DABUZZ'z 1971 Mazda Capella RE + New 74 RX4

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Well, I have had a build thread going on Ausrotary forum for many years, due to the snails pace rebuild of this old Mazda, Thought I would be better off copying over a condensed version here as the car is in NZ after all.

The plate DABUZZ was originally on a 1974 Mazda RX4 coupe, that was fairly well known in the early-mid 2000s around the Auckland rotor scene, had that for 11 years, and sold it to buy a house (no Regrets)

Was a factory 13b car (only 12a cars were ever sold new in NZ) private import from Aus, which was repainted when I got it, and had a mild stage 2 13b in it

Over the years it grew to a Microtech Injected 4/71 Supercharged s5 Rx7 13b, s5 gearbox, and plenty of other mods.

Took home a few trophy’s at the 4&Rotary nationals, and was just a general fun street car, wasn’t big in power, but got along OK, and sounded incredible.

 

 

 

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And that leads me to this – after I bought a house, it wasn’t long before I found a new project, it was a mates that he had stashed in a a shipping container for around 12 years, he basically had zero interest in restoring it as he had other cars to play with, we struck a deal and that was that  

DABUZZ version rx2.1

Introducing my 1971 Mazda Capella RE, ‘T-Dash’ Coupe.

It was tied to the roof at the very rear of the 40ft shipping container it had sat in, with a mountain of crap in front of it, took half a day to get it out, what appeared was a car that had had a bit of a  hard life- as they all do, rust, rear ¼ damage, missing a bunch of parts, but no crash damage, and overall worth a save.

 

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It also had a 9 inch full spool diff in it that was way too wide  - hence the reason for trying to flare the arches, luckily they gave up after only doing one side!, also had s5 brakes all around with 5 stud conversion. 

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some more butchering, and rust found when I got it home, thing stunk of rats, found a nest and one very dehydrated Rat under the seat.

there was lots of little issues around it, probably far more than I realised in hindsight, but the car being what it is, had to be saved.

it will soon be apparent i went a little too far down the rabbit hole with this one though, and the main reason its still not finished 8 years later....

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Car was fully stripped to a bare shell,  and i set up a booth under my house, a mobile blaster came over and did everything except the rear 1/4s and roof.

Once he was done I 2k epoxy primed the shell to lock it all in.

later on I hand stripped the 1/4s etc, and epoxied again 

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A couple of patch repairs here, speaker holes, seat mount, bottom of A-pillar, and the random cut in sill, with bonus golf ball found inside 

 

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Unpicked chassis rails and straightened them up on both sides, floor hammered back up into shape too as it looked like it had been bottomed out or jacked up a few times.

split both the bonnet and boot lids to repair them, both have been acid dipped since, along with the front guards.

both doors have been blasted around the rear frame, and I hand stripped the outsides. - no pics

basically the whole car has been bare metaled and epoxied at this point , and minor repairs have been carried out around various areas of the car

The next post I make is where the fun (headache) really starts!

 

 

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Ok, so with the 1/4 damage being so bad I struggled to be able to find the best way to repair it, but a shiny unicorn winged its way to me and blessed me with a NOS 1/4 panel!

At the same time it was decided the boot floor wasn't able to be saved without being full of patches and bog  - so I found a guy in katikati who had made one for his own car and after about 8 months of  me hassling him, he finally made one for me too, and so it began.......

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Boot floor and 1/4 panel, which I sent to be dipped and then epoxied before fitting

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Inner arch was destroyed too, managed to source a 2nd hand item in good shape to fit to car.

Then cleaned up inside, epoxied, and started on fitting up the rest of the panels.

Hours of work in this but it came out ok, worst bit was the rear panel, I couldn't get a good rear panel and the lower half was rusty and damaged so I had to graft the lower section of a 616 one into it.

Not the cleanest way of doing it, but its all we had to work with.

 

 

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And this is the point after so much effort that the bodywork side turns to shit.

2 kids later in quick succession, a house purchase etc etc, I had no time to carry on with it, so I got Chopper from Choppers Autobody to quote  getting it finished to the body repair certed stage. price was agreed and while I was saving I was chatting to a "panelbeater' (he does it every day for a job)mate he was saying he was broke, and had heaps of spare time, I said take the car and finish the body work, needed quite a few little patches finishing off, the L/H 1/4 rust repaired , sills etc. - mates rates off the price -= winning.

 

Fail - what I got back was a mess, and now Chopper has re-quoted and id say it'll cost around 5k just to fix the Fk-ups and get me back to the repair cert stage, so bad in fact, that the L/H rear 1/4 now has to come off, and have custom made arch made, and new sills - gutted beyond belief, should have stuck with original plan, but it is what it is, and now im just waiting for Chopper to come free again

No pics cos I just cant stand to look at it

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That's basically where I'm up to with the body side, all going well, it should be body repair certed and may even be partially painted by the end of the year, but will have to see how this whole covid thing pans out.

While all that was going on, I worked on the mechanicals, I had to make a plan as to what direction I wanted to go with it, and after having the wilder Rx4 before, I wanted something a bit more tamer. Im old school, and grew up with naturally aspirated rotors, and I didnt really want the hassle of turbos, and certs etc. so i decided on a factory improved style of build.

That meant the 9 inch diff and big brakes were out, and a standard rx2 rear end was going in, but improved with a series 2 RX7 LSD diff head, and scored some NOS handbrake cables , all new nolathane bushes etc

Diff purchased, blasted, 2k painted and all bolts brackets etc gold zinc plated, and all bearings etc replaced.  

Rear struts all new and restored to the same level as well.

Edit- forgot to say the springs are super low Cobra brand, and have fitted new KYB shocks all around that will be shortened to suit once the car is on all fours and mostly complete, I already know that the nose will sit high with the current set up, so adjustments will need to be made.

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Front struts and steering components, all new parts where possible, or had re-manufactured where not available.

Also fully reco'd the driveshaft and pedal box

Mountains of gold passivate(zinc)plating has been done, pretty much every single visible nut bolt bracket etc and even a bunch of stuff that isn't seen has been done as well, I just couldn't stand using old bolts on new painted parts, this pic just a sample.

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Wheels - I've had a few sets, changed my mind many times, but have finally settled on what I want to run

Firstly a set of original steel wheels white walls and I have dress rings and re-chromed centre caps for them.

But I always wanted to have a set of mags to chop and change with, I went through Hotwires, Hustlers Original 80's Work equip 01s, all 13 inch before finally settling on a set of 15 inch Challengers, always loved these rims and a good set turned up so I blasted them, had them re-polished and painted the centres, as well as the back side of them. Fitted up with 195/45 Falken tyres, yet to decide if profile might be a little low, will see once fitted to the car when ever that may be.

 

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Re-chromed bumpers, door handles, some badges, and tail light rings etc, and also purchased a few quality repro badges, I'm not one of these guys that get hung up on everything has to be genuine, i would rather a mint re-pro than an average 40 year old part, or some hoarders Mazda taxed NOS part. 

imported some US spec full red tail light assemblies, and have polished them up, rear 1/4 US spec reflectors which light up as opposed to NZ type which dont.

Also scored brand new lenses for the front indicator/park lights, and NOS headlights. 

 

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Got sent this pic a while back from a previous owner, would be around 1996 in CHCH

The guy who bought it got it off an old lady who had at some point blown up the 12a and had a 2 litre 626 piston motor fitted! there were signs of this as there are poor mods done under the floor/chassis to mount gearbox, and the wiring loom hacked to make it work. under floor work has been repaired now.

Anyway, the car will be going back factory white and I like the old school feel, so I had the 'racing' stripes reproduced to be fitted at a later stage. 

 

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Couple of random pics,

Front steering reco'd.

Front guards and valance dipped ready for repair.

Some repro badges, (beats trying to restore old parts).

Restored the grille, even scored a NOS AA badge for it!

Purchased a reproduction tail light valance, the guy in Aus who makes them has done a fantastic job on them, almost better than original.

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Gearbox!

Located a factory Rx2 4 speed, and have completely stripped and replaced all bearings, synchro's, seals etc.

Bead blasted the casings, clear coated them and re-plated the rest.

 

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In keeping with the 'factory improved' theme I'm running with, I located an old 12a twin dizzy rotary engine to rebuild. It was near complete which was a big bonus. I also pieced together a dummy block to mount into the car after sourcing the correct engine crossmember, so I could start sorting all the ancillaries etc.

Stripped the motor down, cleaned up and bead blasted the alloy parts ready for modification. 

The last pic shows what factory improved means, more on that later, but you can see already what Ive had to deal with, its not a survivor "OG" car, i do like to see original looking cars, but rotaries to me have to sound a certain way, therefore it had to brap! so the call was made -  12a Twin dizzy bridgeport!  

 

 

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Next was to decide how to get the best out of the motor, and really if I want the bridgeport to rev I needed a 48mm Weber IDA carb

Found a rare twin dizzy IDA manifold, and a carb, then refurbished them, stripped the IDA completely, and while I was there did the internal extended fuel bowl modification, and jetted as close as possible for a 12a, will need to be adjusted once on road.

Also rebuilt the alternator, adding a twin belt pulley, which is more reliable than the singles at high revs, and found a brand new starter motor, but stripped anyway to detail the same as everything else.

With the twin distributors, there is nothing available to upgrade these, and some guys convert the twins to single dizzy so they can utilise the rx7 electronic distributor, but I still wanted it looking semi original. so that wasn't going to work for me.. Luckily I was able to score a custom electronic set off an old race car that uses an optical sensor, this will greatly improve high RPM performance without having to worry about points breaking down now.