After 5 years of being 7 less I found myself starting another project. I picked this L6 car up from Dave (mazdaverx713b) for the low price of FREE! Only catch is it needs an engine, trans, driveshaft, gas tank, a few interior pieces and its wrecked in the front. Dave has a whole front end that was cut at the firewall that I can graft onto it. We flat towed it from Wakeman to Vermilion on February 14th and I started tearing into it. The car is relatively rust free except for the wheel wells around the control arm mount. The interior is in nice shape but the carpets are stained.

The plan for the car to fix the front end and fix the rust in the wheel wells and paint the car. Im not sure yet if I want to keep it L6 or paint it Tornado Silver since it will be all apart. Im going to swap in the S5 N/A engine I bought a couple weeks ago along with an S4 or S5 trans. The rear end and disc brake setup out of Dave's new 85 GSL project are going in the car along with a 4.44 ring and pinion I have had sitting around. I am throwing in a full set of poly bushings and Tokico blues along with a few other parts I have sitting around.

The car is going to be my daily driver for a while because I need another 8-10k to finish rebuilding the engine in my 05 STi. Because of this, I am working on a VERY limited budget. I am currently driving my brothers 98 Accord till he gets home from college on May 11th so I am also on a time crunch to finish this.

Here are pics as it sat at the barn:









I have been taking quite a few pics of the progress and I will post them tomorrow.

 

Looks like you have your work cut out for you, good luck.

 

yeah, but we know he can get it done. this is going to be a stellar project and one heck of a car when its finished! i can't wait to get that S5 N/A engine in there. you guys should see how clean the internals are!

 

This is how it looked before I started ripping into it:

 

The interior looks pretty good. The seats look especially clean.

 

i'll get that new front end ready to go and i'll have it in my garage ready for you tomorrow evening.

 

+1, that interior will clean up to look new.

i vote for keeping it L6, btw, my friend and i have matching FC's its fun.

looks like fun!

 

More pics from the weekend I got it:



Exhaust was trashed. If I can't find a full RB setup in time, I'm going to get a RB DIY header kit and build an exhaust.


Most important tool of all:


Paint is actually in very good shape underneath the mud:




Car was hit hard enough it broke the seam sealer right at the firewall.



Worst part of the interior. Anybody find a dye that looks close to stock?

 

At first glance it didn't look too bad:

 

Nice, I have same year/model/color as you for a project. Hopefully someone has ideas about a dye for the interior trim. I found a set of those pieces you have that are in decent shape, but the piece surrounding the hatch mechanism is beat up.

 

But, I had to pick at it with a wire wheel and a plasma cutter:











Should be a fairly easy repair. I have all the equipment to fix it here, but my friend offered me the use of his lift so I am taking the car over there later this week. Hopefully I will be able to start making some progress on the body fairly soon.

 

Looks good. Keep up the work.

 

Your rust looks mighty familiar...mine was a bit worse, I chose to just replace the whole wheel lining, including the control arm brackets on the outside as the originals were pretty cheesy. Glad to see someone else putting in the effort to save one.

Other side was worse than this...


Chris

 

i saw the car yesterday and eric had the new front end welded on! he's making a lot of progress with the car. its goign to be a sweet 7 when its finished. heck, with an S5 engine in the car and some minor mods, this thing should cover some pavement with haste!

 

I have been busy with side jobs and other projects and haven't had time to update the thread, but I have been making progress. The new front end has been welded on and painted. I have the front suspension together and installed. The engine and trans are ready to go in and I should have them dropped in tomorrow. The hard drive on my laptop took a ****, so I lost some of the pictures,but I still have plenty of pics from the past couple months that I will post up in the next couple days. For now here is a teaser pic after I painted it.

 

this car is looking GREAT! Eric and i got the engine and trans in last weekend and a lot of pics were taken. i know he's been busy with work but i'm sure he'll post pics when he gets time.

 

Its been quite a while since I updated this thread. Just need a few things and the car is ready to drive

I got the new front end on the first week of May. The donor car was also hit hard in the front and had been repaired at some point.

Rough cut with the plasma cutter








New front end











All clamped up ready to weld

 

 

Wow, that's seriously some nice work.

 

The front end had been poorly repaired before so I decided to replace the thin wall tube up front with a piece of 2"x2" .125" wall tubing. It feels like it will add a good bit of strength up front too.










Found some rust in the front wheel wells while I was in there.

 

I finished the welding then painted the car in late May. I think it looks pretty good for my first time using an HVLP gun. I only painted the engine bay so far and will do all the body work as I'm driving it. Sometime this spring I will paint the rest of the car.

 

that is looking really good

 

i can speak for Eric and say that the car is coming along beautifully! he has instaled an S5 engine and trans in the car, welded in new metal in the rear wheel wells, installed tokico blues in the rear, coil over's in the front, has Kosai wheels, and has done plenty more than i can list to include a full msd ignition, and has made a header from the RB kit. he can post more details.. the only two pics i can find were on my cell. he has a plethora of pics of his progress but hasnt got around to posting as he's been so busy getting the car finished up. here are the pics i have as of october and a lot has been done since these pics were taken:

 

really nice build man. keep it up

 

Looking really good Eric!
Saw it in person back in June and can say it will definatly be an awesome car when its back on the road.