I'm about to flog my 89 Eunos (85K miles) w/hardtop, it's in very good nick bar some paint damage to boot and nose, and minor stuff to all other panels.

Speaking to paint guy last night, he reckons a £800 full respray would make it a minter, but £300 would get worst of it sorted. I trust him (friend of a friend), and ideas on which way to go to maximise profit?

I suspect that neither will have significant effect on sale value.

Spend the least.

Sell the hard top separately. They used to get 500 quid alone without fail.

Agree about the hardtop, someone I know has just sold his Eunos, including dents to the wing and scruffy interior, he sold it as is.

He had no end of calls for it apparently.

Sell as is.

A full respray for £800 is going to be a rubbish job and I don't think you'll see the £300 back necessarily.

Interesting.

Will check out prices. Boot and nose are dreadful so they really do need it.

i honestly don't think £300 for boot and nose is cheap enough…shop around a bit, and get that price down to 200. there must be a fella near you on his own with no overheads that will do the job for less. then stick it on ebay. everything seems to sell on ebay.

So £800 too cheap for a full respray? £300 is for boot, cone and other bits…

Guy works in premises in poor part of town, known by mate who uses him for his own mini-restoration business etc, I CBA shopping around!

Local Mk1 Eunos/MX5 going fo rup to £3K w/o H/T.

if it's stone chipped and scratched get chipsaway to do it. won't be perfect but will create a good impression, which is what counts to you as a seller and to them as buyers. it will be less than your cheapest quote too.

Hold on to it until next spring when you will get considerably more money for it than if you sell now…

You are going to be looking at only 1250ish anyway.

So as already said sell hard top (ideal time of year to sell) and then put the car on ebay. Probably get almost a grand. No point spending any money on paint IMO.

Matt

TO maximise profit, wait until a hairdresser convention is on and park it outside with a for sale sign on it?

Mines up for sale at the moment for 2.5k with hardtop and lots of nice goodies. Its 99% immaculate too. Tatty 5's start at about £500 but as long as the chassis is solid, even if the body isn't too brilliant you're looking at £1000+. Getting it sprayed wouldn't be worth your while – sell it as a project and get the buyer to do it. Head over the MX5Nutz.com and ask on there.

Sell it as is, theres a growing demand for them as donors for kit cars (Mk1's are begining to fail MOT's on rust) and as track day cars. Neither buyer will be bothered about bodywork (or chassis in the first case).

You won't see £800 back – if you see that as potential discount to give a buyer off your asking price, I bet you walk away with a better deal. I fitted a new roof to mine for £150 and an afternoons work, I think that would add more than a respray if its a bit tatty… but any doing up is probably a loser.

£3K is well over the top for a 89 even with a hardtop, do you know if they've actually sold at that? If you cleared £1500 I think you've done well, but advertise the hardtop separately you WILL make more money that way, especially if you've a storage bag for it.

FWIW, my previous one (I'm on my third) I bought for £500 blindly and in the end it turned out to be a wreck. But… I must have cleared £800 on it by splitting it – wings, roof, internal bits and pieces, carpets, wheels, exhaust, battery – I could have made more if I was willing to pull the engine, diff etc out but in the end I sold off as much as possible and then shoved the remainder on ebay which someone with a flatbed came and took away for a few hundred quid!

If you've got the time and expertise, splitting may be worth thinking about.