RE Matsuda, any full size pics of the car in your avatar?

 

 

Lets see some pics of your car re matsuda. Looks nice

 

Exactly what I was going to say. It is easy to see that the interior is definately from a 78-80 with the cluster, stereo panel and height of the shifter. It would be a fun car to have, but would be worth more if it were all stock.

 

You know what is funny about it though is it has the rear depression,bumper,and the taillights of an SA,but the license plate is under the bumper,and the lights that would illuminate the plate are not present.Oh yeah also a 3rd brake light which I have seen before,but not often.

 

seen worse...exterior is better looking that the interior...thats quite the reversal of roles

 

I saw many first gens in my 10 years in Japan and never actually saw an FB id plate under the hood. Ill check to see if I still have my original fender mounted power mirrors for you yllow 79 but they do look a little different from that 7's. Please take it easy on me about the doors I only did it to catch attention at car shows.

 

Heres a couple pics of my 7 when it was in its more original state the two tone brown. Yellow 79 ill be looking for those mirrors when i get a chance to, more than likely itll be this weekend they are power and enable you to see your lane and almost two lanes over.

 

Sweet, why didn't you keep it original^^?

 

The rear depression would be to mount a JDM plate circa 1980, different mounting holes possibly? And were registration plate lights required in Japan at the time? Dunno. But it could be he mounted the plate below the bumper to show a rear plate without drilling new holes in the metal of the depression.

 

FB vin #s are a US thing due to changes in US laws. The rest of the world kept the SA designation. Not sure about our northern neighbors though. Your's will say SA on the vin.

 

I tried hard to keep it car original but i imported the car in 1994 and then returned to Japan,so the car sat in my grandmothers yard under a tree for about 9 years after my father attempted to start it one morning and couldnt get the ignition to work.When I returned from Japan the car was severely rusted and had alot of reptiles and rodents lliving under the hood and inside of the car that had chewed through my ignition wires. I recently repainted the car after having to replace a good portion of the sunroof area and rear hatch, as well as all of the interior which I did myself, and price wise the two tone just wasnt gonna be possible.

 

pm'd about mirrors

 

Canada followed suit with what the US did - FB from '81 on I believe. My '84's definitely an FB

Jon

 

Even though other countries kept the designation of SA, the changes to the body made in the US changed in all the other countries too, right?

 

Ya, i think so. ^^

 

some things did, some did not. for instance the dash never changed. in the states, you have like what 2 or 3 differnt dshs for the 1st gen. over here 1 dash only. there was 3 different gauge clusters though.....1st had the funky volt meter tach, 2nd lost that and had a normal tack last one had the turbo boost guage for the 12at.

kenn

 

Yeah, we got 3 different dashes and gauge clusters, along with I don'r know how variations on door panels between the manual, electric windows and the leather option. Not to mention some of the differences between the base and optioned models.

We also got the 13B and the REPU, (US only), while other countys got the 12AT and 12A 6-port. We did not get back seats due to the reiforcement required for crash safety. I don't believe the rotor wheels were an options here, but the SAs had 3 different waffle patterns and possibly a 4th ribbed version that I can't think of the name of atm.

 

the ribed wheel you are talking about are the the ones off of an LE. i didnt knew the made more then one waffle patterns, what did the look like?

 

There was a special edition waffle made by Yokohama Rubber Co. Almex Wheel Division



kGray has a Yellow '79 with them on, but I'm painting them silver with the centers black.

 

neato

 

Thanks Tranquil, that's the wheel I was talking about.

 

The majory of the sa's I saw in japan had the rotor wheels like mine or had the "Plus" style wheel and if any one is interested I have a set of five for sale. Heres a pic of my emblem as well