rx2 4 door street/strip build thread.
 

This a thread for my rx2 that I am building. I bought it two weeks ago and it is in fair condition. Minimal rust and body is pretty straight. Here's my plans for the project.

1.Rebuild suspension front and rear- got the kits coming from Australia as we speak. Keeping everything stock for now, may cut the springs to lower or put an adjustable aftermarket coilover set up such as ground effects, etc.
2.Yanking stocker 1st gen 12a with 5 speed and stripping the car down and sending out to body and paint.
3. Installing a well built 13bt with tII trans. Aiming for 300 to 500hp. Install gsl lsd and retain stock axles and rearend until I grenade it and then put something beefier in it later.
4.I'm not much for fancy interior, so I am going to keep it plain stripped and as light as possible. Race seats up front. The car came with no headliner, so today I sanded the surface rust off and shot with some flat black paint- headliner in a can. hehe. The pictures make it look bad because of the flash, but it actually looks really good in person. It's not going to be a show car. Just a local v8 and v12 killer.
Install rubber seals.

So far I have done the following since I got the car. I fixed all the lights and turn signals-wiring. Fixed the window regulators and locks. There was about 2 pounds of dirt in the bottom of the inner doors from the car sitting outside with no window rubbers. I cleaned all that out- need to keep the car light right? hehe.
I made my headliner in a can today. hehe. Next is suspension rebuild in a week or two. I will keep the thread updated as I go. Any comments, hints, or suggestions are greatly appreciated. Here are a few pics.

Nice ride.

What kind of parts did you order from Australia? From which shop?

46 hits and one reply? Not too friendly around here, ehh?

13bt- I ordered all three rebuild kits from Rob Mills. Here's a link http://cgi.ebay.com.au/MAZDA-RX2-FRO...QQcmdZViewItem

Everyone was busy attaching the mitsu guy. Or was it the other way around? :)

I would have used Zero-Rust or a similiar product to encapsulate the existing rust. Looks like a nice car, 'cept for the xtra doors! :)

Post more photos.....

Thanks, I like the extra doors. Plus I wanted the 4 doors because I am making this car a sleeper. Nothing like the look on a fellers face after you spank their high dollar sports car with a 4 door grocery getter. It's priceless.

I will post more pics as I go. If my parts get here by this weekend I will rebuild the front suspension this Saturday and take a bunch more pics. So stay tuned and give me any comments or pointers along the way. Thanks

Oh, and LiLHemi, you can comment too on how much you love my little rotary. hehe

So I expect you are having the 13bT converted to use a front mount cover?

You yanks are sooo lucky to have the steering and brake/clutch assembly over on the spark plug side as opposed to the exhaust side. There is so much more space!

What year rx2 is it?
Do you have spacers under those rx7 alloy wheels to make them fit?

I am running the same 1st gen rx7 wheels on my 73 rx2, no spacers required

I had to put spacers on mine. On the front anyway. I have a '71 coupe.

I agree. I think the sedans looked as good as the coupes as well. I believe that there is about 100 pounds difference in weight that the die hard will tell you makes it a poor sport car but it's still lighter than a Miata with nearly the same wheel base.

it looks good bro. if you're really going all out w/ this, i suggest that you give Rene a holla @ www.rx3mist.com

his obvious operations are exhaust/muffler installs just like any other muffler shop, but he does build fast rotaries for a living. he is a tuner as well for rotaries.

just to put in perspective, he built one of wackyracer's cousin's british racing green RX-2 that is now featured as the only current old school in mazda's mazdaspeed website. i'm sure you've seen it. 350hp @ only 10 lbs. of boost.. not too shabby for only 10 lbs. i think.

he is located here in the heart of Los Angeles. adjacent to lincoln heights area.

Yes, I will be using the front cover off of my 12a that's in the car right now.
It's a 73 and there are some thin spacers for the front wheels only. I still rubbed on the inner wheel weights a little on the tie rods. Those wheels were sold to me with the car. I will be putting some nice epsilons or other on the car later.

Cuthburt, I dig the 4 doors too and you don't see too many around.

doluck, I already talked to Rene. He is a cool guy. The rx-2 your talking about is real close to the way I am going to set mine up like. I'm going to shoot for a little more horsepower though. I don't know who is going to build my engine yet as I don't have the time to do it myself, but I will be doing all the installing and everything else on the car. Thanks for the comments.

there's Norman from SidePex @ Temple City. one of the best rotary engine builders out there. very considerate and open minded of his customers' requests. PM wackyracer for his number... he's built quite a few in the wrecking crew family. tell him d0Luck/Ray sent jaa

Just an update guys. Here is what I recieved today from Australia. Yes my front and rear suspension rebuild parts. It looks like the inner tie rods are wrong though. My inners are alot longer than the one's I got- :wallbash: I should have all the bushings and ball joints installed and new Koni strut inserts by this weekend. I would have had everything done if I got all the right parts- DOH! In the second pic I pressed in some new wheels studs in the front hubs because one hole was totally stripped beyond repair and I wanted the studs anyways. I am going to do the rears the same. I also replaced inner and outer wheel bearings- damn they were expensive- got them from NAPA. I'll post some pics when complete. Later

Jarrett

why doesnt norman have a site

Ok, I got the new front strut inserts in and ready to go. Pressed the new poly- bushings in the lower control arms with new ball joints. Put the new idler bushings in and sway bar bushings. Went to put the new pitman arm on and found out Rob screwed me again and gave me one for right hand steer. CRAP! Now I have to sort that out and the inner tie rods. Nothing ever goes smoothly on this kind of stuff-Murphy's law.

If the pitman is RHD only, I think you're out of luck. My suggestion would be to machine out the key spline so that it won't interfere, and let the other 30-or-so locate the pitman on the sector shaft. You can count the turns left and right and center your steering box, then slip your hogged-out pitman on so it's straight ahead. You'll hit your steering stops before you bind the box, so being one or two teeth off center wouldn't be a deal-breaker. Even if it was, you could always pull it off again and move it one spline left or right.

New update. Got the rear poly bushes in this weekend and did an alignment. Man those old bushings were a bitch to get out. The old rubber was like if someone welded them on. It took me 4 hours in my shop with you name it for tools. I think it would have been easier to press as much of the bushing out as possible and then use a torch to burn out the rest of the rubber that was stuck inside the arm. I pressed and then grinded the rubber out with a die grinder. So all I need is a fricken pitman arm and the front and rear steering and suspension will be done! Next up is paint and then it's 20bt time!

did you ever get the inner tie rod problem squared away?

and i sent an email to rareparts.com asking about the pitman arm.

(i also have a rx2 4 door street/strip build going on :D)

Your 4-door Rx-2
 

:beerchug: Hey Jarrett, good to read that things are coming along pretty well. o0oWeeee a 20B soon to be in the works- sick-as-hell!!! :bigthumb:

Yes, I used the straight inners from aussie. I had to use a longer adjustment bolt which Crit sent me from his 74 rx2. Thanks Crit.

I also talked to someone over at rareparts. The told me I would have to mail them my old pitman arm so that they could find a matching or make one. I'm waiting on Bonzaitoyota first. He sent his out already to get some made.

banzai sent his out to rareparts, which is good to know. and i just ordered the bushings from the aussie ebayer. im waiting for banzai to get his back and hopefully theyll have the tie rods and ball joints from there.

For anyone else doing this, I got the rear bushings out by heating the outside of the bushing with a propane torch, and then hitting them out with an air hammer. They come right out this way and will save you some time. :)

Jesuscookies, thanks for the heads-up on the bushing ordeal. I'll have to try that on mine.