Just wondering how you guys deal with the interior of your FD. Every time I close my drivers door I think more pieces fall off of it!

I want to look into replacing some parts, but I'm trying to decide if it's worth it - I'm guessing they'll just break eventually as well.

 

Many of the interior plastic pieces have been improved by Mazda if you get new parts. Some of them aren't cheap, unfortunately. The lid from my driver's door bin was broken off (as is most FD's) so I went to buy a new lid - they don't sell just the lid, you have to buy the whole bin assembly. It's about $150 from Malloy. Steep, but the new one is VERY nice and also has a metal pin inside the pivot point that typically breaks off. I'm also planning on replacing the rest of the plastic on the door - haven't priced it yet, though.

Sometimes you can jury rig and fix some of the plastic pieces, but it's really hard to beat a brand new Mazda part. My car had a lot of broken interior from sloppy car stereo work by a previous owner - it generally looked good, but lots of little tabs were broken off, etc. This is not a car to learn how to take interiors apart on .

Dale

 

Im guessing you own a 93 heh.. 94s were improved im some areas of interior.. I've had no issues with mine even after taking some of it apart. Maybe it's just my luck or maybe mazda got it right in the 94s


btw where in jerzy are you

 

When I open a door, lean on the tranny tunnel, hear a squeak, I just....

cringe.

But seriously the driver door pocket always breaks, and I've learned to not touch it now that I have a new one that I can't afford to break.

I'm also planning to put rubber or spray rubber on the inside of the panels where they touch each other to see if that makes things more quiet and solid.

Dave

 

Folks look to GM for the poster child of bad interiors, but I must say that the FD leaves much to be desired. It is nicely styled, but awful materials. The only other use I've seen plastic that cheap had Tic Tacs in it.

 

id be nice if someone made complete after market replacement sets for the interior. like carbon fiber would be nice!

 

I wouldn't hold your breath.

 

Personally I don't think the FD is so bad but then I had an FC before it .

 

The squeaks on my '93 were horrible. Absolutely ruined the experience. I've taken apart the plastic pieces and ran a bead of hot glue in the cracks from the backside, and where the plastics pieces meet other materials. What you're hearing is one part rub up onto another part. If you've ever seen the interior peices removed, you might have noticed adhesive felt strips in these contact areas. Seems they move around after awhile, and become ineffective.

One nasty squeak source is the center consol - the vinyl portion that extends to the rear bins. It's not complete obvious, put it is two parts - with the seam running front to rear on both sides. Nothing was added to control the sound, so finding that seam, slightly spreading them apart, and running hot glue (or silicon I would imagine) will get rid of that.

Many other places though, so you'll just have to take your time and go over each part one by one.

I've also noticed that adding sound deadening material (the heavy adhesive stuff) to the back side of the plastic pieces make them feel a bit more solid as well (at least if you tap on them)

Daniel

 

Haha, yea, same with me. I took the panels off to try and reattach the contact points of the cross-braces inside the doors to try and lessen the "cling" sound of when you close it and noticed a lot of tabs were broken and some screws were missing. I'm planning on getting replacement panels, and putting sound dampening material behind it to try and slightly reinforce it.

 

I forgot to mention that I also fiberglassed the backside of the door panels. The door panels are basically just 'foam', with the whole panel being essentially a structural member of the door pull (on the drivers side anyways). By 60k miles or so, the door panel would actually flex a bit when you pulled the door shut. The FG helps stiffen it up again.

 

i guess not alot complain about the door handles? btw mines are so faded and has key scratches all over it, the only visual disgust on my bb 94

 

Hmm thanks for some good suggestions. I think I'm going to attempt to take some of the panels apart with my panel popper... boy I hope I don't break more than I am able to fix!

and yes I have a '93...

 

idk, i havent experienced any cheap plastic interior parts falling off yet..the only thing that might go first is my driver side door panel..since im an idiot, instead of opening the window first to close the door, i fight the door in order to close it when i get into the car..i think someone says that its air trapped into the car because of the way the car was designed..but if you crack the window a bit, the door would close easy..well im always fighting the door when i get into the car cause it never closes on the first try..

so i know i would have to replace my insider door handle assembly soon..

 

A majority of Rx7 owners have 93's, and every 93 I've seen is night and day compared to my 94. The plastic finish inside (and just plain broken parts) and the exterior paint difference is marginal!

But, as far as creaks and noises go, I think that is somewhat normal for a 10 year old car, and you can't possibly blame cheap parts or Mazda's fit & finish. It's an "old" sports car (stiffer frame/suspension), and it's no worse than any other older import sports car I've driven/ridden (Mr2-T, 300zx, etc.)

 

Hey, you were the one racing your VR FD at the auto-cross @ the meadowland arena in NJ right? Wow, that's like, my first FD gathering.

I've autox'd my car since then and am going again on the 5th (Up here in OC, NY however...)

Twas Nice meeting you...

 

yup, that was me. We just had another autoX Sunday. When are you running again - is that at the airport? LMK I might come up.

 

I just replaced the complete driver's side assembly, I mean the whole thing. It came with the air vent, the two bins, and every screw that held the damn thing. Total price was around $450. Well worth it IMHO.

 

I will have to disagree with most folks here. I have a 93 VR and my interior is in excellent condition, except for the carpets. My bin, door handles, plastic inside, all are fine, and are original. You can see from my post, titled afternoon photoshoot...

 

Yes, it's at Orange County Airport. It's usually a 2nd Gear AutoX considering how tight the runway is, there isn't much allowance for straightaways.

It'd be fun to AutoX alongside another FD, they rarely show up here. It's a smaller club and place, so you can get somewhere around 6-7 runs (3 accross 2 heats, work the other 2 heats...) and I can't complain much since I live literally accross the street from it.

I've been meaning to "tour" other AutoX spots, however, so let me know when yours is.

Our next event is Sunday, June 5th. PM me if you can make it up, I'll meet up with you beforehand

My car was the only MBM FD at that little gathering in NJ last August (see below)

 

One of the fds I just bought has the feed door handles. Wow are they an improvement over stock. I usually hate carbon fibre but these things look impressive in person. Really clean and you cant notice the carbon fiber until you are right on top of it. You might want to look into these.

David Jerome

 

If you're talking about the outside door handles, it's really not hard to primer and apply several coats of lacquer paint and make for a durable, sharp looking finish.

Dave