Mazda RX-8, Series 2 - R3. Refresh Build Thread. **WARNING PICTURE HEAVY!!**

Build Thread Directory.


Page 1.-

Car Intro, Brief Plans For Car, Pictures On Day Of Purchase, Cleaning/Clay Barring, Headlight Restoring, Brakes Tear Down, New Brakes - Lines / Pads / Discs / Cailper Kit, Full Exhaust Replacment, Heat Wrapping, Wheel Arch Refurb, Engine Mounts, Coilovers And Fitting, Brakes Install, Spacers Install, Plastic Dip Wheels, Trim Refurb, Rooflining Retirm, Flocking Trim, Mz Style Rear Spats, Modded Front Number Plate Holder, Carbon Fibre Skinning, Coil Packs / Leads & Plug Install.

Page 2.-

Carbon Fibre Trim, Trim De-Chroming, Servicing, Exhaust Flaming, Engine Flush, Heat Wrap Removal, Service List, Boot Lid De-Badging And Smoothed, Carbon Fibre Trim Refurb, Carbon Fibre Piller Trimmed, Rear Spats Painted, Steering Wheel Re-Trim, Rear Parking Sensor Fitted, Rear Number Plate Lights Refurb.

Page 3.-

Rear End Completed, Rear Spats Fitted, Front Sensors Fitted, Centre Console Carbon Fibre'd.

Right, where to begin? So, quick history.

I owned a Grey (looks more brown colour to be honest.) 2009 RX8 R3 back in June 2011. Had it for about six months till I had enough of the gearbox problem that Mazda kept messing me about with and never got fixed so traded it in. Was all O.E. but had the wheels refurbish in Satin Black. Oddly enough, it's on the auto trader now for sale.

Now, to where I am today.

I've always kept an eye on the prices over the last couple of years and with the new tax system it makes having one of these as a second car easier. Now the R3's have gotten to a fairly cheapish price bracket now with what you get. I think they will problerly drop a little more but pretty sure these are certain to rise in price in a few years time.

Anyway, all that a side, I spent around three months looking for another R3 but this time in crystal white to which I found the one I have now. Normally I wouldnt have bought a car that was advised as this and turn out to be in condition etc to what is, but it was only because at the time I felt I got it at a good price and was within a resonable distance.

Now, this car was/is apparently a "no expense spared" car with all new brakes and tyres! This turn out to be just new pads on the rear which was fitted back to front and a full set of budget tyres! I'm pretty sure the guy had never washed it him self as the paint work feels like sand paper if you rub your hand over it along with a few other niggly bits that want putting right.

As I said, I wouldn't of normally bought a car that turn out like this, but it was purely right time and place for what I was looking for as my plan it take it apart and work on refreshing and replace where nessary with my little brother as a brother bonding project over the summer on his uni hoildays.

So here's the plan, do everything where possible our selfs, refresh to as new condition and or replace broken parts with O.E. or upgraded parts and give it some subtle touches here and there. No real plans on going crazy with mods or chasing power figures, but I wouldn't rule that out.

The car.

I owned this car for about three months, think it was 1st May? Drove it home and that's where it sat since. Mazda RX8 R3 Crytal White with 40,700 miles and full service history.

Since buying it, I've slowly been buying and collecting parts for the refresh. Things have started to progress this last month and I will start posting up what I done etc on this thread as things get completed for those who are interested.

Thanks for reading and il get some pictures up shortly.

G.

And here it is the day I bought it.

Don't let the pictures fool you, it does appear to be nice and shiny but trust me, close up in the day light its was far from that.

Here on this picture, you can see the brake pads on the wrong way, ie the low level warning indicator sticking out the calliper!

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First things I did since day two was going over everything and start a list on parts to refresh etc.

First up for a proper wash, I gave the car a standard go over then targeted the door shuts, bonnets shuts, boot and arches. It took me nearly six hours of a lot of hot water etc scrubbing. My hands were so score the next day from pressing so hard to try remove it all. It looked as if it has sat under a tree for a year? The green was so tuff, I forgot to get picture as was to busy getting stuck in, but here one of the petrol cap area! It was just like this but all round the whole car.

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Cleaning following on, my headlight and rear was covered in crap to that I couldn't get off so I used a Megiaurs headlight restorer kit, but instead of the sanding process, I just used the polishing parts and they come up really well. Forgot to snap the rears but here's the fronts.

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Next I moved onto stripping the car down. Removed the braking system for a refresh and replacements of discs, pads and brake lines.

Also, sanded and recoated the brake dust shields and made a start on wire brushing the calipers and rebuilding them with new internals.

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Following on my cleaning process, I noticed when arch cleaning that the drivers side engine mount had worn, so got my self a set of uprated one.

These are new, but fitted to a car project that got abandon, so bolted on and never actually used, so won them at a decent price I think.

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I bought a clay bar kit, never done this before and my god, it sounded like I was chopping wood with a hand saw the paint was that bad! I got a few picture, but as your see, I spent around ten hours clay baring this car well into the night, the neighbours must of thought I was mad as was still at it till 1:30am.

Sadly, no real good after photos as was dark then it rained the next day.

Recommend clay baring massively to anyone, my car looked amazing after! It still needs more going over in some areas though as there still some real stubborn metal swarf looking parts stuck on the paint, but mostly gone now thankfully.

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So, as I was busy taking things off the car which I might add, nothing seized or snapped on me as of yet, new parts had started to arrive.

First up, the usual ToyoSports exhaust system. Removing the exhaust off the car was pretty easy, all undone without a care in the world. Can't help but think it must of had something else on at some point as even the cat and manifold all undone. In fact, the hardest part was trying to get the rubber mounts off, what a pain in the a** that was!

Anyway, I had loads of heat wrap left from another build, so we decided to wrap it all with it. Before anyone pops up, I am aware about wrapping can cause the welds etc to crack, I'm not overly fussed about this as the system so cheap plus it a car for fun at weekends in etc.

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After getting all itchy wrapping the exhaust it was time to remove all the suspension and the old worn engine mounts and then get onto fitting the exhaust.

I since removed the second air pump that blows into the manifold on cold starts as now be running a decat.

So I quickly used the gasket to draw up a template on a sheet of metal to make a blanking plate then chopped, drill and gave it a coat of paint and away I went. Also, whilst I was at it, fitted the uprated engine mounts.

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Spent more time on the wheel arches, did some extensive degreasing and rubbing down followed by recoat of Black 3M Stone Guard, plus re done a few areas under the car to.

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Next up, more parts had started turning up, renewing the brakes. Nothing to fancy as this is just a road car, no plans on tracking it etc.

I went with straight grooved discs, prefer grooves personally and some average all round brake pads followed by a set of Goodridge Braided brake line and calipers rebuild kit.



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My first job was to do a bit of rust control on the discs. So I masked them all up, made the central area I'm painting slightly wider to make sure I get proper coverage, so that once they are on and I've done a few braking stops, the pads will wear the over lap off and give a perfect clean line minimising bare metal non contact area for the dreaded rust.

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:popcorn:

Going to read this when home !;)

More onto the styling side of things now. I wanted to lower the car, but couldn't make my mind up on how much and from previous experience, Spring kits can be a lotto with the stated drop and most of all I found never really sit the same height on each corner. So with this in mind I went with the coilovers option.

After a good look around etc there is a lot of choice, but after looking at install guides I soon noticed going with adjustable damping could prove to be a nightmare with the rear due to the rx8 chassis covering the tops which then lead onto looking at more and more expensive set up's only to then reality kick back in to what I'm really looking to achieve, freshen up fun road car fit, forget and enjoy.

So, back to basics, I saw the Tein Street Basic kit keep popping up and bargain price. Bearing in mind what I'm wanting, this seems a good deal for the price and being a big brand I know I shouldn't be having any quitiy issues. So I ordered this kit and my plan is to set it to slightly lower than my preferred hight then check drive way and my local roads with speed bumper etc for ground clearance and winding up till I get good enough clearance.

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So here wego, O.E. suspension off then dismantle as I need to reuse the top hats. Then new coilovers built up with the O.E. top mounts ready to be fitted.

The eagle eye will notice, the bump stops on the front shocks have been chopped, so my car must of previously had lowering Spring kit fitted at some point.

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Fitting time, it was pretty straight forward. I pre set them all so tension up and all matching and set about bolting them all on, then just nipped up all the nuts and bolts finger tight.

I then used my hydraulic Jack with a block of wood and went round one by one jacking up each corner to compress the spring/shock till it lifted the car slightly off the axle stand.

Whilst doing this, I then tighten up properly the shock bolts and wish bones nuts and bolts so all bushes etc around the car work out being set at the same angle, ie less stress/twisted bushes when the car sitting on the ground on natural form if that makes sense.

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Finally got round to fitting my new discs, pads and rebuilt and freshly paint calipers. Good bye old rusty looking brakes! On went the discs first, then started building up the calipers. Turned out really well in the end, pretty happy with the final result.

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I then fitted my new clear coated Goodridge Braided Brake Lines and gave the whole system a good bleed through flushing out all the old fluid. Was really dirty looking, by looking at it, it properly was the same fluid from new. This really should be refresh every two years which goes a miss by a lot of people.

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Last part on my braking system for now, I got some new drill bits so I could enlarge the eye hole on the c-clips to fix the front braided lines to the wish bones. Also, more parts had started turning up being a set of Eibach Pro Spacers. I'm now feeling like I'm actually getting somewhere with it now.

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Here's a couple before and after.

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I'm looking to get all four wheel professionally refurbish once I've decided on tyres. Usually I only fit Continental on my cars, but might go with something else this time, but il worry about that nearer the time. Anyway, I'm thinking of going satin black with my wheels again like my last R3, so I got myself a couple of cans of Plastic Dip and away we went for a preview. Please excuse the budget tyres.

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So now I got the brakes finished with for now etc and the spacers on, I could finally bolt the wheel back on and put the car on ground to finally see how it's all looks.

There is bits of trim missing here and there as you will notice, but this is just because I'm still working on things, so it will be going back on the axle stands in a week or two to carry on with some under sealing and few other bits I want to tidy up.

After that, once my wheels are refurbish etc, il put some locite on the threads holding the wheel spacers and touqe them up to spec also rase the car slightly for now as its dropped about 10mm since putting back on the ground, plus I left it sitting in gear without handbrake to help settle it a little before adjusting them properly later on.

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That last about ten minutes before I could get any proper pictures as then the rain started hammering it down.

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Moved onto doing a few interior details.

It really bothers me the annoying gray colour roof etc, so I set about removing it and some trim to bring it a bit more up to date.

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I got some foam backed faux suede to retrim my roof.

Anyone thinking of doing this, don't unless your very skilled, this isn't an easy task.

I stripped off the old lining, layed out the new one and trim round it and set about applying starting from the middle doing one half first being the rear, then onto the hard part being the front as there is a lot of tricky areas that need stretching and then shrinking to get it to follow the shape not forgetting how careful you need to be with the roof lining it's self as it's very fragile.

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So after a lot of pulling and shrinking, I got it on sitting to repeatable level. I was running out of adhesive when gluing then ends back when cutting the holes out for the light etc so duct taped round the edges once it had dryer to be sure although I doubt it was needed.

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Left it a day to fully cure (not really needed as was a very hot day.), then popped it back in the car.

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Now I have a lurxy roof lining it was time to sort out the now extra nasty looking pillar trims etc.

Ordered a flocking kit and away we went. This is very messy, if your thinking of trying this, do the flocking part outside, as it goes everywhere, tiny tiny parts in the air that you can't see followed by two/three days of still cleaning the spare room and hallway even though we was doing it into a big container etc.

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Few close up's.

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Then started clipping parts back in. Before anyone points this out, il just note now that the front light console isn't fully in because I'm waiting on some LED replacement bulbs. It started to get dark so only got a couple pictures for now, but I'm happy with the out come.

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I then got my self a ignition upgrade kit being the almighty R969 Coil pack kit with plugs.

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Also, I got some MZ style rear spats from Essex Rotary.

Not sure how I'm going to go about fitting these yet, might bond them on then shape them for a factory look?

They need a go over to smooth them out a little anyway but I'm looking to get the bumper resprayed as will be adding parking sensors and the spats will need painting once sorted, so might as well have it all blown over.

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Few test fit shots with bit of tape and cable ties.

Complements the factory kit/styling so well.

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Just another small upgrade but makes a big differents, I renewed all my bulbs. Got some fresh 6000k headlight bulbs along with complete set of CREE LED bulbs, no pictures as just bulbs, but I did take short few second video of the indicators to show the differences it has made on them alone.

On the left is standard bulb and on the right is CREE LED. See how it's a sharp on/off aswell as good bright clear flash. Pretty happy with the result from these.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIwsRuJIKto

I assigned my personalised plate to my R3, since it has a couple number less I decided to get chopping.

Measured out the legal spacing etc and marked around the edge and away I went.

After that, I then cut up the OEM plate holder to match, test fitted then body filler and smooth it out, just needs coating.

Now the plate so small it makes it look like I've got giant letter/numbers.

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After modding my number plate holder, I was looking to wrap it in carbon fibre vinyl.

But then after a bit of thought, decided why not go full on one off custom and actually skin it in real carbon fibre!

So basically, this happen.

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Measured it up, chopped off the sheet what I need, mixed up the base coat resin, applied, wait, lay carbon fibre, wait to cure, trim edges which then let with with this.

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Next was to lay the first gel coat and leave to cure.

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Now I had a base to work on, I set about properly trimming the edges, cutting out the holes followed by flatting down the main high points ready to start laying down/building up the coats.

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So here we are after a few layers.

Just need to flat it down with some fine grades followed by a go over with the cutting polish compound and we have a full one off modded OEM number plate bracket.

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After chopping about my plate holder, it got me thinking, so basscaily off came my grill and this happen.

Rub down, mask, base coat and stick!

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Once the base coat had set, I then set about trimming out the tow eye covers before building up the gel coats.

I purposely did it this way so the carbon fibre pattern will match seamlessly across from end to end.

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Applied a few coats, fine trimmed round the edges and here is how it now stands. Just needs one more coat, then will flat it back and polish.

Should look good once back on the car matched with my custom plate holder etc.

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More Carbon fibre.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_z_E53VSss&sns=em

More things ticked off the todo list.

Finally got round to fitting my R969 (D585-R) Coils pack kit.

Out with the old.

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Old Plugs, leads and Spark plugs off.

As you can see, the coils have got the white marks appearing, my R3 so far covered 40,859 miles, by the looks of it they must be the originals.

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First up, I fitted the plugs and lead.

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Then on with the base plate/bracket and so on. The whole job was pretty simple, no stuck bolts or broken clips, pretty much was straight forward swap in the freezing cold. Here's with it all fitted. Will be doing the twenty brake pedal press trick and firing it up later as now working on my exhaust system.

More to follow...

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ffs goobs give ya a inch and you take a mile picture heavy aint correct 😆😆😆