For the second time in as many years, I customarily rolled out my '85 GS, wiped it down, and pushed it back into the garage. I say customarily simply because I haven't seemed to get much further along than that thus far. I bought the car after my first year of college back in 2004. Five years later, now that I'm done with school, the car has my full attention again.

I've been through a motor rebuild and a turbo inspection to solve an oil problem I had when the car was the most together it has been since I ripped out the 12a (with 73k on the clock). My mom will never understand why I took out a perfectly good motor to let the car sit for 5 years. The new rebuild has never been started. It's a Cosmo-13b, now fitted with FD exhaust sleeves and factory seals. I have all the pieces to make a great car, IMHO, I just haven't gotten the puzzle together yet.

Here's what it looked like the day I bought it ($1400!!!):



Here's a shot of when I first had it together, complete with oil leak:



And here's what it looked like last weekend (a-file-folder-at-least-1.5"-thick-with-receipts later):







The wheels are Enkei RPF1s wrapped in Falken RT-615s (205/40R F, 225 50R R). I'm running into a problem with the suspension up front, which for now, is just Tokico Blues with Eibach Pro-Kit springs and the ReSpeed big brake kit (serial# 001, ask Billy!). Right now I'm leaning towards the camber kit with the race coilovers, but I could devote the funds to something else and run a large enough space. I have less than 1/4" between the tire and the spring perch as it stands now -- I'm not sure how the geometry will change once the motor is back in the car.

This weekend, I'll be finishing installing my TII calipers all around and hooking up the parking brake lines. I haven't figured out how to compress the spring in Billy's kit, but I'll come up with something! In addition, I'm fighting the front calipers in trying to separate the pads. I have one v-clip per caliper and I can't seem to get the right part from Mr. Crowe. I also re-ran brake hardline after the poor condition of the stock lines. I'm unsure of how to connect the line to the body, or SS lines to the shocks (which may be unnecessary with the coilover kit, as I understand...). Any suggestions (besides "finish it") would be greatly appreciated. Here's a pic for illustrating my conundrum:



Time permitting, I'll finally make myself happy with the positioning of the flares and maybe I'll figure out what to do about the fender liners -- any ideas?

Thanks to everyone who has helped thus far. I hope this helps motivate those of you who are still working on your projects -- writing this up is motivating me even more.

Stay tuned

 

I know it'll be awesome once your done, but aside from that scratch on the fender in the first pic the car was beautiful. I would suggest getting the race kit and plates from Billy now. Your going to need them eventually, so might as well do it now. You can sell the Eibachs and make some of that money back to put towards other parts. Because the spring at it's widest point is wider than the perch, and the way the tire will gain negative camber once there is an engine in there, the tires are going to rub on the spring. Maybe not all the time, but through corners they will. At the very least the coilover springs sit closer to the strut, so rubbing should not be an issue.

For the brake lines, as far as I remember the end of the hard line isn't attached to the body. it just sort of hangs there like in your pic. The SS line from the hard line to the caliper doesn't necessarily need to be connected to anything, as long as it's routed properly it should stay out of the way. Worse comes to worse, a couple zip ties will hold it to the strut.

Now FINISH IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Good luck

 

You have done a lot of the same mods as me. I will be taking my car in a VERY similar direction with the motor and exterior.

 

Excellent work so far! Finish it!

 

you need to slow down some!!! I've been workin on mine since 1997.

 

looks like you've made some pretty good progress. what did you end up doing with that original front bumper?

 

The end of the flex line has a flange and clip ring that holds it to the body bracket; the hard line doesn't fasten to the body inside the wheel well. It just screws into the flex line.

I'll grab a pic of it for you a bit later today, when I'm in the garage.

 

FB's appear a bit different, only in that the hardline-to-flexline connection takes place on that bracket (much like the clutch line, in the engine bay) rather than right at the fender hole as it does on the SA.

These pix are from an SA, but I thnk they'll still give you the general idea:

Inside front fenderwell:


At rear of strut carrier:


Inside driver's fenderwell:


Inside passenger's fenderwell:


As you can see, the flexline clips to the bracket; the hardline then screws into the flexline.

 

Thanks for the advice. I'm going to order the race coilover kit. Any suggestions on springs? I have Eibach Pro-Kit springs but I don't know if they the 8" springs Billy suggests on the product info page.

 

I it doesn't look like I'm going to be able to make it to the big Mazda meet at Road Atlanta because of vacation...but it would be nice to see your project sometime.

 

Wow! That's dedication! I hope you've had time to enjoy it throughout the process...I haven't driven mine out of the neighborhood.

I still the original front bumper, but it's flat-blacked like the flares.

Awesome, thanks for the pics! Now the difficult question is -- where do you purchase such parts? I guess I should check Black Dragon Automotive. Thanks again.

Thanks everyone for the kind words. I'm working as hard as I can .

 

The hoses themselves are easy enough (several sources; Black Dragon, Mazdatrix, Racing Beat, others). Stock ones should be available through most auto parts stores still.


The clips should be easy to pull from a junkyard, or you can probably buy new ones from Mazda ('Clip, Flexible Hose', part number W023-43-635); You'll need between 6 to 8 of them for the whole car.


(Been working on my SA since 1989; not quite done yet )

 

Invaluable. Thank you!

I trashed the stockers when removing the old brake lines. They were very brittle. I guess that's what 25 years does to a car.

 

Wise choice; reliable brakes are priority #1.

 

Nice build

I wouldn't call it the longest FB project ever though, lol. I started mine in 2001 and I still don't even have good paint haha.

 

Oh, and while on the subject; the stainless steel brake flexlines are more money, but they make a huge difference in brake response IMO. Well worth the coin. Rock-hard pedal, instant response.

You have to be careful installing them, though; make sure they don't twist, bind, or get crimped.

 

I remember when you fired up the Cosmo engine for the 1st time and you were getting smoke out of the turbo. This was several years ago..don't remember exactly.

Oh, I've had my car since '95 and still needs a lot of work. She drives and whatnot, but she needs to be prettied up.

Now... GET TO WORK!!

 

I still have that video! I should have posted it. When I find a place to host it I will.

I'm sure some engine builders/veterans could tell me what was wrong just by listening to it. I even have a video of me detailing where the oil is coming from. Wow I hate the sound of my voice.

I need to figure out which springs to get -- I can just order them from Billy. I just don't know ANYTHING about spring rates.

 

This is what I'm going to do. I've done the brakes and the hardline, so why not upgrade to SS lines as well?

I'm not very brand-conscience in this area. I think Summit has them for a good price -- they're Russell. Any opinions or are they all about the same?

 

Billy at ReSpeed continues to own my paycheck. Maybe I should just have it direct-deposited to his account every week.

I placed an order for the race coilover kit, Illuminas, and 275lb springs. I also purchased his SS brakeline kit even though I placed an order with Black Dragon automotive yesterday (I discovered a thread discussing his brake lines after the fact...). The Black Dragon order has speed bleeders, a new clutch slave cylinder (my S4 TII trans is lookin sad...), and a hardware kit for front TII calipers which will hopefully contain the v-clips I can never seem to get ahold of.

I scavenged for bolts last night and I'm missing a few for connecting the engine and transmission. I have the official list from the FC sub-forum and I managed to identify two of them but that's it. What's missing is what grade they should be (8.8?). If I knew that, I could probably hit up some local stores to find them -- or order online, but I've never found a place for bolts online that I like.

 

I would just go with Billy's lines. I wasted a lot of time and money trying other routes that always had problems. After buying Billy's set I haven't had any issues.

I wish you could get this car up to Zoom-Fest in July. I would love to check it out. It's pretty much exactly where I am wanting to take my SA.

 

Want to take it for me? I'm supposed to be in Florida starting that weekend

If you were closer to where I live, we could probably knock this out in a couple weekends...haha.

 

You will be happy with the camber plates and coilovers. 275 is a great spring rate; comfortable on the road but kicks *** in autocross. I've also got the adjustable perches for the rear, with 150 Lb. springs. Combined with the Respeed swaybar the car handles like a dream. Check out my latest videos in my signature if you want an idea of what you're in for.




.

 

I actually referenced your setup in the notes for my order. I was thinking about just driving up to ReSpeed to pick everything up if he has the items in stock!

I didn't order the camber plates but I imagine that once it is running I'll want to modify some additional suspension components. I still need quite a few bits and pieces (new exhaust manifold and driveshaft being the biggies) before I get there...

 

Could anyone tell me what front bumper he had on the first pic, i want one, i think it would look great with a big FMIC in the middle cooling down intake gasses going into a nice TII swaped car.

o and also, that 3 piece spoiler as well...ive looked, but i cant find anything close...