Looks nice Scotty. I've seen worse welding, and so have you I'd wager.
I just "dug" my own 93 Mk1 Roadster out it's tomb two days ago.
I'd not even flipped the garage door for nearly 30 months.
4 flat tyres, utterly filthy, close to "barn find" level. Westco long gone of course. Sills & rear wings are totally shot, but they were a core reason why I dumped it.
It has a recent low miles replacement (40,ooo miles)1840cc mill from AK Automotive in, and for it's UK wide H4H rally I had a lot of mechanics renewed...but the discs & calipers are scrap now.
It smells like an old church inside...thousands of little green & white mouldy dots.
To cut a long short, I went to a local breaker two days ago, got a recent lead-acid Yuasa from a wrecked Pug for a tenner, connected it with croc clips.
If the mill was seized or blowing anywhere, had mayo, it was off to scrap or sale for spares & repairs tbh. Here we go. 1 turn..churn churn cough...blurp blurp..cough. 3 more like that.
5th turn....cough wheeze cough cough. This sounds hopeful. I could smell fuel...a Good Thing. 6th turn....Houston we have lift off!
It ticked over for 40 minutes with no issues, the cooling fan clicked in after 10. All leccy things work like leccy things...everything.
Oddly, hydro bucket lash was totally absent.
No leaks...zero issues. I took it to between 4 to 7k rpm for ten minutes. Settled to 750rpm perfectly and silently. No coolant wibbles.
I had put fresh GTX in back then for a possible Day of Resurrection, topped the tank to the brim with Vpower to minimise water contamination, & 2 bottles of Forte Fuel System cleaner. Kinda makes me wonder about this "old fuel" degradation stuff tbh.
Since it sent a clear message it's not ready to die, I'll do what I can and it's off for a chassis/body resto next year to AK Automotive.
It will be OK for the next 146000 miles. I cannot justify 7k/8k for a BRG Mk1 I'd would want. 4k to restore what I have (there is more good about it than bad) seems a better solution. Were it not one of the rarer VS Type 2s, I not be bothering but only 400 were done in this colour & trim combo together with 400 black, and 400 white. Recently, a pristine nut and bolter went for a strong 7 + k
Nor would I bother with a later marque. I say that having poured 4.5 k into restoring SWMBO's Mk2.5 over recent years as Eddie in particular knows. Never again...but really good Mk1's preserved values are shooting past later Marques' values at high velocity now. Accessible latter day Elan antidotes?
Watch this space.
In 5 years or less I bet genuine saliva inducing nut & bolters will match used ND prices, by current indications.
Your car could be one...if....one day you can do the original mill to keep matching numbers given it's MazdaSpeed heritage. It's all time and money.