Got a little work done to the GTUs over the last week! Been crazy during the Covid outbreak and little time and even less money has been devoted to it. however I did make some progress cleaning out the shop to get it ready for body and paint as well as getting the suspension parts ready. Powder coatings finished while I wait for a couple shops to have time to press in some more parts I am prepping the engine bay. Look close and you can see its stripped down to bare metal! I took the interior out again to assure the the firewall and the body get the most detail bodywork possible. Stripping it down to metal and going over everything. Paint strippers are not what they used to be so it took a lot more than expected. I will get pictures up of it soon!


Note the wheel wells are painted as is the underside! I will get better pics later, it was a long day!

I still need to press in the bushings for these.



Rebuilt rack, new everything!



Got the interior of the RHD all finished up and its getting ready for paint as well! I am seriously having a hard time deciding if I want to remake this car:



or if I want to make a half twin and go 1/2jz single turbo in it and put louvers on both and the knock offs on it and then have twins ish? Or just put it back to red and call it good. I dunno. Still debating on what is most fun. But here is that interior. Its sooo clean. Smells like a new car and feels like it too! (Minus all the dust from it sitting in the shop all summer lol)

 

With all of the spare time on my hand during the coronavirus I have decided to spend a bit of it doing my 2nd favorite hobby, lapidary arts.

I started rockhounding in 2015 the year Mazda officially discontinued the rx7 13b engine and the parts hording and price jumps had me look for other things to do with my time.

Rockhounding is serious to me. While I enjoy sharing what I am doing I enjoy doing it alone. After a while pictures of me like this started circulating on rock groups and pages on social media and I was asked to share my adventures and started making videos showing bits and pieces of things that wash out of various veins I know of.


I started a small jewelry shop called Oregon Only Stones in 2017 after spending a couple years pioneering Oregon. My shop is very unique... I do not buy my stones I only harvest them from mountains and creeks myself. I only keep and hand cut the finest of semi and precious gemstones and I hand polish never using paints, polishing compounds or waxes on any of my stones. I hand wrap with the finest 30/32 pure silver, gold or copper wire and set on 100% stainless steel, silver or gold chains.

https://joemaddox.wixsite.com/joemad...on-only-stones


I started making videos of some of my adventures and I had far more interest globally than I could handle and while I do provide some local and international sellers my products I am a by commission artist nowadays. I offer a selection of stones that come from various mines I own and have cored over the years.



Every lapidary artist and jewelry shop in Oregon uses tumblers, grit compounds, rubbing and polishing compounds and waxes and sometimes straight up paint to make their stones shine or seal them up. Most use nickel plated wires and chains with a 16/20 wire. That is what makes my stones and jewelry different. I only hand polish stones after climbing the mountains to get them then hand wrap or set them in the finest metals!









These are the things that pay for all my neat JDM things here and there. Makes it possible to port motors like a God now, to enjoy time alone, with family and do some work that is not usually something most guys in the car scene say pays for their really expensive hobby ! 😄

I also run a little hobby shop called reclaimer auto.

https://joemaddox.wixsite.com/joemad...reclaimer-auto








It is mostly for one off custom builds, restorations and rotary engines, but the lapidary work has been the majority of business for the last couple years. If only we could Mazda to start making the rotary again or lower the cost of the billet motor parts. However if you need a great running rotary engine, even my kid can build you one as he is the world's youngest professional rotary engine builder! See his first build here:


Still on the road brappin!

 

Well... I could not handle having the ESR vsxx knock offs on the GTUs build so I threw them on the RHD savanna and ordered a set of new Works VSXX 18" rims for it. They should be here around spring, but they are always worth the wait. Custom ordered with white faces and black hardware. I think they will look great with the bc coilovers and all the power by max parts!





Speaking of power by max parts... I am having all the bushing pressed in this month and have three new diffs to blow up while playing with the 2jz in it. AGAIN all the original gtus parts are safe in storage and being restored with factory bushings and seals, the chassis is unmodified and will be put back after a few parking lot burnouts and photos photo shoots. Just having fun guys!

However since the esr rims are on the rhd, we thought it best to go with the original build as a rotary turbo, re mirrors, wangan, bn sports kit and eventually ill buy back my old blitz 03 rims. Passed on them this month to get the vsxx, but might pull off getting them for Christmas!

So I bought some re-amemiya mirrors for it since we made up our mind and have a new 13b engine!



While getting the re-amemiya mirrors for the right hand drive I decided I had to get a set for the GTUs as well! They are power, so mint.



After I got those I realized my original want for the stock mirrors and wing have been curbed and sought out an original re-amemiya wangan wing. Tough find. Lots of fakes, overpriced and not willing to sell. But I found one in Russia!





This type of thing is killing me, not only is it a duraflex, they are only 200 new. Rhd Japan makes them for 300 if you wanted the new versions. But the fiberglass ones are nothing like the originals. I have one for the rhd, now I have one for the gtus. But watch out for things like this:




Once I changed the mirrors and spoiler I had to do the front lip. I have a mazdaspeed front lip coming. Still waiting to see if it is a corksport knock off like the exhaust,radiator,etc I had from them or if its an original. The seller was honest and said he did not know. Still waiting for it from Europe. I also bought some foresight RHDJapan carbon fiber door visors and they should be in a month or so as well!





Meanwhile I bought a set of new side marker lights from rhdjapan for the RHD. They are amazing and I really suggest you get a set!


While I wanted to grab two sets I saw a fellow rotary enthusiast (who just started rx7 central) snagged up on a set of nos jdm bubble side markers so I followed suit and snagged up on one of the last few remaining sets!



Sound choice I think! While looking over what I have not done yet i realized I only need the interior mirror plastics and aside from the seats and seals for doors. Then the car will be pretty much restored on the inside. The seats I have our good as shown earlier in the thread, but I would like to take a set of gxl seats I have and have them redone like the gtus seats to use for now. So I snagged up some oem mirror covers while there were still a few sets around!

 

Which brings me to the carpet. While I have the seats done to match the originals I pulled out the interior again to replace the fully cleaned old carpet to put in the new carpet I got from stock interiors online. Seemed reputable, same wholesale company rob dahm used. Fits as well as stock when NOT ordered with their backing material. Complete kit is a spot on. Not possible or worth putting on the side carpets, the plastics do not release the original carpet and the new ones will be thicker than stock. Otherwise its spot on! The carpet color for series 5 blue from them is NOT powder blue and they will not take the carpets back... so when looking for series 5 blue turbo,gxl or gtus interior carpet buy STEEL BLUE! I bought both after making this mistake. Sooo close, but not exact. Here is what powder blue is:







Finally I got a spare turbo II hood scoop for the aluminum hood I'm running on the GTUs. I'm still not sure if I want to run it or a carbon fiber hood. I also think I will be adding the RE rear defuser center and exhaust bumper guards. For a splash of carbon and aero.




I have also been getting a hold of all the old catalogs, magazines and anything Mazda can tell us about these rare models and look forward to sharing a few things I have found I think are neat and show more of the gtus history!


Other RE goodies to come!

 

I wanted to share this magazine I just picked up that has some great information about the GTUs! It is the 1989 track and driver issue featuring a full performance review of the GTUs!










I also thought the ad in it was fun.

 

I also picked up some soft and hardback factory workshop manuals. I've been using them online for far too long after letting go of my old collection of books.

 

It is really fun watching the community catch on to the importance of finding and saving or cataloging these rare models. It is also nice to see I have finally laid to rest the rumors about the restamped models and production numbers and everyone who was fighting letting go of false rumors of the past and providing proof for claims made are doing so now!





Some new information on the GTUs!

 

Found one of the original dealership brochures for the GTUs. Cannot be too many of these around these days. A local dealership had it. Also wanted to share the only published book released featuring the GTUs. These are pretty much what you find when you Google this model. Here are the pages you cannot find! Enjoy the story!

 

I recently purchased a set of what I was told were original, new, RE Amemiya mirrors from a guy online. They are poorly made FPR knock offs. I highly suggest you do not spend the money on them and seek originals. My bank and ebay were quick to side with me and I got a full refund and he was forced to change his many listing for them and other knock off parts for the rx7 to explain they are replicas.

Here is what they are and the quality of materials used compared to original Re-amemiya mirrors:






the last picture is how it arrived. Chipped, packed horribly and he waited weeks before finally shipping it out.

 

As disappointing as those were i was able to get a real set of RE Amemiya mirrors!