Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Pics and Videos Zaino on the beater - 1600x1200 pixels

I spent a lot of time hand polishing out the swirl marks, but it really needs a buffer. I used ZFX with Z5 on my IS last weekend. I got my 3 coats out of an ounce and had enough leftover for a coat on my RX-7. Then I added a coat of Z2 for good measure the following day. Here she is:



The rest including hood reflections.

Dailup warning.

hot damn!!! ditto...

and damn!! huge pic!!

Hey Aaron bring that out to the next meet, unless its really that big, man thats a HUGE pic :p

I personnally like the "Dialup warning" at the end.

Nice pic, looks like you got a good paint job on that car for it being over 15 years old. Has it been repainted? Did those cars come from the factory with a clearcoat? Did/have you clayed it before?

Either way, very nice results!

I wasn't too impressed with the ZFX when I helped a friends use it on his SVT. I already had a coat of Z1 on my car, and I generally only have enough energy to put 1 coat on in a give weekend, so I traded it in for a claybar! Now that is tiring project!

Hey, if you can get me a good pic with an angle you generally see on the cover of our catalog, e-mail it to me, I'll see if I can't get you on the cover one of our future catalogs!

You don't deserve it if you call that a beater!

ARG! That took DAYS to load on my crappy dial-up :p
Nice car, though.

I need beaters like these. First a Stang and now this.

I call it my beater because I don't drive it much and when I do, mostly winter miles. I have autocrossed it once. If I got a new clutch, springs, struts/shocks, oil cooler lines and the Racing Beat header back exhaust system and some rear wheel bearings, I'd probably drive it more often. It's very fun, but with those things would be more fun than the IS and about as quick. That exhaust system gets about 20-30hp which is big on a 2500lb car. Unfortunatelty it costs about $800 shipped with the modified header for an O2 sensor.

It's an 85 with the 13B fuel injected motor, good for about 135Hp IIRC. Sticker price for this top of the line expect leather seats model was about $15.2k back then. I bought it May of 2000 with 137k miles on it from an old college roommate that lives in Mass. My wife & I flew out there Friday evening, spent Saturday with them and drove it 12h back to Mich. It had a dented right front quarter panel from someone that backed into it. I have another black 84 parts car that I just took the panel off and bolted/welded it on this car. It came with an extra set of rare OEM GSL-SE wheels with Blizzaks mounted on them for winter fun. I'm only up to 152k miles now, about 6k a year or so. Consider I will probably have over 20k on the IS in a year plus the 5k for this one plus a couple thousand on my wife's truck for camping/4-wheeling trips. I drive a lot.

I don't know much about the vehicle history prior to about 1997. The lady who owned it before my friend sunk about $3000 into it and them my friend spent about the same intending to keep it for a long time. I have all the receipts for about $6000 worth of replacement parts (including labor). 6mo later his wife is pregnant and 2-seats don't work for that. It was repainted without a clearcoat, I believe by the lady two owners ago who also had the big stripe put on it. I don't really care for the vinyl stripe, but it goes the whole way down the bumpers and also on the steel roof I have. I have the glass roof too which gives more headroom and mainly use in it the summer.

I have not used a clay bar yet and it really needs it. The reflections will be more defined afterwards. I used some 3M Perfect It II Fine cut compound on it by hand which helps, but I'm too impatient to rub for the hours it would take on this car. Just an excuse to buy an orbital buffer at some time.

After using ZFX once, I think it will be very useful in the Fall mostly when you wait for that warm November day to get 3 coats quickly for the whole winter. My wife will be glad her truck isn't parked in the garage for a week while I wait for a layer of Z5 to dry overnight and cure during the day. But regular summer coats every once in a while, I'll just use straight Z2/Z5.

I took a few more pictures, but I was in a hurry and they were blurry. I'll try to get a cover shot for Victoria British and clean it up a little more (wax in cracks, windows, etc). I'd order a clutch from VB, but I found that Clutchmasters has an OEM quality kit for $105 on eBay. I don't remember seeing oil cooler lines in the catalog, but will check before ordering from Mazdatr!x. And something VB should look into carrying is the Racing Beat exhaust systems. They are the only ones that seem to last more than a year on rotaries and get great performance without being too loud.

Roger, I'll bring it to the next meet I can make it to. The car is just about as big as that picture on your screen - tiny.

Thanks for the comments, guys.

Great little cars! 1985 GLS was my first car. That rex could move for only having 1.1L rotatry engine

Here's a pic of mine although not as shiney as yours!