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ok,

So everyone asks about the trunk.....no trunk.....at this time....a lot of cracked bondo - ask Dave Meditz, it is a PA trait - he will verify his experiences with PA trunk bondo !!

Nick says he welded the trunk shut, with reinforcement - personally - after the car flexed so much under turbo boost that the doors opened on corners yeah, baby....Picture that with only a lap belt....,

Wheels - I personally couldn't take the gold wheels. i know it is preference but gold 15 x 7"
rims on a widebody? OMG it looked like a turtle going down the road!

Interesting.....the car is black under the red paint... Is it the centerfold car? hmmmm
I should ask the original owner..... He did an article on the car in his magazine.

Speedo had all original screws....7k miles.....yahoooooooo. Last smog agreed. Last registration on plates was correct. Speeding and drag racing tickets on Long Beach blvd? Bad Nick......I hope he won....with his doors closed

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So I decided that if I didn't register the car, and make it legal, it might be lost forever.
This meant a california smog. A legal one.

The easiest route was decided to be a stock motor. Nick installed a 12a that he had sitting in the shop. We were heading for smog. I had already researched the past registration and the outstanding tickets.

A deal was struck: $500 to Nick and I was responsible for smog, new motor, old tickets and anything else that came up.

I was wondering why the wheels were different in several historical pictures - black versus the gold. Nick told me the black rims belonged to the owner of Mariah Motorworks.

We were rolling.....

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Next on my list was to talk to Jim at Mariah.

I went to mariahmotorsports.com and clicked on "Special projects"
and there was "Ultima - 1st Gen Mariah Mode One Convertible".
There was the car! With the black wheels. yahoooooooo

I called Jim. He was way cool. He said he showed the car for a few years but refused to show it with the gold wheels. He said Nick liked them but he considered them FUGLY and too narrow. Ok. I got the idea.

He recommended a 16" wider wheel and when it came with a $3k +price tag... I kinda left it.

I mentioned cracking problems with the hood and he said the new hood was all composite and about $800 - picked up. I wanted a better price on a sponsored car so I mentioned it - No go, so I kinda left that one as well. Credits for being on his website?

Jim was cool. He offered to do a turbo motor and talked about the turbo that the car was run with. Another $5k + and building price tag - I kinda left that one too.

I got the idea that Jim ran a professional place, a bit far away for me, and too much money. Ok, probably worth the $$$ but I am too hands on for that kind of shop: I am a one man shop kind of guy. ...where everyone knows your name....

I think it's cool to have the car on a website, though after he reads this...he'll likely kinda leave it off

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Come on guys: don't I get some points for pics finally?:

icon_tup::evilgrin :

HAPPY THANKSGIVING.

Directfreak

iTrader: (2)

Most of the pics you posted are Reposts, that we have seen before.
Show some ENGINE pics.

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Dang, a tough audience.

Did u notice the other 1st gen convertible posting I was also working on? It shows the chassis reinforcements for the Pacific Avatar.

You mean engine pics, like this one I took the evening I finally got it out of the mechanics shop for the first time in 3 years? The installed turbo II motor?

Nah, .....lots more history to cover before we go there. No repeats I promise. More engine stuff.

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Only a few pictures of what the original looked like: top up and top down.
Here are some of the characteristics of the Pacific Avatar.
The top, I am told is from a Mercedes 107 series - 450, 380sl .
We will see when i redo it.
It has custom tabs inside the windows to seal them and 2 silver clips on the windshield posts to attach.

All we could talk about was test dying the top black, then having it copied properly as a finished product - maybe with a glass rear window.

Engine stuff coming soon - I promise. However, these are the pics of the car stock or any pacific avatar out side of dave's car.

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The recaro seats were wierd : so retro.Not white please.

My dye lady said sell and start over, so despite a few people grimacing these are the last shots of the seats before I sold them.

The score was 2 people - dave and friend say keep the white.
Everyone else saying go with black.

And what to do with the hundreds of pounds of outdated speakers and amps everywhere?
Seriously, a few hundred pounds of stuff.

Then the mechanical....but what will be the plan?

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So, while we contemplated what to do mechanically,
I put the car in the body shop to repair the cracking in the paint,
that didn't show on the pictures.

We block sanded the car, completely, and tried several times unsuccessfully to fix the hood where it cracked at the fiberglass/metal connection in the hood insert. Bummer !!

The trunk had several layers of body filler on it, all cracked, so we ripped into it. Oops.

The primer and block sanding revealed a very straight, paint ready car but the general consensus was now that the car looked like junk. Sorry

Mechanical coming....

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ok, so we haven't made it to the mechanical yet, I am trying...

So now that the top of the trunk was cut open - and a central metal reinforcement cut as well - what do u think we saw?

Alpine baby... lots of alpine... In fact, racks of alpine .....and welded over !!
We tried to remove through the car back seat but not a chance.

Because I was intent on having a trunk, we searched with no luck for a 1985 ? mazda 626 trunk assembly, like the original PA cars.

I had created another problem: more chassis reinforcement needed - per Nick.
And..what motor? ..... to turbo or not.....
Did i mention reinforcement needed?

Also I could not venture too far off the rx7 track, out of some respect for the car, like say (quietly) a v8 motor (shhhhhh)

Sorry, v8 guys, personal preference only, and I bet Zach and Dave would hurt me - very badly.

Mechanical is very close.....

Directfreak

iTrader: (2)

I am a little confused... Are you saying you are contemplating putting a V8 in it?

It appears you already have a TII engine in there.

As for the interior - I like the white/cream.
If you're going to re-dye it, then do it a tan.

Tan Interior with Red Exterior looks pretty sexy.

As for the Reinforcements, definitely try to get a
"Twin Hoop" roll bar, to reinforce it, without making it ugly.

As Far as the Alpine radio stuff - toss it all. You don't need it.
A simple head unit, 5 channel AMP and a small subwoofer, and
it will sound 100 times better, and weight much, much less.

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Thanks for the comments: we are in agreement, you have good taste, but this part of the build was done in 2007.

No v8 engine I promise, but people proposed it to me. (How did we decide on a tII ?)

The Alpine stuff and the alarm stuff, I ripped out and couldn't see a reason to keep. Imagine trying to get to a fuse in an amp in the welded trunk area! Crazy.

The interior was put on hold until the mechanical was done: my favorite is a red porsche with the palomino interior, but since red was going out of style so fast, I held off on the interior stuff. The newer cars had black dashes - independent of interior color - so I started looking at examples. Why not copy the best?

Seats: I wanted to see what seats fit the car because I have a Porsche connection that promised me a full leather interior when the car was ready, or else it was going to have to be a choice of convenience as seats are sooo much money!!

Re-inforcement? Exactly. I started looking at supercar convertibles and they all have roll bars with speedster style bubbles. Even the mazda supercars have this arrangement. I was for the double hump roll bar/speedster look but I wanted to try the idea out on you guys first. Still not decided. Options.

I hope you like the mechanical coming up.....I 've been trying to lay out why we started with what appeared to be an original vintage running registered red car with cool white leather time machine interior and gold rims, and now have a color sanded blotchy car with a hole cut in the trunk and a stripped dash ,with no wheels sitting on a hoist!

Onward....by the way...fever, chills Happy Holidays cold making me delirious

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Ok, amps were gone, and it was a while later but we dug out the speakers as well.
The box was solid fiberglass and took two guys to carry! lol

I had effectively destroyed the paint, trunk, the alarm and stereo of a car that had already lost it's turbo powerplant. Good job of authentic restoration, I would say!

Heck, why stop now?

Directfreak

iTrader: (2)

The hell with Restoration.. Bring that Puppy into the 21st century!

Modern Wheels, Low Stance, Modern Interior with "double stitched" leather,
and at least 400 Rotary Powered Turbo Horses.

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! only have two pictures left of the car running ,with the original setup and it is when we paired it up with a donor car and delivered it back to Nick's workers at Rotary Engineering, where a major swap began.

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Almost at mechanical....

I was surfing the forums and I located a first gen turbo II powered car in Arizona, that was a bit out of my price range, but it had a lot of goodies that I liked. The owner was in the military and his friend, Jarret ?, agreed to sell it to me for what I could afford, provided I do it fast.....really fast....since he and the owner had military obligations.

This was on a wednesday, I think and the deal had to happen before friday. Road trip.

I had to work, so I bought a friend a plane ticket, gave him the money, and sent him to Arizona. He bought the car ,and drove it back from Arizona to Orange County, nonstop with an exhaust leak: the result of a uninstalled O2 sensor that he was told about, but forgot, in his haste to return.

The trip went well ,and he mentioned a convoy of performance cars going through the mountains that earned a lot of respect for a built first gen turbo!

Always thanks to the guys who made the deal happen.

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Quote: Modern Wheels, Low Stance, Modern Interior with "double stitched" leather,
and at least 400 Rotary Powered Turbo Horses.

Yeah baby!!

Now you have the idea: modern era or bust. It will make the restoration purists cringe. But I want a super car. For real. If it isn't mistaken for a ferrari, i will be dissappointed. I want it to say function not flash. Unique not snobby.

Several things had to be covered:
Mazda is not totally outgunned....there are other examples of old school versus new school.

cfamilyfix

iTrader: (15)

I love where this is going...

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Our donor car was running comfortably and was very fast - nice.

I picked a solid reliable 13btII motor/trans which I thought would pass smog and be street legal, a proven install and not too intimidating a project. Turbo baby.......

I thought that parts and expertise would be in our favor.

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We have a 13bTII engine but what was the turbo/intercooler set up?

Yeah, baby... A built BNR turbo. Stage - a lot - 4 or 5 ? recheck needed

I called the owner at BNR. He remembered the turbo and said that the guy paid for the turbo customization almost what I paid for the whole car? No complaints from me.

Recognize the custom first gen intercooler? Boy, did I catch flack for this one from the rotary guys who were sure I had to pay big bucks for a large audacious IC unit.

Give up? Porsche 944 turbo. Yep. I called in a favor from my Porsche buddy who was sure I was building a wanna be Porsche 944. Super solid. stock and budget conscious - if u don't count begging for build parts a price. New parts are good too. Sweet. Matched what the installation shop lost from my donor car

This begging for specialty parts would was soon to be a regular occurrence, as my best car buddy owns a Porsche/Exotics dismantling yard. Yummy stuff. Hint for future

Well? Are we mechanical yet? Sorry, still in 2007.

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My mechanic has put up with my car building for years and has always be estranged from my rx-7 stuff. He insisted that if I was going to build a modern super car from an rx7 that I install rack and pinion. He does not like the Mazda steering box. Period.

I got the complete set up, in black from Billy at Re-speed and was ready to go. It included shortening the steering shaft, as part of the procedure.

The dual purpose for this setup was also to give the car a lot more front end chassis support than the stock setup. Yep. That was one of my criteria. Done.

To my surprise, years later, when I mentioned the RP setup increased frame stiffness, my rx7 mechanic disagreed with me. Shocked the heck out of me. Opinions?

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I really liked the fit and fitment of the re-speed stuff.
I know Billy is gone, but he left it in capable hands and I plan to use their other products like a matching strut tower brace, when we near completion.

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My donor car came with a serious bunch of goodies,
which we moved over to the ultima:

Tokico blue shocks
Racing Beat springs
Racing Beat sway bars w red poly bushings

Yeah baby......

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My donor car was chosen for it's GSL-SE suspension, brakes and wheels which were swapped over. yahooooooooo

We now have very capable disc brakes all around....another of our criteria: stopping power.

All told, our suspension is off to a great start, with the total rack and pinion, tokicos, racing beat stuff, and gsl-se change over.

Oh, by the way, it is not your imagination: those narrow wheels look ridiculous on the Mariah wide body kit.

Our measurements indicate that we need 10 inch wide wheels on the back and about 8 inch wide wheels on the front. The gsl-se are 6 inches wide?

The wheels are going to be a challenge. Big time. They will likely make or break the look of the car.

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Now that the suspension was done, the turbo engine installed, the inter cooler installed,
it was time for the radiator stuff.

As usual, i didn't like the typical first gen turbo setups I was shown, with angled radiators etc, so I made use of my mechanic's son, Bryan of Bryan's Custom who fabricated the whole set up for the car. This cost the same as all of the previous upgrades together but was done in 3 days and has some very clean stuff.

I chose a low profile themostat controlled electric fan setup, because Bryan uses it for his chevy conversions and he recommended it. As well as a big old fatty custom aluminum radiator. Delicious.

I haven't shown it very well, but it includes a mini battery that is still in the engine compartment. Expensive little sucker. And temperamental.

I had an air conditioning condenser installed as well.

The last picture is the inter cooler, nicely tucked into the Mariah front bumper. Trick.