Good to see another roadster here, saddly you're another victim of bondo. I had to clear almost an inch thick off of my rocker pannels, I used a heatgun and a scraper and the bondo just peeled off and what didn't come off with the scraper I used steel wool for, was a little time consuming but I didn't want bondo dust everywhere.
Also you can hit up miata owners for their 1.6 parts fairly cheap on the engine as most end up replacing it with the 1.8L, so turbo is not too costly.