Sorry to hear about your troubles. Personally I've had no luck finding the boxes and associated trim in good nick...and I've been looking! I hope you hold onto this one and stay the course, though.

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-Cam
1988 Mazda RX7
1980 Toyota Celica
a bunch of cool other cars I'm not allowed to list

I'm thankful the amount I lost wasn't any greater than it ended up being

the suggestion that I buy a RX-7 stateside and simply use that as a donor has once again been pitched, but I'm not sure how all the title and ownership business actually werks. There is an '84 GSL-SE with the right bits which has caught my eye, but it's located in VA and I'm sure it would cost an arm and leg to ship across the country to WA, and then somehow hope that my relatives are forthcoming enough to store it... sadly none of them have enough technical nous to pull a car apart.

This one here: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayI ... d=ViewItem

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Just a question as I dont know allot about the laws, but does your car need the factory interior to pass? could you get a motor trimmer to box out the section and trim it to look factory to pass, then your on the road at least. just a thought.

Then for parts - I'd be checking with the guys who visit usa scrap yards frequently, there have been a few early rx7's in the spotted wrecking yard cars topic..
Have you tried user "rotarydave" on here, he has heaps of cars and parts in the US, just hard to catch.. good luck!

I love the factory 12a turbo cars, dont give up on it yet.. you have a rare car from what I understand!

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Looking good! I'm in FL, US if you need help sourcing grey interior bits PM me & we can figure something out- I frequent all the yards here

I'll PM you guys, thanks for the offers of help. TBH I'm still pretty disappointed with this whole messed up affair.

Signed up to RX7Club many moons ago, but couldn't get my head around their strange messageboard rules/post count system so am unable to view the parts for sale section. (for some reason my post count is still stuck on 1.)


Have investigated a custom interior setup, and the cost is too excessive to justify (we're talking in the region of about $1500). Not really worth it for something that will be binned in favour of the OEM setup eventually.

It also kinda goes against the ultimate aim of this build, which is to keep the vehicle as period-correct as possible both inside and outside.

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And speaking of period-correct, here's the final proposed vintage audio build. Have to get a line level converter, but that's easily obtained from any electronics store.

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OK, let's try this again.

Did some trawling and rang a few more rotary wreckers in the United States, none of them had anything I needed, apart from a carpet clampdown rail which I purchased for exorbitant coin (shipping cost four times as much as the part)

however one of the companies managed to put me on to a private collector/restorer/hoarder in Michigan who also runs his own eBay store as a side business. Hey presto:





Have commissioned the help of Chucks Restoration Services (http://www.chucksnz.co.nz) to forward these items from the USA to Auckland in one of their regular containers.

Got an email today stating the parts are enroute from Michigan to Chucks' depot in Orange County, CA so all I can really do nowe is to wait and hope things turn out better than last time...

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That's great news! Persistence does pay off! I can't wait to see the final product.

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Kickin' a little asphalt

1985 Mazda RX-7 GSL

http://www.themotoringenthusiastjournal.com
http://www.facebook.com/TheMotoringEnthusiastJournal

Well Orion hate to be the bearer of bad news but i was tyhe one that won the auction for that 85 rx7 gslse and it needs some work also those cabin compartments had the lids broken of the base so now i need bin covers lol good luck and wish me luck on mine heres some pics didnt take many my phone was dying on the 9 hr drive back from VA to NJ lol will update more pics hopefull soon.....

That's a shame about the GSL-SE rx7cblink - I guess the photos made it look tidier than it actually was!

As for mine, the carpet clampdown rail arrived from Rotary Response (one of the wreckers I tried the other week).



here it is with the rear carpet section.



But there's a slight problem with the rail. Can you tell what it is?



Turns out the 1979-80 rail differs in length from the 1981-85 North American models, which is a bit infuriating/my fault for not checking it out with the seller beforehand. Time to find the correct part (which won't be easy) and figure out what to do with the wrong one. Could almost be forced to resell it on eBay as virtually no one in NZ will be needing one

In the meantime, I've been tinkering late into the night over the last few weeks with the audio build and it's now just about done. Made a passive attenuator circuit to bring the auxiliary input down to a manageable level, and assembled everything together yesterday afternoon.

Final bench test:



Started pulling apart more of the interior today; took some measurements for stereo brackets, found a couple of hidey holes for the amps, and ensured the cabling wouldn't get in the way of anything. Also removed most of the existing stereo plugs/wiring which I will re-crimp and tidy up during the week.

Made up some brackets to hold the components in the centre console; attempted a trial fit:



I think that'll do nicely.

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I more than likely have the 81-85 bar you need if that is the one you want. I also have a few of the 78-80 bars, but I think that is what you have already.

Chris

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Chris

78 RX-7 GS Spark Yellow
74 REPU Lawn Green

Ooh. Do you have one in grey? Shipping will be the only killer I think

I have a tradition of buying whole assemblies just for one specific part. Today I acquired a complete shifter and all I really need is the chrome trim (which extends below the gearboot). The rest is surplus to requirements



so with that in my possession I spent another productive evening in the shed tonight.

First up, pulled the centre console out again to fit the replacement shifter (swapped over my existing Series 3 gearknob). And fitted another handbrake to replace the one on the car, which came without the lever grip - exactly why, I don't know



Then took the time to finalize the placement of the audio gear before re-assembling the centre console to completion.



I realize the equalizer sticks out heaps compared to the cassette deck - there is simply no more room behind the console to have it sitting in any further



The mess of audio-related spaghetti coming out of the centre console and from the separate rear speaker amp. One advantage of using a tuner-less component system is that you don't need to run separate cables for constant 12V as there's no clock or memory settings to retain, nor a remote amp signal, nor aerial. Just an accessory wire with a couple of inline fuses, and a bunch of decent grounds.



So all that's left is this tangle of wires to be cleaned up and re-crimped/soldered, which will probably be tomorrow evening's mission. Gotta thank the previous owner for making my job a hell of a lot easier by converting to ISO plugs at some point.

In the background you can see yet another cassette deck I'm converting to accept auxiliary input, in the same vein as the one I'm installing.



All this faffing about, just for one unassuming 3.5mm audio jack.

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I think that bar only ever came in black for all cars. If you can verify differently then you are a better man then me. If I have it the color will be black as that is the only color I have ever seen on an RX-7. Really all that metal bar does is hold the carpet down as it breaks over the rear floor to the panel area around the storage bins. It should only be held down with 3-4 small screws and doesn't have any structural bearing on the car. Too bad you couldn't use the maroon stuff as I have heaps of 'em. I don't mind shipping either, but you may have to pay a lot for such small pieces due to the distance.

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Chris

78 RX-7 GS Spark Yellow
74 REPU Lawn Green

Ah, cheers for that info. I just assumed the bar matched the colour of the rest of the interior

The shipping cost of the bar from Rotary Response was US$45.00 (five day delivery to NZ) - I'm happy to pay for shipping on items, as long as it's within reason. If there does turn out to be anything I need which isn't colour coded, I'll be in touch!

Got the audio setup running in-car the other night. At the moment only the front speakers are functional (they're fucked and need replacing anyway, as evidenced by the awful crackle in the video) - I won't hook up the rears until the two-seater conversion parts arrive.

Demonstration video, complete with a few annotations:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMa9BJi3Qr0

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I love the audio set up!

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Kickin' a little asphalt

1985 Mazda RX-7 GSL

http://www.themotoringenthusiastjournal.com
http://www.facebook.com/TheMotoringEnthusiastJournal

Great to see progress on your car and you didnt give up! Hope the rear parts pop up soon, worst case if the wrong color there is always paint..

Could you show us more shots of the engine bay please?

I managed to solve the clampdown rail puzzle, the answer was staring me in the face the entire time: "Ed, you silly sausage, why don't you just email the collector in Michigan who sold you the other parts?"

So emailed the guy on May 3rd, and wha'dya know... he actually had one. Confirmed the length to be the correct dimensions this time round, and all up it cost me $15 for the rail and $40 for the shipping.

Here's what arrived on May 7th.



Not quite "overnight parts from Japan", but talk about super efficient service!

Tore it open, and found the rail to be the correct colour and length (it just needs a clean), so mission accomplished in that regard. It even has the same "crackle texture" as the gearknob/dashboard/console. Compare to the black one in an earlier post, which is just a flat colour with no flourishes.



Received a shipping update from Chucks saying the container with the rest of the parts is scheduled to land on or about the 21st of May, so all going well I should have everything by the end of the month.

meanwhile, the fucked rear spoiler on the banana has always been a point of contention. The rubber gets pretty shabby over time, and my one has been made worse by the fact that the previous owner in Japan mounted an external high-stop light which eventually got removed during the course of the car's life anyway, leaving an ugly impression that was then poorly filled in with Bondo or something equally rank.



so I got to browsing on YAJ and there seem to be a couple of tidy FRP ones floating around, but they don't have the hole for the aerial that's standard on all Series 3 rear spoilers.

curious to know if it's easy enough to "modify" the FRP spoiler (i.e., drill a hole the right size) without a whole heap of re-glassing? I'm guessing not. And I'm not really wanting to risk paying $400 + shipping for one just to hack it up on arrival.



Haven't yet found a place that repairs rubber to a decent standard either.

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Ohmygod whatarethese



Could it be...?



Holy shit, at long last.



So so so SO stoked!



The rear boot panels are a bit sun-faded, but I'll find a way to restore them. See how they differ from the Japanese version?



And it's all thanks to a certain Matt Barber from Michigan, with the help of this crowd:



Great way to cap off a pretty awesome week. Hopefully I'll find some time over the long weekend (Queens' Birthday holiday) to finally start bolting these bits up.

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Sincerely thought the installation procedure would only take an hour or two... but boy, was I ever wrong. It was only six hours later that I finally finished - granted I took my time carefully removing any and all existing parts for fear of breaking them (I broke some anyway), and the last hour or so was spent fitting the rear speakers/rear amp and tidying up all the cabling for the vintage audio install. Which I'm pleased to report is all fully functional

Started off by removing the plastic/fabric covers that hide the seatbelt retractor mechanisms and mashed one of the steel frame pieces in place as a rough test fit.



Was ever hopeful of not having to drill/tap any new holes in the floorpan for the steel frame, and fortunately, after carefully peeling back the original carpeted trim section in the footwell this fresh looking bolt hole was revealed (with a corresponding one on the other side of the car) that lines up perfectly with a hole on the frame. Sweet deal.



And continuing the theme of "this actually makes a whole lot of sense", the other corner of each sheetmetal piece lines up with the bolts holding down the luggage compartment straps. (The speaker at bottom right of frame is one of the "new" vintage 6" rear woofers.)



One piece overlaps the other and they both hold together in place with some screws. Worth noting at this point that I wouldn't really trust the frame to hold any more than say, 20-30kg of weight - it's actually rather thin gauge stuff. So no drunken joyriding in the back! :badgrin:



I hadn't asked the seller in the USA for the vinyl wheelarch covers - foolishly assuming I didn't need them - but he sent them anyway, which was a relief, as they turned out to be very different from the Jap ones (bottom piece in photo) which cover the whole arch, whereas the American ones only cover the part not already hidden by the frame.



Right, with the frame all bolted up, let's add some carpet...



And a clampdown rail.



Clampdown rail fitted, and one of the storage bins. Interestingly, the bins don't actually have a hard floor, just a piece of stretchy carpet instead. So I don't plan to store anything overly heavy in there that could potentially lead to collapse.



Fast forward a couple of hours, during which time I ran all the cabling for the rear speakers, tapped some holes and installed the speakers themselves, then fitted the boot panels... and that's a wrap.



Factory fresh! Although that storage bin lid does need a scrub with some upholstery cleaner, and there is but one minor trim flaw remaining actually; turns out I'm still missing a couple of pieces but they're such blink-and-miss that I'll leave it up to avid readers to figure out what they are



I also removed the passenger seat temporarily to install and wire in the rear amp. It's a compact enough size to chill underneath it.



So where to from here? Re-gas the A/C. Send off the clutch master and slave cylinders to be rebuilt, then it's WOF time I guess. Then drive it for a while. Tidying up the paint is also on the cards.

Not a hell of a lot has otherwise been planned for the car... the two-seater conversion has been such a long time coming that I'm relieved to have finally crossed that last major hurdle, and can start concentrating on squid (my Skyline) next.

But I'm sure I can always find something to change, or tinker with!

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