Nearly 3 years since we picked up my son’s Eunos Roadster now, so thought I’d give a few updates …
When we picked it up it looked like this:
It was a high mileage car but very original, apart from the red respray which had been poorly done and at some point it had been kept under a cover and the lacquer had gone bubbly all over the car. We bought the car as a project for my son though as he was studying mechanics at college and this was a project to get some valuable hands on experience. We paid £1100 for it. Apart form the lacquer/cover issue, it had clearly been kept in a garage for all it’s life as there was virtually no rust on the car. I looked down inside the sills and everything but it is clean.
We set about tidying her up and checking her over, in preparation for her first track day. The thinking was, if she survived a track day, then the car was sound and worthy of further investment. We fitted new parts where we could repair to a good standard. We took the front and rear apart and cleaned up and resprayed where required.
She survived her first track day with just one coolant pipe leaking a bit. This was a timely indication that all of the pipes were 28 years old and really needed replacing. So a new set of silicon hoses went on.
On investigating the noises from the sports exhaust fitted we found some cracks, so a brand new stainless steel MX-5 parts sports exhaust went on. This transformed the car It’s loud but that is part of the character now. My son loves it and it makes me giggle when we go through tunnels
Next job was to re-seal underneath and new bushes on the original Bilstein dampers. Also tidied up the springs.
Then we started work on the engine. New water pump and all new belts and fluids …
I never expected to get this deep into the insides of an MX-5 with my son but we both enjoyed it and learnt lots.
The track day highlight how rubbish the tyres were and we spotted these wheels up for sale and grabbed then for some new Yokohama AD08R tyres. These transformed the grip and handling.
The next job was to tidy up the interior. Yoko arrived with a tan inside but my son wanted to change it aback to black. My son was now wanting to rectify the tatty paintwork so we agreed to a respray in his favourite colour, white. This meant stripping the car down:
It’s hard to describe just how much effort had gone in by now and we had fix, tidied and replaced a lot of parts.
Got Yoko back in June 2018 with a very nice paint job by a local body repair shop we have used before and is familiar with MX-5’s. £2300 for the new paint.
Next we had the huge job of putting it all back together, The strip down had confirmed what we knew, there was virtually no rust on Yoko. A huge amount of effort and care was taken to put the car back together right. A new windscreen was fitted because the other one broke whilst being taken out. New window seals, header seals, soft-top seals, etc.
The interior was all cleaned up and sprayed with back to black:
Where bits were damaged we found replacements. Many new plastic fixings for body work, trim, wheel arch liners, etc.
Now my son could start to make it his and personalise it:
I don’t agree with all his styling choices but it’s his car. One think I learnt from building my own kit car is that you can do what you want and like, and to hell with what anyone else thinks!
The work never stops! We are paranoid about any untoward noises and we couldn’t find the source of one intermittent clucking on sharp right corners. One thing we did was to replace all of the ARB bushes with Polybushes as they current bushes were clearly worn. All parts cleaned up and painted to look like new
We also fitted new speakers and a Bluetooth head unit with handsfree phone capability as we were part of a convoy off to the 2019 Le Mans 24 race.
New fuel filter fitted as we didn’t know if the original one had ever been changed.
Drove the car down to Le Mans in June for the 24 hour race. Suitable graphics applied for the trip. Yoko behaved brilliantly, though we had a rear calliper seize just before we were due to drive home. She used no oil at all on the 1000 mile trip and averaged 35mpg.
So after nearly three years of ownership, we have both learnt a huge amount! There is very little we haven’t done yet to Yoko.
This week, all 4 callipers come off for a full strip down refurb and to be powder coated in red. New braided hoses going on to match.
Over winter we plan to fit a roll bar and remove front and rear sub-frames, to get the whole suspension refurbed and powder coated. New dampers/springs, new alignment bolts and a full geometery check and set up.
The current black, leather seats were taken from a friends Mk II that was scrapped but new seats will be going in next year.
We now have a matching black hard-top too.
Having bought the car for £1100, we have easily spent another £4000 on her so far and another £2500 is planned. Will we get this back? We don’t care. This was an investment in my son more than it was an investment in a car. He’s learnt loads and we’ve both has a lot of fun and some priceless moments together working on it. It’s his first car and he isn’t ever going to sell it. I’d never even thought about owning an MX-5 until my son suggested buying an old one. I’m now a huge fan of these cars. Great fun, great value, easy to work on.
Insurance costs for an 18 yr-old are quite high. He’s had three chances to drive it so far as I can add him to my insurance for a week at about £80 a go. Once he has another year’s NCD, I think he can be permanently insured to drive it. It costs me less than £100 to insure for me to drive it, fully comp as a classic car.
My 21 year old daughter bought a new mk 4 1.5 MX-5 last year, also in white.
It is heartwarming to read of the bonding that you have managed with your son through the restoration.
I can’t imagine how you could begin to value the emotional benefit of working with your son to create his perfect roadster. These little cars really do get under our skins!
All four brake calipers are off the car, to be completely stripped, powder coated in red and fully rebuilt. Not a cheap exercise but they look to be in a bit of a state and we have had issues with one seizing. New pads going on and HEL braided hoses when we get them back. The discs on the car were replaced just before we bought it.
My son is finally insured to drive Yoko permanently He’s got a few years of accident free driving under his belt, so the insurance premium has come down to a reasonable level (£840/year with a £450 excess). When I first looked at getting him insured to drive Yoko, they wanted £4500 for the year! It’s less than £100/year for me as the only driver. No black box required either
Frustratingly, Yoko is off the road with no brake calipers at the moment. Expecting them to be back from being refurbished soon though. New EBC YellowStuff pads arrived though. The disks on the car were replaced just before we bought it.
The new calipers are on Yoko. Tried as hard as we could to undo the brake fittings, so we could fit the new HEL brake hoses but they seem to be seized Didn’t want to break anything and then have to trailer the car to get it fixed, so we have decided to leave the old hoses on for the summer and tackle this job over winter.
If we break the fittings, we may as well fit complete new solid lines and new metric fittings. I’m confident doing this as I built my kit car brake system up from basic parts.
Going to have to have another go at bleeding the brakes tomorrow as the pedal still feels a bit soft to me. Hard to tell with new pads as well though.
It’s loud but that is part of the character now. My son loves it and it makes me giggle when we go through tunnels 
Didn’t want to break anything and then have to trailer the car to get it fixed, so we have decided to leave the old hoses on for the summer and tackle this job over winter.
