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so lockdown has happened and its come to this......Mazda 626 1985


hairnet

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7 minutes ago, Conan said:

but to make it pass UK MOT would be a huge hassle as well.

cant see why it would be hard to get it through a UK MOT?

if a US as Fuck LHD Yank tank or a Trabant can get through a UK MOT, then a RHD Mazda should be a doddle 

maybe It might need a rear fog lamp strapped to it somewhere (#JDMImportYo!)

(1985 too so its not even got any emissions bollocks to worry about AFAIK :)

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Nah, those are easy stuff. Don't forget that in the end this really is a sub-£1,000 banger being driven and maintain in the third world. It probably will need welding at few places. I would not know if any of the corrosion would fail the more strict MOT, it is in okay shape and would not bother me or MOT here. The suspension probably will need ball joints and bushings stuff. There are also many visible and audible leaks from various components and there's no rear seatbelt. It also doesn't help that there's still quite a few 626 of this shape around in the UK (despite what's happened in Scotland).  Sure, all of this could be fix, but at what cost? Like hairnet said, it is not special or nice enough for exporting to be worth it.

 

After hairnet is done I'll make sure it goes to a good home. But sadly (or fortunately, as it is probably one of the few handful left here) it likely won't be emigrating.

 

p.s. If you guys keep nagging hairnet to do it he might reconsider it. Of course I've told him he could export it and he called me insane. ?

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5 minutes ago, Conan said:

Nah, those are easy stuff. Don't forget that in the end this really is a sub-£1,000 banger being driven and maintain in the third world. It probably will need welding at few places. I would not know if any of the corrosion would fail the more strict MOT, it is in okay shape and would not bother me or MOT here. The suspension probably will need ball joints and bushings stuff. There are also many visible and audible leaks from various components and there's no rear seatbelt. It also doesn't help that there's still quite a few 626 of this shape around in the UK (despite what's happened in Scotland).  Sure, all of this could be fix, but at what cost? Like hairnet said, it is not special or nice enough for exporting to be worth it.

 

After hairnet is done I'll make sure it goes to a good home. But sadly (or fortunately, as it is probably one of the few handful left here) it likely won't be emigrating.

Aye, the structural concerns make sense.

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21 minutes ago, beko1987 said:

Yea but... We've done stupider... Pre-book it for an mot and drive it back, drive straight to someone handy with a welder, mot, few fee's and your a hero! 

It would be cheaper to have it "restored" in Thailand, then shipped over

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25 minutes ago, camryv6 said:

It would be cheaper to have it "restored" in Thailand, then shipped over

Welding and painting here can cost between £600-£2,000 depending on how good you want it. Indeed it'd be cheaper to do it here. Another £1,500-£2,500 and the running gear/engine can be fully sorted as well.

 

But the philosophy of it from the start has been to use it as a banger and nothing more. The reason hairnet bought this is because even selling at a loss it is cheaper than rental, which we've found last year was actually quite tricky as well. The car is charming and all in it's imperfect glory but if the plan was gonna export something back I'm pretty sure he would have bought something else.

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9 hours ago, beko1987 said:

If its the latter I think hairnet and toosavvy should road trip it back and blog it along the way. 

dont think i didnt think about it :D

3 days just to kolkata - burmese would hate me - indian traffic scares me dont speak farsi and iranians wouldnt let me in anyway

would be fine after that :D

 

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From what I've read iranian border guards(as are many douanier johnnies) are really impressed with bits of headed notepaper with official looking stamps on them, bluff it through. Stick some Paykan badges on and tell them it's a prototype.

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47 minutes ago, hairnet said:

interesting you barely touched it and voom

was that from cold?

ir disapoint no hubnut :)

please do a chris goffey :D

Cold? It's a 30c day so it's a lukewarm start. At first it died because no choke and I didn't pump the accelerator to put fuel down the bowl like a fool. I won't do a Chris Goffey though. I'll Woollarding.

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Yesterday this happened.

 

IMG_20200527_140035.thumb.jpg.10ec92239e689d7ea546a2fa43297617.jpg

IMG_20200527_135315.thumb.jpg.f1b75d3f78c60d82b5958533f4661e0d.jpg

IMG_20200527_135319.thumb.jpg.8b0dc6b1740db04bb4c39edc7ec78d18.jpg

IMG_20200527_140056.thumb.jpg.bbf390b6ed4b328fa6e4c827d92f84fe.jpg

 

Shock absorber isn't blown anymore. Now it now needs the steering rack rubber mount, an alignment and the brake distributor valve.

 

You know when this started, sometime it wouldn't go, it wouldn't stay cool, it wouldn't stop, it wouldn't steer when you want, it would steer when you not want, it bounces around, there's no tunes, and it looks kind of shit. I haven't fixed all of that yet but completion seems very near.

 

Still 100% shite though.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Update from the last time.

 

The car start having issue with starting immediately after the last post. It got to the point where it would cut out while driving. I knew the issue was broken distributor cap which I've been trying to find for months even before this new running issue starts to occur. Finally I decided to over(fort)night parts from Lithuania via eBay. Then on the 12th I had extreme stomach ache and was diagnosed with appendicitis. I spent a week in hospital after having that removed and the car just sat.

 

Yesterday, after exactly 2 weeks the distributor cap arrived from Eastern Europe and the car was fixed (hopefully anyway, I've driven it today and yesterday and the issue hasn't come back). But the battery which was 3.5 years old was completely flat after I left it for only a week. I jumped it and it goes, stop and it'll restart. But left overnight and it's dead again. So new battery just went in.

 

Ups and downs. I have to say the car felt it could be extremely reliable once every components which failed due to age and lack of use have been replaced. So maybe the next goal should be a Duratec/MZR swap?

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1 hour ago, Conan said:

Then on the 12th I had extreme stomach ache and was diagnosed with appendicitis. I spent a week in hospital after having that removed and the car just sat.

theres a weight reduction yo/bro! joke in there somewhere if you dont mind me saying :mrgreen:

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8 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

theres a weight reduction yo/bro! joke in there somewhere if you dont mind me saying :mrgreen:

 

Having seen the size of the thing I have to say it is quite a considerable amount of weight reduction.

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3 minutes ago, Conan said:

Having seen the size of the thing I have to say it is quite a considerable amount of weight reduction.

as much as the way you said that amused me I dont know if a laugh reaction would be appropriate or not!

glad your back on your feet and nothing went wrong etc :) 

(and happy to hear the Mazda is also back on its feet so to speak!)

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On 5/25/2020 at 10:10 AM, Conan said:

 

It should be clear that I am not hubnut.

Right now I'm wishing it was 1994 again and I had loan of an A plate 1.5 323 estate from my then boss. It was slow compared to my mate's 81 323 1.3 BD hatch though. Not quite sure why - the 1.3 responded amazingly to being driven hard through the rev range, whereas the 1.5 was just...flat. There was something very satisfying about driving the estate though and I always liked borrowing it. This one is identical to it... I'd love to source one over here, but they appear to be pretty much extinct now.

Am really enjoying reading about your 626. Keep going with the updates!

 

mazda-323-estate_1369_1.jpg

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Finally got round to applying for title transfer. This I have to visit the Department of Transport in which the car is registered in on site. A pain in the arse when compared to being able to do it online. But in actuality it's just having the car inspected of not being ringed, having correct engine serial no. and correct colour as in the title, and then wait for the bureaucracy to happen. In this case I had to wait 45 minutes for 9 queues of people applying for title transfer. (This was 11am Friday). Then today I wired in the foglight. Crucial stuff as the light output for the headlamp is awful.

 

It has come to the point of there's nothing left on the to do list and the car actually works. I guess I have to review it?

 

I have to say, now that the car is running about correctly and the suspension is sorted enough. It is a surprisingly nice running and driving car.

 

The engine might be only 1600cc producing not enough horsepower for the job. But it will cruises at 80mph happily all day long. The only issue is that the fuel economy is awful for what it is. You'd be lucky to get 25mpg on the motorway and in town it gets even worse. This I reckon is due to the general wear and tear of the engine and also the oversize modified a/c compressor and alternator which clearly was done for maximum performance in those regards and nothing else. But from other reports it's been said that these Mazdas don't have amazing fuel economy anyway.

 

The gearbox use stick linkage instead of cable so the actuation is still quite precise despite worn out bushings.

 

In regards to the handling. The ride is solid with a sense of stability to it, almost in a European car sense. While the steering is as vague as you'd imagine a 1986 model year would do but it is what it is. I could imagine why these were one of the most popular Japanese car in Europe back in the day. I guess that is also why parts are more common via eBay from Europe.

 

The interior is not very well damped, but the seats are soft and supportive. It is a comfortable enough place to be. It is also a very nostalgic place to be in the appearance, the tactile feel, the noise, and the odour. I only drive this car with trashy mid-80's to early-90's pop music on because anything else will feel wrong. It helps that the stereo system quality is awful and so it really is like listening to music via FM station back when coverage was shite.

 

This car is incredibly rare but no one gives a shit.

 

To conclude, hairnet will enjoy this car, probably.

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Boot lid seal is not sealing and so creating a small Caspian Sea in the spare wheel well. I have dried it out (with no damage to the wheel well, thankfully) and with a quick water hose work now I know it needs a boot lid seal and a door seal as well.

 

Cock was my expression when I saw the lake in the boot.

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  • 1 month later...

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