Level7

Well as finished as its going to get for a while, off to storage for the winter! Think about something to power it next summer..

Love the exhaust! In fact the whole car is awesome.

12a front is on. Was going to resto it as an 808, but couldn't help but sit the 12a front on.. after that it was all over, badges, trim other bits... couldn't help myself. Still has the 808 interior in it, but got all the RX3 interior sitting in storage, might put it in to. Andrew you have finished heaps of cars, you just need to keep one you have finished! or finish one of the ones you have kept..

Painted some more bits Got some other bits back from the platers. Glass finally in! New sill trim mounting clips and chrome back on.

Finally found my RX3 crosmembers in a box, so i can mount something in now once they are cleaned up...

You just need to stop the other projects and finish the cosmo.

Sold it to a guy in hamilton 4 years ago, he has since on sold it again.. not sure who owns it now.

Na just the American spec Wagons had the full red tail lights, Jap / everywhere else had the orange/red.

Yes keen as for some hockey stick mirrors, just finding it really hard to find any! GR badge is near on impossible to find, so probably no Lol, yes with P Plate people might think its the orange one with a repaint.. oh well. Has all hard to find parts off the orange wagon including the nose cone.. haha.

inspiration!

up till 2am drilling holes in freshly painted panels and making mounting clips. Then slaping on woodgrain.. painfull job... Now time to start aligning all the panels properly and geting the glass and other crap in there.

I'm racing you to finish your Cosmo, though i think you should convert it to a 121 just to be different There is heaps of 808 wagons around, so not to fused sticking some RX3 trims and panels on it, have all the 808 bits here could swap it around week to week just for fun.

Finally getting some panels on, just need a spare 100 hours to finish polishing trims/glass and everything else, aligning the panels and then should be back in one piece for the first time in years.. lol Decided I might just convert it to RX3, was thinking of leaving it looking like a standard 808, but quite like all the blingy RX3 trims.. Need to mark out drill some holes and fit the RX3 tail gate chrome and the factory wood grain for the back, so should end up looking like my old wagon. What it will look like with the RX3 spec tail gate.

springs re-tensioned with an extra leaf ready to go in! Found some other RX3 bits i'd lost in boxes too.. NOS RX3 wagon badge i scored years ago. RX3 wagon vents from a car in the US.

Yeah scored another RX3 wagon tail gate from the US, just need to polish the trims up and stick on the wood grain, managed to find another roll of it, full day job pain in arse! not looking forward to it. No idea on motor at the moment, sold the 13bt setup I had for it years ago.. was going to resto it back as a stock 808 wagon then switch it all over to RX3 when I do the engine maybe, atleast I wouldn't have to push it everywhere haha, stock motor is still sitting around... thought I'd paint the 12a front to match at the same time. Yep 808 rims, off my old wagon they were pretty strait rims, so kept them

So spent my 4 days of at easter sanding, painting and more sanding.. dawn till dusk every day.. On the up side finally got all the panels painted to match the car! Dug my nose cone off my old car out from storage thats been wraped up for so many years i've lost count.. most of the panels hung in last stages of primer, sitting in my expensive drying room. (in between the rain..) Finally hiting it all with some paint back in the same top end spray booth. aka driveway. Finally all painted! now just the kit set to put back together, and to sort out an engine!

Discussion viewtopic.php?f=18&t=22403 This is my 808 wagon project, have loved these little wagons for years. sold my RA23 Celica back in 96 to buy one and build it up as an RX3 wagon, then stumbled across this one in 2002 that was a lot tider, so bought it... Sat for years, didn't really have the money to do anything with it.. then sold my old orange 808 wagon, and finally started rebuilding it in 2006. about 4 different flats, multiple storage units its been tailored all over Auckland.. lol Its a pretty sweet model, import jap spec, has all the smoked Nippon glass etc.. same chassis as the RX3 wagons.. Unfortunately, some muppet had sprayed it in enamel paint at some stage.. was cracking all over the place.. so I ended up sending the shell off to have the enginebay and door jams sand blasted. Striped the roof and quarters by hand... Joy! mostly paint striped and sandblasted to bare steel.. shell etch primed, then has had a couple coats of primer.. rear quarters where strait as, never been dinged. all panels acid dipped, and no major scary things uncovered luckily all my nuts and bolts and shit gold passivated and looking like brand new. Finally got the shell in some paint late 2007..

Cheers! Yeah always scary getting panels acid dipped, never quite know what is going to come back... Just so much easier than spending half your life paint striping or sanding.. and gets every bit of rust out of there too. Have had some epic fails with 808/RX3 parts in the past. Lol

Picked this little Mazda 1200 ute up from the South Island back in 2006, was starting to have a hard life and managed to save it in time... 1 of 200 special Govt order for the ministry of works back in 1977. Back blocks of CHCH Got it up to Auckland, gave it a machine polish.. didn't come up too bad but had had a hory enamel repaint at some stage.. was starting to crazy crack all over the place... having done a few bare metal jobs before, new the pain awaiting.. sigh.. And then the engine pretty much shat itself.. seemed to have more oil on the outside than the inside.. so out it came... New engine in, slapped on some white walls and drove it! Decided it would be fun to rebuild, never done a ute before.. so started pulling it to bits (no springs.. lol) Previous owner even left a present under seats with the crappy ass paint all over the panels ended up getting ever panel acid dipped and striped the cab by hand.. Had no idea what would be under the paint.. and luckily it was really good! very solid tidy ute. Suspension bits all striped reco'd and painted up shiny Then the million hours of sanding beings... etch all the panels and get read for paint.. Bridget sanding the tray when it came back from the acid dippers Painted in red anti rust primer... Doors etc all primed up (we used white primer) Ready for primer... All blocked back and ready for top coat inside is all done Nuts and bolts back from being gold passivated back to original. [/url] Engine bay painted Rest of the panels starting to get finished... Start getting the chassis back together.. and get the cab back on... Couldn't figure out what to do with the deck of the tray... had quite a few dents as you would imagine from life as a ute. Bridget was keen to put a teak deck on it... her old man having done boats before was keen to give it ago.. so all came together.. finally back together.. and decided to take it to the nats Back to where it was photographed just over a year ago, with a bit more shiny than before. Judges at Galaxy of Cars show liked it, which is odd for a Japanese car!

Keen as well. One of the cars even has a wof and rego and is running.. lol

The Tyre manufacturers spend the millions manufacturing and testing the tyres, then write the specs for there customers on what tyres will fit what width rims safely. Just seems bizarre, but I'm not surprised either. Guess the monkey at a desk knows better. Previous experience all the cert guys work to there own set rules aswell...

"except they have just changed the rules and now the minimum tyre width you can run on a 10" rim is 255." Where did you hear about this? Most of the manufactures state what size rim is save for each tyre size. ie Toyo T1R's I had on my RX7, ran a 225/35/18 on a 18x9 inch rim, Wof guy tried to fail me on a warrant, I ended up showing a printout from the Toyo the website, with the size rim they have tested the tyres on, and asked him how he could know more than the manufactures of the tires! With a bit of a grumble he said something about if would never go through vining bla bla... and reluctantly gave me a Wof.. Total arse. http://toyotires.com/tire/pattern/proxes-t1r Might be tough finding anything that will legally fit a 10" rim under 255 though.. hmm, so guessing a 205/45/15 on a 10 " rim on my 808 is out of the question.. lol

Sweet, scored all the bits I need! Cheers shavenYak!

Am going there tomorro now!! haha Level7 got your bits yet? Could grab them if ya want. 0273189339 Dude i'm walking out the door "runing" heading to pickapart now! Work clients can wait! haha.

Rotary Summerdrags are on the Sunday 17th of Jan.