My 1980, Rx 323 restoration. Finished pics pg 9

mfroble · **Posted:** Mon Apr 13, 2009 6:32 am

WoW! absolutely loving this build.....A few questions for you, as I am looking
at doing a similar thing with the front end on mine

1. what series rx7 are the struts from? (ever heard of using rx4 struts?)
2. what is the benifit of using the rx7 ones
3. do you get much of a camber change using those?
4. where did you get the thrust bearings from?
5. where did you get the nolothane bushes for the sway bar?
6. are those standar rx7 brake rotors?
7. and when you say you lowered the rear springs, did you cut them? or re temper?

Bruce

RestoreMaz · **Posted:** Tue Apr 14, 2009 3:50 am

1 they are series 2 Rx7 struts.
2 because the engine is from an Rx7, the engineer wants the brakes from the car the engine came from for engineers certificate.
3 There is a small camber change, but as you can see from this car with exactly the same as what ive done to mine , its not noticeable....The springs in the Rx7 struts i did not lower, and neither did the guy with this green car,they are standard height from the Rx7

4The thrust bearings i got from a bearing suplier
5The nolathane bushes i got from Pac performance
6yep,they are the standard rx7 brake rotars, i just bought new ones...
7 The springs have been lowered properly by a spring place...reset....

Got radiator dummy fitted today.....

shanon made up a plate to mount the fans to....

Hopefully tomorow shanon will do the braided oil cooler lines for me, and then i can ripp it all out, and detail everything...

mfroble · **Posted:** Wed Apr 15, 2009 4:50 am

nice one mate, thanks for the info...I shall start to search for some new bits for the maz.

That green one is wicked

RestoreMaz · **Posted:** Wed Apr 15, 2009 5:32 am

Finished dummy fitting everything tonight..

Braided oil cooler lines done, and motor and box back out for detailing...

More pics in a week or two...

here is a video of the green 323 if anyone wants to hear what it sounds like.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CODO8RTbDJA

RestoreMaz · **Posted:** Tue Apr 28, 2009 2:40 am

Stayed back some more this week and got some work done...

Pulled out the cross member, welded up the holes from where i drilled out the spot welds for the piston engine mounts, got them nickied up and painted, plus the rotary crossmember and cleaned up all the other parts, and engine ready for paint..

All painted....

Fitted to the car....

Engine bits and peices...

Engine block

Thats all just sitting there, nothings bolted on, as all the bolts and everything else left in the engine bay is away getting zinc coated...

In a week or two ill have it all back, all together and in and ill post more pics...

RestoreMaz · **Posted:** Wed May 06, 2009 5:13 am

Stayed back some more this week and worked on the mazda.....

Got all my gaskets and seals...

And all the bolts and fittings back from re-zinc coating.

Cleaned the coils up, repainted and mounted to the car....

new thrust bearing.........

New light flywheel...

Rx4 4 speed all painted up ready to go in...

New rubber boot, and fork installed....

Motor all back together, with every nut and bolt re-zinc coated.....

droping it in...

In finaly....

Absolutely flat out at work, no more updates for a month or two.....

colink · **Posted:** Wed May 06, 2009 6:25 am

Absolutly fantastic

chrisrx · **Posted:** Sun May 10, 2009 2:32 am

thats tops dave, what port have you got cut into the "12a of death"

RestoreMaz · **Posted:** Sun May 10, 2009 6:06 am

Its just a standard 12a six port at the moment to get it on the road...

Later on it will be an EFI 12a turbo...

RestoreMaz · **Posted:** Sun May 17, 2009 12:09 am

Got some more work done on it on friday night...

My mate Dean pulled the carbie to bits and cleaned out every jet, and made the secondaries mechanical.

Painted up the oil cooler,fitted new speed flow fittings and also sent the radiator away to be over hauled and leak tested.

New clutch master and slave cylinders, and new braided line..

Painted up the fan mountiung plate, fitted fans...

All bolted up and oil cooler conected...

Wireing, fuel lines tail shaft and exhaust are next....

RestoreMaz · **Posted:** Sun Sep 13, 2009 3:22 am

Got busy on my car last few days...

Finished off the front brakes, got the new flex hoses made up, new pads, and zinc coated clips, and all together.

Got them all bled up and working also.

Tail shaft next...my mate steve gave me a 5 speed shaft, which is the right length...so we fitted new unis, and repainted it...Didnt have to spend 400 bucks on a new shaft.

Pulled the alternator to bits, replaced the main bearing because it was flogged out, repainted it, re zinc coated all the fittings ...

Also ran the fuel line, got the new battery and all the wireing, spent saturday wireing it up and got it running.

Heres a small vid of it running....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRDLR1NMKMc

Just have to wrap up the wireing now, get the air filter sand blasted, repaint it and fit the new stickers....mount an over flow bottle, and wire up the thermo fans...

ben · **Posted:** Sun Sep 13, 2009 10:23 pm

I love your project. Every detail is like a work of art. :tu:

TacoDelRio · **Posted:** Mon Sep 14, 2009 12:22 am

Truly inspirational. Love it!

RestoreMaz · **Posted:** Tue Sep 15, 2009 3:58 am

Finished off the wireing today, thermos working, everythings sorted out.

car is back on the ground, and driving.

Air filter unit and over flow bottle next week will finish the mechanicals, then ill get the exhaust done, After that, ill get the gaurds bonett and hatch done, and the car will be ready for paint..

Rolling again...

Wrapped up while i get back to work.

RestoreMaz · **Posted:** Fri Oct 30, 2009 4:27 am

Updates at last...

I bought all the stuff i needed for the exhaust this week, and stayed back late working on it.

$300 for everything, heeps better than paying somebody a grand for an exhaust...

Shortened the length of the extractors, and put a new flange

Welded it in and out so it wont leak...

First muffler in place...

Rear muffler sitting in place.....

Joining them together

Out of the car for final welding, and then heat proof black on the pipes...and chrome dumpy on the end.

This is how it sounds...its a little bit quiet, but it will get louder as the mufflers slowly burn out..

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8_PH-6ZeKA[/youtube]

Also finished off the engine bay, all that was needed was the air filter unit, and an over flow bottle...

Got the air filter sandblasted, repainted it, and fitted new stickers...

Blue base coat, stickers fitted before clearing...

Re zinc coated clips to hold the lid on...

New filter element...

All cleared assembled and fitted to the car...

Over flow bottle, i got this from a later model 323/ford laser from the wreckers...it looks the part...

Engine bay and mechanicals are all finished now, and the car starts and drives.
Im going to finish off the bonett , hatch, gaurds and front nose panels and hopefully get the car painted in the next month or two...

ben · **Posted:** Fri Oct 30, 2009 11:44 pm

You Aussie Mazdafarians are way too awesome with your restorations. :tu:

RestoreMaz · **Posted:** Tue Nov 17, 2009 3:26 am

More updates..

Worked saturday and late last two nights on the car...

Striped out the hatch, bare metaled it and repaired it..

Few little rust holes under the rubber...easy fixed.

Repaired and in polyestor here....

Test fitting it to the car , to make sure it fits properly, and all the lines are right...the top edge was out a bit, i had to make the top right edge of it sit better...

Rear hatch area ready for paint, along with hatch lid...

Colour....

Will bolt it back on tomorow night.... \:D/

Front end panels....

I quickly paint striped the head light mount panels, they looked clean, but that dosnt meen anything...

under the paint they were full of little rust worms.....

This is why you have to take panels back to metal, no exceptions..or it will bite you hard later on, and you will spend twice the money...

Sand blasting is the best way to cure it...

Etch primered....it is very important to do this straight away over bare metal..if you dont, it will rust later..
.

front apron, fuel lid and plenum grille had no rust, i paint striped them, fixed a few tiny little dents, etch primered them, and then hi filled them.

All front end bits in primer...ready to be edged out and fitted...

Just have to repair my two front gaurds now, and then the car is ready for paint...

Im hoping to have it painted within the next month....im hanging to see it finished, and start on my two door...

More updates in a week..

jdmrx2 · **Posted:** Tue Nov 17, 2009 4:38 am

Mate, this 323 will be amazing when it's finished!!

The standard of workmanship and effort is outstanding!!
Thanks for the update, looking forward to seeing it painted!!

A quick question, I take it that the car has been 2 paked, judging by the gloss, but would you paint a car in acrylic the same way, ie jambs and back off panels first, then outside, or would you use a different method?

The reason I ask is that I'm doing the panel on my RX2 at the minute and gearing up to paint hopefully early next year, and am not 100% sure which will be the best sequence to paint it in.

Keep up the great work!!

mfroble · **Posted:** Tue Nov 17, 2009 8:01 am

awesome work as usual mate

Bruce

RestoreMaz · **Posted:** Wed Nov 18, 2009 3:00 am

jdmrx2 wrote:

Mate, this 323 will be amazing when it's finished!!

The standard of workmanship and effort is outstanding!!
Thanks for the update, looking forward to seeing it painted!!

A quick question, I take it that the car has been 2 paked, judging by the gloss, but would you paint a car in acrylic the same way, ie jambs and back off panels first, then outside, or would you use a different method?

The reason I ask is that I'm doing the panel on my RX2 at the minute and gearing up to paint hopefully early next year, and am not 100% sure which will be the best sequence to paint it in.

Keep up the great work!!

Yeah its just the order in which ive chosen to do it, and you can do it that way with any paint system...

Its realy better to do all the panels seperatly, but its to easy to scratch parts fitting and adjusting panels when they are all painted...

My 1980, Rx 323 restoration. Finished pics pg 9

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