73 Series 1 Mazda RX4

The lil’ blue street shark..

When Matt first come to me with his RX4 i was blown away by his attention to detail in the work he’d done prior. The paint, motor, wheels and other small intricacies were gorgeous. Even down to the badges, vents and bumpers which had all been restored to their original glory.

He’d already purchased a ProStitch OEM style trim kit which included front and rear seats, roof and door trims which just needed to be installed. However, the foams and seat bases left alot to be desired.. Having rotten foam on both fronts, I started by butchering out the bad, replaced and reshaped with a new high density foam and finally covered the entire face in a fresh layer of soft density foam to give it a “off the production line” feel. Without any modification, the covers and doors slipped on like a dream.

Got to love the detail in this kit. Factory high frequency welds and piping throughout. Aswell as an embossed logo on the front and rear headrests. Really gives the authentic OEM feel.

From there, i moved onto the roof. Having it already sewn and ready to go was a real treat.. the bows and vinyl went up without a hitch. Nothing more satisfying then tensioning out a fresh bowed roof! I finished it up with new black pinchweld allround.

I’ve always believed its the collective of smaller details that set apart our work from the rest. The visors were looking quite sad so i refoamed and recovered them in a OEM matched vinyl. I also noticed the door handles, rear vision mirror, glove box lid and roof grab handles were worn and tarnished simply from old age so i gave them a thorough clean with a specialised plastic cleaner and they came up brand new!

Hiding the modern touches..

Having completed the bigger pieces of the interior I moved onto some of the smaller details. Matt was wanting to install a full Alpine stereo which included a subwoofer, headunit, 2 x 6" speakers, 2 x 6x9 speakers and finally 2 x tweeters. Easy enough but the hard part is working all these components in without destroying the OEM look.

I began with the easiest, which was the 6x9’s on the parcel shelf tucked away behind the headrests and beneath a very dark tint. If i hadn’t pointed out their location you’d look straight past them.

Next, the tweeters. After playing about with a few ideas, Matt and I landed on retro fitting them at the base of the A pillar. Paired with the OEM vinyl, they snuck in beautifully. Again, not an eye sore jammed in an obvious spot but a subtle touch that goes otherwise un-noticed untill pointed out.

The 6” speakers were a tricky one. Both Matt an I didn’t want to ruin the door trims buy butchering out a hole for them and with very little room anywhere else i found the smallest of gaps that was just right for these 6” speakers. Tucked well beneath the dash and hidden from sight was a small box housing the two speakers either side of the console. Again, factory black vinyl made them blend in perfectly and out of the line of sight (unless you’re on your belly looking in)

Finally, the headunit and subwoofer.. The headunit was quite easily tucked away in the glove box. A great feature of the Alpine headunits is their hand held remote. Matt can easily do all he needs to without ever seeing the headunit. Saves him reaching across the car between songs or for a volume change.. +1 for safe driving points lol.

The Subwoofer, unfortunately, wasn’t as easy to position. Having a slimline 8” sub inside an exsiting alpine ported box made my life alot easier but just didn’t fit into the space i’d hoped for it to squeeze into. Alas, my good friend the jigsaw made short work of that. I then mounted in to a panel in the boot creating its own “subbox” within the quarter panel.

As for the amp, i tucked it well and truly out of sight under the false floor in the boot (read on further for more)

Last but not least, the oil pressure gauge was hidden within a smaller dash hole to the far right. Why oil pressure and not boost? Because Rotary lol. A perfect fit if I may say so myself.

The classic: “We’ll just hide it all in the boot” trick

What start out as a quick carpeted boot quickly escalated into a completely custom panelled boot that housed and hide some key pieces to the car. Here’s a before shot for a little reference..

After making a start on some panels and a false floor, the more involved i got the more Matt and i realised there was no point leaving any stone unturned.. The rest of the car was coming up so well it would have been a shame to have taken shortcuts on the boot. It very quickly turned into a a highend install.. Heres the final product:

Battery relocated to the boot, killswitch relocated higher to keep out of plain sight and amp all hidden under false floor. Functional and clean. The sub also mounted to the quarter panel trim which allowed for maximum output from the 8” sub. Another feature to spot is the entire floor (under the false floor) is carpeted and bound.. Even the spare wheel well is carpeted!
Finally, the quarter panels were wrapped in the factory black vinyl and piping. Breaks up an otherwise completely (dull) all carpet boot.

To tell you im over the moon with the results would be an understatement.. Looking broadly at the whole theres an overwhelming sense of simple about the design and look but thats the point. It just ties in with the interior design so well. Factory matched vinyl, piping and black carpet.. nothing silly or overbearing, simply tidy.

Special mentions..

Quick special mention goes out to TBR Restorations for his amazing work on the dash restoration components. Seriously the icing on the cake for this retrim.

Another goes out to Travis at Prospark Auto Electrical for working the electricals so beautifully in and around the car (you’ll have to take my word for it as I hid all his work unfortunately)

And finally Matt for his on going help throughout and also allowing me to take the reins on the boot and many other ideas i had for this beast. Definitely makes for a better final product when a customer trusts your opinion and judgement. Thanks Matt!