1985 Mazda Cosmo

[oldrx7]

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 back into 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: 

1.  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

2.  1981 Mazda Luce - not for sale anymore, but was 13B, automatic - luxury barge spec mazda (similar to below).

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!  

3.  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

 

 

 

 

 

 

[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 

[oldrx7]

Finally got around to doing two little jobs, oil change and flushed out the rusty old water from the radiator.

 

Took it for a quick drive to put some petrol in and added some air to the tyres.  It has a little hesitation at low revs, so will be troubleshooting that issue over the next little while, starting with ignition stuff.

The extra engine bay stuff like AC, power steering, exhaust air pump etc really clutter up the engine bay and make even simple jobs take way longer than I’m used to! 

 

[oldrx7]

Had the compliance check done - small list of things to fix which is awesome, brake related mainly, rotors pads and currently not balanced right. One thing Im a bit nervous on is the seat belts, both front and rear have failed, rears are just 2 point lap belts but the front are 3 point ‘regular’ belts.  They said they’re calling @cletus tomorrow to chat about the belts and book in a cert time for them. 

Can’t have a picture-less update so here’s two interior snaps 

 

[oldrx7]

After browsing a few online pics of cosmo/929/luce with rear 3-point belts, I went digging.

Ended up being an easy / productive job - pulled out rear seat and parcel tray.  

Red interior an example off trademe

[oldrx7]

Picked this up today - all complied, wof’d and reg’d.  Very happy, about 4 months in NZ and on the road. 

[oldrx7]

Because I'm an impatient bastard, I chopped some springs and found some cheap 17's for it.

Will now begin saving for some FC adjustables.

Took it to Meremere yesterday for it's longest drive in NZ so far, did about 8-9 runs as well, it's damn slow but still good fun having a few races.

 

[oldrx7]

I had forgotten how bad cut springs ride, so didn't really drive the car much at all between December to March.  Had a busy time with house stuff over most of the summer months and once the house sold I began hassling the Mrs for some $$$ to buy an adjustable set up.

She caved and I picked up some BC adjustables, (took Clint's advice re quality in comparing similar priced adjustable set ups), they're the FC rx7 model, and they bolt right into the HB which is super cool.  Out of the box they slammed the shitout of the front though, so I've been fine tuning the height I want.  Cosmo's have a really low underbelly, whilst not actually looking that low.  Guard lip rub, inner guard rub, and crossmember clearance of 40mm meant I had to raise it up quite a bit.  (2nd pic is showing underbelly with out of the box height - could drop it quite a bit lower if I wanted to for shits n giggles).  

Have only fitted the front's thus far, and man it makes a hell of a difference to the drive, much nicer even with rusty old shocks and cuts still in the back. 

Did the drive from Auckland to Tauranga the other day with only one scrape in a silly hump in the road.  I'm happy with how it's sitting now, and will chuck the rears in soon.  It's the first car I've owned that's had adjustables and geez I'm sold, such a silly gimmick of being able to play around with ride height so easily, but I love it.  15ish mins each side and I can muck around with height.  

 

[oldrx7]

Not much of an update, but I've picked up some of the beginning bits of the eventual manual swap.  Local guy had them too, was stoked to find the manual gear shift surround in the same fake woodgrain interior colouring as mine.  Clutch and brake pedal box too.  They need a good clean so will do that, then put them on a shelf, until I can afford a gearbox, clutch, and the other little bits n pieces I'll need.

Got the car along to ReUnion in Taupo in September, Impulsive at Hampton Downs in October, and Summerdrags last weekend at Meremere.

 

[oldrx7]

Almost 2 years since the last update - I;m also battling the 3 to 3 1/2 year 'itch' I seem to get that makes me think about selling and trying something new.  I've thought about it lots, and have had a few conversations with people about a swap + cash deals.  Nothing has eventuated on that though.

 

Any who ... I've picked up a gearbox, found it from a local guy which was awesome as it avoided travel or freight expense, and it came with gearbox mount, starter motor, slave cylinder, gear lever, clutch fork etc ... so more 'complete', which also saves a bit of $$ and time finding those smaller parts later down the track.  

That's the most expensive part of the conversion, now I'll look for a driveshaft (or gearbox end yoke to get fitted to my existing driveshaft), flywheel, clutch, master cylinder and lines etc.  Not 100% when that'll occur but hoping I'll begin the actual conversion on the car next year sometime ... maybe, or at least have all the parts needed to begin.  The garage at home isn't really suitable for the car to be on axel stands for potentially an extended timeframe, and neither is the storage place, so I'll likely take it up to Auckland to hopefully borrow some garage space.

In the mean time I've been enjoying the car for the odd rotary event, Taupo in Feb this year, Palmerston North / Feilding in March, & Meremere in April.  And hoping to make it along to a few more of these next year.

Also, the car 'turns 40' in 2025, and the rego is cheaper!!! yay!