Rusty Miata, $350, SE Michigan

1991 Mazda Miata, quite rusty. $350 to someone with plans other than scrapping for profit.

Ran when parked about 2.5 years ago. Last started 1.5 years ago. My daily driver for ~7 years before that. Was running quite well when retired due to rust, then had several nonessentials cannibalized.

Long nose crank. Real manual steering rack, no A/C, (no LSD), 176k.

The floors and associated structure is actually not that rusty. I stopped driving it when a sway bar endlink rusted through, and I simultaneously found an easily-fixed 1990 from California.

Hood, bumpers, rear center finish panel are in quite good shape. Front bumper has no front license plate warts, rear has one bit of paint missing but no underlying plastic damage. Roof keeps most of the rain out. (Zipper is marginal, so comes with a free pool noodle.) Seats pretty good. Crystal White paint is oddly not faded or peeling (I guess it rusted through before it had a chance). Clean title.

Cranks freely, but does not catch. Is getting spark. Likely bad gas or out of gas? I can smell some fuel-like substance. That's the extent of the troubleshooting I was in the mood for. (Compression was good in all cylinders when last tested about 40k ago). Front left brake caliper was swapped with another car, and lines not re-bled. I'm not certain where the LF brake pads are. Rotors rusty. Obviously should not be driven as is.

Parts donated to another car and thus missing: Exterior door handles, speedometer cable, window regulators, third brake light bulb, front turn signal bulbs/connectors, blower motor, splash shield, two lug nuts, right rear view mirror. I will include the left mirror if I can remember where I put it. Probably several other things I'm forgetting, but I tried hard not to steal anything that would keep it from (theoretically) driving.

Click for lots of photos/video

Located S of Detroit, N of Toledo (48138). Respond here or email pwkung at gmail.

I work over that way almost every week. I am interested in checking it out!

If it gets parted out, please let me know if I can buy the manual steering rack :)

Kendall

Once someone buys this car they can do whatever they wish...regardless of 'plans'. ;-)

Kendall....I have an oem manual rack available. Email me if you have interest. metalman59@gmail.com

If that doesn't scream Lemons/Chumpcar, nothing does.

i would have been at your doorstep if you had posted this a few months back.

now im pissed hahah

Looks like a perfect donor for my Locost....

You should swap the drive train into the kids car behind it.

In reply to jakeb:

That blue wagon is really set up for fwd. There's a dead powerwheels Jeep somewhere in that pile that has much more rwd swap potential.

I guess it's no surprise that my 4 year old also feels the need to keep parts cars. Actually, she doesn't know that I'm trying to get rid of 'her' Miata. Rest assured that every knob and button has been well tested.

In looking at your other pictures a thought crossed my mind...
If it was ever required that new people to the board had to apply for entry, this picture alone would grant you entry.
Two Miatas, a CRX and a Volvo wagon all within one lens view.
Welcome to GRM, my guess is that you are our first member from "The Rock", "The Ile."

In reply to jrw1621:

I had another miata stashed at work, too. I have a very understanding wife. (The 2006 MX-5 was her idea so that I'd have a big, heavy, safe car for carrying kids.)

I've been lurking here for years, but generally don't post due to an inability to hold my tongue about job-related things I shouldn't share. So naturally this is the only place to try an unload a miata project.

I badly want this for a project kicking around in my head but wife would be unhappy w/ me. Some please buy it to remove temptation..

nocones wrote: I badly want this for a project kicking around in my head but wife would be unhappy w/ me. Some please buy it to remove temptation..

Don't you already have 2 pretty big projects going on?

My wife caught me looking at this and to my utter jaw dropping astonishment asked if that's what I want for Christmas? this particular car, not any Miata. Dang, I think it has a bit much missing for a toy project, but now I'm not so sure. How bad is the rust? Is it just the rocker panels? My brain has now gone from fantasy mode to is this a possibility mode. Lunch time will be spent on e-bay pricing out the missing parts.

In reply to Adrian_Thompson:

The rockers are the most noticeable but probably still repairable. (One of them is probably still pretty solid despite appearances because when I last fixed it I was in a bad mood and welded in some 1/8" thick steel beneath the 22 gauge cosmetics.) The real bother to me, however, was getting bolts off. It's all possible, but I decided I had better things to do with my life than spend 15 minutes trying to get the phillips-head headlight adjustment screw out, for example. Every panel save the hood and windshield frame has some bit of rust-through, and you can see the suspension for yourself in the pics. A sway bar endlink snapped/rusted through on a pothole, and that's when I switched to an un-rusty '90 that I had sitting in the driveway. I have bonus unrusty exhaust and spring/shock/tophat assemblies with blown shocks if you want. I think I still have a (loud) speedo cable in the garage somewhere. I can retrieve the blower motor, turn signals, and door handles from other projects, price negotiable. Window regulators are totally unneeded. I drove around for over a year with a string, a piece of styrofoam, and a custom door card made from a landscaping sign.

If I had more time and a wife that does not foolishly say things like "Why don't you just get a new miata", I would probably still be driving it. No, I'd be driving a Locost with this powertrain. But you get the idea.

If this had been up a week ago, I would hav trailered it home from where I got my pickup, just a bit north of you. Damn the bad timing!

i wanna just buy it but i have no time to get it, am elbows deep in another full blown project, and just am not totally sure of what to do with it. I have ideas but nothing concrete.

You kill me. Almost called you to buy it today

how many guys are wondering?......it doesn't look too bad; I probably could fix that up.....

Sold!

The best part is, my daughter cried when I told her it was going away. So I had to promise we'd get something else to take its place in the driveway. The kid's going to turn out okay.

nice! i sent a link to this thread to a coworker the day it posted, and i'm pretty sure on monday morning he's going to tell me an epic story of car retrieval. and then you'll be able to read about it on beaterblog.com