We assume that you will take all precautions and use proper personal protective equipment, ensuring you and anyone present is not in any danger. Obvious dangers include parts snapping, flying objects, heavy weights, sharp edges, fuel and electrics, The suspension springs on MX5’s are highly preloaded, removing them with the body in place holding them down is the way to go in the absence of spring compress tools.

If the donor is fitted with air bags then ensure the battery has been disconnected for an hour before removing them.

If the donor has air con then this needs the pressure releasing under control at the valve, not by cutting pipes!

Always have a first aid kit at hand and be in reach of a phone if working alone, always double check that your working environment is safe. You will need ear protection, eye protection and dust masks. You will also need axle stands, a decent jack and good quality spanners/tools that are up to the job. If bolts/nuts get tighter when coming out then wind them back in, clean the threads and spray releasing lubricant (WD40).

When stripping down the body shell I found this service manual a useful resource scroll down the page here for the Mk3 https://exocet.uk/doku.php/serviceman , in it you can find how to remove almost any part of the MX-5 mk3 as well as most of the torque settings for when you're putting it back together.

If when trying to remove the dashboard it seems unwilling to budge you may find more bolts holding it in under the speaker cover on the dashboard as some models were only given a facade in the location shown below.

The aim is to remove the body shell and leave the front sub-frame with the engine, and the rear sub- frame with the differential, connected together via the alloy back bone, as seen in the picture below.

The picture below shows tubes around 200mm long that are inserted in to each corner of the suspension so that the rolling chassis may indeed roll without the engine and diff sinking.

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The “skate” that you will have left can be stripped to replace bushes if required, and to properly detail, clean and paint all the suspension parts, brakes and sub-frames. More info on removing and replacing the bushes can be seen below.

You can stop here and build the kit although most strip the skate down, replace the bushes with stiffer poly bushes and get the sub frames powder coated. Here is a cleaned skate

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Remove the bolts on the rubber end of the engine mounting as shown below not the bolts that screw into the engine block. I sheared off the head of one bolt trying to put the engine block bolts back in. I used heat and an impact wrench on full throttle to remove the bolts at the rubber end. On the passenger side I removed the bolt on top and below the mounting and on the drivers side just the bottom bolt as the manifold stops you getting an impact wrench on it

The lower lamda sensor should be removed or it will rub against the chassis as below, you can buy a lamda sensor plug on ebay (M18x1.5mm) and this is then relocated into the mid section of the exhaust.

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Plug the lamda old hole, these can be found on eBay

The first issue I had was shearing the pinch bolt with an impact wrench in the rear toe control assembly, as shown No '5' https://exocet.uk/lib/exe/fetch.php/serviceman:08-09:rear_suspension.pdfl. I have since found this is often seized as it's a steel bolt in aluminium. I would try heat on the bolt to see if that frees it if it does not lossen easily.

Trailing arm on rear hub: it is completely seized in the pinch bolt. I've whipped the arm off with the grinder. I'm guessing drilling into the remaining part of the ball joint in increasing gradients of drill bit is OK? Yes

This is the bolt. The splines are tiny but enough to shear the head if you beat on it too much.

The bolts in '4' in the lower control arm https://exocet.uk/lib/exe/fetch.php/serviceman:08-09:front_suspension.pdf were cut to remove. All the other bolts I removed I cleaned with tap and die sets and then applied black oxide solution bought from ebay

The threads on the drive shaft were damaged hitting them with a hammer. I had a mechanic remove them so I am not sure which of us damaged them. I believe there are tools to remove the hub from the drive shaft. I fixed the threads on the drive shaft using a hacksaw and a thread file as it was relatively expensive to buy a thread cleaner (die) for M22 x 1.5mm thread and purchased a new bolt from eBay for the end of the drive shaft.

Do not forget the drive shaft are handed i.e. a different length

The bushes can be removed and replaced with a Poly Bush set. I bought a set from MEV it should give a firmer ride

I got 3 bushes out before it snapped

These I got out by heating the outside of the arm around the bush, there are tutorials on YouTube, the smoke is not to be breathed in. Once you get the arm hot enough the bush starts to bubble and will then push out easily

The bushes in 3 https://exocet.uk/lib/exe/fetch.php/serviceman:08-09:front_suspension.pdf I used an angle grinder to cut off the ends that protruded then applied a lot of heat concentrating on heating the metal insert until I could push out the insert. Then used a chisel and wire wheel to remove the rubber. Finally there is a steel sleeve to remove. Once or two cuts in this with a hacksaw taking care not to cut into the aluminium arm and it could be bashed out using a chisel.

Refering to https://exocet.uk/lib/exe/fetch.php/serviceman:08-09:front_suspension.pdf 4 the ends were cut off using an angle grinder then heat applied and F was pushed out using a press. Again these have steel sleeves that need to be removed