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323 GTX Project From The UK

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    323 GTX Project From The UK

    Hi all. Been lurking on this forum for over a year now, thought it was about time that i showed you my car

    I bought it in December 2008 and have been posting my progress on the 323gtx.co.uk site ever since.

    Will reproduce all my posts here too so you can see how i am getting on!

    #2
    December 2008:

    i have been on the lookout for a 323 turbo. Finally got my hands on one last week, Christmas day to be precise!

    It was on ebay, a 1989 F -reg 323 turbo in black with the TWR kit.

    Here are a few pics:









    As you can see its in pretty decent condition.

    As far as i know, the car was owned by a middle aged guy from Solihull (relatively posh place near Birmingham) from new until about 3 years ago, It is totally standard, even has the original mats, cassette player, space saver wheel and toolkit!







    Apologies but the pic of the toolkit does suck!

    Anyway the car was bought by a guy who worked in a car auction place about 3 years ago. He wanted a nice project car to fix up along with his friend, but they never got round to it.

    And thats where i came in! Took it off his hands for £550, which aint too bad it think. It has 6 months MOT, a brand new exhaust and is generally pretty solid.

    Does have a few bad points, the driver side window was smashed where someone tried to break in. The guy replaced the whole door, but it has no mechanism in it at all, and they put in a glass window panel from a 94 323, which obviously doesn't fit!



    Then the side light was smashed by some kids.



    But worst of all, the sunroof was leaking and the first owner had a metal panel welded over it and bodyfillered. Whoever did it was a clown beacuse its now cracked and looks awful. There is also a big dent on the roof too:



    Well i am not one to sit on things, so we cleaned the car up on the first day (the pics are after the clean, it was filthy) and then we drove it into our garage and started the project!

    We (me and my brother) are gonna strip it down as much as we can and repair any rust and replace any broken bits and try and upgrade the brakes, engine, suspension etc but still make the car look as original as possible.

    On the first day we stripped the interior



    Then on the second we stripped the lights, wings, bumpers, sideskirts etc. And i cut out the sunroof and grinded away the welds and broke off as much of the bodyfiller as i could, came out pretty well:



    And on the final day we removed the rear suspension. No pics of that yet.

    The car is better than i expected. Both front wings need replacing, they have rusted where the side skirt joins at the front. There are a few rust roles on the floor, but very very minor. There is also a patch on the windscreen post.

    Got big plans for the car. But first i need to find the parts, so any help from fellow members would be appreciated!
    Last edited by IH786; 04-06-2010, 04:30 AM.

    Comment


      #3
      January 2009:

      Bit of an update and a few more pics.

      Removed the exhaust and propshaft from the underneath. And removed the bonnet from the front, boot spolier and trim from the rear.

      Here are a few pics of the rust that needs repairing:





      Crusty wings, looked solid when i bought it with the kit covering them:



      Metal sheet welded over sunroof, i'll say it again, what where they thinking?!



      Pretty much done what i have to do now. Not much more to remove. Need to cut out all the bad rust and start treating the surface rust, then clean it all up and give it a coat of paint. The majority of the car is really good, the rear suspension came out very easily. No snapped bolts at all.

      Now who has a spare sunroof, pair of wings, light oh and drivers door........

      Comment


        #4
        January 2009:

        No pics today, got too dark so didn't bother!

        Progress is now going top be much slower, as i am back at work after the xmas break, and i need to spend more time finding the parts.

        Still today i removed the front ARB and the front suspension, as well as flushing out the radiator and outting in some new antifreeze (def need it this time of the year!)

        Hopefully have managed to source a new door and wings. Also found out that i can get the original stickers from Mazda, although there is a long way to go before i would actually need them!

        Comment


          #5
          March 2009:

          Been a while since i last posted my progress so time for a small update.

          Pulled apart the front suspension last week, and did the rear suspension yesterday. Gonna give everything a clean up and paint, as well as replacing and damaged or tired looking parts. Need to get the front hubs pressed out so i can fit my Galant Discs (only £25 off ebay!) and MX3 calipers (£35 off ebay, in great condition and with good pads), might change the bearings too.

          A picture of the rear suspension. The 4 lateral arms are in good condition, bushes look nice and solid, just a bit of surface rust on them. The trailing arms look in a bit of a state, might replace them with Mazdaspeed ones from Corksport (only $66 for the pair!).



          Also installed the inner workings of the drivers door i got into my own door (the one i got was totally rotten from the bottom). So now i have working electric windows! Wohoo!



          Best of all, i got a complete sunroof working sunroof assembly in great condition and a side light for only £50! So now all i need is a pair of wings, which i will get off beevers as trying to find a good original set is near enough impossible!

          Everything is moving along nicley, but long way to go yet!

          Comment


            #6
            June 2009:

            Time for another update. Been very busy both buying parts and working on the car. Here is a selection of the parts i have accumulated:



            Goodridge braided hoses
            Galant disks
            Superflex bushes for front and rear ARB including droplinks
            Group N ECU
            RX7 FD3S fuel pump
            Rear disks
            New balljoints and track rod ends
            8 Nachi bearings and oil seals - Got them off Australian ebay for £111 inc postage. Would be nearly double that off Mazda
            MX3 Calipers
            Reconditioned rear calipers - Done them myself so i hope they work!
            Original stickers from Mazda. Didnt need them now but had to get them!
            Caliper rebuild kit for MX3 calipers
            Various bits from Mazda inc nuts, bolts and front drop link bars

            Also got a few other things like wishbones bushes, new front wings from Beevers, complete sunroof assembly (£50 bargain!), CV boot and so on.

            Over the past couple of months we have concentrated on the body, cutting out all the rust and welding in new sheet metal. What starts off as a small hole ends up being massive once you get round to fixing it! The metal was very thin so hard to weld to.

            Took ages but once it was all done i coated all the welds in seam sealer. For the smaller holes that did not require welding i used P40 glassfibre filler. Also had to fix the bottom of the doors as they were starting to seperate from the skin.

            No pics of any of this sadly, was too busy actually fixing the car! For the last two weeks i have been cleaning the body, preparing it for paint and then finally painting it.

            I used Dinitrol 3629 Cavity Waz for the box sections like the sill and inside of the door, also used it inside the car around the arches and corners of the rear floor:



            Then i used Dinitrol 4941 to spray the arches, sills, floor and bottom of the doors. Dinitrol is probably the best underbody protection you can get for your car. Used by the MOD to protect its Military vehicles so should be good enough for my car!

            Few pics of the finished article:







            Looks good, but the paint is still a bit tacky in places, dry in others. Not sure why as it has been a week since they have been painted.

            Also painted the rear suspension subframe, transfer pump assembly, fuel pipe and all 4 suspension knuckes in Dinitrol. And just finished painting the wishbones and anti roll bar brackets in Hammerite smooth black paint.

            Most of the painting is nearly done now, stil need to do the trailing arms, lateral links and rear diff mounts. Then start the fun job of putting everything back together!

            Everything is taking me a lot longer to do than i thought it would, which is annoying but i will get there one day

            Comment


              #7
              August 2009:

              Thanks for the comments guys, have got my wings now Kmpug, where were you 3 months ago

              Anyways, over this weekend i tackled the dreading bearings! Have read loads of info on this and wasn't looking forward to doing them, mainly because i was told to do them properly you need a press and i am too tight to pay for someone to press them!

              I had already cleaned and painted the knuckles and had new bearings, rear discs, and new longer studs for the Galant brake upgrade ready and waiting.

              You can install the bearings without a press but you need to be careful! Here is how i did them.

              Firstly i cleaned the area where all the bearings need to go. Starting with the inner side first, i packed it with grease, and then positioned a bearing race in the knuckle, and carefully hammered it in, using an old bearing race to make sure it was seated correctly:



              Then you can place the actual bearing into the race and fit the seal by using the same old race carefully positoned on the top, but use a rubber mallet to make sure you don't damage the seal.

              Flip the whole assembly over and then load the other side with grease, and slot in the spacer. The spacer must be the same as was originally in the knuckle assembly as they are specific to each knuckle, so dont mix them up!



              Then as before put in a new bearing race, but this time take an old race and cut a notch inside it as otherwise it will get stuck in the knuckle.



              Again position the bearing inside the race, and hammer the seal in place, using the same notched old race. At all time use plenty of grease!



              Ok, now the bearings have all been installed inside the knucle, you are nearly there!

              I thought the next part would be quite, simple, putting the hub into the knuckle. Originally i hammered the whole hub into the knuckle using a big socket and an even bigger hammer:



              However doing this caused a problem, the inner bearing gets pushed out by the force of knocking the hub all the way thru the knuckle. This is why you need a press!

              The solution to this is a big vice, which i am lucky enough to have access to.

              Use the big socket on the inner part of the knuckle, make sure it is big enough to cover the area of the bearing, not the race. Then do as you can see in the picture:



              You need to put quite a lot of force on the vice to get it all to 'press' in. Had to use a long bar around the vice handle to get extra leverage.

              Had to do this 4 times in total, along with grinding down the front hubs and removing the old studs to install the new longer studs you need for the Galant upgrade.

              After all that i ended up with this:



              Was a lot of work, and i am glad i don't need to do it anytime soon (i hope!) But now i am ready to put the brakes and suspension together and so in a few weeks time i should have a rolling car again! Wohoo!

              Comment


                #8
                Time for the first post of 2010!

                Before this weekend i hadn't touched the car for months. Lots of things have gone on since the last post. For a start i have refitted the fuel tank, all the suspension and the brakes too. Here is how it all looks now:



                Galant brake upgrade all finished, along with the braided hoses:



                Refurbished rear calipers with new discs and pads:



                Replacement sunroof temporarily fitted. Need to primer all that rust on the roof as it will be a while before i get the bodywork and respray done properly. Still an improvement on how it was originally!



                Rear suspension shot:



                The shocks and springs are just temporarily fitted until i get the money to afford some new ones!

                Have been busy hoarding parts too. I got a set of 95% rust free doors (can see them in the first pic), also got some front seats as my wife managed to rip one of the original ones....

                After i found out Corksport were discountinuing parts for the BF, i got these goodies off them:



                Mazdaspeed strut mounts for the front and rear, and some trailing arms too. All have 40% stiffer rubber than standard. Impossible to get these from the UK and now they will be harder to get from anywhere else too!

                Finally i made a trip to Wales yesterday to pick up a number of parts off Colin (madmazdaturbo) who is sadly breaking his car. Got a reconditioned alternator and start motor, some nearly new handbrake cables, a Whiteline front strutbrace and a ported inlet manifold:



                Side to side comparisons of the ported inlet and a standard one:





                Another picture of the inlet and my Supra intercooler which i am going to mount behind the front bumper:



                So where do i stand now? Well i have decided to rip the engine out and give it a clean and minor overhaul. Will replace most of the gaskets, to try and stop all those annoying oil leaks!

                But i think i may need to wait a while. Baby on the way in a few weeks time, and also looking to move house too. Think this project may be on the backburner for a while..........

                Comment


                  #9
                  Project is turning out real nice. Sub'n to watch the progress
                  1993 Protege LX-Midnight's shadow SOLD
                  1996 Honda CBR600-Wrecked. Damn Honda crippled me
                  2002 mazda MPV-family truckster SOLD
                  2010 VW routon

                  Originally posted by jay
                  .....they totally underestimated the number of gearheads such as myself that have families but refuse to grow the hell up and stop playing with cars, or that otherwise see the utility of having 4 doors. Obviously I ain't alone, as there are a helluva lotta sti and evo here. Bueler? Beuler? Mazda? Mazda?

                  Comment


                    #10
                    So that is everything Funny how in a few minutes you can summarise nearly 18 months of hard work thru a few pictures and words!

                    Anyways, all comments or tips are appreciated

                    Comment


                      #11
                      I want that body kit so bad. I don't know if I even like it that much but the fact that I rarely see it makes me need it. Very very nice work. One of these days I'll stop Daily driving my car and make it all nice and new looking... That or someone will be nice enough to smash into it for me again.

                      1988 White GTX - #1 parts
                      1988 Black GTX - #2 reliably broken touge monstar (294,000 miles no rebuilds) - dead
                      1988 Blue GTX - #3 in progress (view here)
                      1988 Blue GTX - #4 BPT swapped weekend warrior.
                      1988 White GTX - #5 Rally car

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Good work.
                        Cincinnati, ohio Bengals for life
                        "Who Dey"

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Solid project. It's going to be a gem afterwards!
                          -Jack

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                          Comment


                            #14
                            I'd forgotten about the salt on winter roads and the rust problems in the UK ! Looks like good progress.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Thanks for the comments guys

                              Yep Pommyvince salt is an absolute killer over here in the UK. Rust wise my car was above average, some other GTX's over here are far worse!

                              808: The kit on my car is known as the TWR (Tom Wilkinshaw Racing) bodykit. Not sure about the whole TWR - Mazda link but i do know that only the late model GTX's sold in the UK (1989) had this kit on it.

                              I didnt like the boot spoiler and stupidly gave it away for free to someone. Wanted to fit the upper and lower spoilers like the ones you have in the states. I have got both spoilers but now wish i kept the original

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