Hey everyone. It's been a pleasure being here for the past few years, just reading and learning. Anyways, a bit of a back story for anyone who's interested.

My name is Chad. I'm a 25 year old Mercedes-Benz technician. My love for RX-7's pretty much started around the 96-97 area. I remembered seeing one at a car show/race event that my dad took me to. Ever since, I have always wanted an FD. Needless to say, I pestered my dad all throughout highschool into letting me buy one. It was always the same excuses: You don't know how to work on rotaries; I doubt there is anyone in the area who can work on them; That one doesn't even have an engine, etc. etc. Fast forward to this past February, and I bought my first roller FD. Then, about 6 months later, figured out I bit off more than I could chew for my first rotary project, and bought another that was in decent shape running. A 1993 VR base. Drove 400 miles round trip to pick it up. Got it back home and was on cloud 9, just driving around town and to work. About a month later, it was involved in a hit and run. Since then, I parked in my driveway and started working on it.

The day after I bought it:



I dont know how anyone could of put up with this interior:

 

Then, the hit and run:

 

So I decided while the bodywork was being done (by a friend of mine) I would strip the interior and knock that out:

 

Started the second skin sound deadening:

 

Also picked up some Heat Wave Pro from Second Skin. It's supposed to reduce radiant temperatures. I did a quick little test with a piece. I placed a heat gun on one side, and a laser thermometer on the other, and it seems to do a pretty decent job. So I cut out some pieces to match the firewall insulators, then placed the stock insulators back over them:

 

Wiring for future radio/battery relocation:





A couple of interior panels I re-finished:








And my most recently, broke the pedals and dash bar down and sent them to be sand blasted and powder coated:



That's about it for now. Waiting for the dash bar and pedals to come back so I can try to get the interior finished up. Then, I'll be moving on to suspension. Hopefully the engine will last me until next year.

Comments, criticisms, ideas, etc. are all welcome!

 

looks good, it's all worth it in the end.

 

Small update: Took a page out of Lane's book (halfspec) and got the dash bar and pedal brackets powder coated. Decided to paint the steering column myself because I didnt want to take the contact spiral off.



With dash installed and re-taped dash harness:


Powder coated the brackets and had the aluminum portion of the pedals sandblasted:


Took apart the evaporator, heater core and blower motor. Cleaned the heck out of them, scrapped off the 18 year old foam on the blend doors, and re-taped them with felt tape, then installed new weatherstripping:






That's it for now. I had a friend of mine doing all the body work today. Waiting on a few more wires, an auxiliary fuse box, and battery and hopefully back on the road next weekend with a mint interior.

 

My hats off to you for putting in so much work! Glad to see you are bringing it back better than new! Look forward to seeing your final product. Are you staying with Vintage Red, or are you changing things up?

 

Thanks for the kind words! I have gone back and forth between about 12 different colors. Mostly different shades of red and blue, but I always come back to Vintage Red. As of how I feel today, I'll go back with Vintage Red tricoat. I think its the newer Japanese version of vintage red? I think it may be just a touch deeper that the version the US got? I'm not sure. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Edit: It appears from a bit of searching, that NT paint code is the 98-02 Vintage Red, while NU is the 93-95 Vintage Red

 

Good progress on the interior. I bet it will be super quiet.
I'm dying to ditch my tan leather and carpets for black.

 

Good luck to you. I may end up having a few black parts left over after I am done, if you are interested. I bought a roller and stripped the black interior from it. Somewhere over the summer, I bought some things that I thought I needed, but ended up having the whole time.

 

Sub'd as a lot of this I'll be following behind you doing similar things with my new FD. (Gutted interior so need to source carpet and some panels and put it all together so I might as well clean everything up while im at it)

 

Great work! Very thorough.

 

Thanks! That means a lot to me coming from you. Yours, mannykiller and halfspec are the build threads that I follow most. I can't wait to start on my engine, but at the same time, I don't want to start on it so soon. This car is draining my bank account faster than I anticipated.

 

^ its called the FD tax. You need to take every dollar you plan on spending on the car and multiply it by 2. That amount will be close to what you will be actually spending on the car.

That being said, really nice work. That car is gonna be so nice to drive when its done. I myself am still stuck in my loud obnoxious car phase. I still like to feel the noise!

 

Man that's alot of hard work! But it'll pay off in the end. Keep it up!

 

Very badass, you have a lot more patience than me. Keep up the good work.

 

It is also known as FD = Financial Disaster

Do yourself a favor and don't keep financial records, as you are going to go into cardiac arrest when you total it all up! Plus you are discounting your labor rate.

 

I keep a quick tally in my head of how much I spent just on interior stuff, and its rather ridiculous. I've wanted an RX-7 for a while, and I don't plan on selling it, so I figure I should build it right.

Thanks! If you decide to sell that 35R kit, and I have the money, I'm all over it.

 

Trans. tunnel cover I made from the heatwave pro ( you can also see the installed pedals in this pic):




Had some left over, so I decided to do the passenger floor to try and shield some of the heat coming off of the exhaust:



The picture of the passenger floor was later on in the night, hence the darker photo. You can also see the heater core, evap and blower are back in. Carpet went in about a minute after the pic was taken. And the body work was finished today as well! Ill try to get some better, less dark photos tomorrow.

Also, took care of two water leaks, which was probably the reason for the terrible smell when I bought the car. Also sprayed some mold inhibitor all over the floor before the carpet went back in. Hopefully, back on the road this weekend, and saving my pennies for some paint, to which I have added another option: Mazda's Velocity Red Mica.

Thanks for all of the interest in my build thus far!

 

Looking good. Will be curious to know how well the Heatwave Pro works on the passenger footwell.

 

Still have a lot of odds and ends to tie up. I was so anxious to drive it again, that I got as much in as I could just so I could drive it for a bit. Been working mostly at night, so there is a lapse in progress between the pictures. I still have a LOT of stuff to buy for this thing...

Body work just about finished up, Now I just need some money for paint:






I





And before anyone catches the breaker just sitting on top of the battery, I'm working on a cover for the battery side of the bin. I'm making a cutout that will sit suspended over the battery, then I want to mount the circuit breaker to the top of the panel. Might sound confusing, but once its together, it will make sense. I ran out of paint for the interior panels, which is why the hatch stuff isn't in just yet.

 

Wow it's already come a long way from those first photos. Looking good. I've always wanted to pull my interior and do the sound killing stuff.

 

Wow what a difference in the interior once you were finished! looks so clean good luck with your build haha choosing a colour is hard aint it? when i got my Z28 painted i jumped between 9 different shades of blue and it took me about 2 weeks to narrow it down but in the end i was happy so i'm sure if you have spent alot of time deciding you will be too!