From 11/25/2012

Not much going since cold weather arrived.
I have no heat in the garage.
Car was dirty so I decided to wash it inside and out.
I still have to clean the interior floor boards, under hood and under carriage.
It's wonderful to have a car this nice to work on.
I also got a much better top.
This one is soft, flexible and the smaller rips are repairable.
To prevent damage it had to be installed in the closed position prior to cold weather.










I disassembled the dash.
The bare metal frame will be painted next spring.

 

I see it's been 1/2 year since I updated this thread.
I've had time to work on the RX7 thou not as much as I'd like to have had.
I painted the trunk access plates and created new seals.


I created new seals for the tail lamps.


I had to clear things from off the car.

Then removed a car from the garage to make room to work.

I'm adding a reflective orange stripe to the rub strip.

 

A reflection... or 25 years of dirt accumulation?

The rear bumper is soon ready to be installed.
All was cleaned including these styrofoam fillers (left side done).

The interior is completely stripped including wiring.
I really appreciate that this body is rust free.

I had several bolts and studs that broke requiring drilling out, tapping and /or replacing.
I'm thankful I was able to center these in the spacers.

I painted the front bumper inside to eliminate the yellow.
Odd enough thou, the rear bumper was black inside.


And I finally cleaned the engine bay after removing the wiring and such.
Was only dirty although the subframe was quite greasy.

 

With the warmer weather and sun I was able to paint various brackets for the bumper mounts.
I like to use Eastwoods Spray Gray as it dries quick and has a semi gloss finish.


The front & rear tow hooks I painted Rustoleum Hammered Copper.




When able, I'm replacing the corroded or not so brilliant fasteners.
All threads are chased and all fastener threads are oiled.

 

Aside from brake fluid eating the paint, the drivers frame rail is ok.
Slight surface rust that I coated with rust converter.

Car is going back together slowly.
The trunk lid is on and the rear bumper too, freshly stripped.

I'm having the tail lamps and license panel painted prior to installation.
All these items require new seals as the originals are dried and cracked.

Stripped front bumper.
The three outer most grill sections are factory closed but I plan to open them.
And fog lights will be mounted in the lower out board brake duct openings same as factory.

I found a local shop that can refinish hardware to the same yellow zinc.

 

Had some fasteners for the rear exterior yellow zinced.

 

Wow man she's really coming together perfectly!! Really appreciating your work

 

All that work wears me out just looking at it, lol. I want to see that motor in he car! Keep up the good work, looking good!

 

Don't stop! Never give up! First time seeing such a project been done.

 

Looks familiar. I completely disassembled an '88 convertible for parts and salvage value after an engine fire. It's interesting to see one coming back together. I'll be coming back to check your progress. Thanks for sharing.

 

What is your impression of the Mazda's engineering and workmanship on the FC convertibles? I don't have a lot of experience to draw on, but I was impressed by what I saw during the disassembly of one of these.

By the way, I'm also impressed by your attention to detail. Cleaning the foam bumper inserts was something special. Your car is going to look and be better than it was new.

 

Boy, it's been a while.
I should be able to get back to this soon.
Thanks for the encouraging words.
I am very impressed how Mazda engineered this car.
Reminds me of Ford and of Nissan.
The RX8 how ever are not engineered to my liking.
I've stripped some of those and they are very odd and have every thing jammed together in weird ways.

 

Here are recovered seats I purchased.
Oddly, only the bottom sections are perforated.

 

cool swap man what are the goals with the car?