Laying in bed, trying to go to sleep two nights ago, I was scrolling through craigslist when I found an ad without any pictures offering a 1997 Miata for $1,200. I usually don't bother with ads sans pictures, but it happened to be in the same city that I live in, so I went ahead and opened it up. According to the seller, the car was in "good" condition, but suffering from a bad head gasket. Reading further, the tires were new as was the clutch. It's a manual and has a rollbar and only has just over 105k on the clock. What really got my attention, though, was that the car was advertised as having a hard top. I'm not an expert, but I know that those hardtops can command a good price all on their own, so at the asking price it didn't seem like I could possibly lose. I showed my wife and remarked that it was a really good deal and she more or less demanded that I respond to the ad. What an enabler she is! I emailed right away and the next morning as I was getting in to work, the seller responded and we started going back and forth. Turns out the car is parked at a local garage and they're the ones that diagnosed it as needing a headgasket. I needed to swing by the kids' school anyway and it's about a quarter mile from there, so I went ahead and stopped in to take a look.
The underside has no rust whatsoever but there's a little bubbly rust spot towards the rear of the left rocker. The paint is a little faded and oxidized, and the interior could use a good cleaning. There are seat covers that hide some tears in the cloth seats, and I can't really inspect the soft top with the hard top on (or can I? I don't know anything about these! This is exciting!). I confirmed milkshake in the crankcase, but the battery voltage was too low to start the car. The battery is somewhat new so I suspect that either there's a drain, or something got left on (I'm envisioning hazard lights while waiting for a tow truck or something like that). It was enough to turn the motor, though, so it's probably not locked up. The headlight motors both work which is good -- I'm a total sucker for pop up headlights.
I called the seller and she said that she put the ad on craigslist that night at 9pm and has been inundated with emails ever since. I couldn't help but try to talk her down, but she very politely held firm at her asking. Can't fault a guy for trying, right? Despite that paying asking price causes me physical pain, I relented and agreed to pay the $1,200 asking price for the car. After that business was out of the way, we had a delightful conversation about the car and she asked what my plans were. She seemed happy to know that I planned to fix it and enjoy it as a "fun car" and not part it out and scrap it or anything like that. It was obviously her baby that she kept as a second car for the last several years. We agreed to meet this morning at the courthouse to transfer the money and the paperwork. There's a part of me that was a little nervous about the deal -- it's all verbal and over the phone and nothing would stop her from taking a better offer. In fact, while I'd be a bit disappointed, I wouldn't blame her or be at all angry if someone offered her more and she took it. (Not that I think that anyone here would try to poach my deal, but you know the Internet and all, that's why I didn't actually hit the "post" button until after I get back from the courthouse!)
As it turns out, everything went smooth with the title transfer. We met at the courthouse this morning and chatted while the clerk got everything squared away. Apparently someone did wind up asking her to take more than I had offered, but she declined saying that she had given her word and the car was sold. She got a number of offers for just the hardtop, of course. I kind of feel like there's some sort of karma with it, though, because apparently she was the second owner and when she got it many years ago a "fair" value was around $10k. The story she told was that it was her friend's car and she had always wanted it, so when the car was going on the market she asked the friend if she'd take $6k for it. The friend declined, saying that she wanted $10k but since this was going to be a second car it just wasn't worth spending that much for it. The friend's dad, however, told his daughter to just let her have the car for $6k and they wound up just dropping it off in the driveway for her!
My plans are actually pretty benign for this project. I'm going to load it on the trailer and get it back to the workshop where I'll drain the fluids and pull the head. I'll send the head over to Monarch to have them check it out for me and make sure it's not warped and if it's good, I'll get new gaskets and seals and put everything back together. I'm actually going to do the radiator, hoses, water pump, thermostat, and timing belt while I'm at it. That should be just under about $300 in parts from our friends at Rock Auto.
That will give me a chance to see if anything else is wrong -- did the headgasket blow because something else went wrong and overheated it or did it overheat because the headgasket just gave out? From there, it needs a good cleaning, inside and out, and a polishing job on the paint to see if it can be saved. From there? I'm not sure yet! I've wanted a Miata ever since I first saw a USA Today review of the car back when it was first released. I got my first chance to drive one at the $2017 Challenge and it was amazing. So in terms of where I go from there -- I don't know! I'm just going to drive it and see!
No great pictures yet, just the ones I took in the rain yesterday:
