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  • 2008
    • November
      • Ausrotary Bonaza Cruise 2008
        15/11/08


        Last Sunday attended the meet for the Ausrotary Bonanza Cruise for 2008. As the first little meet this car has attended it was great to meet other Mazda fanatics and a nice range of incredible 60's and 70's classics.

    • October
      • ON THE ROAD BREAK OUT THE BEERS!!
        06/10/08
        Done and dusted, now officially registered and on the road. Mission complete! Will keep updating blog of course with future plans and developments to the Kinder Surprise car :)

        My heartfelt thanks go out to a lot of people who made this journey possible.

        Jonathan of Japanese Re

    • September
      • Japanese Classic
        27/09/08
        Just released a new web site!

        Japanese Classic


        The Japanese Classic Cars site, a new and growing online resource for collectors, fans and appreciaters of Japanese historic and vintage cars. We aim over time to become a community for Australian and International members, a

      • This Project on Flickr...
        21/09/08
        http://www.flickr.com/photos/27564018@N05/

      • Clean power
        21/09/08
        Waiting 2 weeks for rego appointment so having a bit of fun cleaning her up under the hood. Poo, cobwebs, spiders, leaves and general purpose muck gone! Water bottled bleached reisntalled.

      • Titty Bittys
        14/09/08
        More titbits dealt with today, steering wheel assembly cleaned up and tightened, drivers door lock pin was in way of window winder assembly so had to reset it, rear seats back in after sealing in the behind seat section where the fuel tank is, in the hope of preventing some of the fuel smell. Carb c

      • 1 year later!
        12/09/08
        HORRAY!!! Passed Road Worthy today with new brake lines and ball joints. What a relief! I completely missed that last week was the 1 year anniversary of our ownership of this car. So 12 months from collection, to safe for road use status. Next week will see this thing finally put on the road, fully

      • Green and wet
        08/09/08
        Shagged brake lines all fixed yippie!

        Ball joints and bushes also.

      • The Plum Comes Home
        06/09/08
        After several months away from home, the Plum (as the Auto Elec calls her) has finally returned home. Stripped thread wheel studs are finally replaced with NOS parts, new tyres on the teenie 12 inch rims on the rear, and all electrical components working! Even the windscreen squirter.

        The

    • August
      • Badged
        28/08/08
        Ready for collection next week, bonnet repaired and cursive badge on! :D More pics soon



      • Feet on the Floor
        04/08/08
        Dropped into the panel beaters, bonnet making good progress, all repaired and ready for paint. Floor rust holes are gone:

    • June
      • Susplaticious
        28/06/08
        General tidying up and suspension work in progress! Most of the work is in finding the parts. The St Kilda branch of Pedders Suspension has really gone beyond the call of duty to help out with this. It was nice to find at least one joint in Melbourne happy to work on an oldie. Work mates have also n

      • Back on the road
        14/06/08
        A little drive around St Kilda today to celebrate the 28 day permit, and back to the location where we last took some pics. Alas many a young girl was heard screaming "cute!" on Acland street... too bad they werent talking about the driver.

        Anyway time for a little before and a

      • Queens Polish
        07/06/08
        Long weekend! You know what that means. The badges have been restored and put back on, and a lot of polishing and detailing done.
















    • May
      • Fiddly bits
        11/05/08
        Gradually coming back together and almost looking like a car again.

        Badges back on!



        Rear door skins back on! Also new pinch-weld rubber installed around all doors, and metal tracking back in place.



        Rear Bumper and reverse light back on!
        <

      • Picking up the pieces
        03/05/08
        Amazingly another sunny day with no breeze this time of year. She is starting to be put back together and ready for road use.

        Top of boot lid 3 coats!



        Cut and polished rear quarters with tail lights in










    • April
      • Blood red on the dance floor
        25/04/08
        Incredible luck! A perfect ambient temperature today of 24deg. and not too much breeze was a blessing for the final coats of paint. The night before the coat from last week was carefully flatted and the entire workspace (single garage) cleaned and de-dusted.

        Today between 11am and 6pm wit

      • I see red i see red i see red!
        19/04/08
        Warm weekends with no wind, bliss!

        First coat of paint is on. Despite the wisdom of the paint shop, a 2mm tip on the spray guy seemed to be too air hungry and above my skill level to control, so ended up using the trusty 1.4m tip touch up gun with larger paint pot. No doubt the finer tip

    • March
      • Jambed!
        10/03/08
        Painting has begun, and the annoying part to begin with... aka door jambs and window surrounds. A quiet calm and warm day was perfect for the job, and being a weekday no passers by the garage were splattered with the custom matched original cardinal red. Apologies for the pics... taken on mobile pho

    • February
      • Previous Project II
        28/02/08
        The Mazda is making progress, removing rubber and fittings in preparation to paint door jambs has taken a while, and now it is pretty much a case of having the roof and bonnet dents dealt with.

        In the mean time, it is perhaps time to think back to the car that got me into the Jap classics

    • January
      • Long Prime no See
        28/01/08
        Australia Day long weekend... what better way to celebrate than doing the truly aussie task of working on the old clapper. 4 panels are repaired, primed and ready for paint, rust repaired around tail lights and rear beaver, and one of 4 door jambs ready for paint. Old rubber is slowing the process d

      • Getting there
        12/01/08
        Well, roughly 30% of the car is prepared for paint! Things are going well, and hope to have the spraying done before the cold months set in.

  • 2007
    • December
      • Dead Skin
        16/12/07
        Greetings! Apologies for the lack of recent updates, we are getting ready for the tricky stuff, suspension overhaul and de-rustification. New rear bumper centre section is on! Thank you Jonathan. Have begun R&B (not the music, but Rust&Bog investigation. Boot lid off, starting at the back an

    • November
      • Cool days
        03/11/07
        Horray for daylight savings! More light means more garage hours. We have overhauled the cooling system somewhat, radiator and water pump removed, checked, refurbished and reinstalled with new gaskets and hoses. The thermostat and radiator cap were a rusted mess so have also been replaced.

    • October
      • Small Things Small Minds
        30/10/07
        A week of small things, but nice things :-)

        No more holding raw thread to change gears, the dodgy 8 ball has arrived.



        New but still noisy exhaust.



        Restored plates...



        Cleaned up interior rails and new screws.

      • Part and Parcel
        20/10/07
        New parcel shelf in (thank you Chris for the accurate cutting). At some stage the trim below the rear window will have to be replaced, but may as well wait until the windows get popped pre-painting.



      • More cleaning
        15/10/07
        New tail light lenses from overseas, and surrounds from Jonathan (undergoing rust treatment - hence tape around edges).



        Rear seat after a hit with the clean stick



        Ditto on trims, new fastening screws under window and door straps.

      • Photoshop Respray
        15/10/07
        Just fooling around...

      • Previous Project
        15/10/07
        Just felt like adding some pics of my past project, a 1970 Datsun 1600 sedan... which is very much missed. We hope you are well cared for and going strong! She was over two years work... and several times we remember saying "never again!"... well, here we go again :D This time we have lear

      • Greasy Bottom
        13/10/07
        Most of the morning was spent under the car dislodging years of grease, muck and grime, in order to assess the rust situation. Well blow me down! She is very clean down under and no rust was found apart from the small hole under the drivers feet (which we knew about anyway). Car must have shed about

      • Nocturnal Emissions
        09/10/07
        Wiring this thing is so easy so far! Reverse lamp, indicators, park lights all redone and working great. Still chasing down why one of the brake lights aint quite right.

        Two fist sized holes in original muffler sounded great, but are now gone thanks to new tiny muf ;) Ohhh but the suspens

      • Results after 3 weeks
        07/10/07
        Horray said the mazda with a good purry run around St Kilda this afternoon, after a tricky start it seems she is still running smooth after a fair period of being static. Finally after all this time getting her presentable enough to be on the road, things are looking up. New paintwork in the coming

    • September
      • Grilled Rubber
        30/09/07
        Another week of varied activities, firstly many thanks to Tone for the NOS grille. We gave it a good refurbishment including new blackout and detailing. The results were good!



        New distributor cap is on... wasnt that fun to find so for reference this was the one to look out fo

      • Bits and Pieces
        28/09/07
        Gosh its fun finding basic parts for these... anyway old cracked fanbelt is off and replacement installed. Waiting for new distrubutor cap and rotor on order. Back seat has been pulled out and about a tonne of sand / gravel cleaned out of the interior from under the seats. Only one 10c found under r

      • A little bit more
        23/09/07
        As per usual things take much longer than they are supposed too!
        Anyway, the temporary clear indicators are on (temporary until a new original one can be discovered at least), and a new panel has been cleaned up.

        Thank you Tone from ausrotary for supplying new grill, garnish and also

      • Making Progress...
        20/09/07
        Jonathan of Japanese Restorer magazine http://hometown.aol.com/japaneserestorer/index.html has been a wonderful help!

        Little by little things are making progress. A new choke cable now makes her startable on the cold mornings, air cleaner assembly has been cleaned up, and new front clear

      • Pics from last weekend - Front off
        12/09/07
        Time for some pics from last weekend!

        It will be a while before the weather is good enough for spraying acrylic so tried a small section of paintwork with a good cut and polish... hoping to help make her respectable enough to visit a mechanic for a good check up later on, and alas, under

      • 1964 Familia 800 Brochure
        11/09/07
        Found this at: http://usapapa.cool.ne.jp/catalog/catalog_top.html













      • Japan Mazda site has these great wallpapers!
        10/09/07
        Hi resolution versions available from: http://www.mazda.co.jp/philosophy/histo




      • There goes the weekend...
        10/09/07
        Body ache... the bane of the unfit home mechanic. By the end of the weekend it was like a full body work out had ravished the arms and legs for hours! Not bad progress though, the front indicators are off and disassembled ready for clean up, front grill, garnish and bumper are off too, with many a r

      • 1966 Sedan in Japan Toyota Museum
        10/09/07
        Article is at: http://www.toyota.co.jp/Museum/data_e/a03_09_3.html

        Having consolidated its foothold in the minivehicle market with the R360 Coupe and the Carol, the Toyo Kogyo Company (today's Mazda) unveiled the Mazda Familia 800 in October 1964, marking the company's entry int

      • Japanese Brochure
        10/09/07
        These images are from http://my.reset.jp/~inu/ProductsDataBas

        Many thanks to the guys at ausrotary.com for directing me to these.













      • We need these parts please!
        10/09/07
        Contact us if you can assist with any of the following:

        * Front bonnet Mazda cursive badge
        * One 1000 badge (found the other one on ebay, along with rear boot badge which should be arriving soon).
        * New tailight lenses
        * Front indicator lens
        * Front bench seat

      • The Beginning!
        05/09/07
        On a dark evening in the Melbourne AU suburb of sunshine we went to investigate the car, which was purchased for a very modest sum. This site is an act of record keeping and hopefully a resource for those lucky enough to enjoy these historic vehicles.

        The owner started her up, and a thro