I bought my first Miata at the end of last year and have been collecting parts for a Kswap and disassembling the car slowly since then.

I am at the point where I'd like to repaint the car before starting on the swap. I was about to start removing EVERYTHING from the engine bay so that I could do a color change and I started noticing what I think is evidence that this car was in a collision at some point.

Let me know what you think and how bad do you think it is. Car drove fine before with the Miata engine....but I also can't say I was being THAT critical at the time.

There are multiple dents in the engine bay, circled in yellow.
There is a good amount of a soft/gooey substance at the bottom of the passenger side shock tower brace.
There are 4 small holes drilled on the inside of the fender wall under where the windshield wiper motor is.
The sheet metal underneath the driver side fender is wrinkled.

 

Yes wrecked and horribly repaired. Like "monkey with a hammer and tube of silicone" horrible

 

It's been wrecked. That driver's inner fender top, wow. And the dent pull weld pin marks on the passenger side inner fender. I bet it will take your breath away if you loosen those ~8ish bolts and pull the fender off and look behind it. I'd do both sides and see what you are working with since you've gone this far stripping it.

 

Id put it back together and sell it, and buy a non damaged one.

with the amount of money/effort it takes to kswap, i would start with a clean shell.

nice rollers can be had for under $1k with blown engines on craigslist.

 

Putting it back together isn't an option. Motor, header, exhaust were sold. But I did get vmaxx coilovers, hard dog roll bar w/ harness bar, racing beat sway bar/end links, aftermarket wheels, and aluminum radiator out of the deal if I decide to look for a cleaner shell

 

I personally would check to see if all suspension components are square, do some stitch welding where the folded sheet metal comes together on both sides of the engine bay, paint and go to town on your build.

 

Been down this road, mine not so bad though. Seconding getting it checked for square on a chassis rig. Have a close look at both subframes, for both damage and/or modz to make them fit a not-square chassis. The latter was the give-away for mine.

If it is a track car with a full cage, structural rigidity will not be an issue. A road car with a half cage, or nothing, not so sure what effect those 'repairs' would have on chassis dynamics.

If your budget can stand it, the quickest and surest way to a trouble-free build with full peace of mind would be a new (straight) shell.

 

The subframe bolts to the sheet metal chassis. The sheet metal chassis looks like it was really bent where the two come together. Therefore it is very suspect. I would look further for a good chassis.

 

Theoretically you could buy a non-crashed car, swap the motor/etc out of that into this one, sell this one, and build the non-crashed one.

IMHO once a car has been crashed that hard it's never the same. I would not use that one as a starting point for a build.

--ian

 

this.

if sheetmetal around subframe is bent... consider subframe compromised

 

between COVID & being busy at work the Kmiata project took a backseat....since the car was wrecked and there is some shady looking repairs in the engine bay I'm going this route....should be shipping this week. Just got done at powder coat.

 

I can confirm this one is not wrecked.

 

I'll do my best to keep it that way

 

ITT: How to properly make lemonade when handed a bucket of shitty lemons...

 

I totally appove of your solution!

 

A K-swap in an Exocet frame? This will decimate all, after you put about 15 grand in it.

 

If I have to overnight parts from Japan...