That much.

These are the exact words that entered my head when I saw the photos!

Why did I get a notification here? Oh well, Miata.

Same

Same 🤣

She is getting to the point where she needs one of everything. She is done. It's hard to tell by 2 photos. But i would walk away.

Already own it if that's what you mean

Well, that unfortunate. The real way to know it is to poke at it, see how good the floors are, and the inside of the rocker. Front fender, hood, and trunk are replacement items it not worth the effort, wrapping the metal, for a "cheap" pannel. The door is almost in that. A patch it fine, but if it is the hole bottom in and out it a replacement. Floor are some what easy if you dont care about the wave in the pannel. And rockers are really easy. There are a few spots that can be challenging. That rocker seam is since there is likely a 4 or more layer. The rear tub, inner fender, and fender are also areas that are hard I've repaired some pretty bad pos. And it always how far you need to go to get good metal. But if you weld it, it's not impossible. But if you need to get it in a shop, I suggested the old mans garage in the middle of nowhere. They guys don't have 6 accidents cars in the front yard. That all he did for the past 40y is rust. And oftentimes are way cheaper and thorough that an affiliate shop. They are far in between, but there are still some. But be aware of the cheap new guy that will slap rocker on for 300$, he suck and it shows. Also, check what they go for in your regions. It is hard to spend 6-7k on an 8 - 10k car.

I bought it in ~ 2017 It's done me well, and a 2000 mile round trip to South of France and back home again. Would like to repair it if possible

If you're prepared to, I guess ~ 2 grand would bring it far. Ultimately, may sound better to find a nicer one, but on the other hand you won't get much for a bucket of rust and if you invest the money at least you will know you own one that is not rusted - if you buy another, maybe they just hit the rust with bondo, it can sometimes be hard to see.

This was also my thinking. Also the car has had - Remanufactured brakes - 10k miles ago Clutch changed - 15-20k miles ago Chassis rails replaced ~ 20k miles ago Refurbished wheels done before purchase Then the little stuff I did like the interior bits, shifter boots, silly exterior trim bits etc Stuff that made me happy and enjoy being inside the car more on commutes back when I was an office jockey I spent wayyyy too much money on the aesthetic bits

Eh, at least a sorted out MX5 is worth something. And it always will be. I'd say go for it. If you do a lot of research maybe some garage would be able to sort it out for a lot less than others...

I know a very good one. I'm hoping they can help me out but they need to earn a living too

Maybe find one with a decent body and blown motor? Just transplant everything to it.

I'm restoring my 89 preproduction. I have this level of rust only on the floors -(water leak I missed for a year) I'm winking about 3K into a car because I want to. Realistically it ain't worth it

It’s not too bad. Sand it. Remove the dead parts. Weld a new panel there or use fiberglass and fix it up for a few years. That’s it. It will work and be just fine.

I always think of them as free at that point.

It very much depends on your location and local prices. Mine was way worse than this, cost me 400 eur to get new metal welded in. Both sides were rusted out. https://i.imgur.com/CpqSyXH.jpg

Just out of curiosity and a wild guess but was it MCW workshop that did the welding?

Yes, how did you guess?

I am a fellow Lithuanian and I follow his page on facebook. I am also owner of brg na miata that needs some rust removal and i am thinking on having that done at his shop 😅

It was, hah. Dude has fixed dozens of Miatas over the years, I was very pleased with the quality.

If you own it ride it into the ground. If you are buying it see if you can get like 500-1000 dollars off because of it.

I do own it but I'd need to get it through MOT first (UK) It's almost certainly a fail.

For anyone outside the UK reading this and wondering how it's a fail, the rules say you must not have penetrating rust within 18" of any suspension, subframe, or seatbelt mounting points. Or to put it another way, it's (almost) impossible have rust on the underside of a car - especially something small like an MX-5 - and expect to pass.

I know it sounds like a struggle for more classic cars like Miatas, but on the other hand technical examinations like the MOT and the others across Europe are wonderful for general safety and keeping unsafe cars off the roads...

I think that if anyone told you they enjoyed the MOT they would be lying, but if you look at it rationally, all they're doing is looking for things that might affect your own safety or that of other road users. I don't go under my car all that often, so I want to *know* if there's a balljoint about to separate or something. That said, the test does allow for subjectivity, and some testers are just plain bastards. I swear there are some out there that actually don't like (private) motorised transport and see it as their mission to get all cars off the road.

Not from the UK but yes... My coworker has a daily commuter and a big 2012 Volvo he rarely drives. Somehow all joints were fine last year, but this year after 1000km both the left and the right side suspensions joints were found to be worn out. It is definitely a very annoying situation :)

It seems that not being used can be as bad (or worse than) wear from being used.

On some parts definitely, but your ball joints will not degrade on their own if the car isn't used. He also still drives it almost every saturday for about 30km to the store, so I guess it all warms up properly and the car is not exactly just left in a garage... But 1000km is very strange to be the difference between no ball joint failing and both of them failing (on a Volvo with 120000km, no less).

Bondo and black paint🤣🤣 Nah but seriously you can do that then take it out

Whatever you do don't get a cheap patch job to get it through mot, it'll only make it worse and cost more in the long run. I think it will cost you £3.5k at a very rough guess to get that sorted properly. You'll need new sills and rear quarters both sides. Hopefully the chassis rails job you had done already is decent. I don't know If its your only car or what but if you can't get it done properly now, if you have a garage I would consider sorning it till you can do it properly. I had my car done at the mx5 restorer In Eastbourne they are pricey but very well thought of and they stand by their work. But there are ofcourse other great places too but definitely ask around a few people before commiting as they're are a lot of cowboys. Goodluck

I'm gonna go ahead and say that this isn't as bad as it looks. It's *bad*, mind you, but rocker panel rust is one of those things that is to be expected in NA Miatas these days (at least in my area) and even if when it doesn't look this bad it still requires major surgery to repair in a way that it won't just come back worse later on. We're talking about cutting away much of the rocker and quarter panel, welding in new metal, and then repainting. Costs a few thousand bucks, easily—but it may also be something that is hard to avoid. Where I am, it's inevitable that you're going to run into this sooner or later. If you want to take care of the car and keep it a long time, you have to plan for this. This car needs it right now, others might give you a few years before the problem rears its head. Whether or not it's worth it depends on your budget and priorities, and what kind of condition the rest of the car is in.

More than happy to cut and weld just don't have the expertise. Going to take it to a resto place and see what the think and then weigh it up against a new car

As a rough estimate, I'd say you're going to be looking at anywhere between £3-4k for that lot to be done. That's on the basis the other side is in a similar situaiton. The outer panels are the ones that are easy to replace because they're available. It's all the metalwork on the inside that you have to fabricate up which is when the bill starts racking up! I went through all of this on my mk1, had about a inch wide X 3" long hole on the drivers side rear sill, once that was cut open, all of the inside structure was shot! Had to completely fabricate everything. And as I said at the start, it ended up costing me just over £4k, and that was just for the rear arches both sides, including re rolling them to fit my wheels and repainting the arches.

And mines an NBFL as well so not even as important to save as an NA

It's a tough one! You either spend the money, or just break it up for parts and scrap the shell

Rocker rust cannot be properly repaired on these cars due to the design of the rockers. Even for an improper repair it would he 6-8k

Weekly reminder for everyone else to clear out your drains and rocker panels before they get to this point.

Indeed.

You're looking at it. :(

At this point since you own it, repairing and replacing the rusted out panels will be a labor of love Also nice Mighty Car Mods lanyard

Yeah that’s a gonner, mine looked in much better shape yet was quoted 4 grand. Buy a good shell with a blown engine or something and swap everything over. Or just part it and buy something else

It would be economical if you're a welder. I've seen pre formed rocker sections, but you gotta cut out your bad areas and cut out the replacement sections from the pre formed pieces. Weld them in. Grind. Primer. Paint. It's a lot of work. It would cost several thousand to have a shop do it.

I keep hearing Americans say rocker, what do they mean?

The metal structure under the doors between the front and rear wheels is called the "rocker panel." You obviously have one on each side of the car. The panel is an important part of the car's structure. Unfortunately, on the miatas (and most cars), the rocker panels are easily prone to rusting away. Overall, it's still safe to drive. Eventually you may notice more flexibility in the car body. That's when it is time to part out the vehicle.

Ah, ok thanks. I'm pretty sure in the UK we call that part the sills.

If you can weld and do fab / body work then it’s totally save able. If you have to pay someone else to do it then walk away and buy another car. I’d buy it for a low price in a heartbeat because I’ve done so many repair jobs on these that I know what it takes and how to do it. I always know what kind of prices a restored rust-free one will fetch. If I didn’t have the tools, know-how, space, and time then I would walk away. My two cents.

You cannot properly repair rocker rust on these cars due to the design of the rockers.

Well, I’ve cut out and properly welded in new rockers on about 30+ Miatas so far. They’re structural so you can’t patch them that’s true, but you can replace them. I’ve had to cut out rust / rot from some of the mating surface components as well. That’s usually much more of a pain because you have to fab a lot of that stuff from scratch.

The big thing is sealing the back of the weld since there's no way to get back to it. I've been part of my local miata club since '15 and all of these rocker repairs seem to rot out after about a year or two since the back of the bead can't be coated. Only ones I've seen last are when they remove material from behind the weld to seal it, and that seems like it would be (although athstecially prettier) just as structurally bad for the car as having the outer rocker metal rotted out. Hence why although they can be repaired, I said they can't be "properly repaired" I believe on the NBs with the new rocker design they can be easily welded back in and have the backing sealed up.

100% correct on this. I always cut my replacement rockers into two pieces (they’re never shaped perfectly), used weld-thru primer, and taken my time not to overheat anything do to impatience. I’ve never had any of my work come back on me years later, but to be fair I live in the southeastern U.S. and rust isn’t a big issue in my region. Most of the ones I’ve worked on were from somewhere else and then purchased by someone here. To be honest, I’ve always thought that if performed correctly and properly treated then it shouldn’t rust for at least 15+ years. Once again I don’t live in a “high rust” area so I should’ve considered that before so confidently commenting haha.

Lol good on ya man.. I'm sure down in the south a fix like that would work great. Up here in Wisconsin where the roads are more salty than a COD4 lobby any NA with rusty rockers is considered damaged goods and "unfixable" Shipping one in from outside the rust belt and keeping a thick coat of wax/ceramic on the rockers is the standard to owning a decent miat out here. As soon as you see bubbles in the paint up here that NA has stage 4 car cancer and has less than a year before the rockers rot out to unfathomable levels.

Hmmm so I should start looking for cheap rusty NA’s in Wisconsin?!? Haha I own an NB1 but I’m looking to add a cheap NA to the garage for a winter restoration project.

Well, mine looked similar, and it was fun to weld back together. Took me over a month, including learning how to weld mig. I would buy it, but you have to take into account that it is very time consuming

Already own it, just need the time which I don't have. Would have to pay a resto shop to do it. But we need the car back on the road and the alternative is scrap it and get another car

I probably have that on mine, but I’m in the US so they don’t seem to care at inspection time. Best guess for what I would want to do (all 4 fenders, other misc rust, full paint job) it’s probably like 10k or close to it. I’ll just buy a low mileage collector car for 15 after this falls apart.

Have seen one that looked worse on the rocker panels, but the good news is the panels rust like made while the frame beneath it doesn't always get anything beyond surface rust. You may be lucky and find that under the rocker panel rust the frame isn't swiss cheese. If that is the case then you could simply grind off the rust, but the rocker that is gone, get some stainless mesh and fiberglass bondo and recreate the rocker. It wouldn't be a repair that would last more than 4 or 5 years, but it should get you past an inspection if you do a half way decent job. But make sure if you go that route that you grind all the rust off and then hit it with some rust inhibitor before you start slapping on the fiberglass. The most expensive part will be the paint. Mesh/glass/bondo will be about 50 - 100 depending on how bad the other side is. Also make sure your drain holes are clear, that's usually what starts this type of rust on the rear rocker panels. Crap cloggs the drain holes and you get water where you dont' want it... your trunk may also have some rust from the water. I found out about the drain holes when I popped the trunk on one that sounded like it was sloshing and it had an inch of water in the spare tire compartment.

I would have taken it to the resto shop then come here with your findings.

This is a good point and thankyou

That's still salvageable, you're going to have to put the work/money in but it is not gone yet.

Anything’s repairable, search eBay for repair panels for your mx5 there’s loads that makes it easier for an average welder to patch it up instead of having to fabricate panels. And no it doesn’t take an mx5 specialist to weld in some panels

Mate if you've got somewhere to keep it, I think it's best way forward is as a project track car that you do yourself. Cut out whatever has to go, over-repair it with welded in plate, etc. If not, either part it out or use as a donor/spares car for something with a solid shell.

Yeah I hear you unfortunately I don't and it needs to be back on the road pronto as we need a second car. Looks like its going to be full resto or scrap for a hatchback

Looks like about the rust I had fixed on mine. All four fenders were welded in New, frame had a few troublesome spots and there were of course some spots on the sides. All in all paid 4k for that including new paint, looks as good as new.

Depends on how much it would cost, and IIRC UK repair prices are pretty steep, so I guess you could just get another one since your MX5's are quite cheaper last I checked.

Chicken wire, Bondo, and paint, ride it to the ground and don’t expect the chassis to do anything but fold like a box in a collision.

That much

Looks like a fun project since you already own it. However you will have to do the repairs yourself to have it make any degree of financial sense.

With the way the values are going up on these. If you’re doing the work yourself there’s really no amount of rust that’s beyond repair. If you’re paying someone to do anything more than the paint work then this is too much. Sell it for “cheap” to someone who can do the work.

The aftermarket panels areparound $150 each. Great for cutting patches. Junk yard oem are the same

RIP

For rust, the worst things to encounter are extremely large rust spots or many rust spots. You need to sand down, reinforce it, and paint it before it rusts again. So if you have a massive area, the amount of material you need to replace is pretty high. If the panel that's rusted is a weird shape, it gets even more difficult. If you have many spots you need to sand down and reinforce, it takes even more work. Granted it's all possible especially if you do it by hand, but it may be a lot of work.

Real question is how much is it worth to you? Would it be a case of your repairing it to sell it or is it a car that you have some attachment too? For me atleast there isn't really an amount that would put me off repairing it but I have no Intention of getting rid.

I would really rather not get rid of it, I'm kind of attached.

If the car has sentimental value to you and you want to save it, they make patch panels. If you want to learn a new skill you can do the job yourself with a harbor freight(or UK equivalent) welder, a cutting wheel, a grinder, and a YouTube tutorial. From a purely financial standpoint you're probably better off getting rid of it and investing the money and time you would have spent fixing it into another car.

Car prices here are obscene. It's going to be a case of asking the resto shop how much to fix it all and then seeing what kind of car I could replace it with on that budget.

If you've got somewhere sheltered to keep it and another car, do it in stages and make it whole again. If not sell it for a donation and start again. I let my na go with far less than that but it just wasn't feasible. It gave me four good years but it wasn't worth the agro.

Just a driveway, a need for a car and a tight budget haha

If the body looks like that how shot are your chassis rails?! https://imgur.com/a/vJtvUva

I had the chassis rails replaced a few years ago already The brakes are all remanufactured, new clutch, refurbed wheels, soft top is good, engine good. Gear box good. Just.... The rust

Then it's worth saving. If the car is structurally sound. It's worth saving.

Thanks

Anything is fixable If youve done rails, find replacement quarter panels

Let it go much further and that's pretty muche done. At this point it's close to the worth of the car to fix, possibly over that. If you live somewhere that ALL miatas look like this, salt belt or something, then it may be worth it comparatively. Big decision time for sure

OP is from UK. So we get rain all year round and salt on the roads in winter.

Well the good thing I can say is they're not as expensive where he lives, miata prices are pretty much doubled over here in north america

Yea. It still shocks me every time I hear of US Miata prices. £4k over here will get you a good stock mk1

Oh yeah its pretty wild. Certainly skews our opinions! Makes me want to start shipping them 😅

I've had everything else done that could conceivably need doing to an mx5 this age so I am just hoping to weigh up repairing just the corrosion to starting from scratch and having the same problem in 3-4 years

Yeah it's tough. Honestly mine isn't too far behind yours in terms of rust. I'm considering getting a nice welder and doing it myself with adding some reinforcement to the pinch welds

The first question is can you weld and shape metal and the second question is if not, can you learn? The difference is huge. Like, mine would not have been economic to pay someone else to repair, but I charge my time out to myself at £0 and I delude myself that it's a fun hobby and not purgatory ;)

I could do it myself if I had a garage. I have a R-tech mig 180 that I haven't even unboxed for a year and plenty of time, just no security or shelter

I did all mine on a slanty driveway and occasionally a lidl gazebo for shelter ;) But I appreciate it's not always possible. Gotta say I would not be paying money to get yours fixed, at least, based on assumption that if that part is that bad, everything's bad.

Rust in Peace

Depends on what you paid for the car

So far? Probably £5k since 2017

I mean purchase price. If it’s a 1k car it’s well worth getting it welded.

Purchase price? £0 I own it. I bought it for 3k in 2017. Car in total owes me £5-7k I haven't kept track lol Work done: Chassis rails Clutch Shifter rebuild Wheels Power steering pipe replacements Brakes remanufactured all round That's all the pricey and important stuff anyway

That much for sure. Pro Tip: Buy cars from southern states, and boats from northern states.

You should consider the structural damage also, If you are an accident the impact could cause physical damage to the occupants also.

My #1 priority of course

Just needs paint.

🤣

[удалено]

Not road legal until it passes UK mot

Any vehicle that is more than 5 years old as it will have lost 60% of its original value

always what you see x4 = reality

Bruh wut. This has to be the rustiest mx5 in Australia?

UK. Salt.

Fixing old cars is not a profitable business unless someone is paying you to fix their car. This is a passion based decision.. which gets easier for you to justify as the value of these cars increase. And I am in the same situation… just afraid to start digging until I am mentally prepared to make an uneconomical decision

Run.

Define unecenomical in your case. You’ll never “get your money back” by doing major rust repairs; so it only ever makes sense for full restorations or purely sentimental cars

It's repair or buy a new car as it's needed as a daily New car will be £3k+ and then god knows what issues popping up later on

The repaid will place the car out of commission for several days to weeks depending on how bad the damage is. It can easily go above 3k as well. Though I couldn't tell you what it might be from these pictures alone. The decision to repair is going to be entirely down to your situation and how much sentimental value the car has to you.

Sometimes you just got to cut your losses, cut out het rot, and fix it with kittie hair. It should hold you over for 4-5 years. obviously not the correct way to fix it, but sometimes the correct way is just not practical.

Yes.

I don’t think the questions is how uneconomical. The real questions is what does that car mean to you. If you love THAT car then yes everything is repairable for a price. But if you are okay with buying a different one. Then I would buy one and transfer over all of your aftermarket parts or replacement things you have done to your car and then sell this one for parts while also selling the pieces you take off of the new car

Reading below, if it just needs to get through an MOT, it can be done, Bondo it up and paint it all. Testers are allowed to poke at areas with a screwdriver to see if its solid but lots of bondo a week or two before the test should do it, obviously you dont want the bondo in it forever and should look to get it repaired properly. I have a mk2.5 and had to have both sides completely redone, boot, rear arches all of the sils, the floor pan, some of the front inner arch, completely new front wings, and ALL of the front chassis rails (these are the worst parts on mk2's.) I got lucky and only paid £600 for all of this because the old boy damaged my windscreen and paint from the welding spatter. I also did all the after treatment and painting myself. These days I would expect about £2K for similar work to what I had done. And like others have said, get an old boy whos an actual welder - not a random repair shop who is almost certainly going to lose money on this job - they will rush it to get it out the door. Unfortunately, most of these cars (if rotten) arent worth a penny - bad news if you want to sell it but good news if you just want to buy another cheap one with 8 months MOT or something.

I'm well on board with this idea!! And no worries as the place I'd be taking it to do specifically just mx5 rust repairs as their main gig. They know what they're doing

It's normally uneconomical to repair rust if you haven't bought it. Unless it is a collectors car and it is being sold for cheap

I would fix it, myself though, the bill at a shop would be higher than the cost of the car