Expanding Foam Restoration, aka Rusty the Miata

check out the transformation of my '92 miata using nothing but spray foam, bondo, maaco, rattle-cans, pressure washer, and elbow grease.

http://rides.webshots.com/album/560035338BsCQSJ

synopsis: bought for $1200 with hardtop. sold hardtop for $800, installed new pads and caliper guide pins, removed and power-washed interior (recouping $56 in change), spent about 2 weeks of spare time filling the rockers and wheel arches with great stuff expanding foam and bondo, then spent $300 at maaco in redford township mi for some fresh mariner blue paint. sandblasted and painted the cheesy aftermarket chrome rims, undercoated the wheelwells, drove it for a month and sold it for $1850.

before:

after:

Let's see that right rear corner now. I'd love to see how it looks.

Note to self: Don't buy car from Patrick.

Per Schroeder wrote: Note to self: Don't buy car from Michigan.

In a country that doesn't routinely use $1 (let alone $2) coins, 56 bucks in change is a lot of change. Even if it was all quarters, which I bet it wasn't, that's 224 separate coins. Good grief.

Wasn't this done years ago?

In reply to EvanB:

yes it was, from what i understand, the new buyer was well aware of the foamed rockers when he purchased it.

yes, i believe it was summer/fall '07. when i sold the car, i shared all the pix of my "restoration" including these:

when i sold it, the ad said "Every $2000 miata has issues. This one's issue is rust." OTOH, it was a 124k-mile miata with a nice interior and top, that ran and drove well and had shiny paint.

and yes, it was a E36 M3-ton of coins. there was $56 after using the pressure washer. when the PO went to the drive-thru, he would dump his change into the ashtray, and a bunch of them fell through the cutout in the carpet where the park brake handle comes through. there was so much change under the carpet that it was blocking the seat slider from moving rearward.

In reply to AngryCorvair:

Well done sure you have successfully polished a turd :)

Per Schroeder wrote: Note to self: Don't buy car from Patrick.

My thoughts exactly.

EvanB wrote: Wasn't this done years ago?

Yes. And I seem to recall Wally made one of the best posts in interweb history in response. It still makes me chuckle to this day. I saved the text somewhere...