Rx Seven,


Those are the watanabe 8 spokes all right, they do look fairly similiar to the panasports, but the old school watanabes are the real find overhere. I currently have managed to grab two sets of them in 16" sizes since I have the front brakes from a 2nd gen (Thanks to the BWaits big brake kit) I now have to redrill the back axels only and will have 5 x 114.3 at all four corners. I am lucky in that I have a set of 5 lug centers I can swap on the SSR Mesh if I go with them, but I am leaning towards the watanabes becasue the ssr's are only 15" and I can no longer get good tires in the sizes required (need 15-255/45 back, and 15-235/45 for the front 50 series would work also, just look a little balloonish)

the pics of sevens you have are the some of the cars that were campaigned in the states. I am looking for the ones that were campaigned here in Japan. The graphics on the austrailian and Japan ones were identical in that they ran the Mazda colors of blue/orange with the body being blue, and the strip was orange.

kenn

 

I want to make them scream words that they don't know how to spell, I want them to be screaming

 

coolness thanks for the good input. cant wait for some more pics!

 

OK

as some of you are aware, I took the 7 down for a major refurbishment job.

Ijust stripped off the wide body kit, and started cleaning out the rust in the front end. the previous owner had a battery leak all over the frame and didn't do anything about it, so I had my work cut out for me on it.


kenn

 

cont

I had to cut off the front fenders and bumper. I had hoped to replace them with the identical kit, but couldn't locate one. So I opted for the Mariah kit (great customer service and the parts fitment is excellent.)

my rear wheel wells had just started rusting on the right hand side, but the left was a lost cause. I had to make a new plate and weld in sheetmetal. thank god for the sandblaster ....

the one shot shows the replacement plates I made for the left hand side. I made it out of 3 mm plate, and then welded it in.

if you look at the photo with my finger pointing I think I can explain why our cars rott out so badly. It has nothing to do with the sun roof as surmised by some people, but the simple fact that mazda did not seam seal between that plate, and the body. it left a perfect cavity for dirt and water to collect in and rust out.

I finished off that panel replacement by sandblasting it, primer, paint, seam sealer, and lastly undercoating.

 

photos of crossmember with steering column in. by utilizing the FC's dash and steering column it made it possible to use the steering linkage with no modifications to the steering shafts.

only the dash needed a lot of cutting and trimming to fit.

currently i just finished installing the following:

FC front crossmember, so I have the rack and pinion + big brakes
FC wiring harness complete front to rear
fc dash complete with A/C Heater Core and fan unit
FC steering column

I chose to go with the FC's A/C heater, etc, so that the wiring would be plug and play. for me its easy to fabricate modify etc, but for some reason I can not do wiring for ****, so it was easier to modify the dash and A/C components than it was ot chase/rewire the dash wiring etc.

this also gives me a no mistake exact wiring harness for the power fc to wire into with all of the normal FC3S features so the EMS won't freak out for any reason.

 

Here are two shots that kind of show the color.... they really do not do it justice though. it is a british royal racing green similiar to the stock 78~82 RX-7 color (at least here in Japan) enhanced for 2006 with a gold metalic mica base and just the slightest hint of blue peart mixed with the metallic. Yummy

will post more as I work more.

PS to the whole crew, this is 3 weeks of intense 12 hour days since I started (I took leave to restore my baby) now that I am off of leave it will take a lot longer to show progress as I cannot work on here 24/7 gotta work for a living ya know!

kenn

PS forgot,

yes I painted the engine bay whiel I had the wiring out, figured, Why Not? normally I am as anti rice as you can get, but since I had to sandblast the entire fonr frame, and weld in new metal I figured it might as well be tastefully done.

cheers.

 

I've had to go back and use body caulk on the stiffener plate too. Also check the seam the divides the inner and outer half on the inside of the wheelwell. I've had to dig the entire seam out, treat the rust and recaulk it. Another great place to hold moisture and allow rust to start.

There is also a patch panel on the inside of the wheelwell that isn't caulked and has a couple of hole in it. This is the second most common place for rust to start. Caulk the holes and all around the edge.

Looking good Kenn, keep it up. Like the paint color too.

 

Well I got my 5 lug rear axles installed today, just intime to push the car out of the shop...

I have to go TAD to seattle for a week of totally boring conferance so it will be awhile before I get back to work on her...

anbody live in seattle want to meet up? I am staying at the red lion bellvue from the 6th to the 13th somebody want to help me escape from this friggin conferance?

one whole week of talking heads will drive me insane

kenn

 

Sure. Fly down to LA so we can party!!!! I will pick you up of course in my 3-rotor Limo.

 

love the color. almost makes me wanna paint my FB a dark green. Almost. Can't wait to see the final product.

 

dude what do you do for a living??? The more of this stuff I see the more I start to regret that I havent moved to Japan when I had a chance.

 

just finished getting the last coat of claer on, the process went as such:

4 Nov: 2 coats poly primer, one in light gray, one in dark gray. Block sanded by hand with 400 grit and the contrast between colors let me find and fix errors.

5 Nov: last coat of primer, block sanded with 600 grit

10, 11, 12 Nov: 3 coats of color (poly) and out for a color sanding with800 grit

18, 19 Nov: 2 more coats of color, then 3 of clear block sanded again with 1000 grit

1st, and 2nd Dec: shot the last 3 coats of clear today, and I am waiting for it to dry, and completely harden so I can block sand with 1200 and buff.

fudge I am tired, this has been a 5 month project so far, and I figure another 3~4 weeks to go to finish.

the local Yokosuka Mazda dealership have been real standup type Guys (and Gals) they have been searching NOS parts for me for 4 months straight, so far I managed to score a brand new windshield wiper rack and motor assembly (last complete one in Japan) whoot! to include all of the small parts, plus a NOS power window regulator and motor, they also found all of the little clips to put the windshield trim back in.

I will post photos tommorrow or monday after I sleep for the next couple of days.

kenn

 

I work for the navy as a civilian, I really do not make **** for pay, its just that I have been building cars for years, each time I got bored with one, I would either sell it or part it out, and then roll that money + some extra into the next project, its just that I have been lucky and always found someone interested in the parts, or projects that I was selling.

I sold my last SA/FB back about 13~14 years ago, and when I got tired of my 3 Rotor Cosmo, I decided to build another FB, but this time now I have more cash, experience etc. so hopefully I can do it justice.

incidentally this is being built as a fully prepped circuit car, that I can drive on the weekends and annoy (read that as rape) all of the young kids with when I decide to lay into it.

kenn

 

A few shots of the car at the auto hobby shop.

 

I still have to wait for the paint to cure a little more before I can do the final wet sanding and buffing, but I got no tiger striping, and only a couple of very minor runs. they will easily wet sand out so no worries.

kenn

 

Looking good Kenn, have fun wet sanding, it's sooo much fun to do. Like the Mariah hatch too, didn't know you had one.

 

Looks great. I love dark green on 1st gens.

 

+1243254

And as far as rims do both. one for saturday one for sunday. Or one for the street one for hoosiers. Ohmy GAWD I posted w/o reading the whole thread!! THat car is beautiful!!!! AAAHhhhhhh I can't wait until mine is nice enough to show. And I can't give rides over the internet. Well it's fast and that's all that matters. Thank gawd for turbos...

 

Shes lookin damn good Kenn! coming along really well!

 

thanks for the compliments guys, the last 4 months have been dreadful, I have been driving a "gulp" honda as a daily driver ahggg! fortunately it only cost me 500.00 I am hoping I can sell it when I get done.

Now get this, the honda is a domestic ohnly model, and its a "Rafaga" I have no clue what it meant to the original marketing guys who named it, but I have my own thoughts.......

being that the Japanese cannot pronounce the difference between "R" and "L" I think they had a gay marketing exec with a french boyfriend, and he decided to name a car after him....imagine this..... Claude.... I love you so much that I will name a car after you......La ***.... honda

kenn

 

Lol, who knows where some of the marketing guys get thier ideas these days? As a side note, how's the shipping coming? PM me, I'm getting anxious.

 

i voted for the watanabes i have SSR rs-8's which are the same as RS watanabe rs-8's just a different sticker and they are the best wheels ive ever had on the car. the rs-8 is a true 3 piece wheel too, so if you pick up a set you can have wider shells cut rather cheap.




isaac

 

I have not been on this thread for a while, guess its time for an update...but first,

Isaac, I love the clean look of your car, the watanabe's you have were the next model after the original RS-8's and were licensed through Watanabe by ssr. So they are considered Watanabe's over here. very clean, and it is nnice to be able to change the shell.

Drove the car for the first time in 7 months lasat week, still have to ge tthe front end allighned, but over all I am really liking the rack and pinion. I will be putting her on the lift and taking photos next week and will post them here.

one thing though. I got in a bit of a hurry while bolting in the motor tranny etc. forgot to tighten the three bolts at the top of the bellhousing and they worked their way out I was driving down the Yoko-Yoko and heard this ominous "ting" I was like WTF? didn't know what it was until I got the car back to the shop and on a lift, started looking for an answer to the ting noise and found of the top three only one was still there and 2 had fallen out what a dunb *** I can be at times....

kenn

 

Well its time to finish of the suspension.

Recieved my front and rear struts, I got the fully adjustable ohlins, they should complement the rack and pinion setup nicely I just now have to decide upon what spring rate to do. It really depends upon if I install a triling setup for the rear or not I am so tempted ot do it, but once again the japanese shaken (Japanese Compulserary Insurance inspection AKA JCI) is rearing its ugly head. for those of you who are not in the know, any modifications done to a car a illegal over here, and in order to get a modded car past inspection you have to do one of two things, re-engineer all of your modded items and prove that they are safe, or swap parts every two years.

so far I have managed to re-engineer all of my mods, including the FC crossmember front swap, however I am at a loss about the tri link setup. so far stuff like the FC front swap used "proven OEM parts" even though they were made for a different car, they had already been engineered and passed as safe, all I had to do was prove that my mounting sceme for the crossmember was legitimately safe. being a licensed welder helped immensely as I was able ot prove that the re-inforcements I made to the frame were substantially stronger that the stock units.

but the trilink will basically be replacing the two upper links for the four link system, and I am not sure that I can get it passed. if so than the spring rate choice becomes much easier, if not than I need to figure out how to "loosen" up the two upper mounts so that they do not bind as much.

any suggestions if I decide to not go tri link?

kenn