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Thanks J9! So, Mazdas parts system is called GEPCII? Is that a standalone program that can be installed on any os? .
the Parts catalog, GEPCII, Global Electronic Parts Catalog; so it does North America. the II is the current non flash version, which was a big improvement. it runs in a browser, so there is nothing on the computer. the original EPC, which was the best one, was OS2, and it did get installed on the computer, if any of these was worth hacking its this one. there is also a snap on one, and then we had an other 3rd party one for a while, these two went back to the 1st gen, MAZDA
the availability/order screens are the eMDCS, Electronic Dealer Communication System, on the website.
so the parts catalog is one piece of software, the order screen is a second, and if there was an invoice that would be a 3rd, copy and paste are your friends!
I got fed up with trying to navigate Mazdaspeed's website and having to call them to verify my race results every time I want to place an order, so I just bought them on eBay, they were like $1100 shipped for the pair. I could have saved a bit by going through MMD but, well, *** pain.
And here is the much longer list of what is No Longer Available. This just happened to be what I'm interested in at this time, there are plenty others to check, but at least you get an idea of the current state of things.
Somewhat random, found these while looking into rebuilding my door cards. The FB mounting holes are 8mm (5/16") so these should work. I'm replacing the card material so the mounting hole circle can change if needed to accommodate the bug clips. They have separate $9 kits of each that are in stock too.
Picked up the parts yesterday. The fenders and all the parts look great. Ray was really nice to work with. Defintely recommend
Somewhere along the way, people ended up believing series 2+ fenders were NLA , when in reality it's series 1 fenders that are NLA . I had to hunt down two new ones sold on here for a good five months haha .
Sadly I can confirm the SA fenders are NLA. Now that I have the FB ones too, I'll see what the exact difference is to the SA side by side. Just looking quickly, cutting up the $140 new FB one and grafting on the SA specific stuff seems reasonable and worthwhile.
everything under the mold line is different, the lip around the wheel arch extends further down on the FB and the bumper also curves up below that point, you cant modify them to make them into SA ones due to how that lip arches beyond teh point it does on the SA .
It's like the difference between a steel bumper C3 Corvette and the Endura bumper abominations.
I agree with the 'Vette example but it's different on the RX7. On the vette the thin, sleek, all-steel/chrome bumpers on the '68, '69 ('70?) looks awesome. But on the SA it's square and chunky, with "afterthought" looking black end caps to hide the square ends. They were never thin and graceful.
Here's the beautifully thin, sculpted bumpers of the early C3 -
Hey beauty's in the eye of the beholder. But the chunky SA bumpers with those hideous black ends just look, to my eye, as if the car had originally been designed with nice bumpers but then Mazda was told "Slap some 5mph bumpers on it or you can't import it to the US". And they came up with those things in one week.
I understand not liking the endura bumpers compared to the slim non-safety bumpers before them (think Corvette, Camaro). But the RX7 never had slim sexy non-safety bumpers. It started life with ugly 5mph safety bumpers. But after 2 years of ugly duckling they covered them with endura and made them look sleek and modern (for the time).
When I see SA's I see an unfinished car.
Eye of the beholder. I'm not trying to dog anybody's car.
I love early 2nd gen Camaros. I like the 1st gens too, but as a child of the 70's I've always liked '70's American auto styling (early'70's).
The early 2nd gen Camaro could be bought with a thin full length crome bumper or the iconic 2-piece split bumper.
They were beautiful but neither would protect you or your fenders from a 2mph bump with a shopping cart (just like the early C3 'Vette).
So somewhere around '74 they got a safer big -bumper that looks more like the SA bumper...
I don't particularly like this bumper. It's a good looking car, overall, but not as sleek as the earlier thin bumpers. Then the designers decided to cover it in endura plastic, to blend it in.
And while I can appreciate the way everything blends together and is all body color (like modern cars), I would never buy one of these. I'd give a couple fingers for a 70.5 split bumper Camaro, but wouldn't pay $1000 for the blue '75 here (other than to quick flip it).
So where the heck am I going with this? Oh yeah... So you can't say the SA vs FB bumpers are like '68 C3 Vette vs '74 Vette. It's much more like '74ish Camaro big chrome vs '76 Camaro endura covered.
And I'd take your side if we were talking Camaros. But we're not. We're talking 1982 Ford Escort bumpers on an otherwise sexy little sports car.
We could go round-and-round with this of course. From the SA-stand point their bumper was part of the concept of the car from the first rendered X-605 prototype drawings of mid 70s. Arguably with the concept of some sort of required impact protection all new cars required. But hardly an add-on. Fun-fact, the World-model (Europe, Japan, etc) SA bumpers actually fit in CLOSER to the body since they did not require the piston assys behind them the N. Am models did. And thus use just plain brackets like early 60, 70s cars used.
Nice to have the choices btw the 2 for both 'sides'. Speaking for myself, and perhaps a few SA owners, it is the change TO the porpoise-nose FB style that cemented my love of the SA.
Po-tay-toe/ Po-tah-to...
I'd say the FC is more of a boxy wedge, like the 3rd gen Celica and Accord.
Originally Posted by 7aull
Fun-fact, the World-model (Europe, Japan, etc) SA bumpers actually fit in CLOSER to the body since they did not require the piston assys behind them the N. Am models did.
I can't see much of a difference from google image search. A while back someone, maybe RE-Speed, made a bumper shock eliminator kit that also shortened the mounting. It helped elminate the park bench look. Like a 240Z vs. 280Z.
No need to apologize, all good. I got lucky (in my eyes) and ended up with an 84 with an SA converted front end. I already had an unused xenon air dam for the SA, some funky one that has brake duct ports that will perfectly fit some fog lights. Pulled this pic from here a few years back, don't recall who's car this is, but I'm trying to get that fitment when I get around to body work. Not sure if I want to go with the fender mirrors, already have NA Miata power mirrors waiting for stock location or fender... If they look good there, that would be neat, got them just for stability and better glass. I'm pseudo recreating my old 90 mx6 color scheme, classic red with gray -> Sunrise red and gray/black should look very good. Oh, I do have the SA rear bumper waiting to get modified to accept the license plate. Really good condition white, but it came with front side rubbers . I kind of feel bad about cutting that one up, if anyone has a surface rusty one and side rear rubbers, let me know. I'm blasting, welding and painting it anyway, as long as the metal is solid and straight...
. I kind of feel bad about cutting that one up, if anyone has a surface rusty one and side rear rubbers, let me know. I'm blasting, welding and painting it anyway, as long as the metal is solid and straight...
