Cipher's Fantasmic 1.8 SE Project
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Hello!
Being a newbie here I may as well show off my MX-3.
Strolling through here I found this thread…
http://www.uk-mx3.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4955
Well... I'm the culprit which bought it :mrgreen:
The car was a impulse find on ebay. I had some money to do a Racing license (ARDS). But my team's Director had a few words, and it was decided It would be more affordable if we got the Mazda.
It was up at 595, we sent in an offer of 400. A return offer of 500 came round. So we went ahead.
I could of ended up with a red import that was in Rochester. But the insurance was too high because of the import status. Plus it had a cooling system problem.
So we got our heads together, and drove up to Exeter. Stayed the night and went to collect it leaving in the early hours of the morning.
Upon arrival the car looked decent. But was in a little sad state.
Rust eating away at the sun roof, and its seating area. Paint work was a little tatty. And a centre plat and locking plastic "nut" was missing.
The car had 3 women owners in the past. One of them had fitted a Hydrogen cell. Its rather well installed. With some great wiring work.
The engine bay is rather neat and tidy. New battery as well.
(The silver C2 is my current car)
The interior was a bit worse for ware. Ive noticed a lot of SE's door car's suede has deteriorated.
My Boss brought it back to his home after using it to go do a meeting. Next day I came out to drive it on private land, and do some work. It had a good Mop on one side. And the white came out:
Several area's on the rear bumper was tatty, including the badges, and the tail gate had a horrible re-spray. So we resprayed the entire rear with a rattle can. And I painted up the badges:
From:
To:
The sun roof was removed and ground down to remove the rust, and treated. To save paint we vinyl wrapped it in white.
The top section of the rust was removed and filled with fibre glass. And painted over. This brought on a boat load of reactions with the paint work across the roof section. After several rub downs, stopper applied, and painted over and over. I gave up. And bought some carbon fibre vinyl.
We used to to wrap the top section of the car to give it a "Targa" look.
After some hair drying, rips… and cussing we got it on. It looks patchy as some area's had to be fixed up to look neat from tares from stretching.
After a buff, and removal of the weathered away pin stripes on the side. The car currently looks like this:
Next moves:
Wrap Sun Roof with carbon fibre vinyl
Fit MOMO Steering wheel
Fix up door cards
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Ah another fellow Kentish person!!.
The cell wiring looks so interesting I'd love to see it and strip it down to its components.
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Ahh, you have to be careful about those Kent people. I've herd bad stories about them!
The cell may come out if I deem it just pointless. Its currently "off" as there is no chemical's in the containers to save the fuel properly.
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nice to see another white SE owner on here. looking very sexy mate. much cleaner than mine :) keep up the good work. £500 is cheap for an SE bud. keep it tidy and it may go up in value shortly. Only 27 left on the roads now ;) welcome to the elite haha
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MX-3's are quiet possibly a modern classic. Its quiet awesome to own a SE, one of 27! Originally 150 made?
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Nice job on the paintwork with rattle cans, coming a long great and good to see someone keen to get get their hands dirty
Keep it up and lets see it show it off at japfest in may 8)
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Japfest is a maybe for me. Depends if I can even get the day off.
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really nice looking mx3
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This is looking great now, liking the wheels on it :D
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Thank you. The wheels are the standard SE wheels. Which are ROH ZR6's
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Time for an Update!
With secrative negotiations with a wet kipper, I obtained some new light clusters from youdirtyfox. These are original lights made to look like Rex lights:
Side by side
After this picture. I noticed I locked my one and only key in the boot! OOPS!
Fortunately, leaving a light cluster lose, and the rear trim of the boot off, I could reach the boot release with some copper wire and a good tug. So plan on making a 'fail safe' in the future.
And all of this… just to get a piece of trim in?! Niiiccce one Mazda! oh well :)
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The rex was my inspiration for those light. Glad you are happy with them I think they look great ;)
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Nice find! the car looks to be in overall good shape, the wheels are interesting. I like the Hydrogen cell, I have wanted to do that for some time. There are many kits out there now for it. Look forward to seeing more updates on this :)