dabuzz

well done man! sweet tow wagon for the RX

Not too long tbh, total GC. I'm putting my old 1/4 back on it and will just fill it up with bog to suit. Hes going to make it into a trailer or something so doesn't have to be flash

Tried to find a new 1/4, found a NOS one, but by the time it got to me it was nearly $5k! - pass. otherwise options are very limited for these coupes now Have ended up taking the 1/4 off this half cut a mate had stashed (ill weld my shitty one back on the half cut), once removed it had plenty of Mexican repairs, it wasn't great, but still better than what I had, Choppers Auto Body says hes far happier repairing this so its currently at the dippers awaiting a full strip.

The sills are not straight, one of the sills had a small crease it it, so instead of pulling out the crease, and making a new rear section to suit, he made the new section with a crease it it to match - wtf

Ok, so now I'm (mostly) over the mess the last panel guy carried out, i have been setting some plans in motion to start the next stage make some $ and get panels repaired properly. So as its part of the story, ill now share pics - the pics Tbh, dont really show how bad it all is, the rear 1/4 is very buckled, and the wheel arch flare, i cant even comprehend. You can sort of see in the first pic, where the rust was, at the very top of the flare, and at both lower corners. panel beater suggested, that there would be more rust between the inner and outer skins, and that a whole new section should be made, and installed, that way the inner can be treated properly, this all made sense, and i agreed. panel guy - lets call him Noddy had a new arch section made off a sample i gave him, when I gave him the sample I expressly said make new section a mirror image as sample was for RHS. this is where it turned to shit...... Noddy forgot to tell fabricator, and made as per sample, not mirrored, so profile was different. I said lets remake the correct profile, Noddy said, nah mate, ill make it work.......

sweet ride, personally, id keep it a sleeper, lower it slightly, and just make it as tidy as possible. good score

Exhaust looks good, alway tight on those 1300s. hes doing mine as well, at least I know he can weld nice haha disappointed about the flares, i still reckon the escort flares would have worked, but your call, it'll be a cool little car either way

i messaged him last night, said between 4 and 7 weeks, the Covid thing has pushed him back alot. I'm in no rush though, might give me time to build another motor to make a few extra $ in the mean time

That is a different motor, was my spare standard one, not as detailed as the one sitting in my car, but a nice original motor for a resto. I decided to sell it, no point having all that money tied up, when the car is still just a giant paperweight. Its cheap, but it doesn't owe me a lot, and i'm hoping someone will snap it up so I can pour the $ into panel and paint.

Why is it chicks hate these so much, I'd love one too, but mine cant stand them Anyway, I Vote LSA conversion next on the list!

Yup twin dizzy only, although, the US market had bigger single hole exhausts on their twin dizzy's much like the early single dizzy rx3 motors etc

Thanks man, yea has been good doing it over the past week or so, unfortunately I'm pretty much caught up so apart from a few smaller bits, ill have to wait until the panel is underway again before I can do some proper updates again. I'm actually inspired again, got a bit over it especially after the panel setback, but doing this log has reminded me of how far I've come with it from where it started.

And here she is in all her glory!

So to recap - here are the specs- Mazda 12a Twin dizzy bridgeported, and exhaust ported. Plates skimmed and Nitrided Rx7 6 port rotors, with 3mm carbon apex seals Cross drilled E-shaft for more oil flow Fully balanced rotating assembly High volume 12a rx7 oil pump, and FD Rx7 110psi oil regulator. All new bearings (incl torrington) seals springs gaskets, - everything possible. 48mm IDA Weber carburetor Electronic ignition conversion Modified front stack to accept oil pump and also machined later model twin pulley hub so can run twin belts

Motor assembly. All went together nicely, A couple of mods needed, I fitted a late 12a rx7 oil pump which is a higher volume unit than the twin dizzy one, the body heights are different so I had to have a custom spacer made to push the oil pump chain cog in line with the pump itself, and them machine down the cog so that the dizzy drive stayed in the same position. I also discovered that I had an oddball E-shaft in it after it was already assembled, annoying as I had a normal one on the shelf too. Turned out to be an auto shaft that was used in a few of them. The difference was the rear end of the shaft where the spigot bearing goes is a lot shallower and a different diameter to normal, this meant I had to shorten the gearbox input shaft, and instead of running a roller spigot bearing, I got a custom bronze bush made to suit, a bit of messing about, but it all worked out in the end.

Hows this, was looking through old pics and this pops up....

Onto the motor itself now. Engine plates were bridge-ported by a mate, and then I had them skimmed flat. after that I sent them off to be Nitrided (hardened) as the twin dizzy plates are notoriously soft and can wear prematurely with newer style springs and seals fitted. Part of the Nitriding process involves high heat cycling, which makes the frost plugs and bungs loose so afterwards I had to replace the frost plugs, and drill and tap in new oil gallery bungs to avoid leaking at a later stage. after that the plates need to be lapped in to remove any of the roughness left to the surface after treatment, pic of baby monitor shows males are actually capable of multi tasking after all . Housings were notched to suit the bridge, and honed by hand for a new flat surface. The factory 3 hole exhaust outlets were also opened out to make one big hole for more flow. Rotors are 12a 6 port single dizzy type, these are the lightest high compression factory rotors available, i didn't want to fully lighten the assembly, as its a street cruiser not a race car, and will aid in drivability around town. The complete rotating assembly rotors, shaft. counterweights clutch and flywheel have been fully balanced to suit Flywheel has bee custom made at 12 pounds with offset ring gear to suit the twin dizzy's unique starter position, and I am using a sprung puck clutch and heavy duty pressure plate for clamping duties.

I know this car, was in wellington with a 10a nosecone plates were 1LOWHO, a mate of mine bought it up to Auckland (Darren) and fitted the flares and BBS blacked out etc Very tidy bodywise, guard hacking aside, good score!

Not bad, often I might run a tap into a nut/bolt hole etc to be sure as some of them can get tight, no worse than a rusty scummy 40+ year old bolt anyway.

Cheers, normally 4-5 days depending on their work load, I use Terei Bros in Kelston West Auckland

Phil's rotaries in aus

Thanks, I wouldn't know if its possible to do at home, but I usually just take a small bucket load of stuff down to our local platers and it comes back nice. I love the stuff, just send in your dirty scummy rusty parts and they come back mint, zero labour and maximum effect! Also pretty cost effective really, i would estimate if you sent a whole cars worth of nuts bolts and brackets in, you'd have change out of $1000. @MRWEST agree, def hurts the wallet, but the mental thing of being so close and taking big steps back was hard to deal with. Ive always had trust issues with people working on my stuff, and this was one of the few times I've let someone take the car and it bit me, oh well lesson learned.

This would probably be my favourite part of the build, the plan was always to look mostly original, so when opening the bonnet i didn't want a shiny K&N filter sitting on the Weber IDA The solution was to modify an original air-cleaner to suit, it sits at exactly the same position as it would with a 4 barrel, so now when opening the bonnet at first glance you would think its unmodified.

Got the booster rebuilt, bought all new brake and clutch components, made up new hard-lines and had them plated, new reservoirs etc. Not pictured, basically all components have been sourced new for the bay, all that's really left to do is modify lower radiator hose 1 heater hose, and make up a wiring loom. Found an original rx2 radiator and had it re-cored and up-rated to 3 core system, have 2x electric thermo fans instead of the clutch type fan for extra cooling

bridgeport or nothing