my 84 GSL-SE restoration
 

i picked up an 84 SE today..needs near everything but since its a Texas car, its perfect for a restoration as the body is mostly solid! i plan to install a good engine and trans down the road and the car will be painted back to its original color. those are long term goals. i may restore it back to its original state or it may end up as a mild resto-mod. here's what i will start with:

http://i636.photobucket.com/albums/u...1022001601.jpg

http://i636.photobucket.com/albums/u...022001601a.jpg

4 how much ....$$$

paid $150 for it. to most that would be too much but for me thats a fair price considering its a no rust car that had just been mostly parted. i'm tired of fixing rust and a solid car is worth my time and effort. i bought it for a hair less than it would scrap for..which is what the previous owner was considering.

:icon_tup:

Congratulations Dave! That's one lucky RX-7 to fall into your talented hands. Another cinderella comeback story at a $150 price.

Damn. That car is stripped clean. :(

yea, its pretty stripped. no engine, trans or suspension. i have a suspension for it, but its from a 12A car... the interior is there but it will end up being maroon from the donor car. so, it was kinda hard to justify the price but for a non rusty shell, its worth it.

thank you Mike :) i will do my best to make it beautiful once again.

Ouch, that windscreen is cracked pretty nicely... how hard is it for us to get replacements for our cars? I am guessing not that good since they are probably not produced anymore...

good luck..........may the rotary gods be with u:)

there's a company that will come out and replace the windshield for about $200. i have a spare that i may try and use and just cut this one out myself. the big task will be getting it to my house. i hope to bring it home by tuesday.

i called around and paid like $160 or something. the guy put it in wrong so the mouldings don't fit, but it wasn't hard to find or expensive.

if you want an OEM MAZDA piece of glass i think you're SOL

i'm not concerned if its an oem piece of glass. i'm gonna part my ratty black 85 GSL and i'm gonna try to use the windshield out of that. i'm also going to use the maroon interior from the black car as the interior of this car has been exposed to a lot of rain and is ruined.

the glass guy i used had a really long razor blade (like a 2 foor handle), and it looked like you could slide that between the body and glass on the inside, go all the way around and the window will just pop out.

using the wire cutting method, you ALWAYS break a corner....

nice project BTW... to bad you're so far, i have an almost complete gsl-se that's just missing the body...

sure would like to have your SE short block... i also need to aquire a couple maroon interior bits and some better maroon seats than what i have.

i don't have rotor housings, but i do have everything else.

actually a great stealth upgrade is an s5 NA block, its like a street port gsl-se engine, all the -SE intake stuff bolts right on, and the smog ports all line up etc etc.

lol, we'll have to compare seats too, we have lots of sun here..

Agreed, I've never had much luck getting windshields out, the corners chip and then the crack spreads....

Good luck Dave!

i hope to get started on tuesday but if i can get the car monday then i will have a head start. tuesday its supposed to rain all day which kinda puts a damper on things, especially removing a windshield..

Dave getting your good windshield out without breaking it would be quite an accomplishment, I gave up getting ANY of the sealed glass out of an FB shell after wasting two weekends trying various methods - tons of work and always broken glass in the end. Let us know if you find the secret!

Your sure do take on ambitious projects!

i will let you know if i succeed..i have a method i want to try...but i have considered calling a glass company and seeing what they will charge me to take the glass out of the rotten car and put it in the red car.

ambition, yes..insanity..probably more so, lol. suprisingly my wife didnt complain..even after i showed her these pictures. i did buy her off with a new baby swing and bouncer seat..something she had to have for our upcoming child thats due in late april.. but i can tell you that i can't wait to get started on this car and in teh first 48 hours of having it, the car will look completely different and the restoration will be well under way!

my guy had something like this http://www.matcotools.com/Catalog/to...ype=T&cat=2361

you just go around the inside of the window, and out it pops.

when you put it back, you need to use the right glue, he gave me crap as my friend put the windshield in with silicon, which will pop out in a crash. i think urethane is right?

also mazda has these little spacer things that go on the body and place the windshield in the right place so that the outer moldings fit right. 8871-63-911 on the bottom and 0839-70-449 on the top. they were a couple dollars each new. if you were cheap you could buy one and just duplicate, its not complex

i bought those, and showed the guy and he didn't use em and my moldings don't fit right, so it needs to be redone, again.

Mike, thank you for the tips and for the part numbers! i'll get some on order from the dealer tomorrow!

One more thing to note is that the amount of urethane needed to hold a modern windshield in a car is a bead a bout 5mm thick, but on a FB it needs to be about 3mm thick otherwise the glass will sit too high and there won't be room to properly fit the moulding. The guy who did the windshield in my 83 S had been doing windshields for almost 20 years, had done dozens of FB's (back in "the day") and he was the one who told me that....
I had another windshield done in another FB several years later by a guy who clearly didn't know this, put the glue on too thick and I had a bear of a time getting the trim on correctly, needed a lot of tweaking, suffice to say I wasn't happy!

yep! mazda actually sells little spacer things just for that

looks like a nice, solid start to a great project. good luck and have fun :)

jake

i hope to get the car home tomorrow. i've already removed the entire front suspension and engine cradle assembly from the rotten GSL and i have a rear end lined up for install on the car. the truck is loaded with parts and i shoul dhave it in my driveway tomorrow. i also plan on posting more pictures that i'll take with my digital camera as opposed to the ones from my cell phone. if the rain holds off in the afternoon i will have more details on exactly what it will need.