Return to hairyface's garage

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Published on 27 May 2014

Bought the car of my dreams in 1968 - a white 1968 Mazda 1500 deluxe. Absolutely adored the car and treated it like a god - beautiful lines and equipment for the sixtys. First few thousand miles it was wonderful. However it turned into a total nightmare. Worst piston slap I ever heard - Mazda Brisbane reversed pistons to be like new model just out, put in new rings etc but noise returned after 2 thousand miles - it rattled windows as it drove up the street. Then it started blowing head gaskets and warping the head. After 4 rebuilds by the Mazda dealers and the car couldn't go 50 miles without gasket failure I gave up and traded it in on a 68 Toyota Crown Super Deluxe Automatic. In addition to the engine disaster, the super light clutch would shudder extremely badly (oil leaking onto plate obviously) and the shock absorbers did nothing to stop the nose bouncing along the road like a boat on the ocean. Broke my heart to sell the Mazda 1500 but mechanically it was a shocker. I still look lovingly at the photos of the car and dream of what should have been. I now suspect maybe the head problem was related to lean fuel mixture as half of an exhaust valve disappeared within 50 miles at around 60 MPH on the highway to Toowoomba but in 1969 these things were obviously not considered by the Mazda dealers. And warranties in those days were a joke - dealers walked away as soon as the warranty date arrived.