Replaced the crusty sunroof filler with a less crusty sunroof filler. Got my rear lexan cut and started mounting it before realizing I was out of self tapping screws..... Flushed out and re-mounted the radiator and filled up the coolant system with some high quality H20 and water wetter after I took the water pump of to drill and tap for my Stack water temp gauge.

 

Made a new fan shroud


Sunday was autocrossing and I picked up a co-driver for the day. I won the class and he took third. Car was rock solid for temps even though it was hot as the devil's crotch (including the humidity of said region).

 

Interior is now solid gray. First time it has ever been a solid color. I like.

 

Foam for fender flare molds aquired!




I may have grabbed too much...

 

Time to make a hot wire cutter.

 

Hot wire foam cutting supplies acquired. Construction of the rig will begin next week. I'm dry walling this weekend....

 

And that catches us up to current day. I'm int he process of getting my house on the market as I've purchased a new place and closing is August 28th.

Car is a little bit on the back burner right now sadly.

 

This is awesome.

 

can you post a picture of the inside of the sun-roof delete, and maybe one of everything you took out? Do you know how much weight it ended up saving?

I'm thinking about attempting to tackle this in a while...

 

Im loving this build! Its inspirational as i too am building a gxl for use time attack. Planning to move up north and do hill climb. Keep the good stuff coming!

 

I'll snap a photo of the inside. The existing plate is temporary and will be replaced when I find a roof skin from a non-sunroof car.

As for what I took out... EVERYTHING. I'll try to throw it on a scale, but I can tell you right now it's not light.

Weights for things I've managed to throw on the scale: All weights are rough, this isn't a calibrated scale.
Rear hatch and glass weigh 52 pounds
RX7 hatch glass weighs 35.5 pounds
The stock exhaust manifold and cat weight 43 pounds
Stock steel hood weighs about 40 pounds (I cut the 10 lbs of webbing out of mine)
Stock RX7 windshield = 26 pounds
3/16th Lexan replacement = 10 pounds

 

So how does the lexan glass work? Do you mold it yourself? Or bend it in the best you can? The lexan glass is held down my self tapping screws so is that common on other race cars? Can you seal the glass for rainy conditions... i want to get rid of the glass in my car too. Can you post a pic of the water pump with the temp sensor in it? Everything your doing is on my to do list so ya. Nice build keep us updated!

 

The rear lexan is thin enough that it doesn't need to be molded. The sides are under some pressure, but I'm sure using a couple clamps and the same sealing procedure as replacement glass would yield weather-tight results. Mine is self-tapped for easy removal. One thing to note is that over time lexan will yellow from sun exposure. I got some that has a protective coating, but it's not a lifetime product.

 

It has been a long time since I've updated, but there has been a lot of work going on and more assuredly to come. I basically sacrificed the entire season so I could take my time and do the car right rather than tear-down and rebuild between races.

That mean I got a lot of co-drives.

First, the car got stripped down to a rolling chassis and caged:






And then I started cutting out more metal for the rear-mount radiator setup.

Looks so happy!


Looks so empty


I have more to cut out still, but need an order of tubing to come so I can support the bodywork first.

Test fit


What radiator is that? Nascar Brah

 

Then this happened:

13B Bridgeport race engine.

I got pretty good at spending money for a while...









Depowered the steering rack the right way


Did a little engine bay cleanup


Bought a new toy after being sick of co-driving all summer


Water feeds for the electric water pump setup


Trying to save my transmission fluid from getting cooked

 

And then we decided to go race Lemons by making a RHD Datsun powered foxbody Mustang




Won a regional award


Put some high-octane right in her



That brings us up to date. Looking forward to a busy offseason. Already hit one hiccup because I ordered an S4 TII transmission crossmember.. I have an S5 TII transmission. Oi.

Next order of business is finding and rebuilding a Ford 8.8 IRS with 5.12 gears and an LSD. Then building a new subframe to hold it in.

 

And we're famous!
LeMons New England: Many Audis, Many Forgotten GM Cars, and the World?s Most Evil Vanagon | Car and Driver Blog

24 Hours of LeMons New England: The Winners! | Car and Driver Blog

 

glad to have you back

Where are you going to mount the fuel cell with the trunk mounted radiator?

I'm doing a ford 8.8 w/ 5.14s this winter too What LSD are you going with?

I'm selling my TII OS Giken with 4.3s if you're interested:
https://www.rx7club.com/ne-sale-want...n-lsd-1073115/

 

I have a 5-gallon drag cell that will be mounted on the right side to help offset my weight. It's tall rather than wide.

Haven't decided on my LSD yet, there are a lot of cheap (relatively speaking) options available.

 

Working on the shop while working on the car can be a pain. I made some good progress getting the shop organized though.



And then I repositioned the car.

The rug really brings the room together.

And got the rest of my lights installed. 1,500 watts of T5HO.


Realized I had never put the aluminum TII hood on the car. I like.


Decided I can take a lot more weight out of the doors. I'll epoxy in some aluminum braces to keep its shape. Still a lot more metal to come out of it though.


Then I started singing the blues

 

Cool job.

Done yet?

 

looking good! Damn im jealous of your garage set up

 

Sometimes I forget how far the garage has come from when I bought this place. It wasn't wired and was all bare studs.

Now I just need more headroom for a lift.....

Meanwhile the missus is getting a brand-new horse barn.

 

Hey Dave, I've heard about your build a few times, since Paul mentioned that he was buying your n/a 13b for the Miata. I just recently arranged to upgrade from my hillclimb Miata (s6 class - far from being 'fast') to an n/a RX7 as well, and wanted to see what kind of suspension configuration you're running. I only remember seeing John's RX7 this season, should we expect to have three FC's in 2015?

I'm also interested to see where your cage ended up; the rx7 I'm purchasing has half a cage, and I'm trying to decide if it'll be easier to expand that or just start over from scratch. Seeing what you've done to keep Don/Walter happy in this chassis would be superb.

Also, let me know if you need a second set of hands, most of the work I do on my cars is at the makerspace in Nashua, and MA is just a stone's throw away.

 

Are you buying Winston's car? I'm picking up an 87 GXL running parts car from him for a Lemons rig next weekend.

My suspension is far from finalized. Turner Motorsports is valving some Bilsteins for me and I'm picking up a pair of AWR front strut housings. The rear end is all delrin bushings beyond the rear trailing arm, which I left alone due to binding concerns with more "solid" materials. Rear lateral links have been replaced with Battle Version units with heim joints - same with the camber link.

If you wanted to swing by to check out the cage we can make that happen.

I need to update this build thread badly....