Popular Post rotorhoe Posted October 15, 2018 Popular Post Share Posted October 15, 2018 Introducing the newest member to the rotary international auckland, in the form of a super project Mazda Rx2 Coupe straight outta somewhere near Compton but might take a while in the LA traffic. Back in February there was slight intoxication involved when this little red coupe showed up on a Facebook group, and thought 'yes this could be a nice daily'. Not overly reasonable considering it was in LA, and there was no garage space available, but no amount of sense-talking could stop the purchase and after being told our Mexican mate would sell it to another guy for double, I taught him a lesson by sending him money, chucked Stephen's RX7 out in the rain, and arranged shipment. Supposedly from the Arizona desert (yet with several crowbar dents around main entrance points) it has survived hot sun, a brick through the windscreen, and a seemingly nasty break up thanks to Jessica being a tramp and a too-timer: As far as we know it’s a 1973 RX2 S1/S2, with a poorly pulled apart factory 12a twin dizzy which fascinatingly was resting on the crossmember as an engine bracket, surviving a bumpy boat ride and several tow trucks. The list of what it has is far shorter than what it needs as it included the seats, engine and auto gearbox, couple of bits of chrome, old mates dad's truck rear view mirror, half of the Arizona desert in the doors, and a creepy Christmas doll decoration. Sorted: Thankfully don't have to invest in a paint job, as Jessica's ex has done the custom airbrushing. Got an extra windscreen as sadly the brick shattered the one in it. Plans: Not sure of engine yet as deciding between keeping original or moving to a 13B. Received an upholstery quote so that will be instead be mostly done by Rotorhoe's hobby shop. Widened steels, slam as per rules, get on road with guidance of supertrapp and jillyz music (cost effective as no radio required) Your kind thoughts and sympathy are appreciated 60 2 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post rotorhoe Posted October 28, 2018 Author Popular Post Share Posted October 28, 2018 Been a busy two weeks of knick knacking and paddy whacking really. Had huge progress in the dismantling task, and now have it stripped back to a water blasted rolling body. This weekend I de-loomed it with various difficulties due to Japanese nimble fingers and Mexican wiring swept under holes, while Stephen dropped the fuel tank out which had 1 & 1/2 buckets worth of petrol still in… no auckland tax on that. The front windscreen didn't come out easy however as the rubber was baked more than a christmas pavlova made after a few breakfast rumballs. But with two rolls of $2 tape as support and bare fingers for guidance, we yanked the screen free and the began the painful process of smashing each little piece from the surrounding areas. Even dropped the engine out the bottom to check over if it's worth saving, and the exhaust which is definitely not worth saving. And finally on the progress, I spent a day last week softly caressing the old vinyl rear seats that crack into pieces in your fingers unless you find a 24 year old bottle of Johnsons baby oil at the back of a bathroom cabinet, and massage that into the fragile material until it's overwhelming in smell. Then I spent the remainder cleaning up plastics with thanks to rivalrx CRC suggestion, AKA the new best thing after Autosol. Note grubby handles. Got new door cards from Australia - $140 free shipping bloody impressed and awesome business card to match. Bonus items found hidden this week were a knife down the wheel arch in boot, an Escort window winder, and a monopoly house under the fuel tank. Kind regards, rotorhoe 36 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post rotorhoe Posted April 17, 2019 Author Popular Post Share Posted April 17, 2019 So got a bit distracted with local rotary travel and a rotary storage workshop. First things first, I priced up materials for re-upholstery and bought some tools and foam before realising nobody would just do a stitch job basically wanted all or nothing. So we went to Stephen's old mate who offered a completely mind-boggling irresistible cash price job, so took him up on that offer. He even had the exact fabric. Got the rears back already and they needed completely re-doing due to the heat damage cracking the top piece and subsequently shrinking the fabric elsewhere. So meanwhile we've been busy fiddling around stripping it out completely of wiring, brake lines, and most of the underseal except that one spot over the tunnel that you leave until last and when last comes you go 'why on earth did I leave the worst bit til last' so you just never ever touch it again... someone want a job?? Mostly it's in great condition, although once we finally ground off the welds holding the guards to the body (first WTF moment) we found the RHS front had significant damage as bad as to completely crumple the crush tube and crease the engine bay. The damage is a bit of a financial set-back and obviously means a bigger job for compliance, so it did then require blasting and prep to be repaired. Bonus find this time round, a charming ring down in the door panel over the lock. As things go, I had it set up and masked off to blast myself, and then the compressor died. So after looking around I found C.A. Levien in Henderson to give the underneath, inner guards, engine bay, windscreen channels, and rear quarter rust patches a blast. Yes, everything except the great patina and heinous tagging. (my least favourite side, with BB gun dents and what appears to be acid damage). Even the sandblasters they thought it was hilarious to save the patina, but they made such a huge improvement on the car it actually looks purposeful now. Highly recommended, they even stored it away in it's own shed. The rear quarters were only 5% worse than expected, the underneath is absolutely fantastic, and the weird panel under rear windscreen that was mysteriously primer is happily not bog and is solid steel. Kyle was kind enough to take and send me some pictures of the process too: So after a year of ownership it was transported off again on Monday to it's new temporary home. Thankfully we found an old school repairer who will be able to save it without us finding a new front cut. From what I understand, he will cut from firewall and slowly pull the front back into original shape, beating out the creases. While it's there I may gain the fucks needed to finish off the underseal and chuck some durepox over it but probably won't. He'll also be teaching me a mix of painting and airbrushing to get the touched quarters back to their patina best. And I'll pull apart the twin dizzy to see what the options are. That's all for now folks. 36 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post rotorhoe Posted August 19, 2019 Author Popular Post Share Posted August 19, 2019 Update on the open chequebook: It has been up North getting work done for compliance, and so far has 15mm to go until the chassis is completely straight, and the front inner guard has been cut off to straighten out any creases caused by the impact. The creases were a fair bit more than thought, up under the strut tower and the engine bay was pretty bent, but it's had a massive weight attached to it and pulled the creases out where possible, and then will be softly hammered with Billy Mavs back into place. But the headlight surround area is too smashed, so a new piece will be made and welded in. Coming along nicely, it's just a shame to not have any control of it as a project at the moment. Most of pics go to Instagram as I forget to update here so much. Feel free to follow along @theamyable. 21 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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