So, some sensible pics then? Still a few tidying up and finishing off bits to get done but hopefully the end is in sight (at last!). I have to say, I'm actually getting a bit excited about it all now...
Paint is done, bar final titivating;
(oil cooler now straight, lol). Not that you'll see it really once my home-made new improved grille is in place. Moar of that another time
Think I'll let the shop stick the number plate back on, though as every time I do it, it ends up on the piss no matter how carefully I measure and mask up
Bit of running in... handy things, dynos
My renovated brake calipers in place;
All the bushings are done (thousand thanks to the long-suffering Chris at Super 7). It was as horrendous a job as you'd expect, several of the old ones needed burning out! Fire! Cleanse them with fire!
Turns out the wheel being pushed back in the arch in the crash wasn't actually down to any bent arms. Mazda built these things tough, apparently. In actual factual, the washer retaining the control arm bush had proved tougher than the manky old bush and they'd both been pulled through the eye
That's the kind of forces involved when you find a Corsa inconveniently wedged in your wheelarch
The good news is the new bushes and washers have sorted that so no new suspension architecture was needed. Chris rates the Energy Suspension kit quite highly, especially as the really tricky ones are two or even three-piece to ease insertion... although he did say the grease was horrendous and he basically had to wire-brush it off his skin!
Never been so glad not to do a job on the car myself, lol
OMG!
Dat rad!
This is something I've never encountered before... and I'm betting many of youse guys haven't either... that of buying something in the aftermarket that is actually too good for its purpose
The radiator not only fits (and to quote Jason) "the best fit of any aftermarket radiator I've ever fitted to any car, ever" but it also works so well that the car was struggling to get up to temperature! This necessitated the making-up of a shroud to cover the back of it, leaving only the fan aperture uncovered. At first the thinking was we could fabricate some flaps to uncover part of the shroud if needed but in actual fact it looks like they won't be! Reckon with hindsight I'd have easily got away with the thinner rad, but at the time I guess influenced by the struggles of cooling an FD, I figured "hey, you can never have too much cooling on a rotary....can you?". Turns out you can. But at least it's easily managed, and it's a nice problem to have for a change
Some nice little bits of fab work from the Super 7 guys, like this nifty little throttle linkage bracket and suchlike. There might be another version for the final iteration, just to aleviate the slight bending of the OE bracket!
The mesh filters will be going in favour of a K&N box filter. This is a bit of a shame, as I love the look of the trumpets and clean-ness they lend the bay, but the K&N will just give a little bit of a calm airbox effect to aid starting, which is currently a bit of an annoyance. J's looking at fooling the vac advance system via some electronic trickery that goes way over my head, but sounds plausibly from what little I did understand. But he (and Al the bodyshop dude who's a bit of an old-skool carb wizard on the side) persuaded me to go for better filtration anyway and having seen how little the mesh teastrainers actually filter out, I have to say they're probably right. Shame, but at least I'll have another big shiny thing to polish now. So that's really that. Here is an couple of photos of how the bay looks currently. It'll probably have changed completely (again) by the time it ever sees the light of day
shiny strut brace is shiny!
and just for Jesse, one last arty one to finish off
. Can the bushes really be that much of a pain to get out? Would a shop that has a press not let you bring in the arms for a bit of beer money? 
