I had a growling right wheel bearing so I figured it was time. What the heck, I needed an excuse to install those SS brake lines.

Put in an order to Rock Auto

BECK/ARNLEY 0802163 Front Rotor
Wholesaler Closeout - 30 Day Warranty $ 14.92 2 $ 29.84

BECK/ARNLEY 0802011 Rear Rotor
Wholesaler Closeout - 30 Day Warranty $ 9.37 2 $ 18.74

AXXIS Deluxe Plus organic 0880308D Brake Pads (front)
Wholesaler Closeout - 30 Day Warranty $ 9.62

BECK/ARNLEY 0842010 Brake Pad Shim Kit (front)
Wholesaler Closeout -- 30 Day Warranty $ 3.01

AXXIS Deluxe Plus 0881223D Brake Pads (rear)
Wholesaler Closeout -- 30 Day Warranty $ 10.05

NATIONAL A32 Wheel Bearing - Inner
Wholesaler Closeout - 30 Day Warranty $ 7.37 2 $ 14.74

BECK/ARNLEY Part # 1012814 Front outer tie rod end
Wholesaler Closeout - 30 Day Warranty $ 7.37 2 $ 14.74

NATIONAL 32204 Wheel Bearing - Outer $ 14.80 2 $ 29.60

Here's what happened

 

 

Looks great!!!

 

Very nice!

 

excellent work Ray!!!!! car looks excellent!!!

 

I hate you with your cheap prices. Harumph.

 

Some ni-i-ice penny-pinching Ray-
sounds like you got the Whole Nine Yards for the price of OE pads!
did it all go together easy? Sometimes with the aftermarket stuff it can be, er, a challenge!?

Stu Aull
80GS
Alaska

 

Thanks guys, it's always fun to share a bunch of work with folks who might be doing the same thing.

On the "aftermarket" parts, I don't think when it comes to stock replacements for critical safety parts like brakes, bearings, tie rod ends, etc, it makes much difference. After all they all need to meet certain specs to even be on the market.

In fact I would worry about the opposite, that so called premium brands are just taking standard replacement parts and putting an overblown name on them. Are Hawk pads at $120+ really that much better than the AXXIS pads I got for $20? And what good are Hawk pads on old rotors? So you probably need to add another $100 or two for fancy new rotors. And then your overly aggressive Hawk pads eat up you nice expensive new rotors. Sounds like a racket to me (kind of like low profile tires). Maybe of interest to people on a racetrack looking for every competitive edge, but would these differences even be noticed during routine daily driving?

In any event everything I put into this job, front and rear rotors, all new brake pads, outer tie rod ends and front inner and outer wheel bearings cost about $120 total plus $30 shipping, about what Stu predicted. And all the parts were indistinguishable from the OEM parts they replaced, everything went together without a hitch. (I already had the stainless steel lines, purchased from Mazdatrix as I recall several years ago for around $80 and installed on an earlier GSL. I was just waiting for a good chance to install them on the Silver One.)

I still need to bleed the brakes and do a front end alignment, which I should get to this afternoon or tomorrow, depending on the Friday afternoon beer count. Then I'll really know if those $10/pair brake pads are doing their job.

I'll post up the results, but in the mean time I'd be interested in anybody else's views on "cheap" aftermarket replacement parts vs. premium parts with their premium prices!

 

Looks nice Ray. I guess I need to get some SS lines now as well.

I didn't notice last time I saw your car, did you recently piant the fender wells and
tierods and suspension parts? They looks all so shiny black and clean.

 

This will be my next project on my SE.

 

You know those stainless lines were actually a little less expensive than the stock OEM lines that you can get from Mazda or Mazdatrix, at least when I bought them a few years ago. They make a difference in the firmness of the pedal pressure. And they look so darn cool. Remember to get that little one that connects the hard lines to the rear axle, it's easy to forget and as I understand it it's not a good idea to have a weak link in the system, so to speak.

Things were pretty clean under there before but while I had everything apart I took the opportunity to give the suspension parts a good hot detergent wash and touch up with some gloss black engine enamel. I also painted the new tie rod ends and adjusting rods to keep them from getting rusty (ran out of paint, need to hit the Autozone on the way home today for more black engine enamel).

I also cleaned up the calipers, masked the rubber parts and gave them a spray with silver caliper paint. I need to touch those up a bit when I'm finished with the bleed, they got a couple scuffs along the way.

 

looking good ray. i also need to replace the brake lines on mine. i noticed the outer casing busted on them back when i did the front struts.

 

If you want a set of the OEM stock rubber lines in good condition I've got a few extra sets, just pm me your mailing address (again, I think I deleted the last one).

 

that would be great ray, thanx.

 

Looks great. I hope to have mine in similar shape.

 

I'm liking the penny pinching, I bled the brakes and got the Silver One down off the blocks this afternoon and took her for a test drive. Talk about stopping power.

Those Australian pads do just fine.

Dude's check out that new jack I got locally on ebay for $100. I'm in love.





I'm telling you guys, it's not about parts, it's about labor.

I'll do the front end alignment tomorrow, then's she's ready to head into Atlanta.

 

I'm kind of excited about this. While working on the Silver One, I accidentally got some of that black engine paint on the X wheels, so along with the rest of the wear and tear they were looking pretty cruddy.

Here's one of the front wheels, I'll do it tomorrow, the rears were worse, which I did today:



So I fired up the vibrator sander with the 600 grit wet sand I was using on the hood and did the wheels, followed by a little hand sanding. Ten minutes max each wheel.



Then I gave the rear X wheels a good hot detergent wash, alcohol rub and a spray with clear coat. They came out great.



Finally. A cheap easy and fast way to recondition X wheels.

Gotta do the fronts tomorrow and do a follow up bleed on the front calipers. Then she's back on the road.

 

did you just wet sand the X wheels and take the clear coat off?

 

Well the original idea was just to wet sand to get the little mist of black over spray I got on them when I was touching up around the wheel wells with the engine enamel and it worked great for that. I had been using the wet sander on my hood to try to get my rattle can paint job that I did to it to look a little better.

So then I began working on the other blemishes, wheel weight lines, those white spotty areas you get from clear coat peeling and aluminum oxidization. I just took everything off I could, first with the electric sander and then by hand, which was about 90% of the offending marks on the wheels.

Then a good detergent wash, alcohol wash and spray with fresh clear coat. They aren't like new of course but you have to look real close to see the remaining blemishes. They look great, are protected from further deterioration and are a snap to wash with that fresh clear coat finish.

I forgot to put up these pics of the toe in alignment. Here's the car with the strings attached



Here's looking down the string front to back with the front wheel adjusted to just a slight toe in



Here's the left rear wheel showing the slight toe in that is built in to the rear axle



And here's the right rear wheel toe, which closely matches the left rear. You can see some of the black paint over spray that I got on the wheels in this photo



The alignment came out perfect first time I set it, I'm getting pretty good at the string method. In fact the car steers better than any FB I've ever owned, I think the new tie rod ends, together with the moog idler arm and steering box adjustment I did earlier, tightened things up to near factory standards.

 

It looks like it's really coming along.

 

I see a new business after teaching for you.

"Rays Rotary Restorations" - for the budget minded rx7 owner

Nice work on the wheels even though they aren't waffles.

 

Yep, I'm planning to join the rest of the rotary shops struggling to make $5.00 an hour doing what they love.

Speaking of which, Dave's clear coat comment has got me experimenting.

Yes just wet sanding the clear coat from the aluminum surfaces did a good job of taking off the loose clear coat and what was left sprayed in with the new clear coat nicely, giving a really cool cheap, quick and easy result. The one hour wheel, let's call it.

But where do you stop? I used grain alcohol to remove almost all the clear coat from the aluminum surfaces on the front wheels, but by that time the dark gray paint on the wheels was beginning to suffer and it's clear coat was still spotty.

So, to make a long story short, I've decided I'm going to strip, repaint and clear coat all four X wheels. Now's the time for the ten hour wheel.

Pics to come.

 

That aircraft stripper works real well and won't mess with the finish much. For really
stubborn stuff oven cleaner works great but will mess with the polished AL and
force you to resurface and polish.

 

Looks too nice to be putting to use Ray lol. Good work!!

 

Thanks TT and Tim, those wheels are going to sparkle, should have them finished over the weekend.

I figure now's a good time for a complete makeover for the old girl, she deserves it with all the miles I put on her.

I'm going to do the total strip job on all four wheels, then use what I learned on this set to tackle an even bigger problem, the black painted wheels on my new white GS project