GSL-SE Restoration (vid showing progress so far)
 

My dad and I have been restoring this car. The first step is body restoration and this vid shows some of the work that we've done so far. More to come.

[youtube]jZOKZkmEKY8[/youtube]

Great video. I took the easy way out - my car is being sprayed by a shop, not quite as rewarding and you never know if they're doing it right. Nice choice of colour by the way :)

Have fun!

Soda blasting with a pressure pot does wonders and does not warp panels and is environmentally friendly. It also helps protect the metal from rust.

looks like a good start.

Here's a video showing pictures of the car being stripped out. Please disregard the music. Not sure what my dad was thinking when he put this video together lol

[youtube]8KJSZKGanoA[/youtube]

More:

[youtube]32UIk9za5QM[/youtube]

Here's one that shows the engine being rebuilt:

[youtube]g8a7d2l_Jao[/youtube]

Here's a vid of the car being painted. We ran into some issues, as the vid will explain.

[youtube]rdTps1oZgOU[/youtube]

Latest vid of us painting the shell, hood and sunroof:

[youtube]Tmm8mmnq-m8[/youtube]

I am impressed. Lot of love there.

Love or Challenge
 

I would have to say that I enjoy the challenge far better than to say it is motivation of love.

I turned 56 this weekend and holding that gun with a full cup of paint for a few hours sure makes me sore. Laying on the floor of the booth doing the low parts of the car didn't help either. I am fortunate that I leaned to paint with both hands as I don't think my right arm alone is up to the task of painting the entire car.

One of the neat things about a restoration is the changing stages. If all I had to look forward to would be just painting a car or just doing body work, I think all of this would never happen. A restoration is a lot of different projects that complete the car.

I purchased an Eastwood powder coating kit to do small brackets and all of the bolt heads. I will do a video of that that when I get there. Cadmium plated bolts now are not like they used to be. They just don't last 25 years, the plating is thin, it corrodes and then looks terrible.

The objective here is to restore the car. It's like putting $20 Grand into a car that was purchased for $1200. I don't expect it to win any shows, what I want is that the car is preserved in good condition that is presentable, sound and runs very well. I am not a purest. Installing a 1986 6 port engine with a MegaSquirt ECU is anything but pure. Under the hood, will when completed look nice and the car with engine upgrades should make it just a bit more fun to drive.

Ark1

TonyK.

So today we started colour sanding the car. I went and did the sun roof first as it is one of the few flat surfaces on the car and I figured it would be the easiest area to learn on.

Here's a before pic of what it looked like just before we started colour sanding:

https://www.rx7club.com/attachment.p...4&d=1332712082

To knock off the glaze, I used 1500 grit wet sandpaper. I did the roof in three sections and it took about 90 minutes. I've heard that some guys will start with 1200, but I figured that orange peel in the clear wasn't bad enough to require such an aggressive grit. Once all the glaze was knocked off, I went with a 2000 grit foam hook-it pad on the palm sander. Since I had already done most of the work with the 1500 by hand, I only had to go over it about 4-6 times with the 2000, the idea being that I was taking out the 1500 scratches. After I was done with the 2000, I switched to a 4000 grit pad and went over it about 3 times. By the time I was done sanding, the roof already had a pretty nice sheen to it and felt as smooth as glass.

Once the sanding was done, I got out the variable speed buffer and used some buffing compound with a foam pad. The trigger is variable speed but I tried to maintain about 1200 rpm throughout. I had to be very careful around the edges given that this is where your clear lays out the thinnest, but after all was said and done, I think it came out really nice. The surface feels smooth like liquid plastic and the paint looks very rich and deep now. Well worth the effort.

Finished product:

https://www.rx7club.com/attachment.p...5&d=1332712082

How many miles were on the engine before the re-build and how were the rotors? What new parts did you use? How does resurfacing the irons affect the tolerances for the sides of the rotors? I will be starting my 13b rebuild soon. It has about 250,000 miles on it. I'm hoping to do a proper rebuild without spending a fortune.

Rebuild answers.
 

Sorry about the late reply, I have been working around the house and still on the car, I will post links to where I am currently. I have not been on the form for months.


The engine on this car had 214,000 KM or 133,000 miles. It still ran well, but I felt now was the time to do this rebuild. As for new parts which really I could have gotten away with I changed the following and purchase parts from Goopy Performance. Side seals, apex seals, end seals, new springs for the apex and side seals. Complete gasket set with O rings, pilot bearing and all seals. The cleaning kit and 2MM file as well from Goopy. Also the thermal pellet, conversion too.

The engine after the rebuild was about .011" shorter so this now required the thrust washer to be thinner. I have a diamond lapp and I removed .010" from the thrust bearing.

The rotors were clean, with out a lot of carbon. The Apex slots were not mashed or opened up on the edges. The rotors looked very good.

As for cost I have about $1,800 in parts into this engine. I want to restore the car and have a very good example that will run for many years to come for my son Scott.

Ark1

Progress Update
 

I have 3 new You Tube Videos of progress on the restoration.

I am over the hump as the car is now being put back together. The Mazda is so much different to restore than the Fiat X1/9 I did 10 years ago. The Fiat I knew very well and had worked on for over 20 years before I did the restoration. I Find with the Mazda I am always going to the donor car either trying to figure out how the car was put together or to grab a small part that I just can't seem to find where I put it. A disassembled car takes a up a lot of space.

Anyway here are few video's and a picture show. Still lots to repair and assemble, it will happen.

Ark1

TonyK.

Here's the lasted vid updating our progress:

[youtube]8UAYhTl2aOI&[/youtube]

Have to say that you and your son are doing some amazing work... it really motivates me.

Thanks!... kidrotary

Update:

[youtube]riesAUleXyU&[/youtube]

It looks like the previous videos aren't working so I have posted them again below:

Here's the latest vid. The engine is being set up on a stand before it goes in the car so we can work out the bugs first. Hope you enjoy!

After troubleshooting some bugs, the engine is now running on a stand.

looks good

Brake Air Ducts
 

On the front of the car are a set of Air Ducts that direct air to the front disk Brakes.

Badly rusted I decided to remake them from Stainless Steel.

Here are a few pictures of the steps to remake these parts. It took me about 4 hours to make these parts. As always making the paper pattern takes a fair bit of time for a 1 of part.

Also is a picture of the bottom of the car with the Racing Beat Header and Exhaust system. I added a Viberant Racing CAT with Stainless Steel piping and Flanges. The Racing CAT has a Metal matrix that will not clog as a ceramic Matrix does. Rating is 50,000 miles and it cleans up the exhaust from the stinker it can be without at CAT.

Ark1

I dig this build! I also envy all the garage space you have...haha.

This thing will be sweet when its all wrapped up!!! I'll be keeping an eye on this thread.

Thats good stuff! Love the MegaSquirt setup. Is it USB connect?

Latest vid. We're getting there...