snowball

this is such a bad, ghetto idea. You should be shot considering it.

staticguitar313

iTrader: (2)

^^lol, hows the ghetto paintjob holding up, speaking of ghetto

JDriftM

iTrader: (9)

I'm going to give you a little inspiration. These started as FD's, the orange one has plenty of structural support, the maroon one, said that it didn't have enough.

Also, RE Amemiya, has a few FD verts that they've made.

Here's my suggestion. Cut the roof off. Weld in crossbracing in the what-used-to-be hatch area. Once rear section is welded together, weld bracing down the middle, 4inches above and running along the tranny tunnel. Weld sheet metal sheet over the former hatch area. CHOP the front windshield. Get vert doors to save yourself a lot of cursing. Where you welded the sheet on the hatch area, fab up some half cone-shaped pieces right behind the seats (see third pic), fab a roll bar to match the half-cones, then weld bracing across the door frames (double the tubing across the door) and behind the dash to connect both sides, connecting everything to the firewall (possibly going through the firewall), basically connect entire original chassis to the new tube-frame chassis you're building inside it. Custom make a new dash to fit over the new bracing (see 4th pic). Find some Carbon fiber BUCKET seats, get some 4 or 5 point harnesses. Seal off or hinge a piece of metal behind the seats. Slap an RE Amemiya FC2000 kit on it, side skirts, and diffuser, Sexy Style replica hood, a nice set of 17 or 18in wheels (10's out back, 9's up front), Endless or Brembo brakes, a nice Bridgeported GT42R motor runnin a clean V-mount. Paint it one color to keep it cleeeeeaaaaaaaaan. Drop it down on some Zeal coilovers, RB swaybars and endlinks, DTSS eliminators.
And then enjoy the **** out of having something NO ONE has.

Hope that's some inspiration for you. This is what I do, think of frankenstein **** to do to cars. Enjoy.



J

philiptompkins

iTrader: (4)

Oh i'm not building a racecar by any means. I just want a fun cruiser/daily. We have many warm/hot summer/spring/fall/winter days here in houston to enjoy. For the time being it will not be a track car of any kind. Just a fun daily (and I understand the obvious about lack of interior, ect...

snowball

looking like paint.
nothing i did cant be undone in a hour.

philiptompkins

iTrader: (4)

Thanks JDrift, those FD'd look pretty damn sick. Yeah i probably won't take it quite that far, but thats some good advise nonetheless. I was origanally thinking of leaving the cargo area open wit minor barcing inside but those coverd ones do look HOT

Black91n/a

If you cut the roof off there's not much keeping the car straight, as there's just the floor to accept all bending and torsion loads. It'll be very floppy, it'll be totally ghetto. To do it right will cost a lot more than to buy a vert, and I doubt you'll be happy with it, and it'll end up in the junkyard anyway, just in more pieces.

I'm pretty adventurous when it comes to cars and I'd never even consider it. Come on, there's already plenty of verts out there, why bother.

To me the ONLY reason to convert a coupe is if you absolutely must have a convertible version of that car for whatever reason, and there's no stock convertible option.

philiptompkins

iTrader: (4)

Well I thought it would be even easyer since there is already a convertible version of this car to use as an example. And ya'll all are probably right about it being ghetto but oh well, it will be my creation. But the way I see it, I could start with a no-roof coupe and do a SHITLOAD of reinforcing, mostly bracing underneith before I get to the weight of a vert. I think my next step is to get under someones vert to compare the underbody differances. From what I gather from you all there must be a shitload of differances and extra bracing in the vert.

snowball

the vert really wasnt the same car, I'd wait for Icemark to chime in. but IIRC the vert wasn't even made in the same plant. the body is totaly diffrent.

Naegleria_Fowleri

Considering the base model FC is what? 2,600 lbs, and the Vert is what? 3,000 or so lbs? I would say there is a **** ton more bracing in there.

And of all the bad ideas I've ever heard of, this has to be one of the worst ones to have happen to an rx7.

You remind me of some sixteen or seventeen year old who has no perception of reality, and thinks that anything and everything can be done and done cheaply. Like building a four rotor. Damn, maybe I shouldn't have said that. Next thread you start will be "I'm building a four rotor for my did-it-at-home vert" asking for suggestions on how to weld together an eccentric shaft and if such and such item is going to work for an intake manifold or something stupid like that.

I'm sorry if I offend you here, but you have to understand that this is an absolutely horrible decision on your part. It will completely ruin the car entirely, and to make it worse it will be a danger to even ride in.

philiptompkins

iTrader: (4)

LOL, sorry I just had to laugh. Lets see... I don't know how you can compare welding an E-shaft together to cutting a roof off and installing a cage. And my 2 rotor has plenty of preformance for me thanks.

Naegleria_Fowleri

How can I compare? This is how - they are both overly retarded decisions. I can definitely see having a conversation with someone who wants to chop the top off his rx7, and weld together two eccentric shafts to make a 26B. Yep. I can see the a person talking about doing both very easily.

Someone who is stupid enough to think they can chop off the top of an rx7 without any knowledge of how to sturdy the chassis up and thinks that welding braces here and there is enough is definitely stupid enough to think they can weld together two eccentric shafts and make it work for a four rotor.

Juiceh

iTrader: (4)

The vert was produced on its own seperate assembly line IIRC.

While this idea sounds kinda cool, I really think your heading for a world of headaches and regret if you do go this route.

Save yourself a world of hurt and probably quite a bit of money and find a vert.

staticguitar313

iTrader: (2)

That orange Tamon design FD is insane!!!! i habe the superstreet mag with it on the cover.

staticguitar313

iTrader: (2)

Not to take the kid with the oddball idea's side but um the base model was well the base model, youd need to compare the vert to the GXL which weighs in at
2720 or the TII which weighs in at 2850 which where coupes that are as loaded as the vert with options, keep in mind that alot of that weight is actually the roof assembly and its motors. So in reality its not too far off. If he does a lil searching he'll find the structural info, b/c i'm not gunna hand it to him ^_^

Naegleria_Fowleri

Even that being true, in case you couldn't tell I'm a first gen guy and not too knowledgeable on second gens regardless, the weight difference is still a significant amount, and I know that when I am serious about doing something then I prefer to do a lot of searching before commiting to something anyway. I'm not going to ask right out of the box on how to do something. He can do whatever he wants to his car, but unless he knows what he is doing to reinforce the car, he is endangering himself quite a bit. I think that is the most important part.

staticguitar313

iTrader: (2)

Indeed, lets hope he doesnt kill himself

Jizneremie33

i don't know if you've ever tried this but get yourself a pint of milk in the little cartons. empty it out and close the top part again. Now squeeze on the sides and remember how it feels. Now cut the top off with a knife. The carton is now ridiculously flimsy. This is in theory what will happen to your coupe if you chop the top. Now there will be a considerable amount of reinforcement that you will need to do. It can be done, but keep in mind even the rx7 convertible that mazda designed weighed considerably more than the coupe and alot of it was reinforcement.

sykminded

Yeah, I really can't imagine why you'd do this. far less stress and money would be spent on simply buying a convertible, and fixing it up. as has been said before here, the convertible is not just a coupe with no top, it was 'tweeked' and 'redesigned.' Obviously anythings doable with the knowledge, skill, and money available, but yeah... that would be a lot of work. Call me lazy. But i could think of a lot of things to better spend the time and effort on. Mazda made an rx-7 convertible that was just fine.

Just buy a vert man.

raptor22

Dude, seriously...this is STUPID. Just drop in the running motor and sell it....then buy a vert.

I'm sure it could be cool if you did it right...and did something like what JDriftM posted. Open-cockpit racecarish look. Where you bascially make up a tube frame to replace the missing roof....and cap off all the open sections cleanly with sheetmetal so it isn't so obvious that you just cut the top off..

But it sounds like you are going to do a ghetto *** job that is going to look like crap.

--Alex

philiptompkins

iTrader: (4)

maybe this thread needs some drawing so yall can see what I'm thinking about. But I'm still interested as to where I might incurr all of these incredible expenses, granted it would be MUCH easyer to fix up a vert but i'm going to do all the work myself anyway.

And "JUST BUY A VERT" is easyer said than done, thats why I offerd a trade at the beginning.

Jizneremie33

the incredible expenses will occur if you don't want it to look like straight ***. It will also come from the cost of materials needed to actually reinforce the car after you chop it up... otherwise it will be unsafe to drive. A angle piece of steel isn't going to be enough to brace the car at all.

Black91n/a

To make a top will require considerable effort, or considerable expense. To replace all the switches, recover the seats, etc to deal with no top will also be expensive, there's a lot of switch gear in there, and to recover a seat properly will be a few hundred at least. To get it stiff enough will require considerable amounts of bracing and welding, repainting, etc.

The vert's have extra thick rocker panels, an extra brace up front at the rear of the subframe, bracing across the back behind the seats and so on.

Alex6969

what about doing a T-Top rx? would that have enough roof to still be somewhat rigid?

kabura

hey,guys actually i have a 91 vert but the only problem that im having is the top.is all damage and i need a new one....... if you have any info pls let my know..thankssssssss....