That white coupe was built by george at pac performance. Sam Sadek recently bought it from him.

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That would explain the large stickers...

Struggling to find any time to finish off the coupe, also doesn't help when I've spent 2 of the last 3 months back interstate. While there I've been working on my 10a sedan, it's rust free or is that free rust ?? At the moment I've been unpicking all the typical sections that rust out. Once it's stripped down, I need to build a body dolly and send it off to be blasted. Once it comes back from the blasters I'll think about putting up some photos. For some reason I felt the urge to build a pedestrian model sedan.

We'll see how I go with the sedan, I've also been on the lookout for my ultimate car which is a first gen JDM spec Rx3 fitted with a twin dizzy 12a. That particular model is my favourite. I've been searching Japan and through a couple of other contacts to get a feel for whats around project wise. I'm not quite ready yet but you never know Hopefully it will be a reality over the next 18 months one I sort a few other things out.

Trying to finish off some small stuff that I've been putting off forever.... Pic 1, I bought another mini gun with 1.2 nozzle. You can see the size difference compared to the larger gun. Surprisingly this cheap Star mini gun sprays beautifully, was impressed for what it is. Other photos of the remaining small parts being painted.






Finishing off the scuttle panel



Assembling the fuel door


Sometimes I do things for no reason other than to see if I can replicate the way Mazda did things in the very early 70's. The very first cars used custom wire clamps between the brake master and the fluid reservoir. You can see an original master cylinder I have that used this method. I have a couple like this. The master on the car is an original new item with the fabric lines that I bought some time back.

Pic 1, the clamping tool, Pic 2 and 3 shows the original clamp method


Making the clamp and clamping the lines


... and there you have, original style line clamps on an original style master cylinder.


Reference photos of a 10a carb that I'm rebuilding. The other one you see in the photo is a NOS one. It'll be interesting to see if I ever manage to put it together after everything is cleaned and plated. Interesting observation, the acceleration pump is made from leather on this carb, I bet you have never seen that before.



Had my radiator checked over by a place on Victoria St near Melville Rd, Brunswick Melbourne. I normally don't bag a place out, HOWEVER if you need a radiator or oil cooler serviced save yourself the hassle and go elsewhere. A simple core upgrade is what I asked for, that was too hard to quote, close to 2 months later I settled on a check over, fins straightened and a pressure test. What I got charged was a joke, there are idiots and then there are idiots, this guy is the later When I finally got the oil cooler and radiator back it looked like it had been painted in a sand storm



I rubbed it back in 15 minutes, primed and painted.... wasn't that hard !


I can't use the oil cooler that came with the car (Rx2 unit) as it doesn't fit properly to the bottom of the radiator. It looks like I'll have a custom alloy one made up instead of trying to locate a Rx3 10a oil cooler.... no biggy, I'll shop around and see what's out there.

Radiator looks much better, unfortunately I can no longer use the top of the radiator as a sanding block. Some photos of the bits that have been finished recently. It's almost complete.... need to secure the fuel lines, the brakes are also complete, just need fluid.


To repair the door I ended up spraying from the swage line down for the simple reason that I can buff the area as much as I like without the repair ever showing unlike a spot repair. I'll rub it back with 2000 and give it a buff to finish it off. Sorry forgot to take photos of the steps until I started unmasking !



Sooo... basically what I did was mask off the area of the door and then back mask above the swage line. Back masking is basically when you fold the tape over on itself to avoid a hard line when you are repairing an area. The technique needs to be done at a body line to not show, in other words you can't do it in the middle of your door ! While you might be able to blend it out easy enough like a spot repair, the first time you run a buffer over it it will stick out like dog nuts. You can use soft foam tape to do the same thing but normal paint tape gives less hassles and is much cheaper.


Don't know what to do next

Well there hasn't been much progress on my coupe although I'm told my distributors should be completed mid next week, fingers crossed, it's been a long wait. I'm expecting the front windscreen will be at the manufacturers either this week or next so need to organise freight. The rear screen I'm still waiting on some news although I have begun looking at used ones locally, no luck as yet though. Once I have those 2 items I'll continue towards completion. Sometime next week I'll get started on the exhaust. I hope to have the car ready for the Japanese Classic day in Melbourne later in the year.

Since the coupe is nearing completion, I accidently bought the sedan below about 6 months ago. Anyone who has seen it thinks I'm mad but so be it. It's a 72 10a Rx3 sedan, 100% original has never been painted. It requires extensive restoration, it's more than a good challenge. I suspect the car ended it's life as either a track or race car. It was fitted with a roll cage, extra gauges, metalic pads, caster blocks, I suspect Rx4 brakes, rear stabiliser bar, larger brake booster, relocated clutch master and various other bits and pieces. I paid a premium I suppose but the one good thing about it is that it is 95% complete and I don't need to chase any rare impossible to find parts. The car still has the 10a 4speed fitted, original Rx3 gearbox rubber, original door seals, and lots of original rust ! All the original parts will make my job easier when the time comes to reproduce certain impossible to find items.

The track car modifications to the firewall will be undone and the rust will be addressed. The early plan is repair the firewall, build a body dolly, unpick all the typical panels that rust out on these cars and then send it to be blasted. I haven't decided what I'm building yet but have 2 themes in mind. The first is to restore it back to original and paint it the original Nova white OR build a custom Savanna GT sedan, paint it Flair yellow and fit it out with JDM black seats with the white stripe. The intention here is to build it similar to how Mazda would have done it. The later idea would probably devalue the car but to be honest it's nothing that can't be undone over a weekend.

So this is where it all begins...

The car is almost complete, the only parts I don't have are a 10a carb manifold (cheap easy find) and a 10a cross flow Rx3 radiator, not too hard to locate either. I have everything else including replacement panels which are required to fix the rust. The nosecone I'm happy to say has never been hit, rust free and surprisingly very straight despite it's deceiving appearance.


It's safe to say that having the car under a tarpaulin for many years pretty much killed it. It would have faired far better if it was left exposed to the elements. A pretty cool 70's sticker on the rear quarter window. Some will notice the rare door frame chrome, the chrome has never been removed.



Someone had a go repairing the right rear quarter and never primed it. It's not a great panel but I'll have a go beating and filing it for a few hours and see how it comes up. The opposite side is far better. If I'm not happy it will be changed but think it will be OK. You never know until you give it a go. I have all the tools to do it right. Pic 2, the scuttle panel will come off to address the rust properly. I'm uncertain how I'm going to remove it at this stage. The goal is to repair it and make it look like it's never come off when viewed with no paint.


Inside the rear quarters, the lower sections are all clean and surprisingly have no rust. This is the main reason why I think it's worth tapping them straight and seeing how they come up.... The boot floor is a different story and needs to be replaced.


The panel between the boot and rear windscreen is pretty good as well. It does have a couple of very minor spots of rust so will be removed, blasted, repaired and put back. This will give me the opportunity to clean out the seam and repair rust where it meets the right quarter panel.


Interior is all there and complete, it came with a fixed race car drivers seat however it came with an original drivers seat as well.


Caster blocks on the front end.


Engine bay is a mess but retains all the original fuel lines. I've already got some replacement items to undo the track car modifications.


So the repairs begin... before blasting I will unpick skirt reinforcement panels, evaluate the right skirt, unpick scuttle panel, unpick beaver and boot floor. The rest is all good

Unpicking the reinforcement skirt panels. Clever Rx3 people will note that the skirt on early cars doesn't have a doubling stiffening panel.



Pretty standard findings for an rx3 including the expandable foam and fiberglass repair. We'll see how it comes back from the blaster. I have a NOS right skirt if it needs to be unpicked. The rail will not not be touched if the skirt comes off.


Holey bat poo Batman...


Opposite isn't as bad....



Just a general shot....


Front guards, door skins, and possibly skirt will be replaced with NOS. This will need to be a pretty extensive resto otherwise I'm wasting my time. A body dolly will be built before it's sent to be blasted. If rust makes you sick you better look else where

....next update I'll be back on the coupe

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REgards, Mo Melville

That doesn't sound 100% original to me? Do you mean the body is unmodified or something?

Nice work John>> it isn't that bad

Was good to meet you the other week mate, looks like you got your work cut out for you, good luck and cant wait to see the finished coupe with a 10a sedan parked beside it

More work done on the coupe. Sometime ago I purchased a knock down Racing Beat header kit for a 12a twin dizzy motor which I was to modify to suit my smaller 10a motor. At the time I was talking with Kris who owns the immaculate early model JDM white Savanna coupe as to what direction he took. Kris was kind to give me what ever information I was after and supplied with with detailed photos of his exhaust build. It's amazing the extent some owners go to for things you will never see. Kris also used a Racing Beat header kit and then fabricated the rest himself, well that was quite a few years ago and the time had finally come to assemble my header kit.

The thought at the time was the headers came pre bent using thick wall tube and all I needed to do was weld them together. The header thickness is 3mm to be exact, thick and heavy which will help absorb some of the exhaust noise. The headers were pretty cheap at the time (I've had them for several years). Aside from the fact they were made of heavy gauge material, the other reason I was keen on a set is the tube ID was pretty much perfect for a Bridge Port engine. While all the rage at the moment is to go for huge 3" and 4" exhausts, what people in the know recommend is long primaries typically around 1 3/4 twin pipes which collect either just before, just after the diff or don't collect at all when a twin inlet, twin outlet rear muffler is used. So many combinations ! The one thing they all agree on is to use long primaries typically between 1 3/4 -> 2" depending on various factors.

In recent days I've been discussing (more asking ) Dazz about muffler and resonator combinations, more so on the resonators and placement. He's given me some ideas on what to do, I just need to work out the finer details before I order them. Once it's sorted out I'll post it up. He's made me aware of a few things that I wouldn't have known otherwise.

So the very first mistake I made when I ordered the headers is that US cars are left hand drive and have 10x more room than RHD models. Basically the headers weren't going to fit as they hit the steering box, well that was a bad over site.

So I needed to do more work than initially planned, nothing new there !

Here is the header kit http://www.racingbeat.com/RX7-1975-1985 ... 16001.html

.... and here are the photos. If I could buy decent headers off the shelf for a 10a I would have.

The header flange has been cut in half to suit the 10a.


Lots of putting on and pulling off to make them fit...


Thankfully I had my sedan's 10a sitting around which made things easier once I worked out the clearance problems.


I still need to match port the headers but at least the hard part is done. Engine in the photo has standard exhaust ports.


A little more cleanup but pretty much done. Once they are port matched I'll have them coated so they don't rust. Definitely more involved than originally anticipated, I'm pretty happy with the result.


Something different, I try and use as many original parts as possible so had the gearstick surround plastic chromed By Restoremaz. I have him doing a couple of other parts as well seeing this turned out so nice. While at RestoreMaz I picked up a decent rear screen as I'm fed up with waiting for the new repro ones. There are a few minor marks that could be professionally cut out but I'm a bit over it. The rear demister heater is in very good condition which is why I went for it.



Next update I should have the rear screen installed and the interior should almost be finished. I may even have a rear muffler and resonators fitted to the car

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Yes headers turned out pretty good but need some finishing. It would have been easier to oxy or TIG the flange that sits under the car but I don't have any gas for those at the moment since I'm not currently doing any serious body work. I might tidy the outlet up due to the pipes not meeting the end of the exhaust flange however before I do that I'll fit the opposite end and gasket to see if its warranted. I think it should be right but will check anyway.

I took a break from the headers and started to do some finishing touches, I needed some easy work for a change

Fitting sill trim clips, first I cleaned out the mount hole from excess paint then dabbed grease over the hole to protect from rust.


Cleaning up the sill trims for a polish.


Cleaning and buffing the rear "shark fin". I actually made a rubber gasket that fits to the rear of the shark fin to prevent the metal rubbing through the paint work, no photos of that sorry.


"Shark fin" and sill trim fitted. Some people like to remove these dress up parts bit I think these parts are what differentiat a modern to a classic. The cars tend to look a bit bland without their bright work.


Rear seat belts fitted, one minor job remains which will be covered next update. Car is still a bit dusty in these photos.


B pillar trim fitted, very rare fragile part to find in any condition.


Sail trim, C pillar trim and Super Deluxe badge fitted. Thanks to minifan for the C pillar trim. I gave it a buff to bring up the chrome them repainted the black out areas. Very happy with how it came up The sail trim has been painted in a silver base coat and cleared in a matt clear.


Enough easy stuff, next update I should have the rear screen and chrome installed, I'll look at finishing the fuel lines and possibly install the tank. I also hope to order the rest of the exhaust system once I work out what I want. I think I'm going to be battling to keep the bridge port sound legal so might have to order a second replacement rear more restrictive exhaust for the street. I'll see how it all woks out before I commit to a second "street" muffler.

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The window chromes you mentioned on the sedan, "shark fins" and lower sill chromes are the small things that make a good car stand out.. The B pillar trim is something I haven't seen on a car since my teenage years!

Rear screen going in.....

Rear screen arrived, I had planned on using a new reproduction rear screen but after waiting close to a year I'm no longer willing to wait. I found a good used one at RetoreMaz's workshop a couple of weeks ago. It's not perfect but one of the better used ones I've seen. I can always swap it over when the others become available, when that will be is anyone's guess.


Giving the screen a good clean in and out with steel wool and thinner, thanks for the tip Dave.


Attaching new heater element wires, they never worked great when new but never the less I will solder new leads.



Instead of using urethane to install the screens I decided to go the traditional "hot cure" kit. This particular kit is manufactured by Bostik and includes all necessary components. It comes with the butyl tape, primer and rubber blocks. The tape has fabric attached to one side. I believe they are imported from New Zealand. You can see the copper heater core in the first photo.



Dumby fitting the glass and washing the parcel shelf and rear seat.



Applying the primer to the flange after the glass and body are washed down with wax and grease remover


Applying the primer to the glass



Attaching the butyl tape to the glass. The fabric "dress" side faces inside.



Glass is ready to pop in, you only get one chance with this which is why it was dumby fitted earlier and mental reference points made Once the butyl tape hits the primer they are impossible to separate without destroying the seal. Before the glass is popped in I install all the plastic trim clips. I intentionally used Mitsubishi Magna clips because they don't rust and cost 1% of the Mazda ones... 20c ea v's $5 each x 40 = a lot of money saved. There would be other plastic clip options I'm sure that would work.


We now have a rear window, now I double check for any minor adjustments required by placing the trims roughly in place. A little bit of adjustment is possible once the transformer is hooked up to the copper core. Here is the data sheet for installation http://www.bostik.co.nz/userDocuments/N ... 0%20V1.pdf


A transformer is connected to heat the core which softens the seal so the windscreen can be squeezed into place to form its seal. The stainless trims make a good reference point on how far the windscreen needs to be pushed once the seal softens from heat.


Stainless trims now in place as are the C pillar vents. Stainless trims can be challenging but they eventually all clipped into place, not the best of designs in my opinion. Managed to install everything without damaging or scratching anything. From start to finish probably took an hour an hour and a half.



All done ... I should have the front screen in a few weeks.

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this is fantastic work i can't wait to see and hear the finshed project

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Great work, I brought clips from Rare spares but am having trouble getting the trim to stay put. Its on a Rx2 4 door, any ideas? And again awesome build. Stu. P.S sorry I see you've used plastic ones I'll give that ago, what year Magna are they off?

Yes it's almost complete, still waiting on bits and pieces though. I'll be measuring up for some custom mufflers in the coming weeks.

The clips came from RareSpares, I bought them years ago but they no longer carry them. I know RestoreMaz carries the same ones if you can't find any locally. They are off a very early model Magna, probably 84/85 model. The Sigma I think used the same clips as well. They should be an easy find.

With the windscreen clips and trims you need to install the stainless trims immediately after the screen goes in especially if it's installed using urethane in a chalking gun. Once the urethane goes off you're stuffed if the screen hasn't been pushed in far enough. If that's the case there is nothing you can do other than have the glass reinstalled. The other thing that some people do is they use so much glue that the clips end up getting glued in place, again if a clip ever breaks or slips off it's stud you are stuffed.

If suitable clips are used and the screen is only a little out in spots you could probably bend out the flared edge on the stainless trim to make it a tad longer so it catches the clip. Capella and Rx3 are installed the same way. We are talking about minuet adjustment here.

I have a clear channel right around the screen using the butyl tape to replace any broken clips if need be. The stainless trims are clipped on really tight, the only way to remove them is by making a basic tool to leverage the clips off the body work to release the stainless trim. A photo of your problem would probably help to see whats going on.

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Thanks for the info Gypsy, I'll let you know how I go. Stu

Not much if anything has happened with the coupe, I'm still waiting on bits and pieces to complete the car. Mazda are manufacturing a new oil cooler for us, cost is $500 delivered. The catch is I need to wait 3 months, 6 weeks manufacturing time, 6 weeks on the slow boat from Japan. A crate of new all clear windscreens should arrive any day now, this was a custom order. I bought one for myself and one for someone else. Dizzys have been promised by the end of the week and I'll be ordering some mufflers next week. Basically I haven't touched the coupe.

I've made a bit of progress on the sedan though, the car has grown on me.

I pulled the sedans 10a down, not too bad. Apex seals are worn and looks like it was blowing a fair bit of smoke.










I had the Dash Doctor reskin the dash pad. This is the original pad from my Rx3 coupe. I've also had the brake booster reconditioned, this one was far in better condition needing only a freshen up. The one in my coupe looked like it was recovered from the Titanic to quote the guy that rebuilt it.


Rather than do the usual story on body work I've included extra photos which will tell you the story. Just some notes, the rear right quarter has been replaced sometime in the cars life. The replacement panel has unfortunately also been hit at some stage. A lot of time was spent reshaping the tail light recess so filler isn't required, same goes for the reflector recess which was distorted particularly the bottom rear corner area. Overall who ever fitted the panel did an excellent job of it. I will improve the C pillar area, zap a few minor things with the MIG and that will be it for this panel. The tail light recess area cracked when I reshaped it with a cold chisel but the crack will be invisible once zapped with the MIG.





































..............AND we are done


In case you are wondering that panel is finished to perfection and requires absolutely no body filler. When the time comes I'll go back over it with 80G on a DA sander, give it a coat of epoxy and a couple of coats of 2K primer. The inner flange area that holds the rubber will be blasted when the car is eventually sent away, repairs are required here as well. I only plan on having the floor (inside and out) door jambs and engine bay sand blasted. I don't want anyone to touch the panels.

That panel took me approx 7 hours of hard labour, cost me a few sheets of speed file paper, a few more DA sheets, and some wear and tear on my tools and hands ! For now it'll be wiped down with wax and grease remover and then wiped down in Deoxidine to protect the bare metal from rusting.

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fantastic work there.

As well as the JDM 12a RX-3, you need an RX-3 wagon to complete the set.

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Thanks

I'm pretty temperamental when it comes to old cars, one moment I like them then the next couple of months I hate them. Once I have my "fix" I normally want nothing to do with them for a month or so. I had a good win with the quarter panel so decided to start blocking the roof. Not as straight as I had hoped and needs a bit of time to get right. At that point all my enthusiasm when out the window for the next month until I decide to repair or pickup my bat phone and kindly ask Takashi Yamanouchi to ship me a new roof panel. What ever I decide it's a significant amount of work to fix unless I give it a few coats of polyester spray and not worry about it

The main reason I was looking at bringing in a project 12a Japanese coupe or possibly converting an already imported 12a USA coupe is that there are too many locals that want top dollar for rusty, smashed up basket cases. Such is life, not much I can do about it. As for a wagon, I don't have the room for any more cars ! There's a couple of nice ones about though.

Priority 1 is to complete what's left of the coupe. Priority 2 is to complete the body work on the sedan which is what I enjoy most about a project and why I purchased it. After both those things happen you just never know

I think, everyone has that feeling once in a while. Especialy when things don't go the way you would like.

As always, great job your doing there.

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I forget the name (snowball effect? affect?), but I think the other thing that can happen is that you work on one thing, and something that is connected to it also needs work, so you fix that issue, then something that was only meant to take weeks blows out into months. The motivation then goes down the toilet.

yes re car prices. I need a 1300 bodyshell to fix my pride and joy, people want thousands for a rusted out piece of crap. unbelievable!

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