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

I ordered replacement panels for all four corners now, at 100/corner + shipping, and repair plates for the inner rear sills. It's more convenient for the body shop guy to work with fresh steel than to try to salvage the existing sheetmetal, especially due to the dents the car has. Body shop said the schedule still holds, meaning they can start working on it next month.
 
Received panels! Will leave the car at the body shop later today.
 
Yay, can't wait to see how it turns out. Please make sure that they do a thorough rust proofing to worked areas.
 
Yeah, that much is understood. So far the plan is that they remove the top to be able to work without fear of tearing it, and I'll then be able to take the window in to be repaired.
 
I broke down way, way after that!

I ... I just didn't have enough space for them. :p
 
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Sacrifice a little passenger comfort and you're fine... I was even able to select all gears :lol:

The car is now in for repairs. The schedule probably runs long, but I told the guy just to take his time. He'll take everything rusty down to bare metal and rust-proofs his work when done. I also requested he does the sides the way they have been, with rock chip protection halfway up.
 
I hope he polished that knob well!

That wood looks really good in sunlight.
 
Not only has the actual restoration work not started yet, but the shop has now also lost the keys. The work will be 5 months late.
 
I hope the price won't stay the same, but go down.
 
Yes, this is still ongoing! I found the spare key recently, and the shop had already started tearing down the car some time ago. Maybe it'll be done this summer?

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The inner fenders look OK-ish, meaning that there are no through-holes.

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Some sandblasting needed here, but I'm not too concerned about it.

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This all will get cut out...

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A-pillar bottoms look fine, tbh.

The replacement front wings are badly enough made that only their bottoms will be used and grafted onto the old wings, which have no fitment problems.

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I also had the rear window redone, but that shop also messed up buy using a sub-standard piece of transparent vinyl and will do it again.
 
After what feels like forever, updates!

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The shop has finished sandblasting the car and will now move to welding and respraying. Some derusting is still to be done, but that only needs dremeling etc instead of blasting. What rust holes there are will be welded.

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The removed panels will also get repainted as there was paint damage and peel. Bumpers have also been repaired as they had cracks.

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This dent will be pulled, finally.

Again, there is a chance that the car will be finished in time for our week-long Finnish summer.

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When the resto is complete, the only remaining rusty parts will be the rear subframe and its attachments such as the control arms. I contacted a Miata enthusiast who is offloading unnecessary parts, and Brotan picked up these blasted and primered subframes that will form a new, rust free rear suspension with new bushings sometime in the future. I will start accumulating reconditioned parts for it so I will have a relatively easily swapped package for the car, instead of having to have it offline again for a long period.
 
Nice to see an update on this, I've been following this project from the very beginning and this is actually the earliest project car I remember following on FinalGear.

It's definitely nice to some good progress on it, and I'm really looking forward to future updates. Two things I am curious about. First is, are you planning to paint it some other colour once it's time for respraying? And the other is, why not do full derusting now and replace the subframes while you're already doing a resto instead of doing it later?
 
I will not change the colour since to do it properly would mean removing the drivetrain and the complete interior; also, the hood and the trunklid will not be resprayed, just the sides and bumpers. I also do like the original Silverstone a lot, even if I usually find silver a boring choice. If I could pick any colour for the car, I'd probably go with Sunburst Yellow. But silver is what the car was "born" with.

As for the rear suspension rust work, it wasn't part of the original negotiated deal/estimate and as such will not be included. I also think that since getting the car to this point and the eventual bodywork finish has taken such a long time, adding the subframe work to that would push the completion so far in the future that it would be completely ridiculous. But it's something that a different shop can be tasked to do.
 
I forgot you had this...glad to see the project mocing along.
 
I will not change the colour since to do it properly would mean removing the drivetrain and the complete interior; also, the hood and the trunklid will not be resprayed, just the sides and bumpers. I also do like the original Silverstone a lot, even if I usually find silver a boring choice. If I could pick any colour for the car, I'd probably go with Sunburst Yellow. But silver is what the car was "born" with.

Good, because I like the silver on the NA myself, even if I usually prefer quirky period-correct colours. I'm also in favour of keeping it original, so there's that as well.

As for the rear suspension rust work, it wasn't part of the original negotiated deal/estimate and as such will not be included. I also think that since getting the car to this point and the eventual bodywork finish has taken such a long time, adding the subframe work to that would push the completion so far in the future that it would be completely ridiculous. But it's something that a different shop can be tasked to do.

I do understand that, I'd want the car to be road-worthy ASAP as well after waiting for so long.
 
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