rx2 build: ヘドラ Hedora
 

ヘドラ is the smog monster that fought godzilla in 1972. english is hedorah; he feeds off the smog created by humans.

more about the car. a friend on a local nissan forum found this gem and picked it up about two years ago. i learned that he had the car about two weeks ago and offered to purchase it. after going up to take a look at it, we agreed upon the fantastically unfair price of 350$. finally had time today to drag it down and now that it is solidly in my garage, i can finally make a build thread on it.

the history of the car is a mystery. word on the street is that an older gentleman owned a decent collection and passed away. his family in all their great wisdom (and in somewhat of a disrespectful fashion) had all the vehicles towed off to a yard for scrap. i was told about 6-8 vehicles in relatively fine condition met the same fate as their loving owner. this car and another rx2 were all that were saved and only just. the family was not any help or willing to get titles or paperwork or history so i need to go through some bureaucracy to get a title for the smog monster.

plans are uncertain as of yet; just make it run(most likely rebuild with either an aggressive street port or bridgy) and clean it up/replace broken or missing stuff.. ive always loved old japanese cars and rotaries but have never been in the right position to have the two meet. my other toys are a 3 rotor fc and a basically bone stock fd so this should fit in well.

pictures are scant at the moment but i will try my best to update and add pics as progress is made.

https://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d...2/IMAG0089.jpg
photo PO sent me when he first told me he had the car

https://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d...8-06-34952.jpg
getting it loaded up to transport

https://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d...IMAG0119-1.jpg
finally on the road

https://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d...2/IMAG0120.jpg
and home

https://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d...2/CIMG2677.jpg
https://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d...2/CIMG2678.jpg
rust isnt bad. car is really solid throughout

https://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d...2/CIMG2679.jpg
https://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d...2/CIMG2680.jpg
interior is dirty and missing a few pieces. road tripping tomorrow to pick bulk majority of things mia thanks to perterno(sorry if i spelled that wrong)

so after i got settled down a bit, i decided to see what the condition of the twin dizzy 12a engine was in. removed some parts to get to the front hub (carb was already removed and stuffed in a box in the back seat)
https://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d...2/CIMG2681.jpg
all the bolts seem to be sticky but arent breaking after the initial crack.

the 19mm on the front of the engine was finally exposed and i put the breaker bar on it and gave it a gentle twist.. then a harder twist. then went hulk green and tore the bar in half. engine didnt even flinch. next course of action was to pour atf down the intake and spark plug holes so removed plugs which were really tight and all four had me worried that i was going to break one in the housing but they came out..

.. then i found something very interesting
https://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d...2/CIMG2676.jpg
all four plugs were caked solid with some kind of crystalized substance. a poke inside the plug holes with a screwdriver confirmed that the engine is caked solid with this stuff.

well that happened quicker than anticipated. oh well
still going to be a blast to work on and im really excited to get to rebuild the engine and i am very happy with the condition of the car.

Nice score, good luck with your project!

ahh the old poke inspection. lol never fails.

good luck with the car looks to be pretty much intact. :icon_tup::icon_tup:

nice find!

Good luck with the build....

nice find, it looks like the paint might buff out!

Love the color. Good luck nice find.

so took a 4 hour one way road trip to get some parts from some guys today.

they had their own dealing and i just kind of crashed it. colorado and california meeting in utah to swap cars and parts. it was hard missing the jdm legends open house but im glad i have most of what i need to return the rx2 to the road.

guy in cali traded this
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...2/IMAG0125.jpg

for this
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...2/IMAG0122.jpg
and a truck bed full of parts . super clean shell and basically no rust. makes my car look like a huge rust bucket.

kid wanted a pic in front of the rx3.. i didnt teach him this crazy behavior
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...2/IMAG0123.jpg

after i got home and took a nap, i decided to try out the hood and tails
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...2/IMAG0127.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...2/IMAG0128.jpg

i think they really help set the car off.

i think tomorrow i will either pull the engine or start tearing into the interior and cleaning it up.
new projects always feel so daunting but the end result is sometimes worth it.

love the car, nice find.

$350, some people have all the luck. Lol Good luck with the build!

The color will buff out nice.my rx2 was worse and turned out really good with a quick polish.

^^ yeah just unintentional rubbing against it is shining it up.

im not sure if it has had a respray or not. there is no overspray and the green is everywhere, including under the carpet and the "EU" color stucker is still in the engine bay along with all the other factory stickers but there is a paint run in the engine bay which makes me think its been resprayed at some time. not sure though


anyway, i started cleaning up the interior

i pulled the carpets out and vacuumed them with the house vac and used the shop vac to clean up the metal and door cards. all the plastic was just scrubbed with soap and water or windex

unfortunately when i tried to put the front door cards on, i realized that they were for a coupe and were about 3 inches too long
oh well

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...2/IMAG0131.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...2/IMAG0129.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...2/IMAG0130.jpg

carpet isnt in that great of shape, its very brittle and im missing the right rear piece. it will probably be cheaper and easier to buy a set from ebay but i think it looks way better than it used to

Awsome buy. welcome to the rx2 fun. looks like its in good shape. I bet the crap is from coolent in the engine . Thats how myn were.

nice derek. And I didn't even know you had this. should be super fun.

Keep plugging along. Want to get rid of your door panels?

That car is great...get it running in short order...and drive the snot out of it and THEN put it down for a nice refresh...you will be so much more motivated to do a top job already knowing how much fun this car is to drive and being in touch with its shortcomings will drive you to correct things the right way. Good luck with it.

yep


that was the plan. i really want to just enjoy it as is for the summer and then maybe tear it completely down this winter for a full resto, but for now a quick gussy up and motor drop will make me happy.

good shit...can't wait to see a video of it running!

350usd is about 460nzd...... dude a rx2 like that over hear would sell for 8 to 10grand, nice score man and good luck!

so yesterday i pulled the engine out of the old gal. it was really quite enjoyable and i found myself smiling a lot. its really the nicest old car ive worked on. everything came apart with little fuss and no broken studs or bolts or seized nuts. the torch just sat in the corner getting dusty. the hardest part was trying to get the exhaust to separate from the manifold. a wonky angle and rust made it want to stick around a little longer but finally i got it freed up.

this engine was absolutely water logged. i drained the oil prior to removal and a good 2 liters of fresh mountain spring water poured out before the 2 quarts of oil found their way out the drain hole. after i got the engine out and started moving it around to tear down to the keg, more water poured out of every orifice that happened to be pointing downward at that time. i had to squeegee my floor constantly to try and keep the garage dry and not sloppy.

after i got it to the keg, jefespeed came by and helped me tear the keg down.
it came apart a little roughly, it was a nasty smelly sloppy mess inside. rotors were frozen to the irons and took a bit of persuasion to finally get everything apart.

i was pretty bummed about the housings. they looked like they were in really really awesome shape and looked even better after i started cleaning them up in the wash sink but alas, right at the end, i found a couple deep pits in the bottoms of them where the water has eaten through the chrome. no chatter marks, no scars, no triangle grooves.. no idea why this car was put up. it looks like engine wise, it was very nice and had no defects.. well.. till someone decided to top it off with a lot of wet stuff.

ill take pictures of everything after i get back in town but if anyone wants or needs any early 12a stuff, let me know. irons, housings, rotors are junk but the e shaft, oil pump are good and all the ancillary stuff is good too like intake manifold, twin dizzy front cover, factory exhaust bread box thing/manifold, starter, alternator, water pump, air pump.. etc..

i think now my plan is to find a cheap running fb, possibly even a gsl-se if i can find it, and just do a quick engine swap so i can enjoy life. so much for making it appear stock under the hood.

i already stashed the rotors and irons so i couldnt take pics of them but here are the housing

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...2/CIMG2682.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...2/CIMG2687.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...2/CIMG2684.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...2/CIMG2685.jpg

engine bay looking even more sparse
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...2/CIMG2688.jpg
i love how wonky the exhaust is on these old cars.

sucks that the frame rails are so shot though
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...2/CIMG2689.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...2/CIMG2690.jpg
not sure how im going to fix them..

am i missing something? how are the framerails shot?

You keeping the complete stock exaust system when you do the swap or is that available to?

Also do you need a front bumper? there is someone on the RX2 facebook page parting a sedan

http://www.facebook.com/groups/mazdarx2/

Agreed....those frame rails don't look that bad.