So after 6 years, 3 moves and having 2 kids, I'm finally in a position to get back to working on my car.

I originally found the car like this:


How I found my car

Reassembled everything and fixed the broken things, and then promptly ripped it apart for paint:



And ended up here:



And finally after moving 3 times, in my current house and garage:



In the time it's been of the road I've accumulated a bunch of crap for it:


Not pictured are the 99 spec gauges rebuilt by Mr Gagne with new faces from Revlimiter, and the lightweight flywheel and ACT clutch.

Getting a little inspiration before the teardown:



And how it currently sits with the engine ready to be pulled out.

Current tally of what I've found that needs replacing so far:



I haven't call Big Ray yet for prices, this list was done at 1 in the morning after I got the engine completely unhooked and ready to be pulled.

What's my build/resto plan:

All this was prompted by the clutch signing off and slipping under boost. And sitting for years did not help anything.

So, one the engine is pulled, remove the remainder of items under the hood and fenders so I can properly paint the engine bay 25G Titanium Gray Metallic to match the exterior.

Then clean, paint and replace everything else as needed. Including the heat shields in the tunnel, they be dirty. I really want to apply the brush on type undercoating to the underside and wheel wells to protect it and clean up the surface rust present from its previous life in Pennsylvania.

The steering rack, front sway bar mount, and trailing arm front bushings are all looking pretty bad and will be replaced. The front lower spring rubber seats have also died and will need replacement or if budget allows maybe a basic set of name brand (not godspeed, megan, etc) coil overs. I'd really love to have the front a bit higher and the rear lower.

Performance wise (as pictured above) I've purchased a twin power, M2 airbox, Trust Titanium exhaust, and an AEM Water/ Meth injection kit.

The Trust exhaust is quite a bit larger than the Borla I had on it:



Once I get all this sorted out and back together, then I need to pull the interior out to deal with the lack of working heat and to install sound deadening. Then recover the seats AGAIN since the non-leather parts have decided to die and flake off, rewire the fuel pump, install the new gas and dead pedals, and auxiliary gauges, etc. Also repair and repaint the plastics for the gauge, a/c, door, console.

In any case, lots of work. I'm really glad I didn't give up on the car and as the market currently stands , there is no way I could've sold it and bought another one. And thanks to a new group of friends I met thru Tiktok of all places, I got some new motivation to get working on my car again.

Vince

 

So for a slight change of pace I figured I would play with the BBS wheels I picked up:



Started polishing up the center caps, since these silver letter ones are apparently Japan only and long discontinued:


Getting the centering rings out of the wheels was evil. They are held in with a spring clip/ring and you have to hold one end from moving while trying to pry the other inwards and upwards. It took a while, but they eventually came out without any bloodshed.

Picture of the evil rings installed:




I will order the proper centering rings and 4 matching valve stems soon, but have other priorities for the moment. I also still need to clean and repaint the wheels as 2 have minor curb rash and I would like to paint them as close as I can get to the Diamond black finish:


The OG Rich (GoodfellaFd3s) hooked me up with a nice set of black mcguard lock/lugs that should go nicely with these

And here is the new gauge cluster:



Looks about 1000x better than it did when I got it:



Vince

 

Last update for today.

Thanks to being at the right place, right time, I acquired a "New" stove for free for powder coating purposes.

Hopefully in the next few weeks, I'll be able to install it in my dad's shop and pick up a powder coating kit to do some experimenting.

Unless something unforseen happens, I will be powder coating ALL of the brackets and coolant pipes I've removed under the hood.

And for no good reason at all, here are a few of the hot wheels I've acquired over the last few years:


Nearly all my Mazdas in a Michael's Shot glass case turned 90°

Super Treasure Hunt RX-3

Super Treasure Hunt FD on left, mainline on right

787Bs and Furai


Vince

 

Should be a great build!

Any engine bay pictures as it sits currently?

Besides the clutch is there anything else wrong with the engine/drivetrain? Are you rebuilding the engine or just pulling for paint and cleanup?

I've dabbled some in powder coating, with a good kit it's REALLY easy to do, hands down the hard part is just having the oven and space for it. For doing little brackets and stuff it's a great way to go.

Dale

 

Thanks for the encouragement.

Engine and transmission are both in good shape, engine is a Mazda reman with around 20k on it.

No rebuild, just cleaning and repainting as time hasn't been kind to it.

Current engine bay shot:



Do you have any powder coating tips? I was looking at getting the kit from Harbor Freight to start.

Vince

 

Man, that's some awesome work!
Love seeing these builds where the owner brings them back to life.
Ill be checking back in for updates

I just started using POR 15 in my build and have had awesome results... High recommend it.

Steve

 

POR 15 is some good stuff, I used it when I did my seat rails and the rear subframe. I definitely need to get more!

Vince

 

I'm sure there are some videos on doing powder coating with the HF kit. Do a little YouTubing. I did some powder coating with a friend some time back, it was VERY simple and straight forward.

Like anything big thing is prep work, you want to make sure the part is good and clean and is scuffed up nicely so the powder will adhere well.

Dale

 

One step closer, unfortunately they were out of the actual powder though....



Vince

 

So some more progress made:

Engine is out.


Went well other than making a giant mess of gear oil.


Previous owner couldn't drive apparently...



Everything tucked out of the way while I remove the rest of the parts from the engine bay.


Another part added to the list


And my "clever" storage solution to get as many parts off the floor as i can.


Once I finishing cleaning up the disaster of gear oil and kitty litter, I will get back under the car to remove the transmission tunnel heat shields for cleaning and roll the car outside to clean and hose out the engine bay. Then I'll get back on removing the remaining parts to get ready for painting the engine bay.

Vince

 

So two heat shield bolts decided to fight me so I moved on and pulled the fender and a few other things:



And a small assortment of parts arrived from RockAuto:


Unfortunately, work, family functions and the child are limiting the time I can spend working on the car. Progress will likely be slower until after Christmas.

Vince

 

So, as seems to be typical for me, I've been slacking on the car. BUT, I did make one BIG bit of progress:






The powdercoating turned out fantastic, and the fitment looks perfect. I just hope I made @GoodfellaFD3S proud

Hopefully this will motivate me to work on it more...
But, I also picked up another project that I've just about finished in only 2 months, a 2.5 swapped Focus:


I still need to put on 2 tires and replace one hard brake line and it can be tagged.

Vince