MK1 Body Repairs

[FrankHoney]

Hi Folks, I have a 1998 "R" plate mk1 in sunburst yellow which is in need of some major welding!. I bought the car from a good friend about two years ago. He had the sills repaired by Isla St Motors in Dundee about five or six years ago, however the sills are showing all the signs of rot with blisters, etc coming through the paint. I have recently taken the car to three different garages and all have said that the repair has been bodged with new metal stuck over the old rotten sills and then filled and painted. None of them seemed keen on taking on the job as they do mostly insurance work.

I looked on the forum recommended garages list but all the posts seem to be fairly old. I really want to keep the car so I am looking for a garage in Scotland that will cut the rot out and weld new sections/sills in with photographic evidence to show the process as its carried out. There is "The MX5 Restorer" in East Sussex which has a good reputation on numerous forums for doing the work to a very high standard with the photographic evidence to show all the work carried out but I would rather go somewhere closer to home. As an aside I now have holes in the inner front wings directly behind the front wheels which will need investigation and repair. Can anyone help with a garage that knows mx5s and how to do a proper repair.

Cheers Frank  (Original post on UK MXOC)

[samg1988]

Chizfab are who I use for bigger welding work. Kyle is a top bloke. Lochgelly, near driftland. There were a set of mk1 sills on gumtree recently too that might help you. He also has a painter nearby that can probably tidy anything up.


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[JML]

Edinburgh Sportscars in Dalkeith, but be warned, they're not cheap

Did mine 2 years ago.
(The one on their website is not mine)

Doesn't look much from the outside but they know their stuff.

[FrankHoney]

Thanks for the replies guys, I will look at both. Any more, anyone?.

[bmv6197]

Depending on your location, George at On the Road Again in Peterculter (near Aberdeen) might be worth a visit. He has worked on plenty of MX5s and always does a very thorough careful job. He tends to prefer fabricating his own repair sections, which I think are usually likely to outlast the rest of the car! He'll do patch repairs or full restorations - depending on what your budget is.

Good luck,
B.

[FrankHoney]

Thanks for that Brad, I should have said I live in Glasgow but I'm willing to travel if the garage has an excellent reputation. I originally posted this request on the UK site and forgot to add my location. The MX5 Restorer in east Sussex seems to get very positive reports from various forums with not a bad word said about him and appears to be sewing up the market in quality MX5 repairs, only trouble is he is 500 miles from me so its a bit of trek. I think there is an opportunity for a garage in Scotland to perhaps do the same thing. If you look on his site it seems to be everything I'm looking for in a garage that repairs MX5s.

[IanH]

Another one to try is AK Automotive at Rowlands Gill south of Newcastle, more local than East Sussex...

[drumtochty Eddie Cairns]

They do not do bodywork but they have a body shop in the same industrial estate that they use for customers cars.

I bought repair panels off MX5 Restorer and they are good guys but will they be around in three years time to honour a guarantee.

No idea but small companies come and go especially if one of the partners moves on.

Lets hope they stay in business.

I'm doing a welding course in September to December in Arbrouth as I want to be able to do this stuff myself.

[gm]

another one to try is Adrian at Bordermx5s, I know he has repaired a few mk1 sills but I'm not sure if he offers it as a commercial service, worth a call (or a drive down to see him, some cracking roads down there)

http://www.bordermx5s.com

or there's Mark down in Wales, he seems to do a lot of these repairs, it started as a bit of a hobby for him, he now has a full time business sorting mx5s

http://www.mx5nutz.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=140762&p=1817734

[tjay tom + Jen mcginnis]

Hi, I know off at least 10 cars done at North Isla street paint shop, My Mk1 Gleneagles was done there 8 years ago and is only now showing rust on the rear arches and can do with a respray now, but it is in use 365 days a year ! My own Black Mk1 was done there 7 years ago and is still in mint condition, I bought and sold 2 Mk2's that had been done too, both still on the road and still ok, Eddie had his Mk2 done and that is ok too.
So how ever the car came from you need to ask was it looked after ? Did the owner do as I did with all the cars and filled everywhere with cavity wax and underseal all the parts under the plastic panels.
Nothing lasts forever but some basic protection obviously helps.
There is another very good garage in Dundee not cheap either ,it is Dudhope coach works in Lochee.
Friends car done there last month !! very nice, photos on Facebook, MX5 Tayside

[drumtochty Eddie Cairns]

Tom my car is showing problems where the rear arches were done at North Isla after 4 years and Richard Nichol found after a few years that the repairto his Mk1 was not up to standard.

Paul the owner is a sprayer and I think some of the welders he has employed like all tradesmen, you find some are good and others just do the job the quickest way and not always the best way.

He has to trust them as he is doing other things running the business and sometimes that works and at other times it does not work.

The problem of employing people I'm afraid for Paul.

eddie

[tjay tom + Jen mcginnis]

Hi Eddie, thought your car was ok ! you are right of course some welders are better than others. I do know that has went through a few and as far as I know only does repairs and spray work now

[Richardn]

Hi Folks, I have a 1998 "R" plate mk1 in sunburst yellow which is in need of some major welding!. I bought the car from a good friend about two years ago. He had the sills repaired by Isla St Motors in Dundee about five or six years ago, however the sills are showing all the signs of rot with blisters, etc coming through the paint. I have recently taken the car to three different garages and all have said that the repair has been bodged with new metal stuck over the old rotten sills and then filled and painted. None of them seemed keen on taking on the job as they do mostly insurance work.

I looked on the forum recommended garages list but all the posts seem to be fairly old. I really want to keep the car so I am looking for a garage in Scotland that will cut the rot out and weld new sections/sills in with photographic evidence to show the process as its carried out. There is "The MX5 Restorer" in East Sussex which has a good reputation on numerous forums for doing the work to a very high standard with the photographic evidence to show all the work carried out but I would rather go somewhere closer to home. As an aside I now have holes in the inner front wings directly behind the front wheels which will need investigation and repair. Can anyone help with a garage that knows mx5s and how to do a proper repair.

Cheers Frank  (Original post on UK MXOC)

Exactly the same as mine was!

Tom you are defending the indefensible. I have lots of pictures.........BUT his paintwork is excellent

[FrankHoney]

Hi Tom

In answer to your question the car has only had four owners including me. The last two are friends and looked after the car. The friend I bought it from spent £1100 at Isla St Motors having the sills done (he thought properly!) around five or six years ago. The day he got it back it was taken to his local garage where they waxoyled the box sections and inner sills while he watched(he said they took the sill covers off).
I'm unaware if Paul had someone else do the welding, ie,farmed it out and then painted it himself or he did the welding in house, in any case it needs fairly extensive work in order to save the car. If I could weld then I would do it myself and know that its been done right.
I go back to my original posting re the MX5 Restorer. I'm not saying he's the best out there, just that he cuts the rot out and repairs with new metal whilst taking photographic evidence. To me this shows someone who is not afraid to have his work scrutinised. I would have thought someone in Central Scotland would have been keen to offer the same type of service given the amount of rusty silled MX5s there are (especially with our weather).
I will post when I eventually decide who gets the work and what kind of job they do, here's hoping a good one.
Regards Frank

[drumtochty Eddie Cairns]

Frank,

It is very difficult to get rustproofing done in the complete MX5 MK1 an Mk2 sill void and rear arch area.

There is an inner sill that only allows you to only get one side of the sill void done using the existing entry points. You then have to drill additional holes to get to the other side of the void and I do not think most people do that.

If you look on the MGB and Midget and other classic car forums you find that cars done in the 1990's have since then had bodywork done in the 2000's and the rust is coming back again in the mid 2010's.

Yes a small number of these cars never properly rust; recently a 1959 Frogeye Sprite with no welding at all was sold.

This is also the case with some MX5's that have been rustproofed properly but how can you get behind a weld that you cannot see to remove any weld slag, bring back to clean parent metal, paint and rustproof.

The real answer is most body shops are unlikely to do it; most cars are sold within three years of people buying them so the 4th year rust problem is long gone from the original repairing owner, only small numbers of owners are long term car keepers.

I think with the design of the MX5 and our salt laden roads that you can expect to re fettle every 6 to 10 years. Your car has been a bit unlucky or shall we say it has spent too long in one or a related ownership group and the repair history is an open book.

Even with a three year guarantee your car would probably have looked clean at three years so that may well have passed with no claim being made.

Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and if your gut feeling is that MX5Restorers will do the best job, just take it down there. At least you will have peace of mind for three years.

The one suggestion I will make is that you do the work that they say is need and do not say only do 70% of the work as it is just getting too expensive.

It will not be inexpensive to get it sorted properly.

eddie

[FrankHoney]

Eddie
I have taken on board your observations and you are probably right. I am not an engineer or indeed a mechanic, just a guy who enjoys driving for the sake of it. The car is almost eighteen years old so I suppose rustproofing then was different to the system used by manufacturers now. And you are correct in that most repairs will need a revisit after a few years. I originally posted to get recommended garages and mentioned Isla St Motors as a reference to the query not to lambast them, although I now realise it reads that way. You are also correct in that it will not be a cheap fix but hey ho its only money and you can't take it with you!.

[Richardn]

Carl Smith of CBS Autos in Nelson takes photographic records of the repairs as he does them

https://www.facebook.com/mx5specialists?fref=ts

[joeytalent]

Restoweld near Edinburgh have a decent reputation: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Resto-We ... 8934300566 - he posts up pictures of the repairs quite frequently, and has saved plenty of old minis.

There's also a welder in the unit next to me: http://edinburghmobilewelder.com/- his welding is good, and there's a body shop next door that I've always been impressed with.

[BBAV]

Hi Frank, If you haven't fixed up with a bodyshop yet to get you car repaired, here is a company I can thoroughly recommend and they are only about twenty miles from Glasgow. They are called Car Cosmetics Company, John Beattie is the man, Tel. 01555 751146 or you can email him at, enquiries@car-cosmetics-company.co.uk They are based at Braidwood, Carluke Lanarkshire.
I have dealt with him in the past, you would find him very reasonable to deal with and you will get a first class job.

Bill.

[FrankHoney]

Hi Bill, Thanks for the info. I am on leave at the end of July and will give him a call, see what he thinks. Thanks again to all the posters for their help. I will post when I get it repaired and hopefully have some pics. As an aside I'm now looking for a set of VW G60 steel wheels as I like the retro look.