Mr Gypsy, keep up the great work...love it...

28th November 2010

Ignore my immature comments regarding metalics please. I love all Rx3 coupes as long as they are painted white

My favourite photo at present. Panels need a little more adjustment (door needs to move forward a tad) but lines and gaps are looking good. RHS almost ready for blocking and then a sealer coat. Its beginning to look like a car again, just need to get motivated to finish off the LHS and then up it'll go on the rotisserie.

Looking great Gypsy. Love that photo, it is looking like an RX3 again

I can't beleive those guards, the flares were shocking....Must have been from an early 90's build!! Probably had a crazy striped fluro interior as well

I was looking at some old mags the other night in the shed, and was having having a bit of a laugh at the trends. Widened steelies and 13 X 9 Simmons were the norm (with accomodating flares to match)
Some of the colour schemes were shocking too. There was a lavender purple RX3 with all the trim, light surrounds, grille etc done in white. Would have looked sweet rolling along in this with a Hypercolour T shirt on and a backwards cap

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Rockin' the 7 in a street near you.....

Yes, those flares were pretty bad... just as bad as the seller that was dishonest in his description. Anyway lucky for the guards they get to live another day. Im not convinced that some of the mods that are performed these days are much better...... if anything it makes old cars worse than what they already are. How many hack upon hacks can you do to a car before it becomes uneconomical to repair ? I say bring back the united colours of benneton interiors, I cant believe people thought they were classy

My car is starting to take shape so Im happy ! I'd love to finish off the LH side and get started on blocking the car for paint. Roof and boot lid are already in sealer, the nosecone needs a fair bit of work as its loaded with bog. Ive removed all the filler from the ends and valance panel but the top centre of the nosecone has quite a bit in it. I want to straighten that section, I think I can repair it alot better than its current state. Left door is done, which leaves the guard and rear quarter to finish off. Would you believe Im over the resto at the moment, I just want it painted so I can throw a cover over it and forget about it for a while.

Haha, amen to that

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Rockin' the 7 in a street near you.....

had the same moment yesterday.

steel mazda wheels on the back, I needed to put some spare alloy wheels on to get the steel wheels powdercoated.

jacked up car, took wheel off, went to put alloy wheel on.

Stupid effing wheel studs were the wrong ones.

Put steel wheel back on, lower car down off jack. Go to start car, car hardly runs. Manage to get it back inside.
Pack up everything, sit down with a book and a big scotch.

A few more.......

Welding on the replacement section. I didnt worry about straightening out the replacement area too much as it was going to be the least of my problems. The area came off an old Rx3 race car so had seen its fair share of bumps over the years. In my opinion you can't straighten things like this too much without unintentionally changing the shape. If you do too much work to the new skin, the existing skin (on car) will have dissimilar curves which means that there will be an excessive amount of filler required. You're best to get all the big dents out around the centre of the replacement area, weld in place and then straighten out the new and old together to get a uniform shape. That's easy said than done mainly due to limited access from the inside quarter. I've seen people cut out the inside quarter to get a nicer repair to the skin and then weld the inside area back into place. There is no right or wrong, when you are repairing old stuff it's all about compromise. Pic2, the primer burns away as I tack in the new section to minimise heat in the panel. It will get cleaned up and primed and sealed when Im done. Too much heat and it will be impossible to straighten. This takes a bit of time to complete.


Pic 1, Ive welded down to the swage. This will give you an idea what I intend to do to the inside welded areas to keep moisture out of the joins. Pic 2, welded in, now to try and straighten it as best I can. I'll be using a hammer and dolly, body file, and stud welder.


Pic 1, the sill end cap is in welded in place. Pic 2, The lower section is straight. The bottom flange and wheel arch flange need to be trimmed to match original body work. I still need to place 2 plug welds on the underside area of pic 2 (area where the jack is). Although I have no problem welding upside down i'll be leaving it until I put the shell up on the rotisserie. Saves my neck from days of pain !


What a pain in the F#$%%# ass straightening this out ! Its pretty decent now. My main concern was having a taught panel for the paint stage. If the panel is oil canning it is impossible to block. The welds have been filed and tapped as smooth as I can get them. The centre section in pic 1 had real bad wobbles from trying to straighten it. I pulled, pushed, tapped around, shrunk the wobbles here and there until I got it pretty good. The little dots on top of the welded area are from the stud gun, it's easier to pull it out from the outside than tap it out from the inside. I should get a dolly behind there are tap the area out. The metal in pic 2 didnt require too much being new metal. I worked the weld line below the swage before attaching to the car.


The end result is something Im happy with. Welds filed up and cleaned. Repair area is pretty straight with no oil canning. It was doing my head in. I was lucky the neighbours were away which allows me to beat the welds.... that should be the last of the noisy stuff which I no longer have to time with people being away.


In the end I got what I wanted and I won over stubbornness of the quarter panel HOWEVER I started at 10:00am and finished at 6:30pm with a 30 minute break...... never AGAIN, was too much for me. If my next car was a Cosmo I'd just bog it up, I dont care if its a Cosmo, R130, Ferrari or a Lemans winning Ford GT40.........bog is the go ! For rust holes some fly screen and a tub of K & H's finest. For bigger holes, the local newspaper and a tin of Digger's fibreglass resin from the hardware shop

Shell panels are now ready for paint process..... I have the nosecone to finish and left guard as far as panel beating goes. I'd love to have the shell in HiFill before the year is out which I think is realistic.

Quality..

And whats wrong with flyscreen and bog, its been an industry standard for decades for rusty old jap crap....

i wish i could repair like that, over how many years did you develop your skills gypsy?

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I enrolled in 3 semisters at a TAFE where they teach metal forming. I had some great instructors who can make anything from a flat bit of steel and were keen to help with anything I took to class. I could probably do most of what you see after about 6 months with the more difficult stuff maybe up to a couple of years. The welding didnt take long and was just an extension of fabricating stuff. After a while all the techniques fall into place and making the more difficult stuff becomes second nature. More patience is required than anything else, and parts always take longer to fabricate than you think they should. Thats something that always comes back and bites me !

I'd really like to pick up a few more Mazda's over the coming years and fix them up for my personal use. High on the list would have to be a standard 13B Rx4 coupe, 12a Rx3 coupe, maybe a R100 and I'd love to own a Cosmo Sport sometime soon after the current car is done. As you can see Im a real sucker for rusty Mazda's and if I were to get someone to fix and paint all these cars for me I'd be living in a tent.

As your skills improve with time, you naturally buy some nice tools to speed things up, however its amazing what can be done with very basic cheap hand tools.

You're an inspiration to all of us. I'd love to see what you'd do with a Cosmo Sport.

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

I only have 2 basic hammers and a dolly, oh and a crappy mig.
I have seen some metal fab courses in local community collage guides, thinking i am going to enroll.

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second the cosmo idea!

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Those 2 hammers and dolly can do alot of basic stuff. I only had a crappy MIG until 6 months ago. As long as its a gas MIG your right to learn. Gasless MIGs are useless for car work.

The Rx3 should be finished by next spring. The Rx3 for me however is the pinnacle for early rotary ownership which is why I want a 12a model as well, I just love the coupe shape. I'd like the next car to be something other than an Rx3 if I can help it..... I'll start looking when this one is done.

its gas-less MIG. Its very tricky to use on body work, luck for me my car dose not have and large areas to replace, so im getting buy patching up small amounts.
The 10a model, is that the one with the flatter nose cone and 12a was the savanna pointy nose?

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Gasless MIG is for welding fences not cars Once you weld with an Argon mix you'll never bother with gasless again. Gas MIG produces nice clean smooth welds and doesnt splutter everywhere !

Thats pretty much right about the nose cones in Australia. Japan and other markets got the 10a and 12a noses as we call them here with both 10a and 12a engines I believe. ie Early 12a twin dizzy USA cars had our 10a front end, late model 10a Japanese cars had a 12a front end. It was a mixed bag depending on the market. Some euro countries had rotary model front noses fitted with piston engines... this info is stuff Ive read over the years.

Savanna is just a Japanese name for Rx3. They are the same rusty pieces of crap that were sold here and in other countries The only worthy addition on Japanese and Asian delivered cars that we never got was the Japanese dash....... aside from that I dont think there is anything more special about them. Recent sales in Australia of various JDM cars seems to reflect my belief. Some locals think because its a Japanese market car that its worth more, JDM cars that I thought would bring some decent cash have really struggled to sell and have been sold at bargain prices equivalent to local delivered cars. The right car from any market is the main factor that will bring in the top money. Different markets may have had slightly different fittings, but its the dash that really distinguishes an Asian market Rx3/ Savanna. RX7s also got the Savanna name, I suppose that was because they superseded the Rx3. I'll put up some photos of a JDM dash when I get time, they look 240Z ish to me with the round dials in the centre of the dash. They arent as piece meal as the dashes we got here, however either looks good just the japanese one is different.

what you said about mixed bag of parts seem to be true most likely throughout the early RX series. My experiences with capellas seem to reflect this. It was a 76 capella (series 4 build year) it had the series 3/4 tail lights but rather than having the pointy nose it was sporting the twin light grill bonnet and guards. I thought someone swapped it over but it seemed to be factory since it had the correct brackets for the grill and headlights. and i could not find any repairs to the rear. A friend bought a similar car too a short while later. Our theory was the last of the production cars must have been put together like this for export or possibly South African built.

My mig dose work wonders on the fence

Pics of the two RX3 dash variations would be good to see.

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GTS-Retro I think you've misinterpreted what I meant by mixed parts. What I meant to say, just because a combination of parts was not available locally doesnt mean it didnt exist for other over seas markets. ie you cant call a RX3 12a front end that in the USA because their 12a powered cars were fitted with both what we call 10a and 12a nosecones depending on the year of manufacture. Mazda were pretty consistent in parts combinations in Australia, there is no question about that.

Here are some pics of the different dashes... Asian market and Australia/ USA market, Both look good when they are in a nice interior... there are alot of tatty dashes around though which makes cars look average.

Australian dash with late model 808 coupe wheel with jap rotor emblem.


Australian dash with proper fake wood wheel



Japanese spec interior from brochure



and another



Rx3's in my opinion had one of the best dashes/ interiors of all early Mazda's. Out of all the bits Mazda made I think reupholstered Australian spec seats (black) is the pick from all world wide seat options with either dash however the black wheel is miles ahead of the wooden ones. Just look at that first photo, why would you even consider after market seats regardless what they are. People are also big on the fibreglass or alloy dashes in Australia, something that I do not understand given they look home made at best ! Everyone has different tastes but photo's like the first one made the decision to redo my seats very easy, I wouldnt have anything else.

found a usa brochure on ebay.

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1994 mazda 626 1.8L 16V hatchback
1977 mazda 818 1.3L 8V coupe
1992 mazda MX-6 2,5L 24V

or this one,

with us bumpers.

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1994 mazda 626 1.8L 16V hatchback
1977 mazda 818 1.3L 8V coupe
1992 mazda MX-6 2,5L 24V