A father and son project. 1984 Rx7 from Australia

[Stefano the Sphinx]

Hi All,

I have now owned this car for one month. It is my 4th FB. I should not have modified or sold my last one!
That was 10 years ago now... No point in dwelling on the past.

This particular beastie is a white on brown Series 3 with the usual rust issues and more!

It is a project that my father and I are working on together. However, at this point it is dad who is doing most of the work. I'm a bit busy at the moment with two kids, two cats and two jobs. Not to mention a beautiful, sportive wife

Car was purchased as a road register, derivable car! I drove it once after bringing it home on the back of a trailer (1100Km round trip) The intention was to have a quick look at what we needed, so the parts chase could begin.

We knew there was some rust in the floor (passengers side) some further investigating revealed rust in the A pillars, firewall and under the cowel panel on the passengers side. I found Ian's thread that described rust issues he had around his windscreen (sad story) I thought I was doomed...

All good though, it is just the top part of the A pillars. The structural underside is good. We have been chasing a shell to use as a doner car. Issue is there is rust presenting in exactly the same spots on the four cars we have looked at over the last three weeks...

Either way, we are powering through getting all of the interior sorted. We found a good passengers seat we will be borrowing the material from to fix our drivers seat, an original clarion tape deck with amp and equaliser (very happy about that) and other plastic odds and ends. Also scored a very good bonnet and front bar. Going to look at a guard and set of doors this weekend. Providing all is good, that takes care of most of the parts.

The car has 256K on the clock, however it drove very well ( a little sad we pulled it apart so quickly )

Enough of my dribble, here are some pictures, we all love pictures As you will see parts of the car have been bathed in fish oil!!! That stuff is fun to get off

These are all of my before pictures, I can not wait to show the after pictures.... That is some time off. Thanks for reading.

[Stefano the Sphinx]

Here are some more pictures

[Stefano the Sphinx]

More picks.

I will be sure to post more as we get it done.

Thanks again for looking.

P.S. if anyone has a doner shell ( in Sydney, Australia) please feel free to contact me.

Cheers

David

[KYPREO]

Good one! Looking forward to following your build. I recognise your username from AusRotary but I don't think you've posted there.

The A-pillar rust is really common as you've found out. It's just taken a lot longer to manifest on Australian cars than elsewhere.

IMO the problem stems from the lack of sealing between the windscreen moulding and the body. On the series 3, they introduced a hard rubber protector on the top moulding and bottom moulding which I think was to act as a weatherstrip, but on every series 3 I've seen this weatherstrip has perished. I've still got my original bottom one which looks like a fairly standard weatherstrip. The top ones are a bit more curious. I bought the last NOS one top trim protector in the world, but it's left hand side only. Right hand side is mirror image, so I could try to get aftermarket ones fabricated based off my NOS one.

Curiously, I have discovered in the past 2 weeks that Mazda issued a replacement part numbers for the entire moulding set. The new part numbers have a proper thick rubber weatherstrip incorporated around the top and bottom of the top moulding pieces. Why oh why didn't they do that from the start. I just spent a bomb buying these parts new from Japan, but I'm still waiting for them to come in.

Jealous you found a good original Clarion tape deck. I've found a couple of poor condition ones that I'm currently restoring - check out my build thread here and on AusRotary for more details.

[codge]

Hi Stefano,

Welcome......we all like good resto threads on here......this is going to be a great one.

Codge (Dave)

[Daytona-Dave]

Fair bit of wire worm there but it's all fixable and very satisfying when done, glad you posted the pics as it gives me a few pointers of where to look for the dreaded worm

Ray

[spirit r]

Hi All,
This particular beastie is a white on brown Series 3 with the usual rust issues and more!
It is a project that my father and I are working on together. However, at this point it is dad who is doing most of the work. Enough of my dribble, here are some pictures, we all love pictures

Hi Stefano,

never thought the seven bodyshell in sunny australien are so rusty. Your opinion about the pictures sharing is absolutly correct but i would try to get a better bodyshell for your poor father.
interesting the car option with cruise control: does it work so you test drive the car?
The black aircleaner housing is it a 6 port 12A engine? Sorry my german english hope you understand my questions.

[KYPREO]

All Australian series 3s came with cruise control as standard. The controls are like the US series 2 GSL but RHD. It is a simple system but works really well.

[spirit r]

All Australian series 3s came with cruise control as standard. The controls are like the US series 2 GSL but RHD. It is a simple system but works really well.

You never get it in Germany. I pull of my system from a US model easy fixing cause you find all the wire mounted from the factory. My system work between 50 and 140 km/h.

[Stefano the Sphinx]

Hi All,

Thank you for the welcome and your interest in my build.

KYPREO, I checked out your build and I am now following it. You have done a nice job over a long period of time.
I am on AusRotary, I will have to get around to posting this thread on there.
Thanks also for the heads up on the front window surrounds. I was wondering what I was going to do there... do you have the part number?
I have no idea if my radio works, I am along way off installing that! I have discovered that the plastic surround of the radio looks to be incorrect. Ow well, have to keep an eye out. Also thanks for answering Spirit R's question. I have just not had time to get back in front of my PC.

Thanks Daytona Dave (Ray) and Codge (Dave) for your interest I will do my best to keep you all entertained with image updates.

I did find a donor shell this weekend just gone!! It was a 7 and a half hour round trip to collect it.... But I now have all the major bits I need to start the body work.

Here are the pictures! It is a series one with a bent chassis rail. A Pillars and the cowel panel are perfect!!!

Loaded and ready to head home

IMG_0453.jpg (148.8 KiB) Viewed 8039 times

On the way

IMG_0454.jpg (131.54 KiB) Viewed 8039 times

Then there was two!!!!!

IMG_0461.jpg (108.52 KiB) Viewed 8039 times

Work will begin in next week sometime when my family heads away for the week.... I will miss them, however, this will give me some serious time with the car to put some runs on the board!