- My model of MX-5 is: NC
- I’m based near: _Ribble Valley
I bought my car earlier this year and on inspection found the body work to be in surprisingly good condition but as with nearly all MX5’s the underneath was a little crusty at best… Talking to the seller I pointed this out along with all the bushses are knackerd or are well on their way to being! So I offered him what I thought was a sensible offer (1K off asking price) And he agreed after a while… with a £1000 knocked off the price I thought thats most of the cost to sort out the rear end done I was wrong 
. Looking at my original subframe it’s quite rusty but no holes to make the job quicker I bought a re-con already powder coated and ready to fit subframe. Once up in the air we started to get the real picture nearly every bolt needed heat to loosen, pinch bolts totally ceased and needed to drilled out all avoidable if a little grease is added to each bolt on installation. Once all stripped down I decided the link arms ect… needed to be replaced and whislt I’m at it new polly bushes would be in order too NOT CHEAP!!! Then we looked at the shocks again tired and crusty so new suspension it is and again not cheap!
So before the rebuild I needed to clean up the underneath some rust here and there and two holes on the near side inner sill and on the lower back plate, called a favour and was welded within the morning. Once clear of all rust I used a rust encapulater treament where needed and then a really good coating of black wax oil including all the access holes in the chassis leegs and sills ( daily driver so needs to be durable over beauty) once dry and solid the rebuild was quite easy as most stuff was new or I’d sand blasted it back to solid metal. So whilst the diff was out we cleaned it up new seals and painted it along with the drive shafts. I left the hubs and shafts together to help keep the costs down so I’ll recondition the hubs at a later point but the bearings ect… are in good order. New arms with new bushes you’d think the bushes would come out quite easily? NO! 5hrs to change all the bushes to polly and a right ball ache too! But all back together now and full of wax oil with just the ride height and stiffness to sort out now but well worth it back end feels very postive and hopefully another 20 years of happy motoring before I do it again! Next year I’ll tackle the front hopefully not as time consuming or as expensive!!
