1984 silver series 3

[myatt1972]

And I have several alternatos !

Well done mate, great work Making me feel very lazy!

[ian65]

And I have several alternatos !

cheers mate, we'll have a chat....
then I'll be able to use this...



it's almost too nice to put on a car.

[myatt1972]

Ive got just the thing to bolt that to
Before it goes on I wouldnt mind some measurements off that pulley, Ive got my lathe set up at home now.

[ian65]

Ive got just the thing to bolt that to
Before it goes on I wouldnt mind some measurements off that pulley, Ive got my lathe set up at home now.

no problem, I'll drop it over. It'll be a while until I use it.

[ian65]

After a flurry of activity on my Rx7's over the christmas break, I haven't even been in the garage for the last month or so.... it's too cold and work takes up most of my time.
This weekend though, I felt a bit more enthused and decided to get the engine ready to lift out of this car ready for the Elford Turbo conversion.... the engine has to come out to change the sump... a pity really as it would be a piece of cake if it just involved bolting on the inlet and turbo.

The car still has the factory emission control on it including the air pump and factory exhaust and all this needs to go...











Took a while to get the inlet manifold and the heat shield off the car and I need to release the exhaust now prior to lifting the engine and gearbox out







hopefully next weekend will see the engine on the bench and the sump swapped over.

.

[ian65]

Pulled the engine out of the car today, ready to change the sump and to fit the rest of the turbo setup.
Whilst it's out, I'm going to tidy up the engine bay.
The engine came out very easily but getting the exhaust off the car was a struggle. It's been over 20 years since I removed a complete factory exhaust from a 1st gen and I'd forgotten how heavy they are....















next job is to remove the gearbox and heatshields then paint the underside of the car to offer more protection to the underside in the future. I'm then going to respray the engine bay and rebuild the front suspension.

.

[Lucky]

Don't think I've ever seen a full factory stock exhaust before. Thanks for giving us a good laugh, Ian. What a hateful-looking piece of pigiron

[spoddy]

i've never seen the stock exhaust either.
wow it looks massive, more complex than my rx8 exhaust, but looks in decent condition.

i take it they don't bother checking the emissions for classics, you have so much room when you take it out.

so when this is finally finished are you passing any of your older fb's on to a new home?

[ian65]

probably the best day of the year as far as the weather goes so the Mazda has come out from its winter hibernation in the garage for some sun and fresh air...





I'm still stripping out the engine bay prior to respraying it before building everything back up...



Released the wiring loom, relays and removed the ignition, took off the headlamp motors, and started to remove the brake lines.

I've also taken off the valance, grill, front bumper and nose panel. The front of the chassis is solid and has only slight surface rust, which is good news.... a bit of POR15 and some silver top coat will have this good as new

Next to come off were both front wings and the wheel arch liners.... I could see from the factory seam sealer that these hadn't been off before but as I needed to thoroughly check the inner wings and paint them for future protection, the wings had to be removed. Thankfully these are only bolt on and are simple to get off.






The inner wings are in great condition, mainly due to the fact that the car has been heavily waxoiled from new.
The only heavy corrosion was to the air ducts at the lower front corner of the wings.. these have practically dissolved.... a strange thing to do, to construct items like these in a vunerable location out of metal... they always seem to rust.... surely plastic would have been a better design?

It seems like a lot of trouble to go to but if you're doing a job and all that.......................
When it's back together there won't be a spec of surface rust, dirt or old oil and grease anywhere. All the rusty fixings will be replaced as a matter of course which apart from making things look better, will also make any future maintenance much easier.
Rusted and frozen fixings are the bane of the car restorers life!

The very front lower edge of both front wings have accident damage. Those of us who have used these cars as daily drivers will know that the front wings are very vunerable to high kerbs. With the front valance being plastic, the wings take the full force of any careless parking etc. I'll need to look at these to see if they are repairable.... I hope so because the rest of them are perfect.... bodywork isn't really my strong point though.

I've spent some time with a can of Gunk, washing down the engine bay.... bloody horrible job!
Things are progressing a bit though.... at last.

[RamoNZ]

Marvellous. Wondrous stuff going on in your garage ian! She will be a lovely thing to drive and to look at in the not too distant future.