Diy modifications (those of us on a budget)
 

I wanted to start this thread because I know the majority out there like myself our on a real tight budget. Those of us that can barely afford a new or used performance part without having to save a couple months of wages. So all my fellow 7 owners out there lets see those great ideas you have come up with, using very few or no dollars at all.
Heres one that I came up with using a piece of sheet metal , to make a bracket to hold my 2nd gen fuse box.
Amount invested, zero, time invested, 1/2 hr

Attachment 479654

Attachment 479653j

The factory fuse box bracket works fine with little trimming

Thats sounds great! So have you built anything?

lol, yeah he has

it would be appreciated if he would share something he has built

RX-7 owners come and go, but ol' schoolers last a lifetime.
75 RX-3 (light blue) = small bumpers and SP tailights (sold!)
73 RX-3 (midnite blue) = SS9 best old school
73 RX-3 (jet black) = took longer than expected to complete
RIP Goofyrotor/Sidepex Norman

not enough?

He's got 14K post, I think he shared quite a bit. Try searching.

Thanks for sharing, your help was "greatly" appreciated.

lol, im just trying to figure out what you are going at with the thread. most members (especially 1st gen owners) are self taught fabricators and modifiers. So by definition what you had asked him is irrelevant.

And since you are trying to find other things. I will list a few

1978 Mazda RX7: Complete disassemble of the car. complete change over to modern parts. custom motor mounts utilizing the respeed R&P kit to fit a 5.7l all aluminum motor with a T56 transmission and a the famous 8.8 solid rear. I have FD brakes at the corners and a custom made roll bar (by me). Thats just the beginning, every nut, bolt, wire, etc was removed from the car and replaced with something better. And that is a brief overview

2005 SV650s: the most heavily modified SV on the planet. It won SVotm in 2010 and was runner up to SVoty of the same year. Trust me, cutting and welding a japanese sport bike frame is not easy.

2001 Saturn SC2: started with 85whp and sold it with a huge freakin turbo, as well as ever imaginable modification to it.

Or how about my first tuner car 1989 shelby daytona: Pulled the motor (2.2T) and swapped it with the 2.5l and kept the turbos on it running MS to contol it all.

I think we are good bro.

:lol::lol::lol:
I believe I have done lots of fabrication, utilizing mostly FB mechanical parts for my old school since I cant buy old school parts off the shelf or from a catalog

Lol, I apologize I should have been more specific. Lets see your low budget, on the cheap parts that you have built for your 7's not chopped up sport bikes, unlimited funding thousand horsepower turbo showcar mustangs, just cheap parts, modifications, not full restored cars wit new parts or bolts or wiring, just low dollar parts, for those of us with no money lol, and plz pics wit some description

oh, ok. sorry man. I was initially busting your balls till you clarified.

here are some things I made myself then

Nice work dream, what is pic 674?

I got the honda s2000 starter button and it wouldnt work. I had to take it apart and fix it. that pic is my solution.

first pic is the R&P kit I mentioned. that was draft one. I upgraded the design when I seen a minor flex in one of the mounts. It is ten times stronger now at least.

second pic shows how I had to cut the frame up and fab new radiator mounts. It was relatively easy to do. I think taking the header panel off took more time than the radiator install

4th pic is the shifter surround I made. the stock SA22c piece has the shifter up top and coin holders under it. the T56 shifter ended up being 4" further back than the stock 12a 5 speed.

and the last pic was how I got the heat out of the cabin since there was a huge gaping hole there.

I got tons of pics and tons of projects. That is why we kinda flamed you a bit for being vague on your request. These cars require tons of custom on the cheap work. If I had started with a FD, I woulda finished a year ago and it woulda cost a bit less to do what I wanted. Ironic how that works,.

No problemo @ busting my balls, im glad you did so I could get a thread going showing the work that all of us can do to our cars, and hopefully inspire others to not be afraid of working on their cars either. I also have done many things to my fb, but jus wanted to put that simple little bracket up as an example and a start to what I thought would be a great thread to read. Thx for your input

My weekend project was this vacuum disto box I made for the Old School HKS BOV's This style has 2 vacuum lines each and I didnt want 4 lines running all over to find a vacuum reference. Still waiting on some 1/4 inch barbs.

wasnt the point of this thread to list cheap and or free mods? :scratch:

this is coming from a guy whose never built shit lol

cheapest mod ive done was using a bread tie to wire my secondaries. :icon_tup::nod::icon_tup:

rebuilt and ported my own engine. All I paid for were seals and a engine stand

not my invention but I believe that best one is a "sawsall or reciprocating" saw....from carpentry to junking a RX-7 shell to trimming or pruning the trees on your backyard. of course, you have to change the blade:lol::lol:

I've took a recipricating saw to about 9 FB's :egrin:

how hard was it to port your engine in think in about doing it but never have:(

Attachment 480730

Attachment 480729
heres a bracket I made out of sheet metal, painted it and mounted my msd 6al to it.
cost me nothing but time lol, and its got a clean look to it

Here's one of mine. I was prepping the car for paint and decided I wanted to do something semi-unique to help the car breathe a bit.


https://www.rx7club.com/attachment.p...1&d=1352174949

Yes, a litter box is a great way to add performance to your car. Material cost was less than 20 bucks, not including paint.

https://www.rx7club.com/attachment.p...1&d=1352174949

Hand-laid fiberglass using the litter box as a mold.

https://www.rx7club.com/attachment.p...1&d=1352174949

Cut a nice chunk out of the hood. The markings are where the factory carb lines up. The goal was to bring air in just ahead of the carb, which had one of those edelbrock air filters on it. I cut up the rubber part of a plunger to make an adapter to seal the filter to the stock carb. And no worries, no toilet germs went into my engine. I bought a new plunger for the project :gwink:

https://www.rx7club.com/attachment.p...1&d=1352174949


https://www.rx7club.com/attachment.p...1&d=1352174949

I used resin to mold it straight to the bare steel. I scuffed the bare metal with 80 grit paper so the resin would bond and hold.

https://www.rx7club.com/attachment.p...1&d=1352174949

More pics coming in the next post, stay tuned...

A lot of sanding, and a lot of bondo to smooth it all out:

https://www.rx7club.com/attachment.p...1&d=1352176331

Primer:

https://www.rx7club.com/attachment.p...1&d=1352176331

Paint! I added in some wood spars to add integrity. Coated them in fiberglass resin and then molded them in place. I was surprised by how strong the thing was. You can literally lift the hood open with it.

https://www.rx7club.com/attachment.p...1&d=1352176331

https://www.rx7club.com/attachment.p...1&d=1352176331

https://www.rx7club.com/attachment.p...1&d=1352176331

The first pics were taken in the summer of 2010, while the last couple are recent. As you can see, it's held up perfectly. Even after a couple icy winters, a legendary hail storm, and 105 degree temps over this summer it hasn't shown any sign of cracking. I had originally planned to make a box to surround the filter and duct in the air, but I decided to go turbo. I'm using a FMIC but I'm toying with the idea of making a heatsink for the carb hat to make use of the airflow. My next fiberglass experiment will be something for that bumperless front end :gwink:

Thats pretty slick lizardfc