Ownership Verified: That time FinalGear bought a Munich Roadster (MX-5) to drive from Germany to Finland

Oh. Let me guess. It looks like a temp gauge because someone switched the gauges out for red ones and it's labeled as a temp gauge. Very clever.

Or not...
 
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Fired the frozen roadster up and spent a few hours driving around the frozen gravel roads. Found some nice places, but everything seemed to be a cul-de-sac eventually.
 
The car is exceptionally good to drive on those frozen gravel roads. Took a drive to the archipelago, where there's nothing but forest, beaches and bibles and was able to really enjoy the best bits of the car. Shame there'll soon be snow.
 
Bibles?
 

There are some odd spots in Scandinavia that are like bible belts, lotsa religious people and little prayer houses of sorts.
 
... I thought Finland isn't part of Scandinavia. :hmm: :p
 
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So technically, when some British presenters recently insisted using "Scandinavia" to refer to the very northernly place where they were, they weren't terribly wrong.
 
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New oils (Teboil Silver instead of Total Classic this time around), the ARB link finally done (isn't the steering just a little bit better now?) and a new alternator belt. These should carry the car to 200k, as long as the next MOT doesn't raise any issues.
 
Inspection passed with a muffler leak marked as a demerit. The Beni-Joe kludge on the cat is still holding well enough to keep the car road legal I guess :lol:

I've asked for replacement panel quotes, and I could get new aftermarket fenders for the car front and rear for less than 450 shipped. I'd have to put at least a grand into the car to fix the sheetmetal rust on it, and none of the repairs would really affect how the car drives... but I guess they're good for its longevity, and fixing its cosmetics would boost its value at least the same amount.
 
Yeah, underneath the surface rust and few dents is a fine car. It deservers those fixes!
 
Good news!
So there is no rust underneath the visible surfaces?
 
There probably is plenty, but the underbody has been sealed at some point so it's not naked, rusty sheetmetal. Of course the subframe is rusty too.
 
The sheetmetal shituation in full:

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All of these should be able to be rectified with replacement panels that are commonly available.
 
The guy who repainted bits of my 405 quoted ~1200 to get the car right, meaning tackling the rust and repainting both sides. This would help the car a lot, and I'll probably have him do it. He only has time from June on, so I have some time to accumulate a specific bodywork fund...
 
Sounds super cheap, do it.
 
Yeah, that's very cheap. My rear fender fix cost something like 400? down here, so next time I'm also visiting your guy :D
 
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