Mazda-Menders

Been a bit light on here again as the MX has been in the shop for some extensive work (sills, rear arches, boot around battery box etc etc) and was hoping to do a full reveal and write up. Guy I had doing it was keeping me informed of progress with pictures (and hitches such as the mahoosive hole in the boot around the battery space)

.

All was looking good and the work was quality,

until,

one of the bodges this car is famous for came back to bite my welder firmly in the ar*e.




Some ape had done a slap job plate weld and filled the inner seal with god knows what (old rag or some crap, wasn't sound damping stuff as was different feel) so when my guy comes along to do the job properly, it goes up and trashes the passenger side interior. Looking like it's an insurance job or even a right off (needs new carpets, seatbelt, seatbelt tower, seat, wiring, plus all the original work it was in for plus any other crap bodges the apes who "serviced" this car before have hidden away). Welder is only slightly less gutted than me, he really liked the car and was enjoying the work.

Looking at parts now and speaking to insurance but its not looking good.

(Coming soon, sale of MX5 parts only slightly singed and a bucketful of nearly new )

Gut wrenching I bet.
Thats always a problem with cars with an unknown history and the lack of quality materials some bodgers bodge with.
Hope you work something out that either saves the car or goes a long way to replacing her.

Holy crap, gutted for you mate.

If the wiring isn`t too far gone then i`d imagine the interior bits could be picked up very cheaply & probably some people would donate them for free if they have them hanging around.

Hope you get it sorted!

After a closer look at the damage and the work needed doing to make the car safe (basically both sills, the boot and most of the rear is rust), I'm regretfully writing her off. The money, time and effort its going to need to fix the damage, mend the rust and track down whatever other bodges have happened to her in the past make it too much.

Done a deal with the welder who is genuinely apologetic so not out of pocket and will be putting up some parts for sale (rear driver wing, door seals and other odds) but gutted doesn't cover it.

RIP Lilith

Interior items can be found cheap enough at the minute and a loom bits from a scrapper will be easy to re add, i'll add the loom on the side, shame to stop after getting so far into it, it is just a set back and easy solved.
M-m

Cheers for the offer M-m but the problem is a bit more than that, more like the straw that broke the camels back.

When checking over the after the accident I took a mechanic friend with me for a proper assessment and his review was a bit sobering.

I was originally quoted around £1200 for the work both sides (archs, sills and bit of tidying), not too bad. This price grew once my guys started cutting as the rear drivers panel was either rust or filler (so needed replacing as there was basically nothing left to weld to), again I was expecting some bad news so could roll with it, once panel was off it became apparent the battery area was *really* bad and so bill was going up again.

After the accident my mate had a VERY thorough poke around, in addition to the work already found, to make roadworthy both sills would need totally replacing front to back along with most of the boot and areas around the suspension mounts plus a list of other issues he found that needed looking at (windscreen surround and scuttle and more), this is without finding more horrors. Mates assessment was I was looking at £3k minimum to get back on the road if no further problems were found (not going to happen!) and that was before I started fixing the interior. On the outside I didn't look too bad but once you started poking there was more rust/filler than metal.

NOOO! I feel so bad for you. Bodywork is the thing I'm most worried about permanantly taking my car off the road. Even an engine can be changed fairly easily but reshelling a car for the sake of calling it the same car, I'm not sure even I could do that to keep my baby alive. Although you wouldn't know it, the bodywork budget runs in to thousends on my mk1 because it's been crashed in to by ideots 3 times now!

Hi mate, agree with others on here a real share for you, but I guess better is know when to call it a day rather than throwing more money at it.

I've just repaired a sill and I noticed that the point where yours caught alight, on mine had loads of factory body seam sealer. I had removed the carpet, seats and interior plastic before starting. Even so the seam sealer was quick to burn.