Nothing too special, but the car's quite special to me, & I'd at least like a documentation of it to show buddies down the road, or whatever :P

The car isn't in too pretty cosmetic condition- It's silver 85 w/ red leather interior. 146K on the clock, you can tell it was driven alot and not really kept up with body/interior wise. BUT open the hood and there's fresh oil, new plugs and wires, BRIGHT GREEN coolant... So mechanically, it was kept up with. Just to show how un-touched the car is, check out the car phone, that was a huge selling point to me. haha!!

Now here's the "cool" part about the car- Back in 2006 or so when I was but an 18 year old know-nothing RX7 lover, I'd see the car come through time to time where I worked. I picked up garbage at a local strip mall! (BTW I'm now a degree'd engineer, upgrade! LOL). The owner, Chris, would come through and go to the grocery store in the mall and sholp.

I'd always stop & talk to him every chance I could, show him my car at the time (85 S, eventualy an 83 GS). In 2007 my friend & I, angered that the local mazda dealer hosted rotary meet had been canceled, decided to make our own. We printed flyers, posted online, etc. Anyway, he was one who came!! I think he's around... 65-70 years old, and disabled due to a health condition. To give you a mental picture. He had sooo much fun at our meet, we were really glad to have invited him. The next year, he called me to have me help do some spark plugs/wires/cap/rotor. No problem, went & did it free of charge.

Fast forward to 2013. Never heard anything between the years as I'd gone off to college, etc. I actually saw the car on craigslist, listed at $2500. For the 4 month time period of it's stay on CL, no one bought it. Every "unknown" number call he got inquiring about it, he wouldn't answer. FAIL.). As time went on & it didn't sell, the landlord where he lived gave him a must-go deadline. I heard through the grapevine of the local mazda shop, who knew I was buying-up any old junkers to "save." This was on a Tuesday, and the deadline was that Saturday.

My wife & I drove down there Friday night, looked at it, re-touched on old memories w/ Chris, showed Rebecca (equally an RX lover, daily drives an '87) the car for the first time, etc. We came back the next morning and drove it home for $700.

Had we not purchased it, Chris was going to call our local salvage yard. Once there, in 45 days per FL law it would be crushed. I'm glad we got it, yea it's just some old junk car, but I know I would've lived in regret for a long time if I passed on it.

Anyway, about the car.

It is an automatic, which has got to go if I'm going to daily it. I do feel bad swapping it to manual, as it's not original. Anyone can modify a car... Keeping it untouched even after 30+ years, that's kindof a cooler story to me. But if I'm going to daily it, it's gotta at least be enjoyable in that regard. ha!

Some stuff is missing, no smog pump somehow? There's rust here & there. New shocks & tie rod ends, score! New tires. Good starting point IMO.


Here's a picture of it from that car meet my buddy & I did in 2007. First car partially photo'd, silver.


Where it's sat since November, when we purchased it


Let it begin!!


Decent underbody. Solid, but dirty. Perfect to use all the time!


The rust at it's worse spot


More rust

 

Dat stock. literally going un-touched aside from repair/clean up/re-addition of the smog pump. May ditch the OMP for premix though but that's IT. haha. Will have AC working too.


It runs good despite the aesthetics!


Wiring chaos for an aftermarket alarm & sterio. Got to go.




Came w/ the stock radio- just got it back in the car. Check out that EPIC car phone!!! So excited for that. I remember flipping out w/ my friend upon seeing it back in 07. "DUUUUDEE!!!!!! CHECK IT OUT THERE"S AN EFFING CAR PHONE!!!!!!!!!"

I also LOVE the red interior!!! What else SCREAMS 1985 more than that?? Just need a replacement Dr seat & I'd be in business.



Rust/clogged drains


Sad face


Dat typical faded paint


Pretty rust free, good thing we caught the standing water in the wheel well when we did, though.


NO idea what the intent was here.

 

Missing door trim molding


Some goodies I got from the local salvage yard back in March, with the intent of some day fixing this car up. Am REALLY excited to finally pull em' outta the barn & affix to this thing & cruise!! Ironically, it was the same salvage yard we kept this car from going to. Have the whole lot of parts to 5 speed swap it.


Trans, from 12A car. Just opened the tail shaft to inspect for damage/confirm there wasn't any foreign objects in there. Also put a new shift centering spring in because I hate when these stupid things can't find home.


Flywheel. Hey, without searching if someone knows off the top-- How do I confirm this is an 84-85 wheel, vs 83? I'm ASSUMING the 83's weren't interchangeable w/ the 84-85. The engine it came off of was already pulled, seller did not know what year the car was (told me '88.. LOL). it DID have a beehive OC, so it's 83-85 for sure.

That's where it's at for now. Hope to get some more progress over the holiday weekend, so I'll post the photos of it as they happen. My overall goal is to be driving it, for no more than $350 or there abouts total. Including registering it. As you can see I've got a good supply of parts to hopefully meet that goal. But if I do get a little frisky & start buying some nice replacement parts like I kindof want to (seat, for example), That goal may not be met. We'll see!! I'm just excited to be behind the wheel of a series 3 as a daily again. I had one for a very short run in 2006, and regret selling the car. But here we are again, so I'm going to make it count. Cheers!!

Landon

 

ALLLL most finished w/ transmission swap. Trans is in, pedals in, clutch line in. Waiting on master & slave from ebay, and I need to sort out the starter wiring. I'll post pictures here shortly

 

Did you ever figure out the flywheel year?

 

Oh whoops totally forgot to update that hahaha. Per mazdatrix's FAQ it was the correct one .

 

I've got this small crappy pic of the first drive. Also got all the front turn/marker lights on, & the valence tidy'd up (fastened back to fenders, belly pan installed to tie everything together).

Snazzy!!!

 

Nice looking ride man

 

Updates?