MX-5 Mk2 (NB) Pictures

1999 MX-5 Mk2 (NB) Photo Gallery

Original Condition March 2015

At first glance, the faded to pink paintwork looked like the biggest challenge when it came to restoring my MX5.  I also had an area of rust on the boot lid, peeling lacquer on one wing mirror, and the wheels were extremely dirty.  The interior was full of hay and rabbit feed (previous owner kept show rabbits), the carpets were soaking wet from a leak in the heater matrix, and everything was generally faded and grubby.

Faded Red Paint

Faded Headlights

Leaking Coolant into Footwell

Not Loved 

I Miss My White Dials. Dark Blue Hardly Notices

Work Cut Out For Me Here!

Love The Wheels Though!

MX5 Miata  Restoration

Interior

I removed the seats and cleaned up the entire interior, hoovered the carpets, used a dashboard restoration product to bring back the deep black look to the dashboard, and added a few aftermarket extras, namely; addition of a TT style roll bar, JDM split sun visors (they fold in the middle), leather gear and hand brake gators, and blue LED interior light.  Soon to be added will be a DIY CarPC I had previously fitted in my Mk1 Eunos.  The picture below shows the interior of my 1999 MX5 Mk2 (NB)  as of April 2015. 

Fitting the Roll Bar to my MX-5 involved removing the factory fitted wind-blocker as it uses the same mounting areas, and they wont coexist.  I added some MX5 carpets to match the red 'theme' with the gear gator and hand brake gator.  I will be adding a red stitched leather steering wheel cover in the near future, to polish it off. It is also highly likely that the dashboard instruments will be looked at, I dont like the deep blue dials as they look black most of the time.

Exterior

First I attacked the boot rust on the boot lid.  I removed all loose rust by digging at it with a screwdriver aggressively to ensure only sound metal remained.  After use a rust treatment I then filled the holes with fiberglass filler, sanded, primed, sprayed and added top coat, blending the paint at the curve in the boot lid.  I will look around for a replacement boot lid as the rust will reappear at some point in the future.  The door mirror was sanded smooth and the leading side resprayed with color and then lacquer, whilst on the car.  The rest of the paintwork was brought back to life using a product called Mer.  This polish, combined with an electric polisher, restored my faded pink paintwork to a deep reed shine, as shown in the pictures below. (April 2015)

The wheels were cleaned with a specialist product, which removed most of the road film.  I shall attempt another few cleans before considering paying for a full restoration.  They do look ok, for now.

I also added LED clear side repeaters and HID LED blue side light bulbs.  I plan to upgrade most of the bulbs to LED and the headlights to Xenon in the near future.