Thanks! Actually, I first saw this color on a CX-9 on my local Mazda dealer's lot...that's when I made my decision! I also did some research and found pictures of RX-8's in the same color and it looked HOT!

Rich

Just a few more pictures of my gauge/stereo panel.

Rich

Rich, I have decided to steal your amp and use it in Angie's FC. Sorry about that.



On a serious note, I havent started my project for you yet. I'll get to it once some other small projects get done. I am actually sorry about that. On a plus side the system is still out of my FB so I will make sure it all fits the way it should before I bring it all up.

That's kewl Ian - I think it will still be 2 - 3 weeks before I get Stormy back, then will work on the rack & pinion conversion first, so it will be quite a while before I'm ready to wire the stereo.

Rich

Killer color.

Nice, I love Blue 1st gens!!

Im in love with your car.....

Nice color. I have an 84 that needs a new color. I don't think blue would go well with the poo interior.....
Then again, the "Persimmon Red" didn't exactly go well with the poo interior, but matchs somewhat with the rattle can red/brown primer that is covering ~50% of the car. I actually refer to the car as the Turd colored car....... No, not the red one seen to the left.

How you doing Rich?

Sweet color. Can't wait to see her assembled.

2 Se's ago I had that one completely stripped and redone in Torch Red. That was a GM color

Thinking about painting my next one a Champagne color. I like the color on my buddies 85 Corvette. It is very clean yet elegant.

Hey Doc! Good to hear from you. I've never been a big fan of red, but there is a Mazda 6 that I see at my favorite golf course quite often that I just love. It's sort of a ruby red...hot color!

Rich

definatly looking nice Rich! i love the stereo panel!! i cant wait to see pics of the car when its out of the body shop!!!

Woo hoo! Stormy will be coming home sometime in the next few days! The bumper covers are still not done, but everything else is. I brought home the pieces that are not attached to the car today...mirrors, door handles, cowling, and headlight covers.

http://picasaweb.google.com/rdfrahm/85RX720081030#

Rich

this car is going to be beautiful!

Ive seen that colour look great on a MPV , wow great choice for a 1st gen. That car will glisten as you walk around it in the sun

WOO HOO! Stormy is finally home! And she's beautiful! These pictures don't do her justice.

http://picasaweb.google.com/rdfrahm/Stormy20081110

Rich

Looks great! Keep us up to date as the car goes back together.

My painter has sprayed color cards of four different blues, including Stormy Mica. The final decision hasn't been made yet, but your pics are certainly an influence.

yep, that looks great ...... rims with a nice polished lip ?:icon_tup:

Thanks! See post #46 in this thread for pictures of the wheels.

Rich

wow, that looks beautiful! are you going with the black moulding and trim?

yea , I like those . I was thinking a little chrome would work with that colour

I have a large set of duplicate chrome pieces for the 79 that look great with the beat black which has a similar "chameleon" lustre as Stormy Blue. ( I have both front and rear SA bumpers fully chromed , door handles , mirrors, license tag lights and fender lips)

Thanks! I'm not putting any body side molding on it, and had the mirrors and door handles painted body color. So the only black pieces will be the window frames and the windshield trim and drip moldings.

Rich

That is a sexy color. Looks awesome.

Hey Rich - 45 days from now, when the paint has cured - do your baby (and your sanity) a HUGE favor and get the nose pieces covered in the 3M clear vinyl. Best $300 I ever spent after the $$ on getting the nose resprayed. 2 yrs later and nary a mark on the front! Invisible to the eye unless you know where to look. Had the local auto trim shop do it (NO pre fabbed kit avai for our Vintage Rockets)- so the pieces where custom cut. Guy was an artist - but hey, if you can get it done in fairbanks, alaska....!?
Stu Aull
80GS
Alaska

Thanks for the tip Stu - I'll definitely look into it!

Rich

very chiney...me gusta...

Rich, any updates on the car?

I've been making slow progress. I have several things partially complete.

I have the rack and pinion conversion all done except trimming the ends of the rack to the proper length. I can't do that until I have the motor in and can set it on the ground so they are trimmed for the proper ride height. But I think I'll go ahead and trim them some so I can set it on the ground and move it around, then trim them again after the motor is in.

I have some of the Dynamat in...just in the rear section.

I got the wiper mechanism and cowl installed.

I have the headlights installed and the headlight relay and heavy duty wiring harness partially installed.

And I have the driver's door pretty much complete, including the mirror, door handle, latch, power window, and power door lock.

And for those that doubted how it would look with the mirror and door handle painted body color I've included a picture...I think it looks great! Not a very good picture, but it's going to be a while before I can get one outside, with all theis #%@$#*(@!#* snow :wallbash:

I'll try to post periodic updates to show you my progress.

Rich

Coming along nicely Rich. Dont listen to the haters when it comes to color matched mirrors and handles - they obviously dont know what they're talking about.

Edit: Put some dynamat around your fuel pump mounting area and some under where the bins go also (I know thats basically the same spot) but that may help with the fuel pump noise a bit and also kill the pingy sound of rocks hitting the fender well areas in the rear.

Thanks man. Yea, I'm planning on covering the entire floor with the Dynamat, and also plan on covering the rear wheel arches, up the pillars behind the doors, and under the headliner (I have to check with the guy that will do the headliner first to make sure he thinks the headliner will fit ok if I do that).

I'll be doing the rest of the Dynamat when I finish putting both doors together, then I'll move on to wiring. I need to wire in the new digital gauges, the alarm system, the power door locks, and (your favorite lol) the stereo.

Rich

its looking great Rich! nice job! hey can you adopt me...........lol.............

Looking great man! I almost painted my car that color.

Someday I will take my car apart again and completely overhaul it. The motor will be coming out sometime soon (within a year) as it just hit 100,000. I'd like to keep it for a while and plus I have to paint the engine compartment still.

Good luck on the rest of the project and keep us updated!

Thanks Chris. I'm hoping to have this car ready for next year's calendar. :-;

Rich

things sure are coming along nicely! your attention to detail really sows through and i really respect the amount of work that has gone into this car! nicely done sir.

Thanks - I appreciate the kind words! Paying attention to the little details makes for some slow progress, but I know I'll regret it if I don't do it right. I have both doors pretty much done now other than a couple of little things and the Dynamat on the inside surface...I expect to have them completely done tomorrow or Saturday.

Rich

installing that dynamat will make for a quieter ride and less vibration in the vehicle. are you installing the supercharged engine in this car?

Yea, that's the idea behind the Dynamat. Make the ride quieter and make the sound system sound better...right Ian? LOL Yea, the supercharged 6 port 13B is waiting patiently in the corner to be re-installed!

Here's the latest update, with pictures. Both doors are pretty much complete, including the wiring for the after market power door locks and the transplanted power windows (which work GREAT by the way!). The Dynamat is done on the floorboards except the front section of the driver's side, and the driver's side of the tunnel. Besides that, I still need to put Dynamat on the firewall and on the vertical surfaces (pillars, rear sections) and the roof. I've started just piecing smaller pieces of the Dynamat together, rather than trying to cut large pieces to fit. It leaves some gaps, but it's much easier to cut the pieces to fit, and much easier to get them into place.

Can't wait to get going in earnest on the wiring. When I removed unnecessary wires from the engine harness I unraveled the tape and actually removed the wires and the pins from the connector on the passenger's side of the firewall, which means I have extra pins available. So I plan on running the gauge wiring and the alarm wiring through this connector. i plan on running the power for the alarm and for the stereo through the grommet on the driver's side. Fun stuff!

Rich

thats really impressive Rich. that stuff takes some time and patience to install properly. thumbs up to you. looking great!! i'm really loving the color more and more as i see it on your car...though i still wish it wasnt originally an ocean blue car. but hey i cant will em all, lol. de-pinning the harness and running the needed pins for your accessories will be an excellent idea and will provide a super clean and stock look. nice work!

Latest Update.

I have most of the Dynamat in. I just ordered more to finish up a few areas. Still need to do the inside panel of the doors, and want to cover the roof and the ECU cover. I have the alarm wired and tested, and it works great. The only thing that is questionable is the horns when the alarm sounds. They sound sick. Not sure what's going on but I'm hoping that it's some sort of grounding issue that will go away when I have all the wiring in. If not, well, the siren should drown them out anyway.

I converted the fusible links to the FC fuse panel (thanks Ian!) and ran all the wires for the stereo.

I got the carpet in. I got it from StockInteriors.com and have to say it's very good. I read several other threads about carpets and saw a lot of complaints about the fit and the width being too narrow. While the fit isn't perfect, it's not bad, and there was extra on all 4 sides that had to be trimmed away. I'm planning on taking it up to my interior guy to have him do some edging on it where I made some cuts, then will put it in for good and start working on getting the dash put in. After that the windshield can go back in, and then I'll drop the motor in and start buttoning things up.

Rich

Hey Rich - not to take away from the stunning work on the car resurrection, I think a lot of us would LOVE to get you take on the install and "gotchas" you went thru on the rack-&-pinion kit. Seriously looking at the RESpeed rig myself.
Thanks for updates and pics...
Stu Aull
80GS
Alaska

Nice to see the updates , other than the 74 Nova build thread in the other rotary section , this is my favourite . Nice carpet :icon_tup:. Are you going to put some black seats in there ? I confer on your paint matching mirror and door handles. When I got the 79 E6 paint bback form fresh painting I particularly noticed how great the colour matching looked .

wish I could see it in person on a sunny day , I know that paint colour is hard to really capture with a camera

this car is one step in front of my project.which carpet is this?is it the 812 - Royal Blue ?nice work!!!:icon_tup:

Great choice on colour and awesome job with the Dynamat and carpet :)

Out of curiosity, how much dynamat did it take to do all that?

Jon

Yep...812 - Royal Blue. I really like it. But I'm going to have to do something about the headliner they sent me. I ordered 1690 - Dark Blue. I got a sample first, but the roll they sent is a fair amount different than the sample they sent me. It has a bit of a green tint to it. So much so that I don't think I can use it. I haven't called them yet to see what can be done about it.

Hey Stu - as for the rack install, it's fairly straight-forward, although I'm not done yet. I need to wait until I have the motor in so it sits at the proper ride height before I trim the ends of the tie rods. The biggest problem I remember having so far is installing the arms with bushings on them. They are a very tight fit. I finally made a spreader to spread the ears that they fit between and they slid right in. Besides that, it takes a little bit of trial and error to get the length right for the shaft that fits between the rack and the steering column, but it isn't too bad.

Rich

Rich, great job thus far!! i actually think the carpet color is a good choice! i assume you are doing the rear carpet in the same color. what are you going to use as far as seating goes? are you going to go with an aftermarket blue seat ot like a blue and black? are you thinking something along the lines of an alcantara seat?

Hey Jon - So far I've used two 36 square foot boxes, with a bunch of very small scraps left over. I just ordered a third to take care of the roof, door panels, and a few smaller areas left to do.

Rich

Thanks! The seats will be 3 different colors/materials. The backs and outside edges will be dark blue vinyl. The outside parts of the seat bottom and back cushion will be a dark blue cloth, and the center portions of the bottom and back cushion will be a lighter blue cloth with a bit of a darker blue speckled pattern in it. The door panels will be the same vinyl and cloth. The dash and all the trim will be black.

Rich

so basically you're going to have an extremely awesome car inside and out. but how much does it all cost together? is it like buying an rx8?

That's a good question and I can't give you an answer. When I restored my MGB I did a really good job of tracking expenses, but have not done so on this one. But I can tell you that the paint job alone cost more than I could sell the car for when I'm done LOL. But then, I'm not doing it to make money...I'm doing it because I want to.

Rich

You sir, have forged a supermodel out of sex and awesome, frosting it with pure ownage...

You inspire to repaint my own, while her skin is decent, a bit of bubbling and chipping is getting me antsy to repaint...any chance we could get a ballpark figure for the paintjob cost?

Wow...I hope I can live up to that!

The paint job cost roughly $8319.73. That included some minor body work. Just a bunch of dings and minor dents, and shaving the side markers and badge holes and antenna hole. They also had to straighten the left front frame member. But no rust repair required. It was a complete color change so it included shooting the engine bay and door jambs.

Rich