Ordered a new pair of gloss black door mirrors. The old ones were in a bit of a state, the mirror glass was corroded, the internal springs rusted and generally they wouldn't stay in place.
Popped into the paint shop to see how the respray is progressing ...
OMG! It's not finished yet but the transformation is amazing. It's going to look awesome when it is finished :-)
My new mirrors arrived today.
Picked up Yoko today from B & M Car Body Centre today. The respray is complete and she looks amazing!
The respray cost more twice what we originally paid for the car but it is worth it.
The first job was fitting the boot and door seals, so we can't damage the paintwork by opening and closing them. All of the boot hardware was fitted including the high level brake light. All the seals have been cleaned with a proper seal cleaning liquid.
All the door hardware was re-fitted on the drivers side. The passenger side will be done tomorrow.
The driver's door seal was a right pain to refit. It needed to be threaded down the inside of the door and the glass and this took ages! I'd bought a load of new clips to fit the seal as many were broken when I removed it.
As a last job for today I just had to fit the new mirrors. It also makes it easier to reverse the car into the garage and they look good!
Cleaned and refitted the drainage pipe and water collectors. These basically divert any water that makes its way through the soft-top and diverts it out of the car. They often get clogged up too and need to be unblocked with a piece of wire. These are simple held in with two plastic fixings. On the underside of the car, there is a soft rubber, oval-shaped grommet that they fit through.
These are the rear bumper mounts. The metal brackets were removed, cleaned up and resprayed. The metal brackets fit to the nylon mounts with a small rivet. You can see some red overspray from the last time the car was painted. I removed them this time, to ensure the rear of the car is all covered in white paint. The bottom lugs/holes were damaged removing the rusty bolts but large stainless-steel penny washers are being used to provide a good fixing point.
The rear crash structure is held in place with a fixing plate. This photo shows the fog light attached to the rear crash structure but this is being replaced by a new light as this one is cracked.
Finally the bumper can go back on! There are a load of bodywork fixings used along the top and some more underneath. I've used stainless steel bolts to fix the arch extensions on and stainless-steel screws to hold the edges of the bumper in place. Then I fitted the number plate plinth and rear lights. I've used new seals on the rear light clusters as the old ones were crumbling. It's starting to look more like a car now :-)
Fitted the rear valance back on to the car at the rear. This is bolted on but uses sealant to stop water getting in under the top seal. Fitting it is a two man job.
Finally got around to re-fitting the strut brace that came with the car.
The front bumper is all back together and ready to go back on the car. Just need to fix the front wings first and adjust all the panel gaps. The new header rail seal should arrive this week too. It's expensive but I've bought a genuine Mazda new part, to ensure it keeps the wind and water out. The old one just doesn't seal the hard-top or soft-top properly anymore.
My new fog light arrived today. Managed to find a new one the same size, so I don't have to mess about with the hole already cut in the rear bumper. It should just be a straight swap. I'm using stainless steel fixings and improving the wiring though, especially the earth for the light.
Cleaned up the interior plastic parts that fit around the windscreen and used 'back to black' on them to get a shiny new look.
Fitted the wheel arch liners and bumper supports. I could re-use many of the nylon fixings but some had to be replaced. All of the screws have been replaced with stainless-steel equivalents. We must have spent £40+ on stainless-steel fixings so far but it means no more screws/bolts/nuts to tackle in the future. They also look so much tidier too.
It looks really tidy under the car because I've spent so much time cleaning off surface rust, treating it and then under-sealing the exposed parts.
Fitted the 'Eunos' and 'Roadster' badges, then fitted the first of the vinyl graphics. This is the cars name, Yoko in Japanese.
The same graphic is on the front headlight cover. You can also see the 'Stealth TSI' LED front lights in this photo. I've used nylon spacers to get a perfect fit.