This is awesome! The side carpeting in the trunk is custom and so is the carpet color!

 

wow at that audio system ... she must of really requested top line audio system for her car who ever she was. I wish they had titied up the wiring a bit more though, but still great system, she even had a subwoofer, so all you guys trying to do subs in your lids take a few notes. I really wounder how it all sounded. Was the tape deck/am/fm unit the same as a regular 83 though? I'm surprised didn't use clarion components because that was the factory audio company (or maybe that was only 84/85 cars) Keep this up this is great. Now i'm woundering about the guy that has these weds wheels that posted here earlier if his car made it to PA for some minor things too or what.

 

From what I've read, all of the PA's came with this same audio system. And the head unit is an AM/FM/tape Alpine head unit. It's a pretty decent looking one too. I'll clean up the wiring when I re-install everything. I noticed that it was a little sloppy, but I'm an aircraft electrician by trade so it'll look great when I'm finished.

I'm going to drop an email to Alpine USA today and see if they would have any interest in refurbing/rebuilding these components and amps. If nothing else, maybe it will help that this is an incredibly rare car and they could do it for publicity. Who knows though.

 

^wow i wonder if its tuboed too?

good progress zach cant wait to see this car!

 

If you need a reference cor, Nick has one of these in his shop at RR&R in Santa Ana. It belongs to the prior President of the now defunct RX7 Club of America (publisher of the Rotary Rocket magazine). I recall that one was the subject of a Road and Track article.

These jewels are indeed beyond rare.

 

^^^i wouldn't mind seeing some pictures of that car

Boosted Rex- my brother in law is in the same kind of field he mostly does all the black box electronics though. Pretty good job with a pretty nice pay, I can't recall whom he's working with right now (you know how it is, you guy keep on getting shuffle around or atleast he does) but he's at home for a week and out on the field for 2 and so on.

Keep up the good work on the car, and definiatly keep us updated.

 

Nice find brother..... Maybe come April I can slide over and take a gander. Or maybe you will bring pics if you ever slide down to Nellis. Hit me up sometime bro, been a long time!

Whiz

 

10 speaker system!!!! Mine has 9, and it rocks inside there. You just need a sub! Damn those are some amps!

 

I saw that car at the Steve Kan dyno day after SS9. That isn't a Pacific Avatar. It is an Ultima. Which was the other uber rare 1st gen vert. It's widebody but it's N/A and has no trunk. It's a smooth fiberglass job where the trunk would be. But the car is beautiful and I took a ton of pictures and video of it to use as reference.

DJ55b, that car is sharp looking!

Whiz, great to hear from you bro. I emailed you at your home account already with my cell number.

Preston, the car that DoLuck posted up wasn't turbo. You would be able to see the turbo from the under hood shot that was in that ad. But 1st gen verts sure do look good.

Zach

 

Very nice find.


ON the amps, I bet if you just cleaned them up they would work fine.

 

I think that they'll probably work just fine too. I'm going to try that first.

 

Incredible thread, incredible car. Please follow this through to the end. I didn't think any of these convertible 1st gens still existed anymore.

 

daamn, thats nice! cant wait to see it done

 

Glazedham42, I will be keeping this thread going until the car is finished. That's a promise. I'm mainly doing this because I've been into rotaries for 6 years now and I've gone to rotary events all over the country. With that said, this is the first Pacific Avatar I've ever seen. So I want to be able to share this with everyone on the forum so they can see what they look like too.

Zach

 

Dosen't Paul here on the fourm have one?

 

Zach I want some pics of the trunk area etc, I need to know what I'm up against for bondo time, lol. Let me know if you need a passenger side taillight, I have 3 of em, lol.

 

Ben, just PM me with your email address and I'll send you the pics of the trunk area. From what I have gathered we have two options.
1. Lay new bondo down just like it was originally (approx. 1/3" thick all around the area)
2. Adjust the trunk lid hinges some to see if we can get it to sit a touch lower so we don't have to use such a thick coat of bondo.

I'll leave that decision to you when I send the pictures. It's going to be some work, but not too terribly bad I'm sure.

Zach

 

mazda_rotary7@yahoo.com

send me some pics baby!

 

Those are very classic amps. When I first got into the stereo biz back in the early eighties, they were one of the top line amps of the time. They had a very warm sound; simular to the old ADS power plates (but without the ground loop issues that the ADS amps suffered from).

I would not doubt at all that they still work just fine. They were pretty bullet proof for the day, and you can probably just replace the gain switches and they would be perfect.

If you decide not to keep those amps, let me know. I'd be more than happy to give you a good price for them and the crossover

 

Hey Mark. Seeing as you're the circuit board wizard and all, do you think that you would be able to "refresh" these amps for me? It's just a thought, but if it's in your realm of expertise then let me know.

And I want to go ahead and thank Robert from Rotary Shack. He will be rebuilding the carb and more than likely the turbo out of this car as well. I know that he is one of the best carb builders for rotaries in the U.S. and I can't see sending the parts from this car anywhere other than to his shop.

I'll be working on the car again this weekend. If all goes well then I'll have the rest of the interior removed by the end of the weekend with plenty of pictures for everyone to see. Thanks for checking in on my project.

Zach

 

bondo is nice, but as much as possible, do use fiberglass instead of bondo. fiberglass does not crack and we all know it's stronger than bondo.

 

ill be more than happy to come help you out tommarow, ill give you a call some time to get directions

 

Since when does fiberglass not crack, lol....ever seen a civic with a body kit in cali, lol....but yes, I know what you mean.

 

werd yo

 

No reason to wash it when it's still in one piece. Everything I remove is getting cleaned once it's off the car. It's easier to catch every small detail that way.

d0 Luck, whatever Cowboyfun decides to do on the body is what will happen. He's very good at paint and body work so I'll trust his decision.

Zach