Introduction
This page is about Project Silver Blues, a project that began in August 2026. I got notified when this Mazda MX-5 1.8 Silver Blues came up for sale in Vechta, Germany. The first had owner listed it on Kleinanzeigen.de, a classifieds-style website. This car is part of a special edition series of 2,500 units that was released in 2003. Fortunately, the original owner ordered it with every conceivable option, such as heated leather seats, fog lights in the front bumper, a hardtop, and air conditioning.
You can find more information about this special edition and its international variants here.
Due to rust problems, the car no longer passed the German vehicle inspection and was therefore put up for sale.
The day of the purchase
Vechta, where the car was located, is about 300 km from home. A friend offered to go with me to check out the car and pick it up. By then, we were confident we could do business with the seller, and that turned out to be the case. After about 4 hours there and 4 hours back—with a 2-hour break for lunch and negotiations—we were finally back home. It was a great experience, and we’re now the proud owners of a new project car.
Time to inspect the car
I didn’t have much time to thoroughly inspect Project Silver Blues that day, but I’ve done that since then.
Are you curious about the results of the initial inspection at home?
Getting started
Slowly but surely, it’s time to get started on Project Silver Blues. I was curious about the condition of the chassis bracing—the reinforcement under the car. The soft top needed to be cleaned, and it was still unclear whether the driver’s seat heater was broken or not. All these questions are answered in this first work video.
Removing the dashboard
Since it was time for a cleaning and I wanted to know the current status of the heated seats, I decided to remove the dashboard from the car. The things I found raises some questions. It made me wonder what equipment did this car have when it rolled off the assembly line. What additional work was done by the importer in Germany or at the local dealership before the car was delivered to its first owner? In the video below, you can see what it takes to remove the dashboard and what I found in the process.
Cleaning up the wiring mess
Because the wiring was a mess, I decided to clean it up. I therefore took a closer look at how Mazda designed the dashboard wiring. The new insights allowed me to build a few wiring harnesses to solve the problems. You can see how that went in the video below.
Adding wiring for the rear speakers
In the 2003 MX-5, speakers behind the seats weren’t standard yet. Those were introduced for the 2004 model year. Then, the MX-5 got a wind deflector with speakers or a style bar with a soundboard. There are several ways to run the wiring from the radio to the center of the parcel shelf. In this video, I show you how it was done by Mazda in 2004. This way, you’ll avoid wiring issues if you ever need to remove the dashboard.
An unexpected pause
Due to a technical issue that has nothing to do with the car, I’ve had to put Project Silver Blues on hold for now. I explain it in this update video.
If you have any questions about Project Silver Blues, please feel free to contact me using the options listed on the contact page.