flyboy333

Well I waited a bit to start this thread, after introducing myself and the spider-filled project in the "Introduce yourself" forum I decided to make some progress and post.The car is an 84 three-letter that's been sitting since 1994 in Fresno. In my quest for a V8 and a complete overhaul to a canyon rat I have already shed blood and sweat, though no tears per se. Anyhow, to sum up, it started with a crap interior (no original pics ) and an engine that would take some work to get running again, though it turns over by hand, and now the engine is sold, and here's how it all went down:


^The very first day, after driving for 8 hours to fresno and back to to trailer it.


^The halfway shot, I had already stripped the rear at this point (no pics of it for some reason


^Current state, that state being near-complete strippage (I'm afraid of cutting too many wires and ruining my lights or wipers...)


^Before the engine pull, after the rad pull.


^Rent-a-lift, engine coming out, but what did I not realize?


^It's a flood! Slip yoke? What slip yoke? My friends seen here thought it was entertaining, can't imagine why...


^It's good to have assistants! Done and done.


^I have since cleaned it up more than that, and degreased plus pressure washed the driveway and parts of the car. After doing this I had to remove the exhaust, heat shielding, and tranny crossmember, and this was a huge pain in the ***.

Buildup begins in the next post...

flyboy333

Now the build has begun! The rear suspension is first to come apart, and is currently apart and waiting on a blowtorch to get new bushings ordered from RE-speed and sitting in the garage. Air tools greatly helped, all of the arms and links were frozen in place until de-torqued. Yikes.


^What have I done too soon? Later realized that I was doing it wrong...


^Took a few days to get all arms and such pulled off, leaving the lower links on but ready to come off, nuts are all finger tight.


^My shop. Yup.


^My custom lift kit, involves no springs and jackstands. I later bolted the wheels onto the axle to support it.

That's all for now, on order from Billly is a front race coilover kit with 350 lb springs, rear adjust kit with 200 lb springs, camber plates, and illuminas. Swap kit and stainless lines next, and diff fluid is on the way from redline...

Excitement!

Jibaro 12A

iTrader: (8)

Nice! I have a 81 that sat in a yard since 95 and been sitting in my garage since 08. One day she will be back. Good luck bro

flyboy333

Thanks Jibaro! You should get working on her, an seven being driven is the happiest kind.

Well, I have spent literally all of yesterday replacing the rear bushings, but after a day of being burned by molten rubber, tedious polishing work, and wrestling with the rear suspension, it has been put back together, though not torqued fully as I want to put the springs and shocks on, then raise the axle to till the car sits on it to torque. To give you an idea of how much I cleaned the I.D. of each suspension arm, they all looked like this:

mazdaverx713b

iTrader: (91)

so are you installing the original engine or doing the unthinkable V8 swap?

flyboy333

The horrible and unthinkable V8 swap, in which Satan comes among us and steals the soul of the RX7.

Chuck Norris FB

Meh too each there own i guess



I like where this have gone
https://www.rx7club.com/old-school-other-rotary-63/1974-13b-re-nova-727207/

flyboy333

That Roto-nova is awesome! Imagine the looks of the muscle-heads who find out that it has a rotary! I love dorito power (used to have an FD and an "FE") but I have reasons for wanting to use a 302 in this case.

gamble302

if you get yours running before mine i might cry a little :P

mazdaverx713b

iTrader: (91)

sorry to hear that you are going with the V8. i wish you the best of luck with the swap. have you considered a TII swap?

flyboy333

Have faith lols, I'll run out of money before building the engine (probably) or at least run out of money before being able to fuel the thing... But it's good to see someone agrees with me!

Don't pity me, there are worse fates than handing "fast" cars their asses

discomatt

Since you have had a T II I guess it's not anything new, at least the 5.0 wont bog as much with the A/C on...

flyboy333

Who me? I've not had anything of the sort. unless you count the FD as a really swoopy T2

Sorry I didn't answer this before, the answer would be not really, just because it seems to me that it would be more expensive to make 350 horse with it and because it wouldn't sound like a small block ford. I mean turbos are cool, but I like NA motors more, and hey the 5.0 just happens to make some power and be cheap.

GordiniRX7

iTrader: (10)

About how much does the rear axle weigh??

DivinDriver

iTrader: (15)

No pity here... but your car will be handing you it's own *** if you don't work out a fix for the weight displacement of that smallblock. 1st gens being tail-happy to begin with, and all.

Good luck with your build. Make sure the dorito mill finds a good home.

flyboy333

If I had to guess, I would say around 100 lbs with fluid, but I'm sure someone knows a more precise number.

It's of utmost importance to make it handle, I'll get into how the weight issue will be dealt with later, and yeah sometimes I wonder if going full poly rear and keeping the rear bar is such a good idea... but I'll find out in due time. The doritos have already found a good home with a 70 year old racer, he's a total badass it seems to me.

GordiniRX7

iTrader: (10)

Oh alright, thats a good enough number for me. Thank You
Is it difficult to get the rear end out? What tools would you recomend?

dream36realms

iTrader: (4)

don't let the nacies get you down on this. Everyone has their ideas on what is better and what is important. As long as you are happy it is all that matters.

With that, the V8 extra weight thing has been said to death and it sucks that it came into your thread (another reason my build isn't going to come over here). There really isn't much of a difference in handling with it done. There is plenty that can be done to even the weight out or adjust the suspension for the unevenness. blah blah blah

I am keepimng tabs on your man, I may be needing some tips. have you thought of using the second gen subframe? It will get you a better steer ratio and cheaper to get mounts for. Also you will be able to use coilovers on the front. Oh and it is five lug

flyboy333

Knowing what I know now, I would say it's not too difficult if you have the right tools. For maximum removal speed, I would say you need four sizes of wrench and socket, 12mil, 14 mil, 17 mil, 21 mil. Important note: you should have two 12 mil wrenches for the swaybar links, deep sockets of all of these, extensions, and a 21 mil combination to put on one side of the bolt or nut, and use an air or electric impact gun (this was a godsend) on the other. Soak everything in plenty of penetrating oil, and don't be afraid to use legpower to break torque, I had to do this a lot. If you need any more help just ask.

Thanks for the kind words, I'm always of the school of thought that whatever one likes most is what they should do, whether it be faster or slower. Cars for me are things that should make people happy first and foremost. Maybe I'll never get it back to 50:50, but I will try my absolute hardest to get it close, and with the Re-speed suspension I have faith that the handling can be sorted. I thought about converting to the FC sub, but honestly then I would want to do the rear to get 5 lug all around, and it would be more work and cost than I wanted, and while I would really like to have easy R&P I'm sure there's a way to get it done even with the reversed stocker subframe. Do you have a build thread somewhere else? Link me up man!

dream36realms

iTrader: (4)

no, no build thread. search me up on norotors and you get an idea of what I am doing. I got a 79 (turns out it is quite rare) doing LS3/T56/8.8, with big modern wheels. and the biggest brakes I can get. looking at coilovers now/

GordiniRX7

iTrader: (10)

Im sorry for this dumb question, but what do you mean by combination?

where there any other things that needed to be disconnected?

Thank you for your help, btw.

rxtasy3

iTrader: (2)

combination wrenches r those with one end closed the other end open, hence the term combination.

GordiniRX7

iTrader: (10)

Ahhh, thats just what I think of whwhen I think of wrenches anyways. lol thanks

flyboy333

Combination was already answered I see, and as for disconnects, the brake line from the body, and the handbrake cable(s), not too hard for disc brake car but drums I am not familiar with.

Always down to help other 7 lovers

flyboy333

Well the Illuminas got in a few days ago, but I'm waiting until the rest of the suspension gets here to finish the rear end (thanks to billy for being so prompt in letting me know that he's just short a few parts). In the meantime, I want to show you discerning FB and SA enthusiasts my extra special pennysaver modification to the rear hatch struts to make them work without having to buy new ones! Without further delay:


^As you can see, I simply drilled a hole in the strut after using a pointed tap to make a starter divot and break the chrome, and I use two cotter pins my dad grabbed me for my main and two straight cotter pins on string as backups. They actually fit better (that is; perfectly) but I don't have the heart to tell him that :p Important to note is unless you want a bunch of fluid coming out, make sure to sand down the burrs and broken chrome before testing or installing, my left strut got the seal torn up because the hole was rough.


^A closeup view, originally the passenger side strut to glass mount was floppy and only one pin was taking most of the weight, I replaced it with the removed mount from the rear windshield wiper and it's nice and tight now.


^I've also tightened up the hatch latch bar, it was wobbly as hell, because I've been piling up all my old bolts, I found two that fit it nicely and now it's much tighter.

I forgot pictures of my clean solution to the holes from the rear wiper, but you'll see them up close eventually. I might have a video next of the fine suspension components, Corbin out.