You're taking steps I never would of thought of.
I'm gonna go drink and cry myself to sleep in the passenger seat of my Miata.

 

Have you applied some power to that motor? Sure you're not going to wipe your hood?

 

Is there an easy way to jump it via my jetta battery? I double checked to make sure that it wouldn't pull the wipers down but you bring up a good point to test it.

 

No idea, you'd have to have the whole harness and controls plugged in I'm guessing. As long as you double checked, you should be fine, should be able to just rotate the wipers accordingly on the spline.

 

I am always surprised, what a clean base this was. Nearly no rust on all the parts... so nice.
Maybe someone want's to have a look at my project-blog (maybe you enjoy reading some German) - you can see what a bloody pile of rust this was...
Trisha's Blog (MX-5 Resurrection) | How to resurrect a rotten MX-5

I really enjoy your eye to the detail Jeff (is there a maximum props/thread count?) - keep up the good work - and keep us entertained

 

In the Southern and Western US, even the worst Miata clunkers are pretty much rust-free.

 

That was on the camera lens.



Clean project.

 

Just out of curiosity, are you documenting this anywhere else? I'd like to share the build with a few people, but I'm not sure if I want to expose them to the full mt.net experience.

 

Whenever it comes time to sell this car I will be the first in line with a bag full of money to buy it...

 

You do some super clean work yourself Zaphod, or at least as well as I can understand with Google Translate.

You are more than welcome to share this wherever you want to, doesn't bother me at all.

And a bag of cash you'll need Efini! Nah, I don't know if I could let myself part with this thing after the amount of work I have poured into it...

 

$2,500 obo

 

You could probably be shot for even suggesting that. No jury in the world would convict.

 

I bet if you found the right (affluent) buyer, you could get in the neighborhood of $25k for this thing. Maybe more. Who knows.

 

I've actually been wondering about that -- could you turn this into an ICON-style business? How much would some of those m.net wine-and-cheesers pay to have a freshly restored, better-than-showroom condition NA Miata?

 

I think to do an ICON style business you'd have to wait another 10-15 years, maybe more.

 

Highly doubt 25k or anything close to that. I bet the wine & cheeses wouldn't go for it since don't those folk bleed OEM and god forbid you put anything aftermarket in a Miata that was "perfect",in its stock form!...

Who knows. If someone wanted to pay me to restore their car I wouldn't turn it down, it would b a pricy labor bill though.

I really do enjoy doing this strangely enough, I have no idea on the logistics of turning this into a business though. The car restoration business seems very sink or swim these days. And there are shops that do way more reputable work than I could think about doing with my current garage/tools.

I'm just making this up as I go, which from this thread, should be obvious.

 

I think you could turn it into a genuine business. You have the skills. I'm not sure the Miata is the right platform though, people are still all about them for the cheap factor. Like I said -- give it another 10-15 years though and I'm sure you could get that kind of money for a perfectly restored NA. For now, you could pick up, oh, old Z cars or maybe early (or even late) supras. Import R32 Skylines and clean them up and sell them.

I still think you could get solid money for your car from the RIGHT buyer.

 

Not from where I sit. I've seen the Foose show, those guys are hacks compared to you.

 

Do not lead this guy to financial ruin. There is no way he could make a living out of restoring Miatas to this level for other people. He might do 2-3. Ever.

Give him his props and spread the love, but let's leave it at that.