Rexanne - Gold s2 restoration project

[Steve-A]

Hi Ronnie, welcome to the club. 1st gens are like mechano compared to anything as modern a an rx8. If you fancy giving welding a shot, just go for it. I\'d never tried before I bought this car and learnt as I went. If I can do it anyone can!

Thank you Cliff and Casey for the kind words. It\'s very flattering. The proof of the pudding will be what you guys think of her in real life, its rather easy to make things look pretty in photographs

[spoddy]

Thanks Steve. I really enjoy following your fb project, how the heck do you remember where all the parts go you take off? do you work on them a few at a time, take photos keep notes?

yeah modern cars are all airbags and computers eh, the rx8 is fantastic to drive, sad to say i haven\'t driven an fb, but am in a club here at home and have a kiwi friend who is a rotary specialist and has all models of rx7. its handy having someone who can rebuild a 13b for you but thank god the renesis engine is strong, have just passed 86000 miles and she is strong as the 1st day.

i seen a gas welder in lidels for a few hundred, not bad to start on. being able to do stuff like that is really handy, you get through the project quicker and its still your own work etc.

one of my club mates bought an fb and had her up on axel stands when he heard a creaking, got out in time before chassis collapsed, scary stuff. a lift or pit is handy for doing a job like this, but your approach has worked very well, albeit being cold etc to work in lol.

i am interested in this por underbody stuff, never heard of it until reading about it on here, it sounds very good. my rx8 is starting to get rusty and wanna keep her good and my jap import mx3 (az3), so may get some.

for a beginner steve you are doing one hell of a job, but suppose when you put your mind to it, an fb is a good rebuild project and alot of fun to do.

as my kiwi mate says don\'t worry about the engine, its all rust, rust, rust with these cars, damm this damp and rainey weather we get lol.

[Steve-A]

Mostly I use photos and the odd video clip to keep track of where everything goes. The other trick thats has really helped is that whenever I\'ve removed bolts I\'ve bagged them and tied them to whatever component they came from.

I started by just organising the bolts in trays, but then one windy night it flipped my box of trays over and dashed the bolts all across the floor. Luckily I started with the back end which was much simpler than the front.

I paid about £250 for my welder from Machine Mart, and its been plenty up to the job.  

Whilst this is my first proper ground up restoration, I have had other modified cars and done fairly intensive modifications such as the engine swap on my mx5. It\'s all a steep learning curve though and I would not be where I cam today without the help of all the guys on the MRC

I do enjoy building the car as much as driving it.

[spoddy]

yeah thats a good idea, but as you\'ve experience in rebuilding cars you get used to common parts such as brakes, steering, suspension etc. i use masking tape to tape the bolts/nuts to parts. my experience to date is an oil change lol, but gonna free up my rear mx3 caliper as it seems to not be pushing the outside brake pad against the disk.
you can see bits of surface rust still on it after a days driving.

thats a good price for your welder, whats the acid etching you talk about, after spot welding do you grind the welds down smooth then etch?

sorry for all the questions, hell if its easier, email me your notes lol.

[Steve-A]

Yes things do become more familiar. Over the past 3 and a bit years I\'ve slowly taken on bigger and bigger challenges, each time feeling I\'d gone in over my head but just about clambered out the other side with a working car! Certainly I\'d have never been brave enough to take on Rexanne this time last year but having dipped my toe into the relm of metal work as part of fitting the 13b to my mx5 last year, it gave me the confidence to give it a shot.

The mx3 sounds like a sticking slider pin, I\'ve got this pleasure to look forward to on Rexanne\'s callipers. Not a difficult job, just time consuming and dirty!

The welder seemed sensibly priced. When I did some research before buying, it was suggested for car work to buy a gassed mig with as much power as I could afford, I went for 135 amps which has been fine, and to make sure I got one with a cooling fan which allows more continuous welding before the machine has to cool.

The acid etch was just a spray on chemical which then was rinsed off with water 20 mins later. Its part of the POR15 range and supposedly a vital part of the process to get proper adhesion of the POR15 rustproof paint. The POR15 kit all seems really good and certainly has good reviews from others on this forum. Its only downside is that it does requite good preparation and this can be time consuming. It can also work out quite costly by the time you have all the different products required for the prep work.

I\'ve not done any spot welding. I\'ve done mostly seem welding and a few bits of plug welding. A piece of advice given to me early on was that any repairs within 300mm of a structural point must be seem welded, so I\'ve basically seem welded all my repairs. After than I\'ve ground down some of the welds, most just for aesthetics, and so I\'ve left them proud where it will not be seen. Raised welds mean thicker metal and therefore strength, but obviously thats not really suitable for outer body work panels!

On recommendation of other forum users during and immediately after welding I\'ve used a weld through primer to add some protection to the bare metal. I would then wash the area of the car to be painted with POR15 with a strong washing up liquid solution and scouring pad, quite aggressively, before rinsing, acid etching, rinsing and then finally applying the paint.

[spoddy]

thanks steve, you know your stuff alright.

you have to start somewhere i suppose and being able to weld etc yourself is very handy. finding someone to do some welding on my fathers 1992 merc is next to impossible as most mechanics don\'t do it now due to insurance etc.

you sound like you know your rotary engines too, a conversion of an mx5, bloomin heck that sounded like a job.
but after putting a rotary in, that thing must have shredded up the tarmac lol.

from reading on various mazda rx club sites, i now know the areas to look out for on an fb for dreaded rust and rot. they are old cars and most not oiled or waxed underneath every few years to protect them unfortunately for all of us. my mate advised me where to look for rust etc and there was a local fb for £2600 in the mint green colour, brown interior, owner wanted that for it as he had put alot into it. easier solution someone else done the work, but then you don\'t know what lies beneath lol.

anyway don\'t wanna throw you thread off course, thanks for the info and advice.
talk again, looking forward to more progress pics and news.

ronnie

[David Nock (RIP)]

Hi Ronnie. Welcome.

I\'ve picked up your name over the last couple of years in the 2 Ireland Forums. I think I read you had been researching for an FB with Glen. If I can help with anything this side of the water just let me know.

Dave

[spoddy]

Hi Dave

Yeah, Glen is a good friend of mine, does all my work lol.
Yip member of the mrec-ni and irishrotary sites and had been like a kid in a sweet shop asking about fb\'s. I plan on clearing out the garage as supposedly can fit two cars in lol. I\'ll see how my savings are come the summer and see if I can find something original, 12a, no turboing etc as my rx8 is quick enough for me. Thanks for your offer though.

[Steve-A]

Time for a roundup for the week\'s action. I\'ve not had as much time to spend on Rexanne, but I\'d still done bits here and there.

First thing I did was to rust kill and then stone guard the inside of my good wing, so it can go back on soon.



Next up I made a start on stripping the carb.



Following the info on the \'steerling\' site, (http://www.sterlingmetalworks.com/the_sterling_nikki.htm) I\'m going to make a few small mods to help improve its flow. I\'m going to simplify the linkages where possible and file down some stops and tweak a few bits so that the throttle plates open to exactly 90 degrees and the bolt heads don\'t stick out etc.

Now the front end is on the floor I was able to lift the back of the car back up and fit the first section on handbrake cable, exhaust heat shield, exhaust and prop shaft.



Then I got a big box arrive for china! Within it I found...



Its been a little twisted in transit, but that seems to be the norm for cheapo chinese ebay radiators. With no s3 rad on ebay at the moment, and no budget for a branded rad, I went for the ebay FC rad. This had the added bonus of being big enough if I want to use a 13bt at a later date. Buy it right buy it once and all!

Seeing as it is huge and needed to be mounted at an angle, I needed to fab up some new brackets. Starting with parts of my s2 rad cowling and bits of s3 rad I managed to get the measurements and rough brackets tacked up with the help of my friend Tom.



And here\'s the rad in the car with slightly more refined brackets.



And here\'s the final brackets. In this picture you can see the next problem with fitting this rad, the lower hose wont clear the engine mount.



Bills rushed of his feet, so I felt bad asking him to help out and got brave! I did some internet research then bought some 4035 aluminium welding wire and some argon gas and gave it a shot mig welding. After practicing for a couple of days on an old bike frame I gave it a shot tonight after work.



It ain\'t pretty but should be functional, and now I know I can do basic alu welding that\'s another feather in the restoration cap!

Now back in the car, it clears easily and an s3 lower hose slightly cut down will work.



Last night I had a bit of a wild time online shopping and with various hoses and connectors on their way to me and some time spent on the carb this weekend, hopefully I can start it soon!

[spoddy]

looks great steve, rexanne will feel like 1 million dollars after all this time and effort.
not long to go now till the engine is back in and all the wings/bonnet and bits put back together.

[Casey]

Last night I had a bit of a wild time online shopping and with various hoses and connectors on their way to me

Steve, we are about to remove the radiator from Kimi this weekend for an inspection and thorough clean up. We have a Toyota MR2 dual electric fan on it\'s way as Will66 managed to locate one on the internet (for less than £30 delivered, result!). We will source a cheapish thermostatic controller, but would also like to change some of the manky hoses and connectors. May I ask where you sourced yours from?

[Steve-A]

I just searched on ebay, though I also got some vac hose and heater hose from //www.apmotorstore.co.uk

I didn\'t spot any s3 silicone rad hoses on ebay, but then I didn\'t look toooo hard as I\'ll need s5 hoses. I did end up going for blue rad hoses though which disapointed me, but I found various people doing s5 specific preformed silicone rad hoses in blue for £30, and the black ones started at £60. Maybe I can wrap them in something black!

Sourcing an e fan and thermoswitch is on my to do list! Though with the size of my rad and the stock 12a I think shouldn\'t have tooo many cooling issues

[CHC (RIP)]

Nice work Steve and to Alu weld with MIG process so soon is brilliant news mate.  Doesn\'t look that bad as long and as you say it is functional and reasonably presentable - and who is going to want to look all the way down there when it is done?  Okay apart from us forum members who\'ll totally appreciate what a successful resto you will have done.
 

[Will66]

What he said.  Although if we end up parking Kimi next to Rexanne at RS8 then I may be pointing out this weld to people just so Kimi doesn\'t look too average!

[johnnyboy]

Hi Steve.
 
I know you have just rebuilt your idler arm, but how far did you get with investigating steering rack conversions?
 
Did you notice that the Ford V8 conversion in "how many still running" has a Nissan rack...
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1985-MAZDA-RX7...ht_1338wt_1141
 
   John