oldrx7

This showed up at home today - pretty happy with how tidy it is, certainly not mint, but I would have been shocked if it was. Flat battery, no engine coolant and a little exhaust leak will be the first little jobs to do, along with oil change and filters too. Chatted to a local compliance place that will do a pre compliance check over and point out any likely repairs needed, before doing a full on compliance inspection so will try get it to them in the next week or two

Nice one on the v8! is the plan to get complied first then convert or do cert/compliance all in one shabang?

Mate, that looks great. Nice dark green. I like the vinyl roof, but each to their own. Plans of lowering sound good!

Nice - any pics? Manual + 12aT would have been ideal but they're a bit pricier.

Yeh did see that - will be using sktchy pplates though, had them a long time now and being a fresh import there'll be no 'attachment' to a black plate. The car should be in my shed mid july so will update then with a few more pics

Cheers mate! Feels like it's taken forever to get to this point, yet it's only been a few months since January. First time doing this, so will see how much of headache compliance is, but yeh, fingers crossed it's only a few things.

Rightyo, I'm pretty damn excited about my recent purchase so thought I'd share it now, although the car isn't in my possession yet ... Longish sharn below; After selling my 323 wagon in January for (IMO) silly money, I was immediately on the look out for another car, this time preferably a rotary. An option of taking out a 5-10k loan was on the cards, giving me a max budget of around 20-25k. I'd looked at a few cars locally, rx7, rx323, rx626 etc. Either they weren't ticking the right boxes, or would have required more money to get them legal than my budget could stretch to. And from previous experiences around paying off a loan whilst owning an old car, it does get hard trying to either keep the car running whilst paying off the loan, let alone saving money for modifications etc. So I made the decision to not get a loan and keep within my actual budget. Nothing rotary in NZ was going to happen with sub 15k, well nothing that appealed to me anyways. So after reading through the importing from Japan thread and picking a few people's brains that have 'been there, done that'. I began searching Japanese sites for a car that I'd be happy with and contacted Stacked to act on my behalf, and to help with questions I had on particular cars and more information that I wanted from the sellers. https://oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/55223-importing-from-japan/ I eventually narrowed the search down to 3 cars that were within my budget: 1979 mazda familia (323) wagon - still piston - still for sale actually if anyone was wanting to buy it, considering I sold my yellow rough one for almost 12k, this does seem like it could be worth while buying https://www.carsensor.net/usedcar/detail/CU5545473225/index.html?TRCD=200002&RESTID=CS210610 1981 Mazda Luce - not for sale anymore, but was 13B, automatic - luxury barge spec mazda 3rd option is the one I've pulled the trigger on and purchased - and just received confirmation today from Autohub that it's ready and waiting for shipping to NZ! 1985 Mazda Cosmo, 13B model, with, unfortunately an automatic gearbag. I only have the crap quality images below, but the car appears tidy, a little bit of rust in the doors, and thanks to one of @S124AB's contact in Japan, I was able to obtain some better quality pics which showed the underside of the car looking relatively clean and tidy. I priced up shipping, GST and a conservative compliance budget and this was affordable with no loan required. Anything rotary and manual seems to equal more dollars in Japan, so I'll live with the automatic for now. Plans will be; Get legal Lower Wheels Cruise and enjoy Save up for a manual swap, coilovers, cert, maybe engine porting of some sorts. Will update once the car arrives at my place. I'll either be really happy with the condition, or I'll be selling as parts lol

Man this pic just made me crack up - similar to a kids cartoon my son sometimes watches

Find some coilovers that aren't buggered - or get yours reccod? Car is arguably worth more to future purchasers certed with 'judz'

Cheers Clint, Still a small risk that the car may have had repairs in the past that I'm unaware of that may be revealed in the entry certification check then ... Looks like the guy has a VIN number assigned to the car (as it's on the cert check he sent me). Is there a way to check that this cert check paper work he's provided me is legit? Might sound a little paranoid, but just wanna make sure.

A few questions from me for a potential purchase I’m looking at Car is an Aussie import, the owner says he has paper work and has taken it for a cert check - and has supplied me with the cert check fail list. Big list of small things, so I’m comfortable I can fix most. If I bring the car from elsewhere in the country to Auckland, I’m presuming I pay a new certifier to conduct a new check? Once the cert is complete, is it a simple process to get a VIN wof and reg?

Had a ton of fun taking this down the strip at Meremere at the drag day back December. Slow racing is just as fun as quick(er) cars I've taken down the drag strip. Was running low-mid 20's all day, then a mate suggested taking off the air filter. Ran 3 mid 19 second passes after that! Sold this as of last week. Had someone approach me offering what I think is silly money for it, so that had me curious as to what people might be wanting to pay. Put it up on FB and it was gone in 24 hours, so must have been priced right and I'm glad it was a quick and easy sale. Was tempted to try a home build 12a and do the rotary conversion on it, but being registered as a 1985 instead of a 1979-81 car may have opened a can of worms during the cert process which I wasn't too keen on potentially opening. Would probably have to be a mazda geek to know the differences, but yeh ... Anyways, it's gone to a nice guy near Hamilton, who wants it for similar reasons I did, to putt around in, and not having to worry about it too much as it's a bit rough around the edges.

Had a quick gander at this marvelous machine and Caffeine and Classics on Sunday. Such a clean and crisp looking car man, you must be proud! Congrats on the Toyo-fest award too!

ohhh yes - good work, that thing will hold the heat really well! Gotta start stacking that firewood now too so it's ready for action.

Bro, having a wheel fall off ain’t no fun, let alone on the motorway! Hopefully the repairs aren’t too major and you’re enjoying it soon

All good - things take time right - Where did you find the ready made rx crossmember for it?

any updates @shizzl

WOF was successful - a few small things to fix before the next one but I'll get around to those in the coming months. Found some chrome end caps for the bumpers - fronts fitted nicely, but the rears didn't quite line up right, and would have meant drilling holes in the bumper which I wasn't too keen on, so on-sold those and will keep an eye out for more in the future. Looking forward to drag day in a few weeks, I'm fairly sure I'll be the slowest 323 to ever race at Meremere! Was tempted to find a spare diff and weld one up for twin spin skids, but people seem to want $200 odd for a diff head - so scrap that - plus I think this thing would struggle to turn the wheels standing still anyways, so not worth the effort / cost of a replacing the diff really.

shit, left the garage and got about 500m from home and a loud banging noise is coming from one of my front struts - turned around so won’t be making tonight

https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/car-parts-accessories/wheels-tyres/alloy-wheels/listing/2819564525?bof=NtRrTiz4

Doesn't matter that it's rusty does it? Purely an engine donor for the yellow mobile + maybe some other limited edition turbo model stuff none of us know about? You've already got the donor LSD, you've gotta get the donor turbo.

Awesome to start from the beginning and watch / read where this has gone ... almost predictable but still so cool! Glad you've got a yellow one, and 2 door too! Sounds like a you may be acquiring a 4th soon too lol

Yeh sure thing!

Good luck on the wiring stuff mate! Good to know the motor's running well now though.

So I didn't end up using the rx7 shock insert, they do however fit the 323 strut, and would be useful for someone not wanting to shorten a 323 shock. Only if they're lowering the car 30-40mm though. Not short enough for my springs. I had myself confused for a bit when I compared the two shock types. I had them side by side and the shock shafts are the same length, but the rx7 shock body is shorter, so in theory if I was to space them up (see my paint diagram below), then there would be no benefit to using them (apart from price). Spacing them 'down' however, with a collar type spacer would work. However, after pulling out my struts and taking a look at the inserts in them, they looked / felt very new, so decided I may as well get them shortened, and sell the rx7 inserts to save myselft the hassle of shortening and making a spacer thing. (reserve met on trademe if you'd like to buy them lol). Had a mate shorten the 323 inserts for me to keep the springs nice n captive, wire wheeled the strut body, dusted them with some black paint, and got them back in the car the other night. Also replaced the rear shocks, cos why not. Have got new brake shoes, cylinders and pads, so will get around to doing that soon also. Will aim to get the car back on the ground the next few days, and hopefully wof time in the next week or two.