I think many mx5 owners reach acceptance after going through the five stages of grief.
I’ve gone past denial and anger, and am now at bargaining 
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Quote…
“that is why the cars are dirt cheap in the aftermarket and you just have to accept that fixing the rust in the UK is an ongoing maintenance issue”
Not so cheap, I can’t believe how these cars let’s say at 12 to 15 years old not garage pampered examples either are commanding high prices. It’s not just dealer prices but privately owned cars too, maybe it’s the time of year, top goes down, prices go up.
Lots to unpack here:
- you undersealed a 8 year old car - was it already rusty? If so, you’ve just sealed in the rust and allowed it to spread unnoticed.
- Even if the car wasn’t rusty in 2017 - driving it for 8 years, that sealant isn’t going to last that long , no chance in winter, it would need doing every couple of years depending on how good of a job they did, which brings me onto …
- Plenty of people/places just slap on wax/underseal and call it a day, unless you’re doing a thorough job (stripping off arch liners, removing parts etc) and actually treating the rust first or applying a primer, it will be in vain.
- Commets referring to NDs on this thread - I’ve seen plenty of rusty ones around already sadly.
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I cannot believe it’s nigh on ten years since the pre-launch VIP day “drive a few NDs” in North Berwick. On the one hand, I was utterly smitten with them all…I drove them like I stole them as well on a pre-programmed route by the Mazda staff promo folk. Then I looked underneath ( these were likely Eunos imports incidentaly)…and thought…Oh dear…hope “they” slap on some “stuff”…I saw more holes and unplugged cavities than ever before. Never the less…it’s taken a lot longer for forum pages to report than I thought it would if I’m honest. Thin mild steels, good 'ol British roads in winter…Mother Nature will have her chemistry ways and re-oxidise these babies when she wants to! 'Tis the Circle of Life chaps.
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I have gone as far as I can and hopefully the car will now last for me.
My car lives outside and is used all year round. Each winter I will still attend to any surface rust appearing on seams, components, etc. and will then waxoyl in all cavities (body and components and then spray waxoyl over the whole underside.
To get to where I am now I removed all wheel arch and sill covers, both subframes all suspension components. All rust was then removed and repairs carried out at the lower front of the rear wheel arches. Sub frames and all steel components media blasted. All treated steel painted with two coats of Epoxy twin pack steel renovation paint, seams sealed with Tiger seal and the whole underside bonded together with a thick coat of stone guard coating. Underside painted to colour match bodywork and all cavities (bodywork, Subframes, etc) and then underside treated with Waxoyl.
It was a lot of work, but, hopefully with ongoing yearly correction and re-Waxoyl treatment all will be good!
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That’s a hell of a lot of work but probably the only long -term solution. Respect.
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Isn’t it wonderful that people have the passion to keep these cars on the road. Massive respect to you and everybody else that does it. Whatever the car. 
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Thank you for your kind words.
I was really lucky with the car I bought as a starting point. No real service history but 38k miles, very good MOT history and was really good on test drive. Oil and other things looked like they were being cared for as well. When I got underneath it could have been completely shot, but it wasn’t.
I did all the work on my back with the car on axle stands in a single width double length garage. I now have an intimate connection with my baby and just love driving it with the DSC light on! 
I know the feeling. I bought three sheets of marine ply and some epoxy and turned it into a a 13kg kayak at the start of Covid. I paddled it for two years then dipped out when I reckoned I couldn’t rescue myself if things went wrong.
It’s been sitting about for another two years as I can’t bring myself to sell it.
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