So my roommate found this GTUs sitting outside a mechanics shop in an industrial part of Seattle. The GTUs had been sitting for a year with flat tires, faded and swirled paint, covered in dust, with a blown engine and a drained battery. I went in the day after my friend found the RX-7 and talked the head-mechanic into selling it to me for $1000.



It was nearly perfect aside from the blown engine--and even the original turbo/GTUs seats had been covered their entire life with filthy and badly faded synthetic wool covers. Underneath were perfect seats. There is no wear even on the drivers bolster.



I rebuilt the engine, restored the paint and detailed everything with the intention of selling the car--but after a couple weeks behind the wheel I really fell in love with the handling, gearing and cleanliness of the car and decided to keep it.







After deciding to keep the GTUs, I began to upgrade some of the components. The first round of upgrades included:

~Series Turbo front-lip
~Series 5 Turbo side-skirts
~JDM folding mirrors
~JDM FTP's
~JDM side-marker lenses
~Modernized Series 5 "faux-european" taillights
~Series 5 OEM Fog-lights
~JDM Infini model wheels with 1" rear-spacers
~GAB-Sports REVO II coilovers
~Racing Beat cat-back exhaust





I then switched over to an HKS HI-Power cat-back setup:



Because of loudness I switch back to the Racing Beat cat-back and re-restored the paint after nearly a year of D/D duty. In addition I:

~installed a Racing Beat header and pre-silencer to complete the RB system
~swapped out the Series 5 turbo lip for the more aggressive Mazdaspeed lip
~swapped out the OEM aluminum hood for the more aggressive aluminum turbo hood
~painted the euro-tail center section gloss-black (as opposed to the prior trim-black)
~removed the JDM side-markers and blacked out all 4 side-markers
~installed a rear camber-adjustment bar

These are a few pics I took yesterday with the new additions and restored paint:










Next month the GTUs will be going into the garage for an engine refresh and streetport. I'll also be installing a CAI.

 

Now thats an FC. Great work keeping it clean. Love the wheels. I miss my GTUs. Should've keeped the orginal mirrors though.

 

Wow looks great, i love the S5 front with the fogs, VERY clean and tastefully done!

 

WOW... that is a true testament to what a clean stock bodied 7 should be like... My hat is off to you my friend...

- Chris

 

i will love it even more if you spaced the wheels out to uber flush status. otherwise its perfect.

 

You should take it by that mechanic's and make him cry.

 

mazdaspeed lip lovely as always.

 

just like mastercard says it....priceless

 

very nice and clean.. kudos to you sir

 

love it, got any vids of the exhaust note? how much did your coilovers cost ya?

 

Drooled in my pants.

 

Cleeeeeeeean, man! So did you do a respray or just an amazing detail. If it was a detail, man you've got some serious skittles.

 

your car looks almost exactly like mine does but i went all out infini on it (seats, steering wheel, knee pads, bronze windows, etc.)

looks great.

 

NomNomEurotailsNomNom!!

Excellent looking FC sir! Did you have that taillight setup imported?

 

nice car looks great

 

Haha, I suppose I could roll the fenders-lips in the rear, but just working with the 40mm offset of the Infini wheels there's not much that I'd really want to do aside from the 1" spacers I've got. I've done the 1.5" spacers before and that's just relying on too much spacer IMO. I already flattened the front fender-well lips because they were rubbing around turns.

Oh man... Coilovers retailed for like $1800 from Japan and let's just say I got them for a *ahem* good price. Some FC people like me will know what that means...


Yeah, all detail-work man! It does take forever to cut, polish and then wax a car--but the payoff is huge. My rotary-buffer has probably been the best car-related investment I've made.

Jealous dude. Don't know if I could ever be attached to any of my FC's enough to really give them the "golden" treatment, but you deserve major credit for getting that stuff. Really though, I'm thinking the only more personal touches I'll be trying to add are a set of RE-style "swallow" mirrors instead of the folding mirrors and then a CAI... Other than that, I really don't plan on doing too much.

I'm guessing you found an AE though and snagged the glass? I suppose I would totally do that too if it were presented.

Yeah, the center-section was imported. I had been wanting the Euro-setup SO bad ever since I saw it a few years ago, and absolutely jumped at the opportunity when a forum member was selling the piece. I had contacted a few of our european members previously and they said that FC's were so rare that even finding a center-section and getting it shipped over here would be really, really difficult... The tails themselves are vert-tails.

 

absolutely gorgeous mang! looks fan-tit-astic! makes me miss having an fc... a little! lol

 

This thread probably has the most win EVAR!

Everybody has said it all. Your car looks absolutely gorgeous. All the little details you put into it really shows. You deserve a big cookie.

One more thing: will you come and detail my car?

 

WOW! thats very a very nice series 5 you have there

not a bad score for $1000us..... VERY lucky indeed!

is MUCH nicer than my car

Well done!!!!!

 

AHH! Fancy! Lol... Very well done...

 

Beautiful man, I love it!

 

I am looking at buying a nice rotary buffer, what brand did you buy and also what materials did you use?

 

Wow, some of the cleanest cars ever on the face of the planet come from Washington state. I should move there just for the simple fact that there are people there that actually care about their 7....nicely done!

-Vincent.

 

yeah, i have the folding mirrors, jdm ftp's, turn signals, fog lights, the same front lip, infini window visors...a bunch of goodies

i did get the glass from a 10th AE...i actually have a spare set too.

 

WIN! Your car is beautiful. Real nice work.

All i would say is I was thinking how much nicer the FC looks without the hood scoop, then the next picture you've put the turbo bonnet on.

Excellent pictures of an amazing looking car.