The "donor" car

Post date: Apr 2, 2013 5:10:49 PM

On 26 July 2012, after a few months of looking for a suitable car, we bought this laguna blue Mazda MX-5 1.8 from 1994 from a seller in Aachen, Germany. The original plan was to look for a Smart Roadster Coupe, but they are still expensive. This MX-5 was advertised pretty cheap, having engine and electrical problems, but this would be no problem with our goal in mind. Some of the rust on the sills will have to be addressed though, but these rust spots are a typical problem on NA MX-5 models.

During the trip back, it seemed that the engine was going to fail completely any time time, and oil was leaking from the crank position sensor. There was very little power (probably not firing on all cylinders) and the modified exhaust was extremely noisy. Fortunately, after two hours of driving the thing seemingly began to recover.

The car came with an original but repainted hardtop and an extra set of wheels, reasonably ok leather interior (must have been fitted later), electrically adjustable side mirrors and power steering. The soft top will need to be replaced, but having the hardtop, this is not a pressing issue. It has about 170.000km on the clock.

We drove it a few weeks to be sure things like the gearbox were still working as they should. By keeping the gearbox (at least initially), the conversion is supposed to be easier and the possibility to shift takes away the trade-off between torque and top-speed.

Other minor faults are that the driver's door is sagging a bit and there are a few small dents and scratches on the paint. And there is bubbling paint on the driver-side's A pillar. But if the sill rust is to be addressed properly, a respray is going to be in order anyway.

First thing to do was removing the complete engine and getting rid of it. There is not enough space to keep them around for long.

Being a 1.8, the engine is more sellable. Also, the 1.8 MX-5 apparantly has more structural bracing underneath the car than the 1.6 and a higher specified dry weight. The latter gives us more "room" regarding final weight (with batteries etc...). So, all in all we are pretty pleased to have stumbled on this particular car. Here's hoping it stays that way :)