Here's some pics and details about my '73 Mazda 808 Sedan. Hope you enjoy. I've been a member on here for a little while but never really posted anything.


I bought this car as a parts car for my RX3 however after driving it home I didn't have the heart to destroy it. The bad news was the drivers side rear quarter had been totaled and repaired poorly. There were holes from a slide hammer and these had been filled with what looked like liquid nails. Other than that it was in pretty good condition.
I think it may have had a quick respray at one stage but it was reasonably good. Except for the fact that it was extremely slow and would barely pull up at 60kms.




So after a while I decided to repair the damage. So I removed the rear quarter.





and bought another donor car. This ended up supplying parts for the 808 and my RX3 plus other parts were also sold off




I then took on my first attempt at spraying. It came up a lot better than I expected.




The whole process took me a few months as I didn't rush it and most work was done over winter. The end product with powder coated rims and white-walled tyres



I took it along to a local All Japan Day and one of the local rotary cruises




I started to get bored of the white stock rims so decided to get something else and I also wanted to upgrade the front brakes so wanted to get some 14" or bigger. I picked up some australian made jap styled rims in 14's




I didn't like the look of the chrome edge so cleaned them up and painted them completely



This is on of my favourite pics. I live just near the beach and take the dog for a cruise all the time



So all this has happened over the last couple of years. But I started getting sick of how slow this thing was so I finally decided to put a 12a into her. About 3 months ago I pulled out the old 1300cc auto engine/trans and she now sites like this



I've got everything to get it back up and running, engine, gearbox etc and I'm midway through cleaning up the engine bay. I'm going to give the bay a spray and clean up the wiring a little however the Mrs and I have bought a second property and we're frantically working on our current place to get it ready for the market. Unfortunately this means the old girl probably won't be back on the road for at least 6 - 12 months.

Hope you enjoy.

Cheers,
Scott. (Adelaide, Australia)

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'73 Mazda 808 Sedan - Unrestored
'74 Mazda RX3 Sedan - Undergoing restoration

That is a great photo.

Nice work, good too see another adeladian on here. Your not far from me, i also spend alot of time at that beach, with my kids tho not my dog because he is a menace.

Very cool car. I really like the proportions of the Mazda 4-doors, they just look "right" when a lot of other 4-door cars don't.

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-Cam
1980 Toyota Celica
1984 Porsche 911
1988 Mazda RX7

Very nice. Great repair job on the rear fender.

Great work on the panels mate, come up a treat! Love that Mazda colour.

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Too many Mazda's in the collection. 4 Mitsubishi's, 6 Toyota's and now 3 Datsun's as well.
Putting together a Mazda/Japanese motor museum. New bigger venue for the museum has been bought, watch this space!

Cheers for all the great comments.


Hey Matt, good to hear from a local. Don't see too many rotors down my way very often. Especially on the beach.




The colour is Pheonix Blue, paint code AM

The parts I resprayed are simply factory colour, not colour matched. It comes up pretty close to the rest of the car.

The colour is cool because sometimes it looks really blue but on overcast and cloudy day it really brings out a greenish tinge.

Thanks again for all the comments.
Cheers,
Scott.

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'73 Mazda 808 Sedan - Unrestored
'74 Mazda RX3 Sedan - Undergoing restoration

Nice little sedan there
came across your pics and then noticed the local beach!

Brought back memories: I had a massive crash on that beach as a 16 year old kid back in oh 97-ish. Used to hang out down there after work or weekends.
We used to get lots of abuse from V8 owners etc, they hated the rotors. One day driving along the beach slowly we copped a bit of verbal abuse from this fella my mate got a bit excited in his rx2 started to show off (because it was that awesome it spun wheels in the sand!), he then lost it into the back of my green rx 808 sedan.. basically writing my car off, we copped more abuse.. great day out.

Wouldnt catch me taking my dogs in the mazda or "off road" now. Learnt the hard way and got a ute for that.

fyi scott hasn't been here since august

Hey beans, sorry for the late reply. Haven't been on this site for ages. Sounds like you should stay clear of the beaches now

Yeah the dog gets a ride in the 808 every now and then, but I keep a towel in there to dry her off as she loves the water.

I can't believe it's been nearly a year since I've posted an updated, and unfortunately nothing at all has happened except the cars sat in the shed collecting dust.

However.....I'm getting married in December this year and I've decided I want this car in the wedding. My three brothers and my groomsmen love the rotors so I'm gonna let them drive this old girl (also going to have my uncle's one owner Valiant E55 340Ci Charger as the main car)

So, I really need to get this up and running. I need to respray the engine bay and put the 12a in. I'm also building a new shed at the same time so I've got my work cut out for me. Hopefully have an update in the next month.

Cheers,
Scott.

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'73 Mazda 808 Sedan - Unrestored
'74 Mazda RX3 Sedan - Undergoing restoration

Did you ever upgrade the brakes? Front brake rotors can be hard (or impossible to find) so I'd be interested in what you did there.

Hey Dave,
I did upgrade the front brakes. I picked up some unknown discs and calipers that someone had for sale. I think the calipers are from a old Aussie Chrysler. They have the below image on them:



They're quite big and heavy. The discs, again unknown, are vented but they work really well. I also installed a brake booster and I put a proportioning valve in the rear lines as I plan on putting discs on the rear one day (I got some caliper brackets from Ausrotary to fit Series 2 RX7 calipers)

The brakes are a huge improvement and it also allowed me to convert the screw in studs to wheel nuts which I feel more confident about.

Hope this helps a bit.

*Update on car* I've completely cleaned the engine bay and now have it fully primered and as smoothed as I can get it. Will be laying some colour on tomorrow. Hopefully have the engine in position over the next couple of weeks. Very exciting.

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'73 Mazda 808 Sedan - Unrestored
'74 Mazda RX3 Sedan - Undergoing restoration

Small update. I finally laid some paint on the car today. Very happy with the results. A few photos below showing from my last pics up to today.

Before the engine came out


Primered engine bay


and again


Then some colour


...more



another with different lighting.

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'73 Mazda 808 Sedan - Unrestored
'74 Mazda RX3 Sedan - Undergoing restoration

Looking Good

nice work, your paint looks nice. i used to drive one of these the same colour it had rust everywhere!

Paints looks sensational

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REgards, Mo Melville

Great work and love the colour

You'd have to be very happy with a result like that.

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Ebay reproduction parts for sale here