1984 Mazda Rx7 (p15 - normal service is resumed)

[goldnrust]

Hi guys. I've been lurking here a little while and thought now I might show you my project car.

I've spent the last 9 months frantically restoring a fairly rusty old Mazda rx7 to its former glory, and beyond in some ways.

This is a very breif over view!

So in October 2001 I collected my rx7, nick named Rexanne, from a friend who'd given up on the challenge of putting her back on the road after a 12 year lay up in a garage.



She looked pretty good on the surface, but these rx7s hide their rust well. Much more gruesome scenes lay hidden in the sills, rear radius arm mounts and floor pan.




And so just as winter set in, I got busy...

[goldnrust]

Out came lots of rust, and in went plenty of new steel. Here's one of the radius arm mounts. I taught my self to weld for this project, so some of the early works a little ropey, compared to the latter stuff!



And plenty of new layres of steel going into the sill too.



Here's a shot showing just how much had to be cut out of the rear of the passengers sill before I got back to proper metal.



And now with fresh metal...



With both the sills, radius arm mounts and passengers floor sections and behind the arch all welded up the rear of the car was now made of metal!

So I was able ot grind bakc 27 years of flakey paint and waxoyl....



and paint it all up with POR15.





Now for some components for the rear end....

[goldnrust]

Seeing as I'm working outside, with only a gazebo for the worst weather, I was glad spring was now on its way.

Most on the componentry, besides a few key items, was cleaned, painted and refitted. I replaced various bearings, the brake lines and all the bushes were swapped for polly bushes.

The rear axel assemble went from...



to....



And the fuel tank from...



to...



Right. Time for the front end...

[goldnrust]

Out with the engine, revealing a dirty old engine bay...



I cut plenty more holes in her...



Before filling them back in!



Then the front end got a lick of paint to match the back.

[goldnrust]

That nice clean engine bay was just waiting for an engine. So I got cleaning again!

We started with...



And ended with...



Here's a shot with the rest of the engine bay bits and bobs all bolted into place.



Now it was time for some cosmetics. The passengers front wing and rear arch had taken a beating and both needed some major work. The bottom third of the front wing had basically rotten off. So it was time to break out the hammers and get shaping some metal.



Which the got welded up, and smoothed and painted.



It was around this time that I rebuilt the brake callipers and got them mounted up on my skimmed disks with fresh pads and braided lines.



Now I was ready for the nice shiny parts the post man could bring me!

[goldnrust]

He brought me some lovely GAZ coilovers.





and some nice rose jointed lower radius arms



and now I was able to fit some special parts I'd bought for her only a couple of weeks after starting he project.

[goldnrust]

Friday was MOT day, and she passed!

And thats a very brief way to cover 9 months of blood sweat and tears

The pay-off for all that hard work was how she looked on saturday evening as the sun set over the hills, and I knew there was a good number of miles of lovely windy b-road between me and home...

[Littlepixel]

Epic! I love it - looks better than new!

[fieldy]

Wow....

[stealthstylz]

Holy curse word that looks fantastic. Mismatched wheels make it for me.

[dbizzle]

This is just beautiful.

[Seth]

Lovely! A great job to get it all done so quickly.

[tickman]

Very nice outcome

[grizz]

This pic really says it all.

Your username should have been Hardcore, but it is already taken by a lovely gentleman

Excellent skills and vision.

[MK2VR6]

These rx7's deserve love and this one has got it. Looks stunning!

[goldnrust]

Cheers guys

Seth, I'm very lucky to have a job that can at times be very flexible, and I've often been able to shift work into the evenings to make the most of a sunny day for working on the car which has really helped the speed.

Stealthstylez, the wheels are what male the car for me too When I've got more money kicking about I'd like a little more dish on the rear though, then it would be even better!

Now she's on the road I pretty much plan to just get some miles done for a while, then my second stage for the project is to sort a heavily ported or turbo engine for the front, and to strip the interior out in favour of a cage and buckets

[yoeddynz]

I love this car! Your thread on Exile had me happy as I love seeing people out working on cars in all weather! Good on ya for saving a car that many would have just scrapped. I don't normally like gold coloured cars but yours looks great- I think your obviously very good photography skills helps too.

Boy oh boy do I want another FB. And in Britain they are still soooooooooooooooo cheap. I cant understand why we don't see more of them? Beautiful cars. Classic without a doubt. Next time I come back I'm gonna hunt me a good one and ship it back to NZ.

alex

[goldnrust]

Sounds like a good plan to me Alex. I'm really enjoying being able to get out and drive her every day. So nice to be back in an older car and feel the rawness and the connection to the wheels.

Anyway another week goes by and I had a little time to toy with her today.Having found a suitable bucket seat for myself, which I'm picking up in a few days, I decided the interior would be stage 2 of this project and power would have to wait till stage 3.

I made the first steps today by removing the rear seats and some of the interior.



I'm gonna run around like this for a few days and see what I think of the change in volume, while I try to decide if I can live with a stripped out daily driver! The first impressions are that it's really not much different, there's a little more whine from the diff, but also without the rear seats in the way the rear speakers are louder, so it's more than cancelling itself out.

Money is tight so I'm in no rush but I'm quietly on the look out for a suitable passengers seat and I'm investigating harness mounting options.

I also decided it was time to flat and polish the panel I repainted now the lacquer was fully dry. Here's the front wing flatted.



Unfortunately an accident with a petrol pump and the fact that I forgot to use petrol resistant lacquer round the filler cap has caused this:



I was hoping to sand the lacquer back and just re-coat, but it looks like I'd need to go back to primer to get rid of the marking so that can wait for another day. I'm stupid as I buoght petrol resistant lacquer especially, but forgot about it!

With the wing and rear quarter flatted I went wild with the cutting compound, then waxed it and even got out the back to black, the end result was a very shiny car.




Far too shiny for me so I decided to got for a drive up some lanes! It's now suitably dusty.

[twincammy]

12/10 that looks amaze!

[nikdev]

Nice work! Liking the look! but are there any front splitter for these? I thinks it would suit the car:)