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

D

D-Fence

Guest
So since a couple of months a certain Finn (PUBLIC) has been bothering me with cheap German cars.
Luckily, I always managed to dodge the bullets....then this car popped up 5 minutes from my appartment in Munich.
Shit.

So I went to look at it, asking price was 999?. SADLY, the rear window broke when I looked at it (wasn't me), so I smiled and offered 700?. Bought it for 770? with a set of summer alloys too.


So what are we looking at here?

It's some kind of bathtub on wheels with POP UP HEADLIGHTS!

Yes it's a Miata NA. What did you expect, a BMW? Come on. 85kW, something around 170k km done.

What's the plan?

I bought it, put it on export plates and insured it, Beni will collect it on Monday, drive it home, work a bit on it, give it to the Hobbit for temporary abuse, then fix whatever Loose_Unit broke, drive it through countries not known for stealing cars (Latvia, Poland, Lithuania) to Finnland, where it will go sideways a lot during our Finnmeet and then be sold to Mr. Public.

It needs some work..has dents, sparkplugs and timing belt need doing, roof is cracked, mirror fell off (we have it!)....but all in all not too bad. What really annoyed me is that it was a smokers car...needs new ashtray and venting ASAP!


Images:














First impressions:

a) My legs are too long.




b) which IDIOT put the fuel cap unlock in that spot? I looked like an idiot at the petrol station. Also, how tiny is that tank? I put 20? of fuel in and filled the car up 3/4....I put 110? in my 7-series today...




c) When the owner said "battery might need replacing" he wasn't lying.

[video=youtube;-oQe8NdTAOU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oQe8NdTAOU[/video]


d) This thing is FUN. I can see why people love them. You cannot go slow in this....it's like a little terrier. Engine always screams for more revs, makes really nice noise, gearshift is short as it gets....sadly, I am too tall for this car, can't enjoy it as I sit "suboptimal".



Oh yeah.

 
Woot!
 
You bought me a car? That's so sweet!

Also, smoke should only come out of the rear tires :p
 
Will that list be available for further editing? :shifty:
 
It's in the glovebox and shall continue to stay there until Finland for exactly that purpose.
 
Gute Fahrt... I'll probably end up parking at Caf? Fahrtwind at Ringmeet and get the list signed by the staff. Or not.

In any case, the car looks like a champ so far. Can't wait to get it here and put some Finnish highway km's into those red clocks. Blue seats are a win in my book, too.
 
As I said, some things need adressing....but overall, it was quite confidence inspiring.

List of issues:

- Battery. It dead. I buy new.
- Timing belt
- Wobbly and vibrating around 120km/h. Needs adressing
- Re-attach side mirror
- Replace rear window
- Sparkplugs maybe?
- Swap Ashtray to non-smelly one
- Oil Temp gauge is ... wonky. Starts at 90?C, after ~20km it settles at 60?C. Basically comes from the wrong side :D
- Adress rust spots & fix dents

I hope car is solid underneath, had no chance to jack it up.
 
Oil temp gauge is really an oil pressure gauge. In my car the range is 0 - 6 kg/cm2, maybe the red dials have some imperial unit on them!? 60 degrees of oil temp would be a bit low anyways.

The older NAs have an analogue gauge, therefore the pressure drops when the oil gets warmer, later ones have a fake gauge that's either on our off.
 
For the rest, I'll see what i can do before taking it to Finland, but there's not much time, so we'll see.
 
Yeah, just keep it simple and hold it safe. Like I mentioned, I now have cheap studded Yokohama winter tires for it on black steelies, so it should be Finland-proof then.

The timing belt would be a major plus (o7) to have time to be done in Germany, but if the timing is bad, who knows...
 
mirror fell off (we have it!)

The mirror is a bitch to get back on. I ended up just bending the clip to get it around the stud. Good enough.

b) which IDIOT put the fuel cap unlock in that spot? I looked like an idiot at the petrol station. Also, how tiny is that tank? I put 20? of fuel in and filled the car up 3/4....I put 110? in my 7-series today...



My reaction exactly the first time I went to fill my popup equipped bathtub up. Pulled up to the pump and spent 5 minutes looking for the release before I gave up and googled it.
 
c) When the owner said "battery might need replacing" he wasn't lying.

Like when the previous owner of my flat said "you might need some paint where the coat hanger shelf was" while we were at the bank signing the papers.

Yes, there was a huge grey square on the otherwise bright orange wall where the shelf had been.
 
As I said, some things need adressing....but overall, it was quite confidence inspiring.

List of issues:

- Wobbly and vibrating around 120km/h. Needs adressing

I hope car is solid underneath, had no chance to jack it up.

Vibrations at 110 km/h are really well known issue related to rear wheels. A slight unbalance or a bit too heavy wheels can cause it. I guess 120 km/h isn't too far of that.


And Yay! Another Miata. I'll start making a list of modifications public needs to do...
 

It's underneath a locking center console so filthy Philistines won't go siphoning gas from your 8-gallon sporting automobile, you filthy Philistine.

Also, may you hopefully not blow two engines on the way to Finland :p
 
Yeah I believe it's the 65mph shimmy in action. In any case, if the front needs stiffening and wings will come off for straightening / rust proofing, I would look into frog arms mounted underneath them.

FJIyFHU.jpg
 
Are you gonna add those sweet flames, too?
 
The worst thing would be that someone would straighten the dent and I couldn't claim a tax break for body damage. :p
 
Congrats

??, to all of you guys! Prop's for team work.
So D-Fence, will you be joining the "pink side" soon? Oh please, we need moar gay jokes :rolleyes:

As I said, some things need adressing....but overall, it was quite confidence inspiring.

List of issues:

- Battery. It dead. I buy new.

Buy correct size or if you go cheap :rolleyes: at least attach it properly, I've seen too many of these that have nice bumps where battery has moved and hitted inside
- Timing belt
And waterpump, or it will give a ghost after 10tkm. Oh, oil must be changed through the bolt, not by sucking. I tried, it eat part of pipe, I got super lucky and fished it out from oil bolt hole, otherwise you will need to lift engine up to open oilpan.
- Wobbly and vibrating around 120km/h. Needs adressing
- Re-attach side mirror
Like some one said, be very, very careful and no, normal parts wont hold it, you will need to find proper original part
- Replace rear window
Good luck
- Sparkplugs maybe?
And spark plug wires, MX's is famous of eating them fast
- Swap Ashtray to non-smelly one
Or maybe just drop it to dishwasher or if Public isnt hardcore smoker, buy mug holder instead.
- Oil Temp gauge is ... wonky. Starts at 90?C, after ~20km it settles at 60?C. Basically comes from the wrong side :D
- Adress rust spots & fix dents

I hope car is solid underneath, had no chance to jack it up.
Not bad for rust, should not be worst underside.

Then, when you need parts, look no further!
JUNK YARD DOG

(breaking mx5's from '89-05
JOHN 07814 010991
CALLS ONLY NO TEXTS THANKS OR JUST SEND A PM)

I have never met better guy or part suplier, anywhere! Smash'd my Mazdaspeed on tirewall in Ahvenisto. ?35 later I was back on road! But call him, he dismantles MX-5 for living. And buy 1.8 diff with LSD (plus axles) while your at it.

Oh those frog arms aren't answer for the shimmy. You will need to find tire place where they use wheel balancer with road/drive load. It is sensitive for unbalance like no other car (exept 944).
Remove the ugly steering wheel middle cover that hides the cool MOMO horn button (hide it inside sparewheel so Public can touch it too)
 
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