Thanks guys, a lot of credit goes to the folks who have turned out quite unexpectedly to help me get this car on the road. There is definitely a lot of comradery for the Old School in this neck of the woods.

Crit, who has an SE, a REPU and an RX3 (or is it RX2, I always forget) conducts these weekend work sessions on a routine basis. As you can see he was also busy yesterday with some of the other OGTA's working on a real 12A (whatever that is, I need to see this ancestor of the "12B" with its dual dizzies, 6 mm carbon seals and starter on top)!

Maybe it will show up at the next OGTA meeting, and with any luck the Silver One will too. Community like this makes working on the rotary even more fun than it usually is.

 

Ray, everything you know as a 12A is actually a 12B, at least internal to Mazda it is. The 12A was the points-fired, twin-dizzy, 6mm carbon apex sealed, twin-side-sealed, non-sheetmetal-insert-rotor-housing, oil pump chain tensioner-equipped, side-mounted waterpump, top-mount starter setup that ran until 73. In 74, we were given the 3mm-sealed single-dizzy gem that we all know and love. It's a 12B. There was enough marketing buzz to keep calling it the 12A, but the well-traveled rotorhead will know otherwise.

 

So we need to change our name to OGTB after all? We can discuss this at the next meeting, I'm sure the FC guys will like the idea for all the wrong reasons.

My homework is done, I'm going out to see if I can get the stereo in the Silver One fixed so that I can reinstall all the interior parts.

 

i'll be doing what's necessary(inexpensively) to keep the brakes working until i can get the time and money to do a disc rear swap. at that time i will be putting ss hoses on.

 

Then I guess all you folks with FB's are actually running second-gen RX-7s...

Yeah, I know: S2 versus S1. Humor always falls apart if you stretch it too far.

 

Ray have you worked on the car at all today? what have you been driving to work?

 

The MP5 (Mazda Protege5), our backup car. With a long commute you can't depend on one car, not even the old reliable White One.

Yes I've been working on wiring, running and interior lights and redoing the center console, maybe even get an ashtray that works, which would b a first for me (I don't smoke, I just think it's cool the way a working one pops in and out). I just got all the running lights working and I'm installing the power antennae to see if I can restore the Clarion stereo to its former glory. Slowly I'm getting everything plugged back in that got undone when an aftermarket system was installed.

Electrical is not my strong suit, but with enough time it will work. Right?

 

Your RB muffler looks different than mine... Mine has angle cut tips and yours are strasight and rounded...

 

sounds nice and runs nice i cant wait intill i can start driving my rx7 around town

 

the older style mufflers had the slant cut tips. i have them too. the newer ones r straight cut.

 

^^Michael, wanted to let you know that you can buy the SS brake lines individually from racing beat. you can buy a set for the drum brake rear to hold you over and to be safe on the road and then when you swap in the disc brake rear, you can buy the two additional lines needed for the disc brake rear end.

 

So the drum rearend only needs 1 line?
I have the s/s brakelines off a friends dead 80 and there are only 3 lines. 2 fronts and 1 other.
How many flexable lines are on a 1st gen with rear drums?

 

Yep, only three soft lines. The rear cylinders interconnect via a hardline along the top of the axle.

 

After bleeding a couple of those drum set ups over the last few weeks I'm getting to like them, just one valve in the back to bleed and fewer soft lines to replace. Also those guys with drum brakes lay way more rubber, which is really impressive even if it is only one line.

The Clarion came back to life last night, we got a rotary rhythm going on. I'll take a video, fixing up the interior and polishing her nails this evening.

I do like the design and shine of the newer RB muffler, after a year and a half and 60,000 miles it looks like new (the paint is, I added that a few days ago)

 

yeah i know all about that. actually they're doing better since bleeding them. i figured that's what they needed again just never took the time to do it. thanx for the concern tho.

 

They weren't that bad in the first place, just not perfect. Hey, as long as they start the car as fast as that Holley'd 13B starts it you'll be fine.

Now that the Clarion wiring is all right, I'm trying to decide which unit to use





I've been plugging each in to see how they work, the only one that doesn't is the one that came in the Silver One, which explains the aftermarket stereo system the PO put in. Since I'm in there already I'm going to redo the entire console area, I'm thinking keep the original paint and finishes and put a light clear acrylic clear coat on it.

 

Looks like your getting there Ray!

 

My PowerPulse is about 25 years old and has straight tips, but the end edge is cut, not rounded like the new ones.
RB keeps changing things up.

 

That's called evolution Greg, Survival of the Fittest:

B

In the process of cleaning up the Clarion I discovered something really cool. All that grime and corruption is on the finish, which you can take off with some EtOH and expert rubbing. Then you just renew the original metallic finish with a bit of clear coat.

Before the treatment (a different unit):



After:



Notice I had to erase certain icons because they were no longer mint.

 

Wow, what an improvement!!

I have a cass and a Eq that needs some TLC.

What type of clear coat??

 

what an improvement Ray!! how long did this process take you? have you been driving the silver car at all or just slaving over its every need?

 

Right now I'm trying to figure out how to get the #%&*@!$$# logicon out. The unit in the silver one had a bad light and then it quit working altogether, so I switching it with the logicon from the white one. This is turning out to be a real pain but I should get this done and have most of the interior back together today.

I'm taking this opportunity to fix up the interior, I want to snag some of that SEM burgundy vinyl dye and see if I can convert some of the faded brown and green interior colors back to red. I hope they have the SEM stuff at the local autozone, NAPA or advanced auto.

To clean up the radio I just used a soft cotton cloth and some ethanol from the lab, which I routinely do before applying finishes (same as isopropanol, removes oils and grime so the paint sticks better). This was after I'd done my best to clean up the surface, but it still had some problems.

What I accidentally discovered was that with a little rubbing the ethanol lifts the factory clear coat and all the blemishes in it, leaving the original metallic surface exposed and shiny. See that cracking in the clear coat on the equalizer in the picture above? That stuff comes right off. leaving the bare metal in great shape. The black lettering is recessed and is unaffected by the ethanol treatment, but the little white clarion icons and one of the Mazda logos were removed.

I used Duplicolor clear top coat for the finish in the pic above, with several light coats. It worked ok but the surface has a bit more texture in it than I'd like so next time I'll try Krylon crystal clear acrylic, I think it will give a smoother surface.

Also I tightened up the front wheel bearings yesterday, hopefully that will help get a better front end alignment. I'll do a test drive today once I get enough of the interior back together. I'm still hoping to have it road worthy for work on Tuesday and the OGTA meeting Tuesday evening.

 

Wow Ray, I just read this thread front-to-back and I've gotta say, awesome job on the swap!

Does *anything* rust where you live? Both of those cars look like they just rolled off the factory floor compared to anything I ever see up here!

That being said, it's a blast working on these cars and I'm sure you had fun bringing the Silver One to life. It must be nice having a local club with some FB owners as members, let alone ones which are willing to come out and give a hand!

Lookin' good there Ray,

Jon

 

Well thank you Jon! I'm trying to keep the spirit of the White One alive in the Silver One and since it turns out about half the parts going into the Silver One are transplanted from the White One, I think it's going to work.

Things do rust down here in GA but slowly because we don't have any salt. But not the 1st gen RX-7s, they usually are pristine. That's because we Georgians know what we got and we take care of them, every 1st gen gets snatched up and rebuilt. That's why Atlanta is the 1st gen center of the universe.

I am having fun working on the Silver One, especially today, when I discovered that the reason the logicon wasn't working was because I had removed the fuse to the AC because AC's are for girls and I had taken mine out long ago.

Well, here's something I'll bet a lot of you rotorheads didn't know, the fuse for the AC is also the fuse for the logicon! (I did a search, forum members at least seem to be oblivious).

So I put in the fuse and now the Silver One is logical, lighting up like a Christmas tree and putting the air wherever I want. I'm reassembling the interior, two day behind schedule due to all that time I spent trying to figure out how to get logicons in and out and how they work.

It's looking pretty, pics to come in a day or two. Dave, you know my philosophy:

"No 7 before it's time"

But we might get a test drive in tonight to check out all those interior light bulbs I've been replacing. I'll see if I can get a video of it.

 

More progress, here's some pictures and a video of the console:







And the Silver One had her maiden voyage yesterday, she made the 110 mile round trip into Atlanta without a hitch, complete with a stop at last night's OGTA meeting:







So now ALL the lights on the car work except the door key lights and I'm going to have a look at them tomorrow. A few more finishing touches and she'll be ready for the "after" pictures.