ok,
it was dark and basically, i was an idiot but i put a new battery in my 79 and tried to start it w/out realizing i had the battery cables switched.
There was a blue flash behind the fuse box... and though none of the fuses were blows, the car is dead won't start, no dash lights....nothing.....

any guesses on what happened exactly?

 

Check the fusible links under the hood of the car, right on the driver's side strut tower. The main one would have blown before the power got anywhere near the main fuse panel inside the car. The fusible links just look like little wires covered in cloth-like material. If they're melted, corroded, broken, or burnt in any way, replace them. They're only like $5 I believe.

 

Where do you get new ones? The guy at Rx7Heaven gave me a handfull of used ones for free, just because I asked him for them and he had a huge bucket of 'em. I got some that worked, but if I can *buy* new ones for only like 5$, I'd probably like to keep a set of verified (new) spares.

Jon

 

You can get em at Mazda trix, they're ~$5.00 a piece just to clearify