Cliff, I think that a 20B in your Ultima sounds great. Then you could buy my PA and just restore it to stock. :) haha, don't tell Grace where I live, she might shoot me for putting these ideas in your head.

Zach...you read my mind.....If the paint is still good on your PA I can bring nearly ANY paint back to life....For the interior, I buy a complete stock 83 car for $500 down here and swap out everything. I put my stock 83 motor in your PA after i smog/register the ultima and then smog/register your car. Then I put a s5 TII in the ultima for starters along with the respeed r&P. I copy my top to replace your top and then we get two cars on the road. No charge for my 12a. Meantime, you build, or that talented wife of yours, builds a better motor with the original turbo for your/her PA :)

Then we talk about getting me a cosmo......after I install the new kitchen for my wife, that I am working on...did i mention that? Oops, I told you restorations were costly :)
The last one cost me a guest room, bathroom, a new driveway, with motorized gate and I accidently threw in a 3rd car garage with black and white tile, silly me.

Ray, you are a saint, or a teacher and will be rewarded. I have some very cool pics to send you and jeezus. I have a serious car background and have had too much time on my hands....thanks, cliff

Well, nick at rotary engineering/ fast freddies put a new fuel pump, alternator and diagnosed a cat converter problem, so tuesday the ultima should roll to the smog station. Our plan is to smog a stock 12a motor then register it, before updating to a better smog legal motor etc for the ultima.

My motor choice is the s5 turbo, complete and smoggable, at this time. I want it street reliable, smooth and powerful.

Sounds like a plan, keep us updated... Maybe a video even?

personally i thinking thats its F'n awesome... original or not... very rare, extreme modification... lol

So we now have new brake master as well, clutch bled and I think it will run ok now. Nick has been very reasonable and patient. The rx7 business has dropped so much he is doing sand rails mostly now.

I spent a day knocking the dust off of it, giving it it's first cut polish by hand. I have a biodegardable citrus cleaner that I washed the upholstery, doors and carpet with. The leather actually changes color when washed. A whitish interior is my version of torture.

I took the old alarm stuff out. Including hood lock, glass break sensor, remote pager, ignition kill and a bunch of extra wiring for a non existent electronic 12a turbo boost module. Too bad. A lot of 80s tech is going bye bye. Sorry Zach. This is not a stocker...this is going to be your PA car on steroids. I am making up for the long hours of researching stock on my vette.

I think I will be ripping out the complete stereo setup, 14 speakers and amps and such...to start fresh. There is an open circuit somewhere but even with my AAA membership it is tough getting a ride home in a tow truck after an evening out. :) I will leave the frames intact and I have a crap load of good alpine stuff I won't use anymore with the modern cars.

I put the ultima up on the hoist. No rust. The Pacific Avatar reinforcement is kinda basic for all of you 12a convertible wannabee 's like me. I would love to see a bunch of 12a verts running around. I will pic and post asap.

I think the re-speed R&P is necessary to re-enforce the front end and replace all of the dead rubber bushings. This thing has fat sway bars and heavy springs and shocks. Will research newer stuff. I want a subframe like the one for the miata, to stiffen things up. Any help? later, cliff

AWESOME!! I can't wait to see this at a local meet sometime next year!

-Andy

Happy new year to all.

I keep checking the money tree but it's growing pretty slow....
Polishing up the rims and getting phsyched up for smog.

Doing a color assessment of the paint. The original ferrari color seems to be darker than the current paint - now porsche orangish - red, like guard's red, I believe.

Hope everyone is healthy and ready for a new year. cliff

Good to see you posting on here again Cliff. Hopefully everything is going good down there. Give my best to Grace.

Nothing has changed up here, same old same old. :)

Zach

Well, the project has begun again.

Any Updates??????????????????

Hey Ray, it's even easier than that. You can type out text in the quick reply box at the bottom of the screen, highlight the text that you want to also serve as a link, click the third icon from the right (immediately above the space you're typing in), and paste your link there. It'll underscore your text and turn it into a link. You can also use the icon next to it, with the yellow mountain, to insert a link to a photo. No HTML tags necessary, just type, highlight, click and paste.

Yeah...keep the Weds Autobahns, but you need some wider wheels on the widebody....these cars were profiled in the old "How to Modify your Rx7" book!

i saw this car at robs shop, where its making some good progress. you guys want me to sneak some pics :)

Too funny. Nice spy work. We are going to start a new thread on the ultima.
After a year of floundering at another shop, Robert at Rotary Shack has been KICKING BUTT on restoring the ultima for the past month.
This is going to be fun.
Go for it. cliff

wow...

there was one of these at pull a part in nashville with no motor, hood, seats, or top. it had the wheels and everything. they just brought it out. i watched them sit in the lot. i looked it over and thought it was just a 1 off custom job. damn.

Any Updates on this????

well, we have been working steadily on the car.
Turbo motor, new fuel system, redone fuel lines, tanketc.
ready to put heavy clutch and drive shaft in and return it to the road.
We will get some pics up and get going on this thread soon.
thanks, cliff

Cool!

I saw Zach's old car when I was out in the US a few years ago so I'm very keen to see pics.

Always loved the Avatar, we got a few convertable first gens over here but none as cool as the Avatar's.

Cam...

cliff i just got back to iraq was in the us on leave and i found a 626 deck lid in my shop pretty sure i cabbaged on to it years back to make my own avatar before i bought zachs. BTW haven't heard from him how is he doing

wow.
Welcome home.
your timing is great.
I sent Zach an email earlier today.
My tranny goes in my car next week.
This will get it rolling.
A trunk lid will be great.
Do we need the whole assembly.
An avatar is up for sale back east.
I asked the guy for more info.
later, cliff

well, a little off i got 2 weeks leave and now back in Iraq for 4 months. the only part I have at this time is the deck lid we didn't get the other parts (my intent was to custom fab the needed parts which is probably the best way) So does that mean that there are 2 avatars for sale right now??? IM me more info that you know I would actually be interest in more.

I would be happy to help you with the deck lid all i need is the cost of shipping, it is good shape also

Spy pics?

Reviving this thread. I want updates.

+1

Awaiting an update!

Where is the 20B?

Would like to see what's new with this car!

Pacific Avatar
 

hi,
I have been working hard on the car.
My divorce is almost over, then i will start a new thread.
The t2 motor has a new ecu - haltech sprint and is headed for
final tuning this week.
I am very excited about starting to work on the car.
I have a lot of plans for it.
Funds are short though, so progress will be slow.
I want to see the car running this week.
let me go see how my money tree is growing :)
Cliff

ultima progress
 

well,

The build has been stalled too long. I bought the car for myself, in non running condition near the beginning of the divorce & it could have been argued incorrectly that it was a community asset, so we let it sit until the divorce was over to avoid any complications. It has been a shell for the last 3 years. However, my marital divorce is over and the car was never disputed, so we have been back to work on restoring it.

Robert at Rotary Shack and I have been working on collecting all of the necessary components for the car's mechanical during the last 3 years. Since the divorce was final this past June, he has been installing the components: Turbo II motor w BNR stage 3 turbo, very custom aluminum radiator, inter cooler and cooling setup, relocated mini battery, new haltech ECU sprint-re w custom wiring harness, redone gsl-se fuel tank and stainless steel fuel line setup $$$, rebuilt and shortened turbo transmission w stage2 ? clutch, short shifter, custom drive shaft. Gsl-se suspension, Re-speed rack and pinion setup, racing beat suspension and stainless steel exhaust, tokico blue shocks, new instruments.

This next week Robert will finish some leftover stuff and we r off to the dyno for custom tuning soon.

do you have any pics of the progress?

thanks,
I will start a new thread but i still do not know how to post pics - some are in incoming emails, others in albums, but i will give it a shot this week.
cliff

the easiest is through a photobucket account. Upload all the pics to the account and insert the images here with the insert image button.

1st gen convertible
 

Well,
the ultima got tuned last week. All good: the sprint ECU did not not have the correct program to run the turbo II motor.

The haltec people were compliant and sent a base program, and the tuning began.
Some cold start alterations, some rich idling issues, and lean revving and we have lift off.

This is a great time to end this thread and after my computer repair guy gets here tomorrow, I will start loading the pics for the new thread.

thanks cliff

lol
so sad....
look at the test section - it is embarrasing. wait......
i think i've got it :)
ready to try.....

lol if you want, i can post the pictures for you. I just looked at all of them :)

test pics
 

too funny !!!
well,
u can see we have two projects photo mixed together lol
Please ignore the naked photos of my girlfriend, although the ex girlfriend is taking new offers lol
My tech guy gave me the 30 sec intro to posting and then blew me off
At first observation, my fishing pictures are also included as well.
Sorry! i will have no time until thanksgiving to do stuff.
cliff

Just Post Links to your Picassa Web Albums.

Here You go:

Ultima1 Wide-Body Convertible Pics

Pacific Avatar Convertible Pics.


:uhh: By the way, you have a serious problem of repeating pics in those albums..

Zach sold his PA a number of years ago to someone in florida who was going to fully restore it.

zach's old PA
 

hi,

Zach's old PA lives in texas, and the owner is on these boards. He is doing his best to keep it very original, and could use some 12a turbo parts. And a money tree. lol He can identify himself and tell his story. I will tell him.

As far as my pics thing, i will fix the repeating duplicate pic deal, separate the pics by timeline and begin posting. Hope it works. I will try tonite to get it started. i don't want to post a large general file since they r mixed up. I promise.

Oh yeah, i have go to get a thread for my new PA car. tee hee

cheers, cliff

I can't get those links to work.

too funny..
The pics curse is on....
I will post asap....

I have Zach's old PA and we are in the processes of trying to grow a money tree. They told where to plant that roll of money but I think it's gone now... LOL

Seriously I am still in the military and not in Texas at the moment but in Kansas, all of my cars are in Texas and I am very anal about how my cars are built. What does this mean... well stuff takes time to get right and I am willing to wait for the pay off to make sure it is.

DAVE

Clifford, You must have changed something in your Picassa settings.
I was previously able to go through all your pictures.

Luckily, I downloaded them ALL beforehand, just in case. :nod:

New Thread
 

Well,

I actually started a new thread - with pics. I plan to repost the early stuff i posted in this thread. Thanks for the patience, some of the pics r very cool.

I also started a new thread on a new purchase, another 1st gen convertible - non wide body, that we have started aggressively to build.

Lastly, I started a general 1st gen convertible thread, to post pics of other convertibles out there.

This thread is officially closed. Cheers, cliff

No new thread - continue this one...
 

yeah,
This thread has too much history....
It continues...
I hope....
with pics.....

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Stored 20+ years.....
 

Ok ,
so back in the beginning, I call Nick at Rotary Engineering - nice guy,
and ask him if he will help me make a first gen convertible,as I had heard that he had done it before, in the 1980's...
He says that it is too expensive to modify a stock car and why don't I help him register a car he has had stored in his shop since 1986 - over 20 years non registered.
The ultima car. owned by the owner of Rotary Rocket magazine. Who moved to Palm Desert area years earlier and hopefully was still in good health. He left the car with Nick, engineless, with a good scorecard of traffic infractions, and 20+ years of owed registration. Ouch.

Here is the car as it was stored at the shop.

Let us hope the photo jinx for me is off....Please comment and keep the thread going.

The interior was sponsored by Recaro, who donated the seats, and the rest of the interior was covered with white leather....very Starsky and Hutch.....Don Johson, Miami Vice....
White shag.... very shag...,..carpet.

The alarm was state of the art... dial your phone 1985 state of the art...by chapman...

The stereo was by alpine....

The body kit, a wide body from Mariah.

The hood is so 1980's Trans Am Muscle car.....No offence to mariah...

Seen enough white interior yet? Not yet.....
The dash was in great shape ,seats a bit dry, mariah steering wheel fine.
The tonneau cover very white leather as well.
It was obvious this stuff cost a fortune......
However, that does not make it in today's taste.