Beautiful. That's all I can really say about it.

 

Guys, thanks! Here's a couple pics of the new parts installed along with the alternator cleaned up as best I can and the overflow bottle removed, cleaned out and reinstalled. Love that apple cider vinegar for rusty bolt cleanup!! Also degreased most of the firewall. Slowly getting there!

 

Question.....

Were the '79 buckets with round headrest a Japaneses market option only? Also, was the Green Savanna color in 1978-79 ever available in the U.S.?

 

The seats are referred to as Loback seats. Not sure on the SA, but FB had them offered in the US. I have a black pair in my 80 from I think an 83.

 

The JDM cars had lots of available parts and options not originally offered on North American cars, but which eventually trickled over to some of our later versions. Items like stereo's, wheels, seats and trim.

Mach Green was a color which Mazda used in its launch advertising. It was not ever officially offered as a NA color. For 79, we got Sunbeam Silver, Aurora White, Sunrise Red, Spark Yellow and Daytona Blue. You can add Beat Black too, but only for the 79 Limited model, which also got some of the aforementioned JDM stereo equipment and wheels.

 

For '79 don't forget Sonic Bronze Metallic .

 

Yea, I did actually realize later that I left off the most important one!

 

I had the sheer joy of meeting Tim today and seeing this amazing original survivor car in person. Let me say: it. Is. SPECTACULAR! The car is truly an amazing car and it was meant to be in Tim's hands!

THANK you Tim for meeting with me and showing off your car!

 

Is Tim on here somewhere? He should be. I think he would be grandfathered into the OGTA but
I'll leave that determination to Ray Green.

Nice plaid seats!

 

Guys, it's ME (RCCAZ 1). Had a great time hanging with Mike and talking SAs. He's a treasure-trove of info, and a flat-out great guy who shares our passion. I'm so glad that he reached out to me on his business trip and took some time to meet up and talk cars! Again Mike, thanks!

 

BTW, Ray has already "granted" me OGTA status, pending pics of the girls at our local Tilted Kilt posing with my "tartan" clad Sonic Bronze classic

 

That I'd like to see! My first (and LAST) time in a Tilted Kilt resulted in a trip to the dog house from the missus....

 

Tim, you had asked about cleaning your waffles. Here's the thread I mentioned:

https://www.rx7club.com/1st-generati...refurb-771611/

 

Your welcome!

If you have any questions post them up in that thread or IM me.

 

Hey Tim (t_g farrell), great name BTW

Yes, I will post up some pics and questions tonight. I'm trying to understand how to clean up some "nasty" wheel weight corrosion on my waffle lips, where it appears that they repositioned wheel weights, but the corrosion and pitting remain. Not sure if this will "clean up" or if the lips will need reconditioning. I'll post up pics later to give you and idea.

 

Guys, here's the "corrosion" from the lead wheel weight that I was mentioning. I've tried several cleaners to remove this including Simple Green. Any other ideas? Haven't tried "Easy Off" yet.

On a side note, was tan interior offered on U.S. spec '79s and '80s? If so, could you get that interior color with any exterior color, or was it only certain ones? Just curious! Thanks for the feedback on either topic!!

 

Steel wool. Nothing will get that off short of resurfacing it.

 

Thats disimillar material coorosion. Happens when you mount things like lead against the aluminum rim

 

Thanks guys. Yea, I think the only way to truly clean it up is to have the rim lips refinished by a professional wheel shop.

How about my question about Tan SA interiors? Were tan dashes and door panels offered in either 79 or 80.

 

I dont know about tan, but I have seen brown on the Spark Yellow and Mach Green cars.

 

[IMG]http://blog.hemmings.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/former_0034s.jpg[IMG]

 

 

And Solar Gold...

 

Thanks NCross. Yes, hoping to someday do a Mach Green recreation in left hand drive. Just trying to understand what pieces I'd need to make that happen. Looks like using a Spark Yellow donor car with clean interior would be a good starting point. Then, seats out of an 82, recovered in tan plaid fabric. Then, right color code for the green, correct wheels, some fender mirrors....

Anyone aware if anybody stateside has attempted such a build?

 

Or.....you can put some elbow grease into it. Some guys like to clean and paint the rims, I perfer to clean and polish them. I clean them by a combination of wheel etch cleaner and bead blasting. (the blast is for heavily brake dust stained and dirty rims. It helps to have a blast cabinent in my gargae too)

Any road rash on the outer rim can be dressed down in this cleaning phase by hand fileing and blending with a mill smooth file. After a couple rounds of alternating etch cleaning and blasting, get out the fine emery paper, crocus cloth and steel wool. Some Never Dull and a good metal polish compound like Simichrome are must have's as well. I polish both the outer rim and center cap hole. I clean it here with normal wheel cleaner as the etching stuff will dull all your hard work. Its a labor intensive process but yields a nice result. I've devoleped a bit of a perferred process after about 8 or 9 sets of rims but am always doing it a little different. Their is no exact right way.