Avenge 1300

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Hey guys long time reader here. I have owned this 1300 twice since 2019. It’s my 4th 1300/1000. My interest in 1300s started around 2001 when I saw the sik13b narrow body at meremere. There is something about the 1300 that does it for me from the proportions to the squared off wheel arches. Cars like Loexit also inspired me. 

i purchased this narrow body in 2019 off photos (yep i know should have known better). Anyway the car turned up in a container and was confronted with a car that had not been blocked and had a skim of bog and a flick of thick enamel paint and some rx7 wheels. When I got into the car I found quite a lot of visible rust. So I started making a plan and getting quotes. What had shocked me when the quotes came rolling in was how much panel paint and labour costs had moved since my last panel paint back in 2011 on my narrow body 1000. I asked for advice on this forum and the general consensus was to sell it. So I did……

The first panel and paint done in 2011 is the white car this was a very unique spc 1000 chassis 1 owner imported from Japan

 

 

 

 

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During Covid I had sourced a replacement parcel tray, door skins, new door shells, guards and a few other bits and bobs. The purple car had a horrible rubber kit. So I sourced brand new windscreen rubbers from the uk and matched English made mk1 escort door rubbers. 
 

I also had the car blasted underneath which fortunately revealed a very tidy underside besides the front chassis rails which where cooked.

As above it was around this time I pulled the pin and advertised the car. Here is a photo of me clearly a bit gutted to be selling.

 

 

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I ended up selling the car locally to a panel beater. He kept me in the loop as the car progressed and unfortunately the rust is always worse than you can see. These cars have a flat panel along the top of the firewall and it was completely gone under the blower for the heater. A 1200 Ute was sacrificed to help the cause. It was around this time that the new owner and I did a deal to buy the car back painted and complied. So on my birthday in 2021 I got the 1300 back painted in Grenada red and fully complied. It was a happy day for me and nearly 10 years since I had owned the white car. During the rebuild I sourced a set of rx4 rims. I think they look great on the 1300 as they give it a slightly more aggressive look. 

 

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The interior before: this was the next element of the project I wanted to sort. I needed to find a radio blanking plate with the Mazda emblem and some fan controls. These parts were sourced from a wreck in country Victoria. Plan was to source an 808 coupe steering wheel as I love the centre emblem and retrim the interior including new headlining and source a 1300 coupe speedo which has the factory rev counter. During this period I had managed to find a pair of nos taillights and centre finishing panel so I fitted them. 

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I did end up finding the 808 steering wheel but sold it when I found a more period correct wheel out of a Japanese Luce. In terms of the retrim I asked the trim shop to match it to an L10b cosmo. The finished results were awesome. Around this time I sourced a coupe speedo and had this rebuilt at parrot instruments who did an amazing job. The tacho needed a new drive unit. When you turn the car on now it does a cool sweep. 

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The rotary conversion. I had owned the car now from 2021 and had got plenty of enjoyment driving the standard motor around Canterbury with my young son. It was around 2024 I got the rotary itch so started to make a plan. Tim Wood put me onto a motor that was destined for his blue coupe - it was a 10a rebuilt to factory specs by Grant Munro so I knew it would be well built.
 

With everyone going for triple and quad rotors I thought I would go the other way like the flat head guys of the past who at one time were pretty unfashionable. It also meant with an r100 crossmember which is a straight bolt in to this chassis meant I could get the 10a to fit pretty easily ( more on that later).

The first stage of the rotary conversion was to sort the suspension. Xd falcon shocks bolt straight into these in the rear so I ordered a set of koni adjustables for the rear and put new springs and inserts in the front and ordered a kmac camber kit, along with a mini me willwood front brake kit from pac performance that is designed to fit inside factory 13” steel wheels. I also sourced a pwr r100 radiator and oil cooler and spal fan. The other main thing I got at this time was a new brake master. The owner of the mayhem 1200 gave me some great advice here and I went with the jb1133 its a duel circuit option but has the benefit of looking a bit nicer than the 1” duel people favour and gives you a nicer pedal feel.

 

 

 

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More pics of the neat little 10a 

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Ok so the 10a was purchased and sitting in Auckland. Initially I had made a plan to send the car up to where the engine was located and get the conversion done in Auckland. I soon realised that living in another island was going to make that tricky it was also at this time I decided to get the car stripped again and repainted. I was happy to have the car complied but I still had a shed full of brand new panels and there was some elements of the car that weren’t perfect so it was at this time that I gave Burkes the green light to panel and paint the car a second time and fit all my new panels. Shout out to Dabuzz who recommended Burkes to me - I couldn’t be happier with their service and want to give them a huge shout out for their quality of work and service and their final bill came in within 2% of their original estimate! 
 

Separate to this I had an old fast fours magazine “ the foreign exchange issue” that I originally had in high school from 1996 of a nice lightly modded white r100 with a 10a and a ramflo air cleaner and red racing beat ultra leads. My original magazine was long gone but me ole mate oldmaz had a copy so I was able to get a copy again and dream about 10a power. I really wanted that look of the 10a ramflo as I think they look so cool compared to the 12a ramflow. I rang ramflo (now Lynx) in Australia and gave them the 10a part no- after the fella stopped laughing he said that part was out of production for 30 years but he did direct me to a nos 10a size ramflo with a blank backing plate- I would just need to get this fabbed to the 10a hitachi - I had a rusty 10a air cleaner so the bottom was sacrificed for the project. 

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The remaining original door was the left rear that had a new lower door skin fabricated. Also I had managed to source a nos window chrome surround this was incredibly hard to find but I had chosen a slotted rubber in the hope I would one day find the chrome. Great success! 
 

 

 

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For the engine conversion a friend suggested I speak to Vinny Fab so I met with Lars who was very enthused about the 1300 and it’s 10a and he arranged for the 10a and gearbox to be freighted to his workshop so fitting could commence. This all occurred after the main panel work was completed by Burkes but before repaint. With the r100 crossmember the motor sat too hard up on the gearbox tunnel and the pinion angle wasn’t that great either so I gave Vinny Fab the ok to chop the tunnel but said please keep the original Mazda profiles (ie no box or drag coffin please). They did such a good job the original carpet set fitted back in without modification. The bulge you see is to accommodate the bottom mount starter that the Nz rx3s came configured for. VF also extended the engine mount wings on the r1 crossmember as the motor was front mounted per rx3 the 10a motor has provision for mid mounting per r100 but the engine mounts are incredibly difficult to source so front mounted it was. The R100 radiator also required the the radiator support panel to be slightly modded 

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Tunnel finished