So I've never sat down and posted my progress on a vehicle rebuild before, but I've always had the pictures to show my progress. After seeing some of the projects recorded on this forum I've been inspired to give it a shot. If it sucks... Please let me know, I also would love to hear your input as well as suggestions.

I won't be posting all of the pictures I take so as not to take 13 pages to get one post done, but if there is something you'd like to see, please ask I'm certain to have a picture of it.

I'll start rambling now, and start with the story as I know it about this car....

This car was bought new for a "spoiled girl" as her 16th birthday present, she didnt like it and drove it for a couple of years before moving on. The second owner, who I've been speaking with, had it from then until now. He used it as collateral on a loan from his brother and then defaulted. The brother then passed the car onto me, so I am on title the third owner (as soon as I file it that is)... The car was a daily driver until around 1998 when it was collateralized and left with the brother. From there it was started weekly for about a year, until the battery died, then it was started monthly as he had time to charge it up. That lasted about another year, until it was abandoned at the winery he worked at. It was taken to an auto shop about 2 years ago as an "on the side job", but was never touched unless you count every spark plug wire being cut..?... The owner of said shop died unexpectedly and so the car ended up in my driveway.

So, now I'm still trying to decide what to do with this little gem, but while I wait for the funding to come in, I've started some light cleaning. Here is how it starts, and I'll do my best to track the progress for you.

P.S. I'm thinking of selling the current motor and trans to purchase a s5 setup, so if you're interested, or have a suggestion for me regarding this or anything else for that matter, please let me know.

Here is the condition the car came to me in





So my wife tells me (the car was delivered while I was at work) that the interior was tan, turns out.... Thats all dirt and dust from sitting in West Texas...







I failed to get a picture of the 6 inches of standing water in the spare wheel well, but you can imagine how it looked. Also missing is the MASSIVE amounts of maggot shells imbedded into the carpet.



Here's the car after a bath

 

Day 2 begins with a total teardown of the interior, I pulled out the carpet (minus the very front), seats, and console. Water was removed from the spare tire cavity and the carpets got a good cleaning... There are a few spots left to get clean up, but all said, they are in excellent shape. The seat covers came off, and the seats got a shampoo, turns out they are in perfect shape, and the color is growing on me. All removed trim, kick panels and sills got cleaned up and they are being put away to storage until its time for final touches. The dash, while cracked beyond repair, got a good cleaning and I think is looking much better.








Carpets cleaned!!!

 

outstanding work there so far!! i'm a hug fan of restorations and this is shaping up to be a sweet project. what makes this particular 7 so special is that is a 1980 10th anniversary edition. it was released as a celebration to mazda's 10 years of selling cars in north america. no actual build number was reported but a fair guess would be no more than 2500.

 

Indeed, Im pretty sure thats the badge on the B pillar I saw too. Definately a rare one, I would keep it stock as a collectors car, but thats just me. Good luck with the work, its a great start and platform!

~T.J.

 

What do you guys suppose a fully restored X Anniversary car would sell for? I'm torn myself between keeping this rare car stock and having a fun car I'd like to drive. I understand the stock engine rebuild will cost about as much as installing a turbo s4 or s5 engine.

Maybe I'll do a full ground up restoration and then sell it to get a turbo one... We'll see...

 

The special "limited & anniversary" cars can sell for more than just the average ones. Much like a very early 78 production one or a car with super low miles. But these cars still struggle to find new homes at about the 6-8K range on average. You have to find that person who is into them and appreciates what you have found. Like some guys here!

Congrats, this is a special find in an ever dwindling supply of vehicles. I'm glad that you are at least considering to bring it back better but still stock. Looks amazing already. I'll follow with interest.

 

So today started with an initial cleaning of the engine bay... Im certain my neighbors are collectively raising their noses at me at this point now that I have yet another car up on blocks in my driveway.....

After a few minutes with the leaf blower... then the water hose.... Orange cleaner... Water hose... here's what I ended up with.....







After a talk with Chuck, I've come to realize that I can in fact keep the original motor while still making the car fun to drive (my whole point in the project). Save your gasps from the taboo subject we are about to discuss for later, because it will only get worse... lol... by the way, I've been drinking wine so if I ramble... sorry...

I think I will be keeping the matching numbers 12a, and adding a supercharger to it... Please feel free to discuss...


Someone has managed to cut over 1/2 of the wires in the engine bay... and about 3/4 of the vacuum lines so the way I see it.. Im screwed as far as keeping the original wiring. I even hooked up a new battery, and got absolutely nothing from anything electrical related. So... here goes the engine... I only got the radiator and coolers out before my friend showed up with ribs and wine... Anyhow, here's some pics, enjoy!









Here's the motor getting ready to come out for rebuild....

 

The electrical harness should be able to be swapped out, it was on my 83 and its not that bad. In fact I just did it myself on my 83 with the help of my girlfriend who soldered all the wires (I have issues with the colors, lol).

I untangled it under the hood all the way back to the firewall grommet, then fed it back through the firewall. On my 83, it actually unplugged from basically everything. Almost no soldering would have been necessary if I was a little more observant with the parts car.

There were a bunch of plugs under the dash to separate the harness (I didnt even remove the dash), then it ran down the drivers door sill to another plug under the rear storage bin area (under the metal panels behind your seats, we have storage bins there if you didnt know). I cut mine under the drivers door sill because I didnt think to look for the plug under the bins, so 32 wires had to be spliced together and heat shrunk. There are two wires that run up the a-pillar to the dome light, those I cut for simplicity and not messing with the headliner. If I had to do it again, I bet I could do the harness swap with only cutting those two wires.

Good luck with the car, its cleaning up great!

~T.J.

 

Thanks TJ, that's promising. I'm really not sure how I want to tackle this.. I may just create a whole brand new wire harness, from scratch and go that route, my hands shake and soldering is not my forte. It was a bit disheartening to connect the battery and not get so much as a dash light, so we'll see how it looks under the dash. I can also see where field mice chewed through a few wires in the engine compartment so I'm a bit worried about under the dash.

I just can't understand why someone would cut wires and vacuum lines the way they have been. Even to the point that if you look at the passenger side view of the cleaned engine compartment, you'll notice the washer fluid line has been cut as well....

 

A whole harness should not be difficult to source and replace. Post a wanted ad in the parts section. It doesn't look all that bad from here, just a lot of time and work. You'd be surprised what can be found if you poke around long enough. The vacume lines aren't a bad thing to replace just as a precaution anyways.

 

a link to a harness on Rotary Restrorations ebay store. Jim Hull is the propriator, he's lists an 79/80 engine harness.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/MAZDA...Q5fAccessories

 

Good luck with it!

 

Thanks Banzai, that helps a lot!

 

Yup, there are three harnesses under the hood, at least there are on my 83. The main body harness that borders the engine bay which is the one I replaced, the engine harness which plugs in using that wide brown plug (in the eBay link), and the transmission/starter harness which uses a smaller white plug but plugs into the main body harness in about the same area as the engine harness.

As I said, I swapped out the body harness without TOO much trouble, and I would definitely do it again versus trying to fix what I had (which is what I started doing. Its not impossible, but it sure looks like it when you first look at it!

~T.J.

The three harnesses out of the car. All those wires in the bottom left are what had to be spliced because I didnt look for the other plug. Again, all that could have been avoided. The rest is just routing and plugging stuff in:

 

Sorry for the delay, Thursday was spent completely with my kids and today was our garage sale at the new house. Apparently, tearing a car apart makes your garage look so cluttered that you want to get rid of things..... I digress


So yesterday I pulled the motor and tranny, I've really only gotten it out, but I was amazed at how light the transmission was... I had it all supported by jacks to separate it from the engine... I ended up just grabbing it and pulling it off and carrying it into the garage.

Anyhow here are some pictures, but before I do, one of my new neighbors came to our door tonight to say hi.... He asked if I was doing the sale again tomorrow and said he had somethings to sell.... I told him to go ahead and mark them up and I'd just keep the money separate. He said, not to worry, he wanted me to go through the truck bed full of tools and keep what I could use and sell the rest for myself... What more could you ask for?!

Back to the pictures...

 

Thanks for those pics TJ, That helps!

 

Then maybe this will be even more helpful. Like I said, its not as bad as it looks. Everything that isnt labeled goes under the dash, and honestly, isnt that hard at all. You have your plugs for the gauge cluster, the ignition switch, all the relays up under there, the door chime, emissions ECU, etc. The wires kind of "line up" right where they need to be so its almost self installing. All you have to do is click the stuff together.

Again, like I said, the part running down the drivers door sill has a plug on the end, so it doesnt have to be cut like I made the mistake of doing.

~T.J.

 

its astounding how well that cleaned up!

i had an SA a few years ago, and i was lucky enough to get a low mileage 100% stock, very original car. i've been driving rx7's for years and years too, i've had a bunch, and the current toy is a peripheral port race car.

do you know what i would change on the SA to make it better?

nothing. its a hoot just to drive the 70's car...

 

So, very bad news today... I tore the motor down and removed the front cover.... well, most of it... the corner is broken off and I'm pretty sure thats not something you just jb weld........

Anyhow, that turbo engine swap is looking better and better all the time.... any input is, as always appriciated

 

dayum that sucks, worse is if it's the original engine I have a bad rear between the two it would be complete

 

It is the original engine, I was hoping to make a good matching #'s car that was Barrett Jackson quality, but this really throws a wrench in the works.

 

Holy Smokes, That cleaned up really good. Great job.

 

Ok here's the pictures of the front cover.

 

good work there. before pulling the engine i would have personally ran a compression test and when the wiring were repaired, attempted to start it and run it. a cracked front cover is an easy fix. tig weld or replace. i have spares that i keep on hand for oops moments like this. you can easially replace the front cover and the originality will not be effected.

 

matching numbers are not like an american muscle car, from what I can see in pic there are no eye brows over the spark plugs so yes it would be the right engine I beleive both the series 2 and 3 have the eye brows aka 81 thru 85 FB's

Oh and I am sure that can be repaired the question is going to be how are the rotor housings, as mazdaverx713b said, compression check, it's fast and easy and can tell you alot of the condition of the engine before hand