This is my recently aquired CD23C Cosmo/RX5.
Its a 1977 K1 Auto with all the usual options.
The gentlemen who I bought it from had it since new.
It lived its whole life living very close to the beach at the same address.
I went to inspect the car and came home with an absolutely pampered car.
There where some issues where the car had not been driven for what I was told 2 years. I suspect it was longer. The last rego sticker in the windscreen is for 1996. It had stayed rego'd right up until its sale.
The chap Charlie i bought it from pampered it it's whole life.
Concidering it lived so close to the beach I was very surprised what i found when inspecting it.
I sat for many hours with Charlie learning about its history.
One of the things that will stay with me is that he said its the only car he ever had to put the brakes on in while going uphill. He loved it.
He only used it for long trips and put a genuine 79000Kms on it in 33 years. He suffered a stroke in 2008 and it sat wrapped up in the shed till I uncovered it. He is a great old bloke and I thank him for keeping it in such great condition.
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I trucked it home from Queensland to Sydney and prior to it leaving filled the engine with some wd40 and cranked her over a few times as the pulses where uneven. The carby was also out of commission.
Charlies Shed.

When it arrived I stripped the carby and removed many years of stale fuel glue from it. Checked out the ignition and replaced the plugs.
I waited till dark so the smoke cloud woudn't concern anyone and once the new battery was connected hit the key. What do you know. Straight up on the choke and sounded great. Was popping a bit from a bit of blow by but after it warmed up she was idling fine. I thought I would run it around the block to get the lubes moving. The Rear REAPS muffler didn't get far before spitting its inards out the tailpipe. I have had the rear muffler copied so it looks original for now. the pictures show the temporary can.
It needs the fuel tank flushed properly and the engine bay restoring as this was not one of his regular maintenace items and is showing surface rust from its salt air exposure. The stainless trims need replacing as they suffered a lot of pitting from sitting under its storage wraps.
I had to recore the radiator as time had not been good to it.
I had it on its first major run last Sunday and it performed faultless.
The aircon works a treat and the only issue inside it is the glovebox lock plastic is cracked and the cassette deck won't play the tapes.
I also needed to replace to tyres as they had badly flatspotted from being in the one spot. I need to rechrome the front bumper and have found a JDM rear bar for it It will need some paint correction on the front left gaurd/lower valance and lower gaurds where he has applied grey primer to stop stone chips from rusting.
All in all the car is a time capsule that will be my club car and a I will slowly bring it back to as new where possible.
Some current pics.










I've never named cars before but this one the wife is calling Charlie Cosmo so I'll call it Charlie in the great mans honour.
Thanks Charles.

very very nice i like it alot

WOW.... this thing should be in museum.... absolutely perfect

That's amazing. Very nice car. Charlie is a good man!

:O omg i thort my 76 121 was in good nick. well done absolutly love it. where in sydney do you live it would be cool to get the few owners of these cars togeather for a picture session some time.

Hey some of you aussies will have to tell me what is up. I just noticed that this car only has a drivers side mirror. It is also a manual mirror, the chassis seems devoid of any of the usual options except the factory tape deck is that weird or what?

Yes I know it has Alloys but most of the ones I have seen in the US came with Steel rims and as far as the automatic vs manual 50/50

A great find! 2 thumbs up!

this is the one that was on ebay not so long ago. Well done and good on you for keeping it original and well looked after into the future.

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round and round and now up and down!

in oz we had 121s with basic fitment for all, the wheels are from rx5/cosmo, 121s came out wtih steelies with chrome surround.

there was no legislation on second mirror and guard mirrors were not used... electric mirrors we got only on 81+ 929s first time.

from memory even rx5 in australia did not have electric windows...

this is one of the reasons why "gray" importing is so popular in oz... you get the same car, but its different enough for you to make it worth it.

Great write up, it's great to see an old car like this go to enthusiast who appreciates it for what it is.... but how about some engine bay shots, we dont mind if its not perfect under the hood !

thanks Guys.
Matsuda is correct.
AUDM cars where always the lowest spec possible.
From what I can tell Charlie could have optioned up to electric windows and mirrors if he had placed an order from Japan. His original desire was to have a manual and was offered this option at point of sale at a cost of $400 but would have had to wait 3 months. He took this from dealer stock as an auto as speced for AUDM.
That was conciderable money for 77.
The car has the window blanks in the console as all had I understand.

the mirrors where all manual.
Under bonnet Pics as requested.





I have also just recieved my JDM bar.
This is by far the most expensive JDM part I have ever owned.
Cheap to actually purchase but hideous to ship.
being a one piece it could not be broken down to postal size and had to be air freighted.
some of the quotes I recieved mean't I could have flown there and back and collected it as excess luggage cheaper.

it will replace the Charlie Bar that old mate had primered to stave of the surface rust. Not to sure to if I'll add the over riders yet or leave it neat.

i would like to know where you got the bar as my JDM Cosmo AP has US spec bumpers it had to be converted when it was imported but I would like to go back the way it is supposed to be.

I found it through Yahoo Japan.
There not that easy to find. I was just lucky to be looking around the time one came up.
Getting the thing purchased and delivered was the hardest part and that was with having contacts over there.
It would have been cheaper for me in the long run to weld sections into the AUDM bar and have it rechromed.
But I would have known it was not genuine.

I went with the over riders and it looks much better around the plate area now.
I'll fix up the plate bracket soon as its been red primered and looks out of place.

great story

Thats a really nice find, You are very lucky to find a car and know everything from its purchase date, I wish I could say the same.

There is a green one with a vinyl roof a couple of doors down from my house I cant help but check it out everytime I drive past.

However looking from the street it seems to be caked in dust and not moved in a long time.

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Better at least stop and knock on the door. I don't know how many I have been given just because I asked

yeagh always knock and ask.

any how REAPS back on and the peashooter binned.


Peter at Quick Fit did a mad job of the copy.
He's a rotor head too and realised it had to be done right.
all the shields went back.
very happy.
reaps staino polished by restoremaz..

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Well done mate old charlie looks the goods