How To Paint a Car 1997 Mazda Miata Body and Paint Project Intro

Hey, what’s goin’ on!

On this week’s video, I show you the newest LearnAutoBodyAndPaint Project, the Mazda Miata that I bought from eBay.

This is a very special and sentimental car to me. I’m going to be 33 years old this year and I’ve been doing auto body work on cars for a long time. I just had the itch again to get one of these. I used to buy and sell a lot of Miatas when I was in my teens to early twenties and I actually used to drive one of these for a long time. They’re just so fun to drive these little things

I remember I had one when I was 18. It’s cool because I got the car now and I’m reminiscing my old days and how I used to pick up girls and I just have so many fun times with this little car that I have. I had the ‘91, ‘92, ‘93 models.

Once, I went to the auction when I was 20 or 21 and I picked up 3 of them at one shot at the auction. One of them had a damage at the back quarter panel. It was a salvaged title. I gave it to my dad. It had a hard top on it and I kept the two other, I flipped them.

So now, I decided to actually get this one as a collector, just to keep you know, just to have, rust-free.

So let me tell you the story on how I found this thing…I just picked it up on eBay. It was on eBay from Virginia, an original Virginia car, one owner. It has a 105,000 miles. I have the 97 M Edition which comes with the chrome wheels, the badges, custom seats, with the M Edition, it comes with the Nardi wood shifter, wood break knob, power antennas, power windows, power mirrors.

It needs paint though. If you watch the video and look closely, you could see there’s water spots. The paint is not as shiny as it could be. If you look at the mirrors, the clear on them has started to bubble a little bit. Look at the hood, you could see that maybe, years of bird crap and stuff sitting on it has damaged the clear coat.

Overall, it’s not in  bad condition. It has dents all over it but not huge ones. There’s a couple in the quarter panel as you will see in the video. We will do a complete paint job on it and I will document the whole complete process for my YouTube fans, as well as my VIP Members. And we’re going to do a nice job on this thing. We will paint it original color because the M Edition on the 97’s that came with this British-Racing Green. There’s a name for it, I don’t know the exact name.

We will have to take everything off – lights off, the emblems, the caps, the headlights, the mirrors, are all going to come off. The badges are going to come off. I don’t know, we might tape up the locks, just tape off. We’ll see, maybe I’ll take them off. Door jambs or not, I think I’m just going to do the outside. What do you think? You tell me. The door jambs are in pretty good condition. It’s just that if you want to do door jambs, you have to tape everything up, sand it and take the seals out, you know, sand all that, take the weather-stripping out, take the door panel out.

I don’t know if I  want get all into that, you know. You could do it, maybe you would do it, it’s up to you. Some people go crazy, they take all the glass out right, take all these moldings out and they get new moldings. I don’t think I’m gonna go back crazy.

But you could do a really really good job on a paint job without going crazy and taking out the windshield and taking out every little molding off, you know. Probably, I’ll take the off, little weather-stripping around the windows here. These back piece I’ve taken them off before. They’re a pain in the a**. There are screws underneath them, I think there were screws underneath them. If you take  all the screws off, the top comes off, you know.

This car is in great condition – no rust, no accidents, single owner, just a couple of dents here and there which is just fine. Hey, it’s already 18 years old, you know.

And what I might do is just add a touch of flake in the clear coat. I was thinking of doing some candy on it like doing the original base coat, right and then doing a candy green on top of it. That would make it really pop. Not with this one. You know I could have waited they got something with a little less mileage but you’d be spending a lot more. I paid $4000 for this thing out the door which I think is not a bad deal for a single owner, no accident, no rust Mazda Miata. I got all the original owner manuals, all the maintenance records that they had, interior is pretty clean too. I mean, yeah, there’s a couple of cracks in the seats. You know all that. But the door panels, just a little cleaning, everything works on it.

The AC is cold cold, CD players work, the speakers in the headrest even work. The top is in great condition, too. I washed it earlier then the back just zips up with the glass.

Make sure you watch the video because I also show you the engine, pretty clean and it does have a new radiator. He didn’t tell me that it’s a new radiator but it does have a brand new radiator in it and it runs great. Really runs great.

I also show you all dents, dings, rock chips, paint problems on the Miata. It will all be in the LearnAutoBodyAndPaint VIP Course. And also clips and bits and pieces here and there on YouTube showing you how to start your project. You know what to look for, what to do. If you want to do a quick and complete paint job, I would give you guidance on every step of the way because frankly, I’ve done it all.

Another thing about this Miata is the rims. I mean no curb rash at all. These rims are in excellent condition, really. Seriously, I’m shocked.

I’m going to make another video on inspecting the car, like when you buy a car, how you want to inspect it. This was an eBay deal. I found the deal and the guy sent me a lot of pictures.  He told me he was original owner and I trust the guy. He had a lot of good rating on eBay and stuff. 🙂

So we’ll make this car look nice and original again. What I may do is,since I’m not really an original paint kind of guy, you know. Every time I paint something, I like to do something to the paint, but with this one, I will just paint the original color. I was thinking of painting it the new Camaro Green, like the Yamaha Bike Project that I did recently. I was thinking of doing it that green. I would make it pop out with maybe some silver racing stripes down the middle or something but talking to my wife, she prefers I keep it original. We might put some silver flake in the clear coat, you know just a touch so it’ll be original color – original paint with a touch of silver flakes so when the sun hits it, it gets a little bit of that spark. It gives it a little touch to it but it’s original you know, that’s what I’m probably going to  do.

Maybe, what I also like to do on my cars is paint the mirrors a totally different color, like the whole thing I’ll make just the mirrors black or red or probably on something like this, a gold would look good, with a gold pinstripe or there’s a lot you can do. There’s a lot you can do with the vinyl graphics afterwards. If you want to, on the paint, you can do pinstriping or stuff like that.

Don’t’ forget to grab your FREE 85-page Auto Body And Paint Manual that I’m giving away, if you’re interested at all in learning how to paint a car. If you want to learn how to customize your special cars, if you ever want to get into auto body but just don’t know where to start, you’re in your home garage and you want to do something, or you’re seeking to learn a new skill.  A lot of people love cars, they want to work on them. They just don’t know where to start and I can show you exactly where to start, how to look at the car, what steps to take to get started, even if you’re a complete newbie.

A lot of my VIP members like the way I teach because I give them perspective from different angles. You know, there’s nothing more satisfying than completely doing something yourself and saying that, “I did it.” Showing off to your friends and families, saying “Yeah, I painted it. I painted that thing.”  Then they kinda say “Hey, would you do my car for me?” I basically grew up with that and I charged friends and family money for painting cars, too and I did  a lot of it. And it’s fun. It’s fun because it’s something you like to do. I do it for money, I do it for fun. 🙂

Hope you like this video and that you’re excited as I am about this new LABAP Project. You’ll be with us every step of the way.

Please like, share, comment and I will talk to you soon.

Cheers 🙂

Tony

Other Helpful Links:

How To Paint A Car Video 1

How To Paint A Car Video 3

How To Auto Body And Paint Q&A – Part 1

DIY Auto Body Work And Painting Q&A – Part 2

How To Paint Cars – Q&A Part 3

How To Block Sand Primer Flat

How To Pinstripe A Motorcycle Tank

How To Paint A Motorcycle Yourself

Preview Finished BMW Body Kit Video

Warwick Spray Gun Review (what we use to paint at LABAP)