At some point, I polished the top and bottom so one surface will take adhesive for the foam strips. While pushing on the oil cooler to get it aligned correctly, I crushed some of the cooler fins.....

 

I mounted the water pump housing and water pump with the pully attached. After I was completed, I noticed that the pully didn't spin. The water pump ribs were too tall. I needed to pull apart the assembly and buy the gaskets again. I then took a grinder to the rabs and repainted. I gound down some of the ribs way to far, hopefully it doesnt crack. Also, while looking up the solution to the stuck pully, I realized that the two spacers behind the water pump housing were left off too. I am so glad that I cought that, it will leak eventually.





The alternator bracket is being painted.

 

I did some cleaning. This was just soaked in beach and soap water, then is was scrubbed. The brackets were soaked in vinegar and then painted.

 

More painting, cleaning and polishing.

Before:



After:

 

I renewd some trim peices.

Before:





After:





I polished a head light cover by hand to see what would happen.

Before:




After:

 

I finally finished the front calipers, they are loaded now.

 

I ran some 4awg wire for the charging system and kept the stock grounding scheme... for now. The power will be reconfigured. More to come on that when the design is finished.




I cut the stock ground wire at the firewall and saved the grounding point.






I was considering a power buss with in-line fuses.




And buss bar for grounds.




I will probably go with a fuse distribution block with a ground buss, if I can fab the bracket so it mounts in the extra space.

 

I added new horns too. The stock horns are meeep, meep. Now it should be just a normal horn. I did not check for the current draw of the old horns. These new ones will draw 5 amps a piece, I am hoping for the best. These generic horns also need a ground. The wires were in the package with the horns. one side of the wire goes to the horn contact and the other to the body of the horn connected to the bracket. I added No-ox to all connections and scrapped paint where needed.





I believe that the large part needs to face down so water can escape?

 

I have ordered many parts so far, most of which have come from Atkins. Kudos to the crew there!! I order on Sunday and parts are here by Friday. I have tried to order from Mazda and most parts need to come from California first and then to the dealership, two weeks. I was told that many orders get lost in the shuffle when ordering from California too. So... two to three weeks delivery... unfortunately. When I can, I buy locally. I like Nappa parts as there are OEM and there is a %20 discount. I have ordered from Rock auto as well, the shipping is killer.

These screws from Mazda were $4+ a piece, ouch.... It was nice you could but them still though.




I have ordered some from Amazon too. Kind of a shame that many things aren't available locally. The good part is... some stuff is bought from small businesses that don't have a national reach without Amazon. When I start doing some upgrades and not so much OEM, I will use some other vendors, like the sponsors here.

 

To be more clear, if I order locally online it is two weeks. If I pick up in person, it is a week or so. And extra for the lost stuff.

 

Ok, I will try to post more often.

Some assembly stuff.






And some prep work.

 

After a hand wash and a hand polish.



I spent way to much time polishing the under side of the hood. The above and the hood were done with one finger and a terrycloth towel. I am either a glutton for punishment or I drank to much of the the Miyagi-Do Karate Kool Aid.

I also refurbished the rubber pieces too.

I will at some point get some sort of battery power polishing tool. This looks much better but needs more time, especially in the tough to reach areas, like creases.

Before






After






I still have more to go. Going forward, the rest of this will be worked on when I am not busy with other things. I might just wait until I get a power tool.

 

I have removed the front light and wiring in preparation to paint.





I washed all of the inner wheel well with soap and water. I then sprayed it down with Rust Kutter. It is a mild acid too, most likely phosphoric acid. It seems to slightly etch the surface for primer as well as treat the rust, if any. I will paint the bottom and side frame rail that I sanded with 200 or so grit to cut back the paint and the little bit of rust.

I will replace the other bracket as well.





I was able to get this side off much easier. The new bracket holes line up perfectly with where the welds were. I test fit the plastic bits with the new brackets. I will change the mount location on the other side when time permits.

 

There is still more progress being made. I have been doing a lot of assembly.



And some painting. I forgot to take pictures of the primer process.

 

I painted some pieces before assembly and cleaned and refurbished the rubber hose piece. Sorry, these are the before shots. The after is above here.




I was able to get the bracket drilled and mounted.




The plastic hose support broke. I added a tie wrap to secure it to the freshly painted bracket.

 

I accidently broke the allaignment pin on the frame rails. I drilled it tapped, added a screw, cut off the head and added some JB Weld.






This will be painted and replaced.

 

I took off the old harness tape and added new tape.




The Molex connectors and lugs are very weathered and need a serious cleaning. The connectors that have rubber for end caps are in near perfect shape. The wires in the harness are still very pliable and show very little signs of age. It makes me even more happy that the car was garage kept. I added UL listed electrical tape for some of this. Anything near the exhaust manifold is done in what I thought was friction tape. I bought harness tape and it seems close enough. When the upper and lower intake manifold come off the remaining wires harnesses will be stripped and replace with new tape.

 

I cleaned up and regrounded the ground wire on thhis side. I complete some more assembly, including the bumper brackets and bumper.







I soaked the washer fluid bottle in bleach water and soap.

I needed to replace the rubber insulators on the hose piece in the headlight cavity. You can make it out just a bit in the picture. The threads are M6x1.0

 

Some cleanup work with assembly and quality checking was completed today. I reinstalled some rubber grommets and sprayed the cavities of the driver frame rail. I use Corrosion Free and have for years now. It has been working quite well on my daily driver too. Getting the insides of the rails will deter rust as long as the solution is intact. It actually helps to drive in the rain to help evenly distribute the mixture and it wicks deeper into the seams.

 

I started working on the passenger side engine. I do not want to remove the upper or lower intake off yet. I want to get this reassembled and start the engine again before I get so deep into redoing stuff that the cause of a no start will be harder to find. One big project at a time is enough. Plus, I am really wanting to get to the bottom of the bad idle and the 3800 hesitation. If i do to much work,I won't know what fixed it. I am kinda hoping that it just needs a proper TPS adjustment.

Despite all of that, I bit the bullet and removed the two fuel injectors on that side. The seals were very hard. It would be very unlikely that with those seals, those werent leaking. There was no cracking visable on the seals though. These will be sent out for a rebuild and a cleaning. I honestly thought that I needed to remove to intake to get to these, I never looked at this part of the engine that closely. The other two will require disassembly of way more.

I will replace what hoses that I am able to reach too.

 

I need to replace this gasket if it is available, it is looking rough. If i can't find one I will clean the existing one, the surrounding surface and reinstall.




I really want to pull apart and clean the 5th and 6th ports, sleves, etc now too. It will need to wait until after the first start since November.

 

More not very exciting work again today. More quality check and assembly.

 

I bought a crimper and a lug to install the ground on the starter. I will clean up the connection when I get to cleaning the trans housing.

I added no-ox to the wire and crimped the front section of the lug , followed by the rear. This lug needed bent so the wire would flow with the others better.

 

Fortunately, progress is being made. I cleaned and refurbished some parts. This looks pretty bad, I really should have learned how to fuse plastic with heat. I used some white plastic welding putty and if failed in spots. I super glued and it failed. I then added some paper towel in with the super glue and it is holding. I painted the white spots and cleaned with wax and grease remover. I then treated with the Back To Black.









I then mounted the part, added clips and screws and hoped for the best after I secured the plastic piece to keep air out of the front bumper and in the radiator. Time will tell I suppose. I broke two plastic mountings screw that will be replaced later.

 

I cleaned and restored other parts too. I find it interesting that the Mazda engineers put the effort to cool the battery with special duct work. I will keep this intact. The first pictures are part of this system as is the hose in the previous pictures.