Project BRG: Future Proofing

19 November 2022

Owning a Roadster is a scary experience. There's theft, vandalism, and rust to worry about. For rust, one of the most common spots consists of the sills and front guards rotting from the inside out. This happens because when it rains, the water drains into the inside of the guards and is supposed to go out the two drains underneath on each side. Unfortunately, Mazda placed the drain holes on the jack point so they often squish closed.

The drains being squished combined with damp mud and dirt getting trapped in the guards equal to rust happening from the inside out.

To fix this, I undid the bolts on the underside of the guards using a 10mm. Unfortunately, the rear bolt on the passenger side and both bolts on the driver's side looked like they became one with the guard and wouldn't come off. Luckily, CRC 565 (WD-40) came to the rescue, and after a bit of penetration, the bolts slowly came out, although a bit roughly. With the bolts out, and a couple more 8mm removed, the bottom of the guard was loose and after a bit of shaking, a bunch of dirt came out which was luckily dry.

And no rust in there. Only a bit of dirt and dust once cleaned!

After soaking the rusty old bolts in CRC 565, they went back in, and now the front sills have no excuse to rust. A couple of days afterward, Christchurch got a big rainstorm (yes, even though it is summer), and the drains would be put up to the task. Unfortunately though, a new problem arose. The soft top leaked a bit of water. Although the passenger side was bone dry, the driver's side dripped from two spots. The first one is from the gap between the two seals on the side of the soft top, and the second one is from the temporary 3M electrical tape repair we did over a small hole. This means that until the rain finishes, a towel is going to need to be jammed over the driver's window every 12 hours.

Like I said at the start, another scary part of owning one of these cars is theft. To solve that, I got an AVS S5 5-star alarm installed by Installer Services through Garage5 here in Christchurch. Although the objective of Project BRG was to try to do everything myself, installing an alarm seemed like too much of a risk and I would feel happier leaving it to the professionals.

With the car being returned with an alarm all installed, I can sleep a little better now. My dog also seems to be very protective of the Roadster as she guards it by sitting in front of the window over the car throughout the day and sleeps there at night, barking whenever someone gets too close.