As most of the forum will already know I have just completed a deal for the purchase of Goldie - a 1st Gen Series 2 1984 RX7 and what a fantastic shade she is.
She will be brought back to be cared and cherished and my intentions are to undergo a thorough examination and re-store to a roadworthy condition. More details and photos to follow.
Is that sunroof black metal or glass? Do tell as soon as.
I\' going for black metal .............. place your bets
If you look after her as well as you have Jazz I\'m sure she\'ll be wonderful when finished :)
Are you hoping to bring her back to a nice clean original style? Or going to do something a little different this time?
Quote from: A7RXY;724956I\' going for black metal .............. place your bets
Black metal ....
I said to the Dragon last night - METAL, I\'m sure it is (not that I\'m bothered about it.
:Hammer
Quote from: Steve-A;724958If you look after her as well as you have Jazz I\'m sure she\'ll be wonderful when finished :)
Are you hoping to bring her back to a nice clean original style? Or going to do something a little different this time?
Going for originality again Steve - the ever faithful.As with JAZ, bought on \'speck\' so yet to behold its true condition but coming with heaps of spares apparently.:cool
Cliff, if he has a spare working electric aerial and you dont want it please let me know.
Dibs
Quote from: A7RXY;724986Cliff, if he has a spare working electric aerial and you dont want it please let me know.
Dibs
Okay Dibs - see what I can put my hands on then.
Good news that you\'re doing the clean original restoration thing.
Makes me feel less guilty doing non original things to mine if there\'s at least one clean gold example about :P
Quote from: Steve-A;724993Good news that you\'re doing the clean original restoration thing.
Makes me feel less guilty doing non original things to mine if there\'s at least one clean gold example about :P
Each to their own but as you say, nice to know there is at least one around as standard.:Thumbs-up
Cliff, i think you should at least offer it to the mag 7 ? :D :D :D
Don the bandit.:bandit
Just looking at the pics Cliff, the clutch master reservoir looks very close to the air filter or is it me?
Have you got a front bumper with the car (i dont have a spare by the way)
Keith...
Quote from: myatt1972;725041Just looking at the pics Cliff, the clutch master reservoir looks very close to the air filter or is it me?
Have you got a front bumper with the car (i dont have a spare by the way)
Keith...
See what you mean Keith - ye does appear close ....hmmmmm... all will be revealed at the weekend I think and of course will also be exposed in this thread.Have already asked and apparently the front bumper is there but as it happens I have also been offered a bumper from a friend in Tamworth along with possibly more spares. :)
Welcome to an exclusive club Cliff.:D
Quote from: captainbizzaro;725208Welcome to an exclusive club Cliff.:D
Ditto Tim - that makes a couple for us now I think. Tell me, do you feel special ? Or is it just (like myself) forgotten to remove the latex gloves after washing the engine down :evillaugh:evillaugh
Bit of a disaster today, my Range Rover has had rad problems for the last week and instead of collecting it today got the news that the water pump & thermostat both need replacing :eek::eek::eek: I\'m supposed to be collecting Goldie tomorrow ! :flamed
So I\'ve had to hire a vehicle with tow bar and also hire trailer so now back on track for tomorrows collection. This just has to be :InLove for the fb
was this on ebay for a little while?
Quote from: antnicuk;725230was this on ebay for a little while?
Yeh - came on last weekend I think - hadn\'t seen it before then
Quote from: myatt1972;725041Just looking at the pics Cliff, the clutch master reservoir looks very close to the air filter or is it me?
Have you got a front bumper with the car (i dont have a spare by the way)
Keith...
Collected Goldie today Keith - looked at the clutch maser cylinder and turns out it\'s a bodged job. The lad was given the car from his uncle and he intended to us it as a drift car eventually. Whilst he was \'playing around with it\' the master cylinder required doing but suppose he didn\'t have the cash to buy a new one. He went to the local scrap yard and bodged one together and this was the ebd eresult - thats coming out and a proper one shall be installed (not having and s***e in this car - actually none of my cars).So yes Keith - well spotted (suppose you want some house points for that do you?).:)
Well guys, here are the 1st picks of Goldie. Doesn\'t really look that good but suppose it could have been a lot worse.
1st job is to get her inside and under cover and empty her so that I have a scout around and see if/what are the obvious faults - and a few more picks of cause.
Quote from: David Nock;724945Is that sunroof black metal or glass? Do tell as soon as.
Well guys went to collect Goldie today and what a shock I got with the sunroof. It fooled us all, it is actually \'a colander\' - well okay a lot of metal where loads of rust monkeys have spread their seeds .... haha. Good job I\'d already settled my heart on metal, that way I wasn\'t disappointed.:rollin
Quote from: myatt1972;725041Just looking at the pics Cliff, the clutch master reservoir looks very close to the air filter or is it me?
Have you got a front bumper with the car (i dont have a spare by the way)
Keith...
Front bumper supplied with car mate.
Apparently the Goldies original engine had tip failure so a good replacement was fitted - this is a 12A S2 with under slung oil cooler.
Whether this engine actually works - well time will tell.
Glad you got it home safe Cliff.... it always seems to be a long day when fetching cars and then sorting trailers etc doesn\'t it?!
I wouldn\'t worry about it looking a bit scruffy cosmetically, it\'s what\'s underneath that counts!
As you know from restoring JAZ, these are actually very easy cars to work on (unless you decide to crack the engine itself open ) and are more enjoyable and easier to restore than comparative cars of the era.
The last 3 cars I\'ve restored have been 2 1981 Spitfires ( which consisted of a load of rust held together by underseal and a 2.8i Capri which has all the panelwork welded on so all the outer panels have to be cut off to fix the shell)
At least with 1st gens, all the panelwork forward of the windscreen just unbolts for restoration / replacement and gives great access to the structural parts and by the time you\'ve dropped the doors, rear bumper and sunroof off, there isn\'t much left!
The stripped front end of my car...
(http://i589.photobucket.com/albums/ss333/gsxrmovistar1/primer.jpg)
and then with some new paint on it...
(http://i589.photobucket.com/albums/ss333/gsxrmovistar1/painted.jpg)
That said, the structural integrity of the shell is everything.... the usual 1st gen rust spots. If these are ok then you\'ve got a good base for a nice restoration to your own high standards.
The other bit you want intact is the main loom. If this has been hacked, you can spend months trying to fault find no end of electrical gremlins.
If, after you\'ve surveyed it, you decided that you\'ll be restoring this car, you\'re welcome to raid my spares collection. I haven\'t got tons of stuff but might have that elusive part you need.
Ian
.
Must agree with you there Ian, the RX7 is quiet an easy structure to work with. Although I never did any major stripping to the bodywork of JAZ I did, as you know, have some of the major rust areas to tackle. In saying that though, I really did enjoy the work and wasn\'t put off the possibility of working on others as and if the case were to arise - it has arisen and I\'m looking forward to what ever challenge Goldie now has to offer or throw at me.
The Dragon came with me to collect yesterday and I said the very same thing - ignore the patchwork, that\'s just a colour change. I had a initial poke around and the areas of access do seem to be reasonable but we all know how underseal can hide a multitude of sins don\'t we.
I dare say by the time I\'ve finished looking at her bodywork, there\'ll be quite a bit more discolouration but I don\'t care, the finish will be the telling and proof of my justification to save this old girl from ? ....... well god only knows really.
Thanks for the offer to sift through your spares (rotorshed), might perhaps take you up on that at a later date but surprisingly from what I\'ve already seen on Goldie, the major missing panels and other pieces I already have from JAZ. I\'m sure there will be some bit here and there that I can\'t get elsewhere so I\'ll let you know. I too have some left overs so if I can help, I shall.
Right going out now to have a better look and find a better home so that I can work on her in the dry and warm with power laid on.
Well I managed to empty Goldie today of all her spare parts, the rear seats and have a good sniff round at all the potential bad areas - what a pleasant surprise to find solid metal. Still needs a proper investigation but will need to re-colour code the interior first - any comments or suggestions welcome after seeing the photos below ......
:rollin
Quote from: CHC;725358Collected Goldie today Keith - looked at the clutch maser cylinder and turns out it\'s a bodged job. The lad was given the car from his uncle and he intended to us it as a drift car eventually. Whilst he was \'playing around with it\' the master cylinder required doing but suppose he didn\'t have the cash to buy a new one. He went to the local scrap yard and bodged one together and this was the ebd eresult - thats coming out and a proper one shall be installed (not having and s***e in this car - actually none of my cars).
So yes Keith - well spotted (suppose you want some house points for that do you?).
:)
How about a close up of the bodged clutch master cylinder ...... but what vehicle has it come off ?
Quote from: A7RXY;724986Cliff, if he has a spare working electric aerial and you dont want it please let me know.
Dibs
Sorry Dibs - no electric aerial at all. Why even the one fitted to Goldie is busted but as there is no radio fitted, doesn\'t need aerial. I\'ll have to hum or something when I\'m working on her.
So thats why the rear quarter lights are green!
bloody hell.... is the previous owner responsible for that?
makes you wonder what goes through some peoples minds.... not much, obviously.
Sounds like good news about the shell though, have you got enough parts with it to put it back together?
Never managed to move Goldie into the garage today so thought I\'d better concentrate on making her watertight. So took out the \'colander\' and hey - no guides fitted in the roof. Routed through the boxes of spare parts and found the guides, so cleaned then up and fitted them. Then found the roof opening/closing mechanism and fitted that too - only problem is that it is black rather than brown, none the less this is only a temporary measure as I know I have a brown one from JAZ which I can be fitted when finally putting interior back in for good.
Quote from: captainbizzaro;725562So thats why the rear quarter lights are green!
Apparently the PO was in mind for Drifting her .... mmmmm think his mind was drifting also. When I 1st saw it I thought wtf, omg and I forgot to bring my sun shades - in fact I think a welders screen is more apt, boy is it bright !:Hammer
Quote from: Ian65;725564bloody hell.... is the previous owner responsible for that?
makes you wonder what goes through some peoples minds.... not much, obviously.
Sounds like good news about the shell though, have you got enough parts with it to put it back together?
Must admit the advert did say that the welding work had been completed - from what I\'ve looked at quickly it has been welded in the rear boot section on the outer edged seams (I\'ll post a photo next weekend). Other than that haven\'t seen any evidence of it but as I say I haven\'t looked properly and certainly haven\'t looked under the rear end yet. I think the main area for welding will be the cross member under the rear bumper as it looks corroded. Minor corrsion at the front end which will be easily treatable.The only parts that weren\'t supplied were rear spoiler - have one from JAZ.a sunroof (lets face it you can\'t class a colander as a sunroof) - have another spare from doing JAZ.a few pieces of brown interior - I have a complete interior from JAZ.Spare wheel - need one.Jack / brace / wheel nut spanner - need to get these.Need to replace seat belts - they are a little bright at the moment - have a spare set.That a very quick summary from what I have evaluated today.All in all I think a good buy and defintely too good to wreck or use as a drift/track car.Unfortunately the PO didn\'t realise what he had in the RX7 and actually said that he thought he would regret selling it - I\'ll second that.
Quote from: CHC;725561Sorry Dibs - no electric aerial at all. Why even the one fitted to Goldie is busted but as there is no radio fitted, doesn\'t need aerial. I\'ll have to hum or something when I\'m working on her.
Thanks Cliff, the last owner did he come from The Emerald Island ............
Quote from: A7RXY;725631Thanks Cliff, the last owner did he come from The Emerald Island ............
Hmmmmm you haven\'t heard my singing or humming mate, a word of warning - stand well clear :rollin:rollin
Just because it has all gone quiet doesn\'t mean that I\'m doing nothing !
Currently re-arranging the garage so that I can bring Goldie in out of the cold and dampness, should be done by the weekend hopefully. Took a photo of Goldie last night but the trouble is with the nights being so dark now, can\'t see a damn thing outside so it\'s useless trying to do anything at all. The good thing is you can\'t see the grey primer from the rattle cans.
:rollin
No threat to David Bailey then ..................
Ewwww, slime green. :eek:
That master cylinder looks like a BMW one.
I have an electric aerial for sale dibs... Cliff has my email. I will get a photo and email you if you like.
Cheers RG
d underscore i underscore ball at hotmail dot com
Dibs
Quote from: A7RXY;725993No threat to David Bailey then ..................
If he had used my camera he would have ended up with the same shot. So that makes me as good as him in my book mmmmmmm ??????? or is it that he is as bad as me ?
Quote from: Rotaryguru;726002Ewwww, slime green. :eek:
That master cylinder looks like a BMW one.
I have an electric aerial for sale dibs... Cliff has my email. I will get a photo and email you if you like.
Not quite the same name that I called the colour but close enough (and yours sounds better too) hehehe. So thats what it is off? Just goes to show how designers cram things under the bonnet and finish up with odd shapes - not that it really matters \'cause I\'ll be taking it off to replace with a refurbished unit from JAZ.Cliff
Managed to put Goldie inside tonight - now warm and dry. Trouble is I couldn\'t swing a cat in there at the moment so still need to make more room so that I can work on her if the weather is bad.
Come on then get to work!
Hi Dibs, got your email, will get pics to you of Aerial tomorrow, sorry been real busy!
Sorry from thread hijack too cliff!
Cheers RG ....
Well the cat got a bit ****ed off banging its head on the inner garage walls so I had to push Goldie in to the drive to work on her. The problem is the brakes are binding and there is a strip of timber along the threshold of the garage about 25mm high. So have to drag the car over this hump before it would come out and with the brakes binding ....... yeh I was getting more than a little fed up and **ackered. So when it finally came out the first job was .... you guessed it, took out the front pads which were binding - phew this makes it a lot simpler to push and drag.
So done that and took out the remaining front seats and black carpet (bloody colour scheme for this car is so bizarre - gold, grey, brown, black and Kermit Green (think the PO was either colour blind or had a weird sense of humour).
Now I can survey the interior to establish where if anywhere the rust is hiding - found some close to the n/s seat-belt mounting point. Nothing too severe and can easily be cut out and plated up.
The other major areas i.e rear floor pan to inner wheel arches etc are all fine - except for that ****dy green paint!!! Grrrrrrrrrrr - something is going to have to be done to the interior colour scheme and double quick time too.
The inside of the rear end looks pretty good too but have found some minor rusting to the bottom rear of the n/s quarter window - again looks quite a simple repair job.
Then the rain came again and stopped play unfortunately.
:Hammer
that\'s good news Cliff.... not too bad at all. Once that green paint has gone it\'ll look a different car!
I had the same issue with binding brakes on my donor car.... I had to soak the pads with WD40 ( they were being scrapped anyway) to try to get the wheels to turn.
good that the radius arm mounts are sound.
Really pleased with the body on Goldie, I know the PO said in the advert that all welding had been done but you never really know until you strip down to the bare essentials so to speak.
I still haven\'t looked properly underneath yet but the signs are more than 70-30 in my favour (I hope anyway). I do know however that the petrol tank will definitely need looking at as I\'ve managed to have a sneak preview of the tank top. So when I start the underside this will be the first part to be taken out for full survey and treatment.
Yeh I know I\'m moaning about the green but if that is the only major problem with the body I wont complain. I\'ll see if I can remove any but if all else fails I\'ll get my own rattle can out with the proper colour - then I\'ll be happy.
Cliff,
U got me confused,u won\'t see the green after u put the interior back?
ta stu..
Quote from: syebba;726849Cliff,
U got me confused,u won\'t see the green after u put the interior back?
ta stu..
I know Stu but knowing that it would still be there lurking underneath - just waiting - urgh horrible, it has got to go !:eek For me it just has to be right.
Weather been preety grim today so had to struggle in the tight fitting garage.
Took rear bumper off and found the usual flaking paintwork and rust on the bumper framework - no priority for this yet so it can wait.
However, found rust monkeys had attacked the rear lower valance - so this does need treating. Question is, can a new lower valance be purchased or will I need to get out the welding set and stainless plate? Anybody any idea?
Also - having a scout around in the engine bay and noticed that the manifold below the carburetta is different from that on JAZ.
I\'ve taken a few photos, can anybody tell me what this is? Oh and by the way, I\'m a bodywork man not an engine man so please excuse my ignorance on this.
:o
I\'m sure i\'ve posted in the past about rear valences,i\'ve seen them somewhere & for not a bad price,think £85 > £100 approx,i\'ll have a long hard think where i saw them & get back to u,if i find them,can\'t even remember if they were in UK or not,duh!
Ta stu..
Quote from: CHC;727820Weather been preety grim today so had to struggle in the tight fitting garage.
Took rear bumper off and found the usual flaking paintwork and rust on the bumper framework - no priority for this yet so it can wait.
However, found rust monkeys had attacked the rear lower valance - so this does need treating. Question is, can a new lower valance be purchased or will I need to get out the welding set and stainless plate? Anybody any idea?
try a mazda main dealer Cliff. I bought one for my S2 ( it was a few years ago now) It was about £80 and was a genuine panel. Fitted perfectly and looked the biz
I would much prefer to replace (with original part) as I want it to look good rather than a throwback from the reject department at a scrapyard.
Quote from: CHC;727821Also - having a scout around in the engine bay and noticed that the manifold below the carburetta is different from that on JAZ.
I\'ve taken a few photos, can anybody tell me what this is? Oh and by the way, I\'m a bodywork man not an engine man so please excuse my ignorance on this.
:o
These replace the thermal reactor and allow removal of the air pump giving you a freer flowing exhaust route. Quite a common mod-NEV had them and so does Rexanne.
There should be a blank plate on the Inlet Manifold not that Xmas tree of unused pipes. To me it looks like somone\'s part-removed the air pump gubbins but not done the whole thing.
Looks like the OMP rod is hanging unattached to the pump as well.
Quote from: Ian65;727841try a mazda main dealer Cliff. I bought one for my S2 ( it was a few years ago now) It was about £80 and was a genuine panel. Fitted perfectly and looked the biz
Cliff i\'d go this route,daves purchased one a few years ago,i knew i\'d seen/heard they were £80>£100 approx.
The usual places abroad also do the rear valence,mazdatrix,phils rotary shack,black dragon etc.Looking through my old posts phils rotary shack had some genuine outer cills.
ta stu..
Quote from: David Nock;727923There should be a blank plate on the Inlet Manifold not that Xmas tree of unused pipes. To me it looks like somone\'s part-removed the air pump gubbins but not done the whole thing.
Looks like the OMP rod is hanging unattached to the pump as well.
I knew you guys would know what was going on here. Yeh the story was the original engine was burning more oil than normal and found the \'tips\' had worn. So the PO exchanged an engine from another rx7 he had - this was the better engine apparantly. The eBay said quote "
I did have two of these cars and when the tipps went on this one I replaced it with the engine from the other as this one by far had the better body.
I tried the car today and it turned over but did not fire up, a new battery and clean through is needed I imagine. This engine has never been drifted and was running the last time I used it about six months ago".
So guys, no wonder it didn\'t fire up then - where should I look for information/details on how this set up should look like to determine whether I should be purchasing new/refurbished parts?
:Thumbs-up
I\'ll take a picture of NEV\'s old 12A so you can see what it should look like around the inlet manifold area as it\'s out it\'s nice and easy to photograph.
Good feedback on the rear valance guys - will post update when sorted.
Ta
Cliff
:Thumbs-up
I\'ll email you the instructions for fitting 1) a Janspeed Stainless Exhaust and 2) a Double \'S\' system. They both say the same thing but give details on what to do with the air pump, i.e. blanking plates etc.
I would say that\'s a start point before firing up.
Don\'t forget some premix in the fuel (100:1?) if the OMP isn\'t attached.
Then it\'s the usual, turn it over to get lube oil round, check/renew plugs (put \'em in oven to warm \'em through), clean inside distributor cap/rotor arm, then a blast of aerostart down the air cleaner and stand well back!
I find having a wild unhinged look on your face usually helps proccedings.
Quote from: captainbizzaro;728277I find having a wild unhinged look on your face usually helps proccedings.
No problem with this one then :Giggle
Quote from: David Nock;728189I\'ll email you the instructions for fitting 1) a Janspeed Stainless Exhaust and 2) a Double \'S\' system. They both say the same thing but give details on what to do with the air pump, i.e. blanking plates etc.
I would say that\'s a start point before firing up.
Don\'t forget some premix in the fuel (100:1?) if the OMP isn\'t attached.
Then it\'s the usual, turn it over to get lube oil round, check/renew plugs (put \'em in oven to warm \'em through), clean inside distributor cap/rotor arm, then a blast of aerostart down the air cleaner and stand well back!
Thanks for that Dave, quite a way off this as yet but obviously very much in my mind and will probably come back for more advice later.:cheers
Petrol tank now taken out.
A damn good clean up required.
A few areas appear a bit \'touch n go\' so all bare steel areas were treated.
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[ATTACH]49728[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH]49729[/ATTACH]
A few photos after the initial treatment.
Followed by underside investigation to see extent of corrosion - always expected with RX7\'s I would have thought.
What I did find (which infuriates me) is that a plate has been welded in on the boot space floor, n/s rear seam but instead of removing the bad metal from underneath, whoever did this left the rotten metal to fester and cause more corrosion - so this has to go and be made good. No doubt it will probably be the same on the o/s seam.
:mad:
It came to the end of daylight so back into the garage for a further prod and poke around at paint bubbles @ the n/s rear hatch channel and more corrosion found.
It has also attacked the bottom section of the n/s rear window frame so will need to remove the glass - any suggestions for the easiest removal method would be welcomed.
I don\'t think there is an easy way to get the quarter light glass out Cliff, I\'ve always found it a real b*tch You also need to be so careful not to scratch the black surround on the glass. I\'ve probably broken as many as I\'ve managed to get out successfully.
Factory manual says use wire to saw through the bonding compound but that hasn\'t worked for me. I use a long flat bladed craft knife to slowly cut away at the bonding.
It\'s a horrible job..... good luck.
Ooh blimey-those windows are bonded in. Probably one of those windscreen removal tools would help or something along those lines.
I thought as much guys, that\'s why I posted this question - good job I\'m not waiting for this job to finish :Laugh:Laugh
Quote from: Ian65;727841try a mazda main dealer Cliff. I bought one for my S2 ( it was a few years ago now) It was about £80 and was a genuine panel. Fitted perfectly and looked the biz
Went to my local Mazda Agent today (about 1 minute from Cheshire Oaks), well what a *loody waste of time that was! "Our computer system only goes back the 1985 FC model - is that it he asked?" (pointing at a picture of an FC - he had seen JAZ not 2 minutes earlier which is a totally different shape from the FC and he\'s asking me is that the shape? Duuuhhhhh "I don\'t think so" To be followed by "there\'s nothing we can do for you" - there\'s more life in a rice pudding than that dealership! So taken my custom to another Agent in Wallasey and they are asking Mazda Japan for details and assistance on procuring the rear lower valance - information to follow. Failing this, I\'ll be contacting Silverstone Autosport in Queensferry for their assistance - I actually said I\'d try them back in August but never found time nor reason to approach them - so all is not lost yet.:Hammer
Hope the dealers come through for you Cliff, when I phoned the local dealer to enquire about brake lines, i think it was, and said it was 1984 rx7 he pretty much reeled in horror saying \'thats an FB isn\'t it\' then said they couldn\'t help. haha.
Thats a real shame that there\'s extra rot popping up as you dig deeper into the car, especially after it initially looked like it had been all fixed by previous owner. Hopefully thats the last of it!
I\'m somehow warming to that green! :S I\'ll almost be that she\'s lost a bit of character when its all gone:P
I\'ll get fixed up one way or another - even if I end up fabricating one from stainless plate myself, but would prefer a manufactured part for sure.
I\'m beginning to wonder about the previous owners idea of the welding been done - perhaps bodged up might be the comment in months to come but shall have to wait and see on that count.
As I said the other day, what **sses me off are people who simply plate over the corroded area and weld up without removing the corrosion first - what a complete and utter waste of time but then again I suppose they do this as a short term resolve and then get rid of the offending vehicle.
So the plating in the boot area for sure shall have to be removed to allow access to remove the corrosion before being re-plated with stainless material and welded properly - do a job once I say and do it right.
Sorry mate - I still hate that green with a passion.
Thats a shame about your experience with the Mazda dealer-I\'ve got to say the guys at my local one have been spot on but I think it\'s because one of the parts blokes is old school and has fond memories of the FB\'s-especially as they had a lot of Elfords go through there being in Bournemouth and all. They also still have their original microfiche of exploded diagrams covering FB\'s which is rare-only 3 or 4 left in the UK I believe.
Quote from: captainbizzaro;729382Thats a shame about your experience with the Mazda dealer-I\'ve got to say the guys at my local one have been spot on but I think it\'s because one of the parts blokes is old school and has fond memories of the FB\'s-especially as they had a lot of Elfords go through there being in Bournemouth and all. They also still have their original microfiche of exploded diagrams covering FB\'s which is rare-only 3 or 4 left in the UK I believe.
That\'s gr8 news Tim, they really sound as if they know what they\'re about - I might be asking for their details, will keep you posted.Ta
The dealer I use, has to get his old mricofiche machine out, so I give him the part no, if known, and he gets back to me if its available or not, most of the time the parts have to come from Belgium, but then again I have been using this dealer for a few years now.
Obviously a little awkward for him but at least he makes the effort for the customer.
This then leads to my next question Dibs, where can I find the part number for the rear lower valance? I have the Black Dragon catalogue but it is not referenced there - could you help on this one at all?
Thanks
Cliff
Sorry Cliff I can\'t help with that one, maybe David can.
Cliff,
Ian or i should be able to find valence part nos,we have adobe files.
I\'ll look later 4 you.
ta stu..
Stu
Any chance of getting a copy of the adobe file ?
Dibs
Yes dibs,me or ian will sort u out.
It\'s handy going to a mazda dealership with part nos as many of them can\'t be arsed or don\'t have the info.
Only thing u have to be aware of it\'s a US parts list,most parts are the same but,mirrors,front indicators,wipers etc are different.
If Dave can post up his part nos,i\'ll cross reference it with my adobe files to see if it matches.
If u order the wrong part mazda won\'t refund u the money[back ordered parts].
Is the rear valence different in the US,ie which side of the car does the exhaust exit?
Gotta go to work now,i can look on US ebay to see exit side.
ta stu..
It would be a good idea to list part nos on 1st gen site for future easy reference.
Great Stu, good idear about putting on the site aswell .............
Dibs
Thanks for the info guys - would be appreciated.
:)
Quote from: CHC;728989It came to the end of daylight so back into the garage for a further prod and poke around at paint bubbles @ the n/s rear hatch channel and more corrosion found.
It has also attacked the bottom section of the n/s rear window frame so will need to remove the glass - any suggestions for the easiest removal method would be welcomed.
to get my ones out i used mig welding wire and 2 sets of pliers and a lot of time oh and a pair of thick leather (like the ones lorry drivers have) gloves because you cant always get the pliers where you want them not an easy job
then when they were out used a stanley blade to clean up the rest of the bonding agent
I have left the rear valance off mine as i couldent get hold of one but then again my body kit covers up where mine should be anyway so im not that bothered im just thinking of it as weight saving :Giggle
Quote from: mooragerx7;729522to get my ones out i used mig welding wire and 2 sets of pliers and a lot of time oh and a pair of thick leather (like the ones lorry drivers have) gloves because you cant always get the pliers where you want them not an easy job
then when they were out used a stanley blade to clean up the rest of the bonding agent
Hi Michael - a bit a cheese wire then hmmmm... ye sounds reasonable but how did this work out with the bottom edge? Did you start at the front and work your way to the rear?I\'ll try this out. At the moment (and only done this for about 1/2 hr) I am using a high speed saw blade - very slowly of course. So the cooler evening temperature shouldn\'t really bother me if I\'m doing this - phew, can\'t wait till I\'m finished. Fortunately the top sloping edge was not sealed for about 50% of it\'s length (which in itself will probably have made way for corrosion to start on the inside edge), this made access easier and also less to do, so just about finished the top edge.
Quote from: mooragerx7;729525I have left the rear valance off mine as i couldent get hold of one but then again my body kit covers up where mine should be anyway so im not that bothered im just thinking of it as weight saving :Giggle
See your logic but as I intend standard finish I\'ll need one so I\'ll keep searching.
i did top front to back then back to front then top front to bottom front if that make sence i dont think it matters what way you do it though
just make sure that tou have lots of mig/cheese wire as i went thought a lot
Quote from: syebba;729457It would be a good idea to list part nos on 1st gen site for future easy reference.
if I get chance later this evening, I\'ll post it onto google docs along with the ebook then anyone can download it. Stu sent it to me and it\'s very useful.
.
That would be G8 if u could Ian,help a lot of peeps,should make it a sticky thread for easy reference.
If Mazda don\'t have any stock left Cliff,i\'m sure i\'ve seen it for sale in US or OZ,but then u have del charges/import duty/risk of damage etc.
ta stu..
Firstly thanks to everyone on this issue.
If I have to import, then so be it. I have family in Aus who are prepared to help out if need be but I\'ll keep that up the proverbial sleeve as a last resort, hopefully I can procure from UK.
Quote from: mooragerx7;729540i did top front to back then back to front then top front to bottom front if that make sence i dont think it matters what way you do it though
just make sure that tou have lots of mig/cheese wire as i went thought a lot
Yep, makes sense. What size wire did you use \'cause I have access to 1.0mm & 1.6mm diameters (in both carbon & stainless materials) but think my preference will be 1.0mm.
RX7 84-85 parts microfiche...
(http://i589.photobucket.com/albums/ss333/gsxrmovistar1/8485rx_parts_cover.png)
here\'s the link...
https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0BxBDOssc-fM8MzA0NGE2NDEtYmI2ZC00YjExLThlN2EtYTUwMGIxMWU0NmFl&sort=name&layout=list&num=50
Cliff,
looked at my adobe files for 1st gen body panels.
2 panels make up the rear end,1 panel incorporating rear lights & the rear valence you require.
In the catalogue it\'s called
A panel skirt,Rear
D-Code 70791A[This nos is 100% clear]
Part nos FAO1-70-791[This nos is\'nt 100% clear,it\'s slightly smudged]
The exhaust outlet on US models is the same,but plz cross reference with dave to ensure you order correct part.
ta stu...
Haha Ian beat me to it by 2 minutes!!
(http://i589.photobucket.com/albums/ss333/gsxrmovistar1/pic1.jpg)
(http://i589.photobucket.com/albums/ss333/gsxrmovistar1/pic2.jpg)
That should be u sorted Cliff,hopefully!
ta stu..
Quote from: Ian65;729613RX7 84-85 parts microfiche...
(http://i589.photobucket.com/albums/ss333/gsxrmovistar1/8485rx_parts_cover.png)
here\'s the link...
https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0BxBDOssc-fM8MzA0NGE2NDEtYmI2ZC00YjExLThlN2EtYTUwMGIxMWU0NmFl&sort=name&layout=list&num=50
you wouldn\'t happen to know of the location of an equivalent document for 1982 S2\'s would you....
http://www.jimrothe.com/mazda/parts_catalogs/81-83_catalogs.zip
:King
I\'ll get it for you,i just put a link in 4 you a moment ago & it was linking back to my personal document folder!Had to delete it.
ta stu
RX7 81-83 parts microfiche....
(http://i589.photobucket.com/albums/ss333/gsxrmovistar1/8183rx_parts_cover.png)
here\'s the link...
https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0BxBDOssc-fM8OGE2ZmU3NWQtOWQwYi00OTVhLTgyYTAtMWRiZGU2NjMzMWVh&sort=name&layout=list&num=50
.
Well done.
How weird is that,i went to the jim rothe site pressed copy shortcut,then paste,& it linked into my personal document folder?[i did download it previously,so maybe thats why]
Still bit of a neandrathal with the inter webby.
Quote from: Ian65;729613RX7 84-85 parts microfiche...
(http://i589.photobucket.com/albums/ss333/gsxrmovistar1/8485rx_parts_cover.png)
here\'s the link...
https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0BxBDOssc-fM8MzA0NGE2NDEtYmI2ZC00YjExLThlN2EtYTUwMGIxMWU0NmFl&sort=name&layout=list&num=50
What an absolutely fantastic piece of kit this is! :InLoveI\'m amazed and stunned how knowledgable you guys are (you keep surpassing yourselves) and take my hat of to you (well I would if I wore one) - RESPECT! :god Thanks for the vital information, armed with this I shall hot tail to my local Agent and then see what they can do from here. As soon as some news is available I\'ll post it.:cheers
Factory parts catalogues are essential reading for anyone seriously interested in restoring a classic car. Apart from the part numbers, they help us see how things are assembled and their relationships with other parts.
Forgot where that washer or spacer goes?...... check the parts catalogue!
I suppose really rather than clutter Cliffs thread with this stuff, we should start a new thread dedicated to these microfiches,etc.... although I might stick a page of them on my website for anyone to download from.
.
Eventually the parts catalogues will get lost on this thread,best to start a new thread & ask a moderator to make a sticky.
Ian there\'s a S1 catalogue too which would be useful,though i can\'t think of anyone on mrc with a S1?
ta stu..
Quote from: syebba;729694Eventually the parts catalogues will get lost on this thread,best to start a new thread & ask a moderator to make a sticky.
Ian there\'s a S1 catalogue too which would be useful,though i can\'t think of anyone on mrc with a S1?
ta stu..
I\'ve put some onto my website for download / viewing including the S1 parts microfiche...
http://www.tech-leisure.com/index_files/Page344.htm
.
Quote from: syebba;729694Eventually the parts catalogues will get lost on this thread,best to start a new thread & ask a moderator to make a sticky.
Ian there\'s a S1 catalogue too which would be useful,though i can\'t think of anyone on mrc with a S1?
ta stu..
Perhaps not just yet - we\'ll wait and see what Santa has to bring?
Quote from: Ian65;729729I\'ve put some onto my website for download / viewing including the S1 parts microfiche...
http://www.tech-leisure.com/index_files/Page344.htm
.
Nice work Ian but for some reason I can\'t open the S1 document?
Quote from: CHC;729655What an absolutely fantastic piece of kit this is! :InLove
I\'m amazed and stunned how knowledgable you guys are (you keep surpassing yourselves) and take my hat of to you (well I would if I wore one) - RESPECT! :god
Thanks for the vital information, armed with this I shall hot tail to my local Agent and then see what they can do from here. As soon as some news is available I\'ll post it.
:cheers
The Agents came back today saying that this part is nolonger available.So I gave them the Part no. from the catalogue and thay have confirmed none available in the UK but have sourced one in Europe for me - now checking that it is the correct handed type.:cool
Quote from: CHC;729770The Agents came back today saying that this part is nolonger available.
So I gave them the Part no. from the catalogue and thay have confirmed none available in the UK but have sourced one in Europe for me - now checking that it is the correct handed type.
:cool
handed? they are all the same aren\'t they?
Quote from: CHC;729769Nice work Ian but for some reason I can\'t open the S1 document?
link fixed but you need to download it to view it. For some reason, we can\'t preview it ( maybe to do with the size.... it\'s 511 pages long)
Quote from: Ian65;729779link fixed but you need to download it to view it. For some reason, we can\'t preview it ( maybe to do with the size.... it\'s 511 pages long)
Fixed Ian - thanks.Yes, apparantly it\'s above the scanning readable size so it won\'t display.I have cross checked all 3 catalogues and the part code for the Panel Skirt Rear remains constant. My niggling concern is that perhaps the exhaust recess is positioned at the n/s with the catalogues being US & Canadian - we\'ll find out later today I hope.Thanks for your help as ever.:cheers
The exhaust is on the same side on all models for all models, the fuel tank is in the way on the other side.
Quote from: Ian65;729800The exhaust is on the same side on all models for all models, the fuel tank is in the way on the other side.
Well in that case it sounds good - just awaiting clarification now.
I checked on US ebay a few days ago cliff,the exhaust outlet is on the same side as ours,so you\'ll be ok.
ta stu..
Don\'t suppose they gave you a price yet cliff?
When i\'ve ordered back ordered parts it\'s usually taken 2>3 weeks for them to arrive.
I remember ordering S3 centre caps for the wheels[lacquer had bubbled on old ones],none in europe,came from Japan in the end,not too bad at £15 each.
ta stu..
Hi Stu, yes Ian already gave me the thumbs up with the exhaust recess (good news but stupid me never even thought of that) so that\'s good and thanks. Now just awaiting price details, they say it would take approx 5 working days for delivery but I\'m in no real rush as I\'ve plenty of preparation and protection to do on the underside before I consider replacing the rear valance. The good thing is I\'ve managed to source one and again it was the MRC forum who came in with the correct details not the Agents - well done guys.
:wave
Wow 5 days is quick,i\'ve never got parts i\'ve ordered that quickly before,suppose it depends where the parts are coming from.
At least you can still get the valence.
Ye if all works out with D Coding and part number and it is delivered in 10 days I would be more than happy - just need confirmation 1st that all is well.
Well Phase 2 for the petrol tank today.
Having previously reated the rust with Trustan 23, I left it to dry and cure for almost a week - mainly because it has been too cool in the garage to cure sooner.
So had tank in work for nearly 2 days drying and today applied Hammerite Grey primer. Now leaving to dry / cure before applying top coat of Hammerite - might even colour code it.
I still see green.:evillaugh
Quote from: captainbizzaro;729980I still see green.:evillaugh
Yes alas the dark nights and cool temperatures have not being conducive for working in the garage on cosmetic issues, so concentrating on the major issues at the moment but don\'t dispair - that green will be gone!But nice one Inspector Tim.
Went to top coat the petrol tank today but yesterday\'s primer coat is still tacky to touch. So switched on the electric fan heater to help drying of the primer coat - the way the temperatures are I\'m pretty sure it won\'t even be dry for tomorrow.
:Yawn
Quote from: CHC;730118Went to top coat the petrol tank today but yesterday\'s primer coat is still tacky to touch. So switched on the electric fan heater to help drying of the primer coat - the way the temperatures are I\'m pretty sure it won\'t even be dry for tomorrow.
:Yawn
I was right - still tacky.Incidentally the paint was new so there isn\'t a problem with the paint, it\'s simply too cold to enable drying/cure of the coating.:Yawn
Oh dear Cliff!
I had this problem years ago,decided to paint the chassis of a dax cobra with black smoothrite in the winter in a unheated garage,it took weeks to dry.
I think any temp under + 3c paint won\'t dry/set.
ta stu..
Aerosol paint should be better than thick brush paint.
Think I\'ll take it to work and find a nice warm corner so it dries and cures.
Hot News off the press - Mazda have confirmed that the Rear Valance panel part number is correct for Goldie so I\'ll be ordering this today, just need a price now.
:)
Quote from: CHC;730326Hot News off the press - Mazda have confirmed that the Rear Valance panel part number is correct for Goldie so I\'ll be ordering this today, just need a price now.
:)
Rear Valance panel now ordered and paid for = £41. I anticipate delivery/receipt next week from EuropeOrdered as:-D Code No. 70 791A
Description Panel Skirt. Rear
Part No. FA01-70-791
:Thumbs-up:)
At £40 I\'m half tempted myself!!
Hmmm wonder if I can get the upper suspension link side plates brand new..... or some outer sill sections...
Quote from: Steve-A;730358At £40 I\'m half tempted myself!!
Hmmm wonder if I can get the upper suspension link side plates brand new..... or some outer sill sections...
From the price posted for a similar purchase some 2 yrs ago, I was expecting a 3 figure sum (although really the part shouldn\'t increase in price as it was last produced in the 20th century - boy it sounds weird saying that) so defintely overjoyed with this price. Armed with the detail extracted from the Parts Catalogue as supplied by Ian - thank you - I\'m sure if you were to approx a Mazda dealership they would possibly look into this for you. If you can\'t find one here are the details for my supplier:-Windsors of WallaseyTel: 0151 639 8600Parts Dept. Alan Brownemail info@windsorsparts.co.uk (info@windsorsparts.co.uk)Best of luck if you decide to go this route. Cliff
Quote from: Steve-A;730358At £40 I\'m half tempted myself!!
Hmmm wonder if I can get the upper suspension link side plates brand new..... or some outer sill sections...
I actually knocked out my own sill sections from stainless steel plate when I did JAZ - quite easy really.
Nicely done Cliff!
I shall use your method for inspiration (read copy you :P)
Quote from: Steve-A;730375Nicely done Cliff!
I shall use your method for inspiration (read copy you :P)
Just remember Steve, if you use stainless material, you need to use a dissimilar welding consumable - this minimises any potential cracking.
Cliff,
£41 thats a bargain,i expected £150 approx.
Does that inc vat as well?
ta stu..
Thats impressive it is still sat in a warehouse safe and dry waiting for someone to buy it. Nice stainless work there by the way Cliff.
That\'s a very good price Cliff... I paid around £80 for the one I bought although that was back in 1997!
So they are now going to supply the part that they reckoned wasn\'t available! It\'s a strange world when a bunch of self taught enthusiasts on a forum are more knowledgeable and better informed than the main dealer.
Given that the car has been out of production for 25 years and many mechanics trained on them have probably moved on ( plus only certain dealers were allowed to sell and work on on them in the 1st place) I bet there is more knowledge re. 1st gens in this club than there is to be found at Mazda main dealerships these days.
.
Quote from: Ian65;730434That\'s a very good price Cliff... I paid around £80 for the one I bought although that was back in 1997!
So they are now going to supply the part that they reckoned wasn\'t available! It\'s a strange world when a bunch of self taught enthusiasts on a forum are more knowledgeable and better informed than the main dealer.
Given that the car has been out of production for 25 years and many mechanics trained on them have probably moved on ( plus only certain dealers were allowed to sell and work on on them in the 1st place) I bet there is more knowledge re. 1st gens in this club than there is to be found at Mazda main dealerships these days.
.
My sentiments entirely - didn\'t I say something very similar the other month when I threw my toys out over another topic? When I approached my local agent on this particular part, I was very precise with my description and they forwarded this to "Mazda Japan" who gave it a different part number all together (probably turns out it was a part number for a nissan micra or something else totally different) so it was no wonder it wasn\'t available.I\'ve said this before and don\'t mind repeating myself - \'the knowledge and expertise available within the forum members is incredible and it is only due to the dedication and thoroughness of these members that faciliate others to repair, replace, restore and maintain these special cars\'. Everybody congratulate yourselves and those who provide the engineering & technical detail together with other vital and very useful information to support and benefit us - the forum members.:Thumbs-up:Thumbs-up:Thumbs-up
Quote from: syebba;730409Cliff,
£41 thats a bargain,i expected £150 approx.
Does that inc vat as well?
ta stu..
Total price including VAT & delivery £41.04 - an absolute bargin in anyones books I\'d say.
Quote from: captainbizzaro;730423Thats impressive it is still sat in a warehouse safe and dry waiting for someone to buy it. Nice stainless work there by the way Cliff.
I\'d like to think that somebody \'up there\' is watching over me and realised that I\'d need one (so they put my name on it) - must thank them when I see them in say 90 years - I wish. Thought I\'d do the job once in stainless - should outlive me and probably the car too. :rollin
The stainless part might, but the part it\'s welded to probley will not .................ie the rest of the car :rollin
Quote from: A7RXY;730536The stainless part might, but the part it\'s welded to probley will not .................ie the rest of the car :rollin
In which case I\'ll be a busy happy chappy for the next 40 years replacing all the other bits with stainless. I\'ve got to leave something behind when I go - apart from unpaid bills that is.:Laugh
Quote from: CHC;730273Think I\'ll take it to work and find a nice warm corner so it dries and cures.
Didn\'t take the petrol tank to work - the boss said that I could dry it in the kitchen corner by the radiator! Aye, only \'cause Goldie is for her - bet it would be a different story if it was for mine.Anyhow, primer coating now dry and cured so this evening I\'ve applied the top coat to the underside of the tank - I\'ve colour coordinated it to match the gold body. Photos to follow. Oh yes (should have mentioned) painted in the kitchen too I would add - beats being in the garage or outside in the snow!
I might have parents that helped me put my rx in the garden but painting in the kitchen is another level :P
Gold fuel tank would look quite \'bling\' shame its kinda hidden under the car! What gold paint have you found thats a good match?
Quote from: Steve-A;730676I might have parents that helped me put my rx in the garden but painting in the kitchen is another level :P
Gold fuel tank would look quite \'bling\' shame its kinda hidden under the car! What gold paint have you found thats a good match?
Painting in the kitchen Steve - one in a million mate.Colour match is hammerite Copper - I\'ve taken photo this morning but can\'t download till I get in from work tonight. Thinking of just the underside to colour match with the upper side in black & waxoyled.
Just had a phone call to advise my \'rear skirt\' body panel is at the dealership for collection - now that\'s what I call good service, ordered Monday & deliverd from Europe within 2 days.
:)
Here is a photo of the petrol tank after colour match painted - looks better than black I think.
Well, rear skirt panel collected and yes it is the correct part and it fits.
Good idea to colour match the lower part of tank as it\'s visible from the rear.
ta stu..
Quote from: syebba;730833Good idea to colour match the lower part of tank as it\'s visible from the rear.
ta stu..
Hence my thought for doing it this way.
Just out of interest cliff,when you respray exterior body panels,how are you going to get a match,think your colour is maya gold?Does mazda still do paint or will you get some mixed at supplier?
ta stu..
Quote from: syebba;730855Just out of interest cliff,when you respray exterior body panels,how are you going to get a match,think your colour is maya gold?Does mazda still do paint or will you get some mixed at supplier?
ta stu..
Depending upon the amount of spraying required, there\'s a supplier in Chester who mixes specific colour to the old colour charts (but due to the change to water based colours this is becoming more difficuult, as the new range of colours do not match precisely to the oil based products).I may otherwise consider a complete respray at a local body shop - which will cost more than a few bob I reckon (for those younger persons I mean 5 pence). :Hammer Still, all in a good cause I say.
Quote from: CHC;730823Here is a photo of the petrol tank after colour match painted - looks better than black I think.
Been into Kwikfit and jacked up on the tank at some time Cliff? Best left now as you have done.
When I go for MOT\'s I take some rubber pads with me to stop his jacking gear contacting the chassis. The MOT man thinks I\'m great (but slightly deranged) taking them along with me.
He always passes them back to me with a grin though as he issues the certificate.
Quote from: David Nock;730885Been into Kwikfit and jacked up on the tank at some time Cliff? Best left now as you have done.
When I go for MOT\'s I take some rubber pads with me to stop his jacking gear contacting the chassis. The MOT man thinks I\'m great (but slightly deranged) taking them along with me.
He always passes them back to me with a grin though as he issues the certificate.
Agree Dave - I\'m not one for lifting at the chassis without some form of protection to stop the \'steel to steel\' contact. In fact I always jack at front cross member before supporting on axle stands and at rear diff, again then axle stands.As for the \'jacking point impression\' on the tank - definitely leave it be. If metal is pushed in and as long as it has not creased, you can normally push it back within the 1st 24 hrs - after that time you should leave well alone.
Well have to admit \'the weather beat me this weekend\' :o so I replaced the door cards on JAZ instead. The previous set had a minor cosmetic problem with the drivers door card but this now corrected.
Have started an attempt to cut throught the bonding on the nearside rear window and boy is it tough. In saying this I\'ve done 95% of the top trim and about 55% of the bottom so fingers crossed (and sore with using wire to cut) will complete this week.
Managed to get the top side of the petrol tank painted this evening - this time using hammerite \'gold\' (well actually it is more of a brassy gold rather than the coppery gold of the car) but the colour differential doesn\'t make any difference because I\'ll finish the top side with underseal before I refit it. I\'ll take and post pics tomorrow - should mention painted in the kitchen again :Nono! (god bless the boss - she who breathes fire).
Quote from: CHC;731790(god bless the boss - she who breathes fire).
don\'t let her near the petrol tank then, best if she waits out in the garage till you\'ve finished!!!
Sounds like steady progress Cliff. We need more pictures, you can never have too many pictures :P
Quote from: Ian65;731792don\'t let her near the petrol tank then, best if she waits out in the garage till you\'ve finished!!!
If I tried that Ian I\'d be in the kennel for the rest of my life - funny, I don\'t recall having a dog either?
Quote from: Steve-A;731794Sounds like steady progress Cliff. We need more pictures, you can never have too many pictures :P
Deffo Steve, totally agree.Trouble is my Rangie has had a battery problem for the last week - only 15 months old (the battery that is) and it has let me down 3 times in 7 days and yesterday moning was the final straw. So I\'ve spent the past 2 days trying to resolve this with the agents who have said bring the car to us and they\'ll charge it and then test it - is it just me? How can I get it there if I can\'t start the damn thing in the first place! My point here is that instead of working on Goldie I\'ve wasted time trying to get the Rangie started - oops forgot to say that even though I\'d charged the battery, although the engine cranked it refused to fire up (I think an electronic/alarm/immobiliser problem).But the best is yet to come now, I went to JAZ and she fired up 1st turn of the key - speaks volumes to me for a 27 year old car against an all singing and dancing Rangie that doesn\'t start and both kept in the same conditions.So all things being equal I\'ll be able to start back on Goldie tomorrow.
Crazy things batteries. I thought I killed the one in my mx5 last winter while I was having megasquirt problems, did quite a few mornings of full charge, crank for 5 mins then flat till it was only giving me 20 secs of cranking from a full charge. So bought a new one in January and over the last few weeks its been weaker and weaker at starting. Two days ago it was flat when I came to start the car, dropped the old battery in thats just sat in the shed for the last 11 months and it fired right up and has been fine since. :S
Sounds like JAZ should be the daily drive if she\'s more reliable than the rangie :P
Firstly my apology but I\'ve mislaid a thread about the availability of part nos. 70270 & 71270 - left & right sills.
Just been notified from the agents that these are still available with a price tag of £91.54 each and would be on a back order if required - so there\'s a surprise!
are these the outer sills?
Quote from: Ian65;731879are these the outer sills?
Yes Ian - interested?
Outer sills still available,25 years later & rear valences,surprising!
ta stu..
I thought the rear valence was still available but didn\'t think we could still get genuine outer sills. we had a discussion about their availability on here last year and the prevailing view was that there weren\'t any.
That\'s good news that they are still available.
Yep ian rear valences & sills still available.
Wonder what else they\'ve got?
ta stu..
When i had the s1,i found sills still available in OZ,they told me mazda had no stock of them left & were discontinued years ago!
Quote from: syebba;731891When i had the s1,i found sills still available in OZ,they told me mazda had no stock of them left & were discontinued years ago!
Don\'t know what it is about the Mazda philosophy - unless they are given the part numbers, D Codes & descriptions as per the relevant Parts Catalogue, they just say not available and don\'t want to know.So its only due to the tenacity of forum members whom have dug, researched and acquired parts catalogues through the years that has enabled this niche forum (us) to specify correct namings and numerical sequences to faciliate Mazda to do their daily duties properly and give accurate answers.So well done guys - you know who you are. :yes
Quote from: CHC;731897Don\'t know what it is about the Mazda philosophy - unless they are given the part numbers, D Codes & descriptions as per the relevant Parts Catalogue, they just say not available and don\'t want to know.
QuoteI suppose there\'s no profit in it anymore and no profit = can\'t be arsed
Quote from: CHC;731897Don\'t know what it is about the Mazda philosophy - unless they are given the part numbers, D Codes & descriptions as per the relevant Parts Catalogue, they just say not available and don\'t want to know.
So its only due to the tenacity of forum members whom have dug, researched and acquired parts catalogues through the years that has enabled this niche forum (us) to specify correct namings and numerical sequences to faciliate Mazda to do their daily duties properly and give accurate answers.
So well done guys - you know who you are. :yes
Yep some mazda dealerships are lazy,the sills i found in OZ were from phils rotaries & fast fours,i was told NLA[no longer available & discontinued].
If you go to your local mazda with part nos they should help,hopefully!
Everythings NLA unless you give them a part nos.
I even asked about rear gas struts for tailgate from mazda UK,these are deffo NLA.
Mazda seem to have some old/new stock available,surprising given the age of 1st gens.
Oh yeah,brake master cylinders,i\'m sure i got a brake master cylinder repair kit from mazda too,so it\'s worth checking for availability & price on an item you require.
Quote from: CHC;730823Here is a photo of the petrol tank after colour match painted - looks better than black I think.
(http://www.mazdarotaryclub.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=49858&stc=1&thumb=1&d=1291245332) (http://www.mazdarotaryclub.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=49858&d=1291245332)
Now the top side painted - this time in Gold Hammerite paint (but not my idea of a gold colour).When this is dried and cured I\'ll finish the top side off with underseal and then park it up in storage until it is refitted in the spring. Inbetween time I\'ll be tackling the underside of the car and replacing the rear skirt panel (valance).
Managed to get some spare time today so back to work.
Photo 117 - Cut out the old rear valance.
Photo 118 & 119 - Dressed tack welds and removed corroded paint/metal.
Photo 120, 121 & 122 - Offered new valance into place for trial fit.
Photo 125, 126 & 127 - Bare metal cleaned and pre-treated with \'Trustan 23\' (in preparation for primer coating tomorrow).
Moving again at last.
:Thumbs-up
Whilst waiting for the \'Trustan 23\' to dry for the rear valance, went back to removing the side window seal so nearside window can be extracted - managed to free both the bottom (horizontal) and diagonal legs. Now working on the vertical leg (last one thank goodness).
I tried using the MIG wire in \'cheese wire\' motion but takes for ever so resorted to using a hacksaw blade (in reverse direction) so I was cutting with the reverse stroke. This cut through the sealer better but still takes quite some time.
Having managed to free the diagonal leg I now understand why the rust found it\'s way in to the bottom of the hatch window section -rust has taken hold in the diagonal metal so this needs to be removed when the window is out. More photos to follow when window extracted.
:(
Quote from: Steve-A;731810Crazy things batteries. I thought I killed the one in my mx5 last winter while I was having megasquirt problems, did quite a few mornings of full charge, crank for 5 mins then flat till it was only giving me 20 secs of cranking from a full charge. So bought a new one in January and over the last few weeks its been weaker and weaker at starting. Two days ago it was flat when I came to start the car, dropped the old battery in thats just sat in the shed for the last 11 months and it fired right up and has been fine since. :S
Sounds like JAZ should be the daily drive if she\'s more reliable than the rangie :P
Looks as though the battery issue with my Rangie just might be due to an alarm / electronic problem. Hopefully could find out more tomorrow/Wednesday.
Quote from: syebba;731935Oh yeah,brake master cylinders,i\'m sure i got a brake master cylinder repair kit from mazda too,so it\'s worth checking for availability & price on an item you require.
Have given a list to agent for various parts Stu and already had a few NLA\'s - one particular being the petrol tank sender unit although the sender gasket is available (£3.14 I think).
Quote from: CHC;732580Have given a list to agent for various parts Stu and already had a few NLA\'s - one particular being the petrol tank sender unit although the sender gasket is available (£3.14 I think).
Atkins rotary have genuine mazda senders in stock...
the standard s2 & s3 sender
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Mazda-Rx7-Rx-7-1981-1983-NEW-Fuel-Level-Sensor-/230456533589?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item35a847a255
plus the GSL-SE sender with low fuel light sensor...
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Mazda-Rx7-Rx-7-1981-1983-NEW-Fuel-Level-Sensor-/230456533589?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item35a847a255
.
Ouch thats a shame about the window Cliff!
Alarms = more trouble than their worth especially on older cars in my opinion. Hope you get it sorted :)
Quote from: CHC;732560Whilst waiting for the \'Trustan 23\' to dry for the rear valance, went back to removing the side window seal so nearside window can be extracted - managed to free both the bottom (horizontal) and diagonal legs. Now working on the vertical leg (last one thank goodness).
I tried using the MIG wire in \'cheese wire\' motion but takes for ever so resorted to using a hacksaw blade (in reverse direction) so I was cutting with the reverse stroke. This cut through the sealer better but still takes quite some time.
Having managed to free the diagonal leg I now understand why the rust found it\'s way in to the bottom of the hatch window section -rust has taken hold in the diagonal metal so this needs to be removed when the window is out. More photos to follow when window extracted.
:(
well done getting that glass out intact Cliff... they\'re a sod!
Quote from: Ian65;732625Atkins rotary have genuine mazda senders in stock...
the standard s2 & s3 sender
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Mazda-Rx7-Rx-7-1981-1983-NEW-Fuel-Level-Sensor-/230456533589?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item35a847a255
plus the GSL-SE sender with low fuel light sensor...
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Mazda-Rx7-Rx-7-1981-1983-NEW-Fuel-Level-Sensor-/230456533589?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item35a847a255
.
Now that\'s a good shout on the \'Sender\' Ian - shall bear this in mind, Ta
Quote from: Ian65;732649well done getting that glass out intact Cliff... they\'re a sod!
Not quite there yet Ian - sorry if my wording was ambiguous (now that\'s a good word for a Tuesday evening), still working on the vertical leg nearest the door. I\'ve managed to cut through the seal working from the inside going forwards (my guess about 50% through it\'s depth) but feels as if I\'ve hit metal. I now think that the outer steel protector (on the glass) actually wraps around the glass so there is a hidden lip on the backside - is this correct?I need to move the blade between this lip and the body so I can finish the job and yes it is a stubborn sod too.The glass now rocks up and down (with a little force) so I know I\'m almost there but somehow need to cut through the final section of seal. I\'ll stick at it.
Ran out of the trustan 23 rust preventative product and haven\'t been able to trace it so I bought another product today - \'Jenolite\'. This is currently used by the navy and also ship repair yards for treating corroded areas - better than hammerite and associated products I\'ve found.
This can be costly but managed to find a seller shipping 2 x 500ml bottles for £13.75 with free p+p, here is the link
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260663809178&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT
Now that the feastive season is over it\'s about time I got back to honest graft on Goldie - actually I\'ve done some work but finding it difficult in the current garage. So I\'m moving her back to my own garage and putting \'RAZ\' into the other so work can commence.
I\'ll post some photos of work done recently to the rear underside.
Cliff
Oh - managed to pick up another glass roof from eBay yesterday for Goldie, got to have her looking her best for when she is finished.
Well I thought I\'d have a start at the underside of rear end so out can the rotary wire cup brush and drill on the nearside (just forward of the rear lights) and then found heavy corossion. Remembering that the advert for the car originally stated that all welding had been done?
What had actually happened was the corrossion had been identified. So rather than cut it out some \'bright spark\' decided to hide it with a steel plate and weld it in. Then to compound the issue neither the new plate or original area had been trreated to stop the rust and so I\'ve finished up with this (1st photo)
So I ground the plate off from inside the boot area and the evidence is (2nd photo)
Then to finish off temporarily have treated the rust with Jenolite and primed (3rd photo) until I get round to cutting the section out and inserting a stainless plate and welding up.
Then I continued onto the offside - same area and have a guess what? Yep similar issue but on a smaller scale (phew).
Only this time I haven\'t yet cut out the so called \'new metal\' but have treated the underside in preparation.
Then progressed to cleaning the complete rear underside
Thats a real shame that someones basically just made life harder for you by doing such a botch job!
I guess the only thing you can say is its a good job you\'re doing this properly or some of that rot would be well hidden and fester away until the car became too far gone to bother with.
priming.......
primer sealer ...
Quote from: Steve-A;737422Thats a real shame that someones basically just made life harder for you by doing such a botch job!
I guess the only thing you can say is its a good job you\'re doing this properly or some of that rot would be well hidden and fester away until the car became too far gone to bother with.
Which is why others say \'it\'s better to get a body that hasn\'t been welded rather than a bodged one\' - hmmmm.... begining to think that I might have the latter. Ho hum, never mind, better to find it now so that I can rectify it.Despite this, the body is more solid than it sounds and I\'d be a liar - no darn stupid if I said I didn\'t expect to find some on a 95000 mile car.
I\'ve also removed the rear brake calipers from their discs, quickly cleaned and then retracted the wheel pistons just to establish that they are free and serviceable - satisfactory.
So my intentions are to replace parts as may be necessary and paint calipers and check condition of discs before progressing further in these areas - photos to follow (none taken yet).
Lots of good progress there Cliff... it\'s always a mare putting someone elses bodges right. I wonder if there are any useful \'repair\' panels in that stash of S2 parts in London... probably easier to cut some out of old parts than fab your own.
Quote from: Ian65;737456Lots of good progress there Cliff... it\'s always a mare putting someone elses bodges right. I wonder if there are any useful \'repair\' panels in that stash of S2 parts in London... probably easier to cut some out of old parts than fab your own.
1stly it\'s all part of the challenge owning a classic I suppose.As for useful panels, I\'ve got a couple of spare doors already but actually prefer re-plating with S/S as I know this is sound metal with a little bit extra in thickness/gauge and although it makes the job a bit more difficult, there\'s something to be proud of to turn around and say "yeh, I made that piece" - good thought though.
Today I decided to resolve the issue over limited access in the garage. So I swapped \'Goldie\' with \'RAZ\' so they are both in different garages.
Sounds easy in principle but remember neither of the cars could be driven under their own steam. \'RAZ\' had to be towed up the road in reverse, Goldie pushed into the road (very easy as I\'d taken out the brake pads) and had to slip into gear to prevent her from rolling into the marsh/river down at the bottom of the road. \'RAZ\' pushed into the drive and parked up. Goldie rolled down the road by me and the Dragon and pushed into her new home for the next six months (less if i can achieve this). Then finally pushing \'RAZ\' into her new garage to hibernate until Goldie is finished - PHEW, need a rest now to recover. :Snoring
So tomorrow is the start of a new era - Goldie Time!
WE have some news the group B is going on a road trip , Legend Boucles de Spa in belgium .
Friday 18 February 2011 to Saturday 19 February 2011.....
But something a bit closer to home the rotary escort is taking part in the north west stages on the 6th and 7th of feb.
sorry cliff posted in wrong place , can a mod delete above please..
Goldie settled into her new home and teamed up with \'JAZ\' for a bit of company.
Started with the rear bumper yesterday - boy were those bolts tight despite soaking them with wd40 for hours. The main bolts (14mm nuts) eventually came loose but the 10mm ones just sheared (see a few photos). Not surprised with this result as it seemed the previous owner had stored the bumper in a compost heap - full of rotted leaves, spiders webs, soil etc: So I\'ve abraded the steel framework with rotary wired brush/cup type then pretreated the bare metal and later on coated with a good hammerite primer - photos to follow.
Then I stripped down the front bumper hmmmm..... the offside section of the steel framework is beyond repair so I\'ll need to soucre a replacement - hopefully I already know of one in the midlands. Thinking about it, can anybody tell me whether the end pieces of the framework are available separately ? (pictures to follow as batteries drained).
Rear bumper now primed ...
Front bumper stripped for action - not as pretty sight really.
Can the outer sections be purchased separately?
Further coats applied to rear bumper framework ...
I doubt it... it\'s probably best to source a good second hand bumper bar from a scrapper.
In between, setting up in preparation to continue with the underneath cleaning and pretreatment ...
You\'re doing well Cliff....no overspray at all on that kitchen table, your lady will be well pleased.
Good stuff Cliff! Making pretty good headway there, makes me feel really slack for moving at the pace I am!
Quote from: David Nock;739242You\'re doing well Cliff....no overspray at all on that kitchen table, your lady will be well pleased.
What you don\'t see is the dragon behind the camera with a duster and polish - oh and that\'s to hand to me after I\'ve finished.:evillaugh
Quote from: Steve-A;739309Good stuff Cliff! Making pretty good headway there, makes me feel really slack for moving at the pace I am!
No way Steve - I\'ve only been able to put in a few hrs here & there. After the work you\'ve been doing recently mate you can be excused for a break now & again. I need to get down to it as there\'s a fair amount to be done on the underside - hard graft & elbow grease I think rather than full blown restoration.I think I\'ll have to replace all the bushes though - how are yours coming along? Was it a good buy from Respeed?
Quote from: Ian65;739150I doubt it... it\'s probably best to source a good second hand bumper bar from a scrapper.
My thoughts too Ian. Stu in Tamworth has one fo me, so hopefully it will be half decent and i can strip it and restore the frame.
Quote from: CHC;739323No way Steve - I\'ve only been able to put in a few hrs here & there. After the work you\'ve been doing recently mate you can be excused for a break now & again.
I need to get down to it as there\'s a fair amount to be done on the underside - hard graft & elbow grease I think rather than full blown restoration.
I think I\'ll have to replace all the bushes though - how are yours coming along? Was it a good buy from Respeed?
No sign of the bushes yet. I\'m guessing it might be a while till they show, can take almost a fortnight for royal snail to deliver a note saying \'please pay import tax\' sometimes :( I\'ll let you know how they are when they arrive!
Quote from: Steve-A;739331No sign of the bushes yet. I\'m guessing it might be a while till they show, can take almost a fortnight for royal snail to deliver a note saying \'please pay import tax\' sometimes :( I\'ll let you know how they are when they arrive!
Fair play - just hope it doesn\'t snow here too otherwise the extra delay would be caused by the wrong type of snow :rollin:rollin
Quote from: Steve-A;739331No sign of the bushes yet. I\'m guessing it might be a while till they show, can take almost a fortnight for royal snail to deliver a note saying \'please pay import tax\' sometimes :( I\'ll let you know how they are when they arrive!
Royal snail are a joke.
Ian & i ordered oz spec mirrors from the same guy,sent out more or less same time from oz.Ian got his 1st & from memory had to pay import duty,mine turned up 6 weeks later,but i paid no import tax???
Quote from: CHC;739335Fair play - just hope it doesn\'t snow here too otherwise the extra delay would be caused by the wrong type of snow :rollin:rollin
Haha,yeah our snow is unique,it\'s white & sometimes settles on the ground!
Just seen on msn,2010 globally was one of the hottest years on record,EXCEPT UK,it was the 12th coldest on record!:Giggle
Took the middle section of the exhaust and the heat shield out this weekend, this was to enable full access to the underside to determine it\'s general condition. Great find - apart from one area, the underside of the offside floor pan is in pretty good condition :):)
Had a bit of a dig - well actually a bloody good poke around to make sure I would be taking all of the effected area out, this was the result.
Having cleaned up the areas I then primed them in preparation for the big underside paint job - once the small amonut of welding has been completed
After all the hidden rust you\'ve found else where thats really good news Cliff :)
Quote from: Steve-A;739683After all the hidden rust you\'ve found else where thats really good news Cliff :)
Sure is Steve, I\'m just glad really that nobody had tried to repair this before I got to it - makes my task a lot easier.I dare say that I\'ll find something similar with the nearside when i get round to it (hopefully next month). When I repair it I\'ll do it in two sections, inner side 1st and then the outer skin to finish it and put the rigidity back in.
Also managed to drill out the sheared 10mm bolts from the rear bumper today and then re-tapped holes so hangar brackets will secure properly when tightened up in place (picture before drilling out bolt)
Managed to put a hammerite primer coat to the offside rear wheelarch and underbody towards to drivers footwell. A little more to finish off behind the exhaust heatshield section and then I can put metal inserts where the body has lost it\'s metallic structure - weld up the holy bits.
cleaning up well Cliff!
Being truthful Ian, despite the areas where rust wasn\'t taken out and thus creating additional corrosion problems, I\'m very pleased with the general condition of the underside up to now. The earlier photographs which I posted of the underbody consisted of artificial background lighting which automatically lends towards sepia colouring and therefore you never get a true sense of reality. So to a degree the previous shots made it look a little worse than it actually was.
When I was working on \'JAZ\' I was using hand wire brushes with lots of elbow grease but with Goldie I\'m using rotary wire brushes (both cup type and flat) and it is so much easier and quicker than the old fashioned but traditional method.
Those rotary wire brushes really are life savers! I dread to think how long I\'d have spent wire brushing without mine.
Quote from: Steve-A;740419Those rotary wire brushes really are life savers! I dread to think how long I\'d have spent wire brushing without mine.
Took me almost a day to do one side of JAZ last year (complete with blisters and scrape marks and sore knuckles - rotary power any day for me (excuse the PUN it was intended) :rollin:rollin
had next to no time working on Goldie this weekend but did manage to grind out the inserted plate in the rear offside of the boot area. This has exposed the rust lurking underneath which should have been removed before the plate was welded into place. Never mind, I take a few fotos and put them up.
The only other thing which happened this weekend was the glass sunroof was delivered ..... :)
Following on from the recent discussions between Steve, Ian, Tim, Dibs, Dave, Keith and other forum members (plse forgive me if I haven\'t mentioned you by name) on the purchase of Polyurethane Full Bush Kits, I\'ve ordered a full set of SuperPro tonight from a company in Bridgewater (UK).
I\'ve managed to negotiate a discount price, which the company tell me shall extend for all MRC members - price delivered £215 and are available on the self.
:D
Quote from: CHC;741471Following on from the recent discussions between Steve, Ian, Tim, Dibs, Dave, Keith and other forum members (plse forgive me if I haven\'t mentioned you by name) on the purchase of Polyurethane Full Bush Kits, I\'ve ordered a full set of SuperPro tonight from a company in Bridgewater (UK).
I\'ve managed to negotiate a discount price, which the company tell me shall extend for all MRC members - price delivered £215 and are available on the self.
:D
And Stu ....Also forgot to mention that these bushes are guaranteed for 3 years or 36,000 miles - I consider this a great deal.:Thumbs-up
Do we know if Ian and SteveA have got their kits from the US ?, if so are they happy with them and did they get charged VAT when they came in. if so I wonder what the actural cost is getting them from the US compared with the UK price of £215.
Dibs
Quote from: A7RXY;741506Do we know if Ian and SteveA have got their kits from the US ?, if so are they happy with them and did they get charged VAT when they came in. if so I wonder what the actural cost is getting them from the US compared with the UK price of £215.
Dibs
I was chatting with Steve-A yesterday, approx £170 (but unsure as they haven\'t arrived in UK yet) customer satisfaction to be determined when received.
Bush kit ordered and paid for - being sent out today so I might see it for the weekend.:mmmm
Quote from: CHC;741515I was chatting with Steve-A yesterday, approx £170 (but unsure as they haven\'t arrived in UK yet) customer satisfaction to be determined when received.
Where\'s 170 quid come from?
They are $185 shipped.... Approx £120
Quote from: Ian65;741544Where\'s 170 quid come from?
They are $185 shipped.... Approx £120
I\'ll PM you.
Quote from: Ian65;741544Where\'s 170 quid come from?
They are $185 shipped.... Approx £120
Just to clarify guys, cost of £170 is for purchase and delivery for one person from usa to uk. Any multiple buyers could share import/transit costs and would therefore make further monetary savings. My apology if I have misled anybody on this issue.:o
£170 is worse case scenario if duty and vat get\'s charged.... purchase and shipping only is £130 for one person purchasing... as above, less if shipping is combined.
I looked at Superpro, both importing them and buying them in the Uk but was put off by the price and I had also read on a couple of threads that the \'full kit\' was purchased but then additional bushes had to be bought to make it a true full kit. Maybe these instances were \'one offs\' but they put me off buying at the time.
At the end of the day, poly is poly and all poly bushes for the 1st gen are a rip off no matter where they come from or who they are made by.
Sorry for interupting your thread Cliff. Ian, I emailed you yesterday, just wanted to make sure you received it ok?
Quote from: Ian65;741658£170 is worse case scenario if duty and vat get\'s charged.... purchase and shipping only is £130 for one person purchasing... as above, less if shipping is combined.
I looked at Superpro, both importing them and buying them in the Uk but was put off by the price and I had also read on a couple of threads that the \'full kit\' was purchased but then additional bushes had to be bought to make it a true full kit. Maybe these instances were \'one offs\' but they put me off buying at the time.
At the end of the day, poly is poly and all poly bushes for the 1st gen are a rip off no matter where they come from or who they are made by.
Must agree with you on this.
Quote from: CHC;741159had next to no time working on Goldie this weekend but did manage to grind out the inserted plate in the rear offside of the boot area. This has exposed the rust lurking underneath which should have been removed before the plate was welded into place. Never mind, I take a few fotos and put them up.
:)
And here are the photographs ....
Quote from: CHC;741535Bush kit ordered and paid for - being sent out today so I might see it for the weekend.:mmmm
Well guys - I\'d call this bl**dy good service, Bush Kit arrived this afternoon, this calls for a :guinness to celebrate
Yuk, what a nasty patch job that was!
That was quick on the bushes :) Have fun getting the old ones out :P
Quote from: Steve-A;741825Yuk, what a nasty patch job that was!
That was quick on the bushes :) Have fun getting the old ones out :P
I call these \'half a job\' patches. I don\'t object to people cutting metal out and patching on top rather than insetting to keep the panels flush, this has to be better than leaving the rusty bits in to contaminate the new pieces - it\'s amazing how some people think that corrosion just disappears once you\'ve put a patch over it and that nobody would think of looking underneath. But the most worst aspect is that they never treat the new metal before or after it is welded either. Very fast delivery with the bushes - well pleased. Now I just have to drop the relevant links etc, etc and remove the old bits, clean up and make good before fitting new bushes.The only trouble is it won\'t be this weekend either. You had trouble with your gazebo recently, well last weekend the gusts of wind decided that my carport roof had been there too long so it must have thought "let him have a new one this year" and whoosh - smashed to pieces. So need to spend a bit of time on the carport to make watertight so that I can work underneath it if and when it rains.
Only managed a few hours this afternoon preparing the susupension parts for stripping out. So cleaned the bolt threads with wire and copper brushes and then soaked them with WD40.
Despite soaking, the studs for the rear anti-roll bar were extremely tight (especially the two housing the main bushes. I found it easier to support the retaining clip in place so that the stud unscrewed without taking the retaining clip with it.
The two forward links were a doddle to remove the lock nuts but the upper bolt very stubborn - so removed the brackets too. Now all I have to do is remove the upper studs and then get these cleaned up and painted.
Next will be the lower and upper links.
Steve - when you removed your suspension, did you find it easier to remove the lower and upper links before or after the watts link?
Yeh some of the bolts holding suspension together on the back of Rexanne were very very stiff even with the wire brush and WD as you\'ve done! Good luck and all!
Watts link first for sure :) because if you remove the lower and upper links then the axel can twist which causes the watts to bind up and its then really awkward to remove.
Quote from: Steve-A;742552Yeh some of the bolts holding suspension together on the back of Rexanne were very very stiff even with the wire brush and WD as you\'ve done! Good luck and all!
Watts link first for sure :) because if you remove the lower and upper links then the axel can twist which causes the watts to bind up and its then really awkward to remove.
Good info on the Watts Link there Steve - thanks.When I took off the rear anti roll bar and the supporting two links, found fair amount of corrosion with the bolts :( so I might replace them instead (better to find out now rather than later) - justing looking for some now.
Quote from: CHC;742545Only managed a few hours this afternoon preparing the susupension parts for stripping out. So cleaned the bolt threads with wire and copper brushes and then soaked them with WD40.
Despite soaking, the studs for the rear anti-roll bar were extremely tight (especially the two housing the main bushes. I found it easier to support the retaining clip in place so that the stud unscrewed without taking the retaining clip with it.
The two forward links were a doddle to remove the lock nuts but the upper bolt very stubborn - so removed the brackets too. Now all I have to do is remove the upper studs and then get these cleaned up and painted.
Next will be the lower and upper links.
Here are the photos after taking out the rear anti-roll bar.Seeing the condition of the degrading bushes at the stabilizer links alone justifies the expense for buying the Superpro polyurethane bushes.Incidentally, if anybody else is considering purchasing these Superpro Bushes, I have the contact details for Ross so that you get the same discounted price as myself - just PM me for details.
Spent an hour this evening loosening off the bolts and nuts for the suspension linkage - well actually only 4 of them:-
The upper linkage rear nut & bolt - just need the front end now.
The Watts Link central bolt - now that was darn tight - WD 40 fluid, a 21mm socket with tommy bar and a 4lb hammer to persuade it to move.
The lower link of the Watts Link too - both bolts extremely tight, 14mm socket with tommy bar and hammer.
Even managed to finish the night without getting any hammer rashes.
Just need to decide now how to tackle access to the upper link front bolt, hmmm..... remove the spring to permit access with socket and tommy bar plus extension tube for leverage - what you reckon Steve, any ideas?
If I remember rightly, I loosened and removed the 4 bolts holding both the upper and lower links to the diff. Then I tried to remove the Watts link and wished I\'d done that first! But once I\'d freed the Watts link, I removed the axel before I\'d even cracked the bolts holding the suspension links to the body, which meant access was not an issue.
My gut reaction would be 21mm spanner on the inside of the link, braced against a section of chassis or the axel, and then a 21mm socket and big long bar on the outer head of the bolt and crack it that way.
Judging by the pictures of your roll bar bushings they are actually worse than mine! Which is kinda impressive :P
Quote from: Steve-A;743098If I remember rightly, I loosened and removed the 4 bolts holding both the upper and lower links to the diff. Then I tried to remove the Watts link and wished I\'d done that first! But once I\'d freed the Watts link, I removed the axel before I\'d even cracked the bolts holding the suspension links to the body, which meant access was not an issue.
My gut reaction would be 21mm spanner on the inside of the link, braced against a section of chassis or the axel, and then a 21mm socket and big long bar on the outer head of the bolt and crack it that way.
Judging by the pictures of your roll bar bushings they are actually worse than mine! Which is kinda impressive :P
Already took your advise on the Watts Link with 60% completion on that, hopefully might finish this tonight - understand why you\'d wished you had done this one 1st - what a tight so n\' so it was.I\'ve also already slackened off the upper and lower link bolts at the axle on the o/side and started on the n/side.I wasn\'t really planning on dropping the axle but possible \'time out\' on that issue as this shall depend upon accessibility to the upper link body. Currently I have limited access to that nut due to the spring position - hence my thought of removing spring to facilitate access of spanner. I\'ll have another look tonight and let you know. Yeah - bushes pretty shot at all round (all of a similar condition) :eek: so wasn\'t even prepared to try and get these through a road test, I would have thought that the deterioration is mainly due to where the body had been left to rot or should I say \'parked up\'.
Yeah - bushes pretty shot at all round (all of a similar condition) :eek: so wasn\'t even prepared to try and get these through a road test, I would have thought that the deterioration is mainly due to where the body had been left to rot or should I say \'parked up\'.
[/quote]
Having seen the condition of these bushes - just think what the stabilizer spacer is like? Pretty bad :Hammer - hence why I looking for newuns.
Quote from: CHC;743153Yeah - bushes pretty shot at all round (all of a similar condition) :eek: so wasn\'t even prepared to try and get these through a road test, I would have thought that the deterioration is mainly due to where the body had been left to rot or should I say \'parked up\'.
Having seen the condition of these bushes - just think what the stabilizer spacer is like? Pretty bad :Hammer - hence why I looking for newuns.[/quote]
New parts sourced via Mazda dealership and ordered :)Part Nos:071028776 (Retainers) - £1.97 each887128157 (Spacers) - £4.12 each9980308145 (Bolts) - £2.62 each
Hi Guys,
When I loosened the top tie rod bolts of Gus, (for his plate welding - I saved the cost of an expensive welding specialist bugxering about), I found that 21mm is exactly 7/8" BSW or some such big Whitworth.
So with a big 1/2" bar plus 21mm socket on it, and my trusty (very old) german ring spanner that I bought for working on my Austin 10, I got both loosened quite easily.
Access was Ok with the axle in place.
Mind you only about 52,000 miles on clock then.
Steve, Cliff, you have both turned into that expensive welding specialist now if you want to give up the day jobbies.
Quote from: CHC;743189Having seen the condition of these bushes - just think what the stabilizer spacer is like? Pretty bad :Hammer - hence why I looking for newuns.
New parts sourced via Mazda dealership and ordered :)Part Nos:071028776 (Retainers) - £1.97 each887128157 (Spacers) - £4.12 each9980308145 (Bolts) - £2.62 each[/quote]
It\'s amazing they,ve still got these parts for 25 yr old cars.
Quote from: David Nock;743192Hi Guys,
When I loosened the top tie rod bolts of Gus, (for his plate welding - I saved the cost of an expensive welding specialist bugxering about), I found that 21mm is exactly 7/8" BSW or some such big Whitworth.
So with a big 1/2" bar plus 21mm socket on it, and my trusty (very old) german ring spanner that I bought for working on my Austin 10, I got both loosened quite easily.
Access was Ok with the axle in place.
Mind you only about 52,000 miles on clock then.
Steve, Cliff, you have both turned into that expensive welding specialist now if you want to give up the day jobbies.
Sounds as if you are just the man for the job David. What you doin\' this weekend mate?No seriously, I didn\'t get around to trying this out tonight as I was too busy freeing off the bolts on the Watts link - surprisingly the upper watts link bolts were a lot easy to undo than the others. Pleased they were easier, otherwise they would have been difficult to get proper purchase on (especially the upper bolt beneath the floor pan - phew. A few photos follow:-
Having taken the Watts Link out I had a look at the bushes their too :eek: not surprised with the findings really :cool
Quote from: syebba;743263New parts sourced via Mazda dealership and ordered :)
Part Nos:
071028776 (Retainers) - £1.97 each
887128157 (Spacers) - £4.12 each
9980308145 (Bolts) - £2.62 each
It\'s amazing they,ve still got these parts for 25 yr old cars.[/quote]
Very true Stu but I\'m glad they have. Could it be that they are used for the later models too? I\'ll have to ask when I collect them on Friday - good service from this Mazda Dealership.
Quote from: David Nock;743192Hi Guys,
Steve, Cliff, you have both turned into that expensive welding specialist now if you want to give up the day jobbies.
Very nice of you to say this David, I think perhaps Steve might agree with me on this - it is something which I find extremely satisfying and therapeutic with the added bonus of making good and preserving a piece of motoring history for a while longer. Might not be perfect but at least it is solid.I took \'Goldie\' on as I enjoyed working on JAZ so much and as Ian said in my early days with the forum - these motors are easy to work on. Would I give up my day job - no, not yet. Will I continue with this project work - I think for as long as I am enjoying it a big YES. I would like to think that Goldie will be a better vehicle when completed than JAZ and if so - who knows what next. Howz about you Steve - would you do another FB too ?
On the whole I think I agree with you Cliff.
It is hugely satisfying to make things good as new again, or even better to make them better than new. And likewise I find it therapeutic to get on there and make something physical especially as I spend my working life sat at a keyboard. But I\'d say the whole preserving automotive history element isn\'t something that really comes into my mind. Yes it\'s saving a rare car from the breakers, and a car that I think is very cool, but it\'s about starting with that cool car and making it MY cool car, built how I want it to be built, made so when I see it across a car park I know its my car, and there\'s not another in the world quite like it.
Similarly to you Cliff, when I\'d kinda finished one arc of the work on my mx7, I was ready for the next project. Rexanne was in need of love and care and I wanted to take the next step up into an even more involved project. Again hopefully Rexanne will be better than the mx7 in every way: faster, more focused, neater and a more complete package. But thats what drives projects the wish to take when you\'ve done before and go one stage further!
Part of me think\'s I\'d love to spend all day tinkering with cars, especially proper restoration and modifications (like race prepping or after market part developing) but I\'m not sure it will ever happen. I\'d have to be sure that it was right to do so. I learnt the hard way with film/video making a hobby your job doesn\'t actually always work out that well, it can kinda kill the hobby.
Would I do another FB? I\'m not sure. I think I\'d probably keep taking Rexanne up a level at a time, unless there was a specific reason to start over, such as if Rexanne got built up to be a great street/track car and I really wanted to build a rally car/drift car etc. One day I\'ll have to do that 105 GTA replica project.......
Totally agree Steve.
Restoration work is different for everybody but ultimately it is all about doing things \'your way\', making something \'your own\' and regardless of my personal preferences I admire people who have made their mark by being unique.
I have always liked something different but never had the opportunity until last year to try out an ambition to restore a car (and what a car to choose), I enjoyed it so much that I want to continue doing more RX7\'s it as long as I can as a hobby (I\'m a bit long in the tooth for thinking of a career change) but we can dream.
And I get massive satisfaction from servicing and making things last....clock up some miles (well a few), take some old bits off, put some new service parts on.
When I reuse an old servicable part .....like my old 1961 Ford Consul stop/tail bulb (they haven\'t changed a jot guys)........wow.....that bulb really gave me a buzz. It\'s been in the RX7 tail lamp cluster for a few years now, working away as God intended....that\'s after 15 years or so in my Consul. Magnifico!
We\'re all different aren\'t we?
Quote from: David Nock;743363And I get massive satisfaction from servicing and making things last....clock up some miles (well a few), take some old bits off, put some new service parts on.
When I reuse an old servicable part .....like my old 1961 Ford Consul stop/tail bulb (they haven\'t changed a jot guys)........wow.....that bulb really gave me a buzz. It\'s been in the RX7 tail lamp cluster for a few years now, working away as God intended....that\'s after 15 years or so in my Consul. Magnifico!
We\'re all different aren\'t we?
Spot on mate - very true and that\'s what makes us all unique, don\'t knock it till you try it.Oo ..... do you still have the Consul or is the \'my old ....\' as in the past tense? They sure were a good car - I always preferred the Zephyr myself.
I\'ve never stripped the rear suspension down on any car before this and having now removed the Watts Links I was shocked as to how much the rear axle actually floats around without any load being applied. So here I am, nearly 56 years young and still learning something new every date - it\'s great!
Quote from: CHC;743373Spot on mate - very true and that\'s what makes us all unique, don\'t knock it till you try it.
Oo ..... do you still have the Consul or is the \'my old ....\' as in the past tense? They sure were a good car - I always preferred the Zephyr myself.
Ah my old Car. 3374 WY. New out of Dagenham in 1961. A Mark 2 Lowline, produced just before the 375 came out. My Dad & I bought it in 1965 and I scrapped it in 1973/74. I did 100,000 miles myself in that machine and I loved it. It was the Ford 204E Engine, 1703cc of pure......well, nothing.....0 to 60 in a lifetime. (It qualified for Clarkson\'s old comment...If you set off from the sea to return inland, Coastal Errosion would get you before you\'d gone a mile).
But I loved old faithful and wish I\'d never pulled it apart. The 206 E\'s, Zephyr and Zodiac were better I certainly agree but I was young then and Cost/Insurance matters weighed heavily.
No matter, I sold every part except some last bits which I gave away in the 1980\'s, but I kept the bulbs!
Quote from: CHC;743374I\'ve never stripped the rear suspension down on any car before this and having now removed the Watts Links I was shocked as to how much the rear axle actually floats around without any load being applied. So here I am, nearly 56 years young and still learning something new every date - it\'s great!
I think that\'s why the reinforcing plates for the top links fail? The plates weaken with corrosion caused by slight water ingress from the back, then cracking starts, then they disintegrate.
You can understand the process better if you think of the heavy axle loads twisting away at the plates.
Quote from: David Nock;743415Ah my old Car. 3374 WY. New out of Dagenham in 1961. A Mark 2 Lowline, produced just before the 375 came out. My Dad & I bought it in 1965 and I scrapped it in 1973/74. I did 100,000 miles myself in that machine and I loved it. It was the Ford 204E Engine, 1703cc of pure......well, nothing.....0 to 60 in a lifetime. (It qualified for Clarkson\'s old comment...If you set off from the sea to return inland, Coastal Errosion would get you before you\'d gone a mile).
But I loved old faithful and wish I\'d never pulled it apart. The 206 E\'s, Zephyr and Zodiac were better I certainly agree but I was young then and Cost/Insurance matters weighed heavily.
No matter, I sold every part except some last bits which I gave away in the 1980\'s, but I kept the bulbs!
Have to admit, there was definitely something about the cars produced at the turn of the 60\'s. The designers had run their course with the post war models and were opening up their canvases and looking to produce some cheaper cars whilst trying to improve the build quality of earlier models and best of all was the competition between the motor giants Ford, Vauxhall, Rootes, Triumph, Morgan, Austin & Morris to name just a few. To me the biggest loss to the motor industry was when they did away with the \'chrome bits\', yes they needed constant polishing and were heavy but comfortable, gleaming machines (very slow too) - but who cared and probably the reason I always wanted to drive.Don\'t know whether "3374 WY" would be worth a fortune had you have kept it but the nostalgia value would have been priceless. So does that class the \'bulbs\' as antiques @ 50+ years of age?My very 1st car was a 1960 Hillman Minx - cream & pale green with a huge front bench seat "WUN 620" - ahh the nostalgia years.
Quote from: David Nock;743418I think that\'s why the reinforcing plates for the top links fail? The plates weaken with corrosion caused by slight water ingress from the back, then cracking starts, then they disintegrate.
You can understand the process better if you think of the heavy axle loads twisting away at the plates.
As you say the logic is there and makes it easier to understand the engineering bit as to why the reinforcing plates are necessary and also the reasoning they fail. Nothing like "stripping down" to learn about the workings of suspensions.
Well I had a look at the access issue tonight to the upper linkage front bolt/nut - try as I did I just couldn\'t get a spanner into position so there was nothing else for it, out with the springs!
So I\'ve dropped the rear shocks and lowered the rear axle sufficiently to withdraw the springs from their locations. Having done that I re-fitted the shocks as a temporary measure to support the axle.
Once the upper linkages are out I\'ll see about removing the bushes and then have all the bits blast cleaned before re-coating and re-bushing.
Just noticed this is my 1,000 post ....Yippeeeee!
Cliff, Congrats on your 1000 post and all since Mar 2010, almost as much time on here as working on the car ........... still where would we without you ............
Good luck
Dibs
Quote from: A7RXY;743509Cliff, Congrats on your 1000 post and all since Mar 2010, almost as much time on here as working on the car ........... still where would we without you ............
Good luck
Dibs
Cheers Dibs - ...... probably enjoying yourselves :Giggle :rollin
Completed stripping out the rear suspension yesterday - so much easier without the springs in place but nevertheless that one bolt in the upper linkage was a tight git and had to be persuaded with the hammer :Hammer.
Just to be certain the correct piece goes back into the right hole (so to speak), I\'ve marked each piece at the top with a reference code - when I come to paint I\'ll transfer marking to the inside of the bush ring as an extra precaution.
Having ordered new parts for the rear anti-roll bar stabilizer, the only part not available as new was the stabilizer bracket - so I had to remove the bolt from the spacer. Despite soaking in wd40 for 24 hrs the two parts were firmly fused together so I decided the only answer was to cut of the bolt head with a disc cutter. The bracket will be cleaned with the suspension bits.
Anyway below is also a photograph of the old and new together.
Having removed the upper links, thought I\'d check out the bodywork behind for the dreaded corrosion. Nice surprise to find solid metal (all areas) - makes life easier when it come to cleaning down and preparation for protective coating.
I had arranged for the bushes to be removed at work but the guy doing this is on holiday next week - fancy going on holiday when he knew he had a job to do for me, very inconsiderate I say :evillaugh.
So I thought - have a go yourself Cliff. Not set up for pressing out bushes at home so thought I\'d try drilling them out - 8 done in 90 minutes (which includes cleaning up too). So only 5 remaining - I\'ll try and get on with these after lunch and take some more photos as well.
Quote from: CHC;744053I had arranged for the bushes to be removed at work but the guy doing this is on holiday next week - fancy going on holiday when he knew he had a job to do for me, very inconsiderate I say :evillaugh.
So I thought - have a go yourself Cliff. Not set up for pressing out bushes at home so thought I\'d try drilling them out - 8 done in 90 minutes (which includes cleaning up too). So only 5 remaining - I\'ll try and get on with these after lunch and take some more photos as well.
You\'ll struggle to press out rusted out bushes at home without a proper press.
I always drill mine out too Cliff.... I\'ve found that if I heat them up first with a blowlamp, they become much more brittle and are much easier to drill out
Still a horrible job to do though...
Worst job ever on a DIY build I reckon.
Quote from: Ian65;744068You\'ll struggle to press out rusted out bushes at home without a proper press.
I always drill mine out too Cliff.... I\'ve found that if I heat them up first with a blowlamp, they become much more brittle and are much easier to drill out
Still a horrible job to do though...
Agree guys - this type of job is a pain in the proverbial but nevertheless has to be done, I too have drilled the old bushes out. Didn\'t find it that hard but quite messy with the rubber debris going eveywhere. I think the key factor when doing this job is to have sharp drills - I used new ones so they cut through the rubber very cleanly.Anyway, all done now so this weekends wish list fulfilled.
This week I\'ll take all suspension bits and have them blast cleaned and then get them prime coated.
Everyones going bush crazy. Successful weekend I\'d say!
Quote from: captainbizzaro;744133Everyones going bush crazy. Successful weekend I\'d say!
You bet mate - glad that\'s out of the way.
Quote from: captainbizzaro;744072Worst job ever on a DIY build I reckon.
Actually removing the bushes is quite easy, the hard bit is all the setting up and removing this and that for access to some of the bolts.
Considering possible change of tyre size to 15" Dynamic Motorsport rims from standard but never done this before. If I put larger rims on, would this have any effect on the speed recorded at the odometer? Help please.
Quote from: CHC;745175Considering possible change of tyre size to 15" Dynamic Motorsport rims from standard but never done this before. If I put larger rims on, would this have any effect on the speed recorded at the odometer? Help please.
Yes it will unless you keep the rolling diameter the same,ie wheel + tyre height.
If you put 15" rims on,you could use a lower profile tyre to try & keep the rolling diameter the same or close to your existing set up.
Measure your existing rims[13 or 14"?] convert into milimetres,then the side profile of your existing tyres[it\'ll be stamped on tyre sidewall] & add the 2 measurements together to give you the rolling diameter.
I did this when i had my dax cobra went from 15" > 18" rims,15" rims had balloon tyres,on 18" i put on elastic bands!
Shauns put bigger wheels on his fb,maybe he,ll be able to comment?
Actually you\'ve just reminded me.
My 1st fb,20 years ago now! i put on larger compomotive alloys & new tyres,it was a S3 & i think i changed from 14" rims to 16",i could\'nt be bothered working out the rolling diameter & i don\'t remember it having too adverse an affect on the speedo readings.
Shaun best to comment on his set up.
I\'ve done the maths and a 195/50/15 tyre should be the same as the standard 205/65/13.
Also 195/50/15s are about the cheapest size of tyre out there which is good news. Toyo T1rs are less than £30 a corner!
If think you\'ll find you need to either switch to s3 front hubs and rear axel, or have some PCD adapters made up too. The 2 has a PCD of 4x110mm which is pretty much un heard of outside of old Mazdas!
Quote from: CHC;745175Considering possible change of tyre size to 15" Dynamic Motorsport rims from standard but never done this before. If I put larger rims on, would this have any effect on the speed recorded at the odometer? Help please.
See these 2 links for size comparison calculations:
http://www.alloywheels.com/tyrecalc.asp
http://www.tyretraders.com/Tyres_Calculator.aspx
John
Quote from: Steve-A;745223I\'ve done the maths and a 195/50/15 tyre should be the same as the standard 205/65/13.
Also 195/50/15s are about the cheapest size of tyre out there which is good news. Toyo T1rs are less than £30 a corner!
If think you\'ll find you need to either switch to s3 front hubs and rear axel, or have some PCD adapters made up too. The 2 has a PCD of 4x110mm which is pretty much un heard of outside of old Mazdas!
I can confirm that Toyo T1R\'s are exellent tyres got the dry and very good for damp / wet tarmac. They hold the road very well indeed, they don\'t tramline etc. and when they break away they are progressive - they don\'t just give up on you. Two minor criticisms: We have had 2 sets on my wifes MGF in 215x40x16 and they only do 15,000 - 17,000 miles per tyre (which is not great, but then they are cheap...) and THEY DO NOT LIKE MUD OR SNOW -
at all. So be careful on muddy or snowy lanes. Also not so good when the temperature is below zero until they get nice and warm.
For a cold/snow/wet tyre I can heartily recommend Michelin Pilot Alpin\'s. Fantastic in all conditions but expensive unless you get them on Ebay...
John
Good points John! They are useless in the snow!
I\'ll still be fitting a set to my FB :)
Quote from: johnnyboy;745231See these 2 links for size comparison calculations:
http://www.alloywheels.com/tyrecalc.asp
http://www.tyretraders.com/Tyres_Calculator.aspx
John
Their useful links John.
ta stu..
Quote from: Steve-A;745253Good points John! They are useless in the snow!
I\'ll still be fitting a set to my FB :)
Yeah... I think they are great - the best warm weather tyres I have driven (thats why we have a new set in the garage for the MGF at the moment - but we put a set of s/h Michelin Alpins on it last December.....)
John
Quote from: johnnyboy;745231See these 2 links for size comparison calculations:
http://www.alloywheels.com/tyrecalc.asp
http://www.tyretraders.com/Tyres_Calculator.aspx
John
Excellent links there John - the main benefit is the comparison chart to enable you to choose the best size tyre whilst maintaining speedo values.Thanks, will use this when I\'m ready although I\'m fairly sure I\'ll finish up with the Team Dynamics Monza R in gold (of course).
Great shout on the tyre front there too guys. Think I\'ll be going for the dry tyres as I\'m not planning to use the car during the winter months - but then again with the best plans etc, etc who knows ????
Been cleaning the underside when I could during the week whilst waiting for the suspension links etc to be blasted - yeah I know it doesn\'t take long but mate doing them for me when he has a free moment.
As nearside lower suspension link was bent, I got hold of another pair (which are being blasted with all the others) and I was having problems removing a stubborn bolt on this lower link (rear connection to the axle). The nut was free but when attempting to undo the bolt I could actually hear the rubber bush being strained as it was turning too. So I used an extension onto the socket set tee bar (about 4 ft long) and still it didn\'t budge so I drew the conclusion that the bolt must be seized in the crush tube so I had to hacksaw the bolt out - awkward but doable little so\'n\'so. This means I can continue with preparing the axle later.
Then pushed on with pre-treating and coating the prepared areas to seal them. More preparation work tomorrow hopefully.
Work has been interfering with my leisure time recently so very little time spent on preparation - however did manage to clean up the majority of the rear axle ...
And then followed by the pretreatment to etch prime the rusty bits ....
Looking good Cliff :)
I think we could both do with a bit of slightly warmer weather, which would make getting through the painting stage much quicker and easier!
.... and then the primer coating to seal the surfaces
Quote from: Steve-A;747964Looking good Cliff :)
I think we could both do with a bit of slightly warmer weather, which would make getting through the painting stage much quicker and easier!
To be honest, the weather isn\'t troubling me as I\'m working in the garage (although fairly cramped for a big fella) as my carport roof decided to lift off in the recent bad weather.Whilst pressure at work current taking up my time :(, I do intend to re-roof the carport soon so when all rear suspension is back in place, I\'ll be able to push Goldie out at night & weekends to play.But yeah - like yourself mate, would love to be spending more time doing the body - July is fast approaching and that is my target.:Thumbs-up
Tell you what I did find, I too am using the POR 15 (absolutely fantastic product but a real b*****d to get off the skin) and after using it the 1st time, I sealed the tin (as one does). I went back to it on Sunday (to prime the axle) and noticed that the small amount of paint drips left on the lid had spumed up and dried completely around the lid to the tin (this in itself not a problem and expected). However, it must have taken me at least 20 minutes to remove the dried paint from around the lid so that I could remove it and access the paint. If this is what it does to the lid and clean surfaces, just imagine how good it is going to be treating the rusty bits - brilliant stuff I say. Ian, don\'t know where you found this product but mighty glad you did - top man.:Thumbs-up
Cling film between the tin and lid seems to help a lot I\'ve found. :) Likewise I\'m glad Ian pointed me in it\'s direction!
Being outside I\'ve had to be more careful of the damp, I did notice some of the bubbling in the POR on one of my coats to the suspension links after I painted as the sun went down, so I had to sand that off. Now its march we\'ll hopefully have a few more days where we reach double figures temperatures, which should help lots :)
Quote from: Steve-A;747971Cling film between the tin and lid seems to help a lot I\'ve found. :) Likewise I\'m glad Ian pointed me in it\'s direction!
Being outside I\'ve had to be more careful of the damp, I did notice some of the bubbling in the POR on one of my coats to the suspension links after I painted as the sun went down, so I had to sand that off. Now its march we\'ll hopefully have a few more days where we reach double figures temperatures, which should help lots :)
Now there\'s a good shout - cling film! I\'ll try that next time. Yeah, be really good to have a bit of warmth to work in. I just hope spring is very similar to last year when I was working on JAZ, I was able to work every night and weekend between the garage and carport - lets keep fingers crossed.If weather doesn\'t improve much, you might have to re-consider erecting the Gazebo again mate ? It did a fantastic job for you for most of Oct - Jan.
Well I bought the \'Elford\' alloys of Ian last week (due to collect this Saturday) and will probably fit these to Goldie. Maybe not the genuine rims for the Series 2 but at least they are still for the RX7 - think they will look good myself :)
Gazebo is well dead mate, would have to be buy a new one! I\'ll manage :)
Oooh Elford alloys could look good. Any thoughts on colours to go with goldie? Gold centers with polished lips could look pretty sweet!
cling film is a good call...
I always pour out the POR15 that I\'m using into another container and then reseal the tin making sure I meticulously clean the rim of the can before I refit the lid.
I use the metal ready to etch the surface, thoroughly wash off all the acid and then dry the surface with a heat gun before I paint.
It is good stuff though.
Quote from: Steve-A;747980Oooh Elford alloys could look good. Any thoughts on colours to go with goldie? Gold centers with polished lips could look pretty sweet!
yeah man!
(http://i589.photobucket.com/albums/ss333/gsxrmovistar1/elfordSKL77X.jpg)
polish those rims!!
Quote from: CHC;747977Well I bought the \'Elford\' alloys of Ian last week (due to collect this Saturday) and will probably fit these to Goldie. Maybe not the genuine rims for the Series 2 but at least they are still for the RX7 - think they will look good myself :)
13" Pepperpots forever!
However you are about to find that the tyres available for 13" rims are pretty restricted. No Toyo T1R\'s of Michelin Alpin\'s for instance (much to my annoyance).
There are a variety of cheap round black things made by companies I have never heard of, but when it comes to good stuff the only players seem to be Yokohama track day tyres (brilliant but not supposed to be used below 3 degrees centigrade....) and some Vredestien "Classics" (good reports but horribly expensive).
I could do with some new tyres so I will be interested in anything you find out...
John
Quote from: CHC;747977Well I bought the \'Elford\' alloys of Ian last week (due to collect this Saturday) and will probably fit these to Goldie. Maybe not the genuine rims for the Series 2 but at least they are still for the RX7 - think they will look good myself :)
Are you going for an Elford rear spoiler to go with the wheels? I know I am biased but I think the Elford rear spoiler is the best aftermarket accessory an FB can have...
John
Quote from: Ian65;747986yeah man!
(http://i589.photobucket.com/albums/ss333/gsxrmovistar1/elfordSKL77X.jpg)
polish those rims!!
Yeah maaan!
Beatiful car, beautiful rims......
I think Elfords normally had body colour centres and polished rims, so some gold centres are mandated!
I remember having shiny rims like the ones in the picture - about 15 years ago....
To do it (they were in a bad state...) I got the tyres taken off, jacked up the back of the car and bolted on a rim. Then started it up and put it in gear.... lo and behold, a custom lathe! went through various grades of emery and wet and dry through wire wool to crocus paper to wax. Worked a treat. Unfortunately they could do with doing again.....
Ian: how should I do it this time?
John
Quote from: johnnyboy;748014Yeah maaan!
Beatiful car, beautiful rims......
I think Elfords normally had body colour centres and polished rims, so some gold centres are mandated!
I remember having shiny rims like the ones in the picture - about 15 years ago....
To do it (they were in a bad state...) I got the tyres taken off, jacked up the back of the car and bolted on a rim. Then started it up and put it in gear.... lo and behold, a custom lathe! went through various grades of emery and wet and dry through wire wool to crocus paper to wax. Worked a treat. Unfortunately they could do with doing again.....
Ian: how should I do it this time?
John
the same way I reckon John!
Quote from: Steve-A;747980Gazebo is well dead mate, would have to be buy a new one! I\'ll manage :)
Oooh Elford alloys could look good. Any thoughts on colours to go with goldie? Gold centers with polished lips could look pretty sweet!
Very much my thoughts too
Quote from: Ian65;747983cling film is a good call...
I always pour out the POR15 that I\'m using into another container and then reseal the tin making sure I meticulously clean the rim of the can before I refit the lid.
I use the metal ready to etch the surface, thoroughly wash off all the acid and then dry the surface with a heat gun before I paint.
It is good stuff though.
For sure the best way is to thoroughly clean the paint tin rim & lid before resealing, that way a simple turn of the screw driver or paint scraper and off pops the lid.POR 15 sticks like ...... well think you know what I mean, so good stuff is an umderstatement in my opinion.So when I\'ve eventually finished all the priming I intend to overcoat it and possibly even colour code to the car.
Quote from: Ian65;747986yeah man!
(http://i589.photobucket.com/albums/ss333/gsxrmovistar1/elfordSKL77X.jpg)
polish those rims!!
Always liked polished rims.I used to own a Ford Exploder oopppps meant to say \'Explorer\' - a 4 ltr V6 with GRUNNNNTTTTT. That had polished rims and looked the bizz so every chance I\'ll polish again.
Quote from: johnnyboy;74801013" Pepperpots forever!
However you are about to find that the tyres available for 13" rims are pretty restricted. No Toyo T1R\'s of Michelin Alpin\'s for instance (much to my annoyance).
There are a variety of cheap round black things made by companies I have never heard of, but when it comes to good stuff the only players seem to be Yokohama track day tyres (brilliant but not supposed to be used below 3 degrees centigrade....) and some Vredestien "Classics" (good reports but horribly expensive).
I could do with some new tyres so I will be interested in anything you find out...
John
I can remember the pepperpots on the Jaguar and :InLove at 1st sight but as with all alloys, look good on one but out of place on another. These definitely work with the RX7. Have previously used TOYO tyres & found them suprisingly good - in fact thinking about it, when I fitted the SA alloys the deal included TOYOs and were very good in both dry & wet conditions. For long term I found YOKOHAMAs the dogs danglies and have swore by them ever since - so either or for me when I reshoe them.
Quote from: johnnyboy;748011Are you going for an Elford rear spoiler to go with the wheels? I know I am biased but I think the Elford rear spoiler is the best aftermarket accessory an FB can have...
John
I think one step at a time is the way forward for the moment (I like to keep cars close to their original form) and let it develop gradually. However I\'ll keep a look out for these as an option.
Quote from: johnnyboy;748014Yeah maaan!
Beatiful car, beautiful rims......
I think Elfords normally had body colour centres and polished rims, so some gold centres are mandated!
I remember having shiny rims like the ones in the picture - about 15 years ago....
To do it (they were in a bad state...) I got the tyres taken off, jacked up the back of the car and bolted on a rim. Then started it up and put it in gear.... lo and behold, a custom lathe! went through various grades of emery and wet and dry through wire wool to crocus paper to wax. Worked a treat. Unfortunately they could do with doing again.....
Ian: how should I do it this time?
John
Now this is what I have said for ages of the forum membership - mechanics are trained and take up residence with various garages and main agents where they have \'specialist equipment and tooling\' to enable specific jobs & tasks to be carried out. Take these persons out of their comfort zone and they wouldn\'t have the 1st clue of how to do a job without such equipment and yet enthusiasts come up with some fantastic methods (sometimes very bizaar too) and overcome the plight of the fully trained mechanic(s) - so who are the true Engineers? You are, the dedicated enthusiasts and fellow members!What a good shout to polish the rims yourself - shall I drop mine of this weekend? :Giggle
Quote from: Ian65;747986yeah man!
(http://i589.photobucket.com/albums/ss333/gsxrmovistar1/elfordSKL77X.jpg)
polish those rims!!
Still taxed and road-running guys.
No idea of whereabouts though.....front pic of old club mag 1999 and won prize at Brooklands 2002.
Quote from: David Nock;748073Still taxed and road-running guys.
No idea of whereabouts though.....front pic of old club mag 1999 and won prize at Brooklands 2002.
It looks \'silvery\' ? Is it still the same colour ?
Yep, still Silver on DVLA
Quote from: CHC;747977Well I bought the \'Elford\' alloys of Ian last week (due to collect this Saturday) and will probably fit these to Goldie. Maybe not the genuine rims for the Series 2 but at least they are still for the RX7 - think they will look good myself :)
They will look good with gold centres Cliff.
Go on put an Elford spoiler on the rear,you know you want to.
Quote from: CHC;748056 Take these persons out of their comfort zone and they wouldn\'t have the 1st clue of how to do a job without such equipment
Never underestimate a good mechanic, these guys are doing day in, day out what we are doing on the odd evening or weekend.
I was a mechanic for 8 years working in a back street garage, no dealer training and no specialist equipment (other than a ramp). Any type of car any type of job, very sharp learning curve! ;)
Keith...
Quote from: CHC;748056What a good shout to polish the rims yourself - shall I drop mine off this weekend? :Giggle
No.
John
(Oh dear, did that sound a little abrupt after you said nice things about me?)
Quote from: Ian65;748031the same way I reckon John!
Damn. I was afraid of that....
Quote from: myatt1972;748195Never underestimate a good mechanic, these guys are doing day in, day out what we are doing on the odd evening or weekend.
I was a mechanic for 8 years working in a back street garage, no dealer training and no specialist equipment (other than a ramp). Any type of car any type of job, very sharp learning curve! ;)
Keith...
I wasn\'t referring to the more experienced mechanics and journeymen but more towards the present day younger generation that learn the text book but have little or no experience of the days before electronics.A neighbour has had a specific brand of car for many years and has alternated between the original german hot-hatch and it\'s baby brother. On his present vehicle last year (now approx 4 years old) he delevloped a problem and had no brake lights. I told him it would probably be the brake-light switch on the pedal (always a good starting point) but because of his age he had booked this into the nearest main agents - they hooked it up for 1/2 day and could not find a problem and returned it without being fixed). After speaking with the head mechanic and workshop manager (whom he knows), they replaced the switch eventually and problem gone - this is my point, some of them don\'t know the basics. Ohh my neighbour also got a full refund after complaining (over £300).
Quote from: syebba;748151They will look good with gold centres Cliff.
Go on put an Elford spoiler on the rear,you know you want to.
No hurry for one but it will be considered ... he he he
Quote from: johnnyboy;748210No.
John
(Oh dear, did that sound a little abrupt after you said nice things about me?)
Not in the least bit John - no worries, but if the offer ever should stand ?????
Quote from: johnnyboy;748214Damn. I was afraid of that....
but hopefully John this time will be a little easier but still as monotonous. Thinking about it though, it\'s still a lot cheaper than £50 ish for each wheel by somebody else!
Quote from: CHC;748240but hopefully John this time will be a little easier but still as monotonous. Thinking about it though, it\'s still a lot cheaper than £50 ish for each wheel by somebody else!
It is a powerful argument... as ever...
In retrospect, apart from getting the tyres off (which I would have to do to send them away anyway...), it probably only took an hour or so a wheel. So a good hourly pay rate! (and sore fingers....)
John
Quote from: CHC;748235I wasn\'t referring to the more experienced mechanics and journeymen but more towards the present day younger generation that learn the text book but have little or no experience of the days before electronics.
A neighbour has had a specific brand of car for many years and has alternated between the original german hot-hatch and it\'s baby brother. On his present vehicle last year (now approx 4 years old) he delevloped a problem and had no brake lights. I told him it would probably be the brake-light switch on the pedal (always a good starting point) but because of his age he had booked this into the nearest main agents - they hooked it up for 1/2 day and could not find a problem and returned it without being fixed). After speaking with the head mechanic and workshop manager (whom he knows), they replaced the switch eventually and problem gone - this is my point, some of them don\'t know the basics. Ohh my neighbour also got a full refund after complaining (over £300).
Seems to be more and more of this sort of thing going on, things get replaced these days rather than fixed if the computer says so.
Put a tow bar on the mrs astra, was ok till I came to wire it up. It has a single filament bulb for tail light and brake light, it gets 3volts for tail light and 12 volts for brake light, ahhhhhhhhrrrrrrr !!!
Quote from: CHC;748235I wasn\'t referring to the more experienced mechanics and journeymen but more towards the present day younger generation that learn the text book but have little or no experience of the days before electronics.
A neighbour has had a specific brand of car for many years and has alternated between the original german hot-hatch and it\'s baby brother. On his present vehicle last year (now approx 4 years old) he delevloped a problem and had no brake lights. I told him it would probably be the brake-light switch on the pedal (always a good starting point) but because of his age he had booked this into the nearest main agents - they hooked it up for 1/2 day and could not find a problem and returned it without being fixed). After speaking with the head mechanic and workshop manager (whom he knows), they replaced the switch eventually and problem gone - this is my point, some of them don\'t know the basics. Ohh my neighbour also got a full refund after complaining (over £300).
I think it still depends where you go... a younger mechanic working in a backstreet garage trained by old school mechanic is more likely to have a good understanding of how things actually work and try to repair a part if possible.
Younger mechanics ( or technicians!) working at a main dealer are more likely to just replace what the computer tell him to, even if common sense should tell him not to.
The wifes Peugeot went to the local main dealer for a service last year and came back with a misfire. After complaining to the service manager, they picked it up and phoned to say, "the computer says it\'s fine"
"Well it isn\'t, it\'s misfiring"
They kept it all day, and then returned it saying there\'s nothing wrong ( the computer says so)
I get in it and I could feel it missing
I take it back and the same mechanic says " It\'s not misfiring, the computer says it\'s ok"
"well the computers rubbish then.... listen mate, it\'s missing, I can tell that without a computer so surely you can too. It was fine before you messed with it so I want it fixed today."
The dealership then agree to send another mech out for a drive with me. We\'d only gone 100 yards when he says, " it\'s misfiring"
Turns out they\'d put in a duff spark plug.
The young guy who did the service and subsequent checks had a total reliance on the computer and was incapable of diagnosing the problem for himself.
These guys are just fitters these days...
Give me a good old school mechanic any day.
Quote from: Ian65;748260I think it still depends where you go... a younger mechanic working in a backstreet garage trained by old school mechanic is more likely to have a good understanding of how things actually work and try to repair a part if possible.
Younger mechanics ( or technicians!) working at a main dealer are more likely to just replace what the computer tell him to, even if common sense should tell him not to.
The wifes Peugeot went to the local main dealer for a service last year and came back with a misfire. After complaining to the service manager, they picked it up and phoned to say, "the computer says it\'s fine"
"Well it isn\'t, it\'s misfiring"
They kept it all day, and then returned it saying there\'s nothing wrong ( the computer says so)
I get in it and I could feel it missing
I take it back and the same mechanic says " It\'s not misfiring, the computer says it\'s ok"
"well the computers rubbish then.... listen mate, it\'s missing, I can tell that without a computer so surely you can too. It was fine before you messed with it so I want it fixed today."
The dealership then agree to send another mech out for a drive with me. We\'d only gone 100 yards when he says, " it\'s misfiring"
Turns out they\'d put in a duff spark plug.
The young guy who did the service and subsequent checks had a total reliance on the computer and was incapable of diagnosing the problem for himself.
These guys are just fitters these days...
Give me a good old school mechanic any day.
Here here!
Quote from: myatt1972;748248Seems to be more and more of this sort of thing going on, things get replaced these days rather than fixed if the computer says so.
Put a tow bar on the mrs astra, was ok till I came to wire it up. It has a single filament bulb for tail light and brake light, it gets 3volts for tail light and 12 volts for brake light, ahhhhhhhhrrrrrrr !!!
Yes, it could definitely be a long drawn out debate and this is why I consider the forum members to be generally more competent that the workshop personnel because of our hands-on knowledge.
I\'d say that there is more experience and knowledge of 1st gens on here than there is in the Mazda dealerships these days.
back in the day, not all dealers were allowed to sell the RX7 and I reckon most of the trained mechs have probably retired or moved on by now.
When we have a problem, we don\'t just replace the part, we want to know what the symptoms were, why it failed, how it works...how to change it... etc..etc...
All driven by passion and enthusiasm for these great little cars!
Quote from: CHC;748301Yes, it could definitely be a long drawn out debate and this is why I consider the forum members to be generally more competent that the workshop personnel because of our hands-on knowledge.
Thats why i joined the forum the mazda dealer in york has no clue about the 1st gens and most other garages only answer oooh thats a rotary engine isnt it - then run out of things to say lol.
Believe me without the forum i\'d have got The Duke home then stoot there for weeks scratchin my head wondering where to start hehe.
..and of cause the commradeship is brilliant!
Cliff
No chance to work on the old girl for the last week or so but did manage to pick up the Elford rims from Ian last weekend.
Overall condition of these is fairly good considering their age and started to clean up one rim last night (photos to follow). A light elbow grease, wet n dry and perhaps metal polish should bring up a treat - working on the inner side 1st just to make sure all is well.
Anyhow, here is a taster of the rims against JAZ - a before and after shot .... I\'m actually considering polishing the entire rim and not colour coding the centre. What you guys think?
Look like they should look good :)
Personally, and this is just me, I\'m not a fan of fully polished wheels. If you don\'t fancy gold have you considered a silver painted center, rather than polished?
Kinda like these are painted:
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3265/2755742384_76f9966766_z.jpg?zz=1)
(http://www.dubzdirect.com/wp-content/uploads/wpsc/product_images/xxr_501_silver.jpg)
The centres shall have to be cleaned up initially to remove previous paint so I can get a better idea when I\'m at that stage. I\'d be more than willing to have colour coded centres but could just as easily have them silver or even black as an alternative.
here\'s how a polished Elford sonic wheel looks...
(http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m171/AR94NSX-R/1983%20RX-7%20FB/25032009383.jpg)
I like the colour coded look as well...
(http://i589.photobucket.com/albums/ss333/gsxrmovistar1/fs_mazelford.jpg)
.
Quote from: Ian65;749284here\'s how a polished Elford sonic wheel looks...
(http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m171/AR94NSX-R/1983%20RX-7%20FB/25032009383.jpg)
I like the colour coded look as well...
(http://i589.photobucket.com/albums/ss333/gsxrmovistar1/fs_mazelford.jpg)
.
Yeahhhhhhhh that\'s what I am thinking about, looks very very nice to me.
Been scouting round this week for a set of wheel bolts as the standard bolts are only 20mm of thread but the Elford Sonics are a lot thicker in the body so require longer ones. Managed to track a full set down this morning (newuns are 40mm of thread) but the shop only had 12. So ordered a full set and due to collect them next week - happy days are acomin.
Quote from: CHC;749808Been scouting round this week for a set of wheel bolts as the standard bolts are only 20mm of thread but the Elford Sonics are a lot thicker in the body so require longer ones. Managed to track a full set down this morning (newuns are 40mm of thread) but the shop only had 12. So ordered a full set and due to collect them next week - happy days are acomin.
do they come with the seats Cliff?
I had gold centres on my series 1
(http://i558.photobucket.com/albums/ss30/d_i_ball/P1000538.jpg)
Quote from: Ian65;749831do they come with the seats Cliff?
No - fortunately the seats arre still in place on the sonic rims.
Quote from: A7RXY;749890I had gold centres on my series 1
(http://i558.photobucket.com/albums/ss30/d_i_ball/P1000538.jpg)
Look nice Dibs - as I say, I\'m still consideering which way to go but no hurry as yet. I think the best thing to do initially is to get them cleaned and polished and then decide.
Good news - rear suspension parts have been blast cleaned, so this afternoons job was ........ protect them before the rust starts again.
Darn - probs with puter so pics wont load .... I\'ll keep trying.
Photos below of blast cleaned bits then 1st coat of POR 15 - finish of coating really is good and hard
Sometimes reading your thread is a bit deja vu Cliff!
Looks like your lower links were in better condition than mine :)
Quote from: Steve-A;750462Sometimes reading your thread is a bit deja vu Cliff!
Looks like your lower links were in better condition than mine :)
Know exactly what you mean mate - yeah strange to have a few cars going through restoration at roughly the same time but when you think of it, this is far better as we can bounce issues across each others bow to discuss alternatives or preferences. It also amazes me that two similar cars can have such extremities in condition that are not always due to the original manufacturing processes or materials - this being a common factor for all obviously. Storage conditions and usage play a massive role in this as well as environmental conditions where used, how often used and if any maintenance routine has been employed through its lifetime and the quality of the consumables utilised.When I 1st looked underneath Goldie I honestly thought she would be worse than she actually is - along with the occassional exception that is. So I consider myself fortunate when I say yes, I have been lucky in that aspect. But despite the difference in condition of the lower links, it doesn\'t matter as you are modifying Rexanne and these links would be replaced either way.
Well breaking the mould slightly now Steve - thought I\'d add a bit of colour to the suspension partsand inner wings .....
Incidentally these are the same colour :eek: but just in different lights.
You\'ve been TANGOED ................
it\'s the man with the golden spray gun!
Quote from: Ian65;750838it\'s the man with the golden spray gun!
well actually the man with the golden paint brush :rollin
Thought I\'d trial with fitting the new bushes into one of the upper links at work using a \'Fly Press\'. Prepared the bore of the link ends, greased them well and then greased the external of the bushes, positioned on the press, swung the head round and then POP! there it was in place. Then greased the bore of the bush and the external of the crush tube and again POP! in place - took no more than a minute wow!
Did the same to the other end - now looks better than a bought one - unfortuantely no photos tonight guys.
Then I went to the Watts Link - totally different story as the lip on the new bush is a lot larger than the receiving bore so every time we tried to do this it kept popping out on one side. So we reversed the link a few times and kept repositioning the bush until it finally went through - took about 15 minutes and just glad this is done.
So having started I\'m quite impressed how easy this job is in general and I\'ll probably get the other rear parts re-bushed early next week in work - beats the hell out of struggling in the garage without the correct tooling.
Had a few spare moments today so decided to continue with the fitment of new bushes in the garage - hmmmm as I said yesterday, it was simple with the works \'fly press\' but more difficult with the bench vice and protected vice jaws but nevertheless did manage to do a few of the upper and lower links finished. I\'m hoping to carry on tomorrow and complete all the rear suspension parts before getting back to the underside cleaning etc. Here are a few photos as promised....
Looking good, the blue goes nice with the gold :rollin
Are your bushes single piece Cliff? I can see they\'d be a right nightmare to get in.
I started to put my bushes in yesterday, they are mostly two piece so its just a case of tap each side in with a soft mallet.
Quote from: Steve-A;751915Looking good, the blue goes nice with the gold :rollin
Are your bushes single piece Cliff? I can see they\'d be a right nightmare to get in.
I started to put my bushes in yesterday, they are mostly two piece so its just a case of tap each side in with a soft mallet.
Yeah think it looks quite nice myself but I wouldn\'t intend spending a lot of time looking at them when they are in place either. Yes all mine are single piece units but managed to get them all fitted by lunchtime today. The worst problem was with the \'Watts Link\' upper and lower lateral links, the bushes have an extra wide fitting and square corners so I had to chamfer one end so that they would squeeze in instead of simply compressing against the steel tube - as I said, difficult in a vice but hey, ALL DONE! :wiggleSo it\'s back to preparation, I think some plating and welding this week so I can re-assemble the suspension and then turn the car round.
Ian/Steve - meant to ask you guys, I had to reuse the original crush tube for the Watts Lateral links - did you or did you sets include new crush tubes for all?
My problem was the original crush tubes were quite heavily corroded so I got new ones made from stainless steel tube - cost a bit but worth it.
Excuse my ignorance, but my crush tube do you mean the central metal tube that goes through the new bush?
If so then yes the RE-Speed kit contained the tubes for all the bushes, along with the drop link hardware and a new large washer for where the watts link pivot attaches to the axel.
Quote from: Steve-A;752099Excuse my ignorance, but my crush tube do you mean the central metal tube that goes through the new bush?
If so then yes the RE-Speed kit contained the tubes for all the bushes, along with the drop link hardware and a new large washer for where the watts link pivot attaches to the axel.
Yes, the central metal tube is the Crush Tube. As I say, the UK kit you need to reuse existing crush tubes and reuse the large washer and also have to purchase the drop link hardware - huh, cheap skates :Hammer.No despite this I\'m truly impressed with the kit I bought.
Received my bargain £12 electric fans today but having 2nd thoughts above this as Goldie has an S2 rad - think I\'ll trial them on JAZ 1st as she has an S3 rad
Quote from: CHC;752607Received my bargain £12 electric fans today but having 2nd thoughts above this - think I\'ll trial them on JAZ 1st to make sure they work
As Jaz is running a s3 rad these will fit easily... not so straightforward on the shallower s2 rad with the oil cooler under it as you\'d have to cut the shroud to clear the bottom rad outlet. It can be done, just a bit more work!
Quote from: Ian65;752608As Jaz is running a s3 rad these will fit easily... not so straightforward on the shallower s2 rad with the oil cooler under it as you\'d have to cut the shroud to clear the bottom rad outlet. It can be done, just a bit more work!
Guess JAZ has just got herself a belated birthday present then
£12 ! What a bargain, well done.
Then I\'ll fit these to my spare £25 refurbed S3 rad ...
Quote from: myatt1972;752744£12 ! What a bargain, well done.
All thanks to Ian - he launched the link the other night with a buy it now or best offer, welllll who am I to deny the po a bit of bargaining and hey presto, deal done. Will strip these down for re-furb before final fit.
Quote from: CHC;752807All thanks to Ian - he launched the link the other night with a buy it now or best offer, welllll who am I to deny the po a bit of bargaining and hey presto, deal done. Will strip these down for re-furb before final fit.
great buy they are!
you could run one fan on the thermostatic fan controller and switch the other manually if you ever need it.... or run both on one controller or run both fans on separate controllers set at different temps... the possibilities are endless!!
Quote from: Ian65;752808great buy they are!
you could run one fan on the thermostatic fan controller and switch the other manually if you ever need it.... or run both on one controller or run both fans on separate controllers set at different temps... the possibilities are endless!!
Defnitely a great buy but I\'m not into electrics that much so I\'ll be taxing your brain on this one if you don\'t mind mate.TaCliff
I was sorting through my rotarshed the other night sifting out all the black interior pieces for sale and came across a part that I\'ve been after for a while - a sender unit .... yippeeeee. I bought a new gasket beginning of the year so just need to strip out the old unit now ....
that\'s a series 3 sender Cliff with the low fuel level sender....it probably will go into a s2 tank and give the right reading but as there are slight differences between the 2 tanks, it might be worth doing a bit of research.
Quote from: Ian65;753124that\'s a series 3 sender Cliff with the low fuel level sender....it probably will go into a s2 tank and give the right reading but as there are slight differences between the 2 tanks, it might be worth doing a bit of research.
Oops - right again there Ian. Well at the moment I\'ve got nothing to loose as the tank is currently out of the car so I can take out the current sender unit and then do some trials I think.I\'ll keep you posted on progress when I get around to it.Ta
Very little time to spare this weekend but did manage to cut out the rusted plates in the boot area (each side of the car).
So dressed and prepped the edges and made a cardboard template, marked onto stainless steel sheet and cut out with tinsnips before final dressing with grindette so that they fitted correctly.
Finally applied adhesive tape on the underside so that the inserts stay in place until they are tacked in and welded ....... welding to follow this week.
Here are the nearside pics ..
... and here are the offside pics ...
Cant be much green left now Cliff!
Quote from: Steve-A;753652Cant be much green left now Cliff!
Oh yes there is! :Giggle:GiggleI\'ve decided to try & forget about the green and concentrate on getting the \'work\' done 1st. The green can be painted over before I start to assemble the interior though - ugh!
that\'s progressing very well Cliff... you\'re putting me to shame!... I\'ll have to get out in the garage and have a go at my car...
Just aren\'t enough hours in the day!
Quote from: Ian65;753664that\'s progressing very well Cliff... you\'re putting me to shame!... I\'ll have to get out in the garage and have a go at my car...
Just aren\'t enough hours in the day!
I\'ll 2nd that Ian - so much to do at home and now the silly season has kidded in too (mowing the grass, tending the borders etc; think I\'ll get a gardener so that I can do more work on Goldie :Giggle)
Well, managed to get the offside plate welded in last evening - this proved to be quite simple (so it should for a downhand welding position) as access was made easier from the rear as the light cluster was out of the car. I wouldn\'t recommend welding in these corners without removing the lights first and having plenty of ventilation and a light source. Pics to follow ...
Here are the pics for the offside welding after cleaning and dressing ..
.. and then started to weld the nearside tonight .....
Well finished welding the nearside tonight so I just need to complete the dressing/preparation for painting with the POR15 on the underside ...
Next section to weld is replacement of the rear valance but before fitment I\'m considering completely rubbing the valance down and coating with the POR15 rather than no treatment as I\'m weary of damp/corrosion starting - once dry and cured I\'ll offer up, tack into place and then localised spot tacking along the top edge and weld up the sides.
Finished preparing the underside of the rear outer and inner boot area where the stainless plates had been welded in - then painted with a good coat of the POR 15.
Then I rubbed down the temporary primer on the rear end and also the new rear valance then coated those too.
:)
Looking good mate. That looks like one of those pretty awkward places to weld in and get the grinder in afterwards!
Is that the last of the rust on goldie?
Quote from: Steve-A;755178Looking good mate. That looks like one of those pretty awkward places to weld in and get the grinder in afterwards!
Is that the last of the rust on goldie?
These two areas are quite difficult for access - even with a small angle grinder, really it would be better to use an air grinder (I was looking at them today along with an air compressor - Ian knows the retailer well too). The air grinder is a lot lighter and smaller for those intricate places.As for welding :Hammervery limited access and very difficult to get your head in with a screen - I actually welded both of these plates without using a screen! :rollin Spot welding constantly and the dissimilar base metals make a difference too. Hopefully other areas will be a lot easier. Alas these areas were part of "all welding already done" in the sales pitch so this is only the start for Goldie. I have an area on the drivers side floor panel just in front of the outer seatbelt anchor point (about 75mm sq section), the frame for the nearside rear quarter window and running through to the rear transverse upper body panel (badly holed now I\'ve found it with the screw-driver test) and ????? I don\'t know what else I\'ll find when I start going forward.So I\'m just starting whereas you must be somerhing like 98% finished with the welding? The challenges of the FB Rex hey!
I was on fleabay this week and was trying to buy a few bits for Goldie - rear spoiler and metal sunroof (both from Wolvey nr Hinckley) but missed out on both of them :(. Anybody on the forum beat me to them?
I did manage to pick up a new nose cone from RXMotors though :) - only trouble is that it\'s the wrong colour :( but regardless a good price I thought for a very good panel.
This afternoon I decided to fit and weld the new rear valance into place. I remember when I cut the old one out that there were only a few \'spot welds\' actually holding this into position so decided to make the welds more substantial when I did it - the end result being ....
Also had a little time to spare so I started to re-assemble the offside suspension, only trouble was I think the bolt eating monsters have been around as I\'ve mislaid the bolts for the upper links :2Confused - just have to search through all the bags now till I find them ...
That looks G8,so much easier fitting new panels,if only the rest were available & as cheap.
Quote from: CHC;755328This afternoon I decided to fit and weld the new rear valance into place. I remember when I cut the old one out that there were only a few \'spot welds\' actually holding this into position so decided to make the welds more substantial when I did it - the end result being ....
Strong job... are you going to stone chip over it?
I remember welding one of those rear valences into a white series 2 back in 1997... I drilled out the factory spot welds to remove the old valance and then plug welded the new one in to the spot weld positions... it wasn\'t rusty, just smashed in and it really lifted the look of the rear end when sprayed up.
Quote from: Ian65;755334Strong job... are you going to stone chip over it?
I remember welding one of those rear valences into a white series 2 back in 1997... I drilled out the factory spot welds to remove the old valance and then plug welded the new one in to the spot weld positions... it wasn\'t rusty, just smashed in and it really lifted the look of the rear end when sprayed up.
For sure Ian - I\'m going to fill in as necessary, primer and then stone chip before final top coating. Thing is, I know I\'ll have to have the rear panel at the base of the rear window sprayed in so I might wait and have the valance blown in too at the same time - at least that way it would be the same colour.
Quote from: syebba;755330That looks G8,so much easier fitting new panels,if only the rest were available & as cheap.
You\'re dead right there Stu - a new panel going in looks fantastic in comparison to plating and filling but in fairness not everybody has the capabilty and some not the inclination to have this done, I\'ll do what has to be done while I can.I know the sills are quite expensive but again if I had too, I\'d do it.
Quote from: CHC;755196I was on fleabay this week and was trying to buy a few bits for Goldie - rear spoiler and metal sunroof (both from Wolvey nr Hinckley) but missed out on both of them :(. Anybody on the forum beat me to them?
not me, I stayed out of it when you expressed an interest
Quote from: Ian65;755344not me, I stayed out of it when you expressed an interest
I\'d do exactly the same for others too Ian and it was appreciated but even so, I\'d still like to find out the competition and who the lucky bidder was. :cool
Somebody out bit me on NGK plugs,£28 retail i bid £11!
I don\'t know whats best for your car cliff,
If youre gonna respray the whole car,mazda maya gold is a simple choice but,
To blow in repairs & panels without respraying the whole car,a paint match or mazda maya gold is your options.?
I suppose if you t-cut the original paintwork it\'ll remove any fading so hopefully the mazda maya gold will be a perfect match for a 25+ year old car?
Quote from: syebba;755348Somebody out bit me on NGK plugs,£28 retail i bid £11!
I don\'t know whats best for your car cliff,
If youre gonna respray the whole car,mazda maya gold is a simple choice but,
To blow in repairs & panels without respraying the whole car,a paint match or mazda maya gold is your options.?
I suppose if you t-cut the original paintwork it\'ll remove any fading so hopefully the mazda maya gold will be a perfect match for a 25+ year old car?
I outbid you on the plugs (I went to 15.83 I think) but somebody beat me too. In fact I think it might have been the same person to buy the spoiler and metal roof.Yeah the spraying - it all depends by the time I\'ve finished how much of the car needs colour coding, upto now it\'s valance, upper rear (might as well say the rear end), nose cone & possibly a n/s front wing if I ever find a good one and what ever else I find during the restoration but good shout and I\'ll keep this to mind, thanks Stu.
Quote from: CHC;755329Also had a little time to spare so I started to re-assemble the offside suspension, only trouble was I think the bolt eating monsters have been around as I\'ve mislaid the bolts for the upper links :2Confused - just have to search through all the bags now till I find them ...
Well I rifled through all the cupboards and plastic bags last night until I found the bolts - originally I thought I\'d store them in a safe place, that safe I almost lost them! :rollinNevertheless now got them, so thought I\'d play around and fit the Watts Link as I didn\'t have much time left last evening. All was going well until I tried to marry up the outer lower/offside bush into position and got a similar reaction to when Steve fitted his - it was about 50mm too far forward of the mounting, so back to the drawing board.I dis-connected all the links and re-fitted the Watts Link 1st this time - having got the Watts Link and offside stabiliser arm in place, the offside upper and lower links simply fell into place. I then tried to fit the nearside stabiliser arm to the outer mounting - a little lateral/sideways movement coaxed the bush into place and the retaining bolt slipped into position.I\'ve left all the bolts loose until I complete the nearside prepping and painting (underbody and differential) before installing the final 2 links.
Just been flicking through eBay and picked up a brand new Clutch Slave Cylinder for Goldie for £26 delivered :cool (Staffordhire supplier) - cheap as chips to me :):)
Quote from: CHC;755778Just been flicking through eBay and picked up a brand new Clutch Slave Cylinder for Goldie for £26 delivered :cool (Staffordhire supplier) - cheap as chips to me :):)
Lucky Lucky Lucky....
John
Quote from: CHC;755329Also had a little time to spare so I started to re-assemble the offside suspension, only trouble was I think the bolt eating monsters have been around as I\'ve mislaid the bolts for the upper links :2Confused - just have to search through all the bags now till I find them ...
I have to say that spraying the suspension gold is absolutely inspired. It looks really good!
John.
Quote from: CHC;755778Just been flicking through eBay and picked up a brand new Clutch Slave Cylinder for Goldie for £26 delivered :cool (Staffordhire supplier) - cheap as chips to me :):)
proper bargain.... they got any more?
Quote from: johnnyboy;755788I have to say that spraying the suspension gold is absolutely inspired. It looks really good!
John.
Have to say John that I am really pleased with the way the colour coding has turned out too - nice of you to say (great minds think alike). I simply thought it would be a bit different from the norm.TaCliff
Quote from: Ian65;755860proper bargain.... they got any more?
Alas no Ian - 1st thing I looked for was the quantity available but supplier details will be provided but their location is Staffordshire.I can recall last year a seller had 4 or 5 for sale and if I am not too mistaken, wasn\'t it you who gave us the heads up for it (or perhaps Dibs or Tim)? I had then recently purchased a 2nd hand unit which was operational but the new price then I think was £27.99 and that too was an excellent price - so that one was fitted to JAZ.Todays\'s price was too good an opportunity to miss so this one is for Goldie and a 2nd hand spare just in case anything should play up. If you recall the master cylinder is incorrect on Goldie (Saab unit fitted) so I now have a completely new hydraulic assembly to install nearer the time for MOT - a way off yet though.
Quote from: CHC;755200I did manage to pick up a new nose cone from RXMotors though :) - only trouble is that it\'s the wrong colour :( but regardless a good price I thought for a very good panel.
Nose Cone arrived today - gr8 job, good condition, just need to get it sprayed now (well when I\'m ready with other bits).
Terrible weekend for me, only did about an hours work and that was cleaning up the rear shocks to see how bad they are. Other than a couple of holes in the upper shrouds they are in reasonable condition so I intend patching up the shrouds and then paint then - will post pics when I do this.
Hows she coming along Cliff? Been a little quiet from you? :)
Had a few days abroad in Italy over Easter which was fantastic BUT was a disaster on the last day when we were robbed and only had what we were wearing to come home in. At least we were safe and can tell the tale - oh! from what we understand the Italian Police say it was persons from the eastern block rather than Italians who did this to us.
We have holidayed in Italy for 10 years if not longer and this shall not deter us from going there again!
That aside ........
Last week did manage to get on with some work on Goldie - thanks for asking.
Finished off preparing the nearside wheel arch and differential, treated the underside and applied 2 coats of POR15.
Top coated the n/s wheel arch in Gold too.
Finished re-fitting the rear suspension units together with the anti-roll bar.
Fitted the exhaust heat-shield and placed the central exhaust pipes in situ ready for bolting up.
Petrol tank put back in - just need to finish off preparing and painting around fuel pump so that pipework can be re-connected.
Still need to complete the welding to the offside behind the drivers seat and have found some fresh holes on the nearside too - this to come.
Then moved to front and stripped off the n/s wing and did some prepartion & painting there too! I was looking at buying a replacement wing but have decided to plate the bottom section instead - photo to follow
It\'s coming on cliff,see you\'ve got your new rear valence on too.
The gold paint your using to colour match looks G8 & looks to be close to bodywork colour,what paint is it?
Sorry to hear about you being robbed.
ta ra...
Nice chunk of progress there, always nice when things start to come back together :)
Very sorry to hear of your misfortune also :( Sounds like you didn\'t give them the pleasure of disrupting you too much.
Sorry to hear about robbery Cliff, don\'t let it deter you, as you say.
Thanks for the kind words guys - haven\'t said it for the sympathy vote it\'s just a warning to all. This happened in a so called \'safe zone\' and even the local police force were shocked to hear of it - wrong place at the wrong time, simple as that. Just beware wherever you travel.
Always like to do a little often so when it\'s posted it actually looks more. The colour coordinated paint is actually a Hammerite \'Copper\' colour (approx £14.50 for 2.5 litres off eBay) which I think tones in very well for the underside areas between the gold & black.
Due to finding plates welded over corrosion I was very weary in the rear n/s wheel arch at the rear seating area. Here when I was scrapping away loose paint etc. it felt very soft and then I came across \'filler\' :eek: so I dug into it and so relieved when it all came out and I finished at solid metal :Thumbsup!. Even so I know there is a little plating to be done to the rear n/s floor later. In all coming on well.
Hows she coming along Cliff?
Quote from: Steve-A;764913Hows she coming along Cliff?
My tail of woe, not done anything on Goldie for about 5 weeks. Started with a small break to Italy which was gr8 and then went downhill quicker than a turbo charged rotary going down the 1/4 mile stretch. Followed by a 2nd trip to Italy to collect stolen luggage and many hrs compiling receipts etc for insurance claim.Nevermind that over now but despite some family health problems have been looking at JAZ though - radiator side bracket has broken off so rather than trying to repair it I am preparing my spare S3 spare rad and attaching electric cooling fans in preparation for installation. Just need to sort out thermostatic control switch and new hoses first - wanted some poly hoses but can\'t find any on eBay, anybody seen any for the 1st Gen? Hopefully this long weekend will be luckier???
Sorry to hear you\'re having a rough time mate. Hopefully things will look up soon :)
The side brackets for the standard radiators are soldered on, and I had a pretty successful go at soldering one back on the other week. Cheapo plumbing solder and a blowtorch and it went right back on. Worth a shot to have another spare anyway!
Really looking nice Cliff, excellent work and an inspiration (and challenge) to do some quality work on Kimi :)
I spent a few hours on her yesterday, de-rusting the n/s rear caliper, then using the "Marine Clean" and "Metal Ready" stuff before painting with Hammerite - gold colour actually, as the o/s rear had a new caliper fitted by the previous owner and that\'s finished in gold. I thought it would work well with the silver! Just need to find somewhere for bronze, but then again, the rust is a bronze colour, so no real need!!
I know Ian has mentioned going electric on the fans and has said he got a dual fan from a MR2 (\'93 model) I think. I\'ve just removed examined our viscous fan and determined it\'s "had it", so thinking electric is the way to go. Any idea where I can source a suitable fan (Kimi has an S3 rad)?
I would like to replace the rad hoses too, so if you find a source of for poly hoses, let us know!
Quote from: Steve-A;764917Sorry to hear you\'re having a rough time mate. Hopefully things will look up soon :)
The side brackets for the standard radiators are soldered on, and I had a pretty successful go at soldering one back on the other week. Cheapo plumbing solder and a blowtorch and it went right back on. Worth a shot to have another spare anyway!
Keep smiling I say and live each day as if there\'s no tomorrow - hmmmm..... who was it who said \'redline a day\'? sounds quite logical to me. Yeh that is what I intend doing when I have taken the oldun out (my trade this one). As I intended converting to electric cooling it seemed logic to do it now then repair work for the rotarshed - trouble is the shed is beginning to bulge now hehehe :rollin
Quote from: Casey;764922Really looking nice Cliff, excellent work and an inspiration (and challenge) to do some quality work on Kimi :)
I spent a few hours on her yesterday, de-rusting the n/s rear caliper, then using the "Marine Clean" and "Metal Ready" stuff before painting with Hammerite - gold colour actually, as the o/s rear had a new caliper fitted by the previous owner and that\'s finished in gold. I thought it would work well with the silver! Just need to find somewhere for bronze, but then again, the rust is a bronze colour, so no real need!!
I know Ian has mentioned going electric on the fans and has said he got a dual fan from a MR2 (\'93 model) I think. I\'ve just removed examined our viscous fan and determined it\'s "had it", so thinking electric is the way to go. Any idea where I can source a suitable fan (Kimi has an S3 rad)?
I would like to replace the rad hoses too, so if you find a source of for poly hoses, let us know!
Must admit I just love colour toning especially with a protective coating too, just seems to set things off.Really glad you guys \'picked up\' KIMI as I never got around to visiting John before he took his extended holiday so I\'m keeping a close look at the work you guys are doing. I\'m sure you\'ll all do a grand job on him/her and I\'ll be glad to help out wherever I can. I bought my electric fans offa eBay for £15 delivered, they were in reasonable condition when I got them BUT you know how it is - we just to make sure they look good before we fit them :yes, don\'t mind dirty hands and fingers when stripping off but got to be clean when re-fitting :Giggle. So I\'d try fleabay 1st - saves on petrol and time too.TaCliff
Do you guys remember when I 1st got Goldie and how she came with a free Kermit the Frog interior colour scheme?
Well this weekend I decided to do something more serious about it so had some paint especialy mixed for this purpose. Did some rubbing down and a bit more Kermit removing and finished with the following result ......... and isn\'t this more pleasing on the eyes (its not all gone yet but what an improvement)
Ahhh, I quite liked the green !
sorry to hear about you getting robbed, but as you say atleast you were both safe. there was a couple who went on their honeymoon and the wife went back to get some biscuits for their tea, she disturbed a robbery and was murdered over it. she had been strangled and her husband had went looking for her 10mins after it wondering what was wrong with her taking so long.
it was on the news a few months back and an awful tragedy, so a few possessions matter not compared to someone\'s life.
i see alot of owners of fb\'s going right back to the shell and fixing rust areas or repainting, is it straight forward to do, ie are these wee cars put together easily?
Quote from: myatt1972;765587Ahhh, I quite liked the green !
Yeh! Hmmmm ...... I wonder :rollin
Quote from: spoddy;765626sorry to hear about you getting robbed, but as you say atleast you were both safe. there was a couple who went on their honeymoon and the wife went back to get some biscuits for their tea, she disturbed a robbery and was murdered over it. she had been strangled and her husband had went looking for her 10mins after it wondering what was wrong with her taking so long.
it was on the news a few months back and an awful tragedy, so a few possessions matter not compared to someone\'s life.
i see alot of owners of fb\'s going right back to the shell and fixing rust areas or repainting, is it straight forward to do, ie are these wee cars put together easily?
Thanks Spoddy - yep we were fine and that is what counts but not so lucky for previous victims I\'m sorry to say. As to repairing of corroded areas - unfortunately the FB does suffer from corrosion problems which, if left, can become a more serious issue in a few areas. For this reason if repair work is necessary the obvious choice is to get down to the bare metal to ensure that the rusted areas are properly treated (and in more seroius scenarios remove the badly corroded material and replace with new metal) before re-coating with the relevant coating.As far as re-building these cars - yes they are quite easy to work on with a lot of the main panels and various components being readily removeable to gain access to the respective areas.JAZ was my 1st full restoration project and I just adored the challenge this motor offered, so much so that Goldie became my 2nd restoration job - these cars :InLove
Well it was time for the rear valance to be colour coded with the main body - so here we are ...... although laquer coating yet to be applied. Not a bad colour match though :)
Hi guys - sorry I\'ve been away so long but computer finally replaced and with help from Kevin Gordon with IE9 issue - big thanks to Kevin :Thumbs-up - I\'m now back on line.
New posts to follow soon.
Ta
Cliff
good to see you back, i work with computers, web dev too, so if stuck can give you advice :)
Welcome back Cliff....lokking forward to a mega update on Goldie mate!
Great to be back home at last, now I\'ve got a lot of reading & some updating to do.
Cheers guys,
:wave
Right then - where were we - ????????
Oh yeah - I\'d found a small hole in the floor by the offside seat belt retaining bolt and by the time I\'d finished cleaning out the rusty bits and done a little tickling it finished up about 65mm square. spo out came the s/s plate, snips and grinder and finishing touches with the aide of the trusty ball pane hammer.
Tacked this into position and then welded up - so here we have the before & after
So having completed the inner floor section it was time to go to the outside.
Again you will see that the rust appeared as a very minor hole which when poked and prodded abit opened up into quiet a large hole.
Again the trusted s/s plate, hammer & vice enabled me to adapt a flat piece of metal into a perfectly shaped floor section.
For those of you who haven\'t already tried welding in the overhead position - this is the most difficult welding position as molten metal can only go in one direction - yes gravity fed means it comes down and burns the hands and other parts of the body left uncovered, so always be careful in this position. The option here is basically to spot weld, that way you reduce the heat input to the metal - takes a little longer but worth the effort every time. Again, the before & after pics
Then the underside was cleaned prior to treatment & the old faithfull POR applied for good measure.
The drivers\' side door isn\'t in the best condition so I changed it for one I\'d picked from Rossendale last year (from reg B33 TEC) - later I\'ll get around to change the colour but at least it isn\'t GREEN :Giggle
Front drivers\' side wing came off too - well eventually after I\'d struggled to free off the bottom securing bolts and even then one had sheared. So as not to forget I drilled out the broken bolt before I sealed and coated the inner wing with POR 15 followed by a good colour coded coating of Hammerite
She\'s coming along well mate :)
Those wing bolts are a pain aren\'t they. One of mine the head was basically rotted off and the other sheared so I had to drill out too.
Cant have much more metal work left now?
Whilst the front wing is off I thought I might as well treat the inside of it too - again POR 15 with colour coded topcoat
Quote from: Steve-A;778834She\'s coming along well mate :)
Those wing bolts are a pain aren\'t they. One of mine the head was basically rotted off and the other sheared so I had to drill out too.
Cant have much more metal work left now?
Not as quick as Rexanne did mate but slowly getting there especially when the dreaded corroded bolts allow. As you know Steve, these particular ones are more difficult as they can\'t be \'soaked\' with freeing fluid, so we have to depend on capillary attraction to draw the fluid vertically (or not as the case may be). Awkward little devils to get to as well as you have to support the body higher to facilitate access of the drilling machine + bit. Still - luv a challenge me. Nearside rear not touched yet mate but I do know that I\'ve some heavy work to do when I get round there - what did the advert say when Goldie was on eBay ....... oh yeah "All welding DONE" - yeah right! :rollin Up to now the body work hasn\'t been that bad so I\'m keeping my fingers crossed on this one and after seeing the extent of your enforced metal working skills I know I have a high quality standard to maintain within the forum members.
rusted bolts are the curse of the clasic car restorer...
luckily, Mazda used a self cutting bolt on the 1st gens and this really helps when rebuilding these cars.
When the car was built, Mazda welded in blank captives into the shell and then used 6mm hex head \'taptites\', a self cutting bolt that was driven into the captives, cutting its own thread as it went in. This saved Mazda pre-threading the captives first. It has a slightly triangular shank that cuts the thread.
I bought a big bag of these from my local fixings specialist and they just swap like for like with the existing bolts. I have swapped loads of mine and everytime I work on the car and remove one, I replace it with a new taptite and put a bit of copper grease on the thread before I screw it in to make it easier to remove in the future.
The taptite bolt...
(http://i589.photobucket.com/albums/ss333/gsxrmovistar1/taptite1.jpg)
(http://i589.photobucket.com/albums/ss333/gsxrmovistar1/tap2.jpg)
The great thing about these is that if/when you snap the head off a bolt, just drill a 5.5mm hole through the snapped off bolt and then drive in a new taptite.... most of the time it\'ll pick up on the original threads and the jobs a gud\'un. You don\'t even have to clean out all of the old bolt back to the threads. The bolts also look \'factory\' with the same 10mm head.
I drive mine in with a cordless drill...
(http://i589.photobucket.com/albums/ss333/gsxrmovistar1/tap3.jpg)
I\'ll send you some if you like Cliff, they don\'t half save some work.
Good shout this one Ian and yes if I can take you up on kind offer, would be very much appreciated :Thumbs-up. I\'ll look for some in the mean time too.
Brilliant idea though as it would save re-tapping the threads. When I have previously drilled out the rusted bits I\'ve always re-tapped the threads and put bolts in - only trouble is although they look \'factory\' they appear to look a 25 year plus factory unit as mine aren\'t new-uns :(.
Before I\'d coated the offsdie inner wing I did find some rust up the front end above where the headlamp washer bottle lives just above the tow bracket. So not wanting to simply \'jenolite\' it and cover it up, again out came the cutting discs and welding set - Scottish Power just love me helping to swell their accounts and add to the xmas bonuses.
An hour later the rusty bit had gone, treated the remainder with \'jenolite\' washed off, dried, coated the inner sides with POR 15 where accessible and spray primer where out of reach, fitted the new metal and welded up and finally coated to seal in.
Having sorted the outer edge I looked to the inner side and found yet more corrosion so I thought rather than repair it I might as well weld a handle to the chassis leg and use it as a sieve - no only joking (I mean how could I fit it into the sink!).
So it was more of the same to finish with just like a bought one but yet to be coated
Ooh thats a spot I\'ve not seen rusted out before! Once again so much for the rust free shell :P
Those taptites look good, I might have to buy a bag.
With all the rust issues you had to tackle I\'m quite pleased to have one up on you Steve :rollin but yes it is quite an odd area for corrosion to find its\' way in - I\'ll dare say the nearside will be somewhat the same as it appears to have been done before - groannnnnnn ..... what catastrophe shall I meet this time I wonder? I wonder what the chances are of finding GREEN underneath the Gold paint :rollin
I have to laugh otherwise it would drive me nuts - alright it has done already :Hammer
Quote from: Steve-A;778948Ooh thats a spot I\'ve not seen rusted out before! Once again so much for the rust free shell :P
Those taptites look good, I might have to buy a bag.
I know I\'ll probably finish up with the nickname of "onions" (because I\'m always repeating myself) but actually for a 27 year young car the bodywork ain\'t half bad really and I\'m pleased with it (up to now - touch wood).Cliff
So having dealt with the corrosion each side of the offside chassis member and then went to the underside.
1st the suspension links had to come out and thene uncouple the front anti-roll bar and then the mounting plates before I could expsoe the underside properly and have a guess what I found - yep! more rust, ho hum never mind :censored: :Hammer wasn\'t a surprise really
Managed to treat the rusty suspension pieces in preparation for refitting later (after the nearside is checked out and any preventative work carried out.
....... and as the radiator was out I thought I\'d rub down and treat the brackets which hold it in place (might as well let them tone in with the other panels)
Ok holy thread resurrection ... But I stumbled across this wonderful restoration, I was really enjoying it then page 31... Nothing... It stops!!
I hope everything worked out ok ... And there were no issues stopping the resto, apologies if something happened... But does anyone know if it was finished ? Is cliff still on these pages?
It would be good to see the final product
Thanks
Rich :13: