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Rivalrx - 1972 Mazda 618 Coupe


rivalrx

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Here is the genuine RX2 coupe steering wheel I got with the RX2 beaver panel/lights. 
 
RX2 sedan steering wheels don't have the horn buttons on the 3 struts from the centre - coupe ones do although European coupes don't.
 
Coupe steering wheels are $650aus....Not what I paid :-)
 
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Here is the beaver panel I sourced from Florida and the rear garnish from Aussie. Can't wait to have this on the coupe

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One of my most favourite things.....the old dealership light

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Here is a cheeky pc of the nos series 2 rx2 616 grille still in its.original sealed bag. It is a thing of beauty.

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I have these for the rear rust repairs....the sedan quarters share the same shape mostly as the coupe. This is the same for all the 2s 3s and 4s from what I can see.

I pulled the back bumper out of the loft today and gave it a fool old rub down with some de greaser and autosol.

Needs more of a buff so will attack it later.

Before

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After

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The dented one

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My NOS RX2 tail lenses

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Here is my rear garnish collection...the second set is sold

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Bracket fab brought to you by my mate Clint - sorry if they are out of sequence. He did this last summer when he was back from London. GC!

The original front seats were toast so I bought some recaro fishnets

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Heater passenger seat...us spec option??

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The fn steering wheel is still on the wrong side icon_biggrin.gif
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Here is one of the problem rust areas I need to have sorted for compliance. It's not too bad compared to others I've seen but it still needs to be fixed so I can take a step toforward to get this road legal.

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Here is the rx2 rear windscreen/parcel tray cut I scored off a car in the states recently. Currently getting sand blasted in nz. I thought I'd never find one of these but hey, one turned up. It is off are rust fee coupe shell - should save me cash and that's what it is all about.

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All rust MUST be repaired by a certified repairer or it won't pass compliance and won't get on the road in NZ therefore the more panels I can supply, the cheaper it becomes for me.

For those looking at doing similar, you can't do the repairs or get your mates to do them as by law, it must go to a certifier as they sign off their work. Not anyone else's unfortunately.

Now all I need is these panels fitted and tidied up and then the front windscreen lower channel done and bingo. This panel just saved me shed loads.
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  • 3 weeks later...

So I got to see the car for the first time the other week, albeit for only 10min. I got to sit in the mouldy seats and make rotor noises whilst holding the steering wheel. Speaking of steering wheel - I nabbed the RX2 coupe wheel from the boot and decided to give it a sand, prime and a lick of paint.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I had some more time the other day to have a better look at the car. I'm pleased how it's looking too.

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Under the left guard

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Under the right guard

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New 13" white walls turned inside

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My left hand USA spec mazda mirror

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And I caved and bought a used set of mazda RX5 fender mirrors this week. Should be with me in a week......

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  • 1 month later...

Here is one of my nos mazda 13b polished housings with some exhaust work done - I have a set.

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I bought these yesterday $60 and my mate has another 2 currently on his mazda 1000 so now I have a set.

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I was going to roll the 323 steelies but the rx2 steelies are just that much nicer. I have a new set of rx2 inner wheel centres to go with them and a full set of chrome dress rings also.

Here is the Italian 48 Ida I traded for a rx2 rear garnish and $100us to a mate in LA. Result!!

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  • 1 month later...

I now have the door glass sent to me for free by the BBOOMM 323 drag hatch guys as I bought a Lenco air shifter back from UK for them. Good cats.

Now I need the windscreen but that can wait. All the glass i have is perfect and crystal clear.

I have front suspension bushes on order and I'm looking at tie rods and ball joints as I'm picking up the front suspension this weekend - would be nice to rebuild it before it goes in. BNT carry the white line bushes.

I hear there are a few differences in ball joints etc so I guess we will see shortly.

Left to right conversion this Easter!

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  • 4 weeks later...

So we tackled the left to right conversion in the weekend. I have some amazing talented helpful mates whom I owe a few cold ones to.

Out with the dash

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The inner boot after a sweep

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Bye bye piston engine mounts

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Idler arm and pitman holes drilled and filled with crush tubes coupled with some lovely welding

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The dummy holes are there already which mad things easier

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Chassis number on the firewall was smack in the middle of the new brake booster location therefore it needed to be relocated to the opposing side as requested by the compliance people (with photos to show how you did it).

The rx2 rev counter has higher rev counter and buzzer compared to the original 618 unit therefore it was swapped over.

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The worst side for rust repairs

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RE grille badge fitted as I really couldn't wait...

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My NOS centre caps for an RX2 coupe (not perfect but looks awesome)

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New tie rods and new ball joints we pressed in are all in place as is the RX3 cross member. It's a MASSIVE ball ache to get the lower arms round the wrong way that attach to the base of the struts.....puts everything up the sht. Trap for young players as it made it impossible to fit to the strut base and the outer tie rod hit the brakes.....

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I got rid of the nasty 13x6 mags and put some steelies on for now as I have rx2 steelie rims to go on. The tires were turned around so the white walls are on the outside.

Notice anything else different with the pic? Steering wheel??

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Steering box in and holes drilled for brake and clutch masters

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My mate couldn't help himself!!

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Yoeddynz - look what's going to be sandwiched between my NOS 13b RX4 housings....do these tall port plates look familiar?? The paint?? Hahah.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Here is more info re the conversion - sorry if there are photo double ups

Over Easter 5 of us in NZ gave this a nudge on a my 618 imported from America. Of course we tried to plan as much in advance by buying a RHD steering box, RHD steering linkages (you only need the long bar that connects the idler and steering box) but didn't realise you need a RHD heater and if you really wanted to do a mint job (this car is a rat) the bottom dash support. A few brackets need to move and the accelerator pedal is also different.

As the dash is modular with the glovebox and instrument cluster being the same size these swap over. All the wiring does move under the dash from one side to another, the pedal box and steering column require no modification and bolt straight up.

If you can't fabricate I wouldn't take this job on. If you can fab it's do-able but you need a second set of hands to hold, tack, fit. It's hard yakka to do on your own. For those wondering the block of wood with the writing is for NZ compliance purposes. It took 5 of us around 20 hours to do (2 full days). It's not 100% complete yet due to needing a heater and a few brackets to move. But its certainly rolling. :

Motor stripped out ready for action! The RHD box is just sitting there at this stage - motivation more than anything!

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First mission was the crush tubes in the chassis rails. Mazda have made this easy too. Making a cardboard template up and marking though the existing holes, then transposing to the other rail gives you the wheel arch side hole locations. We haven't filled the old holes. If compliance asks to we will but they may say don't so easier not to do it at this stage. Crush tubes go all the through the chassis, same as the original.

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Adding the lock stops. We were scratching our heads as to what these were for a while? With no steering box in place its makes no sense.

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Next step was moving the chassis number as the hole for the brakes booster cuts it out. The holes in the bottom of the plate are spot welds drilled out.

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Next step is cutting out the RHD holes. You really can't get this wrong. Mazda have put all the holes there for you. The steering column hole is a little bigger but a quick template off the other side gives you the cut.

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Surprisingly, the hardest part was inside. The steering column dash support (bottom of the dash) either needs to move, of if you don't want to mess around with straight edges and clean up get a RHD bottom dash support. As this car is a rat it suits it to have exposed welds to highlight its been converted. A show car is a different story.

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