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.

AHHH ok I see what you meant in your earlier post, I thought you meant they were spacers that go along the bottom to keep the windshield from slipping down toward the cowl as the glue dries (my Trans Am has those, thats why I say that)
Didn't realize they made spacers to keep it from protruding too much. I will definatly invest in a set of those next time I need to do a windsheild on a FB project!

Wow, that's one heck of project. Doesn't look like there's nothing left, lol, but if anyone can rebuild her it's you.

ok, as promised, updated pictures of the car. the car is home in my driveway and is a roller at this point. tomorrow if the rain holds off, it will be a complete RX-7 sans an engine and trans. if i am feeling up to it, i will install a complete maroon interior. but for now, here are some pictures as of 15 mins ago:

as it sat when it i started in on it today. it was without suspension. before it was loaded, me, my father in law, and the previous owner installed a complete front suspension from an 85 GSL and a rear axle from an 85 GS (its all i had):

http://i636.photobucket.com/albums/u...b/DSC00626.jpg

http://i636.photobucket.com/albums/u...b/DSC00628.jpg

as it sat when i was finished with it this evening:

http://i636.photobucket.com/albums/u...b/DSC00629.jpg

http://i636.photobucket.com/albums/u...b/DSC00633.jpg

http://i636.photobucket.com/albums/u...b/DSC00634.jpg

http://i636.photobucket.com/albums/u...b/DSC00643.jpg

before the junk was cleaned out of it:

http://i636.photobucket.com/albums/u...b/DSC00630.jpg

http://i636.photobucket.com/albums/u...b/DSC00638.jpg

after:

http://i636.photobucket.com/albums/u...b/DSC00640.jpg

http://i636.photobucket.com/albums/u...b/DSC00641.jpg

here are a couple random pics from today:

the 85 GSL doner car:

http://i636.photobucket.com/albums/u...1025001449.jpg

ready to go:

http://i636.photobucket.com/albums/u...1025001553.jpg

loading the GSL-SE:

http://i636.photobucket.com/albums/u...1025001841.jpg

http://i636.photobucket.com/albums/u...b/DSC00631.jpg

Looking good! I wish I had the money and time for extra RX's.

Glad you got it home safe Dave, good luck with resurrecting it.

nice......... u got her home.i am sure you r going to make her beautiful again.

Wow, what a difference a a suspension makes, LOL!

What was wrong with the donor car? It looks fine from here. Rust?

You wouldn't by any chance happen to own/have access to the 300zx in the picture you posted?

I'd pay to have it's third brake light, lol.

Sweet, love the green accents in the carpet. :lol: Too bad you're not closer, I've got a GSL rear end that practically give ya outta my old 85.

DF, there were a couple Z's like that in the pick-n-pull out by my place last time I was there. I can gomlook this weekend for that brake light of you'd like.

Thanks, but I don't want anybody to have to go to any lengths for me.
Especially If dunno if it would even work, or look right. I just thought that
300zx might be real close to him.

I sincerely appreciate the offer though.:icon_tup:

well to answer some questions, the donor car is so rusty that the control arms had fallen off and had been haphazardly welded back on. the wheel wells are nearly gone, the right front wheel well has about a 10in section of rust that i can stick my fingers through, and there are spots of rust developingon the floor pan. i was going to try and bring it back, but its just too far gone. it will donate most of its parts to the red SE, including the maroon interior. its front suspension already lives in the SE.

you would be a saint for a donation like that..and i wish i were closer too. up north, they are difficult to find. neat thing is that this SE originally cam from TX. it was from Irving TX.

its only 20 mins from my house. i'll ask the guy if he's willing to part with it and if it works. it looked like he was restoring the car but it may be something that he is not planning on using or has an extra.

Quick good work Dave. Enjoyed seeing the pics. :icon_tup:

Ha, really? I don't live far from Irving, lol. I bet you'll find a lil Rotary Performance sticker on the lower part of the hood, almost every FB I've come across here has been there at some point in its life. Maybe a road trip is in order, The DFW rx7 club meets the first Saturday of every month...just sayin'. ;)

here are today's updates. the rain really put a damper on my work day but i was able to get the driver's side window regulator and motor in and get the window on track and rolled up. i started the maroon interior install by putting in the maroon driver's door panel. i also installed the antenna, rear wiper motor and arm, right tail light and the center panel. i need to re-glue the outer seal on the left tail light. i also sanded and duraglassed a small hole on the rear of the car by the hatch glass.

http://i636.photobucket.com/albums/u...b/DSC00647.jpg

http://i636.photobucket.com/albums/u...b/DSC00649.jpg

here's the reason why the black GSL is now the doner car..although i hate doing this to a 7 that i wanted to restore:

http://i636.photobucket.com/albums/u...b/DSC00650.jpg

http://i636.photobucket.com/albums/u...b/DSC00651.jpg

http://i636.photobucket.com/albums/u...b/DSC00652.jpg

Impressive one day progress Dave.

That rust cancer is some of the worst I've seen. Good job performing a transplant Doctor.

thanks Mike! in the lack of rust aspect, you are very lucky to live in CA!!

i will try and get more done tomorrow before work..which is 7p-7a.. tomorrow's task will include replacement(transplant) of the front fenders, headlights, header panel, lower valance, bumper, and possibly the hood(due to one broken bolt in the hood..which i will attempt to extract befor ereplacement).

after the body panels are on, i will install all proper mouldings and start pulling the complete interior, fixing any rust i see and swapping the interior over to the maroon interior from the black car. i'd stay with the gray interior but the car was left open for a lont time and there are tiny plants growing from the carpet and the carpet stinks like...i dunno, but its really musty. after the interior goes in..or maybe before, i'm not sure yet, i will replace the windshield.

I'd do the windshield before putting your good dash in there, just in case you slip with the razor or something, would be a shame to ding up the dash.... Looking good otherwise, and yea I didn't realize the rust was so bad on that black GSL, didnt' look at it that close when I was out there in June I guess, sucks to scrap one, but that one is definatly shot....

since i'm a mike too, i can answer too... my brother sanded the gas door of his vw to bare metal a year ago, and it hasn't rusted yet, and its been a year.

the red/maroon looks funky! i think its a valid color combo though... and um yeah when the plants grow out of the carpet, its bad....

back in the day i bought a maroon with maroon gsl-se, and it bugged me so much i bought a grey interior for it, which i never put in cause the car got totalled...

the red/maroon combo is a little overpowering..but the long term plan is to paint the car custom silver metallic, color code V9, which was only availabe in 85. i dont think the custom silver metallic with the maroon interior isnt bad at all. it will be the same color combo as pjr's turbo SE:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y30...10/water-2.jpg

^^^^ I thought that was tornado dilver? ^^^^

in 84 it was tornado silver metallic. in 85 they eliminated tornado silver and changed the color slightly and called it custom silver metallic. i have two gas doors, one in K8, tornado silver and the other in V9, custom silver. i'll snag them and post a pic of them side by side for comparison.

i found my tornado silver gas door but i'll have to go to the shed to get the custom silver one..and i'm going to bed.. worked last night from 7pm to 7am this morning. for now, here's where i'm at with the body on the car. i've done more and i'll get pics of that this afternoon after i get up.

http://i636.photobucket.com/albums/u...027001844a.jpg

That's cool Dave, good luck with the project. Boy, when you sink your teeth in you don't let go. Wish I could make progress like that, you've went further in a couple days than I've got in a couple months. Too bad we need those time consuming & pesky jobs to fund things.