanks for such a good job. It would be nice to know exactly what was done - unfortunately, I’ve been too busy to go through what was to be done in detail.
Those Kevlar Recaros in that condition would set you back around £1200+ there are a pair of tatty examples on ebay at the moment for £800
Dr. Eunos
haha, yes it was Geoff that did the paintwork for us, and a great job he did to
I also noticed this on PH - lovely.
Someone once called the RS the CSL of MX-5’s. Well I don’t know about that, but it’s definitely the best colour. (OK, I’m biased.)
Ah mate …its proper nice …more pics , the paint is ace
That looks great.
Bet it looks even better in the flesh