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Duffman's 79 Spark Yellow Restoration Project
Had a thread over on the Evil Forum but I wanna bring it here for those who don't frequent that froum to enjoy as well. Plus I figure it'll be easir to find the 79 specific parts i need if there are more eyes watching/reading, enjoy. :)
For around 5 years now I've been looking for a 1979 Spark Yellow to restore and over these years I've come across only a handful. They were either too far gone, overpriced, or beat within an inch of their lives. The first one I found I happened to spot in a field as I was driving by, I didn't know it was a Spark Yellow at the time cause the elements had definitely taken their toll on the poor thing. Well it turns out that particular one was a 3/78 car, there's a thread floating around here somewhere with the pics of that one. The second was an original owner/daily driven car, the owner was a nice enough fella but the car had seen better days and he wouldn't budge on the price so I had to pass. The third was almost the same story but it had be molested over the years and I felt that it was a lil more than I could handle. Fast forward to Tuesday of last week. A buddy of mine posted up a link to one of those scam FDs, you know the ones with the $2,500 price tag and already in a container ready to ship to you in Albuquerque, NM. Yea, those are great deals. Anyway, he had been looking for an FB so I though I'd have a look at his choices. About halfway down the page one post caught my eye, it said '1979 MAZDA RX7 - $250' so I clicked to see what it was...and when it opened I involuntarily let out an 'Oh SH*T!'. :lol: The posting was from early September and I prayed that the car was still available so I sent the poster an email. There was a phone number too but no area code and I didn't realize till a couple hours later that 1) I have the internet, 2) the internet has numerous internet phone books, and 3) that those have area codes. Dialed up the number...1 ring...4 rings...7 rings...robot voice... Crap.. I got an answering machine and to tell the truth, I was a lil discouraged but I left my name and number hoping for the best. A few hours later I had a call from a 505 area code, YES!! The owner and I spoke for awhile, I asked him a few questions about the car, condition, if the price was right, etc and 20 minuets later it was mine. I told him I'd be coming from Dallas and that I'd be on his doorstep come Saturday afternoon, he just laughed and said 'alright'. Here's what I was greeted with: http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...0Project/2.jpg http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...0Project/1.jpg Loaded up and ready to go: (pardon the blur, I think my camera is on its way out)http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...t/DSCN3501.jpg http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...t/DSCN3502.jpg PIT STOP! http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...t/DSCN3504.jpg http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...t/DSCN3506.jpg Some 1400 miles later and she was home: http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...t/DSCN3507.jpg http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...t/DSCN3509.jpg http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...t/DSCN3508.jpg |
10-18-10
It's an 11/78 car and VIN reads 27085 so while it's not a super early production car that rotarydude and a few other have that I've been looking for, I'm more than happy to have it.
http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...Project/12.jpg http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...t/DSCN3532.jpg The interior definitely shows its age and that it had sat in the desert for years: http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...t/DSCN3519.jpg http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...t/DSCN3523.jpg http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...t/DSCN3512.jpg http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...t/DSCN3516.jpg http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...t/DSCN3521.jpg http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...0Project/9.jpg |
10-18-10
A couple engine bay pics:
http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...0Project/6.jpg http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...t/DSCN3534.jpg http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...t/DSCN3540.jpg http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...t/DSCN3543.jpg http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...t/DSCN3536.jpg http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...t/DSCN3537.jpg Now the owner told me that it didn't have it's original engine but one that had come out of an 80 model he had had some years back. It only had compression on the the front rotor, and that was just one lil puff, so it's gettin' the ATF treatment to see if it can be used. |
10-18-10
I hope these are original but I doubt it, carfax won't accept the vin.
http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...t/DSCN3515.jpg Even found the owners manual in the glove box. http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...t/DSCN3522.jpg |
10-24-10
Update time:
I got quite a bit done this weekend despite 47 inches of rain and 3 tornadoes Saturday, and the 20 inches of rain, dime size hail, and 1 tornado today. I got all my carpets removed: http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...t/100_0966.jpg http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...t/100_0999.jpg http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...t/100_0998.jpg And good God did those things stink like rotten coffee and 33 years of dirt. Took me 6 bucks to finally get nothing but clear water dripping from them. The middle section cleaned up pretty good but needs more scrubbing. The rear did alright but it's white in spots from the sun, may end up replacing it. Got all the front and rear plastics out, got the fender well covers sanded, waxed, and polished as per Glazed's method: Before: http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...t/100_0940.jpg http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...t/100_0942.jpg After: http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...t/100_0961.jpg http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...t/100_0962.jpg Found a couple of things after getting the carpets out, one strip of surface rust along the driver side floor pan, and the source of most of the stench. Whatever had been spilled there had rotted away the sound deadening and it was a nasty tar-like goop. It was bad enough that my shop vac was able to suck up a piece of it so out came the putty knife. About that time my helper came along and apparenty objected to the way I was goin' about cleaning it up, :lol:. http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...t/100_0976.jpg The rust: http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...t/100_0969.jpg The goop: http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...t/100_0973.jpg Scrapped out and cleaned up: http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...t/100_0980.jpg Somebody tried to jack the car up righ next to that body plugs and bent it, a hammer will fix that. What would y'all suggest for sealing it back in place? |
10-24-10
Stared in on the dash too, what a clusterphuck of wires that was. Somebody put 3 toggle swicthes in the coin holders and every one of them was hooked to the radio in some way. The wiring was just a mess and almost every 'connection' (one wire losely twisted around another) was wraped in duct tape. :facepalm:
I have no idea what they were trying to do here: http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...t/100_0981.jpg http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...t/100_0983.jpg My butchered surround: http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...t/100_0985.jpg They even cut up the steel in the dash to get that piece of crap in there. :wallbash: Got all of the lower section of the dash off: http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...t/100_0992.jpg http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...t/100_0989.jpg And thats about it, I've got the rest of the hatch trim, windshield trim, and scuff guards here with me so I've got something to do this week. Prolly throw some pics up when they're done if I don't get blown away between now and then.[/ |
10-31-10
Weekend Update. ( No Tina Fey unfortuately)
Well the car has no interior left in it now, everything either getting re-upholstered or repaired. The inside of the car has been halfway cleaned up with simple green and where its been done is a night and day difference, car doesn't smell so much like stale coffee and dirt anymore. The carpets have been pressure washed and dried, looking pretty good so they'll be re used except for the hatch carpet. Looks mangy and is faded pretty badly. Started work on the rest of th dash harness and it actually wasn't as badly mangled as it appeared. The aftermarket cruise control unit was installed about as professionally as the stereo, duct taped wires and all. :lol: Before: http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...t/100_1008.jpg http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...t/100_1009.jpg After: http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...t/100_1010.jpg Center section of carpet after a good cleaning and vacuum: http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...t/100_1011.jpg http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...t/100_1012.jpg Got the rest of the plastics outta the car too, they're all getting wet sanded and polished. Only got a couple pieces done so far. http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...t/100_1003.jpg http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...t/100_1007.jpg Got the door panels off, didn't do anything with them yet. Gonna have a local upholstery shop look at 'em and tell me what they can do. http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...t/100_1016.jpg And that's it, running outta things to do with the interior. I forgot about that dash Stu posted up till a couple hours ago and missed out on it. :wallbash: Hopefully another will pop up eventually. Next weekend I think I'll start in the engine bay, gotta get a FSM first though. Just about every plastic connector is ruined too, most of them fall apart as soon as they're touched. If someone could post up that link to the site that sells the factory style connectors I'd appreciate it, I can't think of the name for the life of me. |
11-06-10
Not much accomplished this weekend, only had a couple hours Sunday to fool with it. That being said, the interior has been completely stripped aside from the dash and headliner. There was so much dust under those lil panels that cover where the storage bins would be, I think it's still stuck in my teeth. :lol: Got all that vacuumed up then scrubbed the whole thing down and rinsed with simple green, now it's ready to go back together. Next step for the interior is upholstry, maybe next weekend I'll get a start on that. Need to get it up on the lift and see what's going on down there too, I dunno, I really need to make a list of things to do at this point.
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So I figure its time for an update for those of you who still remember this, lol.
The reason I haven't been updating is simple, I haven't touched the car. My FB decided it didn't wanna keep the coolant in the coolant passages and started filling the front housing. Here are a few pics and a vid to show ya what I've been up to. :) You'll have to excuse the poor quality, kept forgetting my camera so the phone was all I had. What killed the old motor: http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w.../Photo0006.jpg What replaced it: http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w.../Photo0010.jpg Assembled: http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w.../Photo0115.jpg And in the car: http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w.../Photo0120.jpg Short vid of the first 5 min of its life: http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w..._Video0011.jpg |
Sweet, wheres my sunroof :)
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Since you're my best friend and all, I've taken it upon myself to search high and low for 79 specific parts for your car to help you out and this is what I've found.
http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s...ocktail200.jpg http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s...96/grenade.jpg and http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s...800px-Eod2.jpg I'll find more for you as soon as I can. :001_005: |
am i the only one that finds hilarity in a photo of manicured hands setting plastic explosives?
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on a serious note, i'd love to have a '79 someday. all i can say it you have your work cut out for you, but in the end, i'm sure it will all be worth it.
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My only question is.... when is sparky making her way to CT for TTT? That being of course The Treffeisenizing Treatment :rofl: |
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Well, it was either that or bright ass red. :rofl: As soon as she's road worthy actually, I'll talk to you more in detail about it at DGRR.Don't expect it any time soon though, in all actuality it's prolly gonna be next year before you see her. |
Titanium Silver is a much better choice :rofl:
In that case, you might be driving her to Cali :suspect: |
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I love this restoration. I also love the pic of your dog, classic. I'd love to have a 79 as well. Almost had one for $150 a couple years ago, but it wasn't Spark Yellow and they never got back to me. Dammit. |
Nice
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We haven't heard anything on this for while. Wondering how you're coming with it, hope you didn't give up. I do have some engine/bay parts and some dash electronics left over from when I swapped to a 13B. Mine's a 12/78 build so they should work if you need'em.
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Talk about coincidence...
I was perusing through eBay and came across a bunch of yellow SA22 stuff. I thought it was aftermarket painted. Boy, was I surprised yellow was a stock color! These guys are not cheap, but when do you ever get to see items like this for sale? They are located in Japan, but the prices are shipping *included*. If you're serious, I'd confirm if this still works for your neck of the woods... http://www.ebay.com/itm/MAZDA-RX-7-M...item3372d6bccb http://www.ebay.com/itm/MAZDA-RX-7-M...item3373180079 http://www.ebay.com/itm/MAZDA-RX-7-M...item4cff4eb357 http://www.ebay.com/itm/MAZDA-RX-7-M...item4ab5183fc5 -Ted |
Havent given up though progress has been slow to non existent. I have been collecting parts and have the car stripped down to the keg. Ive got all the hard lines, connectors, clamps, and what not ready to be re-zinced. All but the dash has been taken out and ready to go to the upholsters to be refinished. Still a few things left in the egine bay that have to come out for paint. The A pillar plastics are sun faded almost beyond repair but I'm gonna attemp to have some paint made up to match and spray em unless some good plastics come up for sale.
What parts have you got GySgtFrank? I need a complete emissions harness, a complete radio harness, and could use a complete engine bay harness but I'll end up rebuilding mine. It's all there, just crispy and fragile. Ted, I've seen those and though about it but they wouldn't be correct for my car. The fender mirrors would be nice to have though. Those have been up for months, I check eBay and craigslist regularly for parts. There was a guy in Aus that had some nice NOS stuff but it was expensive. Appreciate ya posting the links though. |
I've got some of the harnesses left. I had to cut a lot of it up to mate my 79 parts to the 87 harness. I kept only a few of the 87 electronics (fuse box, ECU, CPU, necessary switches/relays, gauge cluster, idiot lights, glove box light, and cruise switch) everything else I kept from the 79. Most of the stuff from the engine harness is still there, but I had to swipe some wires from it to match up with my patches and extensions. The 12A is complete except for one rotor housing which I donated to someone in need. The Nikki and rats nest parts all look good. You're welcome to any of it if you need it. I reused my radio harness and heater harness, sorry.
P.S. I also have the fuel tank and pump (I can't vouch for internal condition but the outside looks good). Had to swap it for the EFI pump and sump. |
Mind sending me a pic of the emissions stuff, is that one of the harneses you cut up?
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Sorry for the delay, didn't have the thread set to notify me of new posts. I'll dig up a camera and lay out what I have tomorrow. Unfortunately I didn't think anyone was going to need the harness so I wasn't too careful about keeping it intact.
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Remains of 79 wiring harness
4 Attachment(s)
This is what I have left of the harness.
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reply to PM: Thermal Reactor
1 Attachment(s)
This is what I have. Had to cut it off as it was rusted on tight. There's about 2 foot of pipe left after the reactor flange.
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AJ you are slacking!
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:toetap: .....and 9 months later? STILL no work done. Slacking is putting it mildly.
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5-18-2013
Duffman uses resurrection! It's SUPER EFFECTIVE!
So 3 jobs later and I finally make enough to spend some time, and money, on the ol' girl. Today I worked on getting the dash and HVAC out of the car. The dash will probably be going to California to be stripped and recovered, I'm waiting on quote from Just Dashes. If anyone has used them post up your experience. The dash: [IMG]http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...ps17af55ef.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...ps400daef2.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...ps2a8787c2.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...ps80bd483e.jpg[/IMG] They say they can redo armrest too so I'm sending them pictures of them as well: http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...psc239f928.jpg I got the blower motor out, all the HVAC ducting out, and was working on getting the heater core out when I found out a bunch of red wasp had taken up residence in two places on the hood and another inside of the bumper. After a short war, two nest were down, 4 wasp dead, but the one in the bumper remains. I'll deal with that next week. Cleaned up all the ducting and literally poured sand out of the elbows, I'm sure the blower motor and heater core are probably full of it too. The mounting tabs were brittle and broke off all of the dash vents and the defrost vents as soon at the screw turned, maybe I can glue them back together. [IMG]http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...ps5a6432e5.jpg[/IMG] Not much progress I know but it feels good to be working on her again. I'm gonna try to post an update every Saturday |
Had a couple of my tabs break off as well. No. they won't glue back on. They'll stick until you go to bolt them back up, then, snap! Better to make a new tab out of thin sheet metal, with small screws to hold them on. It's not like you're going to be seeing them regularly anyway.
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progressimo!!! bookmarked. can't wait to see the next slew of updates :D :D
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Shaddup Gunny! :rofl: You'll be happy to know that I bought a nice shinney doo dad AND still made progress on the car. I'll post a pic when Chris delivers it to me. :D
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She'll get there Pistol, eventually. :rofl:
This weekend I got all of ge HVAC system out and now I wanna seenif here's a way to check it to see if at works. Had some rust come out ofthe heaer core but eventually flushed it to clear water, the condenser(?) for the AC looks fine and I guess all I can really do is run some of that liquid AC flush through it and see what comes out. The entire system was depressurised when I got the car so I has no idea if it actually works. On the other hand I figure my car was originally sold down te road in Ft Worth. On the bottom of the ac comdensor(?) i found a sticker with the name of a company from ft worth and since the AC was dealer installed upon arivial I can only assume it was originally sold here. Pretty neat if it was. That's all i got accomplishe over the weekend, weather was so nice I couldn't pass up taking the M38 out for some trail riding. Sorry, no pics today. I left my camera at the apartment but I'll make up for it next week |
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yellow rain ;) My AC system was marked as being from down there as well. I think that company had the contract to provide all the parts to retro fit the RX7s as they hit the states. Which is good for us, parts might actually be findable. |
Update time, small but it's something at least. :lol:
I take photos for a couple of new car dealers and they have a company that reconditions used cars. They fix dents, scratches, remove stains, fix interiors, etc and I asked their interior guy if he would be able to match the paint on my interior pieces. He told me to bring them by and he would see what he could do. Here are the results: http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...ps1f8cef1a.jpg http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...ps9f278692.jpg http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...ps94324cdb.jpg http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...psf2d6c358.jpg http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...ps24cf4d4a.jpg http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...faa04726-1.jpg http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...ps1bd48793.jpg http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...9321ec0b-1.jpg http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...psb239bed4.jpghttp://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...ps24cf4d4a.jpg The color is an exact match. He used the factory over spray on the underside of the console to match it and said it's actually an older Lexus interior color by SEM. Dont really know how I'm gonna reattach the console lid. It's broken off cleen at the pad. Since he was able to make an exact match I thought about trying to find one that wasn't broken regardless of color and having him paint it. |
Nice maybe there is hope of me keeping the center console in the 2
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That is nice work on the color match!
Since it's all plastic, I wonder if this guy can restore the color of my stock '89T2 plastic wheel center caps? They have a few spots where the AL/gunmetal color on the caps is fading out. Been trying to find an acceptable rattle can color that matches for a DIY restoration job, but no luck there. I considered going to a body shop to have them restore them, but that's a pricey labor bill. Maybe shipping my caps off to Duffman's interior guy is another viable option, can you send me his contact info? |
Here ya go Pete:
http://autoworksrefinish.com/ Sorry but I don't have work phone numbers for the guys I work with, just personal cell numbers. They're a franchise company, I didn't look on the site much but the guys who did mine are out of Lewisville, TX. They have a dedicated wheel guy but he doesn't come on a regular schedule, only when they've got a a need for him. I've seen him take severly curb rashed G37 wheels, those gunmetal colored factoy wheels, and bring the back to fresh off the show room. If you wanted to send me one I will keep it in the car for when he does show up or I could give it to the owner of this particular franchise and see what he can do for you. The work these guys do is top notch, once they're done with a car you can't tell it had ever been reconditioned. |
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