I am curious on the compatibility of other first gen parts (misc body parts, exhaust, interiors, and other performance parts) with my 1980. My main goal with the car is to modify it because either parts needed replacing or I just wanted to upgrade. I bought it for 1200 a year ago from a friend who moved to California just because i wanted an old project car. The car never touched snow till last year when i didn't cover it in time. It was garage stored for the first twenty years of it's life, i know the original owner. I am the 3rd. My concern is i see many parts for 81+ models but not as much for mine. I can't find a short shifter for it, bigger alternator, or a cat pipe/HFC pipe.

Right when i bought it i replaced tie rods, ball joints, control arms, wheel bearings, clutch master + slave cylinder, starter, plugs + wires, muffler, and new brakes all around (they have been squeaking and trickling fluid somehow haven't got around to it yet since I haven't put it on the road yet). Also i gutted everything behind the seats (including the huge aluminum space wasters!) because it smelled like mold and I had other plans, cleaned the **** out of it and put a sick stereo system in it. It has been my summer daily driver, winter I have my 02 Legacy GT limited.

Pics




I had planned to replace just about everything on the car eventually other than the engine/tran unless i needed to. I don't want it insane fast, I just want to get out of it what I can without doing anything major. Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

Just about everything will swap from 1978 to 1985...the biggest non-swap issues will be trying the '81 to '85 front bumper with your SA front end fenders...I've got a pic with that mismatch...the other would be GSL-SE wheels on anything but a GSL-SE suspended 1stgen RX-7.

Let me dig up tha pic, brb...from a fun day in the distant past...the green arrow points to where the fender goes way up to meet the steel bumper...note that the FB bumper now basically "hangs" out there in the wind as opposed to lying flat against sheetmetal.



Mario III

 

Ah, you mean the 13" wheels right? I noticed that they switched to 14". My tires for it were surprisingly cheap tho, 185/65/13 i got for around $40 per tire. So you don't think I will have any problems with a short shifter/HFC pipe from an 81-85?

 

The transmissions on the SA and FB are different regarding the shifter itself...the SA is direct, the FB sits on a housing a bit further back. The console inside is the same, Mazda just made different plates to sit in the center console to make the different shifter location work. Here's a side by side of the two transmissions at the shifter.