I have been extremely busy with work this week and didn't get a chance to work on the car until now, I jacked the car up into its new home for the next few weeks





The brake ducts look pretty bad, I'm not sure if I should make new ones or if mazda still has them. Or if I would be alright just leaving them off.I would like to keep it original as possible

 

Cleaned up the turbo2 transmission





Realized that the shifter rod that i modified from my 12a transmission was shorter than the turbo2 rod.I should have paid a little more attention to dream in rotary's video . So I modified the turbo2 rod, got it all together , and painted the transmission. Thanks for the video Austin! .





While putting the trans. Back together, a wire fell off of this sensor/switch? . Can someone please tell me what this is. Now time to figure out my transmission mount

 

Reverse light switch. That's the only switch I can think of on the transmission. IDK about 2nd gen transmissions. But there is an easy way to find out. Plug in a multi meter and cycle through the gears.

 

Neutral switch.

 

Thank you, i wasn't quite sure.



This is the part that I was not looking forward to, going through a complete car wiring harness to get one plug for the ecu, and my left side engine harness. I can't think of a better way to spend a Friday night

 

I see that and I'm reminded why I went carbed in my formerly EFI equipped vehicle. lol And I like wiring! So that, coming from me, is saying something!

 

Thanks jeff, I've been working on the harness a little bit each night, that way i don't get too aggravated with the wiring.
I also ordered a new neutral switch for the trans. It should be here this week.




I decided to go with a vmount intercooler set up. I picked up a used vmount kit for a fc. I'm going to modify it to fit the fb, and then make a new one, That way its not all cut up and welded. It actually looks pretty simple

 

I've had my chassis for neigh upon 9 months now and I'm still not even close to getting it to drive under its own power - so it'll be up to debate who's truly farther

No worries on the video, I did it mainly to help others learn how to do it. I hadn't ever done it before so it was a huge learning experience for me as well - I'm glad it did help you out a bit!

I'll be very interested to see how the v-mount setup goes. I'll probably be FMIC in my current build and will go v-mount in the future. FMIC in the current one because I want it to have A/C since it'll be a daily summer cruiser I believe.

 

i'd be interested to see how this vmount mounts (what they used as their attachment point on the FC, etc).

 

double posted for whatever reason.

 

I took the tires off to re seam seal and paint the wheel wells and found this.




The driver side isn't that bad, doesn't really go all the way through





But the passenger side is worse. Time for some rust repair work

 

That totally sucks, I'm doing the same thing right now. Take the time to do it right and fix it the first time by welding in sheet metal. I'm finishing mine by painting it with POR-15 rust-resistant paint normally intended to be painted on rusty parts to stop rust.

 

I know, tell me about it, i think I found out what causes it, the stock seam sealer is too hard and brittle, and falls out, I'm going to clean everything up and re-seam seal everything. I also am going to use the por 15 paint, except I got the solvent to thin it so I can spray it on, I'm going to spray the whole undercarriage. Tomorrow night after work I'm going to cut out the bad metal and weld in my patches. The only thing I'm not sure of, is if I'm gonna leave it the por 15 black color or paint it the rh color on top of it

 

Started Removing The Rest Of The Interior IN Preparation For The Rust Repair And found a big pile of carpet padding in between the bins



This is the third dead mouse I found.

I guess this gives new meaning to the term " rats nest ".

 

When I first got on the RX forum I thought that's what people where talking about when they mentioned rats nests cause the little critters are sooooo common in older cars. Took me a while to figure out they meant a bunch of vac hoses.

The folly, me at my PC trying to figure out why people are having trouble removing ***** of paper from there car.


EDIT: Oh and tear that **** out. That's half the reason for rust. That'll trap moisture and hold it close to metal creating RUST (a car's worst nightmare)

 

Believe me, I tore all of that **** out, I should have wore a hazmat suit.




this is what I found under the Bin metal,about 5 pounds of Mouse turds





passenger side wheel well, not too bad.





driver side Wheel well is a little worse, the thing I don't get is that on the outside there is no rust at the top, but on the inside there is. It's a good thing I have a big piece of sheet metal

 

Glad to see you're saving it! I used the heck out of the POR-15 after I repaired my rust. An ounce of prevention...

I also had several nests in my car, one inside the passenger rocker panel at the base of the B-pillar. Rotted that section out pretty well...




It may be worth knocking around in that area since you had some nearby just to make sure. Those critters get everywhere, and as I said, an ounce of prevention....

 

Thanks for the tip, I will definitely check it out.
Today I broke out the hazmat suit and vacuumed out the mouse turds, I noticed that the sound deadening material where I found the mouse nest had this black greasy look to it.so I cleaned it with degreaser, it still looks dirty, so I'm gonna remove all of it from where the bins are located.





Here's what I'm talking about , this is after cleaning that stuff has to go





Started cutting out the rust from the driver's side, since it is the worst side.

 

That rust isn't bad at all! You can do that. Maybe try some bleach with warm water and a stiff bristle brush to clean and disinfect that stuff?

 

Chlorine? Near rusty metal? Joke?

 

I wasn't advising the OP to put chlorine bleach on the rusty metal, just the gunky parts where the mouse residue remains on the sound deadening material. If some gets on the painted metal and gets wiped up I still don't see an issue. Besides, the rust is getting cut out anyway.

 

Ok I started working on my rust repair. I started on the drivers side since it is the worst side. And just as I thought, the rust forms there from a lack of seam sealer.



Notice how the rust starts right below the edges of the upper plate





This is the back of the upper plate





Here is the plate that strengthens the suspension





And behind that plate
Now I will cut out all of the bad metal and weld in new metal.

 

Here is what it looks like with all of the rusted metal cut out. After talking this picture my phone battery was really low, so I couldn't take any more pictures. I got my patch cut out, I also etch primer ed it so I don't get any rust finger prints on it from touching it while shaping it and installing it, and I got all of my spot welds ground down and cleaned up. When I get into work, I will take some pictures of what I just mentioned. I'll have another update in a few hours

 

That looks all too familiar! Looking forward to pics of the new piece you fabbed up. I have ZERO fab skills, and was lucky enough to have a donor section, but I had to basically replace as much as you did. I took that plate off my rust free donor and even it had rust behind it. That area, and the inside of the rocker surfaces at the B-pillar are two areas that Mazda didn't do such a good job of rust proofing and sealing. Any rust-belt cars were doomed from the start if driven in winter...

Love the work - glad to see someone else tackling this kind of project. Looks good so far.

 

The last harness part I need came today, now I can finish my wiring