When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
I was going back and forth on whether to fix my '74 RX3 Wagon when I came up on an ad 1BADSP placed for his '76 808 with 13B. While I love the wagon, I liked that this car was running and would give me a shortcut so my first rotary wouldn't need to be such a long term project.
Here's the pics off of the original ad. I started taking it apart the moment it arrived to my place.
Already had the 13B swap with 48DA Weber which runs great :
Plans are to convert it to RX3 look and make it a nice little cruiser. Respray in Sunrise Red along with basic lowering and refreshing parts as-needed will suffice for the time being.
Took the nose off and ordered a bunch of parts from Musclecar Parts Australia
Going to convert to 12A RX3 nose with slim bumpers, hexagonal taillights and RX3 badging
I picked up some 15x8 and 15x8.25 Epsilons which fit very nicely with 195/45/15 Yokohama tires. I also borrowed the coilovers off my '74 wagon and installed 2" lowering blocks on the rear. Here it is at the paint shop:
Is that the 12a nose sold in Australia?
I just bought one from Australia and thinking of ordering the grille and headlight surrounds too.
I got the upper part used in the US but the lower valance and the bumpers came from Musclecar Parts Australia. I don't know who their supplier is so I can't say it would be the fitment would be the same from another Aussie source.
I paid a total of $950 for the front nose and shipping.just the bare nose.shipping alone was $600 to Los Angeles.
Sounds about right. It makes sense if it's a larger order and they pack in as much as possible. The US dollar is still strong so. Even with high shipping costs, it made sense to buy the parts new from Aus vs scouring for used stuff, especially bumpers and body panels (after factoring in rechroming/bodywork/rust repair).
Man the auto correct on my phone is terrible.the reply should have said looks awsome.and I need to find a place to finish body and paint on my SP.
Surprisingly, I didn't need to cut the fenders and the car sits pretty low in the front too. However, every car i different and I wouldn't use my setup as a guide. However, I did roll the lips.
Got it back in my hands. I installed new Tokico Illuminas on the front coilovers and the rear has lowering blocks with Konis. We were pretty happy with the parts from Muscle Car Parts Australia. It's a little bit of a pain to get them shipped to USA but well worth it.
The painter in Montana Vista, TX did an excellent job in the original Sunrise Red.
Next up is a basic interior refresh. The headliner and back seat are in great shape so I'm not sure if I want to go all out as just the dash pad and front seats need attention. I put some seat covers on ebay to hold me off until I figure it out.
Thanks. Last post meant to say I bought some cheap seat covers on ebay to hold me off for a little while. They actually don't look too bad either but I plan to do a nice interior on this one later this year.
I had listed my RX3 Wagon project for sale but took it off the market to pillage it for the LSD with disc brake rear end:
My long term plan is to go with something a little wilder under the hood on the coupe (maybe turbo, maybe old-school bridgeport) and use all the leftovers to build the wagon into a little parts runner. Luckily these cars don't take up too much space. That's the main reason I'm selling my '62 Impala wagon project vs the RX3 wagon, lol.
The engine that came with the car was a little tired
A local old-school Rotary guru happened to be finishing up a 13B with a half-bridge and quality internals, so we came to an agreement and stabbed it in. Hopefully, this will keep me entertained for awhile (yes, I wlll clean up the engine bay sooner or later)
Well, it's been A LONG time but the car is pretty much done. After the 13B started developing a knocking sound, I let it sit for a couple years as I had other projects I was working on. I contacted DNA Garage in Santa Ana and shipped it to them to do it over and do it right. I kept it NA as I did not want the added complexity of a turbo set up but I wanted to have EFI. We ended up running a bridgeported 13B with ITB"s and Adaptronic running the show. It's been a LONG road, but we brought it out to JCCS and Sevenstock in 2019 while still working out some bugs. A fuel delivery issue reared its ugly head during the track event so we decided on a custom fuel tank that doubled the stock 808 tank which is smaller than the RX3's. It also allowed me to carry a spare, should the need arise. I also added some vintage-style Recaro seats to pretty up the interior which is otherwise all-original.
03-31-16, 04:19 PM
