Thanks, I appreciate your comments. I am more of a modifier than a restorer, but common sense prevailed and I realised that this was too good to cut up and tub etc.

So while not 100% original, the car will still retain its heritage, while reflecting my personal tastes. The Bridgeport with Gilmers, for example had to happen, I love old school ported rotors!!

The engine bay is another example, I hate clutter!!

The interior will be a mix and match of original and 90's style rotary building in Oz, and I have the perfect steering wheel to go on the car, but we will leave that for later........

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

Well with a bit of a push, the car is finally in Hi Fill!!

Spent yesterday rubbing back all the hanging panels and hi filled them.

Spent today rubbing back the engine bay and the shell.
The engine bay isn’t actually too bad to rub down, may have something to do with the fact that only one factory bracket remains in the entire bay, and all holes have been filled!





After prep was complete, I got 2 good thick coats of Hi fill down and laid on the guide coat.







I have already spotted a couple of minor “misses” ie dents that I have missed in the earlier stages.

I will let the hi fill settle for a bit and then block the car back and mark all the problem areas. Then I will fix the dents and redo another 2 coats of hi fill over the affected areas.
Once blocked, I think I will hifill the car again and block back again just to be sure..... It may be built is a shed but I don’t want it to look like it.

Overall I am happy with the car’s progress, would have been stoked if I hadn’t spotted any issues in the panel work, but to be honest I expected them. They are only very minor and easily fixed, so not worth getting upset about.

Loving the engine bay so far, should look very clean when it’s painted.



I am going away next weekend so will have 4 days off from the car, and then get stuck back into it at Easter again and see how far we can get. It would be nice to get the necessary repairs done and the car back in hi fill again.
Will keep you posted!!

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

Looks great , can't wait to see it painted

YESSS, good work! I've been following this one for a while. Incredible work so far!

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

Good work Benn, take your time with the blocking and dont rush it. I just found a extremely minor low in the bonnet I just painted after colour sanding and buffing. My eye catches the flaw at a particular angle looking at a reflection in certain light conditions and even then its difficult to pick up. No one seems to be able to see it but me, and Im upset about it !! Its slowly eating away at me to the point were Im ready to rub back the area and have another go... I'll have a go at blending paint and probably screw it up and then jump on the bonnet ! I really feel like turfing the bonnet and starting with a better one.....

For now at least Im not going to worry about it, Im going to finish off the shell. My point is take your time otherwise you'll get angry, twisted and deranged like myself

[/quote]

Good work Benn, take your time with the blocking and dont rush it. I just found a extremely minor low in the bonnet I just painted after colour sanding and buffing. My eye catches the flaw at a particular angle looking at a reflection in certain light conditions and even then its difficult to pick up. No one seems to be able to see it but me, and Im upset about it !! Its slowly eating away at me to the point were Im ready to rub back the area and have another go... I'll have a go at blending paint and probably screw it up and then jump on the bonnet ! I really feel like turfing the bonnet and starting with a better one.....

For now at least Im not going to worry about it, Im going to finish off the shell. My point is take your time otherwise you'll get angry, twisted and deranged like myself [/quote]

Never a truer word spoken!! Totally agree. I will definately take my time to ensure it is as straight as I can make it. The couple of ones I have spotted already are just like you said - from a particular angle under particular light - otherwise you can't see it.
Very frustrating indeed!! I wish mine was a roller so I could take it outside to double check. May end up repairing what I can find, seal underneath the car, refit the diff and throw in the front end and tow the shell up the driveway to get it out in sunlight to go over it.
Or I may just get a panel beater mate to come and have a look at it.....sounds easier.....
I would love to paint the bay, boot, jambs and backs of panels prior to winter though!! Then i can refit the panels and align the gaps over winter, ready for paint in the spring. Can't wait to see this thing orange

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

I think you speak for all of us, mate.

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

Amazing work, look forward to seeing it finished.

Excellent work sir! It is truly inspiring to see it worked on.

I love the Aussie style blinds in the back window, quick question; do they make them for pickups? Lol

Thanks for the kind comments. I am pretty sure that they will make the blinds for anything
I will send you a PM about contact details.

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

Park a car behind the Rx-2 at night with the head lights on, actually just like the cops park behind you, so they can see your face in your side mirror..

This light shows up everything! Alternatively, just use a torch!

excellent work, i found the hand held fluro battern lamps were good for showing flaws, the battern give a nice strait line reflection so you can see it bend as it passes over a low or high spot.
keep it up cant wait to see it in orange.

Nothing exciting to report lately.....

I have blocked back both doors and the boot. Found some minor imperfections, so stripped back where needed, repaired the problem areas and layed on some more hi fill......

About to strart blocking back the guards and the bonnet and do the same, then onto the shell.

I have a few days off work coming up, so will get cracking in that time, and hopefully at least get something painted....

Found something on ebay that I couldn't resist.....waste of money, but I couldn't help myself I will post up a pic when they arrive.....

Still hating panel work It is a shit of a job. People like Restoremaz and Gypsy make it look so easy.........

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

Hey Benn... Do I really make it look easy, i thought the opposite ! RestoreMaz makes it look easy to me until I naively give it a go. I've spent the last 4 days working on mine trying to make big in roads on the shell. In that time you'd look at it and think I've done nothing. I finished stripping the remainer of the boot of the horrible after market tar.... it's the worst job ever. I was hoping to finish off the left quarter panel and have it welded to the car. I got as far as finishing the inner panel... at last The rest will have to wait for another weekend, but the worst is now over with the left quarter. After a bit of debate, I also cut the right quarter panel as well...was going to leave because it looked half decent but who ever did it left the rust behind on the inner panel

Just like you Ive had enough of panel work (for now anyway).... Next week Im going to do something different and fit the engine and box so I can fit the gearbox mounts. If I get time I'll also mount the rotisserie arms to the car. Im cheating on my guards, I've located a set of rust free ones. I'll save the ones I started fixing as spares. I try and mix it up a bit so I dont annoy the neighbours with continous banging. I dont know about you, the biggest annoyance I have is not having continous consecutive days to work on it to finish off sections I set out to do.

I'd swap what Im doing with what your currently doing in a flash. Your preparing for paint Im still welding. As mentioned by someone else the long fluro lamps work a treat in finiding flaws before you paint.

Hey Gypsy, agree with what you said about Restoremaz, his work makes you THINK that doing a resto is easy!!! And his quality of work is simply stunning!!
When you look at his thread its like tap that a bit, little bit of filler here, prime it, rub it, paint it and hey presto.....a dead straight car!!
I take my hat off to him!!

With yours, you make fabrication and doing things like nose cuts look like a walk in the park!! I think it's the way you tackle your build and don't let anything stop you in your pursuit of perfection!!

I was pretty lucky with my shell as apart from the front damage it was pretty good. It has been stored dry since well into the 90's, so the rust factor has been nothing like yours.

I really just want to get some colour on mine. I am looking forward to the reassembly stage.....just need some cash to build the bridgy and finish the interior.....

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

Found these on good old ebay.....I have been looking for some for a couple of years. I was waiting the try to find "19-71", but I spotted these and had to have them.
Pretty appropriate I thought........





They come from Tsuchiura precinct, obviously the vehicle class is wrong - passenger car over 2000cc, hiragana prefix is "mu", serial is 6-16.

Bit of wank factor, but will look great on the car at shows like All Japan day!!
On a weeks holiday now, will post up some progress soon!

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

who cares Benn! the plates were a great idea.

Well on holidays again, so far have spent the first 2 days "blocking" the guards and the bonnet.....

Found some imperfections in every panel so have made repairs, filled, sanded, checked again, in some cases found another or two and have repeated the process......

Gee I hate panel work. Pretty confident that they are now spot on, so will Hi fill them again tomorrow when it's a bit warmer.....

Its amazing that you can still find imperfections in a panel after spending so much time on it.....It's doing my head in....

Tomorrow I will finish off those three panels, and then re block the doors and boot lid. This will be their second go, so hopefully they are all good.

Then I will start the shell....

Got some paint laid down today, unfortunately it's not orange, but I have painted the front of the radiator support panel in black similiar to original spec.
RX2's look funny from the front if this is not blacked out because you can see it straight through the grill.

Hoping to paint the engine bay and jambs before I go back to work, and maybe even the backs of all the panels....

Shell will definately not be done this side of winter, so it will have to sit out another cold winter in it's underwear under covers for a few months

Will post progress pics soon....

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

Looks like my car will hopefully painted roughly same time as yours. Weather changed this week and its cold, I'll work through the winter to make sure everything is ready come the warmer months.

Benn, did you mask off where you painted the radiator area black? Or are you going to feather the factory colour up to the black edge (like it appears to have been done at the factory - or vice versa, colour first then black over the top.)

On my 1300 and 929 both of those areas were also black - again so that it doesn't look strange to see a colour behind the grille. Amazing how so many newly painted cars look horrible from the front because they have missed this fact.