'79 SA Reliability Build.

FerociousP · 02-27-2010, 07:22 PM

'79 SA 149k with 45k rebuild.

Good
- Beautiful Silver paint with "custom" pinstripes (not a fan of the Rx-7 Stickers)
- Very decent if not awesome interior
- Rock solid idle when warm

Bad
- One rust bubble on rear fender
- Noisy rear end (probably wheel bearings)
- omp lines were connected wrong, but immediately remedied
- oil cooler bracket is broken and currently held up with string... yes.. string...

Overall it's a 30 year old car that is in relatively excellent shape. Planning on fixing the rear end, giving the suspension/steering a once over, and doing the maintenance on the engine replacing vacuum lines, oil, plugs, etc. I has Autolite plugs in it, and while normally I would say only use NGK... the things idles wonderfully and runs decent, so they can't be too bad.

Photos taken just seconds after getting home in poor light.

djmtsu · 02-27-2010, 07:36 PM

Where the hell is my finders fee?

FerociousP · 02-27-2010, 07:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by djmtsu

Where the hell is my finders fee?

i let your dog live while you had a baby... and i owe you a beer... its man law you know

My5ABaby · 02-27-2010, 08:19 PM

Nice. I'm actually feeling the decal/accents. They match the car well given its age.

FerociousP · 03-02-2010, 08:52 PM

Couldn't wait. I made a Indyparts shift boot fit the SA trim with a 5spd Rx-8 knob. Now its time to replace that radio, equalizer, and get new shifter bushings when I can... I used a crappy camera but the idea is there.

FC3S Murray · 03-02-2010, 09:19 PM

old school.....SWEET! In great shape man!

Whizbang · 03-03-2010, 07:37 AM

i need me an SA

Trout2 · 03-06-2010, 02:39 AM

The decals were from the factory or a factory option. My dad bought a 79 SA in July 1979, it came to the dealer that way - someone ordered it and didn't want it after we waited a couple of months for silver or blue. When the car was repainted in the early 80's, another set of decals was purchased but thankfully not applied. Looked much better in yellow w/o brown strips.

Jack

FerociousP · 03-07-2010, 07:21 PM

Werd thats good to know. He must have either copied the original decals before repainting (or copied someone elses). Were the Rx-7 decals part of that option or did he just get fancy, because I'm about to take them off.

FerociousP · 03-15-2010, 08:47 PM

Bought a spare panel and added a radio with a pocket from mazdatrix. See above pic that shows a old two post radio and weird equalizer... I think this will add a little more functionality...

djmtsu · 03-15-2010, 08:52 PM

That stereo is full of win.

Where'd you get it?

IH8DSM · 03-16-2010, 08:31 PM

pretty fancy there paul, now you need to bring me those wheels to mess with one day

FerociousP · 03-21-2010, 07:52 PM

UPDATE!

This first pic shows the trimming of the dash to fit the radio. Only took about a half inch on each side but I had to cut through two nuts welded to the back of the panel. Lickily, the two bolts for the dash aren't necessary and the whole center console is still strong and doesn't move. I drilled a small hole and used two sheet metal screws to hold the HVAC controls in the correctly location. The punch holed metal strip serves as a springy support for the radio which otherwise would be completely held up by the plastic front panel. Wiring was a breeze due to having the wiring diagram from www.foxed.ca and it works perfectly. next step will be to add rear speakers

FerociousP · 04-11-2010, 06:52 PM

UPDATE:

She passed emissions with 5ppm and it is now fully registered. The warm idle is now 900rpm with a simple throttle cable adjustment (from 1200). Finishing prep work for the Gap.

Work updated:

- New rear wheel bearings and wheel cylinders
- New shifter bushings
- New tranny and diff fluids
- Adjusted dashpot and throttle cable which was affecting idle

To be done:

- Tint
- Front brakes and wheel bearings
- All coolant hoses
- Passenger side headlight motor

FerociousP · 05-24-2010, 01:39 PM

Full tank of gas, nobody in it. 2440lbs.

Deal's Gap '10

02-27-2010, 07:22 PM	#1
FerociousP I-had-a-bad-experience... Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: M'boro iTrader: (2) Posts: 1,046 Rep Power: 18	'79 SA Reliability Build. '79 SA 149k with 45k rebuild. Good - Beautiful Silver paint with "custom" pinstripes (not a fan of the Rx-7 Stickers) - Very decent if not awesome interior - Rock solid idle when warm Bad - One rust bubble on rear fender - Noisy rear end (probably wheel bearings) - omp lines were connected wrong, but immediately remedied - oil cooler bracket is broken and currently held up with string... yes.. string... Overall it's a 30 year old car that is in relatively excellent shape. Planning on fixing the rear end, giving the suspension/steering a once over, and doing the maintenance on the engine replacing vacuum lines, oil, plugs, etc. I has Autolite plugs in it, and while normally I would say only use NGK... the things idles wonderfully and runs decent, so they can't be too bad. Photos taken just seconds after getting home in poor light. __________________ '15 Juke Nismo '06 MX-5 GT SOLD '04 S Silver RX-8 GT Track Day Use SOLD '90 Black TII vert w/ Sprint RE stock port/turbo DD dyno (242.6whp@5500rpm @12psi 8psi@redline) and (250ftlbtq@4800rpm @13psi) SOLD '89 GTUs 6p TII SOLD, '87 sport SOLD, '79 SA stock SOLD '91 B2600i 4x4 w/ Rx-8 LSD SOLD

02-27-2010, 07:36 PM	#2
djmtsu My minds tellin' me no... Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Murfreesboro, TN iTrader: (10) Posts: 4,043 Rep Power: 21	Where the hell is my finders fee? __________________ 1976 Mazda Cosmo RX-5 1976 Mazda Cosmo RX-5 2003 Toyota Tundra TRD 2015 Toyota 4Runner SR5

02-27-2010, 08:19 PM	#4
My5ABaby Sigh..... Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Murfreesboro, TN iTrader: (6) Posts: 2,377 Rep Power: 19	Nice. I'm actually feeling the decal/accents. They match the car well given its age. __________________ 1986 Sport: 132k miles, 5A (Sapphire Blue Metallic), Tokico Blues, Racing Beat Springs, Custom LED tailights (only S4 LED tails in the world), SSR Mark II, Racing Beat exhaust, S5 black interior, Rotary Resurrection rebuild at 120k miles Community Service Manual RotorWiki "Imagination costs nothing; we could build square locomotives or fly to Mars" - Felix Wankel Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the "present."

03-02-2010, 08:52 PM	#5
FerociousP I-had-a-bad-experience... Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: M'boro iTrader: (2) Posts: 1,046 Rep Power: 18	Couldn't wait. I made a Indyparts shift boot fit the SA trim with a 5spd Rx-8 knob. Now its time to replace that radio, equalizer, and get new shifter bushings when I can... I used a crappy camera but the idea is there. __________________ '15 Juke Nismo '06 MX-5 GT SOLD '04 S Silver RX-8 GT Track Day Use SOLD '90 Black TII vert w/ Sprint RE stock port/turbo DD dyno (242.6whp@5500rpm @12psi 8psi@redline) and (250ftlbtq@4800rpm @13psi) SOLD '89 GTUs 6p TII SOLD, '87 sport SOLD, '79 SA stock SOLD '91 B2600i 4x4 w/ Rx-8 LSD SOLD Last edited by FerociousP; 03-02-2010 at 08:57 PM..

03-02-2010, 09:19 PM	#6
FC3S Murray frustrated! Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Montana iTrader: (3) Posts: 611 Rep Power: 16	old school.....SWEET! In great shape man! __________________ Same pig, new soul

03-03-2010, 07:37 AM	#7
Whizbang Respecognize! Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Δx = ħ/2Δp iTrader: (5) Posts: 3,190 Rep Power: 20	i need me an SA __________________ For current updates and event coverage check out Follow on Twitter! @WhizbangRally Whizbang Rally's Webpage \| Facebook

03-06-2010, 02:39 AM	#8
Trout2 Rotary Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2008 iTrader: (0) Posts: 104 Rep Power: 17	The decals were from the factory or a factory option. My dad bought a 79 SA in July 1979, it came to the dealer that way - someone ordered it and didn't want it after we waited a couple of months for silver or blue. When the car was repainted in the early 80's, another set of decals was purchased but thankfully not applied. Looked much better in yellow w/o brown strips. Jack

03-07-2010, 07:21 PM	#9
FerociousP I-had-a-bad-experience... Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: M'boro iTrader: (2) Posts: 1,046 Rep Power: 18	Werd thats good to know. He must have either copied the original decals before repainting (or copied someone elses). Were the Rx-7 decals part of that option or did he just get fancy, because I'm about to take them off. __________________ '15 Juke Nismo '06 MX-5 GT SOLD '04 S Silver RX-8 GT Track Day Use SOLD '90 Black TII vert w/ Sprint RE stock port/turbo DD dyno (242.6whp@5500rpm @12psi 8psi@redline) and (250ftlbtq@4800rpm @13psi) SOLD '89 GTUs 6p TII SOLD, '87 sport SOLD, '79 SA stock SOLD '91 B2600i 4x4 w/ Rx-8 LSD SOLD

03-15-2010, 08:47 PM	#10
FerociousP I-had-a-bad-experience... Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: M'boro iTrader: (2) Posts: 1,046 Rep Power: 18	Bought a spare panel and added a radio with a pocket from mazdatrix. See above pic that shows a old two post radio and weird equalizer... I think this will add a little more functionality... __________________ '15 Juke Nismo '06 MX-5 GT SOLD '04 S Silver RX-8 GT Track Day Use SOLD '90 Black TII vert w/ Sprint RE stock port/turbo DD dyno (242.6whp@5500rpm @12psi 8psi@redline) and (250ftlbtq@4800rpm @13psi) SOLD '89 GTUs 6p TII SOLD, '87 sport SOLD, '79 SA stock SOLD '91 B2600i 4x4 w/ Rx-8 LSD SOLD

03-15-2010, 08:52 PM	#11
djmtsu My minds tellin' me no... Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Murfreesboro, TN iTrader: (10) Posts: 4,043 Rep Power: 21	That stereo is full of win. Where'd you get it? __________________ 1976 Mazda Cosmo RX-5 1976 Mazda Cosmo RX-5 2003 Toyota Tundra TRD 2015 Toyota 4Runner SR5

03-16-2010, 08:31 PM	#12
IH8DSM RCC Contributor Join Date: Mar 2008 iTrader: (0) Posts: 610 Rep Power: 17	pretty fancy there paul, now you need to bring me those wheels to mess with one day __________________ 85 rx7 gsl-se - AA tags/ never ending project will never run

03-21-2010, 07:52 PM	#13
FerociousP I-had-a-bad-experience... Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: M'boro iTrader: (2) Posts: 1,046 Rep Power: 18	UPDATE! This first pic shows the trimming of the dash to fit the radio. Only took about a half inch on each side but I had to cut through two nuts welded to the back of the panel. Lickily, the two bolts for the dash aren't necessary and the whole center console is still strong and doesn't move. I drilled a small hole and used two sheet metal screws to hold the HVAC controls in the correctly location. The punch holed metal strip serves as a springy support for the radio which otherwise would be completely held up by the plastic front panel. Wiring was a breeze due to having the wiring diagram from www.foxed.ca and it works perfectly. next step will be to add rear speakers __________________ '15 Juke Nismo '06 MX-5 GT SOLD '04 S Silver RX-8 GT Track Day Use SOLD '90 Black TII vert w/ Sprint RE stock port/turbo DD dyno (242.6whp@5500rpm @12psi 8psi@redline) and (250ftlbtq@4800rpm @13psi) SOLD '89 GTUs 6p TII SOLD, '87 sport SOLD, '79 SA stock SOLD '91 B2600i 4x4 w/ Rx-8 LSD SOLD

04-11-2010, 06:52 PM	#14
FerociousP I-had-a-bad-experience... Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: M'boro iTrader: (2) Posts: 1,046 Rep Power: 18	UPDATE: She passed emissions with 5ppm and it is now fully registered. The warm idle is now 900rpm with a simple throttle cable adjustment (from 1200). Finishing prep work for the Gap. Work updated: - New rear wheel bearings and wheel cylinders - New shifter bushings - New tranny and diff fluids - Adjusted dashpot and throttle cable which was affecting idle To be done: - Tint - Front brakes and wheel bearings - All coolant hoses - Passenger side headlight motor __________________ '15 Juke Nismo '06 MX-5 GT SOLD '04 S Silver RX-8 GT Track Day Use SOLD '90 Black TII vert w/ Sprint RE stock port/turbo DD dyno (242.6whp@5500rpm @12psi 8psi@redline) and (250ftlbtq@4800rpm @13psi) SOLD '89 GTUs 6p TII SOLD, '87 sport SOLD, '79 SA stock SOLD '91 B2600i 4x4 w/ Rx-8 LSD SOLD Last edited by FerociousP; 06-15-2010 at 12:36 PM..

05-24-2010, 01:39 PM	#15
FerociousP I-had-a-bad-experience... Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: M'boro iTrader: (2) Posts: 1,046 Rep Power: 18	Full tank of gas, nobody in it. 2440lbs. Deal's Gap '10 __________________ '15 Juke Nismo '06 MX-5 GT SOLD '04 S Silver RX-8 GT Track Day Use SOLD '90 Black TII vert w/ Sprint RE stock port/turbo DD dyno (242.6whp@5500rpm @12psi 8psi@redline) and (250ftlbtq@4800rpm @13psi) SOLD '89 GTUs 6p TII SOLD, '87 sport SOLD, '79 SA stock SOLD '91 B2600i 4x4 w/ Rx-8 LSD SOLD