Restoration Project: 84 GSL-SE
 

It started with a beat up SE. It's in rough shape, with a color scheme that's just not my taste, but at least done professionally, to an extent.

So, I took a grinder to it today and removed the doors. Why? The hinges were welded on, and the door wouldn't shut right, nor would it open from the outside. It seemed as if someone maybe backed up with the door open, and the back side became its front. See for yourself.

http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/n...4GSL-SE008.jpg

Here's the interior:

http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/n...4GSL-SE010.jpg

http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/n...4GSL-SE011.jpg



So now this is what I'm left with:



http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/n...eplacement.jpg

http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/n...placement3.jpg

http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/n...placement2.jpg

http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/n...placement1.jpg


Lots more grinding to do still. The pesticide in the car was because after removing the seats, I found ants. No idea why, unless the PO has some food stowed away somewhere.


Today I got another bumper, including the grille and lower valence, along with some driver's door hinges. I guess Mazda made a bunch of doodoo brown 1st gens. All my body parts so far are that diarrhea color for some reason, and they're coming from different cars :lol:

A special thanks goes to Ray Green for jump starting my project. :icon_tup:


So I'm thinking about something kind of radical. Do I re-upholster these seats (labor intensive, I have no time, and I'm not sure how good they'll look if I do them), or do I sell the seats and try to find stock black ones. The only other option is to buy some racing seats. :dunno: I'm not sure how fb owners feel about these, so I'll just make this a vote.

I found this.....
https://www.rx7club.com/picture.php?...pictureid=7843

^What are those seats?

I wanna rid of my gray GSL seats, I'm too tiny and shift left n right on turns lolol

ill trade you my stock black seats. there cloth with vynal. in very good condition. out of an 83 GS

I don't know what kind of seats they are. I just found the picture in the Rx7Club gallery. I think it was littlerotaryshop's FB.

FbDrift: You'd like to trade the blue ones for your black seats? Pictures?



Well, moving forward, I need help. My front bumper's all jacked up. Originally, the blue bumper that was on there, I thought was bent, so I got another one from a brown 83. It doesn't fit either. Is there something wrong with putting an 83 front bumper on an 84? It just doesn't look like it's quite right. Let me go hang the fender back on and snap some pics.

Oh, and I need a driver's fender too. Anyone local got one? :D

ooo sorry AGreen, i thought u ment the black ones... it looks like those are leather APC's but idk for sure.

Ha! That's funny. No, that pic was just posted to show what it'd look like with racing seats. I'm still trying to decide whether to re-upholster mine, get black stockers, or some racing seats. I like the latter idea right now, but I'm just waiting on feedback.

Here's the pics of my crooked bumper.

http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/n...4bumper001.jpg

http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/n...4bumper002.jpg

Here I'm trying to hold it up. The aluminum part underneath is bolted down, and the cover is fastened to the support.

http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/n...4bumper003.jpg

http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/n...4bumper004.jpg

http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/n...4bumper005.jpg

It looks like it's pushed to the passenger's side, and out too far. But then again, it's not lining up with the fenders at all.

I'm still trying ti figure out , why someone would paint it like that......WoW

kandy kolors yo'

Dummy Wet paint be poppin

Yeah, the paint's gay. The interior pieces painted the same color are even worse gay.

But that's easy to fix. I was thinking of either a Titanium gray like the new Rx8's, or a metallic black.

Aside from the gay pride color, how about that bumper? Anyone got any closeups of their bumpers I can go by, or any idea why it's all crooked?

i personally like the idea of those racing seats...but hell whatever fits and is comfortable and not blue... works.

Okay the bumper bolts to the bumper support and can be loosened and adjusted, from the factory it has plastic push clips so it moves already. The fender should have a bracket screwed on which the bumper slides over for perfect alignment, that is what you may be missing. BTW, order new clips for the windshield trim and remove and paint it while the car gets painted. Also remove all door handles, locks, etc..

Good tips there. Of course, all the stuff I don't want painted is coming off, so all the moulding, door handles, lights, and even those little black vent things behind the side windows are coming off. Well, they should be black, mine are candy gay blue.

I'll try fooling with the bumper some more and see what I come up with. Thanks for the info.

Ok.. so I did some more screwing with the car, and found out it's not the bumper's fault it's not fitting, it's the fenders' faults. The passenger's side is an SA fender. I have an FB bumper. The driver's side was an FB fender... made into an SA fender. After knocking off the bondo, the driver's side is now an FB fender again. Problem solved, I need a passenger's side FB fender, which I should be getting soon.


So.... about the interior now. I posted my seats on Craigslist and someone ACTUALLY WANTED THEM!! Someone locally with a blue jeep called me up and offered the asking price ($100) because he had some racing seats in his jeep, and because he was a big guy, couldn't fit in them. I told him I'll call it even if we swapped seats, and he jumped all over it. After seeing the seats he had, I wasn't quite as excited as I thought I would be, but after putting them in the car, they look like they just may do. Let's see what you think:


http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/n...E/seats003.jpg

http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/n...E/seats002.jpg

Now, I'm pretty sure that this is going to be the only thing on this car I'm not bringing back to stock, aside from the already fabric-covered pieces on the interior. Those I'm probably just going to re-cover in a black knit material to make things easier, and it'll look really good too. Otherwise, it's going to be stock and sexy.

After getting the calipers rebuilt, now I find out the bolt pattern on the wheels is wrong. I have no idea what size they are, but I apparently have the 4-114.3 bolt patern on my axle, and the wheels have some universal design that just doesn't fit.....

Edit:

Nevermind. The wheels are right. The axle, remember it's a gsl-se, has the 4-110 bolt pattern.

:tear:

This car is so rigged together it's just not funny.

The door's fixed.

http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/n..._Fixeddoor.jpg

Time to start re-covering door panels, fix that window and door handle, replacing interior pieces, replacing the carpet, and so on, and so on, and so on...

They switched the axle to 4x100? wtf?

maybe 22's for 4 lugs only come in that bolt pattern, but i wouldnt know, i dont need big rims to compansate for something...

They're 17's, and the bolt pattern for the axle is 4-110. If it were 4-100 I could put miata wheels on it.

The front wheels fit, the rear wheels don't. So I'm going to have to get adapters for the rear wheels unfortunately.

I'm so happy that the door's done. I'll be taking it off for paint though.

I just picked up the newest issue of Project Car Magazine. They only did one car this time, which pisses me off because guess what, it's a Honda again. Oh, and it's the same damn car they did about a year ago. That stupid CRX that nobody but fags care about.

But, on the bright side, they did a REALLY good how-to section this time, which is why I bought it. There are articles about how to remove tweed off plastic trim pieces (YES!!!), how to tuck wiring, how to repair plastic trim pieces, how to powdercoat and sandblast for cheap, how to remove sound deadening, how to remove old window tint, etc.

Looks like I know what I'm going to be up to for a while :D

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=94244

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=42202

it is a very informative magazine tho, its the only one i buy anymore... which reminds me, i need to pick it up.

Why not source out a GSL SE rear axle?

i like the new seats a lot better!! do you plan on getting the correct colored carpet and interior parts etc...?

I've decided on triple black, so it's not going to be original, but it'll look good.

Are you gonna have it running for Zoom-Fest? Come on up, man!