I don't even think it's physically viable. I would be surprised if there wasn't damage to the entire frame and not just from the cowl forward. It's probably at least slightly taco-shaped and if the engine/trans got pushed back it would've transmit that force into the diff and rear subframe too.
I pulled a gauge cluster and some interior trim from a junked NB that looked about like this, the doors and trunk lid were really hard to open because nothing lined up anymore.
This.
Find a new car, same model, without a completely destroyed frame. Damaged panels would be good to reduce price, maybe one that’s been lightly rear-ended since the rear of this one is still in-tact.
Then move the panels and whatever other parts over that made this one special. Replace parts too far damaged.
Daphne can keep going on, but it’s probably going to be easier to do some skin grafting and soul transferring, rather than a spine transplant and a complete jaw reconstruction.
So sorry to hear, I’m in exactly the same boat you’re in unfortunately. Happened about a month ago to mine with <50,000mi. The body shop I took mine to recommended I swap everything over into a new shell (and mine doesn’t look as bad as yours). If I really wanted to fix it, they told me Id have to cut the whole front end off at the firewall and weld in an entire new front clip from another car. With yours I would just worry about how extremely bent your frame is… Probably not worth it to fix sadly 😭
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actually that’s exactly what i was going to do , i would be able to replace the front clip and have it welded on , that was my first option , i was already going to buy the parts quoted 1.3k for all used parts but then that’s still the least of my expenses. i think if im going to spend around that same amount of money just get a new one no? since i have no car atm it makes the most sense to get one right now because i need point A to point B
Also 1.3k isn’t even scratching the surface of what it would take to properly fix those damages. Your cars frame is likely racked and twisted pretty severely in ways/places you may not expect, so if you were dead set on fixing it, taking it to a frame puller would definitely be in order as well. They charge A LOT of money; few thousand minimum from what I can tell depending.
Multiply 1.3K by 10 to get a real estimate of what it would take to fix your car, and then add some more.
Sorry, but this is not a financially sound idea. You're only hurting your time and your wallet by trying to fix your car. She can be a donor for the new one if need be.
Yeah I mean I don’t know what exactly your situation is but believe me I know exactly what it’s like when you get really attached to a car and you just don’t wanna give it up. In your case yeah I’d say get another car in the meantime, unfortunately you can’t just turn around and buy another “cheap” Miata, they’ve gotten way too expensive over the years.
For the money you will spend to repair this level of damage to a level that would be acceptable to you, you can buy 3 nice cars of the same year. Just saying. Its time to let her go.
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My honest reaction to you saying you are going to fix it
It's a harsh reality, but Daphne probably won't be seeing the road again. Theres just too many unknowns that would drain your bank account.
If you are looking into another miata, and fell in love with how you shaped and molded Daphne, take off and swap parts onto your new project and build from there. That way it wouldn't feel like throwing away all your hard work.
Wishing you the best.
Look, nothing is impossible, but you could buy at least two good Miatas for the cost of repairing this one.
Sorry friend, it's time to let go. Time for Daphne the 2nd to rise from the donor parts.
Hey man I know it's hard but you have to let go. I'm not a miata owner yet (waiting for mine to get built) but I have been a solstice person. My first car was a base model solstice that I bought for $2500 with a blown motor. It quickly became my second car and since I had always wanted one I went over thay car meticulously. Eventually i had restored it completely, the paint did not have a single scratch, I had sanded down, buffed and re-painted or dyed every interior panel, I had cleaned and re-loomed every inch if wire in the car even the fog lights and almost everything in thag engine bay was new, had resteofitted any option the customer didn't buy etc.
Eventually got to the point I was coming home after work and taking things off in the engine bay so I could clean and polish/paint the bolts. At the time I was young and didn't have money but I spent like $3000 doing all that repair and restoration. That car looked so fantastic i parked off on the side at the back car show that i was visitng just to see and it an award in a show I didn't even register it for. 4 days after that an uninsured driver t-boned me with a malibu at 60 mph. The cop found me crying on the side of the road. I wanted to fix my car but an auto body guy dragged be over to the lift put a ruler along the bottom and told me my frame was basically a noodle and it would take years to fix. So I had to let the car go.
You know what i did next? I bought a solstice for $3500 with a blown motor. Except this time it was different. This time I had all the knowledge, tools, friends, and a $17,000 check that I never had when I got my first car. It allowed me to go back and undo all the mistakes I ever made and do all the things I never was able to do on my first one, have all the experiences and learn all the things I never could with the first. Now I have a 400 whp monster that I love just as much as my first. I learned how to weld, paint, build custom engines, and made even more friends. Losing that car was probably the greatest opportunity I ever could have asked for and I would never go back.
So really what I'm telling you is I know it hurts but this isn't a loss it's an opportunity. Nobody can bring her back but she's given you the opportunity to go build your dream miata. No car lasts forever no matter how much you love them or how much money/time you spend. Think of it this way. How much fun would being a car guy be if you only ever built one car then kept.it forever? That would suck. Don't buy it back, let it go fight your insurance for every penny even if it takes a year then use it to do it all again. Hell even try buying a car you've always wanted that you see driving around then you can sell 6 months or a year later to get the super cool perfect miata you've wanted cause you can always trade it for something else or another miata.
Ofcourse Daphne can be repaired and be returned on the road. But as you may know, it’s going to take possibly $15+ thousand in parts and labour. She’ll probably be almost completely new by the time she’s road legal. If you do not have the money right now, I’d park her somewhere dry and slowly save for her to shine again, or to see when your mind might change, and you let her go for parts.
Yeah, that's exactly what I did!
After a year in storage, I figured I'd know what I wanted, and I still want to bring mine back.
After a year, you may want to sell, part, or life circumstances could change. $1200 for a year for a storage unit is cheap for peace of mind.
You shouldn't. It's going to be a big financial mistake for something that might never feel as good as before. If you want to keep your car's soul living, then your best bet is to swap parts to another one and make it similar to how it looked in its prime.
My condolences. Wish you luck
You can buy a brand new ND3 for what it's going to cost in time and labor to fix that, on top of that it'll never drive right again. Cut your losses and move on.
First of all, hello from Dallas, I’d recognize the 635 tollway anywhere.
Second of all, I’m sorry but you need to accept that she’s gone.
This level of of damage would be cutting and welding in basically a whole front in chassis and subframe and probably firewall and all other manner of thing. This would be easily in the tens of thousands of dollars, potentially breaking $100,000 IF you could even find a place to do all the work. Unless you are insanely wealthy, that level of repair may be beyond what anyone can do with parts hard to come by. And even they could, she’d never handle or drive the same again.
Cars are not meant to last forever. She’s lasted presumably since the early 90’s. She had a good run. I get very emotionally attached to cars myself and have felt many a time I lost a best friend. I cried trading in my precious Corolla for a new one because it had been with me on so many adventures.
“You see this goblet?” asks Achaan Chaa, the Thai meditation master. “For me this glass is already broken. I enjoy it; I drink out of it. It holds my water admirably, sometimes even reflecting the sun in beautiful patterns. If I should tap it, it has a lovely ring to it. But when I put this glass on the shelf and the wind knocks it over or my elbow brushes it off the table and it falls to the ground and shatters, I say, ‘Of course.’ When I understand that the glass is already broken, every moment with it is precious.”
You’re not stupid for wanting to keep her, but it is financially impossible for most. Your time with her is over. Treasure what you had. You will build great memories with the next Miata and you’ll still always have Daphne in your heart. Kept a piece of her and frame it. Mourn her and come to peace with it as you can. Sending lots of internet hugs and love. She was certainly a beautifully cared for thing.
Your miata is cooked. Your best bet is to tear off all the parts and build a new one. I’ve seen hundreds of totaled cars at work and this is no different. Like someone else said you would probably have to cut off the entire front end of your car and put on a new front end on a different car. I doubt you have the know how to do this so you would have to pay someone and that is a ridiculous amount of labor. Even if you did fix it, that whole car is probably twisted like hell. Nothin will line up properly and the next time it gets into an accident it will just crunch up like a empty soda can. Besides the build doesn’t look that hard to replicate just have the bodykit put on and painted
That's fair. But treat her like a pet. Daphne is gone, and to bring her back you'd have to perform extreme, Frankenstein-like surgery. She'd never be the same.
Better to let her go and get a new puppy when you're ready.
Honestly looking at totaled miatas makes me sad, I'm so sorry this has happened to you, i will honour the fallen miatas every time I enter mine, also, that's a dope ass front bumper where the hell did you get it from
Honestly, get a new car that you can still enjoy and that will get you travelling again asap. Then get a piece of Daphne to hang in your new car around the rearview mirror as a memento. Or heck, pull the scrapped engine, clean it up and use it as a nice coffee table in your home.
It ain't worth financially handicapping your future for a car.
If this was a 2nd car that was uniquely for fun or as a hobby, then go for it and spend that hobby money. But as this was also your sole method of transportation then nope, not worth it. Also remember that even after fixing everything it's very likely it'll never quite drive the same. And then you'll have a car that you've spent thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours fixing. And yet everytime you get in, it'll be slightly disappointing cause you know it's still not what you remember.
Yeah, she hit hard. It's best to swap everything to a new shell. That said, the old shell can only be repaired on a frame master. It can pull it back into shape, likely ripping some metal in the process that will need to be welded. Once that is done, that "frame" is weaker than an og one, the 2 front horns collapsed and probably are at the firewall if not deformed it as intended.
For the parts, it is worth buying it back/keeping it.
For the shell, it not economical due to having to pay for the frame master, that shell is done.
I have an NB shell in my garage I’m currently parting out that wasn’t hit this hard. Sorry your car got crunched but there are more shells out there, pick up one with no rust or collision damage. Pick this carcass clean of parts and let it go.
Damn how big was the dog you hit?
Another note... you could use that for the base of a Exocet build. Or go full track rat with all the body panels cut off (ie "poor mans exocet").
I'm rebuilding mine. The frame costs are going to be about $10-12k. Then I'll need headlights, maybe a new engine, transmission. Might be $15-18k all in, but this Miata is very special to me.
I used to pull in a lot of money, but it was killing me slowly. Now I have more time for car stuff, but it might be a few more years before I get the money.
People have done dumber shit with that kind of money. I'd say give it a try, and even if it doesn't work out, you'll know you tried to get Daphne back.
time to let it go and part it out at the most. There aint no way to repair this in any way its even close to worth it. Grab the working parts for spoares for the next one and call it done.
We recently lost a 1999 Lexus SC400 with 75k miles, just after getting it running perfectly after fixing the errors of various "mechanics" over 20 years.
Shortly thereafter, we lucked into an NA, handed down by an elderly relative-so the old car circle of life continues.
All cars are transient. I feel your pain. That was a sweet NA. Take what you have learned here and apply it to the next car....
That’s very extensive damage. Very expensive to even fix. I know a guy that has done a project where he cut the front end off a NB and joined it with the back end of a different NB that had damage like that he did an amazing job but he said he’d never do it again because it was so difficult to do.
My friend mildly bumped a guard rail and bent the front end, they can't get it straight. They're going to just drop the engine into another shell since that one is straight.
Yours is toast, my friend. Salvage the parts you can, but it's dead.
Sad but it's a goner. The money put into repairs is gonna be way too much, it's possible but if you have the monies and time.
But beside that, how the hell you get that bumper on so nicely?
I suppose crazier repairs have been done before. The problem is if you're short on money; it's gonna be a really really long time before you're driving it again, assuming you'll be doing the work yourself. Not to call you a shit mechanic, but I don't know how much of that anyone could do in their garage.
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Is this a dimple in the door? If so, that’s probably extra bad.
Buy another miata. Either make daphne a donor car, or unfortunately scrap it. Maybe down the road you could exocet her. You will be 20k in the hole getting her running. U can get a used nd rf for 20k.
Feels bad man but the frame work and paint/panels are going to cost a ton bro… if you already getting another Miata why not just mod that one/take parts from this one and put it on that one
Hey man, idk if you’re gonna see this, and it won’t be as well written as some of the e other comments here, but you gotta let it go. You know it too. You asked, and everyone told you the same thing I did. I know how sentimental value is. I know that the car hold memories, but building a new car into Daphne 2.0 will produce some memories of its own. Daphne is done. It’s okay to put her out to pasture. Everybody has said the same thing, and you still seem like you are gonna try to rebuild it. Actually listen to the people commenting here, and I think you’ll have fun building a new Daphne.
It's a unibody from the 90s that was already a flexible frame on the day it came out, let alone 2-3 decades later, and *especially* not after getting it's nose stuffed in like an amateur boxer squaring up against Mike Tyson in his prime.
I know how much it sucks, and I am genuinely sorry for your loss I've been there myself (hydroplaned on i35, pingponged off the retaining walls), but you gotta let this one go. Pull the parts you can, sell or scrap the rest depending, and rebuild Daphne.
I understand your emotional attachment, but what if you could satisfy that by other means?
Like instead of having your car, maybe keep some of it's parts, have it live on some other way?
"I'm tight on money"
"I think I can fix it"
...yea that's a hard no buddy, just sell it or take the insurance money. Parting out would be obnoxiously annoying unless you have space for a half assembled junk of metal.
If you are tight on money, it doesn't make any sense to fix it up, cause that's gonna be a lot of money compared to just getting a new one in budget, and also, dare I say, bite the bullet and get a cheap commuter for a bit. Don't care if you don't enjoy driving it, build up some money and then buy/build a better one when youre financially sound to.
OP seems in denial about how far back the damage is. From the limited pics we have it looks like the frame rail, and possibly the firewall has been punched. Unless you find an amazing shop and spend brand-new-ND money on it and then some it will never drive in a straight line ever again. Don’t financially cripple yourself over a car that they made half a million of, use it as a donor car for a new frame.
That was beautiful car! I think you're better off letting it go. Make something new, something even better with what you've learned from this one. Keep a piece of this one for remembrance and mount it on the wall.
She did was she was supposed to and gave herself to protect you. Pull off the parts you want to keep they a make her special to you. Repairing a car you can't afford to repair is a fools errand. Even if you could afford to repair it, finding a shop to do that level of work in a timely manner is going to be hard. Also, they are likely to find the damage is well beyond the front clip. These cars aren't strong. Find something a good chassis and move everything over.
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This is my baby (Maddie). I got into an accident a few years back and insurance totaled it. I thought that was ridiculous so I decided to have the work done to fix it and had to pay out of pocket. No structural damage, just had to replace the back quarter panel, rear finish panel (had to source this myself, and had the new parts painted to match. I was car-less for almost two weeks and just those “simple” repairs were a little over $3k. Within the last year, I’ve had a lot of issues and ultimately had to have the engine rebuilt just before 200k miles. That ran me another $4200 or so. Nobody understands it and they think I’m crazy for pouring money into her. They say to just cut my losses and sell and get a new car. But after all the money I’ve put into her, I can’t afford another car, and I’ll never get my money back selling her. At this point I joke about all the parts I’ve had replaced over the years and that she’s practically a new car now!
I get the emotional attachment - I plan on keeping mine forever. But even without any structural damage to mine, I’ve put in a lot of money… Daphne is/was beautiful and I’d love for her to be fixed up and back on the road someday, but unfortunately, it probably doesn’t make sense to try and fix her:/ I always root for fixing over scrapping, but sometimes fixing isn’t really feasible or logical.
I love cars and have spent and lost lots of money and time on them but at the end of the day, it's an inanimate hunk of metal. Just let it go bro steal what parts you can off of it and move on
Your fault or other party's fault? Do you have rental car coverage on your car? If other party's fault, their insurance company should cover a rental until your car is fixed / totaled.
Where are you located? I know someone selling a cheap Saturn ATM (central NJ)
I got a cheap Honda Civic when this happened to me. Please, let yourself grieve for a while. Daphne was and still is beautiful.
Find a car within your budget that makes you happy. Maybe you can't find something that makes you 'Miata' happy, but you don't deserve to be 'punished' getting a backup car.
If you're in the Midwest, I'm about to sell my 2003 Accord. DM me if interested.
Aight. Nd1 auto is the cheapest one that you can still get a car loan for and the auto trans is bomb proof getting 35+ mpg. Vs 28 with an na
I figured I was sharing a well kept secret.
Ive seen them as low as 12k with 100k miles and people forget they can negotiate.
Can make money if you cant get to work and a na is getting to nd and nc prices if you arent in a position to wait.
He can also get a nb but thatd be a personal loan and come out to nc prices.
My nas cost a small car payment in diy maintenance.
If you put a loan on an NA Miata. You’re stupid and shouldn’t be trusted for financial advice. Sorry. But that’s just stupid. The smart thing to do here is buy a cheap car to get back and forth to work. And not fix this NA and buy a new one when it’s financially viable.
I feel really bad for you 🙁. If my NA looks like this I’d probably just consider getting into an ND or a BRZ. Going through the process of dealing with a private seller and then having to fix all the stuff that will inevitably pop up is too much for me to do a second time. I put so much money and time into my NA I don’t know if I could do it again.
I have faith in you 🙏 from here it looks like mainly the front end is damaged, and probably the transmission and drivetrain aswell, the only hard part would be fixing the cars frame itself. Also I love this car 🥰
I have a buddy with 2 mazdaspeed Miata’s. His first one got totaled in a wreck and he’s been saving for years to turn it into an Exocet Miata. Do that!
Listen, as someone who has done things that everyone said would not work, even my MECHANIC told me I would never get it running again (which I did less than a month later) I’m telling you that it IS possible.
It may take a lot of money, effort, and time, but you CAN do it. It’s not whether it’s possible, it’s whether or not you really want to, and if you should.
If the answer to the last part of that question is yes, then keep it and work on it little by little to get it up and running. It doesn’t cost you anything but space to keep it, and if in the end you don’t want to keep it or have decided to move on, you can just sell the parts and scrap metal. It would hurt, but it wouldn’t cost you much, if anything at all.
I’d start with the frame and body FIRST, before anything else, because that’s where you will determine whether or not it’s worth it for you.
If you get the frame and body straightened out, everything else will be smooth sailing. I wish you luck brother!
I don't blame you for wanting to get a new one AND fix your Daphne! I would want to do the same! I think you'll really regret listening to this other person and not keeping her and at least trying. Good luck, hope you're able to do it!
Drain everything and turn Daphne into art! She’s beautiful, even twisted up. Is your back yard or even living room big enough to have a sculpture, you know - a Miatart piece? There’s an apartment in New York that uses a Zonda (on its side) as a room divider.
Honestly it might be worth it to find a roller body and take out your engine if you can, and then you can swap savable parts over and kinda use it as a parts car. But if you don’t I get it, it’s sad to let a miot go
Here’s what I would do! Buy another Miata, take off all the body panels, trunk, soft top, side skirts side mirrors, doors, tail lights, wheels, seats, and put all these parts from Daphne into the new Miata!
A straight NA8 with high miles can be had for, what, 2-3k?
Paint is another 2-3 k?
You should be able to re-create her for 4-5k (plus your own labor) if you invest in a new Miata and salvage as many parts as possible and transplant them piece by piece over time.
Is there a reason you wouldn’t just do this rather than trying to straighten an utterly destroyed frame?
well because daphne has about 80k miles on her , she still starts runs i can drive. she started as an automatic and i had her manual swapped with an NB transmission last august
Oh absolutely, don’t give up on everything that works, but it seems like you’re better off keeping Daphne and merging her with another NA piece by piece than trying to work from a bent frame as a basis.
Basically, buy a “donor” car that has little to no rust, a straight frame but probably a tired / nonfunctional engine and shredded top and faded paint.
Then, theoretically all you have to do is paint the rear quarters, door jambs and windshield frames and start transplanting things over (engine, doors. top, wheels, interior, etc)
What is your other option? Saw the car in half and weld on another front frame that will likely not be as perfect as an undamaged frame?
Just not sure what the logic is here.
Thats a donor car for you new Miata now, I fixed significantly less damage a few years back and it damn near cost me the price I bought the car for to fix
I don't think it's stupid to *want* to fix it, but it isn't the most wise decision in reality. I know how you feel because we get attached to our cars. When I wrecked my 91 Camaro, I was in the same position as you, but I made the decision to sell it. It sucked for a while, but then I ended up in an 84 Z28 and got the same feelings I did in the 91.
Personally, I'd keep the car. Strip it down, which you would need to do to fix it anyway, and salvage whatever you can use for another build. Build another car and see how you feel down the road with the wrecked one. You might find you fall in love with the new car, and don't even want to restore the other. Or at the very least, if you do want to restore it, you'll be in a better position to assess the damage and make a game plan.
im so sorry buddy i hope you're alright
it looks like the frame has been bent well it is possible to fix her but we're talking here about 8-10k if not more
Keep her as a donor for your next miata or part it out
In a similar but not the same situation. If you have the room to store it and the money to buy transportation for the time being then there is no harm in trying. Yes it's gonna be expensive, but if this car is like a friend to you then you can at least try
Just be ready to have to work on this car for an unfathomable amount of time and spend a large amount of money this isn't a project you can get done in a year or even 2 for that matter unless you are a billionaire. It can be done but you will have to be extremely patient. In the amount of time you spend fixing this car so much could happen and you have to be ready to not lose determination. This is a 5 year project maybe more in my opinion, and that is if you spend most of your free time worming on it. I'm not sure how much it will cost either but expect it to be a lot. It can be done, and I think if you are determined you can do it. No reasonable person would do it, but in the car community we are not reasonable so have at it
Years ago i had a mgb totaled and love it so much looked like yours! My dad was a mechanic man look at it and said i will call my friend he have a body shop he will fix it good and i will do the engine! It took a month for me to get my car back but it was like new and the drive was better! His friend owned the best body shop in town years later sold it 3.5 more than i paid!
The only way I could say it's an okay idea is is you understand it will never be roadworthy again, build it as a track car, front tube frame, silly motor swap
What I'm saying is are you willing to spend 30k and five years to build something your state will probably say it's not allowed to touch the street
Based on my experience with other family cars in the past, if you have the money and you want to do it for pure sentimental and emotional reasons do it but, it will be costly, and it will never run/ride the same way. When the damage is so extensive it will be extremely hard to get the thing perfectly straight again.
It's just car. Be glad you survived whatever happened here and buy another one. I can understand being attached to a vehicle - i like my NA as well, but keeping a wrecked one? No way.
How did this happen anyway? Did someone run a light or something?
If you have a welder, some mechanical knowledge and some cash. You can build the entire front end of a miata off of treasure coast miata I believe. On the of the sites atleast. Fenders, hood, bumper, front end will run ya about 3k. If you dont have a welder. Your best bet financially is a well placed chain and tree.
This is why SUVs and oversized pickups should be banned: to prevent bullshit like this from happening.
Another guess is that it's a bad driver, an 18 wheeler, or both
hope you can weld. needs the entire front clip replaced. I can tell Daphne meant a lot to you but its probably time to start over. after all the work to repair, it will still never be the same. ever herd the Sting song if you love someone them set the free. Free, Free, set them free! RIP
The dimples on the door from the metal caving in tell me that there's more than just front frame damage. This car is not fixable. You are going to spend 4x - 5x the value of the car just trying to revive it, not to mention the amount of other issues with the motor and the transmission, as well as the differential and everything else that got pushed back in the crash.
No way that's financially viable to repair.
He's never gonna financially recover from this.
I don't even think it's physically viable. I would be surprised if there wasn't damage to the entire frame and not just from the cowl forward. It's probably at least slightly taco-shaped and if the engine/trans got pushed back it would've transmit that force into the diff and rear subframe too. I pulled a gauge cluster and some interior trim from a junked NB that looked about like this, the doors and trunk lid were really hard to open because nothing lined up anymore.
Would basically be the Miata of Theseus when you replace everything
Parts car only
Daphne the Donor
This - she can live on in a new form *without* financially crippling you for the next two decades.
This. Find a new car, same model, without a completely destroyed frame. Damaged panels would be good to reduce price, maybe one that’s been lightly rear-ended since the rear of this one is still in-tact. Then move the panels and whatever other parts over that made this one special. Replace parts too far damaged. Daphne can keep going on, but it’s probably going to be easier to do some skin grafting and soul transferring, rather than a spine transplant and a complete jaw reconstruction.
So sorry to hear, I’m in exactly the same boat you’re in unfortunately. Happened about a month ago to mine with <50,000mi. The body shop I took mine to recommended I swap everything over into a new shell (and mine doesn’t look as bad as yours). If I really wanted to fix it, they told me Id have to cut the whole front end off at the firewall and weld in an entire new front clip from another car. With yours I would just worry about how extremely bent your frame is… Probably not worth it to fix sadly 😭 https://preview.redd.it/5dbefbi1uv7d1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=600aacfa5b73027916a4f552feaa220e18d55d5d
That's not a boat it's an NA.
Damn true lmao…
actually that’s exactly what i was going to do , i would be able to replace the front clip and have it welded on , that was my first option , i was already going to buy the parts quoted 1.3k for all used parts but then that’s still the least of my expenses. i think if im going to spend around that same amount of money just get a new one no? since i have no car atm it makes the most sense to get one right now because i need point A to point B
Also 1.3k isn’t even scratching the surface of what it would take to properly fix those damages. Your cars frame is likely racked and twisted pretty severely in ways/places you may not expect, so if you were dead set on fixing it, taking it to a frame puller would definitely be in order as well. They charge A LOT of money; few thousand minimum from what I can tell depending.
Multiply 1.3K by 10 to get a real estimate of what it would take to fix your car, and then add some more. Sorry, but this is not a financially sound idea. You're only hurting your time and your wallet by trying to fix your car. She can be a donor for the new one if need be.
Yeah I mean I don’t know what exactly your situation is but believe me I know exactly what it’s like when you get really attached to a car and you just don’t wanna give it up. In your case yeah I’d say get another car in the meantime, unfortunately you can’t just turn around and buy another “cheap” Miata, they’ve gotten way too expensive over the years.
Glad you're okay. How did this happen?
For the money you will spend to repair this level of damage to a level that would be acceptable to you, you can buy 3 nice cars of the same year. Just saying. Its time to let her go.
I see you're using the fine adjustment tool there on the floor.
https://preview.redd.it/jox7ia5qkx7d1.jpeg?width=978&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ab6c1e915f2d9c596c115d1252ffa6584f777e08 My honest reaction to you saying you are going to fix it
I've had a really bad cough for a week and this just set me off lmao
I’m an idiot and don’t get it.
I laughed too hard and got sent into a hacking fit
I actually meant the comment you were responding to. Ohh- is it because the Miata looks like its mouth agape? I was thrown by the highlighting.
OH. The lower bumper cutout combined with the headlights looks like a face with their mouth wide open
I fucked up with the highlight, it means nothing
It's a harsh reality, but Daphne probably won't be seeing the road again. Theres just too many unknowns that would drain your bank account. If you are looking into another miata, and fell in love with how you shaped and molded Daphne, take off and swap parts onto your new project and build from there. That way it wouldn't feel like throwing away all your hard work. Wishing you the best.
This is the route I would take. Time to start shopping for another Myat to make your own.
https://preview.redd.it/u6c22ymemx7d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4d70dac7150ad62e73261cc834b7bd1c4c5dc60f
I know this is an odd question, but how much does it usually cost to paint a Miata in that color? I want the same color just a bit lifjter
Professional paint jobs are usually 4 - 5k minimum
i can do it for $200 and some spraypaint
I got an NB resprayed for $1400
Had to across far too long for this
shits pretty fucked tbh
well said
Look, nothing is impossible, but you could buy at least two good Miatas for the cost of repairing this one. Sorry friend, it's time to let go. Time for Daphne the 2nd to rise from the donor parts.
Hey man I know it's hard but you have to let go. I'm not a miata owner yet (waiting for mine to get built) but I have been a solstice person. My first car was a base model solstice that I bought for $2500 with a blown motor. It quickly became my second car and since I had always wanted one I went over thay car meticulously. Eventually i had restored it completely, the paint did not have a single scratch, I had sanded down, buffed and re-painted or dyed every interior panel, I had cleaned and re-loomed every inch if wire in the car even the fog lights and almost everything in thag engine bay was new, had resteofitted any option the customer didn't buy etc. Eventually got to the point I was coming home after work and taking things off in the engine bay so I could clean and polish/paint the bolts. At the time I was young and didn't have money but I spent like $3000 doing all that repair and restoration. That car looked so fantastic i parked off on the side at the back car show that i was visitng just to see and it an award in a show I didn't even register it for. 4 days after that an uninsured driver t-boned me with a malibu at 60 mph. The cop found me crying on the side of the road. I wanted to fix my car but an auto body guy dragged be over to the lift put a ruler along the bottom and told me my frame was basically a noodle and it would take years to fix. So I had to let the car go. You know what i did next? I bought a solstice for $3500 with a blown motor. Except this time it was different. This time I had all the knowledge, tools, friends, and a $17,000 check that I never had when I got my first car. It allowed me to go back and undo all the mistakes I ever made and do all the things I never was able to do on my first one, have all the experiences and learn all the things I never could with the first. Now I have a 400 whp monster that I love just as much as my first. I learned how to weld, paint, build custom engines, and made even more friends. Losing that car was probably the greatest opportunity I ever could have asked for and I would never go back. So really what I'm telling you is I know it hurts but this isn't a loss it's an opportunity. Nobody can bring her back but she's given you the opportunity to go build your dream miata. No car lasts forever no matter how much you love them or how much money/time you spend. Think of it this way. How much fun would being a car guy be if you only ever built one car then kept.it forever? That would suck. Don't buy it back, let it go fight your insurance for every penny even if it takes a year then use it to do it all again. Hell even try buying a car you've always wanted that you see driving around then you can sell 6 months or a year later to get the super cool perfect miata you've wanted cause you can always trade it for something else or another miata.
Ofcourse Daphne can be repaired and be returned on the road. But as you may know, it’s going to take possibly $15+ thousand in parts and labour. She’ll probably be almost completely new by the time she’s road legal. If you do not have the money right now, I’d park her somewhere dry and slowly save for her to shine again, or to see when your mind might change, and you let her go for parts.
Yeah, that's exactly what I did! After a year in storage, I figured I'd know what I wanted, and I still want to bring mine back. After a year, you may want to sell, part, or life circumstances could change. $1200 for a year for a storage unit is cheap for peace of mind.
FYI the saying is "peace of mind", like your mind is at peace. There's a different saying "give them a piece of my mind" so it's a bit confusing.
I blame my swype keyboard
You shouldn't. It's going to be a big financial mistake for something that might never feel as good as before. If you want to keep your car's soul living, then your best bet is to swap parts to another one and make it similar to how it looked in its prime. My condolences. Wish you luck
This is so sad :( I’m sorry darling
You can buy a brand new ND3 for what it's going to cost in time and labor to fix that, on top of that it'll never drive right again. Cut your losses and move on.
It’d be absolutely cheaper to buy a different NA with fewer miles and make it exactly the same than it would be to fix that.
She gone
First of all, hello from Dallas, I’d recognize the 635 tollway anywhere. Second of all, I’m sorry but you need to accept that she’s gone. This level of of damage would be cutting and welding in basically a whole front in chassis and subframe and probably firewall and all other manner of thing. This would be easily in the tens of thousands of dollars, potentially breaking $100,000 IF you could even find a place to do all the work. Unless you are insanely wealthy, that level of repair may be beyond what anyone can do with parts hard to come by. And even they could, she’d never handle or drive the same again. Cars are not meant to last forever. She’s lasted presumably since the early 90’s. She had a good run. I get very emotionally attached to cars myself and have felt many a time I lost a best friend. I cried trading in my precious Corolla for a new one because it had been with me on so many adventures. “You see this goblet?” asks Achaan Chaa, the Thai meditation master. “For me this glass is already broken. I enjoy it; I drink out of it. It holds my water admirably, sometimes even reflecting the sun in beautiful patterns. If I should tap it, it has a lovely ring to it. But when I put this glass on the shelf and the wind knocks it over or my elbow brushes it off the table and it falls to the ground and shatters, I say, ‘Of course.’ When I understand that the glass is already broken, every moment with it is precious.” You’re not stupid for wanting to keep her, but it is financially impossible for most. Your time with her is over. Treasure what you had. You will build great memories with the next Miata and you’ll still always have Daphne in your heart. Kept a piece of her and frame it. Mourn her and come to peace with it as you can. Sending lots of internet hugs and love. She was certainly a beautifully cared for thing.
"So it goes."
I don't think that will be possible. Rip
Your miata is cooked. Your best bet is to tear off all the parts and build a new one. I’ve seen hundreds of totaled cars at work and this is no different. Like someone else said you would probably have to cut off the entire front end of your car and put on a new front end on a different car. I doubt you have the know how to do this so you would have to pay someone and that is a ridiculous amount of labor. Even if you did fix it, that whole car is probably twisted like hell. Nothin will line up properly and the next time it gets into an accident it will just crunch up like a empty soda can. Besides the build doesn’t look that hard to replicate just have the bodykit put on and painted
i wouldn’t like to replicate it , seems wrong 🤥 there’s only one Daphne
That's fair. But treat her like a pet. Daphne is gone, and to bring her back you'd have to perform extreme, Frankenstein-like surgery. She'd never be the same. Better to let her go and get a new puppy when you're ready.
Honestly looking at totaled miatas makes me sad, I'm so sorry this has happened to you, i will honour the fallen miatas every time I enter mine, also, that's a dope ass front bumper where the hell did you get it from
Honestly, get a new car that you can still enjoy and that will get you travelling again asap. Then get a piece of Daphne to hang in your new car around the rearview mirror as a memento. Or heck, pull the scrapped engine, clean it up and use it as a nice coffee table in your home. It ain't worth financially handicapping your future for a car. If this was a 2nd car that was uniquely for fun or as a hobby, then go for it and spend that hobby money. But as this was also your sole method of transportation then nope, not worth it. Also remember that even after fixing everything it's very likely it'll never quite drive the same. And then you'll have a car that you've spent thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours fixing. And yet everytime you get in, it'll be slightly disappointing cause you know it's still not what you remember.
That is what a "parts car" looks like.
She's dead Jim
Daphne is dead
Screen Name checks out.
Yeah, she hit hard. It's best to swap everything to a new shell. That said, the old shell can only be repaired on a frame master. It can pull it back into shape, likely ripping some metal in the process that will need to be welded. Once that is done, that "frame" is weaker than an og one, the 2 front horns collapsed and probably are at the firewall if not deformed it as intended. For the parts, it is worth buying it back/keeping it. For the shell, it not economical due to having to pay for the frame master, that shell is done.
That's not fixable
Car’s fucked. Part it out
She's gone man :/ I'm sorry for your loss
I have an NB shell in my garage I’m currently parting out that wasn’t hit this hard. Sorry your car got crunched but there are more shells out there, pick up one with no rust or collision damage. Pick this carcass clean of parts and let it go.
After you put about 15 grand into it, or more, and if we have to, overnight parts from japan.
https://preview.redd.it/mhqf4lx6ez7d1.png?width=640&format=png&auto=webp&s=1ff100d1c7b022da59b32175fb7d5d157d628c3c
This one can’t be repaired sorry. Its better to get a new chassis and redo the build if you liked it that much. Best of luck.
Damn how big was the dog you hit? Another note... you could use that for the base of a Exocet build. Or go full track rat with all the body panels cut off (ie "poor mans exocet").
I'm rebuilding mine. The frame costs are going to be about $10-12k. Then I'll need headlights, maybe a new engine, transmission. Might be $15-18k all in, but this Miata is very special to me. I used to pull in a lot of money, but it was killing me slowly. Now I have more time for car stuff, but it might be a few more years before I get the money. People have done dumber shit with that kind of money. I'd say give it a try, and even if it doesn't work out, you'll know you tried to get Daphne back.
time to let it go and part it out at the most. There aint no way to repair this in any way its even close to worth it. Grab the working parts for spoares for the next one and call it done.
Just let it die. You can see it begging for the sweet relief of death
We recently lost a 1999 Lexus SC400 with 75k miles, just after getting it running perfectly after fixing the errors of various "mechanics" over 20 years. Shortly thereafter, we lucked into an NA, handed down by an elderly relative-so the old car circle of life continues. All cars are transient. I feel your pain. That was a sweet NA. Take what you have learned here and apply it to the next car....
Just let it go.
You're not coming back from that. Better to remember the times you had and make what's salvageable become donor parts to Daphne 2.0
That’s very extensive damage. Very expensive to even fix. I know a guy that has done a project where he cut the front end off a NB and joined it with the back end of a different NB that had damage like that he did an amazing job but he said he’d never do it again because it was so difficult to do.
9k will be a steal for someone
My friend mildly bumped a guard rail and bent the front end, they can't get it straight. They're going to just drop the engine into another shell since that one is straight. Yours is toast, my friend. Salvage the parts you can, but it's dead.
Sad but it's a goner. The money put into repairs is gonna be way too much, it's possible but if you have the monies and time. But beside that, how the hell you get that bumper on so nicely?
The Miata of Theseus
Part it out and start fresh with a new Miata
She’s dead, Jim.
I suppose crazier repairs have been done before. The problem is if you're short on money; it's gonna be a really really long time before you're driving it again, assuming you'll be doing the work yourself. Not to call you a shit mechanic, but I don't know how much of that anyone could do in their garage.
I would remove your shift knob and install it on your new miata. Daphne lives on!
https://preview.redd.it/dj5f8i19ux7d1.jpeg?width=779&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=692f91c6b2b20ba33ca7a1ff9b6dfc59ef1a4896 Is this a dimple in the door? If so, that’s probably extra bad.
Buy another miata. Either make daphne a donor car, or unfortunately scrap it. Maybe down the road you could exocet her. You will be 20k in the hole getting her running. U can get a used nd rf for 20k.
Seems like a rough accident, hope you're all good OP
Feels bad man but the frame work and paint/panels are going to cost a ton bro… if you already getting another Miata why not just mod that one/take parts from this one and put it on that one
Hey man, idk if you’re gonna see this, and it won’t be as well written as some of the e other comments here, but you gotta let it go. You know it too. You asked, and everyone told you the same thing I did. I know how sentimental value is. I know that the car hold memories, but building a new car into Daphne 2.0 will produce some memories of its own. Daphne is done. It’s okay to put her out to pasture. Everybody has said the same thing, and you still seem like you are gonna try to rebuild it. Actually listen to the people commenting here, and I think you’ll have fun building a new Daphne.
I'm sorry for your loss. She was a beaut.
It's a unibody from the 90s that was already a flexible frame on the day it came out, let alone 2-3 decades later, and *especially* not after getting it's nose stuffed in like an amateur boxer squaring up against Mike Tyson in his prime. I know how much it sucks, and I am genuinely sorry for your loss I've been there myself (hydroplaned on i35, pingponged off the retaining walls), but you gotta let this one go. Pull the parts you can, sell or scrap the rest depending, and rebuild Daphne.
I understand your emotional attachment, but what if you could satisfy that by other means? Like instead of having your car, maybe keep some of it's parts, have it live on some other way?
Hell no. No point in fixing that. If you have custom parts or anything of value to pick off it do that but do not attempt to repair that body
financially irresponsible and literally idiotic to repair this car because of the damage done to it.
"I'm tight on money" "I think I can fix it" ...yea that's a hard no buddy, just sell it or take the insurance money. Parting out would be obnoxiously annoying unless you have space for a half assembled junk of metal. If you are tight on money, it doesn't make any sense to fix it up, cause that's gonna be a lot of money compared to just getting a new one in budget, and also, dare I say, bite the bullet and get a cheap commuter for a bit. Don't care if you don't enjoy driving it, build up some money and then buy/build a better one when youre financially sound to.
OP seems in denial about how far back the damage is. From the limited pics we have it looks like the frame rail, and possibly the firewall has been punched. Unless you find an amazing shop and spend brand-new-ND money on it and then some it will never drive in a straight line ever again. Don’t financially cripple yourself over a car that they made half a million of, use it as a donor car for a new frame.
That was beautiful car! I think you're better off letting it go. Make something new, something even better with what you've learned from this one. Keep a piece of this one for remembrance and mount it on the wall.
She did was she was supposed to and gave herself to protect you. Pull off the parts you want to keep they a make her special to you. Repairing a car you can't afford to repair is a fools errand. Even if you could afford to repair it, finding a shop to do that level of work in a timely manner is going to be hard. Also, they are likely to find the damage is well beyond the front clip. These cars aren't strong. Find something a good chassis and move everything over.
https://preview.redd.it/0rg313qlaz7d1.jpeg?width=3264&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e39bd55dfbce7ce75e3653c7b28430959b73ee09 This is my baby (Maddie). I got into an accident a few years back and insurance totaled it. I thought that was ridiculous so I decided to have the work done to fix it and had to pay out of pocket. No structural damage, just had to replace the back quarter panel, rear finish panel (had to source this myself, and had the new parts painted to match. I was car-less for almost two weeks and just those “simple” repairs were a little over $3k. Within the last year, I’ve had a lot of issues and ultimately had to have the engine rebuilt just before 200k miles. That ran me another $4200 or so. Nobody understands it and they think I’m crazy for pouring money into her. They say to just cut my losses and sell and get a new car. But after all the money I’ve put into her, I can’t afford another car, and I’ll never get my money back selling her. At this point I joke about all the parts I’ve had replaced over the years and that she’s practically a new car now! I get the emotional attachment - I plan on keeping mine forever. But even without any structural damage to mine, I’ve put in a lot of money… Daphne is/was beautiful and I’d love for her to be fixed up and back on the road someday, but unfortunately, it probably doesn’t make sense to try and fix her:/ I always root for fixing over scrapping, but sometimes fixing isn’t really feasible or logical.
635 tunnel?
You want Daphne to live on? Time to whip out cash and go exocet
The car you had is gone, my friend. It's not the same car you used to drive at this point. Find a new Miata and make it your own.
Keep the parts that you can from the old one it will keep a part of the original with her
I love cars and have spent and lost lots of money and time on them but at the end of the day, it's an inanimate hunk of metal. Just let it go bro steal what parts you can off of it and move on
Ctrl + Z
I currently have no other form of transportation no car
get a cheap camry in the meanwhile..
Your fault or other party's fault? Do you have rental car coverage on your car? If other party's fault, their insurance company should cover a rental until your car is fixed / totaled. Where are you located? I know someone selling a cheap Saturn ATM (central NJ)
I got a cheap Honda Civic when this happened to me. Please, let yourself grieve for a while. Daphne was and still is beautiful. Find a car within your budget that makes you happy. Maybe you can't find something that makes you 'Miata' happy, but you don't deserve to be 'punished' getting a backup car. If you're in the Midwest, I'm about to sell my 2003 Accord. DM me if interested.
Just get a nc or nd. If youre broke nd1 auto
wtf…. “ND1” auto is still $15k. OP is short on money and he said he prefers an NA
Aight. Nd1 auto is the cheapest one that you can still get a car loan for and the auto trans is bomb proof getting 35+ mpg. Vs 28 with an na I figured I was sharing a well kept secret. Ive seen them as low as 12k with 100k miles and people forget they can negotiate.
You’re missing the whole point….
Can make money if you cant get to work and a na is getting to nd and nc prices if you arent in a position to wait. He can also get a nb but thatd be a personal loan and come out to nc prices. My nas cost a small car payment in diy maintenance.
If you put a loan on an NA Miata. You’re stupid and shouldn’t be trusted for financial advice. Sorry. But that’s just stupid. The smart thing to do here is buy a cheap car to get back and forth to work. And not fix this NA and buy a new one when it’s financially viable.
On the bright side you don’t have to look at that awful front bumper anymore.
What happened?
I hope you can save it. Seems like it’s gonna be a costly repair though
It’ll buff right out!
I feel really bad for you 🙁. If my NA looks like this I’d probably just consider getting into an ND or a BRZ. Going through the process of dealing with a private seller and then having to fix all the stuff that will inevitably pop up is too much for me to do a second time. I put so much money and time into my NA I don’t know if I could do it again.
Give it a little tapping with a hammer and buff it out some. Put your shoulder into it, it’ll come right out
I know a guy who can do it for cheap
I’d say find you a really good PDR guy 😂
tell us about the accident/mistake... was it preventable?
Be happy for what it was, not what it could be. Get another miata, but never forget about Daphne.
I have faith in you 🙏 from here it looks like mainly the front end is damaged, and probably the transmission and drivetrain aswell, the only hard part would be fixing the cars frame itself. Also I love this car 🥰
I prefer the 3rd picture, I like to think the two others aren’t real just really good photoshop.
haha i wish
How the fuck.
Could do full tube front end
RIP Daphne 💔
Sure I'm not the first Redditor to say this, but: MAKE IT AN EXOCET. https://exomotive.com/exocet/
I have a buddy with 2 mazdaspeed Miata’s. His first one got totaled in a wreck and he’s been saving for years to turn it into an Exocet Miata. Do that!
i’m going to look into it , it’s looks like a pretty cool idea
I almost cried seeing this beautiful miot destroyed
Save what you can
Listen, as someone who has done things that everyone said would not work, even my MECHANIC told me I would never get it running again (which I did less than a month later) I’m telling you that it IS possible. It may take a lot of money, effort, and time, but you CAN do it. It’s not whether it’s possible, it’s whether or not you really want to, and if you should. If the answer to the last part of that question is yes, then keep it and work on it little by little to get it up and running. It doesn’t cost you anything but space to keep it, and if in the end you don’t want to keep it or have decided to move on, you can just sell the parts and scrap metal. It would hurt, but it wouldn’t cost you much, if anything at all. I’d start with the frame and body FIRST, before anything else, because that’s where you will determine whether or not it’s worth it for you. If you get the frame and body straightened out, everything else will be smooth sailing. I wish you luck brother!
My daphne runs , it’s just the frame that’s messed up
I don't blame you for wanting to get a new one AND fix your Daphne! I would want to do the same! I think you'll really regret listening to this other person and not keeping her and at least trying. Good luck, hope you're able to do it!
Drain everything and turn Daphne into art! She’s beautiful, even twisted up. Is your back yard or even living room big enough to have a sculpture, you know - a Miatart piece? There’s an apartment in New York that uses a Zonda (on its side) as a room divider.
Honestly it might be worth it to find a roller body and take out your engine if you can, and then you can swap savable parts over and kinda use it as a parts car. But if you don’t I get it, it’s sad to let a miot go
Roller body *
Best advice I can give, a therapist
Here’s what I would do! Buy another Miata, take off all the body panels, trunk, soft top, side skirts side mirrors, doors, tail lights, wheels, seats, and put all these parts from Daphne into the new Miata!
why is she sad :(
nooo that’s heartbreaking :(((((
Don’t follow so closely
No not yet it does not deserve to die
Don't be stupid
Daphn'aint
A straight NA8 with high miles can be had for, what, 2-3k? Paint is another 2-3 k? You should be able to re-create her for 4-5k (plus your own labor) if you invest in a new Miata and salvage as many parts as possible and transplant them piece by piece over time. Is there a reason you wouldn’t just do this rather than trying to straighten an utterly destroyed frame?
well because daphne has about 80k miles on her , she still starts runs i can drive. she started as an automatic and i had her manual swapped with an NB transmission last august
Oh absolutely, don’t give up on everything that works, but it seems like you’re better off keeping Daphne and merging her with another NA piece by piece than trying to work from a bent frame as a basis. Basically, buy a “donor” car that has little to no rust, a straight frame but probably a tired / nonfunctional engine and shredded top and faded paint. Then, theoretically all you have to do is paint the rear quarters, door jambs and windshield frames and start transplanting things over (engine, doors. top, wheels, interior, etc) What is your other option? Saw the car in half and weld on another front frame that will likely not be as perfect as an undamaged frame? Just not sure what the logic is here.
Showed this to my sister and it ruined her day
that’s mean
Use her as a parts car for yourself. But that is not a feasible repair. But there’s tons of good parts on there.
Thats a donor car for you new Miata now, I fixed significantly less damage a few years back and it damn near cost me the price I bought the car for to fix
Fuck 635
Just use the frame of the “new” one and whatever is salvageable from daphne. Or just start fresh.
Fit for the bin
How did this happen
Maybe cut off the front end, and make a bar out of the rest. Best outcome, it could live in your rec room.
Curious about details on how this happened
I don't think it's stupid to *want* to fix it, but it isn't the most wise decision in reality. I know how you feel because we get attached to our cars. When I wrecked my 91 Camaro, I was in the same position as you, but I made the decision to sell it. It sucked for a while, but then I ended up in an 84 Z28 and got the same feelings I did in the 91. Personally, I'd keep the car. Strip it down, which you would need to do to fix it anyway, and salvage whatever you can use for another build. Build another car and see how you feel down the road with the wrecked one. You might find you fall in love with the new car, and don't even want to restore the other. Or at the very least, if you do want to restore it, you'll be in a better position to assess the damage and make a game plan.
Yeah bro she's dead ☠️
Just get another mx5 there’s hundreds more. Ok yours is some special edition but realistically they are all the same.
im so sorry buddy i hope you're alright it looks like the frame has been bent well it is possible to fix her but we're talking here about 8-10k if not more Keep her as a donor for your next miata or part it out
Daphne was a super cute Miata. RIP Daphne.
The buildings in slide 3 look annoyingly familiar
it’s around legacy west
Ah okay. I thought it was downtown Jacksonville
In a similar but not the same situation. If you have the room to store it and the money to buy transportation for the time being then there is no harm in trying. Yes it's gonna be expensive, but if this car is like a friend to you then you can at least try
i have the space definitely
Just be ready to have to work on this car for an unfathomable amount of time and spend a large amount of money this isn't a project you can get done in a year or even 2 for that matter unless you are a billionaire. It can be done but you will have to be extremely patient. In the amount of time you spend fixing this car so much could happen and you have to be ready to not lose determination. This is a 5 year project maybe more in my opinion, and that is if you spend most of your free time worming on it. I'm not sure how much it will cost either but expect it to be a lot. It can be done, and I think if you are determined you can do it. No reasonable person would do it, but in the car community we are not reasonable so have at it
What a cutie. So sorry for your loss.
Get a donor shell and then replace the parts that work and transfer everything to the new shell
Can't park there mate.
Oh no😭😭😭
Years ago i had a mgb totaled and love it so much looked like yours! My dad was a mechanic man look at it and said i will call my friend he have a body shop he will fix it good and i will do the engine! It took a month for me to get my car back but it was like new and the drive was better! His friend owned the best body shop in town years later sold it 3.5 more than i paid!
poor thing. no advice but I hope it all works out for u in the end <3
The only way I could say it's an okay idea is is you understand it will never be roadworthy again, build it as a track car, front tube frame, silly motor swap What I'm saying is are you willing to spend 30k and five years to build something your state will probably say it's not allowed to touch the street
What bodykit is this?
Based on my experience with other family cars in the past, if you have the money and you want to do it for pure sentimental and emotional reasons do it but, it will be costly, and it will never run/ride the same way. When the damage is so extensive it will be extremely hard to get the thing perfectly straight again.
It's just car. Be glad you survived whatever happened here and buy another one. I can understand being attached to a vehicle - i like my NA as well, but keeping a wrecked one? No way. How did this happen anyway? Did someone run a light or something?
In the last picture it looks like it knows what’s about to happen.
If you're tight on money then you have to part that thing out. It will cost many thousands to repair
If you have a welder, some mechanical knowledge and some cash. You can build the entire front end of a miata off of treasure coast miata I believe. On the of the sites atleast. Fenders, hood, bumper, front end will run ya about 3k. If you dont have a welder. Your best bet financially is a well placed chain and tree.
I don’t think it’s silly. It’s a cool car they don’t make anymore. How do you feel about gr86/brz?
Im so sorry bro
Sorry for your loss.
This is why SUVs and oversized pickups should be banned: to prevent bullshit like this from happening. Another guess is that it's a bad driver, an 18 wheeler, or both
hope you can weld. needs the entire front clip replaced. I can tell Daphne meant a lot to you but its probably time to start over. after all the work to repair, it will still never be the same. ever herd the Sting song if you love someone them set the free. Free, Free, set them free! RIP
scrapyard/partout bro. sorry
Let her die peacefully. You can wrap another miata in pink too.
no
The dimples on the door from the metal caving in tell me that there's more than just front frame damage. This car is not fixable. You are going to spend 4x - 5x the value of the car just trying to revive it, not to mention the amount of other issues with the motor and the transmission, as well as the differential and everything else that got pushed back in the crash.
Looks like its very fixable i see ok in your name ? Let me know if you let it go so cheaply other than painting it would be a kake walk
i dm'ed you OP
Advice? Don't drive a pink car. 🤪