Cosmos: n. harmonious system

Nakazoto · **Posted:** Sun Jan 20, 2013 4:45 pm

I've been playing this one a bit close to my chest for the last while because part of me still couldn't believe that it might actually happen and another part of me didn't want to jinx it. However, it's now definitely happening and while much hasn't happened yet, it's going to get insane over the next few months.

This story starts last year when my parents came to visit. I took them to Classic Car Nagoya because they love beautiful old cars as much as I do. While there, my dad saw a little old car covered in primer and completely stripped. Well, he looked at it and said "I'd like to have that." I laughed and said "Me too". Here's the car in question.

Yes, that is what it looks like (as a side note, the red car filling the bottom corner of the photo is a 432 Z)! As it turns out, while I may have been dreaming of a day I could get my hands on a Cosmo, my father was focused on making dreams a reality. My mother was unsure at first, but I showed her some pictures of a few fully restored models and she was hooked, she suddenly wanted one too. So, a deal was struck up.

All the pieces are there for this one, it just needs paint and re-assembly. The deal was that Classic Car Nagoya would paint it and then deliver it to my garage, where I'd proceed to reassemble it. Now that is a deal that I can wholeheartedly agree to! So, for the past few days, I've been relocating parts!

This was peeking out of one of the boxes.

There were about 30 boxes that I needed to find space for along with a bunch of stuff that wouldn't fit in boxes.

So I made some leaning towers of Cosmo.

I also completely filled up one corner of my garage...

... and hung some stuff on the wall.

The dash made it...

... along with the epic instrument panel.

Now some keen-eyed viewers will have noticed that the boxes all say L10A. Some of those keen-eyed viewers might be thinking something like "An L10A is the Series 1 Cosmo, of which there are only 343, but this car can't be a Series 1 because it has the Series 2 nose." Interesting story actually. Apparently, the Series 1 Cosmo had some serious overheating issues due to lack of airflow to the radiator, which is probably what led to the improved Series 2 shape.

This car happens to be a Series 1 with a Series 2 nose grafted on to help with the overheating. That means that it comes with the 0810 engine and matching 4-speed transmission, the shorter wheelbase, and that huge rarity factor. There can't be but a handful of Series 1 Cosmos still around. I kind of wish it still had the Series 1 nose on it, but finding one of those would be like finding the winning lottery ticket floating around on the street.

I still need to move some more things to my house like the engine, transmission and rear axle, but for the most part, all the parts have made their way to their new home!

Expect more updates on this as Classic Car Nagoya starts prepping for paint! I can't wait!

Cheers
David

derek · **Posted:** Sun Jan 20, 2013 6:41 pm

Beautiful and super lucky! I recognized your garage floor.

Blur · **Posted:** Sun Jan 20, 2013 10:09 pm

Following with interest!

Good luck, parts are super rare and expensive from what Ive seen but such a nice car so it all seems worth it!

panda · **Joined:** Tue Oct 11, 2011 5:33 am **Posts:** 5

Not too long ago I just went thru your whole 360 post and loved it. Can't wait to see how this one goes. Such a beautiful car.

RX-2Fan · **Posted:** Mon Jan 21, 2013 1:14 am

Epic Epic Epic!!! I love Cosmo restorations, they just give me hope that one day I'll own one! Good Luck!!!

banzaitoyota · **Posted:** Mon Jan 21, 2013 6:31 am

Can't wait to see more

Camshaft · **Posted:** Mon Jan 21, 2013 2:15 pm

Holy cow! I'm incredibly happy for you and jealous at the same time! A Cosmo...ANY Cosmo...is among the Holy Grails of Japanese sports cars, let alone an L10A! That's seriously amazing!!!

nwclassichonda · **Posted:** Mon Jan 21, 2013 2:57 pm

Wow!!!

Nakazoto · **Posted:** Mon Jan 21, 2013 6:26 pm

Thanks for the comments everyone! The Cosmo is right up there with the 2000GT, 432Z, and Hako GT-R in my book (although they don't command nearly as much money as those three). I guess that means I need to buy the 432Z that Classic has sitting in there next, huh.

Too bad I don't have a spare 60 grand laying about...

Back to the Cosmo, I got to drive an L10B a while back and it was one of the best driving classics I've ever had the pleasure of being behind the wheel of! Here's the one I got to cruise around:

I'm really excited to see how this thing evolves. I will have a bit of a hard time putting it back together as I'm not the one who took it apart, so I'm not intimately familiar with how everything should go back together. I'm also going to have to rebuild the engine, so I may need to lean on some of you rotary experts on here for help with that!

The more I dig into the differences between the L10A and L10B the deeper the story gets. For example, my instrument cluster has a tachometer that is x1000 instead of x100, which is an L10B tacho. Same for the speedometer, it's an L10B speedo. The seats also have headrests, which means they are L10B seats. I found a really excellent site that lists all the differences between the two here:
http://cosmosport.net/cosmo9.htm

My quick and dirty translation of the differences:

The front grille on the later model is larger, although there are a lot of L10As with the L10B grille on it.

Item - L10A - L10B

Length - 4140mm - 4130mm
Width - 1595mm - 1595mm
Height - 1165mm - 1165mm
Wheelbase - 2200mm - 2350mm
Tread F/R - 1250/1240mm - 1260/1250mm
Weight - 940kg - 960 kg

HP - 110ps/7000rpm - 128ps/7000rpm
Torque - 13.3kg/3500rpm - 14.2kg/5000rpm
Max Speed - 185kmh - 200kmh
1/4 Time - 16.3s - 15.8s

Front Grille - Vertical slits - Large opening with brake cooling
Bumper - Long rear bumper - Bumper rubber on front and rear
Fender Mirror - Chrome - Body Color ('68/'69 available with chrome)
Side Marker - Round - Oval ('68/'69 available in round)
Speedometer - 200kmh - 240kmh
Tachometer - x100rpm - x1000rpm
Hand brake - On passenger side - On driver side
Hazard flasher - Not equipped - Equipped
Parking lamps - Not equipped - Equipped
A/C - Not available - Available as an option
Seat headrest - Not equipped - Equipped ('68/'69 not equipped)
Assist grip - Not equipped - Equipped
Battery - Located in trunk - Located behind passenger seat
Brakes - No brake booster - Brake booster
Tires - 14 inch - 15 inch

As you can see from the pictures, this Cosmo has several things that peg it as an L10B, so this weekend I'm definitely writing down the VIN number and checking it! The story goes that Classic Car Nagoya received two Cosmos at the same time, an L10A and an L10B and the L10B was sold as a parts car. So, if I were to venture a guess, I would say that someone had an L10A that needed some work, so they bought an L10B parts car and sacrificed a large majority of the parts to bring the L10A back to life.

At any rate, I will definitely know more by this weekend!

Thanks again everyone for the comments!
Cheers
David

mazdajon · **Posted:** Mon Jan 21, 2013 7:53 pm

David, the gap between the door and rear wheel arch is the key. That is where the extra body length is. Narrow dogleg, L10A. Wide dogleg, L10B.

regards
Jonathan Barr

derek · **Posted:** Mon Jan 21, 2013 10:44 pm

the car is definitely an l10a

L10a

L10b

the space between the door and the wheel arch matches the L10a photo. you got a box of later model stuff. hopefully it all works though. brake lines, drive line, wire harness etc...

CamanoRx2 · **Posted:** Wed Jan 23, 2013 10:03 am

Much admiration to your parents for jumping in financially. I think this is a super smart move!

I, too, wish I had a spare $60K laying around- the 432 would be on its way here.

Nakazoto · **Posted:** Wed Jan 23, 2013 4:50 pm

Camano, I have much admiration for my parents too! I think this car, much like the 2000GT, is a really good investment, but more importantly, I think that my parents are the greatest parents ever because they support my sheer vehicular insanity!

Derek and John, excellent eyes! I always wondered where they made up the extra space for the wheelbase change, I should have noticed that earlier. I was too busy fixating on the nose to notice the body difference. I've got a weird mixture of L10B parts and L10A parts but a majority of the boxes say L10A, so hopefully it will all work out alright. The driveline stuff should be alright though because they held on to the pieces from both both cars. They only have one transmission though, but I've been assured it's the L10A transmission. As soon as we can get it from behind the mountain of parts in front of it, I'll double check everything.

I fear that the seats will just have to be L10B seats as Classic Car Nagoya definitely doesn't have a spare pair of Cosmo seats laying around. I can remove the headrests from the seats and get a much closer appearance, but they may be all I can do as getting quality L10A seats will be nigh impossible. They might have the L10A gauge cluster hidden somewhere and I may have accidentally grabbed the L10B cluster. When I go in this weekend I'll have a root around and see what I can find. I would love to get my hands on an L10A nose, but that's something that was done before Classic Car Nagoya received the car. I may try to ask the Cosmo owners club here or see if I can find someone that has one at the Nostalgic 2 Days swap meet.

It's hard to tell what other L10B parts have been swapped onto this car without going through all the boxes, so I'll tackle those mountains as they come up!

derek · **Posted:** Wed Jan 23, 2013 8:37 pm

i believe garage starfield has a bunch of cosmos for parts or they have parts for cosmos. can check them out if you need things.

http://www.garage-starfield.com/

timmy201 · **Posted:** Wed Jan 30, 2013 5:33 pm

I'm keen to see how this progresses :tu:

derek · **Posted:** Sat Feb 02, 2013 3:06 pm

hes not replying because he is too busy working on the car.

Nakazoto · **Posted:** Sun Feb 03, 2013 4:45 pm

Thanks for the comments guys!

Thanks for the link derek! I've talked to the Shacho at Classic and told him to give these guys a call because I want the original nose and he said that first, he's going to call a friend of his that might have one. So, with any luck, we'll have two sources that may potentially have the appropriate nose. Now I just gotta find the right seats and gauges.

As much as I wish I was busy beyond belief working on the car, that is unfortunately not the case. I am crazy busy trying to get my Bellett to a point that I can put some paint on it before the Cosmo makes it to my garage, though. So, I talked to Hide san, the paint guy, about a potential timeline for the car. He said that with Nostalgic 2 Days coming up at the end of the month, all efforts are focused on getting 4 cars prepped and ready to display there. After that, they are going to start on the Cosmo. So, March is my timeline for paint!

While I was at Classic this weekend, I decided to get some pictures of the parts I can't reach just yet. I can see them, but I just can't get my hands on them yet. Here's the rear axle and brakes.

They actually have two diffs, an L10A and an L10B. No one knows which is which, so I'm going to have to crack them open and count the teeth to find out which one is the right one (unless I get lucky and there's some indication on the outside).

Here's the transmission hiding behind a seat rail.

And two engines side by side. One an L10A engine and one an L10B engine. Once I get them both out and can have a good look at them, I should be able to put together which is which.

I also found the hood and trunk.

And, just to drive it home, this car is, without a doubt, an L10A!

Unfortunately, the car is looking like it'll be on hold until after Nos2Days, but that's fair enough because it gives me time to get my Bellet turned around and ready to go. With any luck, by the end of March, I'll have two painted classics in my garage awaiting reassembly!

Thanks again guys!

Cheers,
David

DmK66 · **Posted:** Sun Feb 03, 2013 11:39 pm

Wow, you kept that quiet David, surely this should have rated a headline in "General discussion".
Or may be I should spend less time in the Nissan Garage...
As you know, I like my cars a little boxier than the Cosmo but that really is a thing of beauty. Painting this one white ?
Well done and good luck

Dan

P.S. Tell your folks I'd like an R30 next, I've told mine but they dont seem that bothered.

Kuroneko · **Posted:** Fri Feb 22, 2013 4:11 am

Wicked. One of my pre-S800 options... A friend has one at this end. You gotta keep these, that mican one is a classic:

I kept my Watanabe boxes as general storage. The dashes are re-skinnable, and my friend has a dude that did his. Look forward to seeing this one progress! Neko.

azfast1 · **Posted:** Fri Feb 22, 2013 1:06 pm

Your car is probably one of the transition cars, a late 10A with the L10B nose from the factory. There were a few built that way from Mazda when they were changing from the A to the B. I would not change a thing unless you find evidence of a front valance swap.
Your front bumper is an L10B as it has the rubber strip which 10A does not have. Also the upper engine photo is the 10A with the round fan shroud.
Please look at http://www.mazdacosmosport.com and see where your chassis number falls and please register it.
I have restored a few 10A cars and have an L10B in the shop right now.
Good luck! Glenn

Cosmos: n. harmonious system

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