Shakenbake

Bad news (see the pics), the good news is that Mister Mazda is a trained panel beater so no big deal

After looking at the current solution, the expert said “you’ll be here all year”. So soda blasting was chosen, mostly because it leaves the pannels nice and smooth (unlike sand blasting) and because they were next door
7 days and a few $$$ later and the car was returned and boy what a nice surprise! (turns out that car had 5 layers of paint on it!)

Also note the widened guards for the rear wheels, Tom taught me how do this…. “A giant hammer is all you need”

“Ok It’s simple, grab the air tools orbital sander and go for it. Grab the 320 grit paper and just take the first coat off” Says Tom from Mister Mazda

5hours+ later we work out that this car has most ceratinly been sprayed before (over the top of original paint), plus it’s totally covered in crows feat!!! Like Totally! 

Now this took some serious time!! After many weeks of research and trailing of wheel ideas. Do I redrill the rear axles and then deal with the issues of “not much meat” on the hubs to bolt on a series 2 Rx7 wheels? (Note: series 2 wheels = 110×4 size and series 3 are 114.3)

Thankfully after a post on the IPRA forums, I found a set of series 3 wheels which I was able to restore

When I bought them (after sitting in rain for 10 years)

Now the Diff took ages!!! It got sent to sand blaster for cleaning, but he pumped about 10seconds worth of sand into the broken oil breather hole. So I totally gutted it, cleaned it and cleaned it (with a pressure washer). Installed new oil seals and then re-sprayed completely with 2PAC black paint.

These pictures just don’t do the process of tar and glue stripping justice!!
1) Grab yourself an air chisel, serious set of ear muffs and gloves if you care about your hands (naturally I’m beyond that point!).
2) Go to work, chiselling all the hard tar based noise dampner off every part of the interior in the car. It’s a hard surface thats been there for 27years and doesn’t feel like moving!

3) Grab 20+ t-shirts (don’t tell your dad where you found them), douse them in mineral turps and cover all the black glue residue with the shirts, then leave overnight with a closed up garage (ensure no wildlife can get in, because the fumes will probably kill them).

4) Just add about 5 days work and your done

Pic of when I first purchased the “Renovators Delight Edition” of my Mazda Rx7 (Approx Sep 2009)