1969 A7 SUA Mazda 'Luce' UB Series 1500

[usmansaddique]

the perks of NOT being a wallflower - NOS headlight surrounds

mine were, beside being beat, a kind of mismatch, with one being a 1500 (L) and the other being from a 1800 (R). so needed to be corrected. with arrival of these NOS headlight surrounds, i now have all the NOS parts to put together a new face on the luce

Where did u find these? Ebay?

Sent from my iPhone using PW Forums

[karsaz.engineers]

The alternator you ordered from srilanka are available easily at Lawrence Rd Karachi . Mostly remembered as Mazda 1300 ka dynamo.

Is the starter wiring original with heavy solenoid on the frame rail?

i will have to request some helpful friend from karachi to help checking on the availability of the original alternator there at lawrence road

starter wiring will have to be checked. will snap a pic later as soon as i could and share

The earliest 1500 would be scrapped or butchered into a later model, the biggest problem with the early models was the door latch mechanism would fail and the door would not close. It had a ratcheting gearwheel rather than a lever system.

door latch mechanism differences (interior) - A6 mazda 1500

door latch mechanism differences (interior) - A7 mazda 1500

[karsaz.engineers]

Where did u find these? Ebay?

Sent from my iPhone using PW Forums

yep, and a bit of fortune had to be paid for the NOS ones. these are correct A7 "alloy" ones. A6 were stainless and were solid/blacked out grill design. A7 ones have hollow grills as can be seen in my pics

here are the correct A6 solid surrounds, though beat but provide a good reference and also show the design difference as being discussed

[Xulfiqar]

i will have to request some helpful friend from karachi to help checking on the availability of the original alternator there at lawrence road

starter wiring will have to be checked. will snap a pic later as soon as i could and share

door latch mechanism differences (interior) - A6 mazda 1500

door latch mechanism differences (interior) - A7 mazda 1500

I was referring to the latch you find on the side of the door, the thing that locks onto the B pillar piece. This interior door pull was very different too.

btw, nice find on the headlamp surrounds. They were hen's teeth even a long time ago.

[VCheng]

This is going to be a great thread, after quite a while on PW. Thank you for sharing it here.

[karsaz.engineers]

I was referring to the latch you find on the side of the door, the thing that locks onto the B pillar piece. This interior door pull was very different too.

btw, nice find on the headlamp surrounds. They were hen's teeth even a long time ago.

thank you, yes the surrounds were the most wanted part on my NOS list which had me looking for them like a crazy nut case. thank goodness, they are behind me now. safely stashed under my bed (of all the places, you'd think)

[karsaz.engineers]

This is going to be a great thread, after quite a while on PW. Thank you for sharing it here.

well i hope it meets the expectations. i am trying to do justice with this great base project car as well as the readers
thank you, your input would help me steer clear of any hurdles or mischievous brain waves that may hit me during the course of the project, so please leave your input whenever you must

[VCheng]

well i hope it meets the expectations. i am trying to do justice with this great base project car as well as the readers
thank you, your input would help me steer clear of any hurdles or mischievous brain waves that may hit me during the course of the project, so please leave your input whenever you must

You are off to a good start. If I can be of any help, just post up.

[Xulfiqar]

I remember a certain crazed diesel era in karachi where 90% of mazda 1500 sedans were slapped with 1c diesel engines and painted black and yellow to make into taxis. Before this craze their parts were exceptionally easy to buy and there were a lot of them too.

during the craze, parts got stupidly expensive and eventually all the cars were scrapped because of hack welding jobs etc etc. e.g. headlamp switch used to be easily available for Rs 100/- back then - during the craze it jumped to 500/- Then people starting hacking generic parts and slapping them on. And so goes the story.

btw - the old story (according to ancient mechanics - dead now) was that such mazda engines are OHC - and Pakistan was forever atleast 2 or 3 decades behind automotive service, most were accustomed to side valve engines and modern for the average mechanic were OHV engines. like the oldest toyota K, T and Y engines - or even old british leyland POS. a headgasket change was easy on them, same with valve clearance job. Even engine oil selection was easy, API SB straight 40 and you are in business.

When they saw the first OHC engines en masse (not MB or any other unique marque) in these mazdas (including the 1000, 1300, 616 etc) they were flabbergasted by the complexity which involved removing the timing cog and hanging the chain to the side of the engine and this engine required thora mehenga aur thora patla oil - which was a bit expensive too. And also halka haath while tightening otherwise aluminium castings like the timing case would break - as you can see this engine is square in nature, it also accelerated faster than the regular british and japanese OHV/SV engines which revved with the urgency of a snail going for a snack.

[karsaz.engineers]

You are off to a good start. If I can be of any help, just post up.

will surely do. thank you

When they saw the first OHC engines en masse (not MB or any other unique marque) in these mazdas (including the 1000, 1300, 616 etc) they were flabbergasted by the complexity which involved removing the timing cog and hanging the chain to the side of the engine and this engine required thora mehenga aur thora patla oil - which was a bit expensive too. And also halka haath while tightening otherwise aluminium castings like the timing case would break - as you can see this engine is square in nature, it also accelerated faster than the regular british and japanese OHV/SV engines which revved with the urgency of a snail going for a snack.

this brochure here should help settle quite a few discussions that we have been having regarding fan, alternator and starter etc. while it also seems relevant to the above post on the OHC engines

and here is a pic of the starter on this particular project car, though i still have to take a shot and check about the solenoid

[Xulfiqar]

the picture shows what I believe is a european export or similar, that 2 blade fan (which was highly useless at idle) gave advantage of being very quiet and very low drag at high engine speed. Almost all the fans I saw on this engine were the same kind of fan except they were 4 blade. same on mazda 929s, 818, 808 etc.

the nice looking distributor cap was a factory item, the whole cap is one piece. But I have seen genuine mazda packaged caps with separate wires in Karachi. This cap has one disadvantage of the wires not being replaceable. If one wire were shot, the whole cap required replacement.

the starter you have is not a genuine item either, The original one is quite long. Notorious to kill the battery

You can tell that I simply adored this car - but never got to own one in good nick.

[karsaz.engineers]

the picture shows what I believe is a european export or similar, that 2 blade fan (which was highly useless at idle) gave advantage of being very quiet and very low drag at high engine speed. Almost all the fans I saw on this engine were the same kind of fan except they were 4 blade. same on mazda 929s, 818, 808 etc.

the nice looking distributor cap was a factory item, the whole cap is one piece. But I have seen genuine mazda packaged caps with separate wires in Karachi. This cap has one disadvantage of the wires not being replaceable. If one wire were shot, the whole cap required replacement.

the starter you have is not a genuine item either, The original one is quite long. Notorious to kill the battery

You can tell that I simply adored this car - but never got to own one in good nick.

two blade fan for european market and 4 blade fan for asian market is quite possible and i am sure your memory isn't at a loss, because the lesser blades fan count would make sense for the colder markets

yeah the plugwires were on the list as i wanted to replace all the ignition related bits right from the begining so ordered some and they are on the way

my starter is not original that is correct, i knew from the moment i made a pic but you never know if a NOS one could already be on the way even before i knew mine was not original

you see thats the beauty of having so much love for a particular car, you always seem to remember every tiny detail even when you dont own one. and its such a cool thing for me, to ripe your love for this car out and make this one as original, correct on specs as possible

[karsaz.engineers]

the perks of NOT being a wallflower - NOS headlight surrounds

mine were, beside being beat, a kind of mismatch, with one being a 1500 (L) and the other being from a 1800 (R). so needed to be corrected. with arrival of these NOS headlight surrounds, i now have all the NOS parts to put together a new face on the luce

i think i missed to share the pics of these NOS inner headlight surrounds that i already had arranged before even starting the thread

so the NOS outer headlight surrounds, NOS inner headlight surrounds, NOS front bumper and NOS front blinkers make a complete NOS set to redo the nose on the luce coupled with mint grill and mint emblem which are in top shape and only need a good clean up

now if anyone plz tell me how many of pakistan mazda luce have NOS nose? atleast this one will, soon - inshaAllah!

this strikes down quite a bit of the chores

[karsaz.engineers]

dont think i have shared pics of these NOS parts either, idler arm bushes and side blinkers

all suspension bits, except engine mounts and gear mounts, too are complete (mostly NOS), along with KYB shock absorbers on all four corners and jap/malaysian origin upper and lower ball joints with jap/malaysian origin tie rod ends.

all four wheel bearings have been bought and dealt with too

as soon as i hit some NOS engine and gear mounts, suspension would be on our backs too. will share pics of remaining suspension bits later as i will have to fish them out of the parts boxes

NOS brake pipes and NOS (aftermarket) wheel cylinder set has been bought in as well long before this thread had been started

but before i could strike down the "all new brakes" from the original to-do list, i am waiting on the SS disk brakes, booster setup to arrive. only then will be able to strike down the wheels and brakes from the to-do list

[karsaz.engineers]

thought i would post whatever is left to be posted in terms of parts that were sourced before the thread was started

ball joints upper and lower, tie rod ends are jap THREE FIVE (555) & malaysian ASAHI brand
headgasket is jap CHERRY brand
oil filter is malaysian SUN brand
NGK
MB valve seals etc.

also have full set of jap fuji brand valves and valve guides here somewhere which i cant find at the minute. will post later with more. no corners have been cut as of yet and i dont plan to either

[Xulfiqar]

The Fuji branded headparts in Pakistan are a special story ill share another day.

I would not trust old rubber for brake pipes, these parts age with time rather than usage. They are nothing special either, lots available by matchup.

[ansarghani]

Tooo much "NOS" in one thread
Amazing!!!

[karsaz.engineers]

The Fuji branded headparts in Pakistan are a special story ill share another day.

I would not trust old rubber for brake pipes, these parts age with time rather than usage. They are nothing special either, lots available by matchup.

will surely like to hear the story on the fuji brand in pakistan some time
yes i had it in the back of my mind about the NOS brake pipes but they look to be well stored and still pretty soft/flexible. however, i'll keep it in mind and will fish for some brand new ones too, just in case we decide to go with the brand new ones instead at the time of installation

[karsaz.engineers]

Tooo much "NOS" in one thread
Amazing!!!

as mentioned earlier, new parts on these good old mazdas are not easy to find but the same is not true (atleast in my current experience) for the NOS parts. we've been discussing how these cars were butchered by the dozens and lot of brand new original and costlier parts left behind with no buyers to source and pamper their cars (they were busy slapping aftermarket elcheapo brands on their cars) which eventually led to a lot of NOS parts being dumped into those big warehouses of the parts dealers across the country. for them, these parts were junk with no one to buy them of. for someone like me, they were treasure in the back yard

you'll not believe that i have put together all the NOS parts in less than two weeks time for this project. and trust me when i tell you that more than 90% of the "required project parts list" was sourced in NOS parts. all i had to do was to raise finances for the parts and i tried picking up every NOS part that came around whether it was on the list or not

and since the car awaits disassembly, there are lot more coming in by the time we'll unscrew the first screw on it. i would rather start once i have everything on a shelf to put it on the car when it is needed rather than start and then wait for some part to be found/flown in

stay tuned, there is more NOS to come and you would be as baffled by it as i was by finding them in heaps when i embarked on the hunt couple of weeks back

[Xulfiqar]

will surely like to hear the story on the fuji brand in pakistan some time
yes i had it in the back of my mind about the NOS brake pipes but they look to be well stored and still pretty soft/flexible. however, i'll keep it in mind and will fish for some brand new ones too, just in case we decide to go with the brand new ones instead at the time of installation

my experience with NOS rubber items (specially brake parts) has always been sour. The rubber ages with time and is rendered pretty useless after its shelf life is up. I later came to know that in countries with strict vehicle regulations - no brake pipes can be sold as spare parts if they are more than 3 years old.

The pipes for mz 1500 are very simple and mazda being modular since forever, used similar pipes on the mazda 1600 pickup, 616, 818, 808, 929, 1300, 323 etc...

e.g. the ball joints you have here are used in the old mazda 1600 pickup that was famous for "doodh ka farm" - same with the tie rod ends and idler arm bushings.