Ians black series 3 Elford Turbo

[ian65]

My 1984 series 3... with Elford Turbo engine conversion, Monroe adjustable rear shocks, polybushed suspension and Elford rear wing





















































taxed and tested and used often.
.

[chc]

Just as mother Mazda intended - beautiful

[ian65]

After my decision to stop the restoration of my other project car and sell the shell on, I have decided to put all my time, energy and money into getting this car back into tip top condition.

Here's how it stands now....


















Last week, I put the Elford rear spoiler on this car ....


I primed, painted and laquered it to match the bodywork in Mazda sparkling black and yesterday morning set about fitting it to the car.

The rear lights were removed for easier access and the factory rubber spoiler removed.

I then offered up the ETL rear wing and got my 1st shock... the bonded in studs on the fibreglass wing didn't match the mounting holes put in at the factory for the stock rubber spoiler.

I had to block these up to stop any water getting it, which I did with RTV silicon and then I drilled new holes to accomodate the new mounting studs.
The new holes were coated in paint to stop any rust and the wing was then bolted up. It was also bedded on RTV silicon to help hold it down. I left some heavy weight on it over night until everthing had gone off.

The hole where the electric aerial passes through the wing is very small and it took quite a bit of fiddling and a lot of swearing to get the aerial lined up.... all done now though....

Before and after pictures...

[ian65]

As I've got the week off work, I took the opportunity this morning to go South London and pick up this Elford front spoiler.










it came off this car...







it was a bloody long way 330 mile round trip in 6 hours.

I'm going to put it onto this car but I'm going to prep it and then get it professionally sprayed. I missed a brand new pair of the correct Wipac driving lamps including the cover the other week on ebay so I'll have to keep looking.

My next aim is to get the alloys recut.... they let the car down with their shabby appearance.

[myatt1972]

330 miles, thats what I call dedication.
She's gonna look great when its fitted though, well worth the trip.

[Steve-A]

The car looks pretty good already Ian, so gonna look great when you've finished with it. I bet its nice to be working on a rolling restoration from now on.

Did the white Elford front turn out to be just too smashed up in the end?

[ian65]

No, the white front spoiler needs a bit of fettling but will be ok. They are so hard to get hold of.... I've being trying to do a deal on this blue spoiler for over a year and once it became available, I couldn't turn it down.
The good thing now is that I have 2 complete elford setups including the front and rear spoilers....the one in my car and then the engine and spoiler from the white car. The engine from the white car also has a documented rebuild from RX Motors and is a great runner. I'm going to keep this kit and the spoilers as well. I'm through with doing complete rebuilds on cars for a while.... I'm at the time of my life where I haven't got the time and money to dedicate to it.... a rolling resto is much easier.
I would like to buy a really nice quality 1st gen for around the £2500 mark in the future ( something like the white s3 that Stuart in Tamworth sold recently) and fit all this Elford stuff to it.... that would make a really nice car then and would be a very simple conversion.
For now though, it'll stay in my workshop.

.

[Steve-A]

Nice.

As I'm finding with Rexanne, its really nice to have the time to plan and collect parts up slowly that are perfect, but its also frustrating to not be able to get out and drive, with two of them you have the best of both worlds!

[ian65]

Had the Elfords engine compression tested today and the results were quite low....

rear rotor....





front rotor...




it's not the end of the world as the car drives nice and starts well plus I have 3 other 12a's in the garage including an Elford engine with a recent documented rebuild so when this one eventually gives up the ghost, I'll just drop that one in.
Interesting to know though!!!

Many thanks to Keith (Trind-FD) for offering to bring his expensive Mazda testing kit and doing some free compression tests ( even if my car came last in the results table!) Top man!

[syebba]

I'd like to know at what approx readings a wankle goes pop!

& what are compression readings on a new engine.

If engine still starts & runs fine,not worth worrying about,you'll probably get years out of it yet.

Keith how much does the proper mazda compression reader cost?
Probably £Hundreds?

ta stu..